Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Somewhere in Queens

18:40, somewhere in queens

He really- really didn’t have time to get stabbed tonight.

There were nights where he’d have all the time in the world to get stabbed, shot, taken a punch or two. Tonight wasn’t that night. No, tonight he had plans. A rare occurrence, one might add.

He had gotten so lucky; a date to his college’s spring ball. The dance of the year. He had it all planned out. He’d pick her up in Pandora’s Fiat 500, then pull up to the ball in his nicely steamed suit, and have a fun night with his friends--for the first time in a long time.

But no. He just had to get stabbed instead. You’d think a friendly neighbourhood Spiderman wouldn’t often find himself in situations like these but surprisingly, he did.

Very, very often.

And it wasn’t even as if he had tried stopping a gang fight or something, then he would’ve been somewhat fine with being stabbed. It was just another dumb mistake, of trying to save a paranoid old man from a robbery. And I hear you thinking; did the robber stab him? No, the old man did. After screaming something about the devil finally having found him.

At least the man still had his wallet.

He didn’t stab hard, probably due to the fact he was old, weak and well- crazy. But it had hit him deep enough to make him seriously bleed. The man had swung the knife at him twice before finally piercing through his skin right beneath his collarbone. If that knife had gone deeper it could’ve been lethal, so at least he got kind of lucky.

He didn’t feel so lucky though, once again standing at the front door and clutching his hand over the bleeding skin. Some of it had already soaked into his suit, most of it was on his spandex covered hands.

His sister gasped when she opened the door. “Evan!”

Evan pulled off his mask with his free hand, giving her a crooked smile.

“Hey Pandora,” He said, weakly- too weak. “I uh-”

“Got stabbed?” Pandora asked, crossing her arms with a look of practiced motherly disapproval.

Evan huffed out a laugh. “Yeah… kind of.”

Pandora sighed, grabbing Evan’s arm to support him as she led him into the living room.

She wasn’t surprised. Nor was she angry or annoyed, just disappointed. Pandora had known ever since Evan had started his little hero act, he would end up in dangerous situations from time to time. And yes, she was proud of her brother for doing all that, but he kept getting blood on her expensive rugs, and the dry cleaner was starting to get suspicious.

There wouldn’t ever come a time where Pandora wouldn’t patch up her brother and take care of him, though. She did it when they were little, cleaned up the scrapes on his knees whenever he’d take a tumble. And she would do it for the rest of her life if she had to.

“I thought you had that school thing tonight?” Pandora asked, softer than earlier by the door. She didn’t look up at her brother as she tended to the wound on his chest.

Evan hissed as she wiped a cotton pad with rubbing alcohol on it around the wound.

“I don’t think I’ll be attending.” He gritted through his teeth.

Pandora stopped patting and turned around to grab a piece of gauze. “What about your date?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

Evan let out a soft laugh. “She’ll be fine, her friends are there as well.”

“I bet she was looking forward to going with you.” Pandora said, tilting her head as she made sure the gauze was secure on the wound. “You should go.”

It was quiet for a few seconds, then Evan nodded slowly.

“Can I-”

“Yes, you can borrow my car.”

---

20:20, Hallowmere University of Arts & Applied Sciences

Evan regretted his choice the second he walked through the school doors. He had heard the music blocks away, but inside of the gym-turned-ballroom, it was worse than he had imagined.

His date wasn’t happy either. He was an hour late after all, had no excuse and did not bring her flowers. He wanted to, really. In fact, that was what he was getting when he ran into the elderly man he saved who ended up stabbing him. Funny, butterfly effect.

The girl wasn’t very nice in the first place, but all this definitely didn’t make it any better. The second she saw her friend on the dancefloor she was gone; he’d basically just been her ride.

“Alright, catch you later!” Evan yelled over the music, but she didn’t even turn her head.

He groaned, more regret flowing over him when he turned around and was met by his friends laughing at him. He should’ve stayed home and watched Star Wars with Pandora.

“She hates you.” Sirius yelled, half laughter half wheeze.

Regulus shoved his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t be mean, she just dislikes him a lot.”

Evan rolled his eyes, admitting defeat as he joined his friends for the night. That girl would not be coming back. Honestly, maybe Evan didn’t mind. He’s got two left feet, no rhythm and might be a worse conversation maker than a deaf person with a restraining suit on. The fact that he had a burning wound on his chest probably wouldn’t do that any good, let alone make it any better.

At least his friends were fun, and he already knew how to talk to them.

“Punch?” Marlene asked as she came up behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder. He already knew she was behind him before she started talking, before she touched him.

That was one of the reasons Evan Rosier hated parties. Everyone thought he was just more of an introvert, someone who would rather be left alone, but that wasn’t true. Evan liked having people around, he enjoyed hanging out with his friends and playing games. But ever since that fateful day, Evans senses were always hyperactive. It was very useful when he needed them, but a real liability when he didn’t.

He nodded, grabbing the drink from her and immediately taking a few large gulps. Then he crushed the cup, and wiped his mouth.

“Okay, one; that’s littering. Two, that was alcohol.” Marlene said, staring at him with slight confusion.

Evan shrugged, giving her a cheeky smile. “Wanna dance?”

So they did, dance. Or Marlene danced and Evan followed because he had no idea what he was doing. His arms were swaying and after two songs he had already hit and kicked at least five people around him.

At one point, he somehow ended up with another drink in his hand. Mary and Lily had joined in, probably bored with the others standing at the side lines like statues. Evan was never one of those guys; he was awkward sometimes but never the one to back down from public humiliation.

Regulus always said he just didn’t enjoy being the centre of attention, which was not true because the second he made a painting everyone would know. Sirius and Remus were both already dancing with each other, a little too close to possibly be comfortable but at least they seemed in love. Dorcas and Peter were discussing something, most likely about the psychology class they had together which was all they ever talked about with one another.

And Barty- wait…

“Where’s Barty?” Evan asked the girls, stopping his dancing- or whatever he was doing.

Marlene shrugged, too focussed on moving to the rhythm of the song. Lily didn’t even hear, she had her eyes closed and was moving in a completely different way than Marlene. More elegantly, flowy.

Mary pointed at the gym doors, where Barty was standing, security outfit on. Right. Barty was the only one of their friend group who didn’t attend their university. And, since the school didn’t allow plus ones from outside, he couldn’t come.

“Of course he found a way in.” Evan couldn’t help the little smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Barty always found a way. Were it by asking his father -a police captain- very nicely to pull some strings for him, or by simply just working there, like he was doing that night.

Following his father’s footsteps, Barty had started at the police academy the second he turned twenty-one. By that time he had already finished three years off community college where he was taking classes surrounding law and order. Barty didn’t talk about his work a lot, but his friends knew he didn’t enjoy it. In his two years as an officer, he had never- ever, told them something positive about it.

They had all tried to encourage Barty for months to join them at school, to do something that would actually make him happy- but Barty always declined. Telling them he was doing something he was good at, which was most important to him. They all bought it.

Evan always loved to believe he could see through everyone. That he was some kind of psychic socio/psychology major with a wide knowledge of human interaction. But he wasn’t, in the least. Evan was a chemistry major with a wide knowledge of the way different chemical substances worked together. With maybe a dash of autism.

Some girl had taken her turn singing a poorly executed version of Teenage Dream by Katy Perry right before Evan lost his interest in dancing. This was partially thanks to her, but mostly to the fact that the wound on his chest started burning more and more violently. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, but Pandora had told him not to overdo it and Evan definitely couldn’t handle her.

He excused himself to the girls before walking over to the bathroom, trying not to clutch the wound and seem suspicious in any way. Though people could’ve just thought he was having a hard time doing cardio.

Once arrived at the bathroom, his own reflection scared the living hell out of him. He was sweaty, his pupils were way too far dilated and his skin was the exact same shade of white as his hair. He pulled his eyes away from his reflection to look around the room, making sure it was empty before he slipped his blazer off his shoulders to reveal a small crimson spot growing on his white shirt.

“Fuck.” He breathed, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve before he started unbuttoning the shirt.

It didn’t look very healed. No, it might’ve even been worse than the moment he actually got hurt. And that was just looking through the gauze, not even directly at the wound itself. Evan had gotten hurt before but most times he would just rest after. Not dance the entire night while drinking -which he only then realized could’ve thinned his blood just a little bit-.

Evan wasn’t particularly skilled at covering up wounds. He usually had Pandora for that, but she wasn’t there, and he couldn’t bleed all over her car because the seats were white leather. If he drove home and hadn’t died yet, she would kill him.

He lifted his shaky hands up to the gauze and slowly started pulling it, biting his lip as he tried not to scream because fuck, that hurt. The soaked in blood piece of cloth was thrown into the garbage and he took a bunch of paper from the dispenser above the sink, trying not to bleed on anything he couldn’t clean up. That would definitely raise suspicion.

Evan gently patted the paper over the wound, letting his eyes slip shut for a second as he took a deep breath. Trying to recollect himself.

“Well that’s not good.”

His reflexes worked just as fast but his senses seemed to be less heightened now that he was in pain. Evan was up against the wall, holding his blazer against his chest to hide the red on it before he realized who had just walked into the bathroom.

“Shit- what the fuck, Barty!” He yelled, letting his head fall back against the wall. “You could knock?”

Barty raised an eyebrow before he stepped closer to Evan, letting the door fall closer behind him. “This is a public bathroom, Evan.” He noted, he didn’t seem the least bit sorry. “Why do you look like you were chased into a lake, killed and then came back from the dead?”

“Specific.” Evan said, then groaned, the pain was only getting worse. He dropped the blazer to expose the wound, looking from it to Barty. “Do you know how to cover this?”

“I might, but as an officer I would definitely like to know how you got it.” Barty said, already pulling the first aid kit from the wall and searching through it.

Evan nodded, slowly, his brain felt like it was shaking. “Yes, well, I guess I- uh, walked into a kitchen knife.” He said, having a hard time thinking of a lie as he was starting to get both dizzy and tired; maybe because of the blood, maybe because of the alcohol.

“You walked into a kitchen knife?” Barty asked, a tiny bit amused. He pushed Evan into a stall and ordered him to sit down on the closed toilet seat. “As much as that sounds like you, I don’t believe it.”

Evan shrugged. “You don’t have to,” He said, a small smirk playing on his lips. He was quickly put in his place when Barty started dabbing the wound, cleaning it the same way Pandora had only a few hours prior. He cursed under his breath.

Barty was almost done covering it up when he spoke again. “Please just tell me you didn’t try to fight someone you couldn’t handle.” He said, gently pulling the shirt back over the freshly changed gauze. “You’re done.”

“Thanks Barty.” Evan mumbled, getting back on his feet way too fast, only to fall sideways against the stone brick wall.

“Yeah, no problem.” Barty eyed him with a mixture of worry and suspicion. He sighed before walking over to Evan’s blazer on the floor, taking out Pandora’s car keys. “I’ll drive you home.”