a roman candle heart keep us far apart
What do you know about yourself? Like,” Spider-Man took a bite out of his churro, pausing while he chewed. “Other than dying. Do you know how you died?”
“Nope.” Leo hummed. “I’m good at math I guess?”
A busy road stretched out below them, streetlights casting an orange glow as cars sped past. The fire escape they sat on would have been unlit had Leo not been casting his own constant light. Now they could see in detail the way the metal railing was mottled with rust and bird shit. Spider-Man sat where the metal seemed cleanest; Leo a foot away watched with little interest as paint peeled off and fell through him.
“Very important information.” Spider-Man nodded. Leo studied the way his mouth moved as he took another bite. The way shadows rippled as fire flicked and light changed. He looked back to himself, trying to trace out where each leg would start and end, drew lines in his mind where the absence of light turned his skin from one colour to another. Spider-Man started talking again, drawing him out of his thoughts. “Now we can just go through grades, that won’t take too much time.”
He knew it was sarcasm and they would not be looking into any school records, but Leo internally shook his head. “I didn’t do school. Well, I mean I think I went. I just don’t think I stayed in any long enough for it to matter.”
Spider-Man turned, mechanical eyes slowly blinking. “Did you make it your life’s mission to be difficult to find?”
I think so, is what he wanted to say. “I think it would be difficult to find anyone if they were in my position,” is what he does.
“Fair point.” Spider-Man finished his churro, pulling his mask back down. “This would be easier if we had a name, or location.”
“Leo. That’s my name,” he paused for a second. “But I decided that, I didn’t know it.”
“Leo, ok.” he repeated. “And that wasn’t your name before?”
Leo shrugged. “Probably not.” He decided to leave out the part of it being the name of the person who he killed. He wasn’t sure if it was from guilt, shame, or a mix of the two. Maybe it was just the detached understanding that the conversation would be awkward and would not help at all. “If it helps, I definitely know more than I did a week ago.”
Spider-Man stood, holding loosely onto the railing he’d been sitting on as he leaned over the street below. Leo noted the way his fingers curved around the rusting metal, compared it to the way fire enveloped it a ruler’s length away. Something in Spider-Mans mask made a noise, and he tilted his head. “Yeah- alright,” he turns his head to look at Leo better. “I have to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Where?” Leo asked.
The masked man lets go of the bar, somehow balancing on the tiny ledge between where the guardrail met the grate. There was no way that was possible, Leo wondered if it was something do with the fancy tech in the suit or just a weird gimmick he had as a spider guy. “I’ll find you. It was nice to meet you Leo, I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” Leo replied, just as Spider-Man’s feet slid from the metal and he fell. Despite having spent the past few hours watching as he swung from webs, Leo couldn’t help but lean over the edge. What felt like his heart thumped until a web shot out from Spider-man’s wrist and went taunt, sending him flying down the road.
It was funny. Ever since he’d finally met a person he could talk to Leo had feared the eventual goodbye. Now that it had happened, though, he barely felt any different. There was a numbing boredom that set over him, nothing like the crushing loneliness he imagined in his mind. He looked up at the night sky, watched as a plane cut through a cloud.
He wondered how that dragon was, and the person from the island. It seemed pointless to doubt whether they had arrived at their destination – despite being damaged the automaton could have definitely lasted another week or two of travel. It was a shame though, Leo almost wished he had stayed within the bronze ribcage, studying the way gears turned and plates shifted. He could have kept hidden and entertained himself by memorising the magical characters engraved into various motors. There was so much going on to make it function and he was sure with enough time he could figure it out.
Instead, he let himself sink through the fire escape, metal phasing through him like he’d never been there at all. There weren’t any pedestrians on that part of the sidewalk, and the number of cars driving past were becoming less frequent as the minutes dragged on. He started to float in the direction most of the cars seem to be going. The few pedestrians out did their best to skirt around him, with a few outright turning around.
He passed a convenience store where someone was hesitantly standing by the window, staring at him. Leo stopped, stared back. For a second, he just floated, comparing how his reflection bled out from the person’s torso, enveloping it in fire. Their legs stuck out untouched, and only half their head was obscured. He thought back to the mock arms he’d used to imitate Spider-man and decided to experiment by drawing the flames back into his sides and forcing them downwards. It created a thin column of fire that sort of made his silhouette resemble that of a headless man. He was about to start creating a ‘head’, when the person in the window stumble back, eyes wide in abject horror.
It snapped Leo out of his mild curiosity, form reverting back to a floating vague ball shape. He hovered back for a second, hoping this movement would convey a silent apology, before returning to walk down the pathway. Eventually the street gave out to reveal a wide river. Overhead, a bridge carried cars over an island and across to the other side, where huge skyscrapers dominated the horizon. He continued towards the river through a park, passing through a fence separating the rocky bank from the rest of the land. The water was mostly inky black but coloured with red and gold lights from the city as well as himself.
Leo almost wanted to lower himself into the water, just to see what would happen. Evidently everything else was unable to affect him, water would probably be no different. Something stopped him, a voice in his head that sounded nothing like his own simply saying his name.
He waited for a second, for it to trigger something in his mind. No new information pushed into his head, and there was no memory that attached itself to the voice.
That was odd, he thought, but made a note of it in his mind. Maybe another body of water would provide context, he’d think about it later. Instead, he stared at the water, watching as ripples formed around where the rocks met the river. Then after a moment of deliberation, began to float over to the island. About halfway across, a dark shape around a foot long swum towards him. A dorsal fin poked out of the river, before dipping back under a moment later. It disappeared from his view almost immediately after. Honestly, Leo was surprised whatever it was had swum in the river at all, his mind supplying him with the fact the East river was polluted. Evidently, not badly enough to stop life from existing at all.
It didn't take too long to reach the island, less time still to cross that and get to the other part of the river. The skyline seemed more daunting from this side of the island, but nevertheless he continued towards it until he'd made it to the other side.
Unlike the park and rocky shore at Queens, the river was next to a manmade platform made of concrete. Walls stretched up separating the area from a road only a dozen or so meters away. For the most part it was just boring, however there was building that jutted out next to the road towards the river. Separated from the edge of the platform by just a few meters, Leo could look up and see steel beams. He floated up, slowly revealing more of the open-air structure until he was level with it. For some reason there was a bright red skeleton of a building, with a rollercoaster winding its way through the beams supporting what would've been the roof. They formed three light grey loops, and Leo was left wondering what on Earth it had been made for.
The ground was made up of hexagonal tiles, with a few sets of airbrushed sky-blue chairs bolted to the ground. He cast an orange glow, creating dark shadows that painted the metal black. Next to the rollercoaster track on the side of the road was an oddly shaped piece of corrugated metal, one that almost looked like a shallow 's' being expanded out from one side. It reminded Leo of a cubic function mapped onto a 3d graph, but if the shape itself had a name it alluded him.
He didn't really know what this place was meant to be. Based on the level of grime that had accumulated on the closest seat he could see it wasn't used in any sort of meaningful way. The road next to it was loud, which probably didn't make it a nice place for people to relax.
Leo, however, took solace in hearing the engines as they revved past. He floated up to the tracks looping into the air and floated in the tallest one. Looking down, he still couldn't figure out what it was, or who it was for, but he liked it. It was red, which he knew somehow was his favourite colour. Maybe he decided it in that specific moment, but it felt right, and it was a fact now. He could figure out the way it was put together, which beams had been set up first and which ones were holding everything together. From his vantage point up here, he could also see a two by four rectangular grid that laid diagonally against the roof and had all but the ends of the track lap through it.
He wasn’t exactly sure how long he spent sitting at that area. The roads had slowly gotten quieter, although it never went too long without a few cars going by. He wasn’t quite sure what made this place different to everywhere else he’d been, where inactivity had made him restless. For the first time since waking up he felt at peace. There was no underlying anxiety, he was perfectly content just sitting and existing for a while.
At some point the sky started gradually getting lighter. The steel stopped reflecting him back as well, and shadows slowly retreated into specific areas where they stretched out away from the sun. He dropped from the rails unceremoniously, floating above the road and further inland. He’d probably be less noticeable when it became fully bright, with less darkness to stand out in.
He was pretty sure there was a park up ahead, Central Park. He wasn't exactly sure where it was, instead fully trusting a gut feeling and vague memory. He started making his way towards where he thought it was, floating across roads that had been cracked and repaired so much they had become a patchwork of greys. It didn't take too long for Leo to find a sign telling him what road he was traveling down - E 60th Street. He assumed the E stood for East, otherwise he didn't really know. Not that it was all too important, it wasn't like he lived there, or he had a place he needed to be. Still, he filed that piece of information away for later, it wouldn't hurt him to have some sense of direction.
Despite it being early in the morning, so early dew was still clinging to everything it could, people were already out and rushing. As he walked further into the city the density of people increased, until it was fully bright and barely anybody even acknowledged he was there until they walked straight through him.
He passed a building with windows so reflective they seemed more like mirrors. A bunch of important looking black cars were lined outside it, with a small crowd of people wearing press lanyards crowding around one side. Leo hung back a little in an alley, watching as some guy in a perfectly tailored suit exited one of the cars and entered the building.
Everywhere he could see, there were people who had stopped to take a photo. Some of them seemingly had rocked up specifically to do that.
Leo looked up towards the top of the building. One of the windows in particular reflected sunlight so much Leo wished he could close his eyes. It was so bright it almost hurt, so he immediately looked just past behind the building, towards the actual sun.
In comparison, it seemed friendly.