Not an Itsy Bitsy Spider (JP)

Underground Mutant Community - Wyoming

To label Finlay as bored was an understatement. Now that he was conscience again and regaining functionality, he young self wanted to get up and get to it. Yet, he wasn’t cleared for such freedoms yet, for his own health safety.

It was always a respite from the annoying boredom when he had a visitor. The nurses would arrive in increments to perform various helpful tasks. They ranged from helping take care of his basic needs to physical therapy. He remembered someone mentioning they might have someone talk to him about his mental and emotional state, especially in regards to the fully blossomed manifestation of his abilities, but that hadn’t happened yet. When he didn’t have these moments of interaction, he got quite creative on passing the time.

Time was starting to kick his butt though. He currently felt like he was exhausting his options and was staring at the ceiling humming a song he was making up as he went. He had already done the ones he knew, and unfortunately his current tune wasn’t going to win any awards.

Suddenly he got that feeling someone was looking at him. A tingle in the back of the brain when your peripheral vision picks up a subtle shift in the edges of your vision. Finlay looked down from the ceiling and at the spectator. He quickly stopped humming, slightly embarrassed as it wasn’t hummed with the intention of an audience.

Finlay waved hello and put on a welcoming smile.

El blinked and glanced back as if expecting a nurse to be there, but she found no one but the hallway. It was just her and little Shimmer upon her shoulder. Blowing air out of her nose slowly, she turned her gaze back to Finlay and offered a wave. It was accompanied by an awkward smile that was obviously forced, a sign of her discomfort of being around new people. Not that he would know that, though.

She was just plainly awkward around everyone, but this was a newcomer. Someone she did not recognize. At least he was being friendly.

First contact was a success. Judging by her behavior, Finlay conjectured that this lady wasn’t a nurse. Perhaps it was possible to invite her in and have a conversation, that would be a nice change of pace.

Finlay was about to say hi, his mouth started to form the words, with the intention of follow up questions. Halfway between the first syllable and the initial sounds, it all started to shift and contort along with his expression. His eyes suddenly grew as wide as saucers and the color in his cheeks faded ever so slightly. He had mistaken something as perhaps an adornment to her hair or outfit, but now that his focal vision was upon her, he became aware of something quite startling. It was the biggest and scariest looking spider he had ever seen in his life, the stuff of nightmares.

Finlay’s right arm shot up forcefully and his finger pointing trained in on the spider with precision. He screamed in frightful shock and alarm. He had to warn her.

“Ahhh…. Spider! Spider! Your Shoulder!” He was panicking so much. Finlay shifted further away even though he was confined to the bed and there was no where to go. In addition, he had nothing to throw across the span of the room to try to knock it off her.

His voice went through a weird set of transitions when he shouted. It started out as his own, but shifted three times to different peoples voices.