When it was gone, Clay felt relief. It was like being at aunt Bernadette’s house again with the faint smell of the ocean always lingering. He held Ivan’s hand in the lack of their combined powers, and he felt what he remembered to be a normal touch. The experience of touching Ivan with their powers was akin to a static charge that excited when they were close. It was not unpleasant, but it was noticeably different and in the absence of the power, Clay enjoyed the soft skin of Ivan’s hand in a way that he had not really ever truly appreciated before.
When it was gone, Clay felt anger, but it never manifested as something that exploded from his body and that he could not keep a handle on. It was just anger and when he growled to express that anger, no trees shook, no birds were disturbed from their nests.
When it was gone, Clay was almost content and getting used to the idea, and then another spider showed up, covered in the green flame and so proud of herself for being noble enough to return the powers that her sister had taken. Clay was crushed to see it again, though he feigned excitement with Ivan and they held hands as the powers were restored to them as their very own gifts.
Now that he has it back, Clay is conflicted. He recognizes a duty that gives him the privilege of relative flight and superhuman strength, but it also robbed him of the possibility of having a quiet life with his partner and their friends. The chaos that had become his life over the past half decade had been directly related to the manifestation of these powers, and Clay wonders if it is possible to walk away. He is happy to have saved people in the capacity that he has, but none of this had been his choice; he’s been an unwilling recruit of fate or destiny, and his life was not his own.
Ivan seemed ok with everything and he was genuinely happy to have everything return to their normal. He is happy to be a guard against the strange things they have been forced to face, and it seems as though surviving the spider had been a significant turning point. The powers felt comfortable to Ivan, like the back of his hand, the left ear that was smaller than the right; the details that make Ivan the man that he is. He cannot imagine himself without them and he knows that Clay is his love because the powers chose them both.
So the two, Ivan and Clay, are experiencing a happiness now that seems to be vicarious. They are both happy enough now that there is no need for internal conflict and they just enjoy their peace alone in their house together.
When Anes was smashed, the surviving spiders that had been a gift from Anansi, went haywire. The Inktomi spider was inside of Jamar and they had bonded over the course of their time together. The death of Anes made the spider black out and its body did things with no control; consequently, Jamar cast some spells against himself that made him lose his station in the eyes of his associates. He inadvertently advised police to arrest him in the backward speak and he was behind bars for a full day before he regained himself enough to reverse it. When the Inktomi spider recovered, the two plotted on a future together, but the spider demanded a sacrifice that would make it more tangible in the physical world.
Jamar is playing hide and seek with his son. The man is grave, he has a hard look on his face, and he is mad at Laura, the mother of his son, for not being home right now. If she were home, she would make sure that he did not do what he planned to do, and he cannot stop himself. The Inktomi spider had made promises to him and had already shown Jamar power beyond his comprehension, so Jamar is willing to give anything to please the spider.
Jamar hears his son, Marquavius, giggling at the end of the hall, in the dark spot that had been a very good hiding place the first time he had tucked himself into it. Now, Jamar slow walks, filling his mind with the voice of the Inktomi spider.
“I love you son,” Jamar says as he reaches into the darkness. He squeezes his son’s neck hard enough to snap it before he suffocates, and Jamar leaves the house, leaves the body.
When Laura finds her son later, she is hysterical, and Jamar is nowhere to be found. He disappears.
The girl takes over operations of the local drug organization. She has vowed to find her brother and make him pay for the death of her nephew.
Clay is sitting outside on the front porch when a young woman approaches him with an entourage of what looks to be thuggish men. It is four of them and half of them are shirtless, and all of their underwear billow over the tops of their pants and Clay wonders why they even bother to wear belts.
The young woman smiles at Clay, but he doesn’t trust it and he looks at her expectantly.
“How can I help you?”
“You was fighting my brother before, I want you to find him and kill him.” Her smile is sinister behind the words.
“Jamar your brother?” Clay asks. He has not been able to find the man since everything returned to a normal he recognized. He’d barged into Jamar’s house, but no one was home and it seemed that police had been investigating inside the home. Clay wanted to kill Jamar, to end the source of his frustrations for good. His time with Detective Young in Tennessee had made him realize threats persisted because he didn’t put them down for good, and he was eager to see Jamar dead for all the trouble he had caused. The judge who had locked up him and Ivan had been tortured by Jamar and she told a grim story of his manipulation that resulted in their incarceration. Clay hoped to make him pay for that.
“Jamar killed my nephew. I think he on some voodoo shit, I heard him talking backwards. You and your man can fly, y’all deal with shit like that. He don’t deserve to live. You can have some of my boys if you want them, for whatever, and you don’t seem like the type but I can get some money together.”
“Just tell me where I can find him,” Clay says gruffly. He has no intentions of telling Ivan about this encounter. He will handle it himself.
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