Jeffrey Melo, “Untitled”

UNTITLED

Jeffrey Melo

The morning of January 22, 2007: A meteor from another galaxy somehow made its way past Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into Earth, specifically Sunset Park. However, it wasn’t just a meteor that crashed that night, kind of like the symbiote from Spiderman 3. Alongside the meteor came a pod. The pod, very small and round enough to fit in your pocket, contained a hazardous substance, and this hazardous substance was in desperate need of a host. And for nearly two decades, many have desperately tried their hardest and invested billions of dollars of resources to find it. Meanwhile, this strange unique substance had already found a host within a fifteen-year-old boy. This boy was just an ordinary kid in Arcadia living in Dookieville. His name was Osa Bartholomew James III. Osa always fantasized about becoming a hero of his own after watching his best friend die to gun violence, to avenge her legacy. After fourteen years of development, the hazardous substance began giving Osa special abilities. On Osa’s 14th birthday, he was at a party in Hep Stuy. On his way home, through the dirty streets and dim lights, he was approached by a local gang, known as The 21st Whales. They were dressed in all black designer clothing, with baby blue flags hanging out of their pockets. As they slowly creeped up on Osa, you could hear their heels stomping on the pavement—slowly and slowly getting closer. Although Osa wasn’t gang affiliated, he was a stranger in a different town, and no one knew him . . . so they jumped him. Osa tried his best to fight back but there were way too many of them. “Fight back, coward!” one of them said while stomping on Osa’s face. Suddenly, a weird mysterious blob fell on Osa’s face. It was a small, black slime-like substance, and as soon as it fell on Osa’s face the ground started shaking violently and after a few sec-

onds his senses went up by like 10 thousand. He got up and was able to throw everyone down the dim street. “What’s wrong with me?!” Osa said while looking down at his hands. This was the day Osa knew he was special, and from that day on he swore to himself to help others in need. He called himself Xozy (pronounced co-z) and he became a small town hero. Osa went around in a black ski mask, sunglasses, and an all-black Nike tech suit to stop crime. He was unique, and had a good heart, which made him the perfect hero. However, his identity was a secret, and while Xozy was a household name, Osa was a nobody living in Ded Heights, Arcadia. “N-ii-ninety eight, ninety nin-ne, one hundred-d-d. Oh my god, I feel like I’m about to die Jeffrey, I cannot feel my arms.” “Osa, you’re dragging it. You deadass only did 100 push-ups while I did 100 with one arm.” “Now, who told you to do all that, and why would you do all that?” Osa said while catching his breath. “I’m just nice like that,” Jeffrey said with a smirk. As they were heading toward their next class, a giant machine that looked like a big Gorilla, powered by a woman inside, came crashing down on the school campus—landing directly next to Osa. Unfortunately, it landed on Jeffrey. “Bring me this Zozey and I’ll let you guys live!” Little did she know . . . To be continued . . .

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