The Beginning and Ending of Everything

Chapter Eight

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Peter POV-Sunday, October 8, 2023-10:02 AM

I looked at my face in the bathroom mirror. I looked tired.

I felt tired.

There were bags under my eyes, and my eyes themselves looked broken-hearted. My eyelids looked like they were trying and failing the fight against gravity. My whole face looked occupied, sad, blank, tired, and worn.

My hair was messier than usual. My shoulders were hunched, and I remembered how I usually look down when I walk. I tore my eyes away from the mirror angrily and grabbed my toothbrush.

As I brushed my teeth, I tried to avoid looking at the mirror. When I was done, I spat out the toothpaste and rinsed out the brush.

I walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen that also acted as our dining room. I opened the junk drawer and rummaged my hand through it until it hit the sticky notes. I pulled out a pen and wrote on the top one:

Hey, May, I'm going to the compound. I'll try to be back by 3.
-Peter

I took the sticky note off of the stack and stuck it onto the refrigerator. May would see it when she came home from her shift at the hospital.

I opened the fridge and grabbed a plastic water bottle, then turned to the pantry and grabbed a granola bar. I walked to my room and grabbed my backpack, stuffing the water bottle and the granola bar inside. I grabbed my phone off of my nightstand and put it in my pocket. My phone was an old one, an old version that I'd found and repaired.

I tapped my watch a few times rhythmically, and the Iron Spider suit materialized around me. The nanotech amazed me every time. I grabbed my backpack and put it on, tightening the straps all the way.

I opened my window and stepped out onto the fire escape. I quickly turned around, shutting the window, before jumping. I fell for a moment, suspended above the street, and it felt like time paused for a moment. Then it sped up, and I fell. I flicked my right wrist outwards and shot a web, continuing to fall until it pulled taut.

The force of it jerked me for a moment before I started to swing. When I got to the top of the swing, I let go of the web, and for a moment, it felt like I was flying. I shot another web from my left wrist as I started to fall, waiting for the web to pull taut.

My soul lightened a little. Swinging always made me feel light, as if the weight was lifted from my shoulders.

For a moment, I was free.

I turned a corner, then another until I found the freeway. I followed it, swinging on the lampposts until I got to the road leading upstate. I jumped to a car, bending my knees on impact and rolling to avoid denting the vehicle and making noise that would alert the driver.

I sat down onto the van and put a hand flat on the car, and made it stick to avoid falling off. I settled down, preparing for the few hours' drive ahead of me.

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I unstuck my palm from the roof of the Suburban I was on and checked to make sure that my backpack straps were tightened as I stood up. I'd had to switch cars every so often to stay on course.

I jumped off of the Suburban and used the lampposts to exit the freeway. I followed the road until I turned onto a nondescript private road that headed into the woods. I switched to using the trees to swing because there were no lampposts on this road. I swung until I saw the clearing.