EYEWITNESS ↝ P. PARKER [1] [ON HOLD]

[0]

The shrill sound of a ringing bell pierced through the halls of the Midtown School of Science and Technology, signaling that yet another school day had come and gone, bringing a short-lived freedom to its students before they begrudgingly entered its halls again that next morning. As for Lauren Davies, she couldn't wait to get outside into the frigid January air, as a slight dusting of snow began to fall over the borough of Queens, New York, where it would later cast a blanket over the city.

Wren walked through the busy streets of Queens, the snow crunching under her boots, and she made sure to stop by her favorite coffee shop to grab a cup for both herself and her boyfriend Flash Thompson, who she'd be meeting later that afternoon once his school decathlon practice let out to do homework. With one hand carrying a coffee carrier and the other holding her phone, she began to scroll through her texts while she waited for the crosswalk to change to Walk, from the angry red hand signaling the oncoming traffic from the other direction. She hardly noticed the gathering crowd of the busy intersection impatiently waiting at the crosswalk, not until others began to shove their way through to get around those waiting to cross, knocking Wren forward onto a patch of icy sidewalk.

She felt her foot begin to lose its traction on the pavement, but held tight to the coffee carrier, not wanting to spill the hot beverages all over herself and those around her. She felt herself begin to fall forward as she was unable to regain her balance, off the edge of the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic, taxi after taxi speeding by in a yellow blur.

Wren shut her eyes tightly for the fall, when she was quickly pulled up onto her feet and steadied, the carrier not so much as spilling a single drop of coffee. She opened her eyes, confused, but could only see where the crowd around her now stared up above in awe, and she followed their gazes to see a flash of red swinging up over a skyscraper, disappearing from view.

"Did you see that?" a woman asked, the crosswalk long forgotten, even after the sign changed to Walk.

"He came out of nowhere!" a man exclaimed, an elderly woman next to Wren turning to the young girl.

"Are you okay, miss?" she asked, and Wren nodded, her heart still racing and her breath caught in her throat.

"I'm fine," she assured the woman, still staring off into space where the figure had disappeared above the building. "Totally fine."

Wren hadn't elected to tell Flash about her near mishap on the corner that day, simply going along with the motions of their after school homework routines. In a world where superheroes were surfacing more and more every day, following the Battle of Manhattan only a few years prior not far from where they lived in Queens, it couldn't have been a surprise that a new face was popping up in their neighborhood. However, she chose to keep it to herself, at least until she could find out more about the person who saved her life.

It wasn't until a few weeks after the incident that word was beginning to spread about a new "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" performing good deeds and incredible feats around Queens, the latter being recorded and uploaded to a YouTube channel by the hero himself. The borough finally had someone to look out for, should trouble ever come knocking at their door.

Flash himself had become a big fan of the hero, even if the more footage surfaced of Spider-Man, the more he was just a figure in a sweatsuit and mask to hide his identity. Wren's boyfriend was always retweeting the latest Spider-Man videos, and as the weeks went on, the entirety of Queens wanted to know the identity of the man behind the mask. Whoever he was, wherever he was, was a complete mystery.

But luckily for Wren Davies, mystery was her middle name.