Red Ledger (The Winter Spider)

19

Third-person POV

Delta leaving only tension in the room behind him as he closed the door left Peter to deal with this stranger in the hoodie alone. As Delta left Peter it was visible in Peters's demeanor that he was gone. A little less stress weighing down on him allowing him to search around the room before the man could say anything about the tasks at hand. Instead of the man barking orders immediately, he did the unexpected, he didn't acknowledge Peter at all instead going to the wall opposite to Peter that had a map on it and started to scwral on it with a red marker seeming to go back to what he was doing before Peter had arrived.
This left Peter to just look around and observe some more thinking about what exactly he was about to be put through.

As Peter waited he was able to gaze around the room and notice the minuscule details such as the small cracks in the ceiling and walls and the discoloration of the off-white paint that looks like it has been slowly chipped away by the various inhabitants of the small studio apartment. What appeared to the eye as a well-kept apartment was filled with many minuscule flaws that showed to the trained eye that this place wasn't what it seemed. It was indeed a well-disguised front for a small part of the city's drug industry.
As the man finished up what he was doing he walked back to the couch Delta was previously sitting on and takes a seat while gesturing for Peter to take a seat as well.
Peter hesitantly obeys and takes a seat with a slight furrow in his eyebrows wondering what would be requested of him.
The man looks around the room and then back to Peter before finally deciding on what he was going to say.
"Okay look I know you don't want to be here and to be honest I didn't want to have to ask for help, especially from the organization you are from but my usual guy decided to go and get himself liquidated so I need a temporary fix which is where you come in."

The man crosses one leg over the other and leans back on the couch deciding to finally get comfortable before continuing on
"You can refer to me as Atlas that's what everyone calls me. I'm not going to have you start right away but in the meantime, I would like you to look over the route that I drew up for you on that map and memorize it. This will be going down tomorrow morning so you will need to get it down fast and even plan for detours in the main route if it doesn't work out as planned. I'm sure that won't be a problem considering the rumors I've heard about you. I must say you have an interesting and impressive reputation."

Peter watches closely as Atlas gets up off the couch and walks to the apartment door
"I'm going out for a bit and you can as well just don't be a dumbass 'cause then you'll get me in trouble. Make sure to be back on time to get ready for the run tomorrow. I'll show you everything you need before the run at 7 a.m so just make sure you are on time."

Atlas opens the door and walks out letting it slam behind him leaving Peter to his thoughts.
As soon as Peter can hear that Atlas is out of the building he gets up off of the couch and walks over to the map on the wall going over it in his head over and over again until he's got the route down before leaving the apartment to do the route a few times.
The first time he does it on foot and the second by rooftop deciding that a mix of both would be best to stay in the shadows. This area isn't exactly shady but it's not nice either so he shouldn't have to worry about cops being suspicious or anything.
This should be a relatively easy job for someone of Peter's caliber.
Instead of walking back to the apartment complex, he takes to the rooftops not wanting to deal with the people in the streets.
He stops a few blocks away from the complex to just sit and relax up on the roof; something he hasn't been able to do for a while since the last outing he had.

The sun was just starting to set leaving colours of orange, purple, and light blue in the slightly cloudy sky. Truly perfect weather with a slight breeze leaving Peter's hair slightly messy resembling his former more innocent self in a time when he wasn't constantly numb and tired.
Looking at Peter now in comparison to his former self his hair has now slightly grown out about mid-ear length. His eyes no longer hold that bit of sparkle they once had leaving dark eye bags in their place along with a smaller frame as meals haven't exactly been consistent leaving him to slowly wither from who he once was.

Peter sat at the edge of the rooftop dangling his feet in the air listening to the sounds of his city, the one he once swore to protect, not taking any action to stop crime as his former self would do but instead just sitting back and listening to the night unfold as the sun continues to set.
After an hour he rises and continues back to the complex coming in through the window Atlas nowhere in sight Peter listens for a second determining Atlas still out of the building before opening his bag to get ready for his mission. Taking out a pair of dark blue jeans, a grey t-shirt, and a black zip-up hoodie as well as a black baseball cap setting them on top of his bag before laying on the couch and resting his eyes in preparation for the following day.

A/N
hey lol ik it's been a while let me just say senior year was a bit stressful with all of the college classes I took along with me being out of the country in Europe for the last month on a school trip. haven't had much motivation to write until recently so I hope y'all like this and I'm hoping there will be more soon :)
- Spencer