IronDad/SpiderSon One-shots

i tried to scream

Third Person POV:
Word Count: 1,133
Spooktober 2022 Day Five: Isolation

Being alone was not something Peter was good at. His whole life he had been a social person. Social interaction was something that Peter craved. It was something he thrived in. At times, sure, he wasn't in the mood for a party or he didn't want to hang out with friends, but he almost always had someone with him. He had his group of friends at school. Ned and M.J. outside of school. May when he was at the apartment. Tony when he was at the Compound. Happy when he was in the car. It was very rare that Peter went for copious amounts of time without talking to someone. In fact, it had never happened before.

Well, that was until now.

Peter couldn't remember how it happened. He didn't remember getting into any sort of fight. He didn't even remember getting let out of school. The last thing he remembered was sitting in class and talking to Ned. After that, nothing. It was like slamming into a brick wall every time he tried to think past it. All he knows is that he's been locked in this bare room with nothing for days, months, weeks, years. He couldn't tell you. He had no way to tell time.

The room itself was very plain. The lights were an awful shade of white, constantly giving him a headache. There was a bed in the corner. It looked like a hospital bed. It felt like one too. There was a toilet in the opposite corner. Nothing else. There was a door across the room, which had a mailbox opening through it. There was no way to open that mailbox from the inside. Peter tried. That's how he got food. He wasn't sure who gave it to him, but whoever it was came and went sparsely. There was no routine to it. There were times where his stomach was full and times it felt like they hadn't fed him in days.

Other than that? Nothing. That's what scared Peter the most. There was nothing to listen to. It was silent. Not even the lights were making sound. The only sounds he heard was when someone would deliver him food. He was scared that he had gone deaf at first. He quickly was able to realize that wasn't the case because he could hear his heart beating and the air moving through his lungs. But, other than that? Silence. No sounds of the city. No whitenoise. Nothing. There were times when Peter hated his enhanced hearing. He hated the days when it felt like he could hear every single sound in the city. He hated when even music couldn't drown out the sounds of the city.

But, now? Now he craved those sounds. He craved to be sitting awake at night just because the city was too loud for him to sleep. He would give anything to hear the millions of conversations and the hundreds of cars. He didn't care. He craved anything but silence.

There was another thing. Peter had no idea what to do. He didn't have a book to read. He didn't have a phone to scroll through. He didn't have a suit lady to talk to. He didn't have Legos he could build or music he could listen to. He didn't even have a coin he could flip. He had absolutely nothing but his own mind to help him pass the time.

At first, he had to admit, nothing was nice. It was a break from everything and it was nice. But, it quickly turned bad. He wanted to talk to his friends. He wanted to have dinner with May or be in the lab with Tony. He didn't want to be in this room. So, he started pounding the walls. He started trying to rip the door off of its socket. He tried to sit by the door and grab whoever was delivering him food. All that accomplished was getting himself hurt. His fists were bloody and bruised by the time he was done. They'd healed by now, but still. He wasted his time entirely by doing that.

Then, he went through a screaming phase. He'd just scream and scream and scream. He'd cry out for his captors to let him out. He'd scream at the top of his lungs in frustration. He'd scream out for someone to come save him. He'd scream so hard his head spun. He passed out once because of how loud and hard he screamed. When he came back to it, he just started screaming again. No one heard him. And if people did hear him? They just didn't care.

The screaming phase didn't last for long. His throat became too raw and there was no point. No one was coming. No one was listening. He gave up pretty quickly after that. He just cried after that. He cried and cried and cried. He cried out of anger. Out of frustration. Sadness. In the past, he would have told himself just to pull it together and think about everything logically, but he'd already done that. So, he just let it all out. He cried until he couldn't cry anymore. Quite literally.

Now, he just finds himself sleeping. When he isn't sleeping, he's just lying there stuck in his own head. He replays the memories. Most of them are good ones, some of them are bad ones. He watches the memory in his mind like it's cable. There's even commercial breaks. Those are typically when he has to go to the bathroom or when he eats. Sleeping can't be considered a commercial break because he dreams.

There was a part of Peter that was scared this was making him spiral into insanity. There were many different definitions of insanity, but his favorite was the one Albert Einstein provided. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Peter didn't think he was doing different things and expecting different results. It was more that he had just given up. He'd given up trying to get out. He'd given up, well, everything. He'd given up getting rescued at this point.

He was isolated. He didn't know why. He didn't know who would have wanted to do this to him. He didn't know if it was something to do with him being Spider-Man or if he was just picked at random. He just knew that he didn't like it. He knew that he wanted to be home. He wanted to be with people. He wanted to be out of his mind and in the present. He just wanted to be away from all this.

Still, nothing happened. No sound. No movement. Nothing.

Peter was still alone. And he would be for who knows how much longer. Maybe forever.

That's it for this chapter! Remember to drink some water, eat something, take medicine (if you have to), and rest today. You did a good job and I am proud of you :)
Till next time
- Storm