Spider-Man: Dark Web

Chapter 3: Coming To Terms

As the cold air blew through Peter's hair, he continued to walk back home still shaken by his encounter with the two thugs. "That was... oh my god. I can't believe this." Peter stops in place for a second, vibrations are in his head again. Panicked, Peter looks around frantically trying to find the source. As Peter gets closer to his home, the vibrations become more violent. Heart in his throat, he reaches for the door and opens it. "No..."

Police officers arrive and tape off the house. He never imagined his childhood home would be the place for a crime scene. Peter watches as his Aunt and Uncle get carried out of the house into the back of a hearse. "Peter?" Peter looks up and standing over him is Captain George Stacy, his best friend's father. "How are you doing?" 

Peter, without any hesitation, reaches out and hugs George. Peter had always seen him as an adoptive father figure since he was a kid, so hugging him out of the blue wasn't out of character for him. "I've been better, I guess. I've had a very shit day, I just wanna forget everything and run away."  

George hugs Peter back and smiles lightly. "Well, I can't let you run away, but I can let you crash with me and Gwen. I'm sure Gwen will be more than happy to let you stay—however, one rule no hanky panky." Peter looks up at George and chuckles slightly. "I don't want to be a bother."

"Nonsense Pete, come on. I'll help you grab some spare clothes." George gets up and walks to the house, Peter slowly following behind. They enter, head to Peter's room, pack a bag filled with his clothes and go back out to the car. Before leaving, George explains the situation to his fellow officers. After the interaction, George enters the driver's seat and looks over to Peter, who's behind the passenger seat in the backseat. "Everything will be okay, Peter. Don't worry, we'll catch the people who did this." George says as he begins to drive home.

Gwen was sitting in her room, headphones in playing her favourite songs. She was a bright girl, with long, soft blonde hair. She always wore the black headband Peter got for her when they were on a trip to Colorado. through her music, Gwen could hear two muffled voices coming from the kitchen and gets nervous. 'Daddy shouldn't be back home yet.' She thought to herself as she got up and left her room. 

As she gets closer to the kitchen, she recognizes the voices to be her father, George Stacy, and her best friend, Peter Parker. "Dad? Petey?" She pokes her head through the door and sees a shaken-up Peter and George trying to console him. "Peter?" Gwen approaches Peter and she can see that he's been crying. 

"Gwen, honey, wait outside..." George tries to say before Peter cuts him off. "No, it's okay." Peter looks up at Gwen and hugs her tightly. "I lost them. I lost my Aunt and Uncle." Peter says before breaking down in her arms. Gwen is just left in silence as she's hit with the news. She always loved spending time with May and Ben. She always held all the memories she made close to her heart. "Oh, Peter." Was all Gwen could say before she too began to cry in Peter's arms. 

The following morning, Peter wakes up from a nightmare and looks around the room to get a sense of his surroundings. Punk band posters were all over the walls, the floor was covered with hoodies and jeans. Peter finally looks next to him and sees a sleeping Gwen. He quickly and carefully climbed out of the bed and looked out the window. 

"Woah, what a view," Peter whispered to himself. The longer Peter looked out of the window, the quicker he noticed the fire escape. He just had an idea, before going along with it, he turned and looked at Gwen one last time. She was still sleeping. "Thank god," Peter said to himself before opening the window and climbing onto the fire escape. 

He ran up the fire escape to get to the roof of the apartment complex. Perfect timing too as the sun was still rising. Peter watches the sunrise as he remembers the previous night. He pulls out his phone and tries to call his Uncle but no answer, just straight to voicemail. He tries to call his Aunt but the same result, no answer just straight to voicemail. 

"No, it was just a bad dream, it had to have been." Peter tried calling them again and again but nothing. Tears were falling down Peter's face again as the reality hit that he lost his Aunt and Uncle. "Were my parents not enough?" Peter whispers weakly to himself as he cries into his knees. "Why did I have to lose you two as well?" 

Gwen wakes up and notices her window is wide open, she groans as she gets up to close it. "I'm almost positive I closed this stupid thing before..." Gwen stops as she realizes Peter wasn't next to her when she woke up. Her throat hits her stomach as she climbs through the window and runs up the fire escape to reach the roof. "Peter! Peter! Please, tell me..." Gwen stops as soon as she reaches the roof to see Peter, looking at the sunrise. "Petey?" 

Peter sits there, his crying has stopped. "I shouldn't have left them. I shouldn't have yelled at them. I should've told them... I loved them." Peter turns to look at Gwen. "They knew that right? They knew I loved them, right?" Peter begins to cry again as Gwen reaches out to him and comforts him. Holding him close. 

"Of course they did, Peter. They knew you loved them and they loved you too."