Kindred Spirits ♤ Peter Parker

PROLOGUE

𝗜𝗡 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗬, 𝗜 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗨𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦.

But none of them felt like they could compare to the staring contest I currently competed in with the special ops officer who occupied the seat across from me. His dead stare unnerved me and it was how he had been looking at me for the last minute or so since I had been escorted to the interrogation room.

The room was small, the white blank walls gave the illusion that they were closing in on me, suffocating me. The uncomfortable cool bite of the metal chair stung the exposed skin of my thighs where my skirt had hiked up. On my right was an intimidating metal door, while on my left was a mirror, what I could only assume was one-way glass like in those old cop movies.

"Ellie Summers." His voice was loud, authoritive and captured my full attention. I didn't know whether to be relieved or worried about him breaking the silence.

"Yes?" I gulped.

The man sighed deeply, picking a slip of paper from the file in front of him and pushing it toward me. It was a mugshot of a woman, a photo that made the blood in my veins run cold. My mother.

She looked a lot older in the photo than when I had last seen her; considering she left me and my father seven years ago. Without warning, without any indication or sign she was unhappy, at least to my memory, gone. Her things vanished, the only evidence she wasn't a figment of our imagination was a letter left on the kitchen top stating she was sorry.

"Why am I here?" My voice wavered, not under nerves, but because I was trying to hold back the pressure that developed behind my ribcage.

"Your mother was in possession of a very valuable item, miss Summers. A necklace." His face was stoic as he looked down his nose at me, not betraying a slither of emotion.

"I haven't spoken to her for years," I could feel the burning behind my eyes as I forced out the words. "I don't know about a necklace."

"You never kept in contact? Nothing?"

I shook my head, eliciting a dissatisfied grumble from the man.

"Miss Summers, your mother was a very dangerous woman. Anything you know, you have to tell us."

I felt my lungs getting tight. Over the years of her absence I was able to convince myself I didn't care for her, but this conversation revealed a crack in my defence that was threatening to collapse.

"I don't know anything, maybe my dad—"

"She didn't leave you a will?" His tone grew more frustrated with each word.

"Will?" My brows furrowed.

"When she died."

The world around me silenced.

When she died.

Died.

Truthfully, I hated my mother. I hadn't heard anything from her since I was five, and the memories before she left were such a haze that I didn't really know the woman at all. She died to me years ago. However, I never expected to be told she was dead. Even when I had thought about the possibility, I didn't care, I hated her. Perhaps hate meant I cared too much.

"Miss Summers," The man across from me practically growled, his eye twitching in irritation. "The necklace."

His lips continued to move, but I couldn't hear him. My mind was too loud, a thousand thoughts screaming at me as my heart tightened. I couldn't breathe.

"Miss Summers!" The loud crash of his fists against the desk bounced off the walls around us, making my body freeze up as my eyes snapped to his fierce gaze. 

"The. Necklace." He gritted each word through his teeth.

Only moments ago my heart pulsed with sorrow, an emotion I didn't want to believe could  be associated with my mother, but it quickly burned into an unmistakable rage.

"Two hours ago I was in my classroom talking to my friends about who I wanted to go to prom with. Then you stormed into our room, demanding to take me away, making me look like some kind of freak—" I gulped in a big breath of air the same time the only door in the room slammed open, the air from the force of it brushing against my wet cheeks- only now did I realise I was crying. "Ask about some kind of stupid necklace, call my mother a dangerous woman and say that she's dead?" I wanted to say more, but a sob tore from my throat halting my words.

Another man stepped into the room, clad in the same black suit as the one sitting across from me, the same stoic expression. He swiftly walked over and tapped his friend on the shoulder, tilting his head towards the door, making him sigh and stand to exit reluctantly. He then turned to me, offering me an awkward smile.

"We apologise for the distress we may have caused you Ellie," He cleared his throat, adjusting his tie and offered me a card. "Please do get in contact if you do remember anything about the necklaces possible whereabouts."

I sneered at him, tears still streaming from my cheeks and smack his hand away from me. The card slipped from his fingers and gracefully floated to the ground, the moment it touched the pristine marble I yanked my pack up from the floor, storming out of the building.

Relief flowed through my body as fresh air filled my lungs, the cold air of New York stung my tear covered cheeks. My body still shook with the shock of the revelations moments before, sobs still forcing their way out of my mouth. People were undoubtedly looking, but at this moment I couldn't find it in me to care.

"Ellie." I startled as arms wrapped around me, but it was short lived as I recognised the voice. My father.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there honey. They wouldn't let me see you until they questioned us both."

I buried my face into the rough fabric of my fathers police uniform. They clearly had pulled him in for interrogation while he was on duty. None of it made sense.

"She's—" I couldn't let myself finish the sentence, but I didn't need to.

"I know baby." He grabbed onto my shoulders, forcing me back to look at me. "Let's get home, okay?"

I could only nod as he steered us towards his car, my vision still blurred with tears and my heart broken from the one thing I swore I didn't care for.