The Amazing Spider-Man 3

Chapter 26

As Peter continued his swing back home, his mind continued to sink into a deeper, darker place. It wasn't long before he was essentially on autopilot physically, no longer focusing on where he would fire his next web strand, his spider-sense subconsciously taking care of that for him. Hardly any of the details of the city were even registering to his eyes or brain anymore. He couldn't even feel the pain from his recent injuries like he could even when he had first taken off for home.

Instead, all he felt was a sense of failure. It was encapsulating every part of his person, seemingly all the way down to his bones. It made him ache from the heart outward, the sense of a potential imminent loss. Only the slightest part of him was trying to think of a plan or at least even a next step anymore. He had gone through just about every major individual he knew of in the city's underworld while also scouring the occasional empty warehouse along the way, but all of it had been fruitless. The Master Planner had just covered his tracks too well. From the beginning, Peter had been one step behind, but now, he felt like not only had he lost the race but been lapped a hundred times over.

Finally, Peter returned to his apartment building, actually finding the open window to his own place this time. He landed gently against the building, slipping his way inside almost lethargically. Once inside his room, he couldn't even find the motivation to move at first. He did manage to pull off his mask eventually, his eyes falling towards the floor ahead of him as he stared blankly at it, not even processing it was there. Dropping his mask to the floor, he made his way over to his bed, where he just sat at its end, folding his hands together, like he was waiting on something.

Peter didn't know how long he had been there when he heard a knock on his door. He didn't even react to it at first, not just because he was still in his suit sans mask, but also because he couldn't bring himself to care. The individual persisted, so he decided he would at least get up and peek through the small looking spot in the door to see who it was. He walked slowly towards the door, the individual still knocking. Peter gently placed his gloved hands on the door, putting his eye right at the spot to look through.

It was Mary Jane.

For just about anybody else, Peter would've just walked away and pretended nobody was home, but something inside told him that she wouldn't give up until he let her in. He unlocked his door and opened it to do just that, poking his head out from the side. She slowly stepped in, turning to face him as he closed the door.

For the first few moments, there was silence between them.

"I was watching to see when you would come back," M.J. finally said. "I mean, I'm not exactly sure I was supposed to fall asleep after, you know..."

Peter couldn't find it within himself to react to what she was saying. He wasn't sure he could react to much of anything right now; his mind and body were growing more and more numb by the second.

"Anyway," M.J. continued, "uh, I just wanted to see if you had any luck? You were gone a long time, so I was hoping that might've meant that you found something?"

Peter managed to shake his head a couple of times.

"No."

"Oh," M.J. responded, "well, umm...can I, like, make you something? It might be good for you to eat at least a little bit, maybe rest a little too before you go back out there."

"I'm not hungry," Peter offered in response.

"Okay," M.J. nodded, stretching up onto the toes of her shoes before falling back down. She seemed the complete opposite of him, having a kind of restless energy despite having likely been up almost all night. "Well, is it okay if I take a look at some of your injuries again? I can get what First Aid stuff I have real quick and come right back."