Drawing the Wildcard

Chapter 2: One Crazy Dream

"I'm telling you, Peter. All you have to do is just talk to her. It's not hard. I can tell that Gwen likes you, too." Jake says while sitting in a seat on the subway. He absently rubs the spot on his hand where the spider bit him.

"I'll talk to her. Soon." Peter replies, making Jake roll his eyes. He knows that Peter is way too shy when it comes to talking to girls. So the chances of him talking to Gwen are slim to none.

"Whatever, Petey. Maybe I'll hit her up. She is pretty cute." Jake jokes as they get off the subway and walk to the house.

"You know Gwen isn't a fan of your womanizer behavior, right?"

"Pfft. I'm not a womanizer, Pete. I'm just me." Jake replies with a grin, walking into the house.

"I'm not really feeling Aunt May's meatloaf for dinner. I'm gonna head to bed."

"OK, man. Night." Peter says. Jake waves back lazily in response as he heads up the stairs to his room. The walls are blue and have posters of various music artists and pictures of family members. Jake walks into his room and collapses face first on the bed.

"Guess I was more tired than I thought. Why is it so hot?" He mutters as he peels off his shirt and tosses it into a corner of the room. Suddenly, he hisses in pain as the bite mark began to pulse slightly. Ignoring it, he falls asleep.

*AN UNKNOWN REALM*

Jake's eyes snap open and he begins to look around. All he sees is darkness illuminated by a spider web glowing in the sky.

~Come to me, Guardian.~ A feminine voice calls out. Wordlessly, Jake obeys, walking forward until he sees a spotlight illuminating a chair. He sees an elderly woman sitting in the chair, wearing a red dress with a large white spider on it. The interesting feature is the red, silk blindfold covering her eyes.

~Interesting. Despite the trials and hardships you face, you emerge even stronger.  You walk the line between good and evil, yet remain firmly on it, never straying. We'll meet again soon enough, Guardian.~ She then touches Jake's chest gently. A sudden burst of pain begins to rip through his body, every nerve feeling like it has been set on fire. Jake couldn't even scream from the pain, despite his wide open mouth. And with that, everything disappears in a blinding flash of light.

*REALITY*

Jake wakes up with a start, panting slightly while clutching his chest.  His eyes dart around his room, trying to see if the mystery woman would come back.

"That was a hell of a dream. I'm glad it's over. Wait, why is the bed so hard?" He looks down only to see that he's sticking to his ceiling by his hands and feet.

"What? How?" He looks up to see that he really is upside down. In this situation, he only has two words to say.

"Oh hell."