Fractured Mind

Chapter 11

Peter shut his phone and pocketed it after he got off the phone with his aunt. How was he going to tell Mary Jane what had happened? This was supposed to be a great night for them, and now he was the one who had to give her some very bad news.

He walked inside with a gloomy expression on his face and Mary Jane raised an eyebrow at him. "What's up?" she asked with a smile.

"We have to cancel dinner tonight. We need to leave now. I'll explain when we get to the car. Here's your jacket," he said as he held out her jacket to her. Her smile faltered as she sat up and put on her jacket.

Peter pulled out some money and left it on the table, having Mary Jane follow him outside to the car. She looked confused but didn't argue with him. He started the car and drove in silence. She glanced over at him and his knuckles were wrapped around the steering wheel so tight they were turning white.

"Peter... what happened?" she asked timidly.

"It's your aunt. She had an accident. I think she's being taken to the hospital," he said without looking at her. In the back of his mind he knew what happened, and highly doubted it had been an accident. If he found out Harry was involved in this in any way...

"I was thinking it was something like that. Your aunt had called you so many times. My phone was on silent but when I checked my phone, she had been calling me too," she said as calmly as possible. "But she's okay, right? Are we going to the hospital to see her? Do you know what happened? Is Aunt May with her?" her voice grew unsteady.

Peter turned to look at her for a moment. Her eyes looked glassy and he could tell she was going to hold on to the hope that her aunt was alright until she saw her. Would her aunt be okay? Aunt May hadn't given him too many details; she had just said that it was bad and that they needed to get home right away.

"I'm not sure what happened. We'll find out soon though, okay? I'm here for you no matter what, you know that right?" Peter whispered as he wiped away a tear that had rolled down her cheek.

"I know. I love you, Peter," she said as she rested her head against the window.

"I love you too," he took one of his hands off the wheel to hold hers.

They were two blocks away from their houses when they saw the red and blue flashing lights. Peter's hand tightened around Mary Jane's. He parked the car and turned towards her, "do you want to wait in the car while I talk to the police?"

"Yeah. That's fine," she said, not really looking at him.

Peter shut the door and ran up to his aunt, who was talking with a police officer.

"Peter, oh it's horrible," Aunt May sobbed.

"What happened?" he asked frantically. There were no ambulances here, just a squad car, which meant either she was okay, or she had already been taken to the hospital. Peter went for the latter seeing as how Aunt May was so upset. She was about to speak but then the police officer spoke up instead.

"We got a call from your aunt saying she heard screaming next door at Ms. Watson's home. When we arrived here, nobody would open up the front door, so we had to break it down to get in. That's when we found Ms. Watson laying face down in a puddle of blood. Someone had tried to murder her with this—" The officer held up the bag in his hand that contained what looked like a military grade hunting knife, "—by stabbing her in the chest. As of right now, she is at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in critical condition."

Peter's heart stopped. Mary Jane's aunt was probably going to die tonight. He stared at the knife in the bag; the top half of the knife was layered in a bright green color. The green color shimmered as the officer held the bag, there was no denying it now, this was Harry's doing. The police officer seemed to notice this and narrowed his eyes at Peter.