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AN ICY WIND WHIPPED THROUGH AMARA'S HAIR AS SHE STEPPED THROUGH THE ROOF DOOR. She wrapped her arms around herself, a tank top being the only thing covering her torso. The roof felt different than it usually did. There was no excitement that she got from meeting Spider-Man, it was unusually cold — even for New York — and there were no noises from the street; no horns beeping, no breaks squealing, only an eerie silence.
Her bare feet walked along the roof cautiously as she scanned the area. A woman stood on the edge, looking down. Curls that resembled hers blew gently as Amara crept towards the woman.
"Hello?" she called out, her voice almost lost in the wind.
The woman turned and Amara's confused face contorted into shock at the familiar face.
"M-Mom?"
A smirk grew on the woman's face as she let one foot hang off of the roof. Amara let out a short scream as she rushed forward but the woman had already dropped from the roof with a crunch when she hit the sidewalk. Covering her mouth with a sob, Amara stepped forward, daring herself to look. She peeked over the edge and saw a mangled body lying in a pool of blood under the glow of a street lamp. Each limb was sticking out in unnatural directions and the neck had been twisted to face the sky.
As Amara focused on the lifeless face, she recognised it more and more. It was her own. She stared at it in terror as it's still mouth began twisting into a sinister smirk and she jumped back with a blood-curdling scream.
◈⟐◈
AMARA SHOT UP FROM HER BED IN A COLD SWEAT, GASPING FOR BREATH. She reached for her lamp and turned it on, letting out a sigh of relief when she took in her surroundings as she tried to run a hand through her tangled hair. A quiet knock was heard at her window and she jumped, seeing a figure crouching in the fire escape but relaxed when she saw the glints of red and blue in the light of her lamp. She threw her cover back and stood from her bed, throwing the window open when she reached it.
"Hey,"
"Hey, you weren't on the roof. I came to check on you and your lamp was on," he said worriedly.
"Yeah, my dad made me go to bed early. I only slept for about an hour before I...woke up." she shrugged.
"Oh, are you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.
Amara laughed lightly, "Yeah, I'm fine, like really good. Hey, do you have any plans?"
"Uh, no, not that I know of." he said suspiciously at her change of subject.
"Great. I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool if you took me around the city?" she enthused.
"Like, with my webs?" he asked, eyebrows raised and she nodded. "I don't know if that's really safe, I mean—"
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun!" she argued, looking like a child as she did so.
"But I could drop you or—"
"I don't care!" she interrupted. "Please?"
Peter fought inwardly with himself before he gave in with a sigh, "Where do you want to go?"
A grin spread across her face as she stepped onto the fire escape, "Somewhere high, surprise me."
He thought for a moment before nodding and cautiously grabbing Amara by the waist and creating a harness out of his webs to secure her to him, "Hold on tight."
Amara wrapped her arms around the boy and the two began swinging through New York, Amara smiling widely the whole time. Every time they went from one building to another, a rush of adrenaline would fill Amara and she couldn't help but laugh. She was swinging through New York with the Spider-Man.
"Do you want ice cream?" he shouted over the wind rushing past their ears.
"Is that even a question?" she yelled back.
An amused smile spread across his face at her answer. They swooped towards an ice cream cart that had a 24/7 sign above it and Peter scooped up two tubs of ice cream, leaving a five dollar bill in their place before the attendee could even take notice and gave one to Amara. She couldn't help but wonder why someone would have a 24/7 ice cream cart with such a high risk of robbery but didn't pay much attention to it — the tourist business was booming and drunk people on late night bar crawls love ice cream.
They landed on a tall building that had to be almost double the size of Amara's apartment building by the edge of the water and Peter snapped the web that was holding them together. Amara plucked the stray webs that were stuck to her clothes and let them fly away in the wind before sitting beside Peter, on the edge of the building that was facing the water.
She looked out at the view, the deep blue sparkling in the moon's glow, "It's beautiful."
Peter looked to the girl beside him who was staring at the water in the distance with a gleam in her eye, "Yeah..."
Amara turned to him and he averted his eyes to his ice cream before flickering them between the ice cream and his spoon in thought making Amara chuckle.
"Just pull your mask up a little, I'm not going to pull it off." she scoffed lightly, scooping some of her ice cream.
Peter hesitated but eventually tugged his mask up until his mouth was uncovered and began shovelling ice cream into his mouth. Amara stared at the familiar mouth in curiosity as she tried to put a name to it. Peter noticed her eyes on him and wiped around his mouth self consciously.
"What? Do I have ice cream on my face?" he asked as he looked at the back of his covered his hand in search of any remains of ice cream.
Amara shook her head with a slight smile as she watched him stare at her with confusion.
"What?" he repeated.
Amara's eyes flickered between his animated eyes and his familiar mouth as she moved closer to him. She set her ice cream tub down and reached forward to cup his half covered face and inch their faces closer to each other before connecting their lips softly. When she pulled back, Peter stared at her in shock from behind his mask. Amara smirked slightly as she picked up her ice cream again and began to spoon some ice cream into her mouth, her feet swinging against the wall.
