The Spider and the Web he Weaves of Tragedy and Sin

II

Peter awoke in a fit of rage, kicking and screaming himself awake. He was lucky he didn't live in an apartment complex because he surely would've been kicked out by now. He often had nightmares just like the one that had woke him up. In all actuality, it was far more rare that he got a full night's rest. He was sure that had happened before, he just couldn't really remember when. He seemed to only get nightmares or night terrors. Today was definitely a terror day.

He'd dreamt of his ex, Michelle Jones, and he honestly didn't know why that terrified him so. They dated before he decided that enough was enough and he would no longer let himself care for others. When he decided he'd put an end to the Parker curse. Before he lost his best friend Ned Leeds to a car accident.

It wasn't just her tear filled eyes that brought about his thrashing in the early morning when he remembered how he told her that he had never loved her, so that way she'd never want him to come around again. It was the way her face contorted in pain as he spoke the vile words he didn't mean, and how blood that flowed like river fall from her mouth and eyes when she wailed in pain. Dying in his arms, because he failed yet another innocent person. In reality, he knows that that had never happened to her, that she was safe. Safe from him. But it didn't stop his head from creating the image of her dying and then to proceeding with perfect video of every death he'd ever cause. If someone loved him, it was definitely lady death.

He wanted to stay in bed forever and never get up, he wanted to die and never be found. He wanted nothing more than to waste away into a pile of ash that you couldn't tell the difference from when shown both him and a really big pile of dust. It was unfortunate that he couldn't do that while also receiving justice for those wronged, so he chose to work toward the latter for now, pushing himself up, hearing all his glorious morning "pops" as he stretched up, putting on clothes.

For a seventeen year old that could do what he could do, working and going to college seemed like two of the most boring things you could do. And it was, which was why he decided to skip that bullshit and dive straight into doing what he knew best. Building and repairing computers from salvaged parts. Which, while being fun for him, was still a pain in the ass after the soccer mom called in for the fifth time that month yelling and screaming about the virus's on her son's computer due to how much porn he'd been watching. Totally not his fault, but go off.

But Peter felt exceptionally tired today. Maybe he'd just revise his manifesto, go over what he wanted for his will? He didn't have a lawyer so it was just a simple holographic will. He didn't really know what he was doing anymore, but then again he hadn't really realized who he really was until a few years ago. So he wasn't a very trustworthy narrator here.

"Hey Ned?" Peter yelled. He had fixed the room he'd settled in the abandoned warehouse to that Ned could operate on a small scale.

"Yeah man?"

"Can you be a bro and patch me in with any calls that come through and put them over loudspeaker? I'm gonna be jumping project to project today. Any suggestions for what I should start with?"

"Well... I would suggest starting off the day with breakfast and then you should totally work on revisions for the new HamStark model in development."

"Don't you ever suggest anything remotely healthy like eating food or going to bed again or I'll recode you. Rename file HamStark to Houdini please."

"You won't. File renaming process denied."

"Excuse me young man? Do you even listen to me. Rename file HamStark to Houdini!"

"File renaming process denied. Go eat breakfast." Ned sassed and Peter groaned, getting up.

"Fine, but you're so going to pay for this." Peter put on shoes and went out his crumbling factory fortress.