A New Hero - Peter Parker (BOOK 1) | Spider-Man: Far From Home

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Broek Op Langedijk, Netherlands

The Sun was just coming up over the horizon when Clara arrived in Broek Op Langedijk. It had been only a twenty-minute walk from the train yard, but it felt like days had passed, each step lasting hours.

She was still breathing, she still had a next step, and Peter Parker was alive - She just need to find him.

Being so early in the morning, there were very few people on the streets to ask for directions, so Clara just kept walking until she found the housing estates beginning to morph into niche cafes and artisan shops. 

One man lifted the roller of a shop, revealing a pet store behind it. Seeing Clara trudging down the path, he smiled and waved. Clara smiled back timidly, tilting her head slightly at his friendliness.

"Er... Guten morgen?" Clara waved back. She had never been to the Netherlands before, and she hadn't learnt Dutch, so she was hoping there were enough similarities between that and German for her to at least understand some directions. Apparently there were; the man not only understanding what she was saying, but also able to tell it wasn't a language she spoke often. 

The man smiled at Clara, somewhat amused by her hesitancy to use the language, and he simply said in plain English: "Good morning." 

"Oh, uh, hello. I'm looking for a holding facility somewhere near here?" Clara asked, both hands still griping her backpack straps.

The mans face showed one of recognition, and he turned to point down the road in the direction she was going. "Carry on that way, when you get to the corner, follow it round and carry on till you see Bram's goats. When you do get to the market, you'll see it in front of you, a little to your left."

"Uh... Right. Okay, thanks." Clara said, moving past him as he turned back to the front doors of his shop. "Corner, goats, market." She nodded, her eyebrows lightly furrowed with a mixture of uncertainty and nervousness.

She reached the corner, following it round as she had been told to do. "Follow the corner." Clara repeated. As she did, she saw the buildings around her becoming more rustic; shorter homes with cracked plaster walls and broken tile roofing. 

Clara took deep steadying breaths. Please be okay, Peter.

In the blur of the distant set of buildings, she saw animal pens, a cow standing tied to a post just next to one of them. "Carry on till you see Bram's goats." Assuming he meant to get nearer to them, she pushed on. 

The overcast skies loomed down onto her, threatening to pour rain. She shivered; the thin child's cardigan Edith had given her doing nothing to block out the chill no matter how tightly she wrapped it round herself.

A slight wind pushed at her back, spurring her onward but only increasing the chill she felt. Her arm was throbbing now, too. She looked down at it, a small red line spreading along her bandage. The sight of it made her feel queasy and light-headed as the memories from the day before came back to her.

"The market." Clara whispered, stopping at the sight of early-morning shoppers choosing their fresh breads, cheeses, and fruit and vegetables. She looked around, the faded colours of the old stalls still lively, smiling faces on the holders, and the conversations with customers creating a soft buzz in the air. 

Under different circumstances, Clara would've stuck around for longer to take in the sights, maybe sample some food, too. Her stomach roared at the idea, but she pressed on.

She walked into the area, moving round stacks of wooden crates and rows of bikes. "In front, a little to the left." Clara mumbled, spotting the signage for the holding facility on the other side of the courtyard.