ugly truths, pretty lies

The Beginning

Peter was only 8. This wasn't supposed to happen to him. He wasn't supposed to feel flesh burning touches over his body being told over and over again it's just a game.

It's not just a game. It's life. It's a life Skip has ripped to shreds for his own cruel agenda. And it's not fair.

It's not fair that while other kids got to go outside and play with their friends, Peter was in therapy.

Because he told. Of course he told. What Skip did wasn't right and Peter knew this. It may have taken a while and he may have been scared, but after a few months of these painful acts, after a few months of forcing a smile each and every day while his body screamed in agony on the inside where nobody could see or even dared to look, Peter told the only 2 people he had left in his life. Aunt May  and Uncle Ben.

There were tears. So many tears from all three people in the Parker residence.

Peter could remember it so clearly. The uncontrollable sobbing from Aunt May that night in her room when she thought he had fallen asleep had stuck in his mind.

The pure anger Ben held as he walled away to get some fresh air has clouded Peter's vision every night as he woke up from the same damn dream.

No. Not dream. Nightmare.

His sleeping world is a nightmare and when he wakes up, he's thrown back into something worse.

Sometimes he wishes he could just close his eyes and disappear.

Like his parents.

Only they didn't disappear. They died and left him behind to live with a new set of parents who never asked for him. Who never wanted him.

He knows Aunt May and Uncle Ben love him very much but he can't help that same feeling creep up in his chest.

That feeling of drowning in guilt.

Guilt for what he's lost, what he's never known, and what he could've had.

He could've had a normal life.

But instead, life decided to give him the boot.

He's had so much loss for his short 8 years of life. Far too much for any child of that age.

But Peter doesn't mind. He no longer cares if he has a normal life. Because his chances of normal has been stripped from him as soon as his babysitter placed his stained hands on Peter's small body.

Those stains won't wash off, no matter how much or how hard he scrubbed. No matter how red and irritated his skin became, he couldn't wash away the memories of those burning touches.