haunted ✿ peter parker

Everyone has forgotten Peter Parker.
No Ned. No MJ. No Aunt May. The boy who once had a home is now a shadow, clinging to Spider-Man as the only piece of himself left in the world. He tells himself it's enough-that saving strangers will fill the hollow ache in his chest. It doesn't.

Then he crosses paths with Elara Catherine Swift. A girl with unevenly cut hair, thrift-store cardigans, and a crow that perches on her shoulder like it belongs there. Her eyes are too tired for someone so young. Her hands are always cold. And when she looks at Peter, it feels like she's staring straight through his skin into the grief he thought he'd hidden.

Elara is a necromancer, though she'd never call herself that aloud. The dead follow her: in whispers, in fragments, in hands that claw their way back into the world for seconds before fading. She hates the power, hates how it drains her, hates how it makes people pull away. Still, she can't turn it off. Death is the only constant in her life.

Peter doesn't fear her. He recognizes her-the loneliness, the weight of a world that won't stop taking. For the first time since the spell erased his name, he finds someone who sees him, even if she doesn't know his past. And Elara, who's lived like a ghost among the living, finds someone stubborn enough to keep tugging her back toward the light.

But their bond is dangerous. When Spider-Man tangles himself with a girl who can call the dead, questions follow. So do enemies-some who want Elara's gift, and others who want it destroyed. Together, they'll learn that death isn't the opposite of love. Sometimes, it's the reason you hold on tighter.