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He had gotten to class on time, for the first time in a while. The kids where bileing into there seats, the teacher probably grading something at her desk. The bell rang. She started her lecture. Normal.
But then it happened. Peter started to feeling headache creeping up his spine to his head. But it didn’t quite feel like a headache, more like a bad feeling.
Peters breathing started to become more heavier, taking deeper and deeper breaths each time, something was wrong, very wrong. Sweat started to beat down his forehead and back. What happening right now.
”Peter, do you need to go to the nurses office”, Ms. Redden said. Looking at me with a strange face. I quickly gave her a nod and stood up and got the teachers note.
As he got closer to the door, the headache just got worse and worse. But then he heard it, the faint sounds of a gun being cocked.
“Everyone get underneath the chairs”, Peter said. Finally understanding what the headache is. “Peter, why...” Ms. Redden started to say before Peter cut her off. “Get under the desk and try to be a quiet as possible.” Peter said, trying to keep a calm voice as he told his other classmates what to do.
Then it happened. The alarms started going off and the principal started talking over the loudspeaker. “ Please turn off your light, close and lock your door, and get under your tables. There is an armed man in the building. I repeat, there is an armed gunsman in the building.”
“What the hell”. Flash said as he headed under his desk. Since Peter was closest to the door He began to lock it and turn off the lights. He crouched down in the corner of the room, in the blind spot of the window on the door.
Then there was thumping on the door, someone was trying to get inside. “ Please, you have to let me in. Please, he has a gun. It’s Alec! It’s Alec! Please you got to let me in!” Alec yelled as he was banging on the doors.
Peter looked at the teacher for the sign to open it. She gave a slight nod and he began to unlock the door and open in for Alec.
Alec then tumbled in and started to talk with a frantic voice. “ oh thank god you let me in, I thought I was going to be left for dead out there, thank you thank you.” He said, all very fanticly.
“
“It’s ok Alec. It’s ok, your safe. Now why don’t you head over to your desk and hide under it ok.” Ms. Redden said to Alec while soothingly touching his shoulder.
“Oh yay, and I forgot I had to give you something”, Alec said, his voice now calm. Alec then began to bring out something from his pocket and pointed it at Ms. Reddens Head.
“Surprise, surpise. I’m your arms gunsman.” Alec then said in a chearful manor. It was disgusting.
“Now I’ll let Ms. Redden here live, and all the rest of you live, if you hand me over Flash Thompson.” Alec said, disgust was greatly used in his voice when he spoke of Flash.
Peter didn’t know much about Alec. He was mostly closed off from everyone. But one thing he did know was that Flash had bullied him, and a lot more than he had bullied Peter.
Peter looked over at Flash in the corner of the room, now being pushed by his friends to stand up. Once Flash did stand up, he stood still, almost as if he were a statue.
“Oh Flash glad you could join us.” Alec then said, pulling his gun away from Ms. Redden, now facing Flash’s head. “You ready to die now.”
Alec then cocked his gun, put his fingers on trigger, then stopped when he saw something, or more like someone. Peter was standing infront of Alec and Flash, blocking the bullet from ever getting to flash.
”What you doing Parker, you know he deserves it,” Alec then said, a scary amused look on his face. “ Alec, he might have done bad things, but no one ever deserves to die.” Peter said. What happened to him, Peter thought.
Alec looked like a reck. His eyes were bloodshot, his teeth were stained yellow, his blonde hair was a mess.
“Peter, I don’t expect you to understand, he didn’t bully you as much as he did to me. Did you ever see him, he would throw me against the lockers, have his friends beat me up, lock me instide lockers, sometimes overnight. He never did anything like that to you.” Alec then said, a single tear falling down his face.
”Have you ever felt that kind of hopelessness before Parker, that feeling that nothing will every get better. The feeling of holding a knife to your own wrist, deciding wether or not you should do it. Do you!” Alec then screamed, now multiple years running down his face.
”I do Alec, I do. I stood upon a ledge, wondering if I should jump or not. I was thinking the world would better of without me. I thought that if I just jumped, it would do everybody close to me a favor. You know, I never really told anybody this before, but I feel this would be as good of a time as any.” Peter then said, his eyes beginning to water at the thought of what he was going to say.
“You keep saying, oh you’ve never been through this before, you’ve never felt as much pain as I’m feeling now, well guess what I have.” Peter then took deep breath. “ What I was six my parents died in a ‘plane crash’, and my aunt and uncle took me in. Every night I would screem to them, saying how I want to see my mommy my daddy, but I couldn’t. I then excepted the fact that they were dead and started to live a normal life. People were nice to me, my small family was happy. Life was good. Till about a year ago. My uncle was shot in the chest by a robber, and I could have stopped him. Can you believe that, I could have stopped him. I remember feeling my uncles blood poor down from his lifeless body as I held him in my arms, crying. I spent weeks greiving over the death of him but then thing started to get better once again, till god through another stone a me! My aunt then died, about three months ago. She was killed during the Spider-Man vs Vulture thing, the only casualty. She had died the same way as my uncle, bleeding to death in my arms once again. I was then taken to a foster home, where they would abuse me, not feed me, and not give me water. I’m still going through that shit”. Peter said, sadness being the only emotion left in the room.
”As I was standing on the ledge of the roof, I had thought all about that, about how much my life sucks. But then I thought about all the good things in life, my friends, Ned and MJ, the beautiful New York skyline, and just how beautiful the world really was.” Peter was now smiling, his words were filled with hope and love.
“You can still redeem yourself, you can still walk out of here, no gun in hand and give yourself up. You can still live a good life Alec.” Peter said, finally finishing his statement.
Alec then lowered his gun, now only facing Peters stomach. Tear were now rolling down Alec’s face. “I’m-I’m sorry Peter, I didn’t know,” Alec said, his eyes looking straight into Peters. “No one knew, that’s what made it worse. You can still get out of this, and live a normal life Alec, just put the gun down.” Peter then said.
The room had seemed to stay still, people faces filled with shock and horror as they looked at Peter and Alec. “ Everyone except Flash can leave”. Alec then shouted.
The students and teacher started to file out of the room leaving only Alec, Flash, and Peter.
“Come on Peter, I told you you can go now go!” Alec said, pointing over to the door.
“As I said before, no one deserves to die”. Peter said, his voice calm and steady, not one someone should expect from someone right in between a bullet and it’s target.
“Sorry Pete, I just can’t forgive him.” And that’s when the sound of a bullet leaving it gun sounded. Peter didn’t think, he moved as fast as he could and pushed Flash out of the way.
Then he was on the floor, blood pooring out of his stomach. Pain flaring up all around his body.
”Oh my god. Oh my god. You pushed him out of the way. You fucking pushed him out of the way. What did I do! What did I do!” Alec yelled, waving the gun around in the air. “Alec, I did what I had to do.” Peter said, pain was clearly heard throughout his words as he began pushing himself up.
Then something happened. Alec stopped moving. He turned around and looked at me. Determination clearly visible throughout his eyes. “It’s the only way”, Alec spoke, his voice now calm instead of scared.
”Now I know what your think Alec, it’s not the only way. We can figure something out.” Peter then said. His voice filled with pain and fear.
“It’s the only way”, Alec said as he brought the gun up to his head, and pulled the trigger.
“Nnnnnnnoooooooo”, Peter yelled as I fell back down and rested my tired body on the cabnit.
Peter only stared for what seemed like forever at the lifeless body of Alec. Blood seeped from his head and on to the ground. It looked awful.
”-eter, Peter, hey Peter can you hear me.” Flash said as he sat next to me, his face filled with fear. He had forgotten Flash was there, he had seen the whole thing.
”Oh Peter that doesn’t look good. We need to get you out of here now”. Flash said, scanning Peters body with curious eyes. “Can you walk?” Flash asked. I gave a quick nod and he pulled his arm around my arms and pulled me up.
He have a slight yelp of pain as he did so but he didn’t seem to mind. And together, Peter and Flash walked out the room of death, down the deserted hallway, and out the door of the high school.
The first thing that hit Peter was the light. It blasted strongly into Peter eyes as he tried to close them to easy the pain. Then as Peters eyes adjusted, he noticed the Police barricade surrounding the school entrance. Police, students, Family’s all gathered around it.
But the pain in his stomach was to much for him to he collapsed on the the nice ground and began to have a coughing fit. It hurt so much when he coughed, blood began to splatter upon the ground at where he was coughing.
He then ended his fit and turned his body around to have his face facing up. He say paramedics run wild around him, people from around the barricade looking at him with worried faces. He could here faintly people saying stuff like, “Oh my god-who’s that- how come he was only shot- what has this world come to”. It was all to much.
The paramedics then picked him up and put him on a gurney. “AAAAHHHHHHH!” He yelled loudly as the faces of people looked at him with sympathy.
But right before he blacked out, he saw Flash run up to his parents and pull them into a hug, and began to cry in between there arms. So he let the darkness take over, while he was smiling to himself.