Chapter Text
Tonight was supposed to be a normal night. I would come home, back from patrol, get ready for bed, and go to sleep. But I guess the universe decided it was time for my yearly dose of Parker luck.
I crawled through my bedroom window, trying to be as quiet as possible. I don’t want to get caught by Aunt May. When I got in my room, I changed out of my suit and into some comfortable clothes. As I was about to head to bed, I realized something felt off. I honed in on my senses. It’s way too quiet. I don’t hear my aunt. I slowly walked to my bedroom door. When I opened the door, right away I smelt it.
Blood.
“Aunt May?” I yelled. I quickly rushed into the living room, and what I saw stopped me in my tracks.
No.
“No. No no no no...” I mumbled to myself. There is blood everywhere. Aunt May is laying on the ground, in a pool of blood. I rush over beside her and fall on my knees. My hands hover over her body.
“Aunt May, Please. You can't-” I cry. I check for a pulse.
My hands are bloody.
Someone screams into the deafening silence.
“Please, Aunt May! You can’t leave me!” I yell. I don’t feel a pulse. I move to cradle her head in my arms. The sight is gruesome. It was a headshot.
I barely recognize that the screaming is me.
I move her hair out of her face.
“It’s alright. You’ll be okay. You can’t leave me.” I whisper. In the back of my mind, I know she’s gone.
“BEN! Ben, you can’t leave me Ben! Please.”
I stare down at my aunt's face.
There is a bullet hole in her forehead.
Her eyes stare blankly back up at me.
I can hear the sirens.
The blue and red lights flash brightly in the night.
The city doesn’t sleep.
My aunt is gone.
He releases one final breath.
His eyes slowly go unfocused.
Blank.
Dead.
Uncle Ben does.
I move my hand to gently close her eyes.
“It’s alright May. You can rest now.” I say. I know i’m lying to myself.
Nothing is okay.
She’s gone.
I’m numbly sitting on the couch staring at my aunt's dead body as I wait for the police to get here.
I think that in the back of my mind I always knew that this would happen. First my parents, and then uncle ben. It was only inevitable.
I’m never going to speak to her again. Never hug her. Never eat her ridiculously horrible food she tried her hardest to make. She’s dead.
“Excuse me.”
I startle a bit at the unexpected voice. I look up to see a concerned looking face.
Oh.
The police are here.
I wonder how they got inside.
How long have they been here?
“Hi.” I say dumbly.
She smiles sadly at me.
I look back over to see where my aunt's body is still laying. She is surrounded by other police officers. My aunt is dead. My breath catches in my throat.
The lady notices.
“How about we move to the other room.” She suggests.
I don’t really want to leave my aunt, but I don’t want to see her dead body any longer either so I nod.
We head into my bedroom, and the lady sits me down on my bed. She sits in the chair across from me.
“I’m gonna have to ask you a few questions, is that alright?” She asks. I know it’s not really a choice.
“Yeah, that’s fine.” I say. She smiles. There’s pity written all across her face. I hate it. I hate this.
“What happened tonight?” She asks.
Getting straight to the point I see.
“I um…” I take a deep breath.”I came home late tonight. I had snuck in through my window. I was out with some friends.” That’s a lie. I was really out in spandex, beating up criminals and playing hero.
I look up and see her taking notes.
“What time was that at?” She asks.
“About 1:00 AM.” I say. I look at the time. It’s 3:14 AM. It feels like it was only twenty minutes ago that I found my aunt. Must’ve been the shock. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
“Anyway um…” I start again. ”I changed my clothes to get ready for bed. But I got this really weird feeling. Like in my gut. I knew something was wrong. So I went to go check on my aunt to make sure everything was okay. But when I got to the living room... she was there. Dead.” I finished. Another tear rolls down my face.
There was a silence in the room for a moment until there was a knock on the door.
“Yes?” Says the lady.
A police officer opens the door and looks in the ladies direction.
“The social worker is here.” He says.
Right.
I’m alone.
Meaning, the social worker is here.
For me.
“Alright,” She sighs. “Just send them in here.”
Right as the officer was about to leave and grab them, I spoke up.
“Do you know what happened? Who did this?” I ask. I need to know who did this, because when I find them, it is going to be anything but pretty.
“It’s looking like a simple break in. Someone probably came in here to rob the place, she fought back, he shot her, and ended up running away in a haste once he realized what he did.” He explained. My blood boiled at him seemingly down playing this and calling it ‘simple,’ but I am grateful for his straightforwardness. There’s no time to be throwing pity parties.
Although, as I thought over the situation, I knew it wasn’t just a simple robbery gone wrong. This seemed way too planned. Structured. It happened right before I came home from patrol. May just so happened to come home early from her night shift, and when I thought of the eerily quiet apartment I came home to, I realized how unnatural it was. Especially with my enhanced hearing. Somebody targeted her. And the only reason somebody would target her would be because of me. Or rather my alter ego.
“Okay..thanks.” I say to the officer. He smiles at me and leaves the room to go grab the social worker. The lady officer, that I didn’t get the name of, follows him out the door. As I sit on my bed, I allow myself to get lost in my thoughts.
As dramatic as it sounds, I know that I’ll never be the same bubbly Peter Parker everyone knows me as. Because I have officially lost the last of my family. And I can already feel that something inside of me has changed. My morals have shifted. I feel a deep burn of something that is miles more dangerous than plain anger. Something that should make the good guys be glad that I am not playing for the other team.
Because the truth is…
Somebody is out there.
Somebody killed my aunt.
...
Somebody, is a dead man walking.