Chapter Text
Peter remembered the start of the day very vividly.
How it was a really nice day with the sun so high up in the sky, birds singing away, not a single cloud could be seen. There was nothing that could foretell the events that were sure to unfold.
_-~*~-_
“Peter!” he heard his aunt’s bubbly voice call from the kitchen area.
“Yeah?” he yelled back sticking his head out of his room.
It was a bright and happy Saturday morning and they were preparing to have a long and enjoyable picnic out in the wild. This picnic was actually a quick decision by May, who was so busy working non-stop for the last 3 weeks. All because someone decided to abruptly quit their job without giving any notice whatsoever, causing a staff shortage and loading everyone with a considerable amount of work.
“Don’t forget your hat! We have sunscreen but let’s double the protection, there’s not a cloud outside.”
Peter peeked through his blinds, only to be stunned by the bright sunlight:
“Argh, my eyes!”
He heard May’s soft laugh coming from the doorway:
“Who told you it was a good idea to look at the sun?”
He turned around to look at her, but all he could see was a giant blob of light swimming in his vision:
“Maybe we should take sunglasses as well.”
“We definitely should.”
After that, they both packed their individual bags. Peter helped May carry the picnic basket which included the food along with drinks, there was a classic red and white checkered tablecloth over it.
They got in the car and the inside was very hot, Peter felt like his skin would just melt and get stuck to the seat. The metal of the seatbelt touched his bare arm as he flinched from the heat of it, it was ten times hotter than everything in the car.
May put the key in ignition and opened all the windows hurriedly:
“We’re gonna be cooked if we don’t move soon.”
With that, they were on their way to the place they would have their picnic.
Normally, they would do their outings in designated areas that were solely reserved for that purpose. But her aunt wanted to go somewhere different that day, with less or no people.
It would add an hour to their ride in this hot weather but Peter wouldn’t complain. He knew May needed someplace away from people, where she could rest her head and indulge in the silence that only an isolated place could provide after the amount of work she had done.
The air from the outside cooled the air in the car, the wind was combing through his hair and whizzing past his ears. The sound was almost deafening but Peter had always associated it with the relaxed summer days so the temporary hearing loss, accompanied by the dazzling sun, was a welcome feeling.
“What’s that?” May’s curious voice got his attention and he directed his gaze to the front.
There was something blocking the way, he squinted his eyes to see it better. It was still far away and the road was too bright to make out what it was.
May slowed down as they got closer and they could see it better, the car slowed down even more.
There was a white van in the middle of the road, it was sideways. Basically blocking the whole way for any other car that could come.
May checked the rearview mirror and Peter turned around to see as well, there was no one on the road other than them. That made Peter feel a little bit uneasy.
“May...I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Me too.”
She hit the brakes, a scowl taking over her features as she assessed the situation. Peter leaned forward as if that would make him see even better:
“Should we just make a U-turn?”
The gear was put in reverse but just as they were moving back, a figure could be seen emerging from the other side of the van.
It was a man, waving at them.
They both were taken over by curiosity, the man was walking towards them with nothing in hand and a sincere smile on his face.
It made them lower their guards and sigh with relief.
May rolled down her window halfway and two adults smiled at each other before he started to speak with a warm tone:
“Hello there.”
“Hi. Uhm, do you have a problem over there?” May inquired.
The man drew a long breath and looked in the direction of the van before smiling, looking the perfect picture of an embarrassed man:
“Yeah...There was an animal, I tried to go around it and somehow ended up in this position, busted the tires. I can’t even get it to move...I’m really sorry about this.”
May’s mouth took an O shape as she took in the information:
“That sounds rough. You know what? I’ll help you, two is better than one.”
“What?” the man said surprised “No no, I got it. You don’t need to—”
“It’s okay,” May kindly intervened “I don’t look it but I’m pretty experienced about tire changing.”
Then she got out of the car without letting the man speak, Peter got out to follow them as well. He knew May was a professional when it came to changing tires because there wasn’t anyone else to help her when she got a tire busted. So she had learned to change them on her own.
The two were chatting away as they got closer and closer to the van, the man had introduced himself as Tony Stark and they were already on a first-name basis.
Was he...flirting with May?
“Ew!” he silently protested.
“So, are you alone out here?” she asked Tony.
He shook his head:
“No, my friend is sleeping inside. She can’t handle this kind of heat.”
May nodded her head in understanding and they got to the other side of the vehicle, she stopped and turned around to look at Tony. He was standing right beside Peter.
“I don’t see a flat tire?” she said with a cautious voice, a hint of fear could also be heard.
The atmosphere shifted.
Peter's hair stood on end.
He didn't feel the heat, only the coldness of fear.
Tony took one step back and it was too late for Peter to react. Before he could run towards May, he was grabbed by his shirt and pulled back. An arm snaked around his shoulders, and a gun entered his area of vision.
It was directly aimed at May.
Peter was speechless.
His aunt gasped with horror, her eyes wide:
“What are you doing?!”
“Don’t move.” Tony said, voice cold and void of empathy.
May raised her hands in a placating gesture, Peter heard the door of the van slide open from behind. He couldn’t see who was walking towards them but May could, and she was shaking her head sideways.
“Don’t touch him...” she said with a low voice, but Peter knew it was useless.
Why was May even more scared now?
Peter tried to turn his head to look at the other person, but the arm around his shoulders shifted to his neck to keep him in place.
“You shouldn’t move.” Was the last thing he heard before he felt a piercing pain on the side of his neck.
“NO!” May screamed and dashed forward.
Peter’s vision was getting blurry and dark in the corners, but he saw the other person hit May’s head with the butt of a gun. Blood spilled from the newly formed gash on her forehead.
“No...” he weakly protested, but he was losing strength all over his body.
The only thing keeping him standing was the man’s strong arms around him, he could hear his voice too. Though he was too out of it to understand what was being said.
Peter tried to hold on to the last speck of light in his vision, but the drug in his system overpowered his will. And soon he let go, succumbing to the temporary darkness.
Peter decided that trying to wake up after a drug-induced sleep was one of the worst feelings he experienced in his whole life.
His brain felt like cotton wool, thoughts a jumbled mess that couldn’t come together despite his best efforts.
The eyes were a totally different story. His eyelids felt like someone was actively trying to keep them shut, that was one of Peter’s irrational thoughts before he managed to take control of his mind.
When he managed to pry them open by sheer willpower, he took a look around. He couldn’t move his body aside from his head, the drugs were still in his blood. Only slowly losing effect.
He was in a simply designed, spacious room from what he could see. He was lying in the bed that was in the center of the room, there was an oak dresser close to the wall, a similar-looking wardrobe with a long mirror was next to it.
Peter knew he didn’t have the luxury, or the time, to admire the decoration. He sluggishly got to a sitting position, he felt lightheaded and sudden nausea made him clamp a hand over his mouth. Tears rushed to his eyes.
He glanced at the door across the room. He didn’t know what was waiting for him behind that door, but there was nothing else he could do other than going through the door. There were no windows in the room.
Peter dangled his feet over the edge of the bed and almost fell over, his knees still felt weak. But his strength was slowly and steadily returning.
The door opened with silence, no creaking. It was a small victory. It opened to an L-shaped hallway, he was on the shorter side of it and was now worrying about what was around the corner.
Breathing got a little harder as paranoia took over, but he still kept walking. He was met with the other side of the empty hallway, there were paintings on the wall and they looked odd.
They were portraits...but colored weirdly. They looked like those old blue and red 3D pictures that made your eyes feel all weird. Only the colors were different, these paintings were neon green and pink.
He tore his eyes away from the unusual paintings and saw 6 doors, all of them were open.
It was clear he was in a house but it was so silent...and eerie. Something wasn’t right, Peter could feel that there were other people here. Possibly Tony and the other person Peter failed to see.
But they were nowhere in sight.
As he got close to the first open doorway, he stepped away from it and touched his back to the wall for comfort.
It was a kitchen. A big, messy, empty kitchen. It was so messy, Peter wasn’t even able to see the sink. It was full of plates, glasses, and all the other kitchen stuff. They weren’t dirty though, there were just too many things. He noticed another door on the other side of the kitchen, it was closed. He could come back to it later.
Peter kept walking and saw that the other rooms were empty too. One of them was a dining room, the other was an office, and there were two bathrooms.
He knew the last one had someone in it. It was a dimly lit room at the end of the hallway.
And he was right.
He stepped into the room to see a familiar face, Tony Stark, casually sitting on a sofa with a book in his hand.
Peter’s movement caught his eye and he put the book down on his lap to give a small smile:
“Ah! You’re awake. How did you sleep?”
Peter opened his mouth but nothing came out, he was caught off-guard with the ordinariness of the question. As if it was such a normal occurrence to be kidnapped, and put to sleep against his will. Not to mention waking up in a completely unknown place.
He lifted his index finger and pointed at the man in bewilderment:
“You...” he breathed, “You kidnapped me!”
Tony’s expression changed.
There was one word that could describe this new expression very fittingly and it was ‘confused’.
They both looked at each other in silence. The man’s eyebrows were pulled together in a frown, and his head was cocked to the side. Then he finally spoke, his voice sounding equally confused:
“What do you mean?”
Peter’s hands went to his hair and he pulled at it so hard, his scalp burned from the tension:
“What do I mean?!” he yelled at the top of his lungs “No, what do ‘you’ mean?! You pointed a gun at my aunt, then someone injected me with something, and I woke up here! What did you do to her?!”
Tony placed the book to his side and slowly rose to his feet as if he was afraid of scaring Peter away, his expression was still the same:
“Peter, did you have a nightmare? What aunt are you talking about?”
At that point Peter was just straight out horrified, he was trembling and breathing heavily. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. A hand reached for him but he quickly stepped back.
The man was still confused.
“No,” Peter said with certainty “You kidnapped me.”
They made eye contact, Tony sighed and relaxed his face muscles like he was already tired from arguing with Peter.
Just at that moment, someone entered the room. Peter turned around to see a woman with long, strawberry blonde hair carrying a big pan with oven mitts. A manic smile was on her face as she placed it on the table next to the door. Her expression was so out of place, it gave Peter shivers.
“The dinner is ready boys!” she announced happily.
A hand pushed him towards the table, and he let himself be pushed for a moment. He was in a state of shock.
“Let’s eat dinner, then we will talk about your nightmare.” Tony said.
Peter stopped moving, two adults were eyeing him cautiously.
His head was just empty.
He wasn’t even blinking.
Just what the hell was going on?