Chapter Text
Fifteen year old Peter Parker sighed quietly to himself as he finished shoving the books from his locker and into his backpack while the dismissal bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Finally, His entire day had been excruciatingly long and tiresome and he was just relieved that it was finally over. Thank God it’s Friday, he thought to himself wryly. Peter had desperately wanted to call out sick but his Aunt May had forced him to come, saying that Ben would’ve wanted him to continue with his education, even if he wasn’t there anymore. Peter felt the familiar feeling of pain coming from deep within the depths of his heart and soul, the heavy weight of the emotion causing his hands to slightly tremble along with the history book that he held in his hands. The amount of grief that he suffered from such a profound and magnanimous loss had remained with him ever since he had looked into Ben’s lifeless eyes and held his prone body close to his own. Blinking his eyes rapidly, Peter shoved the book into his bag, slammed the door to his locker shut, and bobbed and weaved his way through the gigantic crowd of students standing in the hallways until he was finally outside in the freezing cold, near the side of his Aunt May’s cheap blue car at the front of the building.
“Hey honey,” She greeted him cheerfully, her big brown doe eyes crinkling as she smiled up at him while he slid into the car. “How was your day?”
“It was awful May,” Peter grimaced dramatically, buckling the black seat belt. “Ned was sick so he wasn't at school and the teachers kept piling on the homework so I have a bunch of stuff to do this weekend.”
As hard as May tried, the smile on her face was still unable to hide the dark bags that were glaringly apparent from underneath her eyes, evidence of several sleepless nights spent crying. May was exhausted, Peter knew, and just as mentally drained as him. This wasn't unusual considering the fact that she had just lost the love of her life to unknown circumstances and she still did not know why. Unable to discover the reasoning behind why her soulmate was gone. The man that she was supposed to both grow old with and die with.
“You know what that day sounds like it was? It sounds like it was absolute shit kiddo,” May stated, playfully reaching across the seat and roughly tussling his hair, causing Peter to groan loudly and go back to staring distractedly out the window as they drove out of Midtown High School and into the busy Queens intersection.
“So, I have been thinking for a while now,” She began, after honking her horn several times at a driver who had randomly slammed on his brakes so that he could light a cigarette. "That I am going to take the head nurse position at the hospital. I mean it makes sense right, we need the money and the apartment isn’t getting any cheaper.”
“That’s great May,” Peter replied, trying to work enthusiasm into his tone for her sake. “I know that you’ve been working really, really hard. So it’s awesome that you’ve finally gotten that promotion.”
“I think so too,” May positively beamed. “It might mean that I’ll be away from home for longer periods of time though. It’s a heavy position that’s going to require me to work a lot of hours.”
“I don’t want you to always have to worry about me May,” Peter said pointedly looking at her now. “You’ve done more than enough for me anyways. More than I could ever repay you for.”
“I’ll always worry about you Peter, and we’re family so you never ever have to repay me,” May said firmly, but her facial expression instantly turned silly after she paused for a quick moment. “I’ll always larb you no matter what happens.”
“I larb you too May.”
After stopping at their favorite Thai restaurant for a quick supper, they finally arrived at the apartment. By that point in time, the night had quickly arrived, despite it only being six o’clock, with thousands of twinkling lights deeply interwoven within the incessant inky sky, a frost had settled in the air promising snow to wake up to in the morning. As soon as Peter entered the apartment he bid his Aunt a goodnight stating that he wanted to get a jump start on his homework. Sitting down on the hard wooden chair in front of his desk, he settled his books down and turned on the desk’s lamp, illuminating his room in a soft yellow glow. About twenty minutes in, and completely immersed in his biology textbook Peter’s phone buzzed illuminating the cracked screen. He looked up and saw that it was a text from Ned.
Ned: Hey… Michelle is saying that she wants to hang out tonight
Peter: Did she say what we're going to be doing?
Peter: Also ru feeling better?
Ned: Yeah a lot. think that I just needed to sleep
Ned: She said something about watching a scary movie
Swiftly, standing up from his desk, Peter exited his room and softly knocked on his Aunt’s door.
“Come in,” Aunt May groaned.
“Hey May,” He whispered softly, seeing from her bleary expression that she had been lightly dozing off. “Would it be cool if I went over to Michelle’s house to hang out with her and Ned?”
“Sure,” May grumbled, closing her eyes. “Take the car, the keys are in the front plant and be back before one.”
Closing the door to her room gently, Peter took out his phone and responded to Ned.
Peter: be there shortly
Ned: Awesome!
Michelle’s house was right near the abandoned cathedral that had been there for as long as he could remember. The city refused to abolish the building due to it being considered historical. Parking the car, he knocked on Michelle’s door and was greeted by the familiar sullen expression on her face. Her curly hair was tied up into a bun, and her caramel skin seemed to glow in the light beaming from the hanging porch light on the side of her house’s door.
“What’s up loser?” She asked him, raising an elegant brown eyebrow. “Ned’s already here.”
Making a circular motion with her hands, she gestured for Peter to come in. Peter did so gladly, and Michelle closed the door behind him. At the sound of footsteps pounding on the hardwood floor and racing towards them both of them turned simultaneously and saw Ned racing towards them at an almost uncanny speed. Wrapping his hands around Peter’s arm, Ned seemed to impersonate a large golden retriever, as his eyes squinted and he started talking quickly and excitedly.
“How was school? Did Mr. Bruner give us homework? Can I borrow your notes? How have you been?” Ned fired off question after question at an inhumane speed.
“Alright jesus fucking christ chill Ned,” Michelle interupted. “Give the boy room to breathe. He looks like he might be constipated.”
At this, Peter sputtered indignantly, as his face reddened. “I do not,” He huffed. “So what movie do you guys want to watch?”
“Well,” Michelle looked a little sheepish. “We already watched the movie. But we had an idea. It’s a little stupid.”
“Oh god,” Peter began, realizing that the last time that both of his friends had come up with a stupid plan, it had ended with them spending the night inside of a box on the side of a street corner.
“We want to perform a satanic ritual!” Ned exclaimed.
“What?!” To say that Peter was confused would be a severe understatement. “Why?”
“It just seems like it would be fun,” Michelle said in her usual monotone voice. “Also it’s always been a dream of mine to do. Plus my grandmother has a shit ton of old books that were from the church next door. They look fucking spooky, but it definitely won’t work, because everyone knows that these things are a fucking scam.”
“We don’t have anything better to do,” Ned added. “Besides, everyone knows that these things are a scam. Also we already went out and bought all of the things that we need to perform it. You wouldn’t want us to have wasted a good majority of our money for nothing? Now would you Peter? Not when all we want to do is try and conjure a friendly demon from hell, and fail miserably.”
Peter wanted to argue that both he and Michelle could always simply just return the materials but Ned sensed this and quickly acted by giving Peter his very best puppy eyes, until Peter could take no more and finally threw his hands in the air in a surrendering motion.
“Fine,” Peter relented. “Fine. This is just fine. We can do the goddamn satanic ritual if that is going to make you truly happy. Where is this book anyways?”
Michelle shuffled down the hallway and opened the pantry, gathering the book into her hands and closed the door while also retrieving her bag hanging from the top of the coat rack. She quickly got back to where Peter and Ned were standing. Peter snuck a glance at the books title, શેતાન અને તેના વિરોધી ખ્રિસ્તને કેવી રીતે બોલાવવું. On the cover there was a picture of a man with curly brown hair, brown eyes, and two protruding horns coming from the top of his head. Peter narrowed his eyes, hesitation burning in his soul, without the horns he could’ve sworn that the man looked familiar. Shaking his head discreetly, Peter inwardly scoffed at his foolishness, and looked at his friends who were currently arguing over the best pizza toppings.
“How are we going to read this?” Peter wondered aloud. “I don’t even know what language this is.”
“If you open the book there is a pronunciation guide demonstrating how to say the words.” Michelle explained to him, opening it and showing him what she meant.
“I think that we should leave now and just get this over with,” Peter said.
“Yeah,” Ned nodded his head. “I agree. This way we can come back and hang out some more.”
“Alright,” Michelle relented. “Follow me assholes.”
Michelle led them out of the house and into the frigid cold outside. Shivering, the group of friends made their way into the church building. The church’s door opened without any difficulty or extreme physical exertion, and the group quickly found themselves standing in the church’s dusty sanctuary. Michelle took the items out of her backpack and settled them on the ground. Opening the box of chalk she drew a circle and put fifteen stars into the center of it. Placing candles on each of the stars she handed the box of matches to Ned and asked him to light them. Once everything was completed she handed the book to Ned and told him to stand in the middle of the circle and read it, while both she and Peter stood on the outside of the circle.
“I cannot believe that we are doing this,” Peter muttered under his breath.
“I know right,” Michelle said. “This is so cool.”
Ned did as he was instructed and stood in the middle of the circle, inhaling before he began to chant. “Amē śētānanē bōlāvī'ē chī'ē anē tēnē pr̥thvī para āvakārī'ē chī'ē. Amē śētānanē bōlāvī'ē chī'ē anē tēnē pr̥thvī para āvakārī'ē chī'ē.Amē śētānanē bōlāvī'ē chī'ē anē tēnē pr̥thvī para āvakārī'ē chī'ē.Amē śētānanē bōlāvī'ē chī'ē anē tēnē pr̥thvī para āvakārī'ē chī'ē.Amē śētānanē bōlāvī'ē chī'ē anē tēnē pr̥thvī para āvakārī'ē chī'ē.”
Nothing happened. Both Ned and Michelle’s faces fell, and disappointment set into the air. “Hahaha,” Peter laughed. “Nothing happened.”
At this both Ned and Michelle started cackling as well, falling to the dusty floor.
“Let’s go back to my house,” Michelle said through her laughter.
Exciting the church, Peter felt a strange feeling of trepidation mixing in his heart. Brushing it off as nerves he continued to walk along the sidewalk with his friends who were still talking about what had just happened. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He took it out.
May: Peter don’t come home not safe
May: I love you
Peter: May?! What’s wrong
Peter: May I’m coming home ru in danger do I need to call the police?
Explaining the situation to his friends, Peter raced down the sidewalk, unlocked his car, and drove frantically back to the apartment. As Peter ran up the steps of the apartment building two steps at a time, he couldn’t help but get the sense that something was very, very off. Something was incredibly wrong. It was how Peter had felt the entire night before Ben had died, something in his gut telling him that something terrible and horrific was going to happen.
“May,” Peter shouted from the top of the steps, at the top of his lungs, frantically unlocking the door with the key that he always carried with him in his phone case. “I’m home! I’m here. What’s wrong? Did something happen? Are you okay? Who has you?!”
Peter’s heart seemed to stop for a second as May didn’t reply, despite his increasingly frantic shouts of her name. He noticed both her phone and her purse sitting right on top of the table where she always kept them. Racing from room to room, May was still nowhere to be found. Maybe an emergency came up at work and she had just forgotten to tell him? But that seemed highly unlikely to Peter, May would have never left without taking both her phone and her purse, no matter how rushed she might’ve been. Also, he had the car, so she definitely couldn’t have left…Where was she?