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The ground was so far away.
Peter sat at the top of a skyscraper – he had taken the lift this time – and watched the cars move along at a steady pace, like a hoard of ants, the occasional flash of sirens flickering bright blue and red.
Everyone in each of the cars must have someone to care about them, they were all going somewhere, they all had lives waiting for them when they stepped out of the car, they had people waiting for them too.
He recalled the feeling of falling through the air, free and untethered, before pulling himself safely away from the ground at the last last second. His mind then strayed to the last time he had taken a freefall and it all came rushing back.
Her scream echoed through the dank walls of the tower, heavy metal cogs narrowly missing her as they fell together. Something strained painfully in his knee as he pushed off of the metal support behind him as hard as he could, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.
Her blonde hair fluttered around her face which held her beautiful ice blue eyes which now shone with fear. He remembered how mere hours ago those eyes had gazed longingly into his as they stood together, embraced in each other's arms – so safe, so warm, promising each other a happy eternity – and he knew he couldn’t live without her.
His fingers splayed as he reached out desperately for her outstretched hand. The ground was rushing up to meet them and he couldn’t bear to think what would happen if he didn’t reach her in time.
A white feathery string shot out from his wrist and snaked towards her. It wasn’t going to reach her in time, he couldn’t save her. He caught his hand on a protruding bar and grasped on.
Like time had stopped entirely, he watched as, at the same time the web embraced her, her body cracked sickeningly against the tower floor.
No. It couldn’t be true.
After carefully securing the web to the bar, he gently descended to the floor, tearing his mask off of his face for it must be the reason he couldn’t see clearly enough to see her chest rise and fall as it did in sleep.
The mask fell to the floor and so did Peter. He swept the web away from her and his gloved hands gently ghosted her face.
“Gwen?”
No response.
More desperately, “Gwen!?”
He patted her face, because there was no way she was gone – she was perfectly fine, all she needed to do was wake up.
He called for her again and in response a red trickle made its way from her nose.
He called for her again and again and soon his yells turned into sobs which rose up the tower and into the sky, but no one would hear them – no one would hear how he wailed for her.
His vision seemed to tunnel to the street below.
There was no reason for him to be here.
One hand slipped from the wall, then another, until his shoe clad feet were all that were holding him up.
His one remaining web cuff still clung feebly to his wrist – he doubted it would save him if he changed his mind at the last second.
Closing his eyes and exhaling deeply what would be one of his last breaths, he pushed off the wall.
He muttered a small apology to his Aunt May under his breath, but all he could really think about was being with Gwen.
His mind briefly flicked to that morning when he’d kissed his Aunt goodbye as he walked out of the door. She’d said something to him. What had it been? Oh yes.
“Do remember to get my favourite crackers on your way back please? I’ve just run out and it is quite a long way for me to go get them now.”
“I will, Aunt May, I promise,” he’d said. “See you later,” he’d said.
He thought back to when Uncle Ben had died and how devastated they had both been, how much of a toll it had had on her. If the lost him, the next thing she’d lose would be herself.
He couldn’t do that to her. All of a sudden, he didn’t want to die anymore, because he still had one thing to live for – Aunt May.
His wrist whipped out all of a sudden, the web latching onto a building to his side – muscle memory did the rest.
He was whisked out of the ground’s reach. He knew from there it would just be one step at a time.
His next step? Buy crackers.