𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

epilogue

epilogue
invisible string

     SOMEWHERE, far away, close, and everywhere at once, existed a universe where the Amazing Spider-Man finally returned home. Home home. He didn't return to his apartment where he was alone in one room and struggling to pay his rent. Peter Parker returned to where everything began. A suburban, two-story house in Forest Hills, Queens, where his Aunt May greeted him with open arms and a nice, warm hug. 

    "Where have you been?" she had chided him when she pulled away and let him step in through the door. "I have been trying to call you all day, I thought something had happened! Don't scare me like that, Peter."

    "I'm sorry, Aunt May, I know," he murmured, rubbing her shoulder. He hated to fret and worry his aunt. "I'm sorry. I just ... I had a few things to do and I lost track of time."

    She gave him a stern look, but it soon softened and she cupped his cheeks. "You're as bad as Ben was, I swear."

    Peter chuckled and kissed his aunt's forehead. After all he's been through and seen the past day, Peter Parker wanted to cherish his Aunt May. He wanted to be hugged by her, and hear her chiding, fretful words or feel her sweet kisses on his head▬because somewhere, out there, existed a Spider-Man who will never experience any of that ever again. 

    That was when he noticed the boxes on the dining table. Peter felt a lump in his throat and he stepped towards them, his heart skipping a painful beat. "Is all that ... Uncle Ben's?"

    Aunt May pursed her lips, and she sighed. She took off her glasses. "You know," she admitted softly, "it's so funny, I've been▬I've been trying to clean up around here, get organised and been putting some of Ben's stuff in boxes and ..." she rested her hand on the edge of the box, her fingers brushing along the jumper inside. "It's ... it's funny, the heavier the box gets, the lighter I feel."

    Peter stared at her, pained. "You throwing his stuff away?"

    "No," she whispered, shaking her head. "No, God no..." she took a deep breath as she looked at her late husband's things. "I couldn't do that. It's ... it's part of me. I'm just ... finding a better place for it." Peter's gaze fell, his heart twisting. "I'm gonna take one last look and I'm gonna put it where it belongs."

    His Aunt May looked at him, and he realised what she was telling him▬the advice she was giving him. Peter glanced at his phone in his hand, at the photo of the girl he lost tho looked so very much like the girl he saved across the universe. That lump returned. Out there, existed a Nina Hart who got a second chance, even if his didn't▬Peter Parker had given her that. He had helped give every other Nina Hart out there who was yet to die a chance to finally live. 

    Before he knew it, his feet slowly began to carry him upstairs. They walked across the wooden floors towards his old bedroom. Peter Parker pushed the door open, and it creaked slightly. Inside, was a life frozen in time▬half empty, and half full; the room of a teenage boy whose entire life changed the moment he got bitten by that spider. And how his entire life fell apart when he lost two people who mattered so much to him since then. Peter closed the door behind him and walked up to his old desk, the surface still messy with old photos. The wall above it was still filled with more▬pictures pinned amongst little memos he wanted to keep close forever. 

    Peter Parker picked one of the photos up and stared at Nina Hart's smile. 

    He kept his gaze on it for a long time before setting it aside and finding something else amongst the pile. Peter's tongue went dry as his fingers grasped a small drive. Tape had been wrapped around it with words scrawled in a blue ballpoint pen▬handwriting from a girl who for a moment, had risen from the dead. My speech! xx.