Chapter 3
He woke up with a start,
A sharp stabbing pain in the back of his neck.
It almost felt like his spider-sense, but it was far more painful.He let out a tired groan as he sat up, rubbing at his eyes to get rid of the blur that coated his vision, and strangely enough, he noted, there was still that same ring of green surrounding it.
“Stupid …” he started before trailing off,
It was strange but he’d just completely forgotten what he was going to complain about, He shrugged it off as he stood, cracking his back before finally looking around again,
Seeing that the place be had chosen to sleep looked just as unstable as before he let out a short chuckle.
He didn’t understand why exactly he was being so much more cynical lately,
I mean- don’t get him wrong he was sad as fuck, And he’d gone through a lot, but he’d always gone through a lot. He’d also tried to kill himself, But he was choosing to ignore that for the sake of his rapidly decreasing mental well being.
He let out a short hum of understanding
“Maybe you just start acting like this when you turn 18”he thought for a second before recoiling “oh my god! Am I going through an emo faze?- aunt may did say it would happen eventually..”
Wait, he was getting distracted-
Pain in his neck,Literally, not just from being somewhere he didn’t know existed and waking up in a pool of green goo. And ew-
Okay, so there’s been a few concerning things he’s ignored-
He needs to stop getting off track,
The pain was still in the back of his neck, and it felt too similar to his spider-sense to be anything else- But jesus it hurts!
He didn’t know what happened for it to feel like this much- but he wanted it to stop really badly. He began looking around again, warily sneaking a peak out of the barely boarded up window. And wow! His spider-sense flared up once again, forcing Peter to grip at the back of his neck.
He leaned against the window sill for a few seconds, He wasn’t sure what exactly was so dangerous that just looking outside screamed danger to his spider-sense
‘Maybe it was in the air?’ He thought to himself, before breaking out into a broken up spiral of broken mumbling about the possibilities of poisonous toxins or gas in the air.
He let out a breath, ‘Okay, deal with that later- I can protect myself if I really need to it’s fine-‘
He paused his trail of thought
‘Wait, would poisonous gas even effect me? Or is my healing factor enough to fight off the effects…” Hm. He saved that thought for later,
He can deal with whatever’s going on with his spider-sense another time, He was suddenly hit with the absolute disgust he felt.
He let out a shiver as he noticed the mud and grime that still coated him,It was a sensory nightmare.
Right, Clothes- And a shower preferably,
He looked out the window once again, his neck bursting with pain that he chose to ignore.
It was light outside right now, which would make it a lot harder to get around without being noticed,But he desperately needed a wash, and to change.
His eyes darted across the alleyway below the building he currently inhabited, He thought it over.He looked down at himself, trying to get an idea of how bad he looked.His clothes were covered in dirt- obviously, And they were wrinkled beyond all reason, But shockingly enough, his clothes weren’t torn or covered in his blood.
Which considering his earlier death didn’t make much sense to him- But that’s fine- better for him. His shoes still seemed to be intact, So overall it wasn’t too bad- Well, he couldn’t see his face or hair, But it’ll just have to do he supposes.
He looked down at the alleyway once again, and careful to make sure no one was watching, he silently slipped out, latching on to the wall and quickly skittering down.
Once he was almost to the bottom he jumped down the rest of the way and hastily wiped himself off.He peaked out of the alleyway, and clenched his teeth as his spider-sense seemed to get more intense,
However there didn’t actually seem to be all to many people out, And most who were actually seemed to be in similar states to him!
Peter knew he shouldn’t be so happy about that, And should definitely question his morals at a later date. But honestly he just didn’t care all too much at the moment.He hesitantly took a step out from where he was stood,
He started walking again, paying more attention to his surroundings than he did the day prior,
The place was overall just really crummy he concluded. That didn’t really matter too much to him though, it’s not like he planned on staying long-term, His plan of action was to first, find some new clothes
(He wasn’t entirely sure how as he had no money-) And get washed up.
He kept an eye out for any washing lines that might have been out in the open, his eyes darting back and forth between buildings
He hadn’t seen any thus far, but he figured the longer he walked the more likely he was to find one eventually. And as if someone had heard his thoughts, the next building he passed by had a clothes line running from across their window to the wall in front of it.
Peter looked around once again, Making sure no one would spot him, And once he was happy enough that he wouldn’t be seen, he darted to the in between of the two buildings,
He placed one hand on the concrete and slowly made his way up, Once close enough to the clothing line, he inspected the clothes, trying to see if any would fit him.
Most of them seemed to be for children, however there was a pair of baggy jeans that looked at if they would fit him well enough,Inspecting the shirts up on the line, he figured that none of them would fit him all too well, he did need a shirt though.
Looking at the shirts hung up he quickly grabbed the biggest one he could find and skittered down the wall once again.
He noticed a dumpster not to far from where he ended up stranded and hastily ran to hide behind it as he changed, He quickly took off his own clothes before folding them up neatly- he’d wash them eventually, and taking a look at the clothes he’d snagged, he knew he would need them.
He slipped the jeans on, they were a bit tight at the waist, and he needed to roll the bottom of them a few times, but they otherwise fit alright, Then came the shirt,
It was a bit of a strange design with a red S on the front and it was definitely too small for him but he pulled it on anyways.
He could tell it looked silly just looking down at himself.
It was way to tight at the neck, and the shirt looked more like a crop top,
Even though it definitely wasn’t preferable, it was what he had, he’d just have to try and find a laundry matt and stuff the clothes he was wearing before in with someone else’s.
He let out a sigh before picking up his dirtied clothes and walking back out, His next step was to find somewhere to wash up,
He could try and find a gym and sneak in-
But he also had absolutely no clue as to where he was.
‘Maybe try and find a map?’ He thought to himself before letting out an annoyed grunt
Where was he going to find a map??
He stood silently for a moment, going over his options, He could try and find somewhere that had a computer?
The only place that came to mind was a library, but again- he had no clue where he was. And therefore no clue how to get to a library, He dropped into a crouch, burying his head in his hands. What was he going to do?
He sighed, Honestly he didn’t even know why exactly he was trying-
He could just go and kill himself again and get it all over with-
No!
He mentally slapped himself, He was brought back, who’s to say he would just get brought back again? It would just be a wast of time-
And painful. He wouldn’t do it himself-
Maybe as spider-man… He was getting ahead of himself.
If he died naturally then fine- great even!
But he wasn’t going to do it himself this time.
He’d let it happen. He abruptly stood back up with a new found determination,
Right
Finding a library, it shouldn’t be too hard-
He’d just ask some people!
He began walking again and saw an old lady wearing a ratty looking coat and went up to her “excuse me!” He said, before getting waved off
He felt a pang of irritation, and the green coating his vision seemed to turn a more toxic shade.He took in a deep breath to calm down before walking up to a man who seemed to be in his mid 40’s
“Excuse me! Sir!” He paused before scowling at him
“What d’ya want kid-“ he drawled. He sent him and apologetic smile
“Sorry to interrupt your walk- would you happen to know where a library is?” He asked in an overly polite tone
The man clicked his tongue at him and Peter hat to resist the urge to throw a punch
“Not far fr’m here just keep walkin’ straight till ya get to the big gates then take a left n keep walkin’ you’ll see it.”
He replied before walking away before Peter could thank him. He sucked in a breath before plastering a smile back on his face and following the man’s directions,He started walking and kept walking till he saw the big clunky gates that man mention, his nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell beyond the gates and noted that it was a cemetery,
He took the left and began looking around, trying to find the library before he heard a high pitch whistle that seemed to be directed at him
“Heya baby! Looking for business!” An older man yelled at him, laughing with the large group he was with. Peter swiftly ignored the group, continuing to try and find the library
“Oy don’t ignore me! Y’know I can show you a good time sugar!” The man carried on in a slurred voice.
Peter clenched his teeth before visibly brightening up when he saw a building with the words ‘GOTHAM CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY’ plastered on front with fancy lettering.
He ignored the jabs and comments the group of men where shouting his way as he made his way into the library.
The first thing he noticed were the old looking computers, And sheesh- Were these guys living in the 80’s or something?Even the shitty libraries back home had better computers
He sighed, deciding that it really didn’t matter that much as he went up to the desk to ask the login for one of the computers.
As he stood behind the desk, a kind looking woman with ginger hair rolled over on a wheel chair,
She sent him a kind smile before speaking
“Hello, I’m Barbara, what can I help you with?”