Forgive Me

New York looked different yet familiar. It still was his city, but it changed. The neighbourhood of his father’s house looked more modern. It felt like Harry was walking through future New York. But before he tried to find Peter, he needed to know what happened to his father here. So, he decided to visit OSCORP.

Harry was standing in front of the building that was so familiar to him and stared at the letters on the wall. “Tesla” was written on it. What the hell was a Tesla? What happened to his company? What happened to his father? What happened to himself?

“Hey! What are you doing here, kiddo?” A security man approached Harry.

“What happened to my company?”, Harry asked, still staring at the letters.

The man laughed. “Are you even old enough to drink?”

“I’m not drunk.”

“Sure, kiddo. You better leave now before I call the cops.”

“But this building is mine. It’s my father’s legacy and you have no right to disgrace it like that!”, Harry shouted. He was furious. Disappointed. What did he even expect to find?

The security man grabbed Harry’s shoulders. “I’m serious. Leave. Now. Or I’ll get you into trouble that’s so big that you’ll never get out.”

So, Harry left. OSCORP had to be somewhere in this goddamn city!

“Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me how to get to OSCORP, please?”, Harry politely asked a man who passed.

“What’s OSCORP?”

“My company.”

“Shouldn’t you know where it is, then?” The man let Harry stand on the pavement.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but do you know Norman Osborn?”, Harry tried asking another pedestrian.

“No, sorry, no idea who that is.”

“Could you tell me the way to OSCORP, please?”

“I’ve never heard of that company in my life so I can’t help you. But you can try to ask another person.” The woman left as well.

Harry followed her advice and asked a few more people but he got the same answer every time. Nobody knew his father. Nobody knew OSCORP. His family didn’t exist in this New York.

Dozens of people passed him while he was standing in the middle of the pavement, fighting the urge to cry. He was alone in a world that he halfway knew but the world didn’t know him.

Harry had never felt so lost in his entire life. Not even after his father’s death. Harry desperately tried to prevent it, but a tear rolled down his cheek.

He didn’t belong here.

What if he would never be able to return to his real home? Maybe a restart would be good for him. No past, just the future. No demons and ghosts following and possessing him. No Norman, no OSCORP, no Peter.

Peter.

What if he has to die because Harry wasn’t there to help him? What if MJ has to die? She didn’t harm him. She didn’t deserve to die because of his stubbornness. No, he couldn’t let that happen. He needed to find Aunt May.

Harry freed himself from his paralysis and started to look for F.E.A.S.T.

With the help of some people Harry found his way to F.E.A.S.T. It was a plain looking building. Was it the right building? But a small board in front of the entrance said in colourful letters: “Welcome to F.E.A.S.T.” So, Harry took a deep breath and entered the building.

Harry found himself standing in a big hall. There were round tables everywhere and most of the tables had people sitting there and eating. From the way the people looked at the meal, Harry knew they couldn’t afford it themselves. They found help in the form of May Parker. A thing he had in common with them. May gave him a home too. It gave his heart a stab as the memory overcame him.

Harry desperately tried to tidy his hair and adjusted his clothes while Peter giggled. “Harry, relax. It’s just my aunt.”

“Oh yeah, just your aunt. What if she will kill me because I’m not good enough for you?”

“You are good enough for me.” Peter took Harry’s hand and intertwined their fingers. “And she knows it. You have nothing to worry about. She’ll love you. Ready?”

“No.” But Harry took a deep breath and indicated Peter to open the door.

“Aunt May, we’re here”, Peter called and closed the door behind Harry. The smell of freshly baked cake was in the air.

Harry’s pulse probably reached a dangerously high rate as the older woman entered the living room. He took a deep breath and tried to prepare for a rejection, but she approached him with a smile and cupped his face with her hands. “You must be Harry.” It wasn’t a question but he nodded slightly. Then she hugged him tightly. “Welcome to our family, my dear.”

Peter nodded as if to verify what his aunt had just said. Harry smiled and his eyes filled with tears as he returned the hug. He had never felt so accepted and loved before.

A female voice brought him back to reality. “Sir? Are you okay?”

Harry quickly wiped over his eyes that had filled with tears. “Yeah, I’m fine. I, uhm, need help though.”

“How can we help you?”, the employee asked.

“I need to talk to May Parker.”

She nodded. “Alright, follow me.”

They went through the ‘staff only’ section, past the kitchen to May’s office. The employee knocked but there was no response. She wanted to open the door, but the door was locked. Another employee passed the corridor. “Bobby, have you seen May?”

“She left with Peter and the confused older man, Doctor Aceborn or something like that.”

“Osborn”, Harry corrected. His father was here. He had to find him. “Do you know where they wanted to go?”

Bobby shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, sir.”

Harry sighed in frustration. He didn’t make a step forward. He rather made a step backwards because he didn’t know where to go now. “Does anyone of you know where I could find them?”

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid you’ll have to come back tomorrow”, the woman said.

“But tomorrow’s too late!”

“Then I don’t think we can help you.”

“Thank you for your effort”, Harry said and left.

After having walked some blocks away, Harry sat down on a bench. He didn’t know where to go. At least his father was here, and he was safe. He was probably only thinking of his company. Did his father already know that OSCORP didn’t exist here? Harry chuckled a bit as he imagined his father standing in front of Tesla. He’d make the lives of the people working there a living hell. Harry’s smile faded. He had to do something. But what?

A familiar voice jolted him out of his thoughts. “Spider-Man is a menace!” Harry looked up to see J. Jonah Jameson’s face on a big screen. He was reading the news. He had lost most of his hair but apart from that, he wasn’t different to the Jameson he knew. The Daily Bugle now changed from a newspaper to a TV-channel but that didn’t really surprise Harry.

Maybe Jameson could help Harry find Peter and his father. Jameson hated Spider-Man and he wanted nothing more than humiliating him in public. So, he’d know how to find him, right? At least Harry had a plan now. That was a lot better than desperately sitting on a bench.

Harry pulled the glider out of the backpack Martha gave him and flew above the people and houses of New York. Flying with the glider was a lot faster than walking and he didn’t want to waste a second. Maybe MJ’s and Peter’s lives depended on it.

To Harry’s surprise, The Daily Bugle was at the same place where it was in his New York. Of course, it was digitalised and looked way more modern than the building he knew.

As Harry reached the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson himself stormed out of the Bugle. “We’ve found Parker”, he told some of his employees before climbing into a van used by television reporters.

Harry hid behind some trash cans and watched him driving away. As the employees were gone, he grabbed his glider and followed Jameson through the streets of New York.

Jameson was heading to a huge white house which looked like a single apartment would cost more than most people could afford in their whole lives. But before Harry could identify what was going on, there was a big explosion. He watched a dark silhouette on a glider similar to his own fly away.

His father.

After the smoke and dust had somewhat disappeared, Harry approached the crime scene. There were little fires everywhere. Harry found the Peter of this universe kneeling beside a woman. “Somebody help me! We need an ambulance!”, Peter cried.

“I’ll help you!”, Harry yelled and wanted to run to them, but the police aimed their weapons at Peter and shot. Harry couldn’t run through the gunfire without being killed so he had to stay in the shadows.

Peter climbed up the walls and swung away, leaving behind an angry police and a dead woman in her thirties whom the police officers identified as May Parker. Harry wanted to vomit as the realisation hit him.

His father had killed May.