Here to Help - Peter Parker pt. 1
Fear lodged itself in the back of your throat at the thought of him seeing you, and as you walked down the stairs into the kitchen; it just seemed to get worse. Like cleaning over the same spot multiple times or a broken record on constant replay; the dread you felt was perpetual and it had somehow made itself at home within you.
His loud snores startled you out of your thoughts and encouraged you to keep moving forward as quietly as possible. Your steps were light and as precise as could be when you successfully grabbed the bottle of water from the fridge and began making your way back to your room. It seemed as though life had different plans for what you thought would be a peaceful night when on your way out of the kitchen your elbow accidentally knocked down one of the many empty beer bottles decorating the counter. As soon as the bottle hit the floor you could hear your father's snores seize and be replaced by his thunderous steps ringing in your ears, so you knew you had to go before he figured you were the cause of his ruined nap.
Unfortunately, like earlier mentioned; the universe definitely did not have you in its list of favorites and before you could even make it to the first step, your father roughly yanked you back by your hair, causing you to fall and land on the glass shards. Tears swelled up in your eyes and stung like acid since you knew what would come next, yet nothing hurt as much as the pain of the glass fragments that sat so deep in your flesh, you wondered if you'd even be able to take it out by the time he was done.
Numb was the feeling your perceived as he pulled up his pants and buckled up his belt, yet a small part of you still held hope that at least you could eventually die peacefully and heaven would be nothing like the Hell you lived every day. Cold was how your whole body felt even as the warm water softly cascaded down all the purple and green bruises that littered your body, and as you looked at them in the mirror you realized he had gone overboard. He must've been really upset about getting woken up from that nap seeing as there were barely any spots clear of bruises and her body ached everywhere. Once you were finally in bed, you closed your eyes in hopes of dreaming of better things and so you did.
Usually, for everyone else, summer was great, yet it was no surprise that it wasn't for you seeing your daily situation. While all the other teens your age were off at the pool, or going on vacation to places you'd only dream of seeing; you were stuck at home dealing with your abusive father. Luckily, some days, most days he went to buy beer bright and early and you'd take it as a chance to get out even if just a little while. Regardless of how bad he was, you couldn't call the police, or tell anyone because he had you threatened and your biggest fear was upsetting him. Today was one of those beer run days, thanks to god, and so I slung my backpack over my shoulder and began the long walk to the tunnels. The walk was short, yet increasingly tiring under the 100-degree heat that threatened to melt you if you were a popsicle. Regardless, it felt good to finally take a breath of fresh air outside for a chance since you didn't get it very often for obvious reasons. Once the air returned to your lungs, you pulled out the spraypaint can from your backpack and began creating your piece, something you had found as a hobby early on in life. Although illegal, graffiti was your way to express yourself without actually saying anything. It was letting the art speak for you and the meaning was a lost girl who was tired of her life and begged for a way out. The art spoke louder than words ever could.
Checking the clock you realized that you were late and he would definitely be home at this time waiting to punish you for whatever he could come up with in his twisted little brain, so you began to pick up your sprays when suddenly you felt a hard pinch on your hand and looked down to find a large glowing spider. Nervously, you slapped it off your hand and quickly crawled as far away from it as possible. Your anxiety was only fueled further when it began to crawl towards you. In a rush, you looked around in search of anything that you could use to get rid of the weird creature when you finally realized you already had a weapon and pulled off your shoe to smack it. Unfortunately once again, the spider had other plans and tried to jump into your hair. Maybe it was adrenaline but you smack it as hard as you could in mid-air and continued to smack it once it was on the floor to make sure it was fully dead.
After putting your shoe back on, you didn’t even bother to check the crushed creature before grabbing your backpack and running home. On the way, you had to stop a few times due to being dizzy, but you just shrugged it off and assumed it was from your lack of food. When you finally got home, you saw your father’s car parked on the driveway and visibly shuddered. Maybe you could just sneak past him, or if you were lucky enough he’d just be sleeping or passed out like he usually was. You carefully walked in and softly closed the door behind you as to not make noise if he was awake. After all, you had definitely learned your lesson last time. When you tried to let go of the door though, it seemed to stick to your hand. Even after trying to shake it off multiple times, it didn’t work. Finally getting frustrated, you shook your hand roughly for the last time, but to no avail, it didn’t come off. What it did though was open and slam closed, causing the sound to reverberate throughout the house. Fear and surprise quickly flashed in your eyes when you heard the familiar steps of your father which caused you to desperately attempt to unstick your hand.
Your father called your name loudly in a drunken slur as he walked towards you from the living room. Why did bad things always seem to happen to you? It’s like it wasn’t enough that you already had a horrible life. Your father griped your hair in a handful and yanked you back harshly, which caused you to fall on your knees since your hand was still stuck to the door. “ What the hell are you tryna play at huh?, do you want me to lock you up in the basement! “ He raised his hand as if to hit you and you flinched, closing your eyes to prepare yourself for the blow. Yet, it never came. When you opened your eyes to see what had happened , your father was several feet away stuck against the kitchen wall. You looked down and noticed your hand was free, but a you felt weird. Slowly approaching your struggling father, you realized he was covered in webs? “What the hell did you do to me?! Let me out now or I swear you’ll be sorry“ You nervously flinched back at the sound of his voice and grabbed your backpack as you slowly walked backwards towards the door. “ Don’t you dare leave me here you useless bitch! You’re the cause of this, now come fix it or else I’m really leaving you in the basement tonight! “ The mention of that dreaded place made a cold shiver run down your back and you began to tremble.
No, not now. Please not now. You felt like your lungs were being squeezed together as you attempted to avoid the clear panic attack you were having. Tears started streaming down your face, leaving your eyes puffy and red. Your hands began to tremble violently as your father uttered more cruel threats, each one more destructive then the last one. Suddenly filled with fear, your hand darted up as if controlled by someone or something and white web shot out of your wrist and over your father’s face, successfully quieting him. After all adrenaline had gone, fear took its place as you realized your father no longer struggled, but instead went limp. You couldn’t look at the scene any longer, you couldn’t think, you couldn’t breathe, so you did the only thing you could and ran out the front door. Chest heaving up and down, both from exhaustion, adrenaline, and fear of the unknown; you stood with your back to a dirty alley wall. Which one, you didn’t know, nor did you care but you were grateful to be out of that house. It was a dark street and an even darker alley, so you figured no one would find you here and as you slid down the wall and hugged your knees to your chest, you knew you wouldn’t be able to think until tomorrow. The pounding headache was enough to keep you still for a while until you heard footsteps nearby. This caused you to finally pick up your head and open your eyes, forcing them to get re-accustomed to whatever little light there was. Still being a little blurry, you saw the silhouette of a man begin to step closer. “ We’ll what do we have here?, a pretty little doll to play with boys “
Suddenly there were three, four, five, and six silhouettes beginning to surround you as you backed up to the wall and you thought you’d die here for sure. Finally against the wall with no way to escape and the creepy men enclosing you, you wished on any lucky star that you’d make it just through this night. Miserably, it didn’t seem to be working as one of the men stepped forward and began caressing your cheek and slurring words that caused an acidic vile to rise in in your throat. But before anything could happen, the man was yanked back by some invisible force and along followed the others. All you were able to see was a blue and red blur and as black dots began to cloud your vision and your started to feel lightheaded, you only wished that whoever or whatever it was would spare you.