Chapter 9
Wanda walked into the kitchen first as I hesitantly followed her. I saw Nat and Clint sat at the dining table mid conversation. Clint gave me a welcoming smile when he noticed me.
"Where's Peter?" Wanda asked, as she was pottering about in the kitchen. It was all open plan against the dining and living areas so she had full view of Nat and Clint too.
"Oh I'm sure he's hanging around here somewhere." Clint smirked, looking over at me. Wait, no, looking behind me?
I turned around following his gaze.
"Hey!" Said a man, who was literally dangling from the ceiling, upside down. He seemed to be holding on to a fine silver string that came from a band on his wrist, and his other hand was next to his face giving a confusing upside down wave.
I let out a yelp and fell backwards landing hard on the ground behind me.
"Oh Shit. I'm sorry! Sorry. Hi, um, I'm Peter." He said, while reaching out a hand to help me up. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry!"
The first thing that struck me about him, aside from the fact he seemed to be able to defy gravity, was just how attractive he was. He wasn't overly tall, but he had the cutest messy brown hair and stunning hazel eyes. He was wearing sweats and a plain white t-shirt and I could see a mountain of muscles underneath it. 'Damn.' I thought.
"Peter!" Wanda scowled at him when I was back firmly on my feet, my cheeks must have been bright red with embarrassment. Nat and Clint were in absolute hysterics.
"I'm sorry!" He said to her, before turning back to me. "I really am."
"It's fine, I'm fine.. but, what the fuck? How did you do that?!" I asked, looking back up at the ceiling, surprised to see a lack of hoists or bars.
"I'm Spider-Man." He said, as though that should have meant something to me. As though it would answer every question I'd ever had.
"Spider-Man?!" I laughed, surely that couldn't be a real thing.
"Pete, she doesn't know who we are remember? The mind fuckery?" Nat said summing up perfectly what they had done to me in just two words. Mind Fuckery - I liked it.
"Oh yeah, right." He replied, I couldn't tell from the look on his face whether he was disappointed that I didn't know who he was or whether he was just sad for me. Maybe a little of both.
"I'm for sure going to need some flash cards or something." I said, speaking my thoughts from earlier in the day aloud. "It's nice to meet you Peter."
Wanda ushered us over to the table and handed over a huge bowl of pasta. There was salad and garlic bread too and it all smelt amazing. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until that very moment, but I also felt too awkward to eat. I was worried they'd all have just as many questions for me as I did for them. It felt unfair but I was never the sort of person who found it easy to open up, so I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable giving them my life story. And hey, it seemed as though they knew most of it anyway - even more than I did.
They seemed to sense my awkwardness as they made easy conversation with each other, without dragging me in to it. I was grateful for that. While I ate I put my new found ability into place and took a moment to concentrate on Peter. As his body began to surround itself with color I found it harder than I had previously to pin point exactly what color his aura was. Flashes of red, green, purple, yellow, blue all swirled around his silhouette. Maybe I was just too tired, but it took a couple of minutes to show. When it did I saw a bright band of green surrounding him, but with a hue of yellow at the edges. I knew the green meant I could trust him but I had absolutely no instincts on what the yellow could mean.
I must have been frowning at him while I was caught up in my practicing. I didn't even realise he had turned to face me until he leant over and whispered "Hey, what color am I?" to me.
"Does everyone in the world know about this except me?" I whispered back, exasperated.
"Na, I don't think it's hit Europe yet." He teased, with a cheeky wink. I liked him a lot already.
I smiled back at him but didn't answer his question, because I didn't know what that answer meant.
Once everyone had finished eating they decided they were going to watch a movie together, but were understanding when I excused myself back to my room. Wanda had offered to walk with me so I didn't get lost, but I'd made a mental note on my way to the kitchen of how to get back, in case anyone else came back to the compound and I felt the need to flee.
As soon as I walked into my new room, I flopped back down on the bed letting my exhaustion take over, and was asleep in seconds.
---
"Dad!" I shouted, as I woke up with a start. Even surrounded by superhero's who wanted to help and protect me, it seemed they couldn't protect me from my own nightmares. It was the same dream that I had for the last week. Mystery man, who I now knew as Bucky was still there. I didn't know how I'd ever be able to get him to leave my mind. He wasn't even delivering a message any more. He had just stood there in the dream, staring back at me. How was I supposed to meet this man who was haunting me almost every night? How was I supposed to look him in the eyes and put my trust in him? There was a part of me that hated him - a part that felt like he was imposing on my time with my dad. Even though the nightmares with Dad had been going on for years, and they were truly terrifying, they were also the only way I could ever see him again.
As I laid there my mind wandered over what he would be like when I met him. Would he apologise for scaring me? Would I still be scared of him? I knew I was scared of the version of him that lingered in my subconscious but would that fade as I got to knew him? I wondered what his powers were, or abilities - whatever I was meant to call them. Was he born with them or did he obtain them like I did? Did he have to almost die to get them too?
I reached into my sweatpants pocket and pulled out my cell phone to check the time, 12:49am. I felt like I'd been asleep for ten minutes, not almost three hours. Just as I was about to put my cell on the bedside table and go back to sleep, it pinged letting me know I had a new SMS message. When I saw the name Bucky appear on the screen, I felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach. I froze for a moment, genuinely terrified to open the text. How did he know I was thinking about him? He could get in my mind, I couldn't be surprised if he could read my thoughts too.
Somehow, after a good few minutes, I mustered up the courage to open the text.
'Melissa? Are you ok?' It read.
I was stunned and so confused. I pulled my cell to my chest, hiding from those four little words, and tried to keep my breathing under control. How could I reply to that? Oh yeah I'm fine, it's just my dreams are chronically terrorized by you and you petrify me. That probably wouldn't sound too convincing. It pinged again and I quickly looked at it.
'I thought I heard you shout something.' He'd put.
It was only then that I realized read receipts were on so he knew I had seen his message. Damn, that meant I had to reply. My mind was racing with feasible responses I could send but I was drawing blanks. It pinged again.
'If you don't reply I'm going to have to come in there to check you're ok and I don't think you want that.' It said.
I panicked at the thought of seeing him, so quickly typed 'I'm fine. Bad dream.' and hit send. It was marked as read instantly and in no time at all he was typing again. The three dots were bouncing but then vanished.
'How did you hear me?' I asked. I needed to know if he was still in my head.
'I'm in the next room. Thin walls.' He wrote back.
I looked over at the wall to my right and then to my left. I wondered which one he meant. I had the urge to scoot over away from the walls to put as much space between us as possible, but as I didn't know which direction he was in, it was pointless. I couldn't help but move to the center of the bed and bring my knees up to my chest though.
'Do you want to talk?' My phone pinged again.
'No.' I said. I didn't. What was there to even talk about?
'If I come knock on your door right now will you let me in?' He asked.
'No.' I reiterated.
'If I go down to the living room, will you come sit with me?' He asked.
'No.' I replied again, getting increasingly agitated at his persistence. Before he had chance to ask again I sent another message.
'Why?' It was short but I was sure it got the message across. I needed to know what was going through his mind. The curiosity was getting the better of me.
'I think you know we need to talk Melissa. Living room. 5 minutes.' He wrote.
Shit! I'd done it now. If I'd just stopped replying once he knew I was okay then this wouldn't be happening. My heart was racing and I was edging on full blown panic mode. I didn't know what to do. If I went down then I would be alone with the biggest threat I could think of. If I didn't he would come to me anyway, I was sure of it. I sat silently listening for any signs of life, signs that someone was awake. I wish I knew where Wanda's room was - I'd ask her to come with me and act as an intermediate between us. I couldn't hear a thing. Maybe that was a good thing, if I screamed maybe someone would be more likely to wake up and hear me.
As I checked my phone I saw that around three minutes had passed and I sprung into action, putting on my bravery for what felt like the thousandth time today. As I got to the door I hesitated for one last time, before opening it and heading out towards the living area. With every step I took my heart would beat harder and faster. Breathing got harder to do and my eyes were filling with tears. I kept flicking between thoughts of 'it's not too late to turn back' and 'just get it over and done with, don't let him know how scared of him you are'.
As I reached the entry way to the kitchen/dining/living area I stopped. I couldn't see him. Had I got there first? The red sofas in the living room were empty and there was no-one in sight at the dining area. I glanced over to the kitchen and jumped when I saw him, his back turned to me as he filled a glass with water from the faucet. There was no turning back now.