twenty-eight
The hallways inside were as dark as the alleys outside. All of the lights seemingly broken, every word seemingly suspended in the air above their heads. It was quiet. Still. The air felt crisp and cold, despite the insulation in the building. There was a creeping thought that somehow, someone was watching. Hairs rose and nerves were rattled. Surrounding everything was the unnerving thought that though nothing could be seen, someone else was in the room as well.
It was an unshakable feeling. The intense paranoia of being followed made it harder and harder to breathe with every moment spent cowering in the shadows. Somehow some parts of the hallway were even darker than the rest, and somewhere in Peter's mind, he wondered if he was the only thing lurking in these shadows.
He wondered where everyone else had gone. Surely he was just standing with them... Wasn't he? Where was he really? Was this real? And more importantly, what the hell just touched his shoulder?
He whipped around but saw nothing in the darkness. He needed to get to his room for his suit, and quickly... He'd be able to see better, and maybe it'd give him some clarity.
He couldn't see very far in the darkness, and keeping a hand out in front of him did nothing to help his cause. He could not see his hand, to begin with, but he knew these halls. There was nothing in front of him to collide with, and if there was... it wasn't meant to be there. These halls were vast and empty in both directions. He thought. Could he have been wrong? He had to be dreaming, there was no way the walls were narrowing the farther he went.
He turned to go back the way he came, but he collided with a wall that he knew wasn't there a second ago. Or maybe it had been... There was no way of telling where he was in the compound right now, and it was terrifying. His silent steps made it easy for him to hear something scuffling not far off, but it never came closer than a few feet. It seemed like it was inspecting him rather than trying to take any kind of action against him. Whatever it was, Peter hoped that turning the lights on would make it go away.
On every wall he came to there was no light switch to be found and the darkness continued to consume him. He saw something dart across the hallway not far in front of him. A sweeping mass of uncertainty lingered around him as he went. He knew that whatever was following him could not be stopped. It could be slowed down at the least, with webs, but he still didn't have his suit.
The longer he went on, the more anxious he became, wondering if he'd ever find his bedroom. Suddenly, the idea struck him, and as bad as it was it was the only one he had.
"FRIDAY!" He whisper-yelled towards the ceiling. There was no response for several long moments, then came the low hum of power. Rather than being answered by Friday, the answer came from somewhere in the dark. A low growl that once before only existed in the deepest recesses of Peter's subconscious was now somewhere in the room with him, the sound echoing off of the walls to surround him, hoping to scare him into surrendering to his fate.
"Peter..." His name was drawn out and gargled in the throat of whatever monster it came from. "I knew..... You'd come for me..."
Peter took three big steps back the moment he saw them, two bright white eyes. Unblinking, they stared up from him from low to the floor, the pupil-less masses urging Peter closer without a word, but he willed himself to be still. To be sane. Doing so may have been the only way he'd stay alive.
"I... I-I didn't..."
The voice cut him off. "Of coursssse you did, Peter! You couldn't live without me..."
A shiver ran down Peter's spine. It was the visible kind of shiver that made everyone else wonder what the hell was wrong. In this case, everything seemed wrong.
"You know you can't shut me out, Peter... I... I am you. I'm inside of you... And! And there is no way to replace me, you can't, yank me out and put in something shiny.... And you can't remove me, either. The pills, Peter... You take them but you know they won't help, no, they... They make me..." There was a long pause, and Peter felt air brush across him. "Stronger."
Peter took a few quick steps backward and fell onto his back, the force of the fall knocking the air from his lungs. The mass sat atop of him, making it next to impossible to breathe. It leaned in close, definable only by its eyes... And then it smiled and leaned forward, allowing itself to be absorbed into Peter's body.
Peter jolted awake, eyes wide and full of fear. His hands shook against the tiled floor he laid upon. Looming over him were all the adults in charge of him, Steve, Bucky, Nat, Bruce, Tony... Even Steven was there, looking puzzled as he checked Peter's eyes with a small light. Somewhere in his brain, he knew Steven was looking to see his pupils dilate or to see if he had a concussion from the fall onto the floor. He really did come as soon as he heard.
"Peter, can you tell me what happened?"
All he could do was shake his head slowly, not nearly trusting his voice to carry a coherent thought across in a conversation. Steven sighed.
"You passed out. Peter, can you tell me if you've been suffering from shortness of breath? Increased heart rate? Dizziness? Um, chills? A sense of intense fear?"
The conversation skipped a beat before Peter nodded. Steven sighed. "To what? To all of it?"
Another beat and Peter nodded again. Steven seemed to understand and sighed. "Peter... What you have is a mild panic disorder. The stress and anxiety you have in your life cause your heart rate to rise exponentially, resulting in dizziness, feeling faint... I think your heart rate may have risen too high and... When's the last time you slept?"
Peter thought for a moment and weakly asked for Friday to find the answer. He was relieved to hear the real Friday speaking above him.
"Peter last had a full rest after being drugged and returned by the mercenary known as Deadpool." Steven quickly looked up to Bruce.
"Isn't that when that anomaly in the bloodwork appeared?" Bruce nodded. "Shit. Alright... It could be nothing, but it could also be very much not nothing... I suppose only time will tell."