Chapter 69: On the Verge of Breaking

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and Peter jolted awake. But when he came to his senses, he was no longer at home, or even in his bed. He was sitting in the middle of a classroom filled with students. Looking around, he quickly recognized the place: it was his school classroom, back when he was still slightly younger than he was in reality.

Startled, Peter tipped backward off his chair and crashed heavily onto the floor. Completely disoriented, he looked up and immediately saw the other students burst into laughter, some even pointing at him as they made fun of him.

Only three people didn't join in the mockery: his teacher and his two closest friends, Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn. They weren't laughing. On the contrary, they seemed to feel sorry for him in the face of such an embarrassing situation.

— "Do you intend to get up, Mr. Parker, or are you planning to stay on the floor much longer?"

Clearly annoyed by the sudden interruption to her class, the teacher didn't even try to hide it. Mortified, Peter quickly got back to his feet before sitting down again, doing his best to save face behind an awkward, timid smile. Around him, the other students' laughter gradually faded until the classroom became quiet again.

Peter then noticed Gwen and Harry both giving him gentle, sympathetic looks. He responded with a faint smile before turning his attention back to the lesson, as though everything had returned to normal.

Yet his expression hardened almost immediately. Without openly turning his head, he discreetly scanned his surroundings, then lowered his eyes toward his own hands with almost paranoid suspicion. Everything seemed real. Absolutely everything. And even though he couldn't determine whether he was dreaming or not, there was no doubt about the bad feeling in his gut.

Something deeply strange was happening. How could he jump from one moment to another through such abrupt transitions, almost like scene changes in a movie? It was as though he were reliving different moments of his own life without having the slightest control over how they unfolded or when he would suddenly be thrown into the next one.

And discreetly, without anyone around him noticing, Peter shuddered slightly.

A little later, classes ended and the students gradually left the room. Some were still hanging around in the hallways, others on the stairs or outside in the courtyard, while Peter was the last to leave the classroom after receiving a few more reprimands from his teacher.

When he finally stepped through the door, Gwen and Harry were still there waiting for him. The three of them then started walking through the hallways together.

— "You okay? Not too upset about getting yelled at?" Harry asked, a slightly teasing smile on his lips.

— "I'm mostly embarrassed about the way I fell off my chair…" Peter replied, his eyes lowered.

— "By the way… what happened? Did you have a nightmare? Is that why you jumped like that?" Gwen asked.

— "Yeah, tell us, man!"

Normally, Peter probably would have preferred to keep something like this to himself. But this time, the situation seemed far too strange for him to simply ignore it. His mind kept returning to those inexplicable events and to that persistent feeling that something was wrong. Unable to find an explanation on his own, he finally decided to tell his two friends about it.

— "I don't really know how to explain it because I barely understand it myself, but… I don't know if I'm dreaming or not."

At those words, Gwen and Harry simultaneously turned their attention toward him, both wearing slightly puzzled expressions.

— "Uh… what?"

— "Basically, right now… I'm not sure. I keep wondering if what I'm experiencing is actually happening or if I'm inside a dream."

— "But… didn't you wake up earlier?" Gwen asked, confused.

— "Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but I swear, I don't understand it either. I've got this strange feeling inside me that just won't go away. When it started, I was at Central Park with Uncle Ben, then suddenly I found myself back home, and now I'm here with you guys. It's like I'm reliving moments from my life uncontrollably, jumping from one scene to another without being able to do anything about it."

Gwen and Harry remained silent for several long seconds, clearly unsure of how to respond to such a strange story. Eventually, they exchanged a brief, questioning glance, each seemingly waiting for the other to come up with a slightly more logical explanation to give Peter.

— "Wow, that's…"

— "…Really strange."

Faced with answers that didn't really help him, Peter simply nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the floor, almost disappointed that his friends couldn't shed any more light on what was happening. After that, the three of them continued on their way in an unusual silence, walking through the hallways toward the exit.

But as they gradually approached the doors, they crossed paths with Flash Thompson who, without the slightest warning, violently shoved Harry against a wall. Completely caught off guard, Harry slammed hard into it and let out a groan of pain from the impact.

— "Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Peter and Gwen didn't even have time to understand what was happening before Flash lunged at Harry and began slapping him repeatedly. But very quickly, the slaps gave way to actual punches, far more violent, raining down one after another on their friend.

Faced with this sudden explosion of violence, Peter finally snapped out of his shock and rushed forward to intervene. But before he could actually pull Flash away from Harry, Flash shoved him aside with little difficulty and, in the same motion, landed a violent punch directly to his face. Peter staggered backward from the impact, completely dazed, as blood immediately began running from his nose.

— "THERE'S A FIGHT! PLEASE, SOMEBODY HELP!"

While the young blonde desperately called for help, convinced that a teacher would eventually hear her and intervene, nothing happened. No one came. Stranger still, the hallways now seemed completely empty.

All the commotion that had filled the school only moments earlier had vanished, as though the entire building had suddenly been emptied of everyone inside. It seemed like they were the only ones left.

While Harry continued taking Flash's blows and Gwen kept screaming to get someone's attention, Peter, still slightly disoriented from the punch he had taken to the face, noticed a figure approaching from far down the hallway.

At first unable to recognize the person, he narrowed his eyes and watched as the figure gradually came closer. And when he finally managed to clearly make out the face, horror seized him: it was Eddie Brock.

As he reached them, Eddie headed straight toward Gwen. Without giving her time to react, he placed one hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, while his other hand slowly began groping her.

— "S-STOP! LET GO OF ME!"

Gwen immediately struggled with all her strength, trying to push Eddie away and hit him to break free from his grip. But he didn't move back a single step. He remained perfectly still, as though her blows meant absolutely nothing to him, while a wide smile gradually spread across his face, already marked by a deeply disturbing excitement.

Watching his two best friends being assaulted in such a vile way right before his eyes, Peter suddenly heard that voice echo once again from deep within him. The one that had been there from the beginning. Cold and calm… yet terrifyingly deep. A voice that seemed to pierce directly into his mind, like a needle slowly sinking into flesh.

— "Kill them… Kill them… Kill them… Kill them…!"

The voice gradually grew stronger inside his mind. Each repetition became louder, more invasive, until his own thoughts were almost impossible to distinguish. Peter felt hot. His stomach churned so violently that he felt like throwing up.

Dark thoughts and terrifying ideas flooded his mind at an insane speed, blending together without giving him enough time to think clearly.

How could he protect Gwen and Harry? How could he save them from their two attackers? Go get help? No… there was no one. He couldn't wait any longer. He had to act. But then… should he kill them? Maybe that really had been the answer to his problems all along?

That was when something seemed to trigger deep inside his mind. Some kind of mental mechanism had just activated, as though a door that had always been locked had suddenly opened within him. A door leading to something Peter had never allowed to come out before.

— "Hey, rich kid. I swear, every time I look at you, I just wanna—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Peter rushed up behind him and struck him with all his strength in the groin. Flash instantly froze. His face quickly turned red as faint groans of pain escaped his mouth.

Unable to keep attacking Harry, he let him go before collapsing to the floor, struggling to breathe. Peter then turned his attention toward Eddie and Gwen, while behind him, Harry, furious, continued beating Flash.

Seeing Peter approach, Eddie stopped for a moment and slowly turned his gaze toward him. Unlike Peter, he seemed perfectly relaxed about the situation.

— "What? What's wrong, little brother? You jealous?"

Overwhelmed by rage and focused solely on his desire to protect Gwen, Peter lunged at him like an animal. But his attack failed. Eddie dodged him with ease, released Gwen and turned all of his attention toward Peter.

When Peter tried to attack him a second time, Eddie brutally grabbed him by the throat before landing several consecutive blows to his stomach. The force of the impacts sent a thick stream of saliva spilling from Peter's mouth as his breathing became short and painful.

Eddie stared at him for a few moments, as though all he saw in front of him was something weak and pathetic. Then he released him without the slightest consideration and went back toward Gwen, who continued struggling with all her strength despite everything.

— "P-Peter!"

Peter felt powerless. Terribly powerless. He wanted to get back up, to act, to protect his friend… but Eddie was simply much stronger than him. And as that reality painfully settled into his mind, the voice returned.

— "I can help you defeat him if you want. Do you want my help?"

Peter still had no idea where the voice was coming from, much less who it truly belonged to. He still wasn't even sure whether what he was experiencing was real. But dream or reality… it no longer mattered.

Gwen and Harry were being assaulted right before his eyes, and he refused to just stand there and do nothing. Peter didn't say a single word. Yet the creature understood his answer perfectly.

It then took over his body. Within moments, Peter disappeared beneath the black mass, which grew and distorted until it took the form of that enormous, monstrous creature. At the sight of it, Gwen and Harry immediately froze.

Shock and terror filled their faces. But their reaction was nothing compared to Eddie's. When the black mass grabbed him and lifted him several feet off the ground, leaving him completely unable to break free, his fear became so uncontrollable that he ended up urinating on himself.

The symbiote then pulled Eddie closer, ready to devour him. But just before it could act, another voice suddenly echoed through Peter's mind… and through the creature's as well.

Uncle Ben's.

And once again, after a brief moment in which everything sank into darkness… Peter found himself somewhere else.

TO BE CONTINUED.