Chapter 75: The Past of Two Brothers (Part 2)

Hearing those words, Gwen's eyes widened and her lips parted slightly. No words came to her. She was simply shocked by what Peter had just revealed. And as he plunged back into that terrible scene, the young boy's teeth instinctively clenched and his expression hardened.

As she fell, a small cry of surprise escaped Emma's lips before quickly fading away. Her body violently struck several thick branches on the way down before finally crashing to the ground at the foot of the enormous tree.

After that, there was complete silence. Peter and Eddie no longer spoke. They had even stopped fighting. After witnessing the young girl's fall, their minds seemed to suddenly freeze, unable to comprehend or accept what had just happened before their eyes.

Then, after a few seconds, the realization hit them full force. Panicking, they both screamed Emma's name… but no answer came. Instantly forgetting the argument they had been having only moments earlier, they climbed down the tree as fast as they could.

Eddie was the first to reach the ground. Peter joined him a few dozen seconds later. Eddie immediately rushed over to Emma and dropped to his knees beside her before lifting her up, calling her name again and again in the hope of getting some kind of reaction. But there was nothing. Blood was running from the back of her head. She had died on impact.

— "Eddie tried to wake her up, but it was no use… she had died on impact. After that, he started getting angry at me again… he was furious. He insulted me and said it was my fault… that I shouldn't have stolen Emma from him… that I was the one who had killed her. And then… I started losing it too. Seeing Emma's body and hearing Eddie keep going on about that completely ridiculous jealousy thing… I screamed. I screamed that I hadn't done anything, that I hadn't stolen Emma from him and, most importantly… that she didn't belong to anyone. But he didn't believe me. He couldn't understand why Emma seemed so attached to me… and that's when I explained what I'd learned a few hours earlier, when I was with her in the tree. Apparently, she had a brother. He was a little older than her, his name was Sam and, most importantly… he looked a lot like me. We looked so much alike that even she had trouble believing it. That's why she always wanted to be around me and cared so much about everything I said or did. I reminded her of her brother… and she missed him."

As she learned all of this, Gwen felt a deep wave of emotion wash over her. The further Peter went into his story, the more tragic it became. And this revelation about Emma made the entire situation even crueler. There had never been anything behind her attachment to Peter like what Eddie had imagined. Just a little girl who terribly missed her brother.

— "When Eddie found out, he finally calmed down… and realized his mistake. He had just done something irreversible because of a completely ridiculous jealousy thing. After that, I tried to run away to go tell our parents… but Eddie knocked me out from behind."

Faced with Emma's lifeless body, Peter felt a violent wave of nausea hit him. He immediately brought a hand to his mouth and looked away, barely managing to hold it back. Then, realizing they needed help, he suddenly turned around and started running.

Eddie immediately understood what he was trying to do. He chased after him, caught up to him, and violently tackled him to the ground from behind. Peter struggled with all his strength for what felt like an eternity, desperately trying to break free.

But Eddie eventually grabbed a nearby rock and struck him hard in the head. Peter's vision instantly blurred… before everything went black.

— "When I woke up, I was back at the cabin… and it was already nighttime."

A long bandage was wrapped around his head where the rock had struck him. Still disoriented, Peter slowly got up before leaving the room and making his way downstairs. There, he saw Eddie sitting alone on a chair. His gaze was lowered and his expression terribly dark.

— "But there was no one there. No one except me… and Eddie."

For a brief moment, Peter pulled himself out of his memories. His eyes met Gwen's again, as though returning to reality suddenly made what he was about to tell her even more difficult.

— "And that's when I realized that the person I considered the brother I never had… was gone. Actually… I even started wondering if he had ever really existed in the first place."

Once again, memories from those distant years resurfaced, taking Peter back to that evening forever burned into his mind. Standing inside the cabin, he stared at Eddie with a dark expression, torn between confusion, distrust, and growing concern.

He asked him where their parents were. But silence was the only answer he received. Eddie barely moved. He seemed strangely calm… far too calm after everything that had just happened. And faced with that behavior, a deep sense of unease began to grow inside Peter. Something deep within him was screaming that the situation was far from normal.

Peter then asked him what he had done, this time with a hint of fear audible in his voice. The seconds passed without Eddie giving him the slightest answer, and the longer that silence continued, the stronger Peter's bad feeling became.

Eddie, whose gaze had remained lowered until then, finally stood up. Slowly. His face betrayed almost no emotion. He seemed strangely calm.

— "He started telling me that he hated me… that he despised me. He said Emma was dead because of me… that I was the one who had killed her and that, brother or not… he was going to make me pay for it. Between my headache and the shock of everything that had just happened… I didn't even know what to say to him. I just stood there, staring blankly, trying to understand how any of this could have happened. The next day, I found out that our parents had called the police and that everyone had searched the woods for Emma… but they couldn't find her. Obviously, I tried to explain myself and tell them what had really happened, but Eddie had already taken care of that. He had come up with an entire story to completely clear himself and blame everything on some masked man who supposedly attacked us. He even made himself out to be a hero by claiming he'd done everything he could to protect me. And of course… no one believed me. Instead, Eddie made me look crazy, claiming that everything I was saying was just the result of the blow I'd taken to the head."

Peter clenched his teeth as he thought back to that terrible moment. Even after all these years, the memory of that frustration, that helplessness in the face of Eddie's lie and everyone else's refusal to believe him, still filled him with deep bitterness.

— "The search continued during the last few days of our vacation… then we left, with Emma still missing. And ever since that moment, I've hated him with every fiber of my being. From that day on, Eddie and I… never saw or spoke to each other again."

A faint pain mixed with the bitterness he felt. Peter let out a long sigh, as though telling the entire story had forced him to relive a burden he had buried deep inside himself for years.

— "Our parents never knew the truth… no one ever did, actually. You're the only person who knows about this."

The truth about Peter and Eddie's past had finally been revealed. Gwen kept her head lowered, her eyes fixed on the floor. She had thought she would feel relieved, maybe even happy to finally know the whole truth… but now, all she felt was a deep mixture of sadness and frustration.

She lightly bit her lip. Every moment she had spent with Eddie came rushing back to her: their conversations, their laughter, all those times she had listened to him talk about Peter without knowing the truth behind his words. Just thinking about it made her feel almost sick.

For several long seconds, Gwen said nothing. She was still trying to process everything Peter had just told her. The urge to cry tightened her throat, overwhelmed by how terrible she felt for the person she loved, but she held it back. Then, gradually regaining her composure, she straightened up and faced him.

Their eyes met for a few seconds. Then, without warning, Gwen threw herself into Peter's arms and hugged him tightly.

— "I'm sorry… I should've listened to you. I shouldn't have kept spending time with him. You've done so much for me, and all I managed to do was make things even more complicated. I eventually realized he was lying and trying to manipulate me, but I still didn't know what had really happened between you two. I tried to talk to you about it. I really did! But we never managed to have a real moment alone together. I feel so… stupid. I'm sorry, Peter… I'm really sorry. Finding out everything he did to you… it's horrible…"

Gwen's voice trembled slightly, overwhelmed by guilt and all the emotions rushing through her. As she spoke, her embrace tightened around Peter, as though she were now trying to give him all the support she wished she could have given him sooner. Peter, slightly surprised at first, felt a gentle smile form at the corner of his lips before wrapping his arms around her in return.

— "Don't apologize. You were just trying to understand instead of hating someone you didn't even know. That just shows what an incredible person you are, Gwen."

Touched by his words, Gwen felt some of the weight pressing down on her begin to disappear. Everything involving Eddie had been terribly complicated, but at least… it was over.

She now knew an extremely intimate part of Peter's past, they had finally reconciled, and after all the tension that had driven them apart, their relationship seemed to have come out stronger than before. So, in a way… wasn't that a victory?

Gwen slowly pulled away from his embrace and gave Peter a tender smile. Her eyes gradually began to brighten. There was no real joy or excitement in them… only that deep feeling of relief and serenity that comes when something heavy finally comes to an end.

But while Gwen seemed to be feeling a little better, Peter still wore a faint smile tinged with sadness. Of course, he was happy that he had finally been able to tell her the whole story.

For the first time, he had shared a secret he had kept buried for years. Gwen now knew Eddie's true face, and their relationship had finally regained the closeness they had lost.

And yet, it wasn't over.

There was still something he had to confess to her. Something much more recent… and it wasn't going to be easy to talk about.

— "Gwen… there's something else I need to tell you."

At those words, Gwen's expression gradually changed. The relief that had only just appeared on her face faded away, replaced almost immediately by a bad feeling.

— "Is it serious…?"

Peter looked away. His eyes settled somewhere else in the room as he silently searched for the courage to tell her what had really happened with the symbiote… and with Tombstone. Just thinking about it was enough to erase what little peace he had only just regained.

But after a few seconds of hesitation, Peter gathered his courage. He raised his eyes and met Gwen's gaze once again.

— "…It's something you need to know."

TO BE CONTINUED.