The Secrets We Keep | Peter Parker (1)

Chapter 1 - 9 Years Later

Welcome to Chapter 1 of The Secrets We Keep!!😘🤗

Hope you all enjoy

I hated sleep.

Actually, scratch that. I loved sleep - when it finally bothered its ass to find me.

I had always found that sleep liked to take its sweet time to lull me into its soft embrace. And whenever I did manage to fall asleep, it would either be those heavy slumbers that left me more tired in the morning than I originally did in the evening, or it would be plagued with dreams that caused me to wake up with a cold sweat coating my skin.

In this instance, it was the latter option.

Hauling myself up into a sitting position, I focused on inhaling deeply through my nose, and exhaling through my mouth. Eventually, the pounding of my heart eased to its usual rhythm and my breathing slowed, calming the hectic nerves spiking inside me. I felt disgusting. My hair was sticking to the back of my neck, and my bedsheets were clinging to my legs.

It was that dream again. It was always that damned dream.

Images of that fateful day flashed through my mind, and I cupped my palm to my forehead. I had only been six. After that outburst in the alleyway, my mum had made several quick calls, and the very next week, we were moving house. Goodbye to California; hello to New York. The day had haunted me ever since. I shivered.

No matter how hard I'd try, I knew that there was no chance of drifting off to sleep again after this, so I wouldn't even attempt it. Instead, I ended up kicking off my duvet, ignoring the sudden chill, and pushed up to my feet. Stifling a yawn, I padded over to my wardrobe and shrugged on the closest hoodie to me, not bothering to check whether or not it had been washed. At that moment, I didn't really care.

Carefully, silently, I slipped out of my bedroom, wincing when my door creaked slightly, and tiptoed down the corridor, past my mum's bedroom, and towards the kitchen-diner. I pulled on my shoes and, with one last glance back to my mum's door, slipped out of our apartment.

The late-night city air was crisp and fresher than it had been during the day. Even at these ungodly hours in the early morning, the murmurs of car engines and the occasional eruption of beeping horns disrupted the stillness of the night, but to me, it was comforting to know that there were people still up and doing - no matter how exhausted. It made me feel less alone, I guess.

And yet, I very rarely bumped into someone whenever I was out walking, and when I did, it was for a fleeting moment filled with silence.

Inhaling deeply, I slipped my hands into the pockets of my hoodie and turned my steps down the street. The walk was familiar, for I always traced my footsteps when I couldn't sleep. Once around the block was usually enough to clear my mind enough for sleep to get a hold of me, and if that wasn't the case, then I'd go round again.

As I walked, I tilted my head to the sky and examined the darkness that loomed above the city. If I looked hard enough, if I really squinted my eyes, the sight of glimmering stars greeted my vision through the pollution of the city, and I smiled. They shone like sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the blackness of the night. It was a beautiful sight, and it was times like these that made me wish to live in the countryside, where I'd be able to gaze upon the stars in all their blazing glory.

Sighing, I felt all my previous stress and doubt and worry ease away from my mind, fading into the shadows that laced the street I strode down. Where others may have feared the thought of being alone, at night, in the darkness, I relished it. Where some may have jumped at the shadows that flickered in the streetlamps, I sought comfort from them.