Wings || Peter Parker

24: Nightmares

Trigger warning: psychotic behavior/mental illness, self harm, blood

I shut my mouth, covering it with a hand.

"Max!" Peter rushed to my side, shaking my shoulders. "Are you okay! What happened?!"

I shook my head, tears wiping lines through the dirt on my hand.

"What happened." He asked frantically, peering into the dark corners of the room.

I collapsed on the bed behind me. My wings flopped next to me. I didn't notice the clumping feathers.

I drew my knees close, shuddering.

Peter grabbed my shoulder. "Max, you need to tell me what happened!"

I immediately jerked my shoulder away. My hands were shaking. My vision was blurring. My skin was burning as if I had been dipped in a vat of lava.

"Please tell me what happened!" Peter exclaimed. "Is there someone here?!"

I sobbed into my hands. Blood streaked across my face. Blood was everywhere. 

"What-" Another person ran into my room.

I screamed, my throat ripping to shreds from the vocal strain. 

I dug my nails into my face, drawing long gashes from my eyes to my chin.

"Max!" Peter shouted. "Max! Stop it!" He grabbed my hands, using his super strength to hold my back.

I bit my lip until it bled.

"Stop it!" He shouted. 

I thrashed around, coated in sweat and blood and tears and feathers. There was no end.

My foot made contact with something.

"Max!" He shouted.

I ripped my hands out of his grip and covered my face. There wasn't any skin left to rip up.

I reached for my hair.

"Max!" Peter grabbed my wrists and held them tight. "Max. You need to calm down!"

The blood was all over me and him. 

"It's okay!" He shouted. "It's okay!"

I thrashed around more. My entire body writhed in pain.

"Max!" someone else shouted.

"Max!" Peter repeated. "It's okay!"

"No no no no no," I whispered. "No."

"What happened!" A man shouted.

"I don't know!" Peter replied. I kicked him. "Ah!" He stumbled back, allowing me to slip a hand out of his hold.

I dug into my ankle, drawing a long line to my hip. Three bloody stripes coated my body.

Tears fell into the wounds on my face.

They burned.

Everything burned.

Someone else grabbed my hands while peter held my feet down.

"Hey!" Someone shouted.

I froze, crying on my bed.

My body burned.

I was being cooked alive.

Sweat dripped into my cuts. 

I cried.

And I cried.

And I cried.

Finally, someone wiped my face with a tissue.