𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xxiv. go get 'em, tiger

chapter twenty-four!
go get 'em, tiger

NINA RAN out of the gym, heart pounding as she tried to see where Peter had sprinted off to. She knew something was wrong as soon as she saw the look on his face through those doors. She told herself, no Spider-Man things, nothing will go wrong, but all of that was flung out of the window the moment she knew something was up. She didn't even think, her feet moved on their own, spinning on the spot and pushing through the students to the back gym door, stepping out into the hauntingly quiet corridors of Midtown High.

She felt a chill down her spine in her light orange dress. Nina's feet twisted nervously on the spot. She glanced down one end of the corridor of lockers, and then up the other, hearing nothing more than her own breath and the pace of her thundering heart.

She knew she had seen that same guy who had been in the school not long ago. The Vulture had stepped onto the school grounds, and for all Nina knew, all of her friends might be in danger, ignorant and laughing as they danced to the music behind closed doors. Nina didn't know what she planned on doing now that she was out here, she just knew she had to help Peter.

Nina took a deep breath and started running down the corridor. Her footsteps echoed against the tiles, bouncing off the walls. The music was muffled━distant, even, in the back of her mind. She didn't risk calling Peter's name, scared that she'd somehow put herself in danger, or him in more.

She rounded the corner into the next hallway. Something felt strange. Nina felt as though she had stepped through something━it tickled her skin, made her breath hitch, like a ghost had walked right through her chest. She was being ridiculous, she knew that, but that was until she heard a voice.

Her own voice.

But she wasn't speaking.

Nina frowned. She couldn't quite make out what she was saying, and so she followed it. She walked down the hallway with her ears piqued, searching for the origin of a voice that couldn't be hers, but it was.

As she walked down the corridor, she began to hear it more clearly:

"How is it?" she heard the echo from her left. Nina glanced over, confused. "Does it still hurt?"

Nina's thoughts wandered from Peter and she stepped closer to the sound, sitting by one of the lockers. Her breath hitched again, seeing something in the light shimmer. She might've been imagining it, but she wondered whether she had seen the silouhette's of two people. A girl and a boy, to which the girl looked horrifyingly like herself.

"How's what?" replied a boy's voice, sounding rather cheeky.

"You know what I mean."

"What do I mean?"

Nina heard herself chuckle. She was right beside the strange shimmers; as if she was in the conversation herself. She saw a hand reach out to smack a chest, and for a moment, the two figures became as clear as day. It was her, but with ... with someone she didn't recognise. A boy tall and slender, with a long face and a cheeky smile. "Don't play with me," Nina saw herself smile nonetheless, and she figured this boy was quite mischevious on the usual day.

Nina was stunned to frozen silence. She had no idea what was going on. She had no idea what she had to make her see these things━but they seemed so real, it was terrifying. That was her. It was her.

She felt as if she was watching the ghost of a life she never knew, expect she felt as if she should. She felt nostalgic.

To the right, across the hallways, Nina heard a loud smash! Like something hitting the tiles. It made her jump and she gasped, thrown back to the reality━her reality right now. She glanced over, heart jolting with sudden fear. Was that Peter? Was he okay? Nina surged onwards, but something stopped her before she did. Her eyes glanced back at where she had seen the figures, and they widened to see her own eyes stare back at her with a similar expression.