Wings || Peter Parker

29: Moonlight

I didn't sleep that night. I lay in my bed until 3:13 then stood up. I glanced around my room. Nothing had changed, just as nothing should have changed. The digital clock sat still as ever on my nightstand. The large windows on the wall in front of me were shut tight, the curtains were drawn over them. My desk held my laptop, phone, and a notebook I'd found. It was blank. The pen cup held a single lonely pen. Blue ink. I used it to write notes on paper scraps if I needed. The lamp was sitting bent, turned off. 

Across the room, my dresser was a dark blob in the corner. There was a teddy bear rested on top, the same one I'd taken from the facility. My dresser only held three pairs of pants, five shirts, two hoodies, along with two pairs of socks, and six pairs of underwear. There were the doors to the closet placed nearby, but it only held my two training suits. 

My room was practically empty. I had barely any personality to reflect on the decoration. It was still just an empty room, only inhabiting a person for three days, tops. It looked boring and dull, and any other word to describe lonely. 

Peter's room had a ton of stuff in it, even though he only stayed there a couple days a week. There were posters and tapestries all over his walls, hung by a special web fluid he developed.  Before I'd moved in, he said he usually just stayed one night every couple of weeks. His friends were probably annoyed he wasn't around so much.

The walls in my room were bare, still painted the off-white and tan color. The drywall was smooth. The walls behind it were stuffed with foam and such to keep it silent. My door leading outside the hallway was the only hiccup in the paint, excluding the closet doors. My door was a dark gray. The only texture it had was the artistic rectangular carvings that all the doors had and of course the shiny silver doorknob. A small hook was also on top, holding the backpack I was given when I moved out of the facility.

Without thinking, I walked over to my curtains and opened them. The moonlight lit up my room, casting dark shadows all over my room. I slid open one window, collapsing the glass down into the frame like a car window. It was a four feet tall, and three feet wide hole in my wall now. 

Chilly New York air blew in, and I shuddered. I pulled a hoodie from my dresser drawers and shoved it over my head, forcing my wings through the holes cut in the back. I grabbed my sneakers and hastily pulled them over my feet.

My feathers fluttered in the wind. 

I set a foot on the bottom of my window, pulling myself in a crouching position to face the city below.

Not taking the chance to glance back at my room, I leaped out of the window and drew my wings close, falling facedown, fast, like a bullet.

My arms stayed put by my sides until I was only thirty feet above the ground. I opened my wings and immediately caught the wind. The wind rushed past my face as I drifted down, angling my wings so I stayed level with the ground.

It was a main road and must've been four lanes wide, so I had tons of room to fly around. Some people were scattered on the sidewalks, only the occasional drunk, and then some random people on the phone or something.

The moonlight lit up the streets, thanks to the full moon that night. It was almost as bright as the sun.

I swooped down onto the street, ignoring Mr. Stark's rules completely, and landed on my feet. 

I looked around. A few skyscrapers were near, and I had to crane my neck when I looked at them. Shorter buildings were surrounding the area, most apartments. A large department store was at the corner. Stop signs and lights were littered around as if they'd been dropped carelessly. 

Half the lights in the building around were on. I couldn't see the stars, thanks to the light pollution.

I walked down the road, keeping my feet on the yellow line. I had my wings folded up, and my arms held out like a toddler. My 001 tattoo was visible on my wrist, but I didn't care. 

I teetered down the line, leaning to one side, then the other.

I continued walking until the end of the road, then picked to go left on the next street.

I walked to the end, then went right, then took another left, then right, then I went straight for as long as I could.

The sky was getting lighter, but I couldn't see the sun. I just kept walking. I had to stop to re-tie my shoes because I kept stepping on the ends of the laces. 

More cars were passing me on the streets, and more lights were turning on in buildings. More people were out on the streets, and I saw some dogs. I didn't go near them.

When a car passed me, I would just continue on the yellow line, and they would go around me. There was the usual honking of a horn, or the middle finger, or a shout thrown out the window. I usually returned the greeting and continued on my way.

I reached the end of the straight line I was walking down and looked both left and right. To the right were more buildings, the same blocky boringness I'd been granted in the past couple hours. On the left, however, was a long line, with a sparkling blue light at the end.

I chose left. 

More and more cars passed, and I resorted to walking on the sidewalk. There weren't too many people up, and whenever I saw someone I just walked around them without a greeting.

The blue light got closer, and I realized it was water. There was a harbor in New York, and I'd never seen it. 

Big ships had been scattered around, and there was the occasional sailboat to be seen in between the white boats. It wasn't a large moor, but it was enough for small deliveries.

I walked up the concert paths all around, and then looked up for the first time in hours. The bay was huge and must've been the size of a lake. In the center, sat a large island with a tall green statue. The Statue of Liberty. 

I then realized they were not ships, they were ferries, commuting from Liberty Island all the way back to here. 

All buildings surrounding the boats were closed at the moment. They weren't open yet. I smirked, thinking to myself about what I would do next. 

Then I took a running start and leaped off the land into the sky.