𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xxvi. in just five seconds

chapter twenty-six
in just five seconds

    "HEY!" Nina called down to the people watching below, dumbstruck and pointing out of the cars. She gripped the edge of the bridge so tight the cold metal dug into her palms. "Someone call the police! Stop standing there!" No one listened to her, they all awed and gasped at the Green Goblin who laughed at Nina's weak attempt, spinning his board around and diving down. 

     Nina spun back, breath hitched in the back of her throat as she watched him near the hovering carriage taking a scenic route around the Bridge. His laughter continued━chilling, horrible laughter that she knew all too well would never mean something good. The cable holding the carriage extended from one edge of the bridge right down to the attraction at the base of the river. Nina was terrified to move, her knees were shaking, but she pushed herself to the other end of the small space she was trapped on, gripping onto the support tight as she tried to see what he was going to do. 

     He swooped past the carriage, but Nina wasn't feeling better. Her eyes fixed on those inside; children━school children, no older than ten-years-old. All of them grouping at the windows to gawk up at the man in costume flying past. "No!" Nina shouted, helpless. "NO! Leave them alone!"

    Even from here, she could hear his bone-chilling song: "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water sprout," he dipped down near the warehouse below━the control station. Nina wanted to cry, knowing what he might do, and hating how everyone else seemed to want to do nothing about it. "Down came the goblin and took the spider out━!"

     He cackled with laughter as a projectile shot from the base of his glider, soaring down to the base of the bridge near the start of the attraction━Nina screamed when it exploded in a mass of fire and smoke clouds, billowing up so high it reached the road of the bridge, making cars swerve and people run, barely missing the crashes that sparked more explosions, more screams, more horror. 

     The children's screams tore out into the night as their carriage dropped. The cable went flying, the group of innocent kids spiralling to the water at an impact that would meet them in just moments. Nina screamed for them, her stomach twisting so much she wanted to throw up.

     Until the Green Goblin grasped the end of the cable and shot up; the glider smoking with effort to carry the entire carriage of children and their supervisor back up. Nina wasn't convinced this was the end. She heard him laugh as he tilted his gilder towards her, and Nina's bravery flushed down the water sprout just like the spider. 

     "No," she let out, hating how weak she sounded. She had nowhere to run, nowhere to climb, she was a caged animal just waiting to be toyed with. "No, don't━" Green Goblin bellowed his laugh, earsplitting and stomach churning. Nina shuffled back, raising her arms to fight off his outstretched hand, but even with one holding an entire carriage up by the cable, he was inhumanely strong. He fought past her brittle self defense and grasped her tight around the neck. 

     Nina screamed, legs kicking as she rose up off the metal grate. Her nails raked at the base of the Green Goblin's armour around his wrist, trying to get him to let her go. She tried to kick him, tried to smack him, but when he extended her right out over the edge of the bridge, Nina froze. Her attacks stopped, staring in horror at the dark water below, ready to take her at just one single move.

      A sob rose up into her throat, as if part of her was already accepting the fate that she was going to die. But Nina didn't want to die. Her heart screamed with the fear that Goblin would drop her, and she'd fall, and there'd be no one to catch her. That the web would reach too late, snag her waist, and like that, she'd be gone. Just like she had seen falling from that parapet━like a prophet had whispered into her ears ... you are meant to die.