The Butterfly Effect: a Peter Parker Fan Fic

Part 13; Bloody Memory

You knew that one day, you would stand up for yourself... that one day, you would raise the standard of your life... that one day would say to yourself, "enough with the bullshit"... you might as well make that day today ~ Steve Maraboli

I wake up and I find myself unable to move. I'm trapped, yet... I'm still moving. "Get her out of here!" I shout as my brain tries to process what on earth is happening here. My hair flaps in the wind and I take a glance behind me only to see that my long, raven black hair has now disappeared for straight blonde hair.

I'm not me... I'm somebody else.

My feet pound against the pavement, the entire ground shaking, people screaming at the top of their lungs and fires everywhere. I run towards the edge of the land to see that we are in the air. This piece of land is floating in the sky. Is this...

Sokovia.

A jet is just taking off. "Wait! I'm still here!" I shout, desperately. My voice is croaky and very adult-like. This is it. I feel myself running, even as the jet is in the sky. I'm still running towards the edge of the bit of land.

Oh my God.

I'm going to fall.

I'm going to die.

I, well this woman, keeps running and I feel her heart pounding against her chest. She leaps into the air, grasping for the bottom of the jet but missing by a mile. Then we're falling. Falling to the earth below. A harsh scream escapes my lips and as her eyes dart to the ground below, I see the ocean, the shore. We're going right towards the edge of a cliff. This part of the cliff I can see is covered in rock and one rock in particular shines out. It's completely red. Shiny, gleaming red rock on this cliff. We're falling right towards it. Tears well up in her eyes as she reaches for her stomach, obviously feeling queasy. And her eyes shut as we brace for the fall.

Red.

Red.

And more red.

It's all I see.

No matter when I get out, all I know is that this woman is still alive.

This woman is Mary.

I take a sharp breath and sit up straight, the pounding feeling returning to my head. "Butterfly dude!" a voice says from beside me, "you're okay!" My eyes scan my surroundings. I'm on a roof somewhere and beside me is the familiar red and blue spandex. His hand rests on the small of my back, helping me sit up. Even from behind his mask, I can see his brows furrowing. "Are you alright?" he asks worriedly.

My hand slaps to my head, "what happened?"

"Well, we were fighting that random psycho woman and then--"

The memory of fighting Bloody Mary with Spider-Boy flows back to me as a comfort. So we're okay. We made it out alive.

"--no, I remember that," I cut in, "I just don't remember what happened after. Where did she go? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Is she--"

"Just relax," he says softly, "so I don't know what you did, but you did something really freaky. Like you were just staring at her for a long period of time. She was in pain or fighting you or something, I couldn't tell. Then the next thing I knew was that you were hurtling towards the floor so I had to stop fighting her and save you instead. I caught you and by the time I turned around, she was gone."

I bring my knees up to my chest and bury my face in it. "So she's gone. I let her go," my voice is only a whisper.

"Hey, it's not your fault. You saved my life. You're a hero," he says incredulously.