The Butterfly Effect: a Peter Parker Fan Fic

Part 44; Parent

An injured lion still wants to roar ~ Randy Pausch

Quiet is all that follows, aside from the struggles from Tony and Peter.

So quiet, a pin can be heard dropping from miles away.

Mary's chest rises and falls hurriedly while she pants as if just having run a race.

I did it. I made her stop.

The arms' grip on the guys loosens gradually, eventually retreating back to her and dropping the two of them to the floor. Peter lays on his back, his mask revealing the bottom half of his face, his chest heaving loudly. Tony is hunched over, attempting to catch his breath quickly.

All but two of the arms have returned. The final ones pause, as if preparing to pounce onto us again. I have to maintain the strong grip I now have around her neck. "He is my calculus teacher. He is alive and healthy, but he misses you so much," I tell her softly, staring into her face, trying to get a better image of what is going through her head right now.

She doesn't even budge. Phil is though. His hands tremble whilst holding the gun in between them. "Don't listen to her, Mary!" he bursts out. "She's manipulating you. This is what she does!"

"Mark. Mark Pinell. That's his name," I continue. "Do you really think that he would be agree with your intentions? Do you think that he would volunteer to fight beside you? Do you think that he would be proud to call you his wife?" The shakiness of her breathing begins to increase drastically and the final two arms return to her. It seems that I have once and for all convinced her to stop killing... for now. "He has a good heart, you know. He doesn't know that you're alive. He's been to Hell and back trying to get over you, it's really been a hard time. You should stop this nonsense and find him."

Her eyes shut from underneath her mask, allowing all of my words to sink into her. Meanwhile, every inch of my body screams with pain. It takes every ounce of effort I can muster to fight it and continue to speak. All I want to do is go to Peter who is laying still on the floor by Tony's feet. I want to go to him and make sure he's okay. Besides, it is my fault that he is even in this predicament. Speaking of my dear uncle, Tony, he seems to have recovered, standing up tall. However, much to my dismay, he lifts up his hand hand, pointing it at Mary. The sound of the power charging up sends my heart to accelerate.

He's going to kill her.

She was just beginning to regret her actions and he is about to kill her.

"Tony, don't!" I call out.

But he doesn't seem to notice. The next moment happens in slow motion from my viewpoint. A gust of power is released from his hand, flying directly towards her. Her eyes flutter open, the noise getting her attention. It shoots closer and closer and closer towards her. Not one muscle budges. She's going to die. She's literally going to die. If my entire body wasn't holding me back, I would have pushed her out of the way. But I am in dire pain and it would take a miracle to get me to move.

I'm desperate to block all of it out, not willing to see the bloody and gory scene about to unfold in front of me. My disobedient eyes decide against this, on the other hand, remaining plastered wide open.

The surge is merely inches away from hitting her... then she disappears. Mary simply disappears into thin air. For once, I'm thankful for her teleportation ability. No matter how much bad she's done in her life, she doesn't deserve to die in such a way.

Now, we're left to deal with Phil.

His immediate, and incredibly stupid, decision is to press the gun to the temple of my head. "Don't hurt me or else I will blow her brains out!" he hisses.