The Masks we Hide Behind || Peter Parker [1]

thirty-five: the warehouse

"So, what school do you go to?"

"Do you have any siblings?"

"What color is your hair?"

"Play any sports?"

"Where do you live? Queens? Brooklyn - oh, wait, Queens, duh. I remember. Same here, actually."

"What color are your eyes?"

"Is your hair long or short?"

"Do you have hair?"

"How tall are you? You look about 5'5, 5'6-"

"I'm 5'5." I snap at the Spider-Man, who has been bombarding me with random, personal questions, for about the past ten minutes.

"Oh. I'm, like, 5'9, maybe, 5-"

"Please," I interrupt, chuckling politely. "let's just focus, yeah?"

"Right, yes, okay." The Spider-Man quickly responds awkwardly. I smile underneath my mask and nudge his arm playfully before leaping off of the rooftop we're standing on and swinging down into the streets.

We're headed to Lance Alvers's warehouse. At first, I had planned to do this alone, however I ran into the Spider-Man and brought the idea up, and he eagerly agreed. Somehow, I feel safer when I'm with him.

"So," he calls from behind me as I throw my wrist out to shoot another web, watching it latch to the building and soaring further as it does so. "do you think this will work?"

"What do you mean?" I respond, watching as he catches up to me.

"The plan is to get there and question him, right?"

"Kind of, I guess." I respond loudly, out of breath. He swings up just above me and starts hopping from rooftop to rooftop until he returns to the street.

"Do you know what he looks like? I've been wondering that. I'm sure he's ugly." He continues on, and on, and on. It's kind of adorable. "Or, wait, what if he's like, super unexpectedly hot??"

"He's not." I call with laughter. "At least, in my opinion. The guy's bald and muscular and middle-aged, and he's got this snake tattoo on one of his biceps."

"Wait, you've seen him outside of the suit?" The Spider-Man calls, swinging low below me. I swing further ahead of him, enjoying the feeling of my stomach dropping, like being on a rollercoaster.

"Yeah. Dude, it was wack, my friend and I were at the library late one night, and he was there on this computer. Obviously I wasn't suited up, but basically we were downstairs and he was upstairs, and we snuck up there and he was typing away on one of the computers, and we spied on him for a little, and then my friend decided to be stupid and..." I continue to shout over the wind and explain the whole story to the Spider-Man.

"YOU'RE JUST TELLING ME ABOUT THIS BAG OF HIS SHIT NOW?!" The Spider-Man screeches.

"Oh. Yeah." I chuckle.

"What the hell?!"

"We weren't really as close of partners then!" I exclaim.

"Yeah, but still, you could've told me shortly after! I don't know. You better bring it and show it to me." He calls.

"I will," I laugh.

We zoom down streets and pass hundreds of various buildings, and soon, we're in the exact area of the warehouse. Everything is run down, quiet, sketchy, and empty. I land softly on my toes in front of the huge, abandoned-looking brick warehouse. The Spider-Man silently lands next to me, and we stand in front of the building. Lance's warehouse looms over us.

"Ready?" I ask quietly.

"Ready." He murmurs. I aim for the exterior wall on the second story, silently sticking to the brick and crawling over to the broken window I used previously. The Spider-Man follows me as I crawl in, careful to avoid the shards of glass.

Silently, we make our way into the second story. I travel to the edge of the overlook into the main floor, and my jaw drops.

"Holy shit." I murmur.

"What is it?" The Spider-Man whispers. He joins me at the edge of the overlook, and I hop over the railing and land silently in the middle of the floor. I look around slowly. I spot modern-looking security cameras in nearly every corner of the place on both stories. Those were definitely not there last time.

"It's gone," I murmur. I raise my voice.

"Everything is gone."

Author's Note

Hiiii, I thought I'd update early this week <3 this is probably the shortest chapter I've ever written and I'm so sorry. Also, I'm a day late, but merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it! I hope you had a wonderful time over the holiday, and to those who don't celebrate Christmas, happy holidays!! I hope you all have a lovely day!! Thank you all so much for reading and once again, happy holidays! <3