I Can't Make You Love Me || Peter Parker x OC

Chapter 36: Labyrinth

⚠️Content Warning ⚠️
Extreme language/ derogatory terms and self-deprecation. Suicidal thoughts/ actions.

Peter's perspective

"--You're delusional! God, I can't believe you." Anneliesa's voice spat into the air. It wasn't aimed at me, she didn't even know that I was here, but the malice that her tone dripped with made me shudder in my seat. Pepper had just left to go to the bathroom, and I was grateful that she wasn't here to witness me being so affected by her voice alone.

All around me, the hologram-type screens bathed me in an angelic blue light as I kept tabs on everything that was going in in this place. Now that I had confessed what happened to me back in that warehouse, my head felt clearer and I was able to focus in a way that I had almost forgotten was possible. Two of the three screens were split, showing me corners of hallways, stairwells, and a zoomed out scan of every heat signature in the building. The last one, and by far the largest, showed the room that would decide my fate. At nearly double the usual pixel rate of monitors, these modified screens were so immersive that I felt as though I was in the room with them, even though I really don't want that.

It came in handy, though. There was no lag between the video and audio, as well as a crystal-clear view of everyone in that room. May and Tony sat together on one side, both of their faces masks of shock over what just unfolded before us, much like my own. At the head of the table, Fury stood stoic as he looked at the three women that sat to his left. Anneliesa, who had previously sitting in the central chair on that side, was now standing, halfway across the room and headed towards the door as everyone else just gaped at her.

Once my view of the conference room no longer allowed me to see her, I sat up straighter in my chair, looking at the screens for a second longer. "E, keep eyes on her, please." Regretfully, I had decided to model Ethan's newfound voice after mine. The tone was different, because it would be really creepy for him to have my voice, but his mannerisms were a dead ringer for my own. So when he just sighed at me as he switched cameras, I really had no one to blame but myself. We can only pray that Avery and Morgan don't have their dad's personality, for all of our sakes. If we have two more miniature Tony's running around, the house might catch on fire at any given moment--not that it doesn't already. How Pepper can do it is honestly beyond me, but she needs an award, a raise, or both.

As the main screen toggled to a different camera, one figure in particular was singled out on the IR scanner, earning herself a bold white outline around her body and a floating tag that said her name and biometric data. Above my figure was a picture of me with the title Parker, Peter Benjamin; Dad has his Stark, Tony Edward, Pepper had her Stark, Virginia. And as Anneliesa wandered around the building, ducking into seemingly random hallways and corridors to avoid people, her tag showed a picture of her that was taken as soon as she entered the building, as per SHIELD protocol: Malcolm, Anneliesa Mayelle.

Like when I very first heard her name, mere minutes after meeting her and saving her from a frozen death, I thought it really suited her. A very unique name for a very unusual person.

I couldn't linger on her name for very long, because a significantly more pressing matter soon reared its head. No only was Anneliesa out of her designated area and wandering around the building aimlessly, she was now in the same hallway as me, just a few rooms away from where I'm currently hiding out.

"Peter, you're heart is beating really fast. Calm down." Ethan instructed me, switching one of the split screens to be a vitals monitor, allowing me to see just how panicked I really was. 340 bpm, dang. Thanks to that stupid spider like 4 years ago, my whole body doubled what it usually does, so 200 was a pretty normal heart rate for me. Ethan's right, almost double really isn't healthy for me. "Do you need a drink of water?"