Dreams of a ghost

_____________________

My memory was hazy. Who was I again?

I don’t remember!

Where am I?

I don’t know!

I was a young man then. In a dashing army uniform.

Full of naïve hopes and unfulfilled dreams. Eager to please.

We had captured a group of insurgents, they were trying to plant an explosive inside our camp.

I was the one who caught them and I was the one who broke them, making them reveal their main base.

I was so good at it that, when we captured the main base, I was responsible for interrogating them too! I was good at my job, perhaps too good and good work gets rewarded with more work.

I didn't mind, I was too occupied doing my job to think about whether I should!

I was a rising star, with constant promotions and more medals than I can count.

Hey…..wait a minute….who am I?

It was white here.

Of course it would be; we’re in Kashmir and it's winter.

When I first came here it gave me the creeps. The place where I was born was nothing like this. It was lush green forests and flora and fauna. It never snowed there. Always warm and predictable.

This place was nothing like home, it was cold. Perhaps not the coldest, but cold enough to make a man homesick!

But still… I was proud that I served my country in the best way I could. I wasn’t perfect by any means. I wouldn’t have been dishonorably discharged for disobeying a superior officer if that were the case.

It was wartime and there was no room for compassion or so they said.

‘Hotheaded young rookie’ My superiors used to call me but I knew on the inside they liked me.

What was the offense that got me booted? Ah forget about it, you would find it boring and trivial.

The important thing was that I stayed true to my principles. Even my superior, who had me court martialed, had nothing but praise for my work ethic and actual field work.

He even privately told me that he regretted having me discharged. Though I didn’t hold it against him, we were both soldiers of the Indian Army fighting for the Republic of India. He was my superior and I disobeyed him, I deserved what I got. I make no excuses for my punishment, and if I were given another chance, I wouldn't change a thing and would refuse that order again.

He helped me get certain contacts for my future venture as a business owner. I ran a private security firm for high-profile people of interest. I won’t disclose too much information, protecting my client’s information is in my contract. This line of work apparently suited me, and eventually I brought my friends in the army into the fold.

I got super rich, super fast.

By two years in, I had more money than I knew what to do with.

So I donated most of my income to rebuilding Kashmir and helping the struggling families get on their feet.

My work is extremely rewarding if I must say so myself.

It's also how I met Shreya, she was a minister's daughter. Me and my team were escorting her, and she took a fancy to me. I was single, so I took her up on the date. Immediately I realized that we couldn't be more different. I don't make a habit of making enemies or bad mouthing others so let's just say that she had an...…expensive lifestyle.

We might have to break up soon...I don't know how she'll take the news. I hope we can still remain friends. It's one of the few qualities that I cherish.

The superior officer and I remained good friends until my eventual death.

If we both can work out our differences then I'm sure me and Shreya would have no issues...

.

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.

.

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WAIT WHAT!

The white background began collapsing.

‘That’s right, I died! I was reborn as…Peter Parker."

Hey, that’s right. I’m Peter Parker.

Yeah so who was I before? A soldier? I don’t remember.

My minds all fuzzy, I can’t remember any-

.

.

.

THEOOO!!!!

Magneto kidnapped him, he kidnapped my friend! I have to go back to save him!

"But you're dead, remember?" Magneto’s face appeared out of nowhere and taunted me.

"I’m definitely going to beat you to a pulp when I wake up!"

"Wake up?"

"Yeah that’s right!"

"Wake up?"

"Yeah…..like when I wake up from this obvious dream sequence! You know how, at the end of the movie, all hope is lost? The hero's questioning everything and giving up, but then he gets a magical dream sequence. It motivates him to fight harder and never give up! Wake Up! You know, metaphorically speaking or I guess in my case quite literally!"

Magneto gave me a brief glance before saying, "Wake Up!"

"Okay, now you’re just getting on my nerves!"

"Wake up." This time his voice was that of a woman’s.

Magneto’s visage was gone, it was now replaced by an elderly woman’s shadow looking down.

"Petey, if you can hear me then please wake up! It’s me."

"Aunt May?"

My lungs absorbed all the air surrounding me, my eyes snapped open.

‘I guess that’s the end of the dream sequence, I guess.’

_______________________________________________________________________

"Please lord." Aunt May prayed as she held my hand tightly.

"Save my son, please…I don’t ask anything more….take me in his stead but let my Peter live." She had closed her eyes and held my hand as she negotiated with god.

"Hey May!" I said weakly, "Could I sleep for some more time before school." I quipped.

She froze and then turned to see if it really was me. When she saw the grin on my face, she started laughing out loud, "Oh thank you lord. Thank you for giving me my baby back!"

She hugged me like I was going to disappear any second now.

I heard two voices outside the room I was in.

"So is he going to be alright?" I heard the familiar fatherly voice I grew up with speak.

"Physically, he’s perfectly healthy, yes. But mentally we can never be sure. He might have developed some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the incident. Before we can be sure of anything he has to wake up first-"

The doctor opened the door for my uncle, and they both entered the room.

"BEN! He’s Up! Pete’s awake now!" My aunt couldn’t contain her excitement, so she called her husband as soon as she saw him.

‘What? Is it tru-" He froze when saw me.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The doctor had a huge surprised smile on his face, "That’s the first piece of good news I’ve heard all day-"

My uncle didn’t wait for the doctor to finish speaking as he rushed to hug me.

"Kid, you gave us the fright of a lifetime!" He started bawling like a child.

I didn’t blame him, in fact I don’t even believe I’m still alive. Magneto truly had me by the ropes. He had checkmated me. I still couldn't rule out the possibility that I actually died and that this was actually heaven.

It made no sense for me to be alive.

I could still feel the tight grip of the killer metal pipe around my throat. I touched my neck just to make sure!

‘Oh thank god!’

"Does it hurt Pete anywhere?" Aunt May was worried about me.

"Oh no, Aunt May, I’m perfectly fine!"

"Physically you’re tip top but I have psychological tests I want to run, but... you do seem okay."

What was with the doubt in his voice? "No, really, I’m fine!" I insisted.

I didn’t want anyone finding out about my superpowers or somehow discovering that I have memories from my previous life.

The doctor didn’t want to discharge me that easily, but when he saw how energetic I was, he changed his mind on the mental tests.

"Well...okay if you’re that sure about it, then fine!" He said with relief and left the room.

‘Huh why was he relieved that I wasn’t taking any tests? Shouldn’t he be more professional about the whole thing? I don’t understand.’

I turned to my uncle and aunt, they both started arguing over if I should have taken the tests or not. With Aunt May arguing in favor and Uncle Ben against. Uncle Ben's reasoning was that doctors would diagnose anything as an issue and give me pills. While Aunt May didn’t want to risk it. Either way the final decision was mine and mine alone.

They were arguing, forgetting that I could hear them both clearly.

"May, trust me when I say this, the kid is fine! Don’t let a shrink tell you otherwise. I've seen many of my friends after the war take those damn pills and let me tell you something, it's not nice!"

"We don’t know that Benjamin, we need to make sure that he’s perfectly fine!"

"Guys!!! I can still hear you talking."

"Oh, sorry Pete! I guess we got carried away" Uncle Ben apologized.

Aunt May was still staring at him, begging him to reconsider.

I touched Aunt May’s hand to reassure her, "I'm fine May!"

"I would feel a lot better if you did as the doctor recommended, Pete."

"I know May but I'm fine, trust me!"

She had that concerned look again and said,

"What happened...at the school?"

"Pete, you need to rest... We’ll tell you everything in detail, but for now, you need to rest!"

Even Uncle Ben decided to join the conversation, saying, "Yeah kiddo, why don’t you take it easy for a bit."

I looked at Aunt May intensely. "I need to know, May! Please."

May looked conflicted, but she finally gave in after realizing that I wasn’t going to rest until my mind was at ease. She reluctantly nodded, and Uncle Ben gently touched my shoulder.

"What happened? What did the government say?"

_________________________________________________________________________

It was a bunch of made up bullshit as usual, the official government story that is.

They said that it was a terrorist organization that was responsible for the attack. They covered it up nicely and I guess none of the survivors knew any better.

I knew better!

I fought against terrorism almost my entire life in my previous life. It is unfathomable that any terrorist cell could be that well equipped and trained! Maybe it fooled ordinary citizens, but I knew something else was at play here.

It was December 14, Sunday. I was out for two whole days.

There was national outrage over the incident. Some even called for the United States to invade Sabzistan. The supposed country harboring the people responsible for the attack.

It made no sense, I don’t know how they managed to pull it off but the government successfully hid the real attackers. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it was a knee jerk reaction by the authorities. Either way I plan to find out what really happened.

When I asked about Theo, my uncle said he was still missing. Almost forty people died that day, and Theo’s family was cooperating with the government.

My fist tightened when I heard that. Magneto was successful.

Humanity should be doomed, Magneto was planning to genocide all of humankind. Whatever the method, Theo must play an important part.

It explains why he was there at the game. Maybe the mercenaries were really American soldiers? Maybe some bigwig up in the Pentagon figured out Magneto’s little plan. Maybe they decided to kill Theo before Magneto could get his hands on him.

It made sense, but I wanted to believe in the government a little bit more.

The truth is, I didn’t have any concrete information, only conjectures and half baked theories.

There were oranges on the table beside my bed. I took the freshest-looking one and started peeling it.

I took a single segment and chewed through the fruit slowly, my throat was still sore, so I had to eat carefully.

The orange was sweet and helped relieve my sore throat.

"Oh Jessica brought that! You better thank her later when she comes by!" I stopped eating. ‘Oh she came to visit me!’

She didn’t have to. I mean, I didn’t expect her to.

I was going to be discharged today, so she didn’t have to! As a matter of fact, Uncle Ben had gone to get the bills and other things sorted.

Knock, Knock.

Hmm that didn’t sound like Uncle Ben, it sounded too rigid for his usual knocking. Aunt May was beside me, reading the Reader's Digest.

Aunt May says, "Come in."

The door opened, and two unfamiliar people entered, one man and one woman. The man was African American, he had a long black leather overcoat and an eye patch covering his left eye. He looked ridiculous, like he was going to a costume party. The woman, though, looked like a normal person, wearing a black jacket over a simple T-shirt.

"Hello, you must be Peter Parker." The man said to me,

"Aye-aye captain."

"Peter!" Aunt May scolded me from the side.

The woman suppressed her laugh, I guess he was her superior.

"I’m terribly sorry about my nephew’s rudeness. Peter, apologize to the good man now!"

"It’s alright, ma’am. I get that a lot!" With a smile that didn't quite reach his lone eye, he said.

There was something about him. He’s definitely seen action. If the eyepatch didn’t give it away then the way he carried himself most definitely did! With his quick but quiet movements and the way he walked, he definitely had a gun on him but tried to play it off as a limp.

He’s good, real good. My senses indicated that he wasn’t a threat though, so I relaxed. Even If he were to go apeshit, I could easily restrain him. Normal humans, even armed ones, didn't seem so bad after my fight with Magneto.

"I'm Nick Smith, and this is Maria Joyce. We’re with the FBI." He showed his badge for authentication.

‘Nick smith? At least he gave his first name out.'

I guess the SHIELD was curious about what happened.

He looked more like Laurence Fishburne than Samuel L. Jackson, to be honest.

"We’re here to talk to Peter to corroborate the official story and discuss some other matters. So ma'am, would you mind giving us some privacy?"

Uh-oh, Aunt May didn’t like that. She was protective of me ever since I woke up and never left my side. Let's see how this goes.

"Peter didn’t do anything wrong. He was found unconscious on the ground running away from those monsters. What more do you want to know?" She asked with agitation.

"Ma’am.. We understand-" Maria Joyce (Hill) was interrupted by my aunt's indignation.

"No, you don’t! You don’t understand! Now please leave us alone, Peter needs some rest!"

They looked at each other, not knowing how to proceed.

I held Aunt May’s hand and said to her, "It’s okay May. Give us some space, I’ll answer their questions."

"You don’t have to Pete and if you want, we could get a lawyer!"

I appreciated her concern for me but I’m not sure if we could afford a lawyer—one that was good enough to take on the SHIELD.

"I’m not a suspect am I? Mr. Smith..?" I asked the man with the eyepatch.

"Not at all! Like I said before, we just want to ask some questions and get the story right! Don’t worry ma'am, we won’t put your nephew in danger."

The man's smile was unsettling. If I didn’t know better, I would have bet serious money that he would turn evil.

"It’s okay May. I’ll be fine." I rubbed her hand again, she still didn’t want me to talk to them without a lawyer but eventually conceded.

"Just call me if you want anything, do you understand, sweetie?"

I nodded, to which she pinched my cheek and said,

"When did you grow up so fast?"

She got up and went outside, shutting the door on her way out.

"Your aunt’s quite protective of you."

"Only when dealing with men who dress like pirates."

This time I could hear Maria Hill laugh under her breath. Even Nick Fury cracked a smile at that.

"Alright, wiseass, tell me everything that led to the terrorist attack. We have witnesses stating that it started with the TV camera exploding and a fire breaking out. Continue from there."

I told them all about how Theo and I helped.

How I broke the locked door and how he used the fire extinguishers to clear a path for the people in the court to escape. I included the fabricated parts of Theo falling down and losing his consciousness. The same story that I told Theo’s brother.

It was vital for the sake of consistency.

I didn’t include the parts about me fighting Mystique or Flame guy. Eventually, the part about the mercenaries came. I told them that I ran away after hearing the gunfire, had a panic attack, and lost consciousness.

"So you have no memory of anything after that?"

"Nope."

I sincerely doubt they could do anything against Magneto and I didn’t want to reveal Theo's powers to them. If the government wasn’t responsible for the attack then they most definitely will be in the future. Theo represents a major threat to Humanity’s existence. They will rationalize somehow and find a reason to kill him.

Even though Nick Fury was a good man, I couldn’t say the same about SHIELD. Especially since Hydra members are likely to have infiltrated it.

"Hmm... I get the feeling that you’re telling the truth but you're keeping some parts of it to yourself. If you have information, Peter, now is the time to share it." Nick Fury pressed on.

"I’m not lying Mr. Smith."

"No I know…..it was brave of you to break down that door and help people out. All the witnesses we talked to confirm that much. Some even said that you charged one of the terrorists to create a distraction for the others to escape."

Damn I forgot about that.

"Yeah I tried to do that but when they actually fired at me I ran away!"

Since he didn’t say that his witness saw me fighting off the mercs. I could safely conclude that I could stick with my original story. If I started telling the truth now it would look really suspicious.

"Why didn't you mention that earlier in your story... seems like an important detail to leave out."

I shrugged.

"Didn’t seem all that important to me then…I tried to play hero but then got scared by the gunfire. You could say I was embarrassed to say it to you."

He scratched his beard and let out a deep breath.

I guess I’m safe now.

"I think you are a hero... If you didn't smash open that door. Everyone there would have died. I'm going to recommend that you get a citizen's award for bravery."

"A lot of people did die, though, and I don’t think I can accept that award without having a guilty conscience."

"You did what you could, and that’s more than enough!" Maria Hill spoke up.

There was an awkward silence for some time. They both exchanged looks, and I guess that was the end of the interrogation. I suppose I was off the hook.

"Alright then… We’ll be leaving. Thank you for your time."

They turned around to leave, and I picked up the orange again. At the last second, Nick Fury turned around and said,

"You wouldn’t know anything about a man who can control metals, would you?"

Wow, he waited until the last moment to reveal that. Nick Fury didn’t play around.

Fortunately for me, I had a great poker face.

"What are you talking about?" I pretended to dismiss what he said as lunacy. How would a normal person react when asked that question? I acted exactly like that.

He observed my face. trying to identify any cracks.

His lone eye surveilled my face, drilling into my eyes but I had a great poker face and he couldn't get anything.

He looked disappointed and went outside.

I could hear Aunt May and them talk about something for a few moments but then they stopped.

Then the door opened, Aunt May and Jessica Thompson entered through the door.

"I heard from Maybelle that you’re up!" She came running to my side.

"I was worried to death when I saw you sleeping so helplessly." She said with a worried look.

Aunt May sat off to the side, smug.

Jessica saw the orange in my hand and changed the topic before things could get too sappy,

"Oh do you like the oranges I brought?"

"Thanks for that, Jessica!"

"Of course! It’s the least I could do, you're helping with my brother’s studies, so I guess…I just wanted to show my appreciation." She said with a crooked smile.

"Is that all? Here I thought we were good friends... or were you just using me for your brother's sake."

She smiled brightly and said, "Well, that’s part of it too, I guess!"

Aunt May coughed loudly, letting us young folk know that she was still there and to tone down the flirting.

I wasn’t going to be discouraged that easily, though.

"So... wanna have that Sunday date now?’