-Peter in his room-
Peter woke up to the familiar white ceiling, his eye's squinting open to take in the world around him, Staring up at the familiar ceiling in a sleepy daze, like he was just waking up from the world's worst nightmare unable to accept that it was really only a nightmare.
'Am I dead?' He wondered.
Confusion didn't even begin to describe his mental state when, slowly memories from the previous night made started coming back, prompting him to quickly shoot up in shock and panic, instinctively checking the state of his body in fear. Feeling out his chest his arms, and his face, quickly glanced at his legs and wiggled his toes.
'Hands, ok, clothes... ok? how is that..chest, face, legs.. all good? no injury or cuts! no scars too! And my tail, wait my tail?'.
He glanced behind him to check on his tail only to quickly realized that he didn't have a tail anymore, not only that, the hunger was gone, and his senses were no longer as acute as they were when he took the serum.
Right, I don't have a tail, come on Pete, the serum must have worn off completely, but that doesn't explain anything, whats happening? where am I? How did I get to my room?'.
He let out a soft sigh, he was in his room but that just made things worse
'Calm down... breath,'.
He let out a sigh of relief, closing his eyes he started to take deep breaths to come to his rapidly beating heart. No pain from anywhere, lifting his shirt, he checked for wounds, but nothing, all clear skin.
'Come on, breath'.
In...Out...In...Out...Inhale...Exhale...
'I'm not dead. I can still feel my body. I'm in my room right now. No lizard skin, No pain, no tail, nothing out of place, I'm alive' he considered in astonishment.
'I'm Alive!'
"Holy shit...I'm Alive"
He whispered in shock and relief.
"I'm alive...hahaha...I'm alive...hhahaahaha. I'm alive...haha...sob...sob...I'm...Al-Alive"
He repeated slowly, each time getting louder and firmer as if to reassure himself that he was alive, that he didn't die, slowly letting out a joyful laugh, one that slowly descended into silent sobs as his mind started processing the fact that he was, in fact, alive and breathing.
He hugged his knees up into his chest in a fetal position and rest his head into the palm of his hands, minutes, hours must have passed but he hardly noticed, he was there in a slobbering mess of his own tears as the events of the previous night came rushing back.
How was he even alive, he contemplated as the shock and confusion passed giving way to his rational thoughts.
'How is this even possible?' he questioned the reality of his current situation.
He was sure that he died last night, he couldn’t find the words to describe the feeling, but he was quite confident he died, hell he doubted there were any words in the dictionary to even describe whatever this is that was happening.
Everything was still fresh in his mind, the pain, the anguish, the breaking of his bones, his flesh twisting and ripping.
Everything hurting...
The pain, the hunger, the need to feed...
Feed...To feel his claws sink into flesh... To consume and satiate his hunger...
He needed to feed on flesh...
'I NEED TO FEED! EVerYthing HUrts. SHe's gOINg toKILL MEEEE, why DOes eVErytThing HUrT SO MUCH!'.
'STOP IT!' He grabbed his head in alarm, dread, and anxiety creeping into him, but before it could get worse he forced himself to focus. Throwing those thoughts and feelings away, locking them deep in his mind to be handled later as best he could.
Slowly he pulled his hands away and glanced around the room, taking note of the absence of blood or claw marks with deliberate calming breaths, any distraction was welcomed right now.
Everything was as it should be, it was normal, too normal, even his clothes, they were the same ones from last night but they were no longer torn, ripped, or covered in dirt, dust, and blood. His clothes looked as they did before they were torn apart by his transformation.
IT WAS TOO NORMAL.
“How the hell am I even here? how did I even get here? (sigh) Maybe I am dead and this is some kind of purgatory?”
He was about to try to find some rational reason for all THIS when a feminine voice shocked him out of his thoughts.
“Finally you notice, but you aren’t dead, of that I’m sure”
“Ghaa! What the-what now?!” he startled, scrambled in surprise to the edge of his bed, far away from where the voice was coming from.
It was a woman.
Only she didn't seem like one, she looked like one sure, but there was this subtle air of ancient royalty around her like she just knew everything and everything was just a passing thought, she a presence that radiated something different, profound, dark.
It permeated the space around her, this feeling akin to an accepted finality as if eventually one wouldn't know it or understand it, but they would have no choice but to accept her because that was her nature.
She was seated in his chair not far from his bed, one leg folded over the other as hands were folded under her chest, with brunette hair, an oddly familiar face, mature and attractive, he couldn’t quite place it, the familiarity behind her face making him uncomfortable, dressed and a long-sleeved white shirt under a blue denim jacket, with tight black jeans and black ankle boots. She had a contemplative look on her face, one of interest and irritation.
It was her eyes though that Peter noticed first, they had a haunting yellow glow, almost as if she could see inside his very soul.
“Yes”
“What?” Peter asked in confusion.
“ I can see into your soul, a soul I might add, that shouldn’t be here in any way, shape, or form”
'WAIT?! What the hell? Can she read my mind?'
“Yes”
'and what? my soul? shouldn’t be where now?'.
“Here on the mortal plane, earth, in your body”
OK, now Peter was genuinely starting to panic, with equal parts terror and confusion, as more questions started piling up in his head.
There was a woman in his room, with glowing eyes who could apparently see his soul and read his mind if her words were to be believed, how did she get here? How long was she sitting there?
What did she see? What the hell is happening? Wait… Who even is she? And why the hell did she look so damn familiar?
“Oh do keep up Pete, you are supposed to be one of the smart ones, but I suppose given your present…situation this should be expected, to answer your questions, I’ve been here since well forever, been sitting here since you arrived, I see everything, that's what I’d also like to find out, and as to who I am, it would be far more entertaining if you figured that out yourself, here’s a hint, you did really die last night and I am here because you are now very much alive and as to how I look so familiar, you should know the answer too, given that this current form you see me as is someone of great importance to you.”
She smiled coyly at him, almost as if she was laughing at an inside joke only she knew all while staring intently at him like she was some puzzle she couldn’t wrap her head around.
'OK, Peter think, come on use your head, calm down, panicking now won't do me any good' Peter slowly attempted to make as much sense of whatever the hell was going on as he could, he tried taking calming breaths as this woman didn’t seem to want to harm him in any way...
'She’s here since forever, like really how is that even an answer, and she sees everything, and she’s here because I died last night but I’m alive now, and she looks like someone I should know, the hell does that even mean and this for? Like she has other forms? Like how confusing can…this…get…'
Peter slowly paused his internal monologue as he started to notice just how familiar her face was, in fact, she almost look like…
No…
No freaking way...
Peter's eyes, widened in astonishment, pupils dilating, and his breath hitched as his heart skipped a beat.
She looked exactly like that picture of his…
'Mom?! But that's impossible, she couldn’t be his mom because she’s…dead…and she was here because he died and was somehow…alive…wait…in the form of a loved one… here because I died…HOLY FUCKING MOTHER OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND ALIVE THIS WOMAN WAS'.
Realizing slowly dawned on his face as the entity answered his question while the equal parts terror and confusion very quickly morphed into one of pure terror.
“Death”.
The entity wearing the face of his late mother answered with an amused smile on her face, now it was more along the lines of a shit-eating grin, she lit out an ominous yellow glow as wisps of dark smoke slowly wisped around her being as her face and form started to momentarily glitch between his late-mothers and that of a skull with gray skin, dressed in a purple dress.
'WELL, SHIT'.
If someone was to ask Peter if he wet himself a little in that moment or not, his answer would and always be a big fat NO, he most certainly DID NOT WET HIMSELF, hell he wouldn’t even justify that QUESTION with an answer, I mean this was death, what exactly was one expected to do in the face of the freaking grim reaper.
Peter had considered everything and came to a single conclusion after a split second.
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'She's here to kill me, she said that stuff about the soul and everything, so yeah, I will most likely die today'.
His mind already accepting her for what she was, it was difficult for him to explain but only an idiot would sit across from death and not know who and what she was, words lacked the ability to describe the feeling he had right now, it would take a person to experience it to know it, kinda like dying.
'Oh god the irony'
Death did a spit take as if she was struggling to hold back her something, her eye's twinkling with mirth, only Peter mistook that ominous yellow glow for something else, something far more sinister.
“Please don’t kill me, I mean I’m alive right now right so you can’t actually kill the living right Mom, I mean Death, I mean your greatness, I mean lord death, No sorry, sorry, I meant to say Lady Death, I mean just thinking about it, I don’t think I am that important, and-and don’t you have like other people to reap, you know more important people, if you do you should you know to go over there instead of wasting your time here with little old me, right, right so… soo… Yeah…Please don’t kill me..”
“Pfft...hehsh..ahad.ahahhHAHAHAAHA”
In a very Peter-like fashion, the terrified teen did the only thing he could do when backed into a corner, and that was the art of bullshitting, but thankfully before he could embarrass himself further, a soft chuckle filled the room, one that bloomed into a burst of melodious laughter.
“HAHAHHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAaahhaahaha” Death held her stomach and laughed with little regard to Peter's terrified state.
Peter could only watch in confused terror as DEATH of all things slowly finished her laughing fit, of all things Peter thought he would do in life, meeting the literal embodiment of death was not one of them.
“Sorry…hahaha… it's just, I don’t get to do this often but one of the many joys I find is seeing the look on a mortal's face when they come to the realization of what I am…hahaha… But don’t worry your little head about it, I am not here to end you, if I wanted to that you'd already be dead and this is just a tiny piece of me, I am still out there reaping souls.” she made a gesture with her pointer and index finger for the open and close quotation marks at the mention of reaping, laughing to an inside joke only she was privy too.
"..."
"......"
“Really Peter you have nothing to worry about, I am only here to talk”
“Wait really?”.
“Yes”.
“Really Really”.
A single raised eyebrow from the being was enough to know that he should stop.
“Right sorry, shutting up now”.
Peter let out an internal sigh but still couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that the literal grim reaper was sitting just a little distance from him.
'Deep breaths Peter, a level head is what you need right now, Deep breaths, this can’t possibly get any w0-NO. No, not going there. Thank God, that was too close, almost made this worse, smooth Pete, real smooth.'
The entity just sat in silence never once taking her eyes off the teen, letting him have as much time as he needed to gather his thoughts, as the human saying went this wasn’t her first rodeo and it won’t be the last. But it was fun nonetheless, maybe she should do this more often, a certain red and black spandex-wearing merc-with-the-mouth came to mind.
"..."
“Sigh…So death right? If you don’t mind me asking what exactly do you want to know and uhm…
well I mean if it's not too much could you like, tell me what's going on right now, cause you know, I am human and all” Seeing as she was patiently waiting for him to get himself together, Peter stilled himself for what was to come and asked her.
“Right…Your ‘human and all’, to be honest, I am also quite confused, it's not every day I find a soul forcefully taken from my grasp and returned to its body, though what makes me more curious is the nature in which it was taken from me, to put it simple Peter, for a moment you existed above my domain, free from all confines, concepts, and laws of this world, to the extent that none of my siblings even noticed you, my domain was beneath your very existence, above theirs, even I would not have noticed if you weren’t already in my domain to begin with, by the time I did you were alive and well, and once more return to your human mortal self.”
Death answered but neglected to mention the intervention of T.O.A.A, the child was already in a panic now, imagine how worse it would get if he found out that the literal God of the world paid him a visit while he was unconscious and proceeded to hide the nature of his existence from all of creation. Yeah, best not to open that can of worms.
'Death had siblings, who would have thought.'
“Wait so you're saying that something happened to me, which made me exist above Gods, Literal Gods, above you, Death, and then I was alive again, and you're here right now because you don’t know what happened” His mind already a mess still had some semblance of rationality left to make some sense of what death was saying.'
“In a manner of speaking, yes” she nodded, her head tilting to the left ever so slightly.
'As if this couldn’t get in more mind-boggling, I think I’m gonna have a hell of a headache after this, How the heck does someone exist above death' That very notion seemed to cause him to wince and grab his throbbing skull as his mind attempted to come up with a rational explanation.
“Don’t remind me, as baffling as it sounds such beings exist, but none are human, at least not yet, and not in this particular corner of the universe” Dearth replied to his thoughts in a tone riddled with annoyance.
“Right, forgot about the whole I can read your mind thing, but still how can you not know, I mean your Death, aren’t you suppose to be, you know, all-knowing and stuff?”Peter asked, his eyes darting to her to and from her face, as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t bring himself to actually look at her, it was rather uncomfortable.
“I am, most of the time, but this time it seems whatever brought you back was just greater”
“Wait whatever what know? You saying some other all-powerful being brought me back.”
This was probably the confusing day of Peter's life, and it would maybe remain that way until he died. Well, the next time he died seeing as he was alive right now.
“A question for another time, for now, I am simply here to tell you that I’ll be watching you, whatever the cause for your… revival… it’s of great interest to me. Also, you took something that belongs to me, something I can’t seem to take back, something very dear to me, a…piece of me… if you will” Something seemed to change in her, a subtle twitch of her brow, he voice got a little lower, and for the first time since making her presence known she looked away from Peter, confused at her own answer like she herself was coming to terms with what she just told him.
“ I’m sorry, but I did what?!” Peter did a double take as if what was happening wasn't enough to last a lifetime spent in the insane asylum now death just had to casually drop another bomb on his sanity.
'Yeah this is officially the weirdest day of my life, how does that one even take a piece of Death.'
Peter could already feel his head aching worsen, this was just too much too soon for the poor teen, first, he finds out his alive after he supposedly died, then he finds out from DEATH, THE DEATH, that no Peter something brought you back, but you're alive anyway because this happened and now I(death) will watch you(Peter) for the rest of your mortal life.
He sighed and rubbed his temple.
"Calm down, it's not as bad as you think" Death rolled her eye's at his over-the-top reaction.
"Calm... Did you not hear what you just said? Sorry if I'm being a little dramatic right now, but I don't think you understand how bad that sounds to a normal person, I mean stealing a piece of death, like what the hell does that even mean? And a piece does that mean I am gonna die or become a grim reaper now, or wait what evens a piece of death, how do you give an abstract concept a physical form, how does that work" Peter rambled on unable to comprehend it even with his intellectual prowess being greater than others of his age group.
One could say, that just made things worse for the poor boy.
Snap...Death snapped her fingers casually, getting Peter's attention.
"That's enough now. I suppose you're right, that wasn't my brightest move but, l reassure you that it isn't as bad as it sounds in fact it is the reason for my being here and you being alive again. Don't try to think too much into it, at least not, for now, everything will make more sense in due time."
Peter closed his eyes, and let out a deep frustrated sigh, but accepted Death's words, there was nothing else to be done now, he wasn't in the right mind, to begin with, and this would make things worse for him if he tried to think about it.
Little did Peter know that death was subtly influencing his emotional state, calming him down, and keeping him in a rational state that allowed him to better process what they were talking about.
“So are you just here to tell me that you’ll be watching me?” Peter asked after a short while.
“Yes”
“And you're just going to leave me here, alive, now reaping my soul for breaking cosmic rules that I didn't know of, I might add, like really how does a person like me exist above something like you ”
“Again yes, I have no reason or desire to end you” Now visibly annoyed, death glanced back at Peter, prompting him to look away portraying an aura of complete innocence.
“ OK fine, sorry just had to ask…So what happens now?” He had so many questions but the sooner this is over the better, his alive right now and he did not want to test fate by keeping the personification of death here any more than she needed to be.
“Now I will take my leave and you will go back to your life” She got up slowly and walked towards him slowly, a strange glint in he glowing eyes.
“H-hey, huh, death, w-what are you doing?”
Peter was on high alert, leaning back but try as he might his body remained still as it was unable to move.
“Just testing a theory, tell me, Peter, who do see now,” she answered as her form suddenly shifted, a ripple traveled through her body as the image of his mother was covered in shadows and changed, her form became shorter, the brunette hair changed into long crimson streaks, and what was once his mother's face was now the face of his not so secret crush, and neighbor, Mary Jane Watson, her yellow eyes remained in place of her vibrant green, still possessing that odd glint as she stood just within arms length of him.
" Do I have to answer that?" Peter asked, his voice expressing his discomfort.
"Yes"
“ You...Um, look like my uh, my neighbor Marry Jane, seriously what are you doing? Cause whatever it is it's really um you know” Peter asked, his heart skipping a beat, and who could blame him, he was still a teen in the end, still finding himself unable to move.
'keep it together Peter, this is death, this is death, oh shit'
“ Your neighbor is that so” She had a knowing smile on her face, and slowly she moved a hand up towards his face.
“Um, D-death?”
She paid no mind to his plea, but her eyes widened slightly as she stopped her hand about a couple of inches shy of the left side of his cheeks. Peter following her hand movements with his eyes let out a sigh of relief. He failed to notice that Death's hand wasn’t stopped because she chose to follow through with her intent but rather
Something was holding it back.
{Aijin-Dorment(Self-Activation)}
“Huh, that's interesting, you don’t see it do you?” death asked, perplexed, the glint in her eyes seem to worsen, now it really glowing a bright brilliant yellow, looking over his right shoulder.
“W-what, see what, hey, what's happening right now?” Peter tried to calm his rapidly beating heart, struggling to turn his head to look at what she seemed to be looking at, but from what his eyes could see, it was just her hand, inches away from his left cheek.
What Peter couldn’t see was what death was intently staring at, behind Peter, his shadow grew dark and shot up, taking form as a pale hand warped in bandages held death's outstretched hand in a tight grip, keeping it from reaching Peter's cheek. Another three pair of similar arms wrapped themselves around his torso coming out from under his arms hugging him from behind, two on the side and one on the other while yet another two came up, one caressed his left cheek while the other hugged his neck protectively.
Attached to the end of the six limps was a pale female figure warped in bandages from the neck down and some covered parts of her face, while others floated around her form free from gravity. Her hair, silky and long, hid parts of her body and was as dark as the shadows themselves, to the point where one could hardly tell where the shadows end and her hair begin.
Her face leaned into Peter's own, resting her chin on his shoulders, nuzzling into the nape of his neck.
Her eyes stood out to death the most, a haunting brilliant yellow that matched death's own eyes, glaring at her, as if to tell her, now was not the time, to keep your hands off him.
“So this is what you stole from me” Death muttered to herself, sighing in resignation. Glancing back at Peter's confused face she lights out a light chuckle.
She leaned in slowly until she once inches away from Peter's face, enough so that if she could breathe Peter would have felt it, but death had no need for oxygen, breathing was for lower beings.
“Uh…death?… your… you know…a….little too close, not-not to be disrespectful and all but, there is this thing called personal space he humans abide by, so u-uhm… you know” Peter’s heart was beating a mile a minute, and despite constantly reminding himself that this was the LITERAL GRIM REAPER he had little control over his physical reaction to the image of his crush suddenly so close, her glowing eyes just gave an out of this world appeal.
' calm down Peter, calm, my mind as calm, like watEERR. sweet marry mother of Jesus, that's too close, way to close, she death, Pete, okay… she’s hot-cot can it she can read minds, wait does that mean she heard, I mean, man I am hungry, is it hot here or it that just me, calm parker, I am still water…calm is my -.'
Uncaring of the teen's inner turmoil death, glanced back at the entity now bound to Peter, It was a piece of her, that she can now confirm, one bound to Peter's soul for the sole purpose of bringing back to life, it was her yet it wasn’t, not yet, Peter had to die to compete the bond it seemed, by being near him, she forced this piece out of its dormant state.
She looked back at Peter, the amused knowing grin back on her face, moving closer than before, only for two of the hands to burst forth and wrap around her neck while multiple bandages wrapped themselves around death's body in an attempt to hold her back.
She held his gaze.
“You're a thief Peter Parker, as such your soul is MINE and MINE alone, mine to collect, mine to own, nothing in the universe can stop that now, I will come visit you after your next passing. Until then take care, little thief”
And with that, she was gone in a blink as if she was never there to begin with.
The entity that made itself known also instantly vanished with Death's disappearance.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING WITH MY LIFE?” The flustered yelled in shock and did the only rational thing one would do in his situation.
He fainted…
-Chapter End-