The Man in the Audience

Special Delivery.

Your POV:

EARTH-616
Y/N's apartment, Manhattan, NYC, NY.
12/24/23. 10:23 A.M. EST.

My vision was blurry as I opened my eyes, the sunlight bleeding into my room and blinding me. It was Christmas Eve today. I unfortunately wasn't going to spend it with anyone since Claire and Ashlee would both be out of town visiting their own families, and my family lived out of state too. I didn't have the money right now to go fly there and see them, as much as I wanted to do so. If money wasn't an issue I'd go see them in a heartbeat. Moving away from them to go dance here in New York hurt my heart, but they knew it was my dream. They loved seeing me happy with what I did.

I got up from my bed quickly, filled with energy. It was Sunday, the best weekend-day in my opinion. Everything just seemed so much calmer on Sundays, I didn't really know why. I went to my bathroom and did my morning routine. I was glad my Nutcracker performances were over with. That is until we begin our next ballet. Then the chaos would start up again. Speaking of the ballet, I hadn't seen that Miguel guy since my opening night. I mean, what did I expect? In a city populated with almost 19 million people what were the chances of me seeing him again? I sighed at the thought, finding myself disappointed. I wished I could see him again. Something about him made me never want to stop thinking about him. But what was that something?...It was probably just a little crush that would wear off in a few weeks. No big deal. There was no harm in having a crush.

I always overdramatized every little compliment that came from guys who showed me the littlest amount of interest. Why was that? Don't ask me, I didn't know either. I left my bathroom and head to my kitchen to make myself something to eat. Today felt like an eggs and bacon day, so I decided to make the traditional breakfast. The day seemed to welcome me gratefully as my morning progressed. My eggs and bacon surprisingly didn't end up burning or charring as they usually did. I was no Gordon Ramsey when it came to cooking, though I made decent quality food that was okay to eat. But hey, I was still kind of learning my ways around the kitchen.

I sat my plate of food down on the coffee table in my den. This time, I didn't turn on the TV and just decided to scroll of my phone in silence instead as I ate. I scrolled upon Ashlee's post on Insta. It was a picture of her and her family picking her up at the airport. My heart swelled from seeing how happy she looked in the picture. I liked the post and continued scrolling. As time went on, I began to hear muffled footsteps in the hallway. Of course I didn't think anything of it, assuming they were just my neighbors. But that changed as I heard a knock on my door. I froze for a minute, looking suspiciously at my front door while I held my fork in my hand. The footsteps then sounded like they were running outside my door. I dropped my fork on my plate, getting up to investigate.

I looked through the peephole of my front door, no one was there. I slowly opened my door, allowing it to creak as I opened it. Sending a horrible disruptive noise down the hall. I looked to the left, then to the right. No one. As I began to close my door thinking it was just some kids, I saw it on my doormat. My comic. There was a small sticky note on the front with some writing on it. As I picked up the book, I began to read the message.

Merry Christmas ;)

-P.P.
-M.O.

What in the actual hell?! I found this a bit creepy, but I laughed immaturely at myself when reading "P.P." I slammed my door, frantically making my way over to my kitchen counter where I set down the comic. I observed it desperately, looking around for any other notes. I flipped through the pages to find nothing else. A million questions ran through my head at once. Who signed this note? Did Spider-Man come to visit me and drop it off since he saw that I left my bag in the alley? If he did, how did he know my address? Did he look at my driver's license when he got my wallet back? I was so confused. I needed to call someone immediately. That someone that came to mind was Ashlee. I grabbed my phone and called her. Hopefully she would pick up though, I knew she was busy.