INVISIBLE | P. PARKER

TWENTY NINE

TWENTY-NINE;
NIGHTMARE

"WHERE AM I?"

      Cassie swore she would never see that place again, her legs were shaking and her head was spinning as her brown eyes scanned the dark, evil place she was in.

       She cried. She cried everything she had bottled up. She cried until her sides hurt, and she cried because everything was falling apart around her, and she couldn't do anything about it.

       "Look at me." Cassie pursed her lips together as the evil man forced her to look straight to his dark eyes. "I said: look at me!" He yelled, making her flinch.

       "Leave her alone!" Peter's voice echoed in the large laboratory. "If you touch her I swear–" But he was cut off by his own scream and the painful needle in his arm.

       "D–Don't do a–anything t–to him please." She whispered, biting her lower lip and trying her best to not cry at the sight of her friend suffering because of her.

       "Bring the formula!" The man yelled, making Cassie look at him with fear. She tried to fight, but she couldn't move and that terrified her. "Now, I fixed the formula just for you." He caressed her cheek and she looked away. "What an ungrateful little girl."

      "D–Don't touch me." She snapped, frowning, but a slap across her face made her wish she didn't say anything.

"Shut up." He sneered, taking the needle with an evil smile. Cassie tried to fight against him, but it was useless. "Now, if you move it'll hurt more." The scientist laughed manically and she sobbed, it broke her heart to listen Peter's screams in the background. "It'll hurt anyway."

Her brown eyes watched with fear the needle as it slowly got closer to her body. As soon as it made contact with her skin, the dreadful pain took over her body and forced her to scream.

"Cassie!" She closed her eyes, fighting against the men holding her arms to stop her from moving.

"Cassie!" She cried and screamed as much as she could.

"Cassie! Wake up!"

As soon as she opened her eyes, the objects floating around the room fell to the floor and her eyes rigorously scanned the room with steady breaths. The only thing she saw was several eyes worriedly looking at her.

"W–Where am I?" Her voice quivered and she had to bite her lip to stop the tears from escaping. "Peter–" She sat straight, looking around. "C–Charlie–"

"You're in Stark Tower. With us." Tony placed his arms on her shoulders, making her look up at him to meet his gaze. "And Charlie... We don't really know where he is." The man explained, trying to not bring the other boy's name into the conversation. 

That's when reality hit her. She wasn't back in HYDRA, and Peter wasn't there with her suffering. She was back in New York, with Tony and the twins.

A relieved sigh left her chapped lips and pressed her her shaky hand on her forehead to clean the sweat. Her brown eyes scanned the people in front of her, she hoped to find those beautiful chestnut eyes staring at her, but Peter wasn't there. Why would he? Their friendship was over.

"I–I'm sorry for waking you up." She quietly spoke, looking at Tony and Natasha slowly walking out of her room. "It won't happen again."

"It's okay to have nightmares, you know?" Pietro said as he sat next to her on the bed, Cassie nodded. "It was about HYDRA, right?" She nodded hesitantly.

"Pietro has nightmares too." Wanda pointed, sitting cross-legged on the bed. The brunette looked down. "What happened in the dream?"

"Peter was there too." She whispered, looking down at her lap. The twins looked at each other. "They were testing on him, and he was screaming because of the pain. I wanted it to stop, but it felt–" She swallowed the lump in her throat. "It felt too real."

"You like him, right?" Pietro asked softly, placing his arms around her cold shoulders.

"No." The brunette tried to lie, but the looks in their eyes made her sigh deeply. "Okay, maybe I do. But it doesn't matter, he has a girlfriend anyway."

"I think you should tell him."

"I can't." Cassie exhaled sharply. "We are not friends anymore." They frowned. "Can we please stop talking about him?" She pleaded, resting her head on Pietro's shoulder.

A silence lingered in the dark room as the trio looked at each other with troubled expressions. Cassie looked down at her hands and Pietro placed a gently kiss on the crown of her head. Sleep was trying to lure her back to bed, but she knew better, she didn't want to have any more nightmares, even if it meant not sleeping.

"Do you really think you can go back to the group home?" Wanda asked with shyness.

"Actually," Cassie began, turning her head to face the girl. "I was hoping Tony could do something about it."

"Like what?"

"It's silly. Forget it." She shrugged, a fake chuckle left her lips and the twins turned to look at each other.

"Cassie." They said at the same time, making her sigh.

"Something like.. adopting me. Maybe?"