Always Silent, Peter Darling

Chapter 24

Peter couldn't do much except for offer his help in the kitchen during serving times. During which he'd listen to her rambles and complaints about how some of the donors were dealing with the money, and that they were only giving the bare minimum for tax write offs.

One evening they closed up like usual, luckily it was a quiet night and there were no incidences during serving.

Maria turned to him after locking the door to the shelter, the older woman looked tired but at the same time content.

"I think I can make it home on my own tonight, Nor," She said with a small smile.

'You sure?' Peter wrote on the now worn out notepad.

"Yeah, plus there's a small fair going on in the park this evening, you should go. It seems like something you'll like," She lightly pat his shoulder before walking past him.

Peter watched her walk down the sidewalk as he put the notepad and pen into his pocket. He absently rubbed the side of his cheek in thought, he no longer wore the bandages and had to face the realization that the claw marks on his cheek were there to stay.

He had no other planes then paroling, but lately the streets have been calm in the area, he liked to think he had something to do with that, so he decided there wouldn't be any harm in visiting the park for a few hours.

The small park was decorated with lights and different booths set up around the walkways. There were venders and games, as well as a small stage with short plays being performed.

All of it was in Russian of course, but that wasn't nearly as much of a problem as it was before. He prided himself on fast learning, since he already had the basics of the language, he easily enjoyed the performances.

But he should have suspected the night wouldn't end well, with his current track record it wasn't a surprise.

It was late when everyone started to pack up, the last performance wrapped up and Peter had been watching from the back row as he sat against the trees.

Most everyone else had brought blankets or lawn chairs to sit on and Peter was very tempted to just climb the tree for a better view but decided not to in the end.

He slowly got up from his spot as he headed out of the park, but it was then that things took an off turn.

He got the strangest feeling that he was being followed, but it had to just be his paranoia since his spidey sense wasn't warning him of anything.

That still didn't stop him from spotting movement out of the corner of his eye. The flickering of a light as if something passed it, or the shifting of trash on the ground caused by a nonexistent breeze.

It felt like something was hunting him, and it was only more terrifying that his spidey sense wasn't reacting to anything.

'It was just paranoia, caused by a lack of sleep ,' Peter kept telling himself, but it hardly help his nerve.

He was about a block away from the park when he finally had enough, the moment he turned the next corner he ran.

If he was just paranoid then nothing would happen, but if he was being followed he didn't want to risk getting caught.

He hurried down a back alley and jumped up a trash can onto the wall as he made it to the roof.

Something heavy landed in front of him, the sound of it was so quiet that only his sensitive hearing could pick up the noise of it's movements that whoever it was obviously made an effort to hide it.

"Peter?" Asked a deep voice from in front of him. Suddenly a figure shimmered into existence. A human shaped body in some kind of costume with four large spider like legs suspending it from the ground.