Light in the Dark | PETER PARKER

prologue

HER EYES snap open. The wide, dark pupils contract and focus in the dark as she blinks her heavy eyelids. Goosebumps rise on the olive skin of her freckled arms and she realizes that she's outside. The cool air breezes over her like ice, but then a burning pain shoots through her veins and spreads across her limp body like wildfire. The girl's chapped lips part as she gasps at the sensation. An icy air fills her lungs and soothes the burning before it's gone all at once, but the blood in her veins feels heavy like lead.

Wincing at the dull ache in her skull, the girl lifts her head off the concrete ground. She looks down at her self—her small eleven-year-old body is covered by an unfamiliar black t-shirt and sweatpants she swore she wasn't wearing before. Then, the thought strikes her: what was she wearing before?

She tries to uncover her memories, but the dull pain in her head bursts like a fiery explosion. Her head falls back against the concrete and she hisses in pain, her back arching and her heavy arms lifting so she can grasp her head. It's like the pain is dark and reaching out for her, like it is clawing it's way from the depths of hell and tugging her away from light. Teeth grinding and eyes squeezed shut, something more powerful than the pain overcomes her body. A bone-chilling fear washes over her as she lies in a vacant alley somewhere in New York in the fetal position, no recollection of how she ended up there.

For a moment the girl wonders if she's dead, but she pushes that notion away because she knows that she isn't since she would be in heaven if she were.

Pushing herself up to sit with her legs curled in front of her on the ground covered in a thin layer of moisture, the girl strains her eyes to take in her surroundings. Two large brick buildings are on either side of her, little water droplets drip from the gutters onto the ground next to her, and there is a distant flickering street light around the corner that provides little light to her position in the alley. The girl doesn't recognize any significant features that she has passed on her route to and from school, so she has no idea where she could be. For all she knows, she could even be in a different state.

The girl tucks her stray black hair behind her ear and reaches out for the closest brick building to balance herself as she stands. The dim moonlight catches her outstretched forearm. The girl sucks in a breath and brings her arm up to her face for a better look, shock and horror filling her dark eyes. A thick, black liquid replaces her blood in her veins, the anomaly prominent through her skin. The girl, disbelief written over her soft features, quickly moves her other arm into the light. Like the other, dark vines run up her arm under her skin. However, as she studies them with glistening eyes, the black starts to fade into a light navy that is less noticeable. Soon, the black is completely gone with the regular soft blue in its place, and its absence leaves the girl to question her sanity.

She clenches her fists. A tingle shoots up her spine, and something inside the young, innocent girl growls like a beast in the night. Anger, red-hot anger boils in her chest. This isn't like the girl to feel such strong negative emotions, especially since she was known to feel the exact opposite. Her heart, once full with gold and love, is now infected by a darkness that is spreading like a disease.

Her small fists still clenched, she blinks. When her eyes open a millisecond later, her eyes are pitch black from corner to corner. It's like her pupils have bled to the entirety of her eyes like ink.

Her fists only tighten. Like smoke, a black wisp ignites from her hands.

Like a snap of the fingers, the anger and hatred vanishes. The girl's eyes return to their original colors and widen as they take in the wisp of black fading into thin air before her. She collapses to her knees and clutches the hard ground, mind whirring. A sob escapes her trembling lips as she tries to piece together what happened to her and what just happened. When she comes up empty again, fishing for memories in an empty body of water, she decides to get out of the dark alley and figure out where she is so she can go back home to her little brother and grandma.

The darkness from before doesn't leave the girl—it burrows deep inside, waiting to be let loose.