He was standing in a dark alley, cold, alone. And It wasn't just a cold sensation fabricated by his sleeping mind. No-it wasrealcold, tangible on his skin and in his lungs as he breathed. The wind lapped at his face as it billowed gently by with all the absoluteness of reality. The trash scraping along the asphalt as it caught the breeze sang faithfully in his ears. This didn't feel like a dream at all. The fact that he was even able to stand there and ponder the dream's authenticity without his mind being automatically snapped awake by the realization confused him even more. His head did not feel foggy, his vision was not obscured. Every thought and every image stood out with crisp, sharp clarity.
"Spidey..." A disorderly high pitched voice called out from all sides in the darkness.
He went stiff. His fingers froze against his skin. Spider-man had heard this voice before, at a time that seemed so long ago. His breaths shivered as they slipped from his lips. His eyes were wide in the faint light of the moon.
"Who...who's there?" he whispered to the darkness, rooted to his spot in the alleyway. He couldn't see past the large trash bin squatting to the left. The rest of the narrow passage was vacant of light.
A laugh suddenly echoed from every which way, "It's been a while hasn't it."
The darkness stirred to life. It crawled towards him ever-so-slowly along the walls, the earth, the sky, moving as organic shadows. A cold bead of sweat slithered down his face. The man tried to take a step back, but his legs were stiff as stone.
"No, you're dead!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"
The shadows writhed in amusement and purred with laughter. "Why, I want everything from you. I want your friends. Your loved ones. Everything you hold dear. I want to take them them from you. I want to consume them. I want to leave you with nothing but your misery and loneliness."
Immediately, Spider-man's vision shifted. He was in a hospital room. He was standing beside the bed as a soft beeping noise sounded from a machine. Under the thin covers, a frail woman lied motionless, asleep. It was his mother. She looked like a skeleton. Pale, paper-thin skin was stretched across her hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. Michael breathed unsteadily, stepping closer to her. He reached out to nudge her awake.
"Mom? Are...are you-?"
She shot out of bed. Her bony fingers suddenly seized him by the wrist. He sucked in his breath and tried to pull away, but her grip was like iron. When her eyelids slowly peeled open, there was nothing behind them but voids of darkness.
"Michael," she whispered, her raspy voice sending chills rippling down his spine."What have you done to me? Why did you leave me here to die?"
Shuddering, he shook his head left and right. "No. No, I didn't!?"
"Why did you leave me?" She repeated viciously. The darkness began to pour out of her eyes, her mouth. It began oozing from her skin and swallowing her in an inky envelope. "Why did you leave me?" It slithered up her arm, down her fingertips, on to Michael's hand. No matter how hard he tried, he could not wrench himself free.
"Let me go! Let me go, please!"
"Why did you leave me!?"
"I didn't leave you! I would never leave you!"
"Why did you leave me here to die...?"
Spider-man closed his eyes in horror, his body quaking. When he opened them again, she was gone. The hospital room was gone. He was outside now. It looked like Central Park. It was warm and vibrant and birds were chirping merrily in the summer air. He gazed around in awed confusion, wondering how his mind could conjure something that felt so real. He didn't realize someone was still holding on to his wrist until it was given a sharp tug.
He glanced to his left, and was surprised when his eyes fell upon the beautiful face of Fubuki. She was smiling brilliantly at him.
"Come on Spidey, dance with me!"
He was puzzled. "Dance?" he asked, narrowing his eyebrows. "Since when did you like to dance?"
She released his hand and smiled radiantly. "I always have. I just didn't realize it until I got here!" Fubuki began twirling around and around effortlessly through the grass all across the surface of the hill. Giggles escaped her soft pink lips, and the frills of her dress encircled her frame like the petals of a rose.
Spider-man watched her leap about with a mixture of confusion and amusement, and he couldn't keep himself from chuckling at her childish joy. Then his laughter stopped. His smile vanished. His muscles stiffened.
"Fubuki, you're bleeding!"
She giggled. "Don't worry about that. Won't you join me?"
"You're bleeding. You're hurt."
Crimson veins were slowly eating through the black fabric. "It's okay, sweetheart, really! Quit being such a downer and dance with me!"
Spider-man grabbed Fubuki firmly by her arm. "Stop moving around! I'm being serious! You're injured."
She stared down at him with a stinging innocence in her eyes. The red was seeping through her crisp white gown and growing wider and wider by the second. "I don't understand why you're so bothered by this."
"I don't understand how you're not bothered by this at all!" he yelled back, releasing her arm and gently cradling her waist in his hands. "Look at yourself!"
Along her midriff, just above her stomach, two identical spots of red were darkening through Fubuki's dress and forming streams down the front of her body. The dark stains cut through the purity of her presence like a serrated knife and caused alarm to spike inside of Spider-man's heart. More black fabric was succumbing to scarlet as it fanned out ever-so-slowly across her abdomen like a hungry wildfire. Drops of blood were slipping down her slender legs and on to the grass beneath her feet. Fubuki continued staring at him earnestly without a hint of concern in her eyes.
"What's wrong, Spider-man? Don't you think I look beautiful like this?" Fubuki asked innocently as her head was tilting to the side adding a giggle to it.
The red pool of blood around Fubuki's figure suddenly changed as sharp tendrils shot up hitting every inch of her body as the last one aimed underneath her chin making its way through the top of her head.
Spider-man's reathing was growing rapid and shallow. He started backing away, his head shaking slowly from side to side.
"No," he breathed, watching the continuous streams of blood flow down her body and leach the life from her eyes. "This isn't-this wasn't supposed to-"
His back suddenly bumped into something. Spider-man whirled around with a start, and terror instantly seized his throat.
He saw Yuri and May who holding onto her Spider-plushie close to her chest, Spider-man's eyes didn't deceive him at all, not one pit until terror once again took over his soul when an unknown attack from a red axe slits theirs necks.
Yuri grabs her throat to try to stop the bleeding as she was making gurgling noises, both of the girls fall forward on their face as the pool of blood travels to Spider-man's feet.
Spider-man's body trembled as he looks down at his reflection to his persona of Michael filled with fresh wounds bleed as his right eye was freshly torn off.
"Hahahahahahahaha!" Cackling is coming from all directions, the laugh was filled with all forms of insanity, "What an impressive show, how about we take things up to the next level!"
Michael clasped his face in his hands, fell to his knees, then leered up into the barren, starless sky.
"Make it stop! Get me out of this nightmare, please! Wake up! Wake up!"
The cold surrounded him once again. The world turned dark, ominous, and windy. He was back in the sinister alleyway, sitting on his knees as the frigid air buffeted his exposed body. Ragged gasps tore from his throat as he wrapped his arms around himself, and tears left shimmering trails as they slid down his face. He was raw, vulnerable, and haunted. His mind was too scarred from what he'd just experienced to summon a coherent thought. Then, jarring him like a knife to the gut, a bone-chilling cackle suddenly sounded in front of him. His skinny form shivered all over, and Michael slowly lifted his gaze, eyes hollow and skin ashen.
In an instant, the shadow was on him, engulfing his body in its sticky, organic mass. The inky black and red monster formed an envelope around his being, denying his eyes moonlight, his muscles freedom, his lungs air. He had felt this kind of helplessness before, back in his nightmare on the hospital bed. Beneath the black and red demon's grip.
His vision was not his own, he was looking through someone else eyes as more nightmares were forming, he was going through multiple crowds as the bodies were being slashed brutally as if he was doing it with his own hands. His red clawed hands which were not his own.
Picking up a young child by the head as he crushed his head which exploded like a watermelon.
Slicing off multiple limbs as tendrils were choking multiple victims. Poeple started to run away from the massacre due to fear and sheer lack of power to stop this form of pure evil.
Spider-man blinks once more as he was on top of a skyscraper looking over the city that he called home, the sky was red, the buildings were up in flames, the cries of innocence begging for someone to save them while half the city was making a swarm of cackling noises, filled with insanity. The S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier up in flames, shield agents everywhere in the shooting everything in sight.
Spider-man could only look ahead in dispair and shame. He was no hero. Only a failure. That was all he was.
"Ah look at this. Beautiful isn't it? A perfect place to die." The figure stood behind grey and black costumed hero placing his claws on Spider-man's shoulders, "Face it, you swung across every square inch of this city, catching all manner of foe in your web. All sharing the same human inferiority. Reason, for power, vengeance, hahaha, but being enticed by the devil doesn't make you the devil. You fought nothing but pretenders but tonight you die."
Spider-man could only continue to look down as a swarm of red and black symbiotes were climbing up the building he stood on, many of them were either cackling or screeching in joy.
In a way, this is basically his own version of hell, just nothing but endless torment and misery. Was he really destined to be dealing with this everyday and night? He wasn't sure since he had been asking the same question since it started 5 years ago at that very night.
Soon enough he was pushed off the building, he doesn't really move a muscle at all as he was looking up at the sky as the figure that pushed him off simply dives down towards him unleashing his claws ready to kill him on sight, "YOU WILL BRING DEATH TO ALL WHO FOLLOW YOU!"
Spider-man blinks once more to find himself in a red room, it felt like he was floating off the ground, the walls where marked with blood, he sees a different figure that he was never seen before until he comes face to face with it. Was this a message or a warning?
~~~
Fubuki was on her knees in front of Spider-man's figure who was mask-less and shirtless shedding tears.
Spider-man was breathes heavy, it was almost like he was having a panic attack.
Fubuki was pretty much doing everything that she can but at the same time she wasn't sure what to do.
Fubuki was going through her purse in a panic, she was starting to get scared when she couldn't find her phone, "Damn it!" Fubuki yells out.
Fubuki suddenly felt a hand gently touch her arm, she turns her head to see the man who caught her attention, Fubuki silently gasped, "Y-You're ok!"
Spider-man could only let out a few chuckles, he replied in a tired and weak voice, "Oh course I am."
Fubuki goes in for a hug, making Spider-man groan a little bit, "Do you have any idea how worried you made me!"
"...S-sorry."
Fubuki's just continued to hug him, "...Are you ok?"
"Yeah...I'm alright. It was just another nightmare." Spider-man replied as Fubuki gently placed him on back on his futon. Fubuki felt his forehead noticed that his temperature was very high.
She went to the bathroom to prepare a cold cloth, once that was done, she goes over to placed it on his forehead. Going through the cabinets she was able to find a medicine to reduce fevers, and a couple of ice packs to cool off Spider-man.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Fubuki asked him as his head was resting on her legs, she was gently rubbing his head.
"I...I don't know if I would feel comfortable about it. It would be too much for you to handle."
"Ok. If you won't talk about it, then that's fine. I'm just glad that your ok."
"...Thanks Fubuki..."
"How often do you get nightmares?"
"Well... I uh, I actually have them every night. I've been dealing with it for the past 5 years."
"You have nightmares every night?"
"Yeah pretty much but I never let them get to me."
"...That's good." Fubuki sniffs as she wiped her tears away, "You really scared me back there."
"Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you so badly."
"It's ok." Fubuki replied, was still early in the morning but Fubuki was still a little tired, she decided to move the table somewhere else with her psychic powers as she could lay next to Spider-man, she was caressing his muscled arms which had scars all over them, mainly every inch of his upper body was filled with scars, many say that a person with a scar had a story behind it.
All of Spider-man's scars had a story but not the kind that it would make it sound cool and heroic, these were reminders of his suffering.
"You didn't deserve what happened to you, what you have to go through." Fubuki replied with a whispered tone.
"I've been asked myself the same thing. But that's just how things are meant to be." Spider-man said.
Fubuki placed a hand on his cheek caressing it softly, "They don't always have to, you have me in your life."
"And that exactly what scares me the most. I-I can't lose you the way how I lost my family."
"I know you're scared but that won't happen, that won't ever happen."
"H-how can you be sure of that?"
"Because you have friends that look out for you, we help you in your time of need. You trusted us with sharing your past and identity. That says a lot about how much of a kind and strong human being you are, a-and that's one of the things I like about you." Fubuki says as her cheeks were starting to turn pink.
"Thanks Fubuki." Spider-man said as his lips form a smile, "I could say the same about you."
Fubuki sighed, "Screw it."
"I couldn't quite catch-" Spider-man's suddenly felt Fubuki's lisps made contact with his, taking him off guard that even his spider-sense couldn't detect it but he just gives in.
This passionate moment went on for quite a while, both of them were sitting up until one of them broke the kiss as they were staring into each other's eyes. Not knowing what to say next.
"Wow I just, wow, I mean...wow." Spider-man said, honestly it felt like he was getting deja vu but he's not sure why.
Fubuki just giggles at his words, "Lost for words?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Spider-man rubs the back of his back, he clears his throat, "Maybe sometime whenever we have the time, can we have a date? Just the two of us?"
"I would love that." Fubuki replied back as she caressing his face, she rubs the cold cloth around his face and head to reduce the fever, "Remember, I'm always here for you, whatever battle you face, whatever darkness that surrounds you, whatever nightmares that haunt you, I'll will always be here for you, because I like you for who you are Michael. Don't ever forget these words, don't ever let people get to you, or hurt you in any way. Because if they do, I'll punch them in the face."
Spider-man couldn't really comprehend what he was hearing. He was just very happy to have met someone as great as Fubuki. Many other heroes from his world wouldn't dare to help him with whatever he was going through. They were pretty much just 'No, sorry, you're on your own kid' They were afraid that he would bring chaos and death wherever he went but not Fubuki, not her.
She will always be there for him in the his time of need, wherever whenever. She accepted him for who he is, with or without the mask. Michael goes in to hug Fubuki, his voice began to brake not from despair but from happiness, a happiness that he hasn't felt in a long time, "T-Thank you, Fubuki. Thank you."
Michael continues to softly cry on Fubuki's shoulder as she was returned the embrace, "You're welcome, Michael."
Fubuki let's her own tears fall while smiling, she'll contact Bang saying that she'll reschedule for tomorrow because today she just wants to hold Spider-man in her arms for the entire day, "It's ok. You can let it out. You can finally let it out. I'm here you for you. I'm here for you."