May sighed, giving the messy house a once-over from the top of the staircase. She pushed grey hair behind her ear and walked down the stairs slowly.
Would it have killed Peter and Ben to clean up after themselves? Men, just sometimes were the worst. May loved her men though, even if they did leave blankets all over the place and forget to put the chairs back on the floor.
She pulled the sheets off all the couches and armchairs, one by one, folded them and placed them on the stairway to be put in the linen closet. She drifted over to the table, setting all the chairs at their rightful places and removing the sheet that was underneath them on the table. It really was inexcusable to leave so much for her to clean.
May sighed, humming a slow tune to herself. She wished the boys weren't gone so much, at work or out being Spider-Man. Of course, she had her own life and friends, a knitting club and a good book to read every now and again was really all she needed to be happy, but she always missed Ben and Peter.
Peter was doing his best to help with their money situation, and even though he didn't say anything, May suspected Ben was working two jobs. He was just gone for so long, she felt like she hadn't seen him in years.
Moving to the kitchen, she found the cupboards bare, other than spider webs. She put her hand on a strand to make sure it wasn't one of Peter's, but an actual spider-web. Now, how had that gotten there? And where were the dishes?
May took an old sponge out from a drawer and turned on the faucet to wet it down.
The most curious thing happened. Or, rather, didn't happen. No water came out at all!
May went to the basement door and down the stairs. She looked around for something to do with the water.
Come to thinking of it, she couldn't quite remember why they were so low on money. The economy hadn't done anything much recently, and there were no outstanding bills they were paying. Maybe it was because they seemed to be having so many issues with the old house.
May found the switch for the water, and turned it with a little effort. Triumphant, she walked back up the stairs, only to hear voices.
She ran to get a weapon– or something that could be used as such. She couldn't get a pan, because somehow all of the dishes had gone missing. Having given up on the thought of a weapon, May peeked around the corner into the living room.
"I'm so sorry," a woman said. She was spreading the sheets over the chairs! Perhaps Peter wasn't to blame after all. "The last people that came," she stuttered, "wanted to look at the furniture."
A young couple stood off to the side.
"A lot of people say weird things happen here," the man remarked.
The one woman stopped spreading out all of May's carefully folded sheets to answer him. "I... That's interesting."
"Oh, I know it's not a great selling point for other people, but we're real interested in the paranormal stuff. Is the place haunted or not?"
May was utterly puzzled. Her house, haunted? She stood in the doorway, just listening, but they didn't seem to notice her.
"Yes," the woman responded. "About five years ago, the man who lived in this house was murdered. That left his wife and their nephew, who had grown up with them. Three years ago, the nephew died in a violent accident. Only a week after that, the aunt died right in the living room here. They say she died purely from heartbreak."
May began sobbing. What the woman implied...
"That's so sad."
"Yes, it is. But, as far as the place being haunted... I can't say. I know that I was here this morning, and the sheets were on the tables and chairs, but it could be any one of my coworkers playing a trick on me."
It was no trick though. It was simply an ignorant old woman. A dead one, at that.
"I can't be..." May muttered.
"Hey Aunt May," a voice called. Above her, stuck to the ceiling only by a hand, was her Peter. He reached out for her.
She squinted, and noticed that he didn't touch the ceiling at all, but there was another hand coming out of the ceiling holding him up. A light surrounded it.
"We've been waiting for you to figure it out, Aunt May," Peter said with a grin. "Uncle Ben's waiting. C'mon."
May touched her hand to Peter's, and that became the last moment the Parker home was haunted.
