As Children Peter and Brielle had been thick as thieves. The two had done everything together, and it might have had something to do with the fact that they were twins. Both had dark, chocolate brown hair and honey colored eyes. Brielle was a bit smaller then Peter, but that was to be expected. Under normal circumstances, they would have stayed best friends and grown up knowing all of each other secrets and fears, loves and triumphs.
But these weren't normal circumstances.
Their father was always working on some mysterious project that he forbid either of them to ask about. Sometime, they spied their parents in the kitchen or out in the back yard talking in hushed tones. They could never get close enough to figure out what they were talking about though. But one day, Brielle got curious. More curious then normal anyway. While her father was working, she crept into his office and began to snoop around. What she found made her head spin. Sitting in the corner of one of his desks, was a small jar, with 3 spiders in it. Now they weren't normal spiders, because Brielle was afraid of those. These were different. They looked as if they were made of glass, and the light coming in the window reflected off of them, making it look like there were a million little rainbows trapped inside the jar.
Being a curious child, she opened the jar and stuck her hand inside so she could hold one of the pretty spiders. She didn't expect however, for one of them to scuttle out up her arm and latch itself onto her neck.
Around this time her father was coming home, and upon seeing his study door opened, he rushed inside to see his baby girl kneeling on the ground, a spider crawling about her neck. Slamming the door shut, he ran over to her and pulled the spider off.
But it was too late. With the spider, came a web-like substance, and the Richard closed his eyes in pain. "Brielle are you alright?" he asked gently, pushing her hair out of her scared eyes. "Are you alright baby girl?" Gazing up at him with clouded eyes she rubbed her fingers together. "Daddy I feel weird." She whispered.
Picking up the small girl, he let her lean against him as he moved her to his room. And this time, when he left his office, he locked it. "He honey can you come in here?" Mary Parker hurried to their bedroom and gasped when she was Brielle in Richard's arms. "What happened to her?"
"Listen Mary I need you to occupy Peter for a while to I can figure out if Brielle is ok. Do you understand me Mary? I'll tell you what happened later tonight." Nodding wordlessly, she stumbled out of the room, her hand pressed against her mouth in shock as she went to find her son.
Brielle's eyes flickered open, and she sprung up from her fathers grasp. In her confusion, she somehow ended up on the ceiling. Trying not to cry, she yanked at her hands. "Daddy what's happening to me?"
"Baby girl I need you to calm down. Just calm down and you're hands will unstick. I'll catch you sweetheart I promise." Closing her eyes, Brielle fought back the panic that was threatening to overcome her, and let out a shriek when she began to fall. Just as he had promised, he caught her and cradled the small girl in his arms. "Now how many times have I told you not to go in my lab?" he asked softly." And now look what happened. Its not your fault honey, I should have never left the door unlocked, but I want you to know that what has happened to you has to be a secret. You cannot tell anyone. Even your brother. You understand baby girl? Ill teach you what I can, but it has to stay a secret. Just between us and mama. You got it?" Nodding, the child held out her pinkie, a serious look passing over her face. Her father hooked pinkies with her, his face equally as solemn. When Brielle went to pull back however, her pinkie stuck and she let out a quiet giggle. Ruffling his daughter's hair he pulled her into a hug.
"It's going to be alright Brielle. Its going to be alright." He wasn't sure if he was consoling her or if her was reassuring himself.
True to her word, even when her parents vanished she didn't tell a soul. Not her aunt and uncle and not her best friends, not even her brother. And that one secret grew a rift between them, for he could feel that she was keeping something from him, he just didn't know what. And no matter how much he begged and pleaded, she refused to let loose any information she knew about their parents, and insisted she knew nothing at all.
She had learned to live with her powers. No signs of inhuman strength or wild eating habits showed themselves, and she rarely got herself into sticky situations anymore. People seemed to accept the fact that she had a knack fro climbing up into high places, even if they didn't like it. When she hit her teenage years, something else happened. Maybe it was because the spider was one of the first and it had several odd side effects, but she discovered she could actually shoot webs out of the bottom of her wrist. She didn't know how to explain it, or what it was, but at will she could fire these web things. Soon she was teaching herself to swing on them so she could jump from building o building with ease.
She found herself going on nightly jaunts more and more often as she grew older, and discovered she was getting caught less and less. But while she had immersed herself in studying and learning about her newfound ability, her brother, Peter, had grown up slightly differently.
When he realized his sister was hiding something from him, (Him! Her own twin!), he was furious. No matter what he did he couldn't seem to figure out what exactly she was hiding, so eventually he gave up. Like his sister, he loved anything and everything to do with science, and threw himself into it. He took up photography (which soon became his favorite hobby) opposed to drawing like his sister, and also learned to skateboard.
It still didn't take his mind off the secret. He was a bit quieter then his twin, and when they reached 7th grade, he found himself left in the dust while his twin climbed the social ladder. She never quite reached the level of total popularity, but she had told him she didn't want to. "If being popular means I have to ignore some of my best friends and act like a complete brat all the time, count me out!" She had huffed, after several girls confronted her about 'not being all that she could be'.
That was one of the last time they really talked.
I mean it wasn't like they didn't talk to each other; just most of it had no meaning. It was just mindless chatter to fill the silence. Soon, the children that used to share absoultey everything with each other grew apart, no longer sharing childish memories but growing into young adults. They longed for each other's presence, for they were essentially, two that made one, but couldn't bring themselves to heal the wrong they had done. Neither could bring themselves to apologize for the hurtful words exchanged and the secrets kept.
They were stubborn like that.
It was finally when they reached 10th grade that things began to change. Something began to pull them back together again, but they weren't sure what. But when this story really starts, is the night Peter came back from his little adventure to the lab.
That's when the secrets start to come out.
