Behind the Mask

TEN: There's One More

.:::.

It had been three days.

I knew I was a coward. I knew I was being stupid. I knew I should have taken responsibility for my actions. I just couldn't do it. I felt like a little girl running away from a boy because he had cooties.

No, I didn't think Peter had cooties. I was...what? Embarrassed? Ashamed? Guilty? I was so many things.

It was almost like Chase sensed I was hiding something. He was on surprisingly good behavior, so good that I almost considered keeping him around. Almost. I hadn't seen him drink a beer in over 24 hours, and when I confronted him about it, he just smiled.

"I told you I was gonna change, babe." He told me, and somehow I actually believed him.

We were on a friendly enough basis that he even told me about the progress they were making in finding the spider gang after Peter. There was a pattern in events, like robberies and bank hold ups like that first one. Each crime was a trap disguised to fool Spiderman.

They all wore his signature symbol on some piece of their clothing, signifying the union between gang members and clarifying their target. It was the perfect disguise; there were plenty of fans that wore his symbol as well.

That was all the information he shared. The not-so-good Chase reared his ugly head when I was walking home from Toys 'R Us that Monday afternoon.

As I approached my building, I noticed the familiar squad car parked along the curb. Chase opened his door and got out when he spotted me. Onyx was perched happily in the back seat, her head bobbing out the window.

Chase stalked up to me with a newspaper rolled up in his hand. I could tell by the scowl on his face that this would be interesting. "What the hell is this?" He showed me the tube of paper.

I was honestly confused. "A newspaper?"

He scoffed and unrolled it. I saw the Daily Bugle headlining the front page and instantly understood. I watched him turn to my column, which was not-so-cleverly titled "Behind the Mask". My name was printed boldly underneath it.

"Oh."

"Oh? You're kidding me, right?" Chase laughed, but not with me.

I looked over at the dog to occupy my eyes.

Chase shook the paper, bringing it closer to my face. "Answer the damn question!"

"Chase, please." His tone was drawing far too many eyes.

"When were you going to tell me about this? Huh?"

I wanted to collapse in on myself. "I told you I got a job."

"Sure you did, but you forgot to mention the part where you're supposed to friggin' interview Spiderman every week!"

"It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal! You can't hide that from me!"

"Why do you hate him so much? What did he ever do to you?"

Chase turned bright red. He always hated when I defended Spiderman. "Do you see this?" Chase pointed sharply at my column. "Everyone at the station is trying to figure out who you are because of this."

I crossed my arms to hide my sudden fear. "Why do they care?"

"It's suspicious, Liv! Why would anyone release information about Spiderman now, while he's so controversial? It's suspicious as hell, and it's dangerous." The end of his sentence was drowned out by a round of sirens.

A fire truck sped by, its red lights bouncing off of the buildings around us. It whirled around the corner, and that's when I saw the thick, black smoke pouring into the sky.

"Oh, god..." I covered my mouth with my hand.

"Looks like the next street over." Chase started towards his squad car without taking his eyes off the smoke consuming the sky. "I better go make sure everything's alright."

Another fire truck caused Chase to jump out of the street as it followed the first. Behind it was a flash of red, but it wasn't like the lights.

Chase scoffed again. "I'm not letting that damn spider join the party."

Spiderman caught up to the fire truck and swung around the corner on his web. People in the streets pointed into the sky, finally noticing the smoke as well.

Chase started his engine. "Wait!" I ran to the window where Onyx was sitting. "I want to come with you."

"Go inside, Liv. I'll be back in ten minutes."

"No!" I sounded too desperate, but I didn't care. "Maybe I can help."

Chase didn't have enough patience to argue. I slipped in the passenger side and sat on the edge of my seat as we drove to the traffic light and around the corner. The fire wasn't the next street over, but three streets away. I couldn't believe the size of the black cloud.

People were gathered on the sidewalk watching the emergency crews bravely enter the burning building. It was a little smaller than my building, but most likely an apartment complex.

I opened the door before Chase stopped the car.

"Stay here." He ordered.

"No." I snapped, disregarding his order and stepping out onto the street. Flakes of ashes landed on his windshield.

The air was thick, and I knew it wasn't my imagination. There were people that held scarves over their mouths to prevent inhaling the smoke.

"Back up, back up!" Chase parted the small sea of people and waved them away. "Step off the sidewalk!"

Most of the people backed away, but a few stayed put. I assumed by the horror struck looks on their faces that their home was within the burning building.

"Are there still people in there?" I asked a woman beside me.

"There are twenty-eight of us." She whimpered. "I don't know."

A few firefighters escaped the blaze. The stairways weren't of any use, so they needed to use the truck ladders to get to the higher floors. It would take far too much time.

The woman beside me sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god!"

I followed her eyes and found Spiderman dropping from a window with a mother and her baby safely in his arms. The mother was choking and clutching her baby to her chest.

Spiderman didn't see me. He placed the mother carefully into another pair of safe arms and slung himself right back into the building.

The poor baby cried and cried while his mother held an oxygen mask to her face. She seemed to be struggling with the child.

"Can I help?" I asked softly, offering my arms to her.

She nodded slowly and shifted the baby into my arms. I needed some sort of distraction while I waited. Otherwise I would have been pacing back and forth.

I smiled down at the little boy. "His name?" I asked.

I couldn't prepare myself for her answer. "Gregory." She whispered.

I looked down at Gregory's pink cheeks brushed with black smudges and reminded myself to breathe.

Spiderman had rescued ten people total. Everyone else seemed to be accounted for. He stood a bit slouched on the sidewalk, his suit turning black from the soot and rubble. He wouldn't be able to take much more of this.

He seemed to be looking in my direction. "Are you okay?" I asked him.

A weak nod was his answer.

I saw him going back inside and immediately returned the baby to his well rested mother. I hurried over to Chase who was speaking with a man in a red knit hat on the street.

"What's wrong? I thought everyone was out?" I interrupted.

Chase nodded at the building. "He says there's still someone inside."

I looked back at the first woman I spoke with. "But she said there are only twenty-eight people?"

"There's one more." The man assured me.

"Someone you know?" Chase wondered.

The man shook his head quickly. "There's one more." He repeated. He didn't seem as concerned as the others. He wasn't waiting as urgently for this person to be saved.

It had been almost three minutes before a window suddenly blew out. Chase and the man in the red knit hat shielded themselves from the raining glass.

That's when I saw the spider symbol stitched on the back of that red knit hat. It was subtle, but it was definitely there.

I wanted to spit on him, kick him where it hurts, anything to portray my message. He was one of them! One of those cruel, thoughtless, evil people using tragedies as opportunities for revenge!

Instead of succumbing to my emotions and making a scene, I pulled Chase to the side. "You have to get Spiderman out of there."

"Liv, he's got a better chance at saving this person than we do."

I grabbed a rough handful of his sleeve and pulled him closer. "No, Chase. This guy...he's wearing the spider symbol."

Chase furrowed his eyebrows and checked for himself. "That doesn't mean anything."

"What if there isn't another person trapped inside? What if he's lying because he wants Spiderman dead?" The possibilities were haunting all of my thoughts. I needed Peter out of there right now.

Chase glanced at knit hat again. The man honestly looked bored rather than anxious. It was so obvious!

I opened my mouth to complain again but Chase nodded silently at me. He cautiously walked up to the flaming doorway. "Hey! Spider!" He called. It was pathetic.

"Someone has to go in there and get him!" I said.

Another window blew out above us, sending more buckets of raining glass. I felt it get caught in my hair. The heat of the fire was intense. I could sense its warmth on my skin, threatening to burn me. I backed up a few feet.

"Chase!" I shouted. He was stepping further up the stairs, almost into the entrance. I didn't mean for Chase to go inside, he wasn't protected.

He called his name again, but there was no answer. Two firefighters acted as a plow and shoved Chase out of the way as they returned from their mission empty handed.

"The building is too unstable." One of them said. "It could collapse any second."

Chase whirled around and glared at knit cap. "What the hell is going through your mind right now, huh?"

The man looked startled. It had to be an act. "I don't understand."

Chase pulled out his accusing finger and pointed it at him. "Don't pull that crap with me! I'll have you arrested!"

Knit hat could see Chase's short temper and used his anger at his advantage. That smirk on his face was disgusting. "You cops won't really miss him, will you?"

My stomach jolted at the nerve of his question. It jolted again for a different reason as the roof of the building began to crumble and cave in.

My instincts pulled my feet toward the fiery doorway. Nobody else was trying to save him...

My shoulders were caught before I could cross the threshold. The red suit had holes burned through it on the shoulders and chest. He tried not to expend so much weight on me, but his body was nearly limp. I acted as a crutch to get him down the stairs and away from the burning rubble.

I felt some of his weight disappear as someone else took responsibility for his other side. We walked him to the parked ambulance where a paramedic was waiting with an oxygen mask.

The responsible person on his other side was Chase.

Spiderman shook his head as the mask approached his face. "I...I'm okay." He was almost wheezing, the smoke clogging his throat and lungs.

"You need it." I told him, fighting back those stubborn tears. "You're not okay."

"Dammit," Chase muttered. I followed his eyes to the sidewalk where knit hat used to be standing. He was gone now.

It didn't bother me like it should have. My only task now was helping Spiderman breathe again. "He won't take off the mask." I realized.

"We can't force him to take anything." The paramedic explained. "We need his consent."

He was choking, nearly coughing up a lung. "I'm...fine."

"Stop saying that. I have an idea." I stepped closer to him and poked my fingers beneath his mask. He tried with whatever strength he had left to hold my wrists back, but I fought him and won.

"No, don't..." His voice was a raspy whisper.

"Relax." I soothed him, peeling the mask just over the tip of his nose like he did for me. I noticed a hush over the small crowd that gathered around us, consisting of emergency personnel and a few fire victims.

I held out my hand for the oxygen mask. The paramedic gave it to me, the look of wonder in his eyes overpowering his actions.

I pressed the oxygen mask over his mouth. "Breathe." I pleaded.

He coughed a few more times at the sudden intake of fresh air but eventually started to suck in deep and controlled breaths. His hand held the oxygen in place over mine, but I didn't want to let go. If I did, he would let go as well.

I watched his chest rise and fall with his breathing and was overcome with a sense of relief. It could have been so much worse than it was, yet Peter was safe and would recover soon. Everything was okay. For now, anyway.

. . . . . . . .

I couldn't sleep, not after all of that. I wouldn't sleep ever again knowing how close that creep came to hurting Peter. He had no idea what he was up against. It was impossible to know if it was an emergency or if it was a stupid trap. By the time we figured it out, it had almost been too late.

I shuffled down the hallway on Peter's floor, the lights dimmed slightly overnight. It was almost midnight, and Chase had passed out on pure exhaustion. He didn't hold as much guilt and worry as the average person.

I didn't even have to knock. Peter opened his door as if he sensed I would be there in that very moment. I saw the restless look in his eyes and immediately curled my arms around his neck.

We didn't need to speak to understand each other's relief. I bushed my fingers through the hair on the back of his head and he hugged me closer and tighter to his body.

I pulled away first, but he kept his head low and dropped his forehead to touch mine. I let my hands slide down his shoulders and over his chest.

"You're crazy." He murmured, his voice still a bit raspy and weakened. "You know that?"

I could smell the faint scent of fire clouded around us. It brought back that feeling I had knowing that Peter might not have made it out alive, that he might not have been safe and unharmed in my arms at that very moment. Just the possibility of living my life without him in it felt like my absolute worst nightmare. I'd never felt that way about anyone in my entire life.

I closed my eyes and sighed. "I'll probably go to hell for this, anyway." My arms pulled his neck down and I reached on my toes to fill the space between us. I attacked his lips with mine, trying desperately to convey my newfound and true feelings for him.

Based on his response, we both felt the same way.