A Mirror into Darkness

Part One

            Tyrone watched the subway gradually empty out as passengers filed into their respective trains. He fumbled with the pistol hidden in his jacket pocket. It was late, around midnight.

            Three of his friends kept their eyes on the stairway leading up to the streets. "Look there." Tyrone said pointing out a young girl, with red-hair, who had remained behind, failing to find an open spot on the train that had just left the station. She was alone, except for Tyrone and the men with him.

            "How much money do you think she has?" The large man to his right asked eagerly.

            "Young white, alone at a station, should be at least a couple hundred." Another replied licking his chops like some hungry predator.

            Tyrone grimaced and stared at the girl, standing by the platform looking down the black tunnel, waiting for a train to take her out of here. "Let's stop guessing and find out."

            The four men advanced on her, spreading out to cut off escape routes. Tyrone closed in on the redhead before she could even react. "Give me your, money, now!" He roared.

            The redhead backed off stunned and realized she was surrounded. "Please don't kill me!" She begged.

            "Give me the money or I will!" Tyrone said revealing his gun and aiming straight for her chest.

            "Okay, here." The redhead handed Tyrone her purse, shaking uncontrollably as the pack moved in slowly.

            Tyrone grabbed the purse and spotted something that caught his eye, "Your necklace, give it to me."

            "No!" She clutched the jewelry tightly, "It was given to me by my grandmother."

            "Just give it to me!" He demanded.

            The redhead refused to let go of it and struggled with Tyrone. "Please, don't!"

            Tyrone yanked the jewelry from her hands and pushed her to the ground, "You dummy. It's just a necklace. You pissed me off. I was going to let you go, not now!"

            "No, you have everything, please." She pleaded.

            He smiled, "Not everything." The rest of the thugs laughed loudly while keeping one eye on the entrance.

            "Let's play a game." A voice called from the darkness of the tunnel. The entire pack of muggers jumped at the interruption and stared at the tunnel to their left nervously. "It's a fun game." The source of the voice had changed suddenly to the right tunnel.

            "What's going on?" One of the men asked terrified.

            "Stay cool." Tyrone urged gripping his gun tightly.

            "These are the rules." The voice said again, closer than before, "You run for the exit and if you make it out with all your limbs you win!"

            "Crap, run!" Tyrone barked realizing the situation was spiraling out of control. The entire pack made a break for the stairway leaving the redhead behind.

            One of them pulled ahead of the rest. He was only a few short feet from the stairs. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins. One foot left and he'd be home free. Without warning, a black creature emerged from the shadows and pounced on him.

            The rest of the muggers skidded to a stop and watched the scene play out. The black monster clasped his hands around the fallen criminal's neck and squeezed with all its might until he heard a snap.

            The monster raised its ugly head and stared at the remaining three thugs. "He lost. Who wants to go next?"

            Tyrone raised his weapon and fired off three shots. The bullets flew through the air and impacted into the abomination's chest. He smiled seeing the impacts on its skin. The bullets flew out the other end and their attacker stood unhurt. They looked at the eight foot tall creature.

            "No guns." The monster closed its fist. From a white patch on the top of its hand, razor sharp webbing launched out. The webbing severed Tyrone's hand from his arm. "That's better."

            The other two men made a dash for either side. The hideous being fired a web-line at both of them. The webbing impaled them through their backs, killing them instantly.

            Tyrone watched his entire group slaughtered and stared at the monster, horror building up in his heart, "Why?"

            "No particular reason."  It responded.

            "W-hat are you going to do?" Tyrone asked looking at the blood seep from his arm like a fountain.

             The monster reached out for Tyrone's skull, "Finish this." It crushed the frame of the skull easily. He let go of the mugger, letting his body go limp on the floor.

            It laughed, "We can do it. We're as good as him." It clasped his hands together, "It's time." Suddenly, he got a sniff of something in the air and spotted the redhead hiding behind a column.

            In the span of one second, he jumped onto the wall, clung to the side of it, and pushed off landing directly in front of her. "Hello."

            The redhead screamed.

            It picked her up and stared at her for a moment, "Mary Jane."

            "What?" The redhead asked confused, "My name is S-Sara." She said ready to soil herself in fear.

            The creature played with her hair for a moment, "Parker loves Mary Jane." It roared suddenly and tightened its grip on the redhead up. "We hate Mary Jane!" It rammed her face into a column, shattering stone and bone.

            "Don't you think it's a little weird?" Gwen asked Peter while they sat in the school cafeteria. "Peter? I said don't you think it's weird?"

            He raised his face off his palm, staring contemplatively at the food before him, "What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

            Gwen nodded, "I figured that. You always get this blank stare whenever you're thinking." She ran her hand down the side of his face, "I was talking about how MJ is staying with you. It's a little weird."

            "Oh?" Peter took a sip of his milk, "Why? She's a good friend and I thought it would be best for her considering the problem she had with her family." He took another sip of the milk while listening intently. 

            "Believe me, I know, but the school's been talking." Gwen remarked, "Everybody thinks you too are a couple."

            Peter coughed on the milk uncontrollably. "T-T-That's what people are saying?"

            "Yeah, of course I know that's not true." Gwen added, "We're in love, you wouldn't throw something like that away at the first skirt that came floating by." She smiled and shrugged dropping the conversation, "Peter, you look pale."

            "I do? I feel fine." He said clutching at his collar.

            Gwen smiled; there was still something in her that attracted him. Peter felt uncomfortable. "So, you want to go out tonight?"

            "You know what, now that I think about, I do feel a little sick." He said trying to imitate regret and partially failing.

            The blond stared at him suspiciously, "We haven't been together since you came back. Is something wrong?"

            "No." Peter immediately responded before sighing, disgusted. "Actually, yes, there is something that's been bothering me." He tapped the edge of the desk, "I don't think I can tell you right now. I need to figure out how to say it so that you understand."

            Gwen reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed affectionately, "I'm here for you."

            "Thanks."

            Jameson stared angrily at the front page of the Bugle. "Half the city is covering the execution of Cletus Kassidy and we can't even get a decent shot of the smoke coming off the guy."

            Robertson shrugged staring on the other edge of the desk, "Ned isn't too good with the camera. Eddie and Peter were our two best photographers; everyone else is sort of the B-team."

            "There an expensive B-Team, I'll tell you that much." JJ remarked recalling the monetary figures that added up to the daily finances of the Bugle. "Okay, Parker is coming back to work tomorrow but where the hell is Brock?"
            "We don't know. I called in with his landlord. He told me Eddie paid off the rest of his rent and just left. He said he was acting strange too."

            JJ snorted, "Great, I'm dying here running New York's number One paper, losing sweat and blood in the process and Brock is taking a trip to Hawaii somewhere." He grabbed a cigar from a case and lit it. "That reminds me; make sure the arraignments for my trip to Hawaii next month are iron-clad."