Ch 4
Spider-Man couldn't understand it. How was Gwen Stacy alive? He hopped down from the top of the bridge and walked over to her. "Gwen?" He asked. She didn't say anything, she just stood there. "Gwen? Is it you?" There was still no answer. "Gwen, I…donno what to say. I missed you so much. I though you were dead. You…were dead. How is this possible?" He asked her. His head was spinning. The girl he loved more than life itself had come back to him. He felt a tear roll under his mask. She was back. It had to be!
Spider-Man walked closer to her, but she backed away from him, still wearing the same smile. "Gwen, its me. C'mon, you remember me, don't you?" She still walked backwards. Spider-Man couldn't understand. Did she remember him and everything that went on? "Gwen, stop." He said, but she did not. Her smile widened. She was close to the edge now. Why wasn't she saying anything? Spider-Man walked closer to her, and she took a step back. One more step and she's be over! "Gwen, what's wrong with you?" She smiled and took a step backwards. "No!" Spider-Man hollered as the love of his life jumped off the bridge she died on once before. He dove after her, not thinking clearly, into the misty air. Gwen Stacy's facial expression did not change. She was still smiling. "Gwen, take my hand!" He said as they fell. She did not. He spun a web and yanked himself forward. He reached out to catch her, but his hands went right through her! "Gwen?" He screamed as he fell closer and closer to the water. He understood now. She wasn't there. It was his imagination, or maybe….
Spider-Man saved himself from the rocky water below. He crawled up the web line and stood in front of the people watching. They had seen it, too. They did see her! "You let her die?" One lady asked him after a few moments of awkward silence. "What? No! She…I went right through her!" He tried to explain. He looked past her to see a camouflaged projector on one of the bridge pylons. He walked over to it. There was a note attached. He peeled off the tape and opened up the small letter. Spider-Man felt his heart sink and head pound. The note said one thing, but sometimes one word can tell a lifetime of stories. It written in a symbolic green.
Gotcha!
Spider-Man sank to his knees. The awe-struck crowd stood where they were, pondering. His head spun in a zillion different directions. He crunched the note in his tightened fist and dropped it. Gotcha. Spider-Man instantly knew what had happened. He knew who's hologram projector fooled him. He knew who had toyed with his heart and made him see the woman he loved die once again. There was only one man capable of doing so much damage in one little attack. The Green Goblin was back.
Spider-Man left the note where it dropped. A night that had begun only to clear his mind ended in the exact opposite; there was a whole new mystery in Spider-Man's hands now. Usually, he'd rush right into action. But not tonight. He felt different. Like, he wasn't Spider-Man, just a dork in a Halloween costume. He couldn't think of why he wasn't himself, and it hit him. Seeing Gwen alive, his whole world lit up again. When he saw her, he forgot all his problems. The Sinister Six. The police. Jameson. He forgot everything but her. Then she disappeared right in front of his eyes, again. And he felt like the whole world turned off its lights and went into eternal darkness, just for him. He wanted to find that monster and teach him a lesson he'll never forget. But he didn't move from that crouched position on the bridge. He stood there, looking down at the concrete. No one on that bridge knew what he'd just gone through. A lifetime worth of pain.
He finally stopped feeling sorry for himself and stood up. He apologized to the people on the bridge for all the trouble. He wanted to go home, that was it. Spider-Man spun a web and made his way through the mist. Gotcha, his head seemed to tell him. Gotcha. Gotcha gotcha gotcha gotcha.
Tormented enough for the night, Spider-Man crawled through his apartment's bathroom window. He sat down, crouched underneath it. He put his hands in his head and thought: Gwen. That one name repeated in his head over and over and over and over and over again. Here he was, The Amazing Spider-Man, hunched in a dark bathroom all alone. Yeah, he thought. Big Time Super-Hero.
He walked out of the bathroom door and shut it behind him. He looked up and saw Mary-Jane Watson sitting on the couch. "Hey, Tiger. I saw what happened on the news. Are you alright?" "Yeah," He answered. "I love sitting in a dark bathroom." She got up and hugged him. "I'm so sorry, baby. I miss Gwen, too." Spider-Man hugged her tighter. "I need to get some sleep, and take some medicine for my throbbing headache. I think I thought too much tonight." "Go lie down. I'll bring you some aspirin." Mary-Jane told him. She walked into the kitchen and pulled open the medicine cabinet. She shook out two pills from the bottle and poured a glass of water from the sink. When she walked into the bedroom, Peter Parker was already asleep on the bed.