The rain drowned out the priest's words as he read her eulogy.
Lightning crackled and thunder roared as the service was over for Gwendolyn Stacy.
She had no family to attend the funeral for the Stacy lineage died with her. Her mother, Helen Stacy, died long ago; her father, Captain George Stacy died months prior, heroically sacrificing himself to save the life of a small child.
The only thing that remained were the countless people who knew her.
Teachers, officers, students, they all surrounded the grave of the young girl who was tragically murdered.
He promised to keep her safe...
"Take care of her son...be good to her, she loves you...so...very much…"
...and now he was witnessing her funeral.
It was public knowledge that the Green Goblin murdered both Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn on the night of June ninth during his final confrontation with the hero known as Spider-Man.
That was what the S.H.I.E.L.D. statement said at least, but Peter knew what actually happened. Gwen Stacy wasn't some tragic victim who was murdered by pure chance. She wasn't murdered because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She was murdered because of him.
Because Norman Osborn, The Green Goblin, found out who he was.
He tries his best to stay strong as his aunt cried into his shoulder. People from Midtown attended the funeral, friends of hers were there such as Missy Kallenback to those who harassed her like Flash Thompson. "Say Pete?" he tries to say as if they were friends, "...I just wanted to tell you that Gwen was the greate-" but he swats his hand away from his shoulder.
He looks at the blond-haired jock who has done nothing but harass him and with tears in his eyes, he let the anger that overflowed him get the better of him.
"Don't even finish that Flash!" Peter yelled to the startled boy, "Like you would know! All you've ever done was pick on her and now you expect me to believe that you think she was the greatest?"
"I-" Flash tried to say but Peter continued to express the endless hate that found itself in his veins.
"-All you see is yourself, quite frankly I'm surprised you even bothered in attending an event where you aren't the center of attention," Peter said as he glared holes into Flash's skull.
He clenched his fists, preparing, hoping, that the blond-haired boy would strike him so he could have an excuse to beat him down.
But he doesn't.
The boy named Flash Thompson did none of that.
Instead, all he did was look down in shame and humility, "...I'm sorry," was all he said before walking away. Peter looked at the retreating figure with his angered eyes widening. He looked back at himself, back at his hands and looked at his palms which had started to bleed lightly as he dug his nails too deep.
He didn't need the glares to tell him what he did was wrong.
The shame that constantly plagued him already did that.
With that shame though came anger once more.
Was he destined to always hurt the ones he cared about?
He wanted to hit something.
Not something, someone. He wanted to beat Norman Osborn, hit him with everything he's got and then some but he couldn't. Instead, he had to sit through another funeral praising the man who killed the girl he loved, had to speak about how amazing and generous he was.
The mere thought of that man's name had the young man's blood boil but his anger was overshadowed by another emotion...
As he stared at the beautiful marble grave he could only feel an insurmountable amount of sadness.
Guilt and self-loathing were the only things going through his head.
He slowly put his hand to his head as he felt a throbbing pain arise from the sheer thought of the event that only happened three days ago. He could feel his heart beating as a feeling of dread washed over him.
He could feel a piercing glare emanating from where the grave sat.
He could feel another from the one beside her.
He didn't have to look at them to know who it was.
It was the Stacys or at least an aberration created from his wounded mind.
They were looking at him.
Judging him.
Accusing him.
He couldn't blame them.
It was Spider-Man's fault for the death of Gwen Stacy.
She was thrown off a bridge because of Spider-Man.
Her neck snapped because of Spider-Man.
It was Spider-Man who killed Gwen Stacy.
And he was Spider-Man, no more.