Liz Allen sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her refle in the mirror. Dark circles framed her eyes, indig a ck of sleep. Ever sihe i with the truck act where she almost died and then Misery trying to take over her body, followed by Rhino pressing a gun at her forehead and then the Symbiote throwing her out the helicopter... She couldn't get a wink of sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she would be haunted by these nightmares, making her wake up screaming.
The worst of all was the brief, agonizing memory of being run over by the truck. The impact, the searing pain, and the momentary bess before she woke up screaming. It was the most vivid, the most horrifying, and it lingered with her throughout each day. She knew she died that night on the road and was alive right now thanks to Misery. But she could only curse every time she remembered that freaky betrayer.
Ever sihat day, she had been seeing a therapist to help cope with the trauma. It helped somewhat, but she still found it difficult to sleep peacefully at night.
Liz took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. She o move forward, to find a way to live with the trauma. The nightmares might never go away pletely, but she couldn't let them trol her life. She couldn't allow fear to hold her baymore. She had to be strong.
She took another deep breath, then stood up and walked out of her room.
Liz went downstairs to the kit. She skipped breakfast today. Last night's nightmares kept her awake the entire night and in the m, she fell asleep for a few hours only to jump up by the sound of the arm clock. Every was blurry for a moment before her vision cleared. She turoward the old arm clock that was supposed to be oable, but it wasn't there.
"Tsk." She took her phone from the desk. It was 1:30 PM right now. She prepared sandwiches, took a bottle of lemonade, ao her room with the food.
As she sat on the bed and pced the pte of sandwiches on the desk, a slight kno the window caught her attention. Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw Spiderman outside her window.
"Spiderman!" she excimed, opening the windows aing him in.
"Hello, Liz," He jumped into her room.
"I didn't expect you to e here anytime soon. You know, with how busy you are," She smiled, moving away from him. "Make yourself fortable. I'm sorry my room is kinda mess."
Spiderman noticed her gloomy look and those dark circles under her eyes. He kly what was going on with Liz. Misery must have left a small part of herself within Liz, which was slowly ing her mind. And the shock from that day must be haunting her.
"No problem," He moved to the chair in front of the table. "So, you look like you could use a good nap. Bad dreams?" He asked, sitting on the chair.
"Yeah..." Liz sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Bad dreams... Every time I y eyes, I keep having nightmares about that night. About dying and waking up in a hospital bed with a parasite in me... It's driving me crazy."
"Yeah, it's hard tet that moment... That brief split sed before everything goes bck is terrifying..." Spiderman sympathized with Liz.
"You probably faced death more than me... How do you deal with it? You know, that split sed..." Liz asked curiously.
"Hmmm... At first, it was terrifying. The feeling that I could die at any moment... the fear of never seeing my loved ones again... or being buried six feet underground," He answered and paused for a moment as he remembered his past life where he was tormented every single day wheh was the least of his worries. The horrible memories filled his mind, making a shiver run through his spine. Although he had his revenge and everything was over in this reality, those bastards are still alive in his real world.
Liz touched his hand and squeezed, bringing him back to reality.
'Wha-?!' She felt a weird sting in her palm, so she quickly removed her hand from Spidey's hand.
"Well, before this all started, I thought that death would be the worst thing possible," Spiderman tinued. "But after fag that reality, and waking up afterward... it makes me appreciate being alive so much more. Nightmares will e and go, but eventually, they'll fade. As long as we keep going forward, we overe anything. For me, after I survived that bst, I decided to live my life to the fullest without holding back rets," He added with a smile. "And as I tio live like that, those bad feelings, that split sed, also faded away."
His words rang true in Liz's heart. If anyone uood her pain, it was the hero in front of her.
"Anyway, you are alive, aren't you? Instead of fog on your fears, live your life. Do everything you want to do without having as! No your lunch. Then we'll talk more..."
"You want one?" Liz held up the pte, a sandwi.
"Sure," Spiderman chuckled, taking one sandwich.
They ate in silence, and Liz finished all her sandwiches. The down on the bed while he was still sitting on the chair in front of the table. While eating, Spidey noticed the broken arm clo the er of the room. Then his eyes went to Liz's hands, but there wasn't any sign of cuts whatsoever.
"So, you noticed anything weird after that i, other than nightmares?" Spiderman asked, straight to the point, regarding the matter that brought him here today.
"No not that I know of, why?" Liz wondered what brought this sudden ge of topic.
"That arm clock..." Spiderman pointed his eyes at the er. "You smashed it in the m, didn't you? You don't remember?"
"What... I..." She looked at the shattered gss, trying to remember. It was all blurry. She remembers hearing the sound of the arm, but when she woke up it wasn't there on the desk. Did she smash it unsciously in a fit e from a nightmare? "What's going on here?" She noticed that there weren't any cuts on her hands. "I mean, my hands are fine. I must have thrown it at the wall... I don't know." She seemed genuinely fused. "My thoughts have been quite fuzzy for a while sihat i and all the nightmares too... "
"Get out of her body unless you want to suffer the same fate as Misery," Spiderman said with a sigh.
"You? How do you know about me?" A deep, feminine voice came from Liz.
"What?!" Liz jumped down from the bed in shock. Just whehought she got rid of the parasite, another had e to torment her. "W-what's happening..." She felt a throbbing pain inside her head. It was as if another sciousness had overtaken her and was fighting her for dominance. "Nnngh... ahhh..."
"Stop hurting her. I won't say it twice, get out of her without leaving an imprint, right now!" Spiderman demanded as he retracted the nanites and touched Liz's head, and his immunity power kicked in, f the white blob to flow out of her body.
"So, quiet... Ah..." A sense of ess washed over Liz. Her face immediately lit up, and the fuzziness in her mind faded. "Uuuughhh," She heaved a breath of relief.
The white blob tried to g onto her, but Spidey pulled it out with his right hand as a nanite-made tainer formed on his left hand. He pced it inside a tai taihe blob jiggled violently ihe tainer. It didn't matter if he tried to get it out, the tainer was strong enough to cage a newly born weak symbiote.
Spiderman helped Liz sit on the bed, "Careful now. It's all over."
"Did that alien just..." she asked while rubbing her eyes.
"No worries, you are free of the parasite, for real this time," Spidey assured her and smiled. "You should get some rest now." He used a simple magi her to put her to sleep and added a spell food dreams. "Sweet dream."
After that, he pced a spider bug oable a her house. He made his way toward the penthouse.
"Time to feed Venom."
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?Read 16 advance Chapters?
Ch: 169 [No time to rest- Cybs vs Spidey]
Ch: 170 [No more holding back]
Ch: 171 [Revetion pt1]
Ch: 172 [Revetion pt2]
Ch: 173 [Victor Von Doom]
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