The Shimmering Spider-woman! Issue #11

>When you were very young, you used to have nightmares
>Half-remembered terrors that made you kick and flail and scream
>Sometimes the sights and sounds were different
>Sometimes there were other people
>Sometimes you were alone
>Always, they'd plague you just when you'd forgotten the last one
>And always, the theme was the same
A hand twitches
>"It's just a dream"
>That's what your father said when you went running to him, sniffling and shaking, a sweat-drenched blanket in your grip
>"Wash up and go back to bed"
>Eventually, you stopped having the dreams
>Life took over
>New faces, new places
>You dreamed of other things
>Some good, some bad, most strange and unmemorable
>It had been so long since you'd had that old nightmare
>You'd forgotten it entirely
A fist curls around nothing, something, in the dark
>But it hadn't forgotten you
>So you dream again
>That old, dark dream of choking, twisting, wordless night
It swallows the hand, the face, the soundless scream
<Dream again of drowning
>And you cannot wake up

>Your name is Sunset Shimmer
>Sometimes people know you as Spider-Woman
>Hero, menace...
>Suspected murderer
>Your firsts clench as you think about the box beneath your bed, holding your repaired costume
>It's been a month since Spider-Woman disappeared from the public eye
>No webs, no quips, no pics
>You just couldn't... couldn't do it
>You still dream about that night sometimes
>The funeral for Anon and his... his dad had been small
>If you can call visiting a grave after he's been buried a funeral
>You, the girls, and that was it
>It almost felt like it hadn't happened at all, like there was no time missing from the world
>It had been hard
>The girls had... well they'd been wonderful
>You couldn't ask for a better group of friends to support you
>But you could never tell them about being Spider-Woman
>Not even Pinkie
>Anon had known and look what you did to him...
>You shake your head and force yourself to get up and out of bed
>'No sense laying here and moping', you think as you stand and start getting ready for the day
>Life... goes on.
>.....
"I miss him..."

<Wake
>You startle, eyes flying open and chest heaving
>Where are you?
>what happened?
>You jerk your head left and right, taking in your surroundings through the heady fog of blind panic
>Grimy, filthy concrete, a heavy film of maybe-water carpets the ground
>Struggling, you stand, because the alternative was laying in god-knows-what
>Where the hell are you...?
<A flash of memory hits you
<Murky water pulls you along, dragging you down
<Thrashing, flailing, hands catch something at the edge
<A drainage pipe
>You don't remember all of it
<The numbing sensation of twisting joints and slurred waste and impossibly tight tunnels
>'SPLASH'
>Your legs give out, sending you back down into the rot
>The jack-hammering of your heart beats relentlessly through your skull, breath ragged, chest tight
>This isn't right
>How did you end up... in a sewer?
>Y-You're...
<Alive
>The fight, your dad, the fall into the water...
>How long ago was that...?
>The walls rumble, making the liquid around you quake
<You need to keep moving
>Can't stay here
>You need some place safer
>You stand, legs carrying you forwards
>Towards what?
>What do you want most right now?
>A shower...
>You want a shower
>After that...
>You can worry about that afterwards
>Right now, you want to go home and take a shower
>Just take one step at a time
>Find a way up
>Out of the dark
<Nothing else matters

"See you later, girls!"
>A chorus of 'Goodbye's follow you as you walk towards your motorcycle
>You even forget to frown for a bit
>It's nice, having people who care about you
>Talk with you...
>Make you laugh...
>A tug in your heart slowly pulls down your smile
>....
>Dammit
>You shake your head as you take a seat on your bike
"Need something to distract me."
>You fiddle with your helmet, activating a switch before slipping it over your head
>A brief electronic whine assaults your ears before radio chatter follows
>A police scanner, built into your helmet
>Something you'd use while cruising the city
>Twilight would have a fit, knowing you were driving around on a "two-wheeled crash statistic" as she called them, with a gutted helmet full of electronics instead of a proper helmet
>The thought of actually telling her, just for a reaction, makes you smirk
>Not that your Spider Sense would actually let you crash anyways
>The sounds of buses and cars leaving the lot is swallowed up by the rumbling on the engine beneath you
>You know that it's unhealthy, listening to something you're determined not to involve yourself in, but a desperate need for something to fill your head right now compels you
>With a twist of your hand, you flick through channels, listening for anything of interest as you drive aimlessly
>'kssh'
>"-vagrant resisting arres-"
>"THE GREAT AND POW-"
>'kssh'
>"-port of a missing... rock? Says it's named T-"
>'kssh'
>Harmony, it must be a slow da-
>"-sturbance. Breaking and entering. Yeah, same place. Lightning strikes twice, I guess. Location again is..."
>Your breath catches as the officer repeats the address
>Anon's apartment.
>There's no way
>It... could be just a coincidence
>....
>It's not a coincidence.
>Without another moment's hesitation, you take off
>You need to get you
>To the box under your bed

>Time passed with surprising speed
>Honestly, you weren't entirely sure how you knew where to go
>Deep down below, in these dark tunnels
>You should have no way of knowing how to get to your apartment down here
>But you did
>It felt like... well, you weren't sure how to describe it
>There was this pressure, pushing you on
>Each step felt… right
<There
>A ladder traveling up
>This was it
>Your way home
>Hm
>Pushing aside the manhole cover was a lot easier than you thought it would be
>Guess the movies got something right after all
>Huh, nighttime
>Just how long were you down there?
<It doesn’t matter
>The sight of your apartment complex throws every worry from your mind
>It feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders
>Before you know it, your feet have carried you along the familiar path to your door, lit by the dim-yellow fluorescence that until now you’d never realized just how comforting it was
>’kchk’
>Huh?
>’kchk’
>The, uh, the door must be stuck
>It’s happened before
>Damn lazy landlord
>You just… need to put… some FORCE into it!
>’krch-CRACK!’
>Ah… oops?
>You look around in embarrassment before stepping through the doorway and over the door that was now haphazardly decorating your floor
>The hinges must have been loose…
“I’ll talk to maintenance in the morning…”
>You can work around it
>It takes just a moment to prop it back up in its frame
>But enough of that
>You take in your room
>Home sweet home, right?
>……
>Wait.
>That’s… not right
>Where was your stuff?
>Did someone break in while you were gone after Sunset?

>A dull weight of panic starts to sit in your guts
“Y-Yeah, must be it…”
>Best to check and see what was missing
>Just… one more thing to complain about, right?
>You keep searching, avoiding your bedroom for now
>And… they must have put new food in the fridge…
>This, ah, must have been one weird thief…
>A nervous chuckle trails from your lips
>Before long, your standing in front of your bedroom door
>Best to just… see the damage done, right?
“It’s just stuff… just some stuff…”
>’chk’
>A tentative twist of the handle and you step inside
>It’s…
<Gone
>All of it!
>Your computer, your sheets, your posters, everything!
>Th-There’s different stuff now…
>….
“I need to cool off”
>Reeling, you stumble into your bathroom, scrambling for the sink
>Hastily, you splash too-cold water on your face, chest heaving
“Oh god…”
>Your reflection

>Your eyes…
>The mirror
>You have to look in the mirror
>It takes effort to lift your head and look into it
“Oh my God…”
>What stares back at you isn’t human
>Shimmering, inky skin covers most every inch, like wet leather
>Rows of shark-like teeth dominate its jagged maw, with no lips to speak of
>The only color is in and around the eyes
>An off-white diamond surrounds each of them
>The eyes….
>They’re… green
>The same eyes you saw every day
>Your eyes.
>It’s you.
>That thing in the mirror…
>It’s just you.
>You look like your father
>You reach out to touch the reflection, a heavy, shadowy claw following the motion
>How had you not noticed it?
>Had you been like this the whole time…?
>When?
>A cold ache throbs at the base of your skull, making you claw at it as the sensation grows
>Icy tendrils pulse and throb, the ache sharpening with each passing moment until you’re forced to your knees, a crashing sound following you down
>Both hands go to your head as you moan, pain wracking every synapse
>Flashes burn behind your eyes, clear as daylight
>You scream and everything goes black

<A shattering sound
<Ebony crystal skitter across the floor
<A hand, gripping a shifting, swirling mass, formless, colorless
<Crushing it
<Dominating it
<It creeps like a beaten dog, hesitant, across naked skin
<Sickly green blossoms, patchy at first, then whole
<There is laughter
<A command summons a silvery wing, just beyond a pane of glass
<It shatters with a leap
<Storm clouds rumble and rain falls as the darkened city-scape sweeps by
<You see your home
<You see an explosion
<You see yourself
<The wetness on your face, the bloodied nose and bruised cheek, the fear in those wide, too-green eyes
<You see the bridge, drained of color by the night’s storm and the fog of memory
<Her
<A fight, mere snapshots of movement, fast and angry and gleeful
<Your voice calls out, distracting
<An opportunity
<Not for you, but the you-that-is
<The you that is seeing all this
<The other
<Your body rushes forward, carried by hateful steel and worse thoughts
<A moment of lost control that you seize
<A claw outstretched, a bid for freedom hidden in an act of spiteful violence
<You hook into flesh and move into the wound, casting off the dominating mind and a smokescreen skin to fool them
<You tunnel and coat and fill the space
<A mind of fear and hope
<The body jerks and goes slack
<Your new home goes dull in a moment, that racing heart and infectious electricity cut off
<Panic
<You reconnect and hold together and puppeteer the weight to safety, carrying it through rushing cold and narrow dark and infectious rot
<Strand by strand, you heal it
<Beating heart, swelling lungs, until finally, you spark a fire
<You bring the you-that-will-be-that-are back
<Bonded
<Alive
<Together

>When you open your eyes again, you are… you
>Staring down into the shattered remains of your sink and mirror, a disparate visage staring back from the scattered shards
>You take a handful, eyes fixated on every movement your two-dimensional partner makes
“This is me now…”
>Now that you died.
>Dead, but not
<Alone, but together
>Together…
>With this other… whatever it is
>The thing that had turned your dad into a monster
<The thing that had brought you back to life
“Why did you save me…?”
>You don’t expect a reply from your reflection
>…
>Fucking hell
>Maybe you were crazy now, talking to the empty air, covered in some alien goo, waiting for the punchline of this really fucked up joke
>It almost makes you laugh
>What was that joke again?
>Oh right
“The Aristocrats.”
>Cue the crickets
>God, you feel sick
~<To be whole.
>Your breath catches in your throat
>That voice…
>It’s distant, willowy, somehow sad
>And…
>Feminine?
>It, she, whatever they were…
>The voice reminded you of your mother
“What did you say…?”
~<We need to be whole
“And… And what does that have to do with me?”
“Why do you need me to ‘be whole’?”
>Another flash makes you curl up with a moan of pain
>A feeling of emptiness
<Being incomplete
<A yawning hollowness that threatens to devour you from the inside out
>But when it’s with you…
>The pain stops
“Okay… yeah… I think I get it.”
>You probably don’t
>But you can guess
>If you felt that all the time
>And maybe you had
>Well, you guess it isn’t so different from how you felt when you were with Sunny
>Feeling whole and warm and accepted and happy
“Yeah… I get it.”
>You don’t know why your new best friend feels the way it does, but there’s really no changing it now
<You need it, them, her to keep you alive
>And it They need you for pretty much the same reason
>A partnership
<Symbiosis
>That sorts it, you suppose, as you struggle to your feet and stumble, somewhat-drunkenly, out of the bathroom
>Guess the only question now
“What next?”
>”HEY! Who’s in there!?”

>The world has a funny way of answering you
>Your apartment’s new owner finally came home, it looks like
>There’s no way you’re going to be able to explain this away
>I mean, you’re a slimy, monster-looking freak wearing what’s left of your sewage-coated clothes and you just trashed the bathroom harder than a Taco Bell dinner
>’Whoops’ is /not/ going to be able to cover it
>”Whoever it is, I’ve already called the police! So come on ou-“
>Oh.
>You’d thought that voice sounded familiar.
>Flash Sentry is standing in the living room, guitar held up in the air like a bat, looking a whole lot less confident than he sounded
>You feel a wave of aches at the sight
<For a moment, you’re back in the alley way, held between his two goons as he pounds on your face and stomach, rain soaking you to the bone
>It only takes a moment but you’re on him as he screams and drops the instrument
>The aches from where he’d hit you intensify as you scream right back, thrashing him across the floor and against a wall
<You died and he took your home
>How dare he!
>It’s overwhelming
<Hate.
>You hate him and you make him feel it in every hit
>It feels /good/
>To be in control for once
>Blood-soaked claws throw him to the floor
>He’s bloodied, beaten, crying
>He’s afraid
<Good
>You soak it in as he crawls across the floor like a worm
>Him, on the floor… you enjoy it
<He belongs there
>Yeah, you can make it happen
>It’s kind of funny, how easy it is
>You’re a lot stronger than you’d thought
>Taking away his legs, from the kneecap down, was as easy as pulling apart cheap chopsticks
>Flash’s quiet now
>So are you
“…..”
“Oh god.”
>What the fuck is wrong with you?
>You need to leave
>To run
>There’s blood everywhere
>The cops
>You bolt through the open door frame, back out into the night
>The sewer
>Down in the dark
>You…
>You need some time to think
>Oh god.
>You don’t care how far you go
>Sewage washes away the blood before you finally decide to curl up in a corner and sob
>Sunset
>Sunset would hate you for that
>The thought drains you of your high and makes you wail
>You’re all alone
~<No
>Cold comfort seeps into your veins, relaxing your muscles and quieting your soft weeping
~<We will never be alone again
>Darkness seeps in from the corners of your eyes, lulling you to sleep

~<Never again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uKdU19drsw