章 99: Truth
Once again, Eren woke up in their twin-sized bed with Cindy in his arms, looking down at her peaceful sleeping face with a smile. 'She's so beautiful.' Eren thought to himself, caressing her face with his hand before looking over at his phone. He had received a text from Harry, telling him to meet on top of the Empire State Building about thirty minutes from the time Eren read the message.
'Huh? I wonder what this is about?' Eren thought to himself as he read Harry's text. Being careful not to wake Cindy, Eren got out of bed and immediately headed over to the meeting place.
By the time Eren arrived, wearing his Spider-Man costume, the New Goblin was already standing there with his arms crossed and his glider hovering in front of him. Harry lifted his visor, showing his emotive eyes to his best friend which displayed both wrath and sorrow.
Eren was confused, landing in front of his friend before removing his mask to speak to him face-to-face. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Eren saying this triggered his best friend to stomp toward him with his fists clenched before delivering a full-powered punch to Eren's face, one with such strength, it actually made the hero stumble. Eren felt his Spider-Sense go off, but he didn't expect Harry to actually hit him like that for what seemed like no reason.
"Why the fuck did you steal Project V? What happened to all this bullshit you've been spewing about crossing lines? About never taking a life? You're a fucking hypocrite!" Harry yelled passionately as Eren rubbed his own face, looking at his friend with dead eyes.
"What? What are you talking about?" Eren played dumb, but he knew exactly what Harry was talking about. However, he had no clue how he even found out or if he had any proof to back up his claims.
"I fucking saw you last night! You ate people! You fucking ATE people!" Harry was hysterical at this point, looking at his best friend as if Eren was a freak and a monster.
Eren exhaled, realizing that the jig was finally up between the two of them. He couldn't keep the act going, at least, not with Harry. Eren looked at the ground blankly before reluctantly revealing the truth to Harry. "So you saw that, huh? Yeah, I guess I have done that. But it's not really me, I barely even remember any of it." Eren stating this brought a confused expression to Harry's face.
"What does that even mean?" Harry asked him.
"Well, the first time the symbiote took over, I had no memory of anything. I remember going to the facility, sneaking inside, and then everything went blank until I woke up in the center of it all..." Eren's face looked as if he wanted to heave as he recalled past events, making Harry feel uneasy on his behalf. "I could-" Eren hesitated, grimacing as he thought about the next thing that happened. "I could 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 my stomach full of human remains... I immediately threw up where I found myself. There were fingers..."
Harry's eyes widened. He too wanted to vomit, but he held it in despite those feelings. It felt like a pit formed in his stomach.
"I can't control it yet and I can only hold it back while I'm awake. But when I'm asleep..." Eren looked up at Harry's horrified expression. "It wakes up. It needs to eat, and it chooses to eat humans. It happens about once per two to four days, depending on how much it eats. I can feel it when it's reached its limit. Before Cindy moved in, I could just let nature take its course, but I had to make precautions once she started living with me. When it's hungry, I pretend to fall asleep until she's asleep and I leave. Then I let it take over."
"So you just... let it kill whoever it wants?" Harry asked, in absolute disbelief that Eren Parker of all people would cross the so-called line to this extent.
"Not whoever. When it's in control, I feel myself inside my body like I'm in a weird state between consciousness and unconsciousness. It's like I'm copiloting. I only let it kill criminals. We've yet to consume an innocent person. From what I can remember, I just sort of pull it away from them and lead it somewhere else..."
"Why did you do this? Why didn't you just destroy it?" Harry asked, unable to even guess what Eren's goals were.
"Because I need it. If I want to save everyone, I need it. Just for a little longer." Eren spoke vaguely, which didn't help Harry understand at all.
"Save everyone from what?" Harry was starting to get angry again, having enough of the vagueness and secrecy.
"You don't need to worry about it. This is my burden to bear." Eren saying this angered Harry, compelling the boy to once again yell at his best friend.
"Why are you being so fucking selfish!? Do you think I'm weak!? Do you think I'm too stupid to help!? Is that it!? You know who you're being like!? You're being just like Norman right now, you have that same look! That same false sense of being the people's savior on your face!" Harry's words did nothing but finally push Eren over the edge, bringing the boy to yell with more emotion than Harry had ever seen him show before.
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE FIRST THING ABOUT ME! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH! I'M SELFISH!? ME!? I'M DOING THIS FOR YOUR ASS! I'M DOING THIS FOR CINDY! I'M DOING THIS FOR EVERY FUCKING PERSON ON THIS PLANET!" Eren's aggressiveness immediately muted Harry as Godspeed energy began to crackle all over his body. Eren inhaled and then exhaled, realizing he'd lost his temper before speaking calmly once more.
"When I visited my father in the past, he told me that with great power, comes great responsibility. With the memories of hundreds of timelines, I have so much power when it comes to changing the future... its too much to handle. It's too much responsibility. Harry, I feel like I'm losing my mind. I feel like I'm going insane. You don't need this weight on your shoulders. It's not that you can't handle it, it's that you don't deserve this amount of dread eating you up inside. No one does.
If I could go back, I wouldn't accept all of this knowledge. I didn't ask for this. I would just go into the future oblivious to what's going to happen if I could. I haven't told you or Cindy this, but the world has ended in every single timeline. Every. Single. One.
So it's looking like ours will end up the same way.
I'm trying my best, I really am, but who's to say that I am the lucky one to suddenly change the future? What if it's fate? What if I am meant to die every time? What if the world is meant to fall every single time no matter what?"
Harry didn't even know what to say to this, he was just dumbfounded. He knew Eren was hiding something, but he would've never guessed that he was hiding the entire world ending from them. He finally understood why Eren was lying, it all made sense at this moment. Harry finally understood that Eren was just trying to protect what little joy they all had left.
"I will get rid of the symbiote once I finish what needs to be done and hopefully it will lead to our timeline getting the good ending. In the meantime, criminals will die when it needs to eat. That's just how it is and I've accepted it over the course of hundreds of years worth of memories to ponder it. Their sacrifice is worth saving the entire world for."
"What about Cindy?" Harry asked. "Are you going to tell her?"
"She already knows. She can keep lying to herself, but she can't lie to me. Sure, I don't have the power to sense her emotions as she does with me, but I can see it on her face and I can feel it by the way she touches me. Sometimes, she looks at me like she's afraid of me. Sometimes, her hands caress me with caution like she's petting a dog who she knows has the tendency to bite.
She doesn't need to hear it from me and she doesn't want to. Whenever I lie, I can see it on her face. She probably sees me when I leave her at night. Our bed is so small, there's no way she hasn't felt me leave her side at least once...
Just don't tell her, for her sake. Let her go on for as long as she can without hearing the truth. She will find out soon enough. Don't tell Lily either, I don't think she needs to know this stuff. I don't think she should even be involved with us, personally. She doesn't need all this extra stress, but she's free to do what she likes."
Harry once again just looked at Eren without saying anything. He truly didn't have a clue what to say to him. He didn't know if she should agree or apologize or express his own feelings. All he could do was listen.
"Speaking of which, now that everything your father left behind has been dealt with, you need to stop this crusade you're on. As I said, the world is ending soon if I can't stop it. You love Lily, right? I know she loves you, Harry and she's hurting. Spend as much time as you can with her before it's too late.
See you later, Harry."
Spider-Man put his mask back on and started to leave, however, Harry finally spoke up and stopped him in his tracks. "Hey." Harry said quietly. Spider-Man turned his head, side-eyeing him behind his lenses. "I'm sorry for being a dick. I think I can understand your motives... Now that I know what you told me, I feel sick to my stomach. I feel like crying and throwing up... I can only imagine what you feel like, having a million times more knowledge about the future. I'm really sorry."
"I'm sorry that you had to find out like this. Don't apologize to me, just go apologize to Lily and enjoy what time you have left with her. Bernard too. Really, all of us need to enjoy having each other. That's all I want." With that said, Spider-Man lept from the Empire State Building, flinging a web from his wrist before heading back home to Cindy.
Harry stood in place, now sharing the weight of the world with his best friend.
He realized now that he too would have to be a liar now that he had the burden of knowledge within him.
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