( TW: graphic depictions of a dead body, su*cidal thoughts, grief, depression )

November 30th, 2002
12:45 A.M.

After everything that had occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge, Christina and Mary Jane were escorted by the kind gentlemen towards police cars that were parked on the shore. They both got into the backseat and were taken to the hospital to be treated for any injuries they could have received. As they were on their way there, the blonde stared out the passenger side window with a blank expression on her face and it was clear that she had been reduced to a state of shock.

This concerned Mary Jane, who reached over to take her hand and hold it in order to comfort her since that was all she could really do. Christina appreciated this, however, and she squeezed her hand in return to also offer solace. She then closed her eyes but she wasn't able to let sleep overcome her, since she had a gnawing feeling in her gut.

And it was agonizing.

Twenty minutes later, they finally arrived at Queens General Hospital; the girls were led inside, Christina more carefully since she was quieter than normal and was still in a state of subtle hysteria. She was reminded of how she felt after the events of the World Unity Festival, where she hadn't been able to talk for about fifteen minutes because of how scared she was after everything that had taken place.

After fifteen minutes of questions from the Sheriff, Christina finally came back to reality and looked towards the receptionist's desk. She got up from a chair next to the hallway's wall and walked over to said desk, placing her shaking hands on the counter.

"Excuse me, ma'am...?" she mumbled timidly, looking at the woman sitting in front of her.

An African American woman in her mid-40s glanced up at the young girl with a kind smile on her face. "Yes, Miss Johnson?" she replied, having already checked her into the hospital before she was questioned.

"Is it possible that I could get a few quarters from you?" Christina asked in a shy manner, her hands trembling more. "I need to try and get a hold of my mother, please."

The generous receptionist smiled sympathetically as she nodded, looking through her wallet and digging out two quarters. "Here you go, dear," she said, placing the coins into her hand. "I hope you'll be fine considering what's happened to you."

The blonde nodded as she smiled tightly. "Thank you, ma'am," she said in a blunt tone, not meaning to sound rude. But it was difficult to be extremely nice after the horrifying experience she had gone through. Regardless, she cringed at her tone and frowned at the receptionist. "Sorry if I'm being rude," she mumbled.

"You're not being rude, miss," the woman said with a frown of her own. "Go call your mother, alright?"

Christina nodded again and weakly sauntered over to the payphone; despite her horribly shaking hands, she carefully slid the quarters into the coin slot and dialed each digit of her mother's number. After she did so, she listened to the dial tone repeat over and over again from one time to over a dozen times.

Voicemail.

Hi, you've reached the Johnson residence, this is Margaret. Please leave a message and I'll call you back when I can.

The blonde's eyes filled with tears of anger as she slammed the receiver down on the payphone repeatedly while screaming. "FUCK!" she screamed. "DAMN IT! SON OF A BITCH!"

Christina completely ignored the stares of confusion and judgment she was getting as she let the phone cord dangle from the device and she plopped herself back into the chair. She buried her face in her hands and tried not to cry out of pure distress, and she also had to hold herself back from yanking her hair out of her scalp. She yelled into her hands and rested her head back against the wall, just praying that everything would turn out alright.

All of a sudden, the two double doors down the hallway to Christina's right banged open and two coroners (one male and the other female) were rolling a gurney down towards the morgue. Christina caught a glimpse of one of the nurses walking up to them and discussing something with them; she heard a few of the words they happened to say.

"What have we got here?" the nurse asked them.

"Subject is a middle-aged woman; brown hair, blue eyes, 53," the female coroner spoke up. "Cause of death was a snapped neck. Name was Margaret Catherine Johnson."

Christina stood up mere seconds after hearing those words as her heart temporarily stopped; her whole world was relegated to silence with the exception of the sound of the gurney being wheeled into the morgue two hallways down. The blonde followed the coroners with wide eyes and it felt as though her vision was getting blurry from the deliriousness she was feeling. Her legs were wobbly and she almost didn't make it into the office behind them.

However, she managed to barely walk into the room, which the coroners instantly noticed and the male gently grabbed her by the arms to guide her back out. "Miss, you can't be in here," he said carefully, not wanting to upset her.

"I'm her daughter..." Christina murmured weakly, her eyes almost completely filled with tears. "My... My name's Christina Johnson. I just tried to get a hold of her... Please let me see her. I need to know if it's really her..."

The female coroner's eyes went from stern and professional to compassionate and sympathetic as she nodded bluntly. "Let her back in, Chase," she mumbled before motioning Christina to walk back inside.

Christina slowly lumbered over to the gurney and she noticed that whoever was lying on it was covered with a white sheet; a part of her didn't want to see what was under it, but she knew she had to so she could confirm it and not be left in the dark. Her heart was in her throat and a tear slipped down her left cheek as she tried not to sob. She looked at the female coroner with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Let me see her, please..." she whispered, her voice cracking.

The female nodded slowly but, before she lifted the sheet, she glanced back up at Christina. "You said you're Margaret Johnson's daughter, right?" she asked gingerly.

Christina nodded.

"I'm sorry," the female mumbled before carefully pulling the white sheet back, closing her eyes since she didn't want to look either. She had had this job for over five years and she still got queasy with some of the bodies she would see from time to time.

The sight was way worse than Christina imagined it being and she covered her mouth.

Instead of looking peaceful like she had passed in her sleep, Margaret Johnson's face was twisted into an expression of frozen horror. Her eyes looked more lifeless than Christina could have possibly pictured; she had seen a lot of horror movies, but her mother's fate was all too real. However, it was as if she had been slaughtered in a bloodless murder. Well, almost bloodless. She didn't miss the gory gash that still remained on the woman's forehead.

But the worst part of all was seeing her mother's head twisted almost completely around. She was immediately reminded of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist where her head spun around in a three-hundred-sixty degree angle during the exorcism scene.

That proved to be too much for the young woman, and she audibly gagged as she spun around.

"Cover her back up, Carol," Chase said before rushing over to Christina and offering her a trash can in case she needed to vomit. "Are you alright, ma'am?!"

Christina lightly pushed the trash can away as she let out a cry of emotional agony, staring up at Chase. "What the fuck...?" she whimpered. "Who did that to her...?"

Chase froze for a brief moment, not knowing if he should reveal who could have possibly done something like that to an innocent woman.

"Who killed my mother?" she asked him in a louder voice, demanding an answer.

After a long moment of excruciating silence, Chase opened his mouth to finally answer her.

"Based on the unnaturally large fingerprints we discovered..." he began, "...and the fact that we associated them to a specific kind of gloves... we were able to determine that the person that killed your mother, although we don't know their actual identity, was the Green Goblin."

Everything finally made sense to Christina in that one moment. She finally realized how that fucking monster had found out where she lived: he must've found out where Margaret lived and must have gotten information from her as he attacked her before killing her.

But that didn't make any sense. Christina knew that Margaret wouldn't have willingly given up where her own daughter was....

Unless the Goblin already knew where Christina was....

That made much more sense.

He had specifically gone after her and had killed her own damn mother in order to break her down emotionally before eventually attempting to drop her to her own death... of course, Spider-Man had stopped that.

But why did the Green Goblin target her?! Why her and Mary Jane and not someone else?

"Wait..." she mumbled, standing up and turning back to Carol with several tears running down her face now. "Just... please let me see her one more time."

She didn't bother listening for an answer as she pulled the sheet back and examined her mother's kind face; it still looked very much like the beautiful Margaret she had grown up with. The fact that she was in peace and she wasn't suffering the wrath of her killer anymore resonated with Christina and provided her the smallest amount of happiness since she knew she was joyful and thriving wherever she was.

Christina raised her left hand and gently caressed her mother's cold face, her lips quivering as she squeezed her eyes shut. She tenderly put her arms around her body and hugged her extremely gingerly, still afraid of hurting her despite Margaret having already been dead for hours. She held back a sob as she hiccupped, her hands clenching into fists from the physical agony of her heart completely shattering into billions of pieces.

She then kissed Margaret on the forehead. "I-I love you..." she whimpered before pulling away quickly and storming out of the morgue, gasping for precious air.

But, once she made it out of the room and into the hallway, her oxygen was robbed from her as she collapsed to her knees. Her face had morphed into a pained look of pure grief and misery as her forehead met the icy cold floor of the hospital. She sucked in air for half a second at a time, slamming her hands against the floor as she sobbed hysterically. Her mother was really gone... the only real family she was aware of having had been ripped away from her.

Over the course of two hours, she had gone through a near-death experience and had learned that she lost the most important person in her life.

Thinking this only made her cry harder as she closed her eyes, her fingernails digging so roughly into her palms that she actually drew blood.

"Chris...?"

A familiar voice briefly pulled Christina out of her overwrought state of mind and she looked up, only to see someone that she absolutely needed to look at right now.

"I'm so sorry..." Peter murmured as he also began to cry, having just heard the news himself.

Christina flung herself into Peter's arms and wailed uncontrollably, clinging to him desperately and refusing to let go. She trembled horribly as he held her, and she buried her face in his chest to muffle her screeches of absolute agony. All she wanted at that moment was to go to the roof of the hospital and dive off of it, to end it all for good so she could be with her mother.

But Peter's presence just narrowly prevented her from doing so....

But Christina wasn't able to bring herself to stop crying. And Peter just let her keep sobbing as he held her close, kissing the top of her head to try and put her at ease.

A/N: well THAT was heartbreaking. i hope you guys don't hate me after this chapter😐

what did you guys think of this chapter? was it sad enough without going too overboard? let me know!

who wants to hug christina right now? i certainly do. #PROTECTCHRISTINAATALLCOSTS

predictions for the next chapter?

only one more chapter to go and part one is over!

like i've said before, i have a playlist for part one that includes tracks from the first spider-man film as well as music from other movies/video games/television shows. if you would like to listen to this playlist, let me know here and i will private message you all with a link to said playlist so you can listen to it.

also, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 10K READS! it means the world to me that you guys even like this book, since my writing style is absolutely horrendous. so i appreciate that you guys are even reading this story!

be looking forward to the next chapter!

-denbroughswife