𝟎𝟑 - 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒂𝒅𝒂 𝑺𝒚𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒆

Some sort of white sticky string was stuck on the back of the window. Parvati's bag had tangled in between the seats, so she somehow remained sitting. There were cries of pain, relief, and fear as the people looked up to see how the hell their bus had stopped falling.

Indian Spiderman was hanging off the edge of the bridge with one hand, while holding his web-slinger with the other, straining it. People were looking from the bridge, shouting at the bus below. 

Parvati banged on the window, hoping he would recognise, 'Spiderman...'

Something changed in the expression of Spiderman, and he tried to lift the bus up. His neck stretched back with effort as he tried. His hand was shaking, and the web-slinger nearly slipped through. Tears were rising up to her face and she really hoped he would be able to save them. 

She heard him let out a shout, before looping the web around a bit of the bridge and getting up. Spiderman then started pulling the bus, and it started to rise. People were realising what had happened and crying with joy. Parvati kept her eyes locked on him, silently encouraging him. 

Soon enough, somehow, Spiderman had managed to tow the bus back onto the bridge. Someone unlocked the doors and people came flooding out of the doors, crying, like some sort of flood gates had been opened. Parvati untangled her bag from the seat and ran out the door as well.

Spiderman saw her and ran, before flinging his arms around her shoulders and hugging tightly, 'God dammit, I thought I had lost you.'

Parvati's eyes widened as he hugged her. Why was he doing that?

Soon enough, he seemed to realise, 'Oh- I- I'm sorry. It's, er, good to see you okay.'

'I, er- yeah thanks. Thanks for saving me, and everyone else,' she said quietly, still shocked by his strange hug.

'No problems! I mean, it is my job! I'm here to save people when they are in trouble. That's literally the entire point of my existence. If people didn't need saving, I would just be a normal boy like the ones you see everyday at school.'

'Yeah...'

She smiled uneasily at him, her palms sweaty and fiddling her fingers. There was an irregular pounding in her head, like war drums. It was a second before she realised that she'd enhanced the sound of her own heart. Her mind clouded up, and there was fog behind her eyes as dizziness came to take over her senses. 

Her breathing seized up before she passed out.

***

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

A rhythmic beeping stung her ears, coming from some sort of machine. There were tape and wires stuck to her wrists, chest, and other parts of her body. Parvati had only ever experienced this situation before twice in her life: one when she had cardiac arrest, and the second when she had to get an implanted cardiac defibrillator.

She was in a hospital.

Her eyes weren't willing to open. It seemed as they had been glued shut. There was a painful pounding behind them, like hand grenades being thrown at her brain, exploding with every majestic surge of pain. Her tongue was dry, and when she touched the top of her mouth, it stuck quite hardly. 

There was a muffled voice, 'What happened...?'

'... cardiac arrest... the bus... her emotions surged when... Spiderman...'

'Oh god, she isn't dead, is she?' the first voice, a male's, was laced with worry.

Parvati knew this voice. One eye opened blearily, stinging at the cool white tube lights which lined the roof of the hospital room. The pain in her heard escalated so fast that she whimpered from the it, tears flooding to her eye and blurring the figure of the speaking person. She could see a mop of messy black hair atop his head and a dark-skinned figure. But it was the way he was motioning with his hands that made her recognise who he was.

'...Pavitr...?' she weakly asked.

Pavitr whipped around, rolling his chair closer. Her tear of pain slipped out from her eye, making his anxious expression more clear. She felt a pang of sympathy.

'How are you? Are you okay? Should I go get a doctor? Do you need something to eat?' he stuttered hurriedly, his words tumbling over each other as he tried to get them out of his mouth.

'No, I...' she managed to unstick the other eye, 'I'm having a terrible headache.'

'I... er...' he groped around quickly, before handing her a glass of water, 'Try this.'

Parvati takes the glass from him, lifting it to her lips with shaking hands. She felt so weak. So weak that the glass nearly slopped its contents all over her hospital gown as she tried to drink. Pavitr kindly held the glass for her as she drank like a person who hadn't experienced the luxury of water for a few days. Her headache soon subsided after taking a few good sips. Maybe she had been dehydrated.

'Easy there,' he said as she drank, 'Don't choke.'

She stopped drinking, laying back onto the fluffy pillows with a small groan.

'How do you feel?' Pavitr looked concerned.

Parvati pointed to the dip in her chest, where they had stiched her up, 'Hurting.'

'I know. I would do anything to take that pain away. When I heard I could visit you in hospital after you had collapsed, I swung- I mean ran by as quickly as I could.'

She was touched by this, 'Thank you Pavitr...' she had never imagined him to do that. 

'Yeah well, I'd always care for a friend.' 

'Friend?'

'Yup,' smiled Pavitr, 'We're both the little leeches of school who have hung onto each other, so we ought to become friends rather than the classmate-hybrid-thing we've both got going on currently. I thought, y'know, we should take it a bit more forward.'

Friends? Parvati had never imagined their strange friends-but-not-friends relationships to become actually something. But she was pleased with the change, and would accept it happily.

'Okay, I'm cool with that,' she weakly  lifted her hand to shake his.

Pavitr gently patted her hand instead of shaking it, and placing it carefully back down onto the hospital bed, making sure to not disturb the wires implanted into her wrist, 'Careful there. We can shake hands afterwards. I don't want to hurt you or anything.'

Parvati smiled, 'Very well then... how did I end up here though?'

'Well, after you got saved from the bus, you collapsed. I- I mean Spiderman managed to bring you here and I came after a few days. Apparently from your adrenaline of being scared, your emotions spiked, causing your heart to beat faster than it normally does. Your cardiac defibrillator thing wasn't able to keep your irregular beats under control... and then you had cardiac arrest. Thankfully the doctors were able to sort you out before anything fatal could happen.'

'Wow, uh, okay,' Parvati blinked, she was unable to decipher her emotions. She looked at the heart rate monitor on her left: it showed a regular beat rate, the beeps outlining them.

'Hey,' Pavitr softly nudged her shoulder with his fist, giving a knowing smile, 'I know it seems hard to realise that you were close to dying; it's a terrible feeling. Trust me, I've been in that situation before.'

'You have?' she asked, curious.

'Yeah, I have,' he then gave a small cocky grin, 'There's a lot you don't know about me, Miss Prakash.'

***