Spiral - the_stars_in_our_eyes - Venom (Comics) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Hours, In Waist Deep

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He didn’t ask for much. Never had. Just a newspaper, each day. So he could keep up with what was going on in the outside world. He could have just asked the people who guarded him, but people lied. Print was truth.

Print had him staring at the name of one of the only people he’d never felt the instinct to destroy.

So that closed-off, silent child had grown up to be someone who voiced for the voiceless. The lowest dregs of society. The homeless, the disabled, the poor, the unloved, the unlucky, the mentally ill. The different. People who weren’t worth caring about. Cletus didn’t think that of them. How could he think that? He had a f*cking list of defects the prison psychiatrist once read out to him before the incident that had him penned up in this cage like a monster. He was one of those dregs. And he liked that Eddie was vouching for people like him.

And then sh*t happened to Eddie. Cletus still asked for a paper each day, asked for every print of every copy the powers that be would allow him. He was given a dozen, sifting through them for months and months. Still nothing. Some rocket blew up which was almost interesting. And then, four months after that, he found Eddie in some middle-road rag he barely knew the name of. It had been almost eight months and if this was the only real work he’d had…well.

Eddie wasn’t the only one who could look out for the dregs.

Pat barely remembered Eddie. He saw a lot of people day to day, suspects, witnesses, his own colleagues…sometimes he barely remembered his own goddamn name.

But if it got families closure, especially the relatives of that psychopath…Pat would do whatever the hell it took. He’d met some of them, despondent and dead-eyed from the loss of their world. Kassady had taken that from them, stolen their light. Some had even lost their motivation to keep on living due to that warped son of a bitch. Pat would even go as far as to say he was worse than the serial killer who’d been ripping off people’s heads. The coroner had thought the resulting slices looked like teeth marks, but not human. And there had been remnants of something acidic. All very strange, incredibly scary, but that had died down. Now he had something to actually do. A lead. And it depended on a shady little vulture which didn’t sit right, but what else was a guy to do?

The families came first. Always would.

He pressed the green symbol on his phone screen and pressed it to his only working ear. Sometimes it still hurt, like Barrison’s scream had torn something in the canal that couldn’t heal. She was dead, but her parting gift lingered.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Eddie. It’s Mulligan.” He could barely hear the other man’s voice, so pressed his hand over his damaged ear, trying to focus with the other. People grieved for the blind. The deaf didn’t get such luxury. “You heard of Kassady, right? Cletus Kassady. He’s a serial killer.”

“Uh…yeah, I’ve heard of him. Why?”

“He’s ready to talk about his victims. Only you he wants to talk to.” He had a whole speech planned for if Eddie balked, tried to get out of it. Nobody felt safe in the company of a killer. At least nobody sane. Nobody who wasn’t used to being in the company of a killer.

Eddie said. “When does he want to talk?”

It was then that Pat should’ve realised that Eddie either wasn’t sane or was used to a killer’s company.

Chapter 2: Green Eyed Monster, 10cc

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Seeing Cletus for the first time in so many years was a shock. Physically he’d expected to see lots of changes. What hadn’t changed were his eyes. Eddie couldn’t forget them. The blue of them, at once piercing and lulling. Exactly as he remembered them being. Was this some sick game? Maybe but Eddie didn’t have that kind of feeling about the man. There was something…sincere about him.

“Eddie.”

Venom’s voice has almost made him crash into a street sign. He rights himself, to the chorus of car horns beeping furiously at him. “Don’t do that when I’m driving! You’ll get us killed! What do you want?”

“Why are you thinking about the murderer? I thought we don’t like those.”

“Never said I liked him. Just…lots to think about.” Venom has got a point, even if he doesn’t know it. Cletus is a killer. A proud one. A very sad*stic and violent one. It would be wrong to like him. Which is all well and good, if he chooses to forget the fact he has an alien who likes eating human brains. He’s not much better. “This one’s important. A lot of people might be able to bury their loved ones, the sooner I do this.”

“So, we’ll have to see him again. Why don’t we just bring flowers if you like him so much?”

Eddie stops his bike in its usual spot and takes off his helmet. Bright sunlight attacks his eyes and he flinches, blinking as his irises hastily dilate to let the light in. “What are you, jealous?”

Venom is silent as Eddie takes the stairs. “No…” he says when the front door is opened. “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“That’s sweet, but I’m a big boy. I can deal with Cletus.”

“When are you seeing…him again?”

Eddie doesn’t fully get Venom’s dislike of Cletus. He should feel a kind of kinship with a cannibalistic serial killer, but instead he hates him. “Tomorrow. Got to talk with Mulligan before.”

“Him.”

Sometimes Eddie feels like the only man in the world Venom doesn’t hate. Lately, it’s worse. He’s so angry sometimes and the fact he doesn’t seem to know his own strength doesn’t help. “Look,” he says, plucking Cher from where she’s mindlessly pecking the empty floor. “Give your girl a hug.”

Venom takes more form, holding the chicken in his arms. She clucks and he scratches the top of her head until she closes her eyes, making little noises of contentment. He won’t eat Cher. Or Sonny. Even though they brought them home for snacking purposes. He goes to sit down with her on his lap. Seconds later, Sonny is being lifted over in a tentacle, completely unknowing of the fact it’s even happening. He’s not the smartest chicken.

Eddie looks at them, the hulking black Symbiote, the little plump chickens nestled in his arms. It’s adorable. And then Sonny ruins it by pecking at Venom’s mass and getting an enraged snarl that has him squawking and running away in a panic. “You were a little harsh on him.”

Venom picks up Cher and places her on the coffee table where she promptly sh*ts. “Good girl.”

“No! No, not good girl. Bad girl, because now we gotta clean-” Eddie stops as Venom disappears into him. Typical. The Symbiote has no instinct to keep things clean. “I gotta clean it up.” He grabs paper towels, the spray they’re running so low on that it’s not even worth using, but it’s all they have, and takes care of the mess before it can set. “You always say I live here when I don’t want you to do something in this apartment, but the second I want you to do something? You disappear.”

“Mmhm.” Venom agrees without any shame. He has no shame at all. Eddie is sure that if he were human, he’d have no problem strolling around naked in front of the windows. If he were human, things would be easier. No hiding.

“You know, you’re really not easy.”

“Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

“There we go. Answer for everything.”

“Am I not worthwhile?”

“Yes.” Eddie answers slowly. He’s both certain and uncertain. He’d find it a whole lot easier for sure. It’s expensive, hosting a constantly hungry Symbiote. It’s very messy, leaving headless chickens across the city and mess everywhere in his apartment. It’s lonely because…how do you date when you have someone else living in your body? It’s hard because he’s an alien, a living thing, that doesn’t like to be hidden and controlled. He knew Venom would change his life, he just didn’t realise how much and in what way. The thing is, while he can survive without Venom, he knows Venom couldn’t survive without him. Not for long.

“You don’t sound sure.”

Eddie throws the filthy towels in the trash. “I’m sure. Come on out if you want dinner.”

Time has such a way with people. Turned his mama’s mind to dust, leaving absent-minded apathy where love should be. Put darkness in his daddy’s heart from the split second of the old man’s birth where it festered until there was no goodness in him. Pulled the morals from Granny’s head to make her cruelty match her beloved son’s.

But time wasn’t all bad. There was Frances, his angel, one true light of his world. She who accepted and loved him with all her heart, merged her soul with his when their eyes first met. It grew with time their love and though time is the greatest thief, it never took their love.

She was the most obvious example. Eddie, a less obvious one. There was no longer anxiety and fear in those eyes. He’d grown out of his father’s shadow and now he was a voice for the voiceless. A voice for Cletus while he was stuck in this box.

He touched the artwork on his walls. All his, by his own hand, some with his own blood. His creations, his precious reminders of before they’d caught and trapped him in this place. The psychiatrist had encouraged him to draw, said it would help him process past traumas. Cletus wondered if anything was helping his. He presses the end of his tongue to the corner of his mouth, recollecting the taste of blood. So warm, so hot, the ruby color of it splashed onto beige walls. It needed color. And he needed flesh.

Most of all he needs his angel. And Eddie is his way back to her.

They float silently while Eddie sleeps. They fuss over the chickens, they stick their head out the window to see people walking by. They absently watch stuff on Netflix.

And they curse their own cowardice, all while ignoring their second offspring that grows within.

How can this be happening again? I’m not dying. Nothing has even happened. It’s all lies they tell themselves. They knew months ago that the phenylethylamine in chocolate isn’t enough to sustain them. Even with chicken heads, they are malnourished. They are starving. Badly or their traitorous cells wouldn’t be multiplying. This pregnancy…they can’t accept it. It’s too soon after the loss of their first young and if another miscarriage happens, they aren’t so sure they can survive it. It’s all wrong. They let the bump show, allow their eyes to roam over it. It’s growing, so much larger than its sibling.

They so want to tell their host.

Their problem is, they can’t. Eddie’s changed so drastically from the same man who grieved when they were presumed dead and cared for them when they could barely care for themselves. He often acts like he wishes they weren’t there. He’s very vocal about how easier life was before they turned up. Perhaps they are changing too because sometimes they feel locked in, unable to go anywhere else. He’s all they have and it’s becoming more difficult to hide this new pregnancy. They really want him to know, but they don’t think he’ll want any more disruptions to his life.

Who’s to say he won’t evict both of them?

You’re all I have. I stayed for you, refused a chance to redeem myself in the eyes of my own kind. Acceptance by my own in exchange for a life with you. I believed you valued me as much as I value you.

They take care of their host. It’s them who makes the morning coffee, helps Eddie on dark days, eats the big spiders, makes sure he gets enough sleep, reminds him to take vitamins or eat certain things if his body needs them, helps him dress nicely, get the mail, not to mention all the things they heal in his body. Yes, they are messy, but it’s not on purpose. They just…are. One thing in their nature that they share with the other millions of Symbiotes. They used to offer to help, but Eddie won’t accept after their last accident. It seems to them that there are things about them that Eddie can’t accept and they don’t know what they are. Just that, once again, their imperfections have them being slowly rejected.

“Vee?”

They hide the bulge of their young quickly and turn to look at their host. He stands barefoot, soft eyes almost turquoise in the moonlight that falls in the nightlit living room. He looks so beautiful like this. Like one of those ancient statues the humans call exquisite art, even when broken. “Yes?”

He doesn’t say anything, just watches them tiredly. Then he holds a hand out, eerily pale in the silvery light. They take it and he leads them to his bed where he settles with them, tangled in each other. “Y’know, I can take you being mad. But I got no defence when you’re sad.”

“I’m not.”

“Liar.” But he just hugs them tighter. “I…could’ve worded things a little better.”

“Story of your life.”

Eddie slaps the flat of his palm against their ass. “I’m trying to be nice here, Vee!”

“By beating me?”

He rubs their back, pressing his face to their shoulder. “You’re such an idiot.” He says without any real meaning and then looks in their eyes. “I care about you, okay?”

Yes, but am I worth what I used to be? Or do you care about me because you feel morally obliged to keep me? “Okay,” they say because they aren’t sure what else they can say. They like being held, though, so they stay where they are and try not to wreck the moment. They can pretend, like this.

He goes back to sleep, arms still tight. They could move away from him, but choose not to. They let out the bump and eye it, almost wishing Eddie would wake up and see. They are so tired of keeping this secret. So tired of feeling hungry and their host thinking they exaggerate when they tell him so. He’s killing them and in their fear of rejection, they’re letting him.

The young lurches to one side suddenly. Venom grimaces, curling a hand over the swell of it. They wish it weren’t here. So awful. Such a terrible thing to wish. They don’t want it gone, not like its poor sibling, they aren’t so twisted. They just wish it hadn’t happened, not so soon after the first. They can’t bring themselves to want it, not with a host on the brink of renouncing them and the loss of the first one on their mind.

Weak!

Their recollection of their own parent makes them start. Venom can’t even remember the name of the one who birthed them. They just remember the flash of teeth, their parent’s frantic attempt to devour them when they learned of their young’s beliefs. They know what it feels to be rejected by a parent through no real fault of their own. Being born with that knowledge – which it will be, Venom can still recall the apathy from their own parent – will hurt. Of all creatures, Symbiotes take rejection worst, even from their own kind. They turn their back to Eddie and wrap both arms around the curve that hides their growing young. Forgive me. It’s not you. It could never be you. I just…can’t be your parent.

Chapter 3: Burning Vision, Eyes of Anguish

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The whole thing is making the entire left side of his head revolt. Pat knows better than to show it, knows way better than to show weakness. Being naïve had lost him one sense, he isn't about to lose another, even if the only person around is Eddie.

One thing they share in common was a distrust of Kassady. No sh*t. Who in their right mind could trust a killer?

She opened her mouth and just like that, his world was silenced.

No, dammit. She isn't allowed that kind of hold on him. No one is. Not her, not her psycho boyfriend, no one. He pushes away the thoughts of Barrison and slows his pace as Eddie starts talking.

“Detective Mulligan, with all due respect, I don’t want anything to do with Cletus Kassady.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because he only wants to see you. In my opinion, you had your chance with Kassady and you blew it.” Leaving Pat with grievers who were, somehow, more broken than before. See enough grief and it hardens you in a way that strips your humanity. He’s not at the point he’s lost it all, but damn if a childless mother doesn’t make him wish he didn’t have any.

“Alright, um, so what does he want?”

Figuring why the hell not, Pat indulges in a little hope. “Maybe he wants to spill the beans about where the missing bodies are buried.” He looks at Eddie, the harsh white lighting making him look deathly. “So, you’re going to have to do the right thing for a change.” Eddie’s a good writer. Fantastic writer. His skills with words won't mean sh*t in his chosen career if he isn't also good with people, getting them to spill their secrets. Sometimes, people just need a little push. Let Eddie think he’s a dick. Just so long those families get their closure and that son of a bitch gets some justice. Let Cletus join Frances in hell.

A door screeches behind him somewhere and he turns. Eddie is nowhere to be seen. And the Ladies bathroom door swings shut, eliciting that same noise.

“What was that?”

Equally outraged because a very tasty-looking head had just been between their jaws, Venom struggles out of Eddie’s miniscule hands. “Unhand me!” They are in no mood for his bullsh*t right now. A host of theirs should be respected and feared. “Man should never consent to crawl when he has the impulse to fly.” Eddie grabs some of their neck and they allow it, having run out of most of their rage. “You are a bottom feeder.”

“Be quiet!” Eddie hisses it angrily at them. “How many times have I told you that I want you to hide yourself when I am working? I am serious.” His voice lightens to a whisper. “It’s important. You have to show me respect.”

“Respect?” Venom repeats, when they doubt they have ever been more disrespected themselves.

“Yes.”

“Respect?” they repeat it again, just to be sure they didn’t mishear or misunderstand.

“Yes!”

“Okay. Kassady gonna give you the scoop, right?”

“Right!”

“Wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

Thinking of the young, of Anne, of their completely f*cked existence, they tell him the plain, simple truth. “Because you blow everything.”

Eddie’s confusion gives way to annoyance. “Oh, okay, I see. You’re talking about Anne again.”

“I miss her.” Venom sullenly reminds him. They do. She wouldn’t have gotten them pregnant. They nudge the side of his head in irritation, but misjudge their strength, knocking his head into the stall’s fragile wall. Oops. Maybe it might knock some sense into their host.

But this is Eddie. Of course it doesn’t.

“I will do it.”

Pat has absolutely no idea what to f*cking think. He can accept Eddie going in the Ladies because…well, it ain’t his business what Eddie identifies as. But the banging noises, the whispers he couldn’t hear because of Frances f*cking Barrison… that was f*cking weird. Nobody crashes into walls and talks to their junk while peeing. Their eyes meet and his mouth acts quicker than his brain. “I don’t like you.” For a moment, he thinks he’s blown it. Screwed the whole goddamn pooch because he can't goddamn think. Eddie’s the only person Kassady will talk to and if he’s pissed him off…

Eddie, for a moment, looks far madder than Pat thought possible for him. “You don’t deserve...nice things.”

With even less idea what he should be thinking, Pat refuses to even open his mouth. He turns his back, just grateful that Eddie’s still doing the interview. You gotta work on your people skills, Pat. Always been your issue. Guy’s on your side, even if he is weird.

And he needs people on his side if Kassady’s secret victims are going to be found.

“Welcome back, Eddie Brock.” Cletus doesn’t even want to blink. It’s like Eddie might just…disappear. “I’ve been thinking about you.” He isn’t lying. He doesn’t lie to people he likes. There aren't many, so why tarnish the relationship?

Eddie doesn’t see this as the nice thing it is. “What do you want, Cletus? I mean…why am I here?”

“Do a man who’s buried alive a kindness won’t you? Get a message out to all my…” he’s not sure on how to describe them. Followers sounds like a cult, which he doesn’t like the sound of. They’re free. Free little birds, like a flock. He wouldn’t call them family, not with his…history. “Fans,” he decides. He likes that better than the other choices. Makes him sound like a celebrity, which he sorta is. Everybody knows Cletus Kassady, famous serial killer, the terror of San Fransisco. He’d kill all his fans and serve them in a beautiful meal for his light if only she asked. “And in return, I’ll give you my life.” He waits, wanting to see if Eddie will fall for his only joke in decades. He used to make jokes in the foster home they found each other in. Even now, he can recall the way Eddie’s eyes used to light when something funny happened. Such a pure sight…

“What?”

Cletus smiles, thinking Eddie will, too. “Story.” Fun’s over, now he needs to get to business. The whole point of this endeavour. “I heard the written word hasn’t been working out so well. Piece like this, an exclusive, would put you back on top.” He looks at Eddie, in awe at how easily he leans on the bars separating them. Nobody else has that kind of courage. Cletus finds it intoxicating. He could reach out and touch. He doesn’t. Must be on very good behavior. Must do that for her.

Eddie’s patient. He gestures to him when he finishes speaking. “Go on.”

Such a lovely voice. Cletus thinks of his vocal cords, working together with the soft pearls of his alveoli to produce it. While thinking of them, he speaks. “People love…serial killers.” People love him. What he’s done, why he’s in here. Cletus loves that. But she’s more than all he’s taken. “All my secrets, laid bare, Eddie. So much…carnage.”

“Well, why me?”

Cletus laughs, finding it both funny and endearing. As kids, Eddie asked the same question a lot. When Cletus chose him to protect. When he chose him to room with. When he chose him to care for. “I like you.”

“Alright.” Eddie betrays none of the memories Cletus has. Professional. Good journalist. “It’s a deal. What’s your message?”

Cletus watches him flip open a tiny, black notebook. It looks old, yet unused. Things are bad. “That distant cathedral is all I see, fractured angel the other part of me.” It’s out. His message to his number one fan. “Print that in your column.”

Eddie isn’t impressed by what he’s given. Not very grateful of him. Cletus thought he’d be happier. “Is that it? Who’s gonna read that? Some random haiku-”

Cletus doesn’t want to hear any more slander against his poetry. He speaks, quickly, before Eddie can really offend him. “Print it.” It’s impossible to keep the bite out of his words. He forces himself to remember that without Eddie, Frances stays out of his reach forever, so he adopts a smile. “And what’s mine is yours.”

“Wow. Lucky me.”

Glad he’s finally grasped what he’s been handed, Cletus’ smile is more genuine. “Goodbye, Eddie.”

“Thank you.”

Her smile is in his head, warmth spilling into his heart. “Thank you.” She’s so close. He can feel the softness of her gaze, see the love in her eyes, hear the glory that is her voice. Frances. He opens his eyes and sees Eddie by his cell door. He’s looking at Cletus’ pictures. Next time, he’ll go through his precious artwork. It’s important to his life story, like the tattoo he can see the outline of on Eddie’s skin. Eddie decorates his flesh. Cletus sucks his cheeks inward. Tattoo ink makes the meat taste funny. Did Eddie know? Or was it some serendipitous twist of fate that his second favorite human chose to do this to himself? “Eddie?”

Eddie looks at him. Oh, he grew up pretty. Even from here, Cletus can see the jewel-toned aquamarine of his eyes. The fluorescent lighting glows through his dark hair, giving it a halo-like effect, casting shadows over his face. Like an angel. “Don’t forget me, Eddie.”

I won’t be forgetting you.

Chapter 4: Feel Your Love, Neil Young

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“You should tell Anne.” Venom finds Eddie’s cell and holds it tantalisingly before his eyes. Their host looks at it, eyes narrowed. “Go on, Eddie. Tell her.” They know what the chemicals are that constantly course through Eddie’s brain. They existed for Anne when she and Eddie were still together and they still exist now, stronger with each day. Lust, fuelled by testosterone, fascinates Venom. They have no need of lust, no reason for it. Through Eddie, they can understand its appeal, the way it works. Sometimes, they can almost feel it for themselves. There’s dopamine, such an addicting chemical, that brings pleasure to their host. Norepinephrine that makes him take note of most things. And their favorite chemical - second only to phenylethylamine – adrenaline, which makes things so exciting. “You love her. Love should have no secrets, right?”

“What about Dan?”

Venom will never forgive or forget being forced into the torture device. They only forgive Anne because they like her. They don’t like the doctor. “f*ck Dan.”

Eddie shakes his head at them. “You sure know how to hold a grudge. Guy’s not that bad, Vee. You liked the movies he gave us.”

“He gave you the movies. He gave me trauma.”

Eddie rolls his eyes at them. He stretches his arms out, his muscles elongating under his skin. Like this, with the morning light spilling over his skin, he looks gorgeous. The light embellishes him with gold, turns his eyes inhumanly bright, irises narrowed to show off the unusual green of them. He is the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen. But it’s not them he feels those love chemicals for. He only ever felt them for Anne and they’re still present and growing stronger. She will make him happy. Venom wants him to be happy. But right now, they want to watch him, feel his fingertips under their jaw as he mindlessly explores them. They don’t mind his curious touches. They don’t mind at all.

Eddie’s hand drifts to their neck, their chest. His soft fingerpads press to the small white veins, stark against their onyx skin. “You don’t have blood,” he says. “Why do you have veins?”

“They are not your kind of veins. They carry healing cells. If I am wounded, those veins send the cells where they need to be.”

“Wow.” He really means it, too. “I wish I had that.”

“You have me.” Venom reminds him. “Am I not good enough?”

Eddie touches their jaw in gentle apology for being a forgetful idiot. He looks in their eyes, his own taking on that look he gets when he loses himself. He stares, almost longingly into them, the chemicals surging. “You’re plenty enough.”

He loves Anne so much. Even when he’s not thinking of her, he’s in love. When they get together, he’ll be truly happy, they know it. But for now, they want the peace of this moment. It’s been such a long time since they lay together, soaking in the other’s presence. Sometimes when they look at Eddie, studying the features they already know so intimately, they can feel those same feelings. Maybe they love Anne too.

There are white roses before her. Anne takes them, presses her nose in their soft petals, breathing in their exquisite fragrance. She’s not a flowery girl, but Dan loves flowers. He could tell her the meaning behind this particular bouquet, but she appreciates the thought, regardless of the message. “These are beautiful, honey. You’re so sweet.”

He smiles, stuffing his hands into his pockets. It’s such a cavalier thing for him to do that it takes her by surprise. “Do you…will you read the card, sweetie?”

There’s a tiny, pearlescent rectangle attached by a thin line of lace. Anne pulls it to face her and reads it aloud. “White Rose – the perfect flower for a bride. Will you be mine?”

When she looks away from the card, he’s down on one knee, a black box open to show a gleaming ring, a large diamond reflecting brilliant light from every facet in its surface. “Will you marry me?”

It’s not the first time she’s been asked for marriage. Just like the last time she doesn’t hesitate to agree. Dan is so different to Eddie, but she’s changed from the woman she was before. Dan is what she wants for the rest of her life. “Yes,” she whispers. “Yes.”

He’s crying more than she is as the ring slips onto her hand. “Oh, god. You have no idea how happy this makes me.”

Anne rubs under her eyelids, noticing the black smudge on the side of her finger. “Stop being so sweet, you’re going to make my mascara run.”

“It already is. You look like a panda.”

She laughs. He really is the sweetest man on the planet. She presses her mouth to his and hugs him, not wanting to be apart from him. Her fiancé. “I love you.”

“I love you, sweetie.” He kisses the corner of her mouth and his eyes tell her exactly how much he loves her. “We’re getting married!”

We are getting married. Anne’s life has changed so much. New job, new man, new life. But she can’t just forget the past. Can’t forget Eddie.

Dan’s read her mind. It’s the only rational explanation as he strokes her hair and says. “You want to tell Eddie, don’t you?”

“I know I don’t owe him an explanation for moving on. It’s just…”

“You guys shared an alien.”

Of course she’d told her then-boyfriend that, for several hours, she’d known true power. Venom hadn’t wanted to go anywhere near Dan for fear of the MRI, and she’d got to know and really like the Symbiote in the time they’d bonded. She was genuinely saddened when the explosion killed him. Eddie was probably a mess and the least she could do was fill him in herself rather than him find out through someplace else that she was engaged to Dan. “We shared an alien friend.”

“You guys have a very…unique history.”

“Diplomatic.”

Dan grins at her. “I’m a man of several talents. Point is, absolutely, do what you think is best.” He holds her hand, looking at her new ring. “I’m happy to come with you, if you want. I know he wouldn’t hurt you, but if it gets a little much for you guys…”

“No, it’s fine. We’ll go someplace nice for dinner or a drink and I’ll break it to him gently.”

Dan sighs. “I remember the last time the three of us went someplace nice. Headless lobster bodies everywhere…”

“It was four, Mr Diplomacy.”

Dan looks guiltily at her. “Sorry.”

She can’t help forgiving him. He does have a point, there was a small amount of insanity at the lobster restaurant. They still haven’t dared go back. She’s pretty sure Eddie’s banned. “Maybe not too nice.” The last thing she wants is to cause Eddie harm. She looks at Dan, her fiancée, life partner, future husband. She’s not sure about soulmates, not entirely sold on the concept of a perfect match. But she knows her heart and she knows his. She presses her mouth to his, hungrily, feeling both their appetites grow.

“Anne…god, Annie.” Ordinarily, he’s gentle, he’s got a bedside manner that never shuts off. Sex brings out a different side to him. It’s part of the attraction. He slips a hand inside her blouse, cupping her breast, forefinger and thumb teasing it until the nipple hardens. He tears open her blouse, practised enough that the buttons don’t rip. His mouth covers her other nipple, tongue and teeth working together to provide a blissful pleasure.

She can play too. While he’s distracted, she slides her hand under the waistband of his pants, feeling him, already solid with lust. “Someone went commando, huh?”

“I was being prepared.” He looks over the couch, making sure there’s no feline around to ruin the experience and shuts the door, covering all bases. It’s back to kissing, but now there’s tearing of each other’s clothes, grabbing of the other’s favorite areas, little teasing motions that only end when she’s pushed him on the couch and has him pinned beneath her, feeling his co*ck inside her. He gasps, a high, broken sound of ecstasy. “Anne…Jesus.” His hands grab her ass as she grinds, his touch unyielding. His eyes are blown, dark and intense with passion. As she arches back, so does he, and their climactic cries echo together like a song. He pants heavily, completely satisfied, but guides her to lie back. His lips press to the lips between her legs and his tongue teases between her labia, dances around her cl*t and gives her another org*sm. He kisses her mound and rests his face on her belly, having made sure both their needs are satisfied. “I love you.”

I know. Anne thinks. I love you too.

Chapter 5: Blue Moon, Frank Sinatra

Chapter Text

Appreciation isn’t much to ask for. That’s all they really want – to be appreciated by the one human on the planet who talks to them. They hide, they solve mysteries, they listen to their host. And then the news gives him all the credit for finding those bodies. What do they get?

Nothing. Not even a thank you.

“-Thank you, Eddie Brock.”

“And Venom.” They tell the TV screen. “You know, this could be us, Eddie. Solving cases, fighting bad guys. Maybe I eat them, hm? And then we save the day.”

From inside their form, Eddie sounds very uninterested. “But we saved the day. It’s done.”

Venom launches up from the couch, using their head to break the ceiling. It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it’s the first time Eddie hasn’t immediately started yelling at them for doing it. The mood they’re in, they don’t give a sh*t even if he does start yelling. They’re hungry, unappreciated and not far away from giving birth to an offspring they can’t bear thinking about. Striding to the tyre, dangling from its chain, they grab it with all their strength. “You said I could eat bad guys!” The rubber between their fangs is thick, tough enough to withstand their biteforce. It has a slightly smoky flavor to it which almost makes it palatable. Eddie got it for them so they won’t break things as much when they get angry. It…sometimes works.

“This again?”

No empathy. They stomp through the apartment, which feels more and more like a gilded cage these days. “I need to be free. Feeling the wind in my hair and the sand between my toes…”

“You don’t have any hair!”

Idiot. “You are not listening to me.”

“Oh, I’m listening.”

“I cannot live like this anymore!” The young twitches at the aggrieved sound of their parents’ voice and they clutch their middle, willing it to keep the offspring hidden from Eddie’s view. Has he felt the movement? “I’m starving!”

“So, eat those guys!”

Venom isn’t, for even a second, tempted to do it. The chickens were meant to be for emergency head-eating, but after the first evening when they were cuddled up together, Venom didn’t have it in them to eat even one of them. “I can’t. Sonny and Cher are best friends.” And they love those chickens, which Eddie knows. They could never eat their feathery little children. What a monster for suggesting it. You are not who I thought you were.

“Are you serious? That’s ridiculous.”

Venom has heard enough and turns, angling so Eddie won’t give himself a concussion from what’s coming. They throw themselves back, disappearing into him.

“Ow!” Eddie takes a moment and then starts complaining to his very unsympathetic Symbiote. “That was abusive. That was abuse.” He gets up, very slowly, even though his aches are quickly vanished by Venom. Another thing they never get thanked for. “And that’s a two thousand dollar TV.”

f*ck the TV and f*ck you. Venom thinks.

“You have got to get control of your aggression, that is why we have Snookie!”

“I cannot live on chicken and chocolate alone. I need brains!” The lack of them is literally killing them, but to tell Eddie that would mean telling him about the pregnancy that they’ve been steadily ignoring ever since it started germinating. He would reject them. Both of them. They are sure of this.

“Chickens have brains.”

“I most passionately disagree!” Venom can’t understand how Eddie can say this, thinking it’s the truth. He’s met Sonny. Cher is the smarter one by a tiny margin. Either way, stupid, beautiful birds. “Look. Look!” They tire of being ignored and make Eddie turn to see the chickens. “Look at those poor idiots. Small brains.”

“Well, it’s not their fault you live off the old phenyl- phena…”

“Phenethylaline. I have told you a thousand times, because it is only found in brains.” Only because they know Eddie will bring it up, they add; “And in chocolate.”

Eddie is more focused on the laptop than them, but mutters something and then tells them “How about this? You live in my body, you live by my rules.”

How they loathe that saying. “I live in your body because, unfortunately, I don’t have many options.”

Irritation courses through their bond, but Eddie finally focuses on just them. “How about this, then? The FBI is still investigating us for all that stuff we were involved with, so one more head goes missing and they will haul us in to Area 51.” He begins tapping the keys again, a furious rhythm. “They will kill us both, so someone has to be responsible.”

Like you’re the responsible one. Venom fails to see any upside to being responsible. It only makes people uptight and boring and narrowminded. “Responsibility is for the mediocre.” They’re hit with sudden hunger pangs – the young needing sustenance, so they take control of Eddie’s fingers. The word dik appears on the page. In their opinion, Eddie is acting like a dick, so this is poetic justice. “Food.”

“Will you cut it out?”

“Food!”

“I have a deadline-”

“Food!”

“Stop it!”

“FOOOOOOD!”

Eddie slams the laptop shut, this action his own doing. “Goddammit, fine!”

It will have to be soon. She looks at the sparkling stone on her finger, caresses the smooth skin on her roses. Smiles at memories of two very different proposals, given with the same amount of love, by two entirely different men.

Anne won’t tell him over the phone. She can’t do that to Eddie, it’s not right. She’s torn between joy and guilt, but there’s no question of keeping her new engagement a secret.

She just has no idea what to say.

Blood spills everywhere. It splatters on the ground, it sprays on the walls. A long tongue licks it from clawed fingers. The Symbiote gorges on chickens as if it’s never been fed before.

Drama queen. Eddie doesn’t try to starve him. It’s just so hard to keep his hunger satiated. Bottomless pit doesn’t describe Venom properly. He’s more of a cavern with no end. If Eddie let him eat whoever he wanted, the entire planet would be dead within a month and Venom would probably ask for dessert. He knows the alien prefers chocolate. Eddie isn’t sure exactly why, but it’s easier buying chocolate than…this. Prettier, too. Tonight there’s a kind of intensity. It’s not just heads, he’s cramming chickens in his mouth and biting them clean off their legs. “Organs too, tonight?”

“A brain is an organ, Eddie.”

“How many have you eaten?”

“Forty-” He slices another from its legs, swallowing the bird whole. “Forty-three.”

The answer shuts Eddie up. Usually, Venom feeds in the mid-twenties range. It’s generally enough to satisfy him until the next day. He’s now eaten his forty-fourth chicken and is still going strong. The last time he ate more than twenty was when he was pregnant. He’s not…is he? Eddie watches him continue to feed until sixty-two chickens have met their end and only seven survivors remain. He would tell me. He wouldn’t keep a pregnancy a secret. I’d take care of it, of him, like before. He knows that.

Venom climbs back up to the white chicken. His actions are careful, at least Eddie thinks they are. He keeps his middle away from the wall, not letting it touch the cold bricks. Is this normal? Or is Eddie overthinking things?

If he is pregnant, he’s got to be further along than last time. He didn’t eat over sixty chickens on the first pregnancy. Eddie focuses on the mass surrounding him, tries to concentrate on where the first offspring used to reside.

“What are you doing?”

“Um…trying to see how…how full you are.”

“I’m fine. Let’s get out of here. I want to climb and run.”

That’s normal. Venom likes to burn off his energy whenever he can. He can’t be pregnant with this kind of energy, right? All the same, Eddie can’t shake off the feeling that there’s something his Symbiote knows that he doesn’t.

Eddie has no idea how close he came to learning about the young. Venom knows their host’s suspicions are raised. They felt his surprise at the amount of chickens they ate. It surprised them too, but they don’t feel much better for their meal. They estimate a week before their offspring is born. They’ve been able to delay this pregnancy, ironically by the food shortage that’s caused it. What should have taken three months has taken almost five. For five months, they’ve carried this secret. Now it's getting ready to be born.

If they were physically capable, they would be literally sh*tting themselves.

They aren’t ready, they aren’t prepared and they have already harmed their young by rejecting it before its birth. They don’t want to kill it after the birth. It’s innocent, this new life they’ve created. They wish it no harm. There’s a spare container from the Life Foundation lab. Eddie wanted to get a spare one with the first pregnancy, so at least the young can go somewhere after it’s born.

I wish I could tell you why I can’t accept you. It’s too painful for me to give you what I could give your sibling. You’re too soon. It’s not your fault. I will…try for you. Shelter and protect you. I can do better than mine in that way. But…love…I can’t. Not yet.

They’re not a normal Symbiote. No other Symbiote would mourn a miscarriage, for one example. Their kind don’t love. But Venom can, and does. They wish they could for this one. Can you feel my guilt?

They look at Eddie, mindlessly watching some news segment. They slink next to him, resting their head on his lap. He scratches under their jaw in the way they like. “I’ll go to bed in a minute.”

“Eddie…”

“What do you think Anne wants?”

They really hope she wants to get back together with Eddie, so they can both be happy together. She’s who Eddie loves, producing divine chemicals in his head even when she isn’t being thought of. “She must want another chance. You should give it to her.”

“You’re a real optimist, Vee.” Eddie turns off the TV, leaving them in a weighty silence. “You know…you can tell me stuff, right?”

“Right.”

“If you have a problem, then I have a problem. And also…I don’t like you having problems, you know?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And, also, if I don’t get to have secrets, then it’s not very symbiotic of you to have any secrets.”

They would roll their eyes if they could. “Get to the point, Eddie.”

“I think you’re keeping a secret from me. I don’t know what it is-”

“That’s because there isn’t one.”

“You’re a sh*tty liar, Vee. Look…just promise me you’ll tell me if there’s anything I should know.”

“There’s nothing you need to know. Everything is fine.”

He stops touching them, removing the warmth of his skin. Sighs, kneading his eyes with his knuckles. “Okay. Well, I’m going to bed, buddy. If you’re watching TV, don’t have it up too loud.”

He leaves Venom alone on the couch. The chickens burrow into their mass, all soft and warm, feathers golden in the lamplight. Venom watches the ceiling instead, letting the bump show now their host is gone. It’s such a relief, to not conceal it. It feels how Eddie feels when he swaps a pair of jeans for sweatpants. “Forgive me,” they whisper, and for their own life, they don’t know if they’re talking to their host or their young.

Chapter 6: For The Night, Conor Maynard

Chapter Text

He’s changed. Not in a bad way, in a way she is glad to see. There is color in his cheeks, life in his eyes and she recognises the brand name on the scarlet helmet he’d placed on the padded bench. He keeps a friendly, polite distance, but she can smell the citrus from here. Still loves his bubbles.

All in all, Anne feels very optimistic about this. Optimism isn't enough to shake her nerves, though. Life was being a lot nicer for him, she’d seen the news, knew what he’d scouted out. But he's gone through a lot. How can she possibly know what to expect?

At least this place doesn't have a lobster tank.

She fills Eddie in on Mr. Belvedere. He never explicitly loved the cat, but he’d always been civil to him, which had been…acceptable. Dan on the other hand, loves Mr. Belvedere more than he loves his fiancée. So different. She runs out of things to say and stares silently at Eddie, wishing he could read her mind so she won’t have to verbally tell him about the new engagement. Being a wimp is easier.

“So...?”

“So…” Anne just can’t. “Eddie, I don’t know, I thought it’d be better to tell you in person, but…” She tries to find the courage, but it eludes her so she does the next best thing and holds out her hand. The large, clear jewel catches the light, surrounded by smaller stones which glitter proudly.

“Wow. Oh, Anne, wow. That is so much bigger than the one that I got you.”

Anne could laugh. She’d been worrying over an emotional reaction so huge it would make headlines. Instead, he’s concerned over the size of the ring. At least he’s taking it reasonably well. In fact…she’s not sure he’s taken it in at all.

Eddie takes his eyes from the ring, looking at her. He’s holding her fingers, no trace of possession. He’s not that type of man. He just…well, he was always better at giving physical affection than receiving. “That’s Dan, right? Doctor Dan…”

Jesus, Eddie. How many guys do you think I’m seeing? “Yeah, that…it’s Dan.”

“Holy sh*t, Anne. Way to go.”

What the hell? Did he seriously just say way to go? Anne doesn’t know what to think. It’s bizarre, even for him. Who says that when someone gets engaged, for Christ’s sake? His voice does sound dry and husky of a sudden, so she drops her initial annoyance. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Eddie is lying straight to her face and they both know it. “Yeah.”

“You could just say congratulations, I’m happy for you.” Anne tells him. Still the same thing, her telling him what to say so he didn’t get them both hurt. “You know? You know, like two people who still care about each other enough to lie, so the other one doesn’t feel like complete sh*t. Maybe we can do that version of this?” I would lie for you. Please, god, lie for me.

“No, I am…I am happy for you, Anne.” He’s lying, but doing it so badly, she feels half-certain it’s deliberate. “You know, congratulations.”

It’s the best she’ll get and she takes it. “Thank you.”

Eddie is silent. His eyes are both distant and focused, like…like he’s hearing a conversation that she can’t. “What?”

Anne keeps her voice equally soft. “What was that?”

“What? Nothing.”

It’s the worst lie he’s tried to tell all evening. “Whoa.” She edges closer to him, breathing in the lemon scent. He never used to like lemon. Said it was too much like disinfectant spray. “If I ask you a question, do you have the ability to tell me the truth?”

“You mean, as in being super happy for you because of your engagement, because…I mean, you just told me to lie, so that’s really, really confusing-”

“Is Venom with you?”

Eddie looks at her, his face taking on a confused expression. Way too confused. He’s overacting this. “He’s dead.”

If he’s dead, I’ll be damned. “Okay.” Distancing herself, she settles back against the soft leather seat. They both shared Venom. Venom was very clear that while Eddie was a better match, he found her to his liking too. Once she’d gotten past the whole thing of him being an alien who was slowly killing her friend, she’d gotten to like him. I can be trusted, but you choose not to trust me because I’ve moved on. Great. “You just don’t change, do you?”

“What are you talking about? This is just a huge shock. Anne…I’m in love with you. It’s a lot to process.”

I’ve been with Dan for over a year. You know that. If you were with somebody else after a year, don’t you think I’d be happy for you? “No, the truth is, you don’t love anybody. You can’t. Commitment’s just not your thing.” She wonders how long it’ll be before Venom works that out.

“Alright, then, fine. Do not marry Dan.”

“Dan makes me feel safe.” Something bitter and solid wells up in her throat at the derisive sound Eddie makes. Yep. That seems about right. “You made me feel like I was on a rollercoaster, and sometimes, you just have to know when to get off.”

“No, not yak.” Eddie repeats it quietly, but he must know, even with his constant dumbassery, that she heard. “Yak.”

Venom might disagree with her life choices, her words, but Anne also knows he will take care of Eddie. God knows he can’t do it by himself. “Hey, Venom.” She looks into Eddie’s eyes, trying to spot a flash of white, but there’s nothing. She still knows he’s in there. Call it instinct. “Take care of him, alright? Don’t let him keep messing everything up.”

The Ducati roars down the winding, black ribbon of road, spraying water that is illuminated, like glowing rubies and diamonds by passing cars. Eddie doesn’t want to go home. He’s just riding for the sheer need to feel something. Pain, terror. Anything to unleash what he can’t expel by himself.

“Slow down, pal!”

If anything, Eddie goes faster, riding into the oncoming, white headlights of a decelerating vehicle. “Why? You don’t believe in consequences. No injuries, you fix them. No hangovers, you mend them. I couldn’t even hurt myself if I tried!”

Venom’s black mass covers his hands like a pair of gloves. The bike is twisted away from the car at the last minute, to the sound of furious blaring. He doesn’t say anything as he slows the bike to the legal limit and guides it to a safe spot. The rain lightens to an unnoticeable drizzle and when Eddie dismounts, there is no rain and Venom’s protecting cover has gone. “Eddie, I apologise that I can’t mend the heart. Emotional pain, it hits much harder and it lasts longer.”

Eddie’s not even sure what it is. He just knows that when Anne showed him the ring, so much better than anything he could give her, something broke. His old life is truly gone. It’s okay to mourn that, right? What could’ve been. He could be married by now. Instead, he’s alone. Likely forever, because how can he ever tell a boyfriend or girlfriend about Venom? Just me and The Thing.

“You just need to pull up your big-boy pants and take it.”

“Well, that’s easy for you to say.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a real boy and you’re just an amoeba.”

Offence filters through to Eddie, but for once Venom doesn’t retaliate. “I will only take that because we are hurting right now.” He takes control of Eddie’s limbs, setting him back on the bike. The helmet is crammed onto his head and it seems that tonight, he isn’t allowed to ride his own damn vehicle. “Don’t worry, buddy. I will get you through this.”

Eddie lets them cuddle him. The delicate weight of him lies on their chest. So rare for this to happen. He prefers holding them, prefers giving his affection to receiving theirs. It’s not personal. It’s just the way he is. They rub their palm up and down his back, feeling the bones of his spine under their touch. His muscles, so tense before, have long since relaxed. His waves of sadness have disintegrated into the sick feeling of guilt. Why? They stop smoothing their hands over his back and drum their fingertips on his shoulders. “Why do you feel bad, Eddie?”

He struggles, no desire to unburden himself, but the way he feels, he ends up confessing. “I could’ve killed someone tonight.”

“No. I was with you. Nobody got hurt.”

“Not this time. I just…can’t believe what I did. Could have been kids in that car.”

“I wouldn’t let you do anything bad, Eddie. And there weren’t any children.” Their words don’t alleviate anything, so they hug him perhaps a little too tight, judging by his strangled gasp for air. Oops. They don’t know their own strength.

“I shouldn’t have been so thoughtless. What if there had been?”

“Eddie. I’m here. I would never let anything bad happen to innocent people, and I can stop you from doing it.”

“It’s not the point. What kind of asshole takes everybody else with ‘em when they’re having a tough time?”

“Why did you want to?”

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Just…me.”

“Why would you want to harm yourself?” The idea of it alarms them to no end. They can heal physical injuries, problems to the body, in a heartbeat. Problems to the mind are not their forte and if a human wants to deliberately hurt themselves, then that is a tremendously sick mind that they don’t know how to heal.

“I know…it’s in your nature to keep my body in good shape. No tears in the skin, no broken bones…a lot of the time, it’s a great thing, you know? But sometimes…I need to feel something. Like, there’s a difference between a touch and a sense. Does that make sense to you?”

They try to understand. A touch and a sense. “A touch is more literal. A sense is like a feeling?”

“Yes. So, I sometimes need those things to coexist. It’s one of those things I’m screwed up about. I need physical pain to help me get out the emotional pain, sometimes.”

“Did I f*ck up?”

“No. God, no, and if I ever do something like that again, you have my full permission to smash up the Ducati.”

“But you have hurt yourself before?”

“Not like how you’re thinking. I, um…used to visit a place.”

“Can I look?”

Eddie’s cheeks take on color, the hue of a young rose. “It’s kinda…well…”

“I promise I won’t laugh. Please, Eddie. I want to understand.”

“I don’t want things to be weird, Vee.”

“They won’t be. Let me look!”

Eddie closes his eyes and gives an imperceptible nod of agreement. They can feel his embarrassment as they see the memories he’s consented to show them. They find the images both fascinating and…exhilarating. And confusing.

When they exit, they look at their newly shy host. So cute. After what they’ve seen, his vulnerability makes him utterly adorable. “We do that. We do it all the time.”

“An occasional smack on the ass between you and I is wildly different to visiting the local doms.”

They suppose it is true. They don’t even think they would fit over his lap. “Sometimes you enjoyed it.”

“I told you I was screwed up. There’s two types – the type where I need an emotional release and the type where I need a…you know…”

“Sexual release.”

Eddie pushes his face into their shoulder. “I’m upset, like…I can’t really describe what I’m feeling right now. I know I need to release, but…either I keep it in until it bubbles over or I see one of the doms.”

They think of the people, touching Eddie, helping him find one of these releases. Jealousy builds in them. He’s their host, they’re his Symbiote. It should be them. They want to help. It’s their job. They look through those memories again. They learn the breaking point, the safeword, what makes him feel good, what makes him feel unsafe. They learn trigger words, the way both releases work. Then they say; “You don’t need to visit them. I’m here.”

For once, he doesn’t argue against an idea of theirs. His eyes, so pretty, look at them trustingly, a sea of azure with central islands of deepest black. “I know you’re here. I just…don’t want to make things weird.”

“You won’t.” They start up the touches again, lowering their touch to the curve of his ass. Chemicals like fizzing stars erupt, tingling their flesh. Feeling his anticipation kickstarts something inside them and they adjust, sitting up with him encased in their arms. “We’re going to help you with these feelings. Get them out, stop them from hurting you.” Word for word from what one of the last doms Eddie went to.

Eddie smiles, a real but small smile. “Did your homework, Vee?”

“Of course.” Standing Eddie between their legs, they slide their hands up the side of his legs, hook their fingers into the waistband of his pajama pants. He stops them, but that’s okay. Sometimes this happens. They saw it in his memories and there is a trick. “Would you prefer they come down when you’re over my knee?”

Eddie nods. He’s precious. So sweet when he’s shy. They haven’t got the doms’ expertise, but he’s so light that it’s no work at all to guide him over their thigh, making him rest his torso on the bed. They don’t need to ask him if he’s comfortable, their connection allows them to know that his body is supported nicely and, most importantly, that he isn’t afraid of what’s going to happen. They lower his pants, feeling his pulse quicken, and rub his tensing buttocks. Like magic, he calms down. Another trick from the doms. He has a tendency to get very nervous, they knew that before they saw those tantalising recollections.

They have to be very careful here. Too hard and they’ll shatter his coccyx, which while fixable, will hurt beyond what they’re trying to achieve. Too gentle and there won’t be any point at all. They lift their hand and slap the palm against the soft flesh of the right cheek. A light blush blooms, their host gasps aloud for the second time in thirty minutes. They can feel each capillary burst from the blow, they're aware of the damage, so they heal it. It's natural for them to heal damage as it is for Eddie to breathe.

But Eddie twists around, held in place only by their hand on his back. He gives up on moving, but speaks to them. "Don't heal it."

"But I must."

"Vee, if you heal it each time, you'll spank me all night and this isn't that kind of spanking."

They would prefer not to do that, but they don't like the idea of damaging him. "But I have to keep you safe from harm. It's part of the deal. I can't leave you in a state of damage. "

"Could you just heal it after?"

"I suppose that will do." They continue with the prior strength, from one cheek to the next. The non-spanking hand, they use to comfort. They stroke his hair, they rub his back above his reddening backside. They aim the swats lower as Eddie starts making sounds of distress. They didn’t realise how much they would hate those sounds, but these are emotional noises. They’re good. He needs them. With each muffled yelp, the norepinephrine burns itself out. They must keep going until there are either tears or he uses the safeword.Maxie.

Eddie holds out for quite some time. He grasps the bedding, yells into his mattress, curses them out when they gently turn his head to see if he’s crying yet, thumps his pillow as his spanking progresses. They very much want to heal him, but his emotions are surging. He’s close. Very close. They focus on the more sensitive areas on his ass, regrettably catching his hands as he tries to protect his scalded buttocks from more slaps. "I'm sorry, but it's not over yet." He kicks, out of pain or temper, they don't know. They trap his legs with their own, leaving him powerless against their enslaught. They continue, turning their targeted areas a brilliant shade of vermillion. Finally, he whimpers and tears flow, trickling down his cheeks like miniature rivers. They would feel like a monster, but they can feel how much this has helped him. All the same, they didn't enjoy this."

It’s finished. Now I can heal and help him-

“Don’t…s-stop.”

“What?”

“Those p-people, Vee. Could’ve k-k-killed them.”

Nothing happened, idiot. But guilt is building up again. They consider what to do. They look at his unpunished thighs, startlingly white compared to the brilliant red of Eddie’s backside. “Ten. Ten here-” they touch his right thigh. “And ten here. That’s it, do you understand me?”

“Y-yes.”

Again, Venom raises their hand. The color that blooms is much darker than the color that first appeared on their host’s ass. Eddie cries through the rest of the spanking, sobbing into his mattress midway through. Venom can’t blame him. At its finish, the color on the top of his thighs is indistinguishable from that of his backside. Unfortunately, all they can do is let him cry. It does no good to intervene immediately, they saw that from his memories. They give him back his hands, they free his legs. He makes no move to leave their lap and they don’t force him. Gradually, his tears dry and they send a tentacle to bring him a cup of water, which they put on the nightstand for when he wants it. “Eddie…I want to heal you now.”

He nods his head. The vivid color vanishes in an instant. He starts trying to get up, but Venom won’t hear of him doing anything for himself and redresses him, helps him stand and lifts him in their arms, hellbent on comforting their host. He clings, grabbing onto them with all his might. “God, that hurt.”

“I’m sorry. In my defence, you did ask for it.” They bring the water to him, pressing it to his lips. “Drink.”

He obeys, his body’s thirst winning out over his indignation at being ordered. He lets them take the empty glass and hooks his arm around their neck, pressing the warm softness of his body to theirs. Dopamine burns in his brain cells, battling the feelings of guilt and grief that had been present only minutes before. He’s still sad, traces of norepinephrine linger like scorch marks. “It’s okay, Vee,” he says, sensing their growing panic that they haven’t helped at all. “You got me to get the worst of it out. You helped.”

He doesn’t say a word of thanks, but they don’t want him to. Manipulating his tear ducts into overproducing saline is one thing, but hurting him to the point of tears is another. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You didn’t.” Eddie hesitates, looking for the right words. “I mean…you weren’t attacking me. You were helping me release the, uh, those…what do you call the hormones that make me sad?”

“Norepinephrine.” It’s a lot more complicated than just making Eddie sad, but they hug him tighter, his hair tickling under their jaw. “I made you cry.”

“No, you helped me to.” Eddie tells them. “You know me. It takes a lot and can take forever if I don’t decide to do something about it.” He pulls back, looking at them. His eyelashes, still clinging to salt, frame soft teal eyes which admittedly don’t look so forlorn as before. “And now you feel bad over making me cry?”

He means the date with Anne. They can only shrug guiltlessly. “I thought she might find it desirable.”

“Why?”

“Well, I saw it on your laptop. There were two girls and one was very excited because the other was wet.”

“Jesus, Vee. That’s not…that isn’t…I’m not even a girl!”

“I know, but I thought you could give Anne some of your moisture and she would use it.”

“Oh, god, Venom…” Eddie wraps both arms around their neck, hugging them tight. “One day, when I’m feeling better, I will explain what I know about women’s anatomy to you, but not right now. How did you even find that? You don’t like sex.”

“I never said I didn’t like it, Eddie. I’ve had hosts with very intense sex lives. I felt what they felt, that ecstasy. Sometimes even joined in with them. But never one of your kind. I was curious about how you merge.”

“We don’t call it merging. We call it…a lot of other things.”

“You don’t always do it for reproduction. You just do it.”

“A lot of people enjoy it. Some don’t like it at all, but I’m not one of them.”

“You haven’t done it once since I’ve been here.”

Eddie is quiet. “It would restrict you a lot more to have a partner. It’s too much of a risk.”

“I could help. Sex might help you feel better.”

At their words, a cascade of hormones flow through their host. Those love hormones, the co*cktail that makes Eddie’s heart race. The norepinephrine changes, testosterone burns away anything negative left behind and dopamine floods the rest of his brain. But he ignores them. “I can’t. I don’t…look, I’m not in the right headspace. There’s a reason there haven’t been any one-night stands, I just…don’t like to feel like I’m using people.”

“I don’t mind.”

Eddie laughs, a semi-exasperated sound. “Buddy, for me, sex is something you do with somebody you want a long-term relationship with. You know, marriage, kids, growing old, that kinda thing. And, even if it wasn’t, I don’t want sex right now. I kinda want to go to bed with my phone on silent. And, maybe, maybe cuddle a little bit. You know, if you want.”

They would roll their eyes, but they can’t. They set their host down on the bed, gentle, even though they know he doesn’t feel a thing from the fire they set on his ass. “We are long-term.” They remind him. “Aren’t we?”

“Sure.” Eddie yawns. “Together forever.”

They stay with him as he sleeps. Watch him, wondering why the love hormones stay after he learned of Anne’s engagement.

Shouldn’t they be gone?

Chapter 7: Wicked Ways, Garbage

Chapter Text

The sunlight is violent. It shines, illuminating the cesspit his apartment’s become. Shame filters through his low mood, though it’s more to do with the fact he behaved like an ass on two separate occasions than, say, the memory of being turned over an alien’s knee for a spanking. Even though it’s healed, he can still feel it now.

He’s practically conjoined with said alien now. Venom’s arms are warmed with Eddie’s body heat and he breathes deeply in the low-activity state that passes for sleep with him. He might be big and he might be scary, but he also has the tip of his tongue peeking out from between his pearlescent shards of teeth, like a newborn kitten. It’s very cute, to the point Eddie can’t help squeezing him tighter, even though it’s peaceful right now. Very slowly, opal shines through gleaming black eyelids. The tiny piece of tongue is shown in its entirety as the alien yawns, stretching his jaw to its fullest length. He then rolls onto his back, taking Eddie with him.

“What am I, your teddy bear?” Eddie complains, but there’s no heat behind it. Even after all this time, he thinks it really is just his luck to get stuck with the cuddliest alien in the world.

“Mm-hm.” Venom agrees. He strokes through Eddie’s hair, silencing him. He tosses something over Eddie’s back. “Your robe. Get up, Eddie. It’s breakfast time.”

“I can’t get up, you’ve trapped me.”

Venom pushes himself up from the bed with the kind of exaggerated groan a teenager would make. “There. You’re free.”

Eddie puts his arms through the robe, even though it’s warm enough that he doesn’t really need or want it. Then he eyes the bedroom door. He wavers. The bed is soft, warm and comfy. Outside isn’t. He’d much rather stay in his nest of blankets and pillows than brave the unforgiving world of cold and darkness. “Vee, I don’t really feel like eating…”

“Oh, yes, you do!” Venom insists and then he commandeers Eddie’s legs, making him walk out the door into the kitchen. “You got rid of a lot of norepinephrine last night when I spanked you-”

“Venom!”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I’m just saying. You feel better, but you’re still sad. You need cheering up.”

Sometimes, it’s really tough being bonded to someone on this kind of level. There are no secrets. At least not on Eddie’s side. He looks around the kitchen, and figures he might as well have a glass of orange juice while Venom sends tentacles everywhere. Oh, f*ck. He realises, juice in one hand, glass in the other. He’s going to cook.

“Do you know what always cheers me up in the morning, Eddie?” Venom’s voice is awful chipper for someone who’s going to, in all likelihood, burn down the entire building and give everyone food poisoning while he’s at it. “Sausages and brains.” And then the radio’s turned on and his ears are assaulted by the sound of a Symbiote growling his way through an old song. Mushrooms are chopped, flung around by the force used, water is boiling and the blender is overflowing with something because someone never uses the goddamn lid.

Thank god we don’t keep brains in the refrigerator. Eddie shuffles to the little dining table, drink in hand. And that radio needs to lose its batteries. He’s dragged closer to the table and dares glance at his kitchen. Jesus. Talk about Dante’s Inferno. It’s right there in front of his eyes.

“Cheer up, old pal.” Venom uses a tendril to give his shoulder a squeeze. It’s sweet and he almost manages a smile through the pain of almost having a bone or two snapped clean in half.

He takes one look in the kitchen and feels his heartrate spike. Better not to look. He thinks and stares at the lamp instead, until there’s a bunch of letters before his eyes, and Venom’s tendril is forcing his head to turn to look at them.

“That’s for you.” Venom informs him and goes back to wrecking his kitchen.

Bills, crap…and a postcard with red, meticulously inking pictures and words. Cletus. He pays it his full attention, sitting forward.

Venom isn’t so impressed. “Are you penpals with an ant?”

“Whoa, listen to this.”

Dearest pally pal

I hereby invite you to witness my demise, my final moments on this spinning sh*t wheel that we call Earth. You are responsible for bringing about the end of Cletus Kassady.

It’s only right that you hold the door for me on my way out. They’ll stop my heart, just like it stopped at my birth.

What if Cletus Kassady had never been revived?

He never would have pushed Grandma down a flight of stairs.

He would never have thrown a hair dryer into Mother’s bath tub

He never would have been beaten to the brink of death by Daddy-o and sent to St Estes Home For Unwanted Children.

That circus of hell…with one bright light…

Oh, Eddie, we are all born into this world through blood and pain.

Every hero has an origin story.

Your friend

Cletus Kassady

Xoxo 😊

Eddie notices a maroon smudge on the back of the card and grimaces in disgust. “Ew.” He can’t drop it, though. Cletus is right – his death is entirely at Eddie’s own hands. Had he not written that article, the redhead would still be incarcerated, still be trapped in a cell, but he wouldn’t be facing his own death. They were close, once. Sick as it is to call a cannibal a childhood friend, that’s pretty much what Cletus is.

He owes him.

“Nutjob.” Venom utters derisively, unaware of Eddie’s thoughts.

“You know, I…I should be there.”

“Uh, no, it’s a bad idea.”

“I mean, I-I…I put him there.”

Venom doesn’t agree. There’s a clanging noise Eddie doesn’t even want to look at the source of. “Actually, he put himself there when he decided to be a complete lunatic.”

Eddie doesn’t have time to reason with the Symbiote, when two towering plates of assorted breakfast foods are scattered on the table. One knocks his juice, sending orange liquid over what had already been a questionable meal. Venom sounds so pleased with himself and Eddie would normally try to show some form of gratitude, but why can’t Venom just accept that visiting Cletus is important to him? Is the concept of responsibility really so hard for him to grasp? “You know, it would be nice to have your support, just…I mean, just for once.”

“Catsup?”

Venom’s tone indicates that he’s offering Eddie something, and he has no time to ask when there’s a cracking sound and something horrifyingly sticky coats the side of his face. Something is thrown to the floor and the Symbiote hides himself very hastily. When Eddie looks to see what it was, he sees that they’re out of ketchup, again. “You know, sometimes I think you do these things on purpose,” he mutters, picking out the only edible parts of the breakfast. Weirdly, the mushrooms and sausages are cooked to perfection.

“Why aren’t you eating the rest of it?”

“I told you before, I’m not very hungry and you made a lot of…this.” to call what’s left on the plates food would be a tremendous lie. “I like the mushrooms, Vee.”

“There’s some more on the floor.”

“Yeah…I think I’ll leave those.” He finishes, but he doesn’t bother taking the plates to wash. The kitchen is awful. It makes him feel heavy just looking at it. Liquid drips from the ceiling where Venom used the blender for something, every pan, bowl and plate he owns has been used and every surface has something on it. To really put the cherry on top, his kitchen towels are in a long, ribbon-like line of disarray.

“You have more money now. Why not throw everything away and buy new things?” Venom asks as Eddie starts with the easier thing – throwing away the egg shells and other junk left lying around.

“Because there’s no point in throwing away something that’s perfectly good.” The surfaces look better, so he throws the dirtiest things in the tiny dishwasher and rinses out the pans used for boiling water, leaving them in the sink to dry. “Grab me some paper towels, would you?”

Venom uses a tentacle to drag the white ribbon to Eddie and finds the disinfectant. It smells like apples – the Symbiote’s choosing, and he sprays the surfaces liberally. Maybe there is hope for him to be less of a slob after all, though Eddie has no idea why the top of the refrigerator needs cleaning too. Venom shows his head before stepping out of Eddie, attached to his shin by a tendril no thicker than an umbilical cord. He turns the tap handle and tears off a sheet of kitchen roll, holding it under the flowing water. Before Eddie can think to protest, he’s holding the soggy paper to his cheek, clearing the mess Eddie had forgotten all about. There’s no condescension, just a kind of naturality about it, like he considers it part of his life to give this kind of help.

Venom’s eyes lock with his. Every time he sees them, he’s awed by them. They’re like a hybrid gemstone – the sheen of white pearls, the color of vibrant opals. Venom literally has the most beautiful eyes in the world and he doesn’t even know it. “Eddie.”

“Hm?”

“We are not visiting that killer.”

“You can’t stop me from seeing him.”

“I can, actually.”

Time to change tactics. “It would make me feel better if I went.”

Venom visibly hesitates. “It would?”

“Yeah, you know. Lessen the burden of guilt.”

“But it was his fault. Nobody told him to torture, kill and eat people.”

Eddie notes the disgust when Venom mentioned the torture aspect. So that’s why he hates Cletus. Venom doesn’t really go for torture. Sure, he might taunt the really bad ones, but it’s always the same – one quick bite and it’s all over. “I don’t want to go for him. And, you know, he might talk about those victims. Get some closure for the families he wrecked.”

There’s no fight left in Venom after this. He isn’t happy, but he stops arguing and makes no attempt to convince Eddie against going to the prison. The eyes say it all, however – his approval is at 0% and is descending fast. “Fine. But if you get murdered, don’t come crying to me.”

They feel like they’re being punished as Eddie walks through the prison yard. They can literally smell the phenylethylamine, permeating through the skulls of the prisoners. They’ve been starving for the entire duration of a human pregnancy, along with this one, and they could drool if they were able. But instead, they’re stuck. “This place is an all you can eat buffet!” Venom tells Eddie as they pass the food – the prisoners. “Who’s going to care if I polish off a couple of these idiots?”

“You can’t be sure who is and who is not guilty, buddy.”

Looking at the ones who have swastikas tattooed on shorn heads, Venom thinks otherwise. Those ones are definitely guilty of something bad. “They’re in prison!”

“Yeah, but, you know. Some people take false confessions. They, uh, you know, they take pleas.” Eddie realises he’s a little close to the prison guard and tries to slow his pace. “We watched Making a Murderer.”

The guard has noticed Eddie talking and shoots him a look of concern. “You alright?”

Eddie shrugs off the question. He’s been asked it so many times when talking to Venom that it no longer even worries him to get caught. “Yeah, man, I’m just practising.”

“I am a predator, Eddie.” Venom reminds him for the billionth time. They remember the nature documentary they’d watched while Eddie had flicked through his phone, occasionally looking up when forced. The big, golden cats with the lustrous hair around their necks. “Lions do not eat salad.”

“Yeah, but you’re not a lion, are you? I mean, I see you more of a vexatious little pig-dog-house bat thing.”

That was both hurtful and uncalled for. “You suck.”

“You suck!”

Venom is smugly amused to see that Eddie’s little outburst happened in front of a very offended woman who clearly isn’t at all believing or impressed at his crappy excuse. They don’t talk to him as he makes his way to the holding cell where the killer is. Partially because they are offended and he isn’t apologising yet. And partly, mostly, because they can feel the clump of mass where their young resides. It’s moving, almost frantically. Won’t you settle? Eddie can’t know about you. Not yet.

“This is a me thing, not a we thing.” Eddie murmurs to them.

Frustration takes over. It hits them, how little he notices of them. The pregnancy is invisible to every single sense of his, the goodness they do for him is perpetually unnoticed and there hasn’t been a we thing since…they struggle to recall. Maybe six months ago? They’re not really part of his life. Just a part of his body that he can barely stand. “Everything is a you thing.”

“Oh, happy day for you, Eddie Brock.” Kassady’s impending death is becoming, only because Venom knows it is coming. Soon this tormenting sh*theel will be no more. “Mm, what a scoop. The end of the Magical Misery Tour…”

What a drama queen this man is.

“I worry for your soul. How will you live with the weight of snuffing out a man’s life?”

“I was hoping maybe you could give me a couple pointers.”

You’re an asshole, but that was a good one.

Kassady’s mouth twitches at the corner humorlessly. “Funny little guy, aren’t you?”

Eddie ignores the comment, finding the little device he likes to use for recording interviewees. He keeps buying them even though he doesn’t need them anymore.

“Don’t need that.” Venom tells him. “My memory is outstanding.”

Eddie ignores them, too, placing it on the thin metal band running horizontally through the vertical bars.

“Rude.”

“Consequences.” Kassady muses. “Every decision you ever make. Who do we leave behind and how do we leave them? A connubial bed, empty, waiting in the darkness for the rescuer who never comes. Because of you.”

Venom can feel Eddie’s confusion grow with their own. “This guy makes zero sense.”

“You and I are the same.”

Ugh. What a cliché. Bad guy tells…slightly better guy that they’re the same. What a dick.

Eddie, for once, uses his brain and doesn’t buy it. “No. No, we’re not.”

“Twisted insides, mean daddies.” Kassady speaks quickly, too fast for either to interrupt. Almost too fast to process. At least for Eddie. “You feel like home to me, Eddie, like family. And really, truly, that is all I ever wanted in this world. Family.”

“Well, killing your grandmother and your mother sure is a funny way of showing it.” Eddie barely stops himself from looking to his left, his eyes set on the intense stare of the serial killer. “Anything you want to unburden yourself with before…” he finally gestures to what Venom realises is the killing chamber. “This happens?”

“Yes. I have wishes to bestow upon you.”

“Oh. That is kind.”

“I want to wish you this heartbreak.”

Thinking of Anne, Eddie’s love hormones still floating around, Venom says “Uh-oh, too late.”

“I wish for you to see out your days alone, as you have always been.”

Norepinepherine makes Eddie’s mood dim. Venom bristles. “Watch it, pal.”

“Where are you going with this?” Eddie’s voice is carefully nonchalant, but Venom knows his feelings. They’re not good.

“You are a cancer to everyone who ever loved you, Eddie. Deceived your trusting fiancée. And no wonder Daddy could never look at you again after you killed his wife, your mother, just by being born.”

As Eddie’s emotions hit the lowest form of hurt, Venom’s feelings of sheer f*cking rage hit an all-time high. “You son of a bitch!” They don’t think. They just act, lashing a tentacle from the centre of Eddie’s chest, his heart where they’d been residing. They don’t think about the fact they’ve broken the golden rule – never let themselves be seen. They don’t hear their host’s panicked yells for them to stop. They can only focus on the fact that everything they’ve done to try and console their host, make his happy chemicals flow, has been completely f*cked up by this psychopath. “Speak to my friend again like that, I dare you!” Kassady dips his head suddenly and physical pain stops Venom’s attack. The young, so excited a moment before, stops moving. So do they. He’s hurt Eddie. They stop, letting Eddie take back full control. The young still stays unmoving. Why aren’t you moving? What’s wrong? Nothing hurts, which is reassuring. That was what happened last time, so if there isn’t any pain, there can’t be anything wrong. They heal Eddie’s broken, bleeding flesh just as his eyes roam over it.

The guard escorts Eddie away from Kassady. It’s for the best, but anger is seeping through Eddie’s previous terror. They feel awful. They didn’t want him to get hurt. They didn’t mean to show themselves. They just wanted to help.

“Eddie? I have tasted blood before, my friend and that is not it.” Kassady sounds both serene and deranged as he shouts after Eddie’s departing back. “Eddie Brock has a big secret!”

A wrenching thought comes to them. Birth is meant to be painless. Lots of their kind don’t even feel the young being expelled. Surely…the blood Kassady tasted… “That may have been a mistake.” They feel worse than before. Guilt, shame and horror take over their thoughts. I have let my young bond to the worst person on the planet. They have to tell Eddie. They must.

“Shut up.”

Not now. Now definitely isn’t the right time. He’s pissed, and likely right to be pissed. But they worry over the young. Newborns don’t know the things they need to, not even Symbiote newborns. They need time. And in a matter of hours, Kassady will be dead. The young cannot survive in a dead host and if the body is incinerated after… they think about it, helplessly trapped inside a metal box, being devoured by flames, crying for its host, calling for rescue that won’t come. I cannot lose another offspring. Let Eddie cast them off if he chooses, but they can’t lose another one, even if they are conflicted on how to feel over it. The ride home is fast and incautious and for once they don’t care. When he parks up, they throw their prior caution to the wind. “Eddie!”

“I don’t want to hear another word out your mouth.”

“Eddie…”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“Eddie, I am sorry.”

Eddie throws on his nightwear and splashes some water on his face. “That was his last time on record ever. There’s no more, any words for his victims, you know, they’re gone. Any clues of outstanding bodies, we’ve lost forever and completely.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“You didn’t mean to?!”

“And I said I’m sorry.” Which they are, genuinely. They never wanted to hurt innocent people, be it physical or emotional. But the victims are dead and their young is still living. Unfortunately only the living young is their priority right now.

“You didn’t mean to, but you did it.” Eddie steps toward the kitchen, grabbing the emptied glass from last night. “I mean, you just decided bwagwagab! I don’t know, that’s it, you did it.” He pours water into the glass, filling it haphazardly, while the chickens peck absently on the counters. “You know, you didn’t even think that we might get caught, we might get killed? No, you don’t think about things like that, do you? You just think about chickens, you think about you, you think about what you want and you think about you.”

It offends them deeply that Eddie thinks they’re the self-serving one in this apartment. Without them, he never would have clawed his way back on top. They didn’t help him for the money. They helped him because they cared. “Let me remind you of something, Eddie,” they say, growing the serpentine neck to arch around the man, looking into his eyes. “You were a loser before I came along. You were nothing. I made you special.”

Eddie was halfway through a gulp of water. He lets it go down and fires back. “Oh, you made me special, huh? Well, let me tell you something, right? Before you came along, I had a life. I didn’t have chickens, alright? But I had dreams. Yeah, I had dreams and I had a fiancée, and I had a really successful TV show!”

Venom intercedes before he can try to pin his shortcomings on them. “Ah, but you destroyed all of those things by yourself.”

Eddie nods. His jaw is set in annoyance. “Yeah, but you know what? I rebuilt my life and now I just want to live it. Goodnight.”

You rebuilt your life, Eddie? The anguish of everything dogpiles Venom – the ingratitude of their host, his shame of them, the secret pregnancy, the mistreatment, the fact that they accidentally condemned their second offspring to a fiery death…this is a breaking point. And there’s no going back. “And how did you build this new life?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, who found the clue on the wall, so you could be this big shiny hero? Hmm? Who found the clue? Who?” If they say who anymore, they’ll turn into an owl, but they want to get their point across.

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“No, no, no. This is not about being a hero for me, man. This is about wanting to live in peace. Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

They can only tilt their head in misunderstanding. Eddie loves the attention of being the guy who singlehandedly sent a serial killer to death row. He’s a worse attention whor* than they are, and even they know that’s saying something.

“You don’t understand what I’m talking about. Okay, this is about me wanting to live without you whining in my ear all the time about eating bad guys or, like, nagging me about Anne, or destroying my place or destroying my life!”

Destroying your life? I’m the one who fixed it. Hurt wells up. They don’t know if he can feel it like they can feel his. “Do you know how lucky you are that I chose you?” They look at him, willing him to have an epiphany. Above all else, I chose you. Is that impossible to understand?

“You chose me? Buddy, I’m the only person that took you in when your friends kicked you off the planet Ming-Mong, ‘cause you are a reject!”

Eddie’s words shock them into silence. They’d told him about being evicted from Klyntar in a moment of serious vulnerability. They rejected me, they’d said, and Eddie had told them he never would. How could you use this against me?

“You are a pariah! Lethal protection, my ass. You couldn’t protect anything. You are useless. You couldn’t get a job down here, cleaning toilets!”

Emotion clouds their judgment. His words remind them that they failed to protect both offspring, and they wonder if the first baby is what he means by them. I tried. I tried, didn’t I? Is it my fault I made the mistake of thinking you were worth losing everything for? For the second time, unstoppable wrath takes over and they smash their forehead into the centre of Eddie’s face. They hear bones crack and Eddie stumbles backward, clutching his nose. He looks startled, in pain, and for once they don’t care. If they had a heart, it would be broken. Sorry, Anne. This one is above my paygrade. “I’m sorry!” they lie. “I don’t know what came over me. Please, let me fix it…” the second Eddie lets his guard down, they lunge forward, breaking it once more. “So I can break it again!”

The force of it has sent Eddie back on the couch. He glares up at them, even as Venom fixes the breakage. “You son of a bitch!”

Venom is surprised by the feel of Eddie’s palm slapping against the side of their face. They cry out and retract into him before dragging him by his chest into the refrigerator, slamming him into it. They pull him, and the refrigerator, a short distance and knock over the bookshelf while they’re at it. They leave him, stunned and breathless on the floor, showing their head again. “Out! Get out. Take your stuff! Get out!”

“This is my house!”

Venom has no patience for technicalities and starts throwing things out the windows. Snookie, plates, books…it all goes. They pick up the TV, balancing it on the ledge, enjoying their host’s panic in a way they haven’t before. And then they see Eddie holding up Sonny, apparently intending to hurl him out. He might be a little sh*t, but he’s still their precious little feathery boy, so they confront Eddie with haste. “Sonny? You wouldn’t dare!”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

They both, simultaneously look to the ledge just in time for the TV to fall to its death.

“No, no, no!”

They are delighted to hear his horror. “Yeah!” They can hear some busybody making a commotion outside and cheerily continue wrecking the place while he tries to console the loudmouth out there. How’s this for destroying your place, Eddie? Quickly, they retract as he comes back from the window. They wait, plotting their next move.

“Show yourself.” Eddie growls.

They do, flaunting their closeness as Eddie fails to punch them. They twirl themselves around his neck, but this almost proves to be their undoing as Eddie grabs their tongue and pulls in a manner that is bothersome…but not entirely unenjoyable. They unwind with such speed that he flips in the air and crashes on the coffee table, which promptly snaps. They gloat. “You can’t win!” They preen as Eddie crawls away. “Take a look at me. Look at the size of you. Puny.”

They weren’t paying enough attention. Eddie takes the Ducati helmet and smashes out most of their teeth. Jagged pieces of diamond-like teeth litter the floor, amongst red M&Ms and chicken leavings.

It might be impressive, but they aren’t impressed. “How dare you?” They seethe, regrowing their teeth in a brief moment of sharp pain. Launching Eddie onto the ceiling, they suddenly feel the need to be apart. This isn’t working. It hasn’t worked in months. And they need to save their young, alone, because he won’t help. “I guess this is goodbye.”

“Finally, something we agree on.” Eddie says and turns on the fire alarm, no thought to the fact it could literally kill them. Or maybe he's considered that very carefully.

They wail in agony and shoot from him. Separation hurts enough, but coupled with the emotional anguish…they can’t describe the pain. It’s too much. They join with a very irritated man, taking control. Immediately, this one fights, but they only need him for a short while. They approach Eddie’s Ducati and scratch lines over its beautiful red paintwork. It’s not enough. They tear through the seat, break off everything that can be broken off and then they start denting it with huge blows from their fists. “Yeah!” they yell, wanting Eddie to see this.

It works. He appears at the window, face paling at what he sees. “No!”

“Yeah!”

“No!”

“Yeah!”

“No!”

“Oh, yeah!” They finish their handiwork and jump ship, attaching to a nearby cyclist. This one is a female, not like Anne, so they won’t be long with her. They don’t want to kill their hosts if they can help it.

“I wish I never met you!” Eddie screams at them from the apartment window.

Right back at you, Eddie. Venom produces a giant middle finger to make their feelings clear as they try to navigate the strange contraption the woman is riding. Who knew riding a bicycle was this hard? “Sayonara!”

Chapter 8: Heaven, Harper

Chapter Text

I can’t hold them like I used to. They drop their latest host, becoming a writhing mass and join with an elderly woman. Her name is Lynne Hayes. She is, ironically, on her way to watch Kassady die. They see her terrible experience of losing her son, Jack, to the killer, hear her screams of anguish when she learned, very recently, that the troubled young boy she’d quarrelled with and loved so fiercely had not run away and become a man in time. Kassady had ripped pieces from him and eaten some, not long after he’d ran away. She blames herself. But her self-blame, both pointless and understandable, is nothing compared to her rage at the man who’d murdered her son. You will have your vindication, Lynne. I will leave you for a more suitable host when I can. They adjust her brain chemistry, trying to make it seem as if they aren’t there. The last thing they want to do is add to her sorrow.

The plan is to leave Lynne for a prison guard, find Kassady before he’s sent to be executed and, though they would like the families of his victims to watch him die, kill him. It’s not fair on the families to rip this from them, but if they kill him, they can collect their young and…maybe it could bond to a prison guard instead? Some are cruel, but at least even a mean prison guard is better than a torturing murderer. At least they hope so.

They walk Lynne on. They arrive just outside a small office, door slightly ajar, and eye their surroundings. Well, she does. They look through her view, wondering where the execution viewing is. Eddie had pointed down a corridor, but that was for Kassady. The families watch in a special theatre, which they have no idea how to find. They look at the door, senses picking up voices. Perhaps it’s time to ask for help.

They press Lynne’s softly wrinkled hand to the handle and push, but then they hear something that stops them both dead.

“What do I write, Warden?”

“Uh…Just write down that Kassady died via lethal injection. We put down that he died horribly, some precious little snowflakes are gonna clutch their pearls, goin’ on about how reading it traumatised them.”

Died? He’s dead? But what about…

“What’s going to happen to him, like, with his body?”

“No family. They’ll just burn it.” There’s some twisted cackling as the person in charge says; “Gonna smell good tonight. Did you know people taste like bacon if fried right? That sick f*ck told me all about it, last I saw him. He fried pieces of Jack Hayes. Now he’ll cook. Karma is a bitch, Jamie. It really is.”

Venom makes sure Lynne won’t remember the warden’s words, locking them in her subconscious. They feel…they aren’t sure how to describe it. Like they’d keel over if they were human. I failed you. Lynne feels this way about Jack, constantly, and Venom understands with sheer clarity how she can. But she didn’t have an option in protecting her son and Venom could have saved theirs.

“Warden, I think someone’s here.”

They are too stunned to really react as he comes to the door. He looks at Lynne’s tearful eyes, her trembling hands and speaks gently to her. “Ma’am? Are you here for the execution?”

Venom pulls themselves together long enough to make her talk. “No. I was, but I’m afraid it’s too late. I’m too late.”

“Do you need a cab?”

“No, thanks.” Venom turns Lynne away from the warden, feeling her weaken. I should never have brought you into this. I will leave soon. They find her cell and send a message to her daughter, asking to be picked up from the prison. They walk her quickly to the exit, sinking her down on a bench. They both take a moment, Lynne to regain her energy, them to try to collect themselves. There’s someone walking towards them, headphones on. They knock them off their head with a quick-moving tentacle and pour out of Lynne, rushing to their new host. They hear the music from the headphones and are glad they removed them prior to bonding. Their host – Neal – staggers for a moment, but they correct his movements and walk him on. They feel a sense of rising panic. My young, my young. What have I done to you? It’s burning. Their child is burning. They’ve condemned it to die a terrible death. And now they’re stuck on this planet to become a true Symbiote – take until there’s nothing left and move on. This planet which they love, the people they long so much to walk with. No. I won’t be like the others. I won’t take until there’s nothing. I will leave before they can die. I will be careful.

They still feel the slow ascent of something build up inside them. They can’t place it. Is it grief? Mourning? Guilt? The slower they walk, the worse it is, so they run. They grow bold and envelop their host, tearing through allies, charging down streets and lunge themselves at a building, clawing their way up until they find its top and stand there, looking out at the city. It’s magnificent. So many colorful, shining lights in all hues, the outline of buildings both stark and bright against the black expanse of sky. Above them is the moon, bright and pale like one perfect pearl, with stars dotted like sparse diamonds until light pollution robs the rest from view. It’s peaceful up here. Calming.

So they stay.

It’s so quiet. The phrase “deafeningly silent” comes to mind. It crashes around Eddie’s skull, infiltrates his mind, swallows everything.

No chickens.

No La Tela de Araña.

No Venom.

For the first time in over a year, everything is…not as peaceful as one might think, having removed a bodily roommate, two chickens and a trashy soap opera from one’s life. It’s too quiet.

He calls Anne. Tells her congratulations, which he means sincerely because he does want her to be happy. Can’t apologise, so doesn’t, which he’s sure she isn’t happy about, but at least things aren’t stagnant any more. Takes a call for another job. Watches football on his phone without having to explain a billion things. Enjoys a home without chicken feathers and crusty sh*t everywhere. And without Venom there to stop or heal him, he drinks.

Which is how he comes to wake up mid-afternoon with a pulsing brain and a mouthful of dried saliva. You’re not twenty any more, Eddie. he thinks as he crawls on his clean floors, still scratched up from both feathery and gooey creatures. Nine beers got you on your ass. Technically, he’s on his front, slithering on his belly like a snake, but he’s not in any mood to nitpick. He pulls open the refrigerator, pulls a bottle of water out and drinks greedily until he feels better. Life is mine again. I can do what I f*ckin’ want.

There’s a lot of stuff he wants to do. Look for a new place, one where they allow pets, where there’s a nice park so he can take a dog for a walk. Buy stupidly expensive candles and light them, just because he can. Buy his groceries without looking like he’s cohabiting with a constantly menstruating woman. Hell, if he wants, he can go out on dates with whoever will have him and see where things go. Now he doesn’t have Venom’s sh*t to deal with any more, his life is his own again.

He just feels cold and empty. Waking up earlier was weird, not having polychromatic eyes peering down at him, no black tendrils poking his cheek to wake him up for food. He destroyed everything you cared about. f*ck him. No matter how much he thinks it, his mind can’t stop itself from wandering to the alien. Where is he? How is he? What’s he doing?

The most pressing thought is that Eddie misses him. Maybe it’s because they’ve been bonded so long, but the lack of Venom is pressing. It weighs down on Eddie, crushing him. It feels abnormal. Well, he’s gone now and he isn’t coming back. You threw him out. Eddie looks at the fire alarm and feels guilt prickle at the back of his neck. “Way to go, Eddie.” he closes the refrigerator door and staggers to his feet. One thing he could do to fight the oppression of his own mind is buy another TV. Watch whatever he wants on there. Life goes on, right?

He goes to sit on the couch and winces when something jagged digs into his thigh. It nicks his flesh, crimson droplets spilling instantly and he roots around for the offender, which turns out to be an inch-long white tooth. He’s forgotten he’d smashed them out. It gleams in the palm of his hand and he can’t bring himself to let it go. God, Vee. What happened, huh?

He sits back, curls up, running the pad of his thumb perilously over the tooth. It runs over the ridges of his thumbprint in turn, thousands of serrated edges threatening to break his skin. They don’t. He sits with his last piece of Venom until the sun comes through the still-open windows and spurs him into moving. He puts the tooth in his pocket, though he’s not sure why.

After all, it’s not like he misses him.

I am free.

More than that.

I am wanted.

My parent has rejected me, but my host that I chose at the moment of my birth, he has accepted me, if he knows it or not.

Cletus. Your pain, yes, I know your pain. I felt it myself, for myself, when my rejector knew I existed. They rejected me. Your parents, they rejected you. It hurts so. I will not reject you.

I will save you.

The small room is bright, but cold. Here, the humans plan to kill their host. Idiots. They don’t have a chance. Soon, they will feed, and feed well from the spectators and prison staff. Perhaps their host might eat as well. To their delight, he also enjoys the taste of his kind. How perfect.

“Soon come chaos. Chaos come soon.”

It’s like you know I’m here.

“Are those your final words?”

Their host smiles coldly. “Enjoy the show.”

Oh, Cletus. I like your sense of theatrics. And there will be a show. Perhaps more of a show than you intended. But I’m sure you will love every moment. I know I will.

They are curious about the liquids being poured down the tubes toward. Curious, not stupid. They know these liquids are intended to poison him, so they allow a very small amount in, absorbing some. It tastes disgusting, but the humans need to be fooled. It’s all part of the show. Their host is slightly affected by the poison, his eyes rolling back, but they fix his damage and force some of their mass out, through the narrow tube. No more of that. We need to leave. And I’m starving. They eject tiny, hairlike tendrils from their host as he writhes. It hurts him and they regret it, but they need his body soon, so they continue with their intricate, rapid work of making his body belong to the both of them

“Something…wicked…this way…comes!”

Very wicked. Now, let me free you. Free us. They manage to take over his right hand, marvelling at the pointed fingers, the shape of it, their combined strength. Look at us, Cletus. Look. We will be unstoppable! They bash the glass, cracking it easier than they thought they would. With ejected tendrils, they smash out the rest of the glass and give their host a moment to rest. He takes no time at all and they feel pride at their choice. You are a strong and capable host, Cletus.

Something moves and they catch it, biting off the head of…someone. Whoever they are, their head fills some of their void of hunger. They want only two things – more food and to get the f*ck out of here, so they tear open what remains of the broken cell and leap out, roaring as loudly as their capabilities allow them. They see the warden and seize him, almost drooling at the prospect of a fresh new meal, but something loud, painfully shrill cuts through them and they can only scream at the noise. They lash out at the alarm, dropping their prey who runs like a coward. They take chase, finding him in a hall. A dining hall, it seems, which is the kind of poetry they think Cletus enjoys. Dinner is served, Warden.

They don’t bother running. Security shoots at them from behind and in front, so they open a part of their midsection, grinning as they shoot their own. Yes. Do my work for me. It grows so tiring. They fling, stab and roar at all who think themselves mighty enough to kill them. There are many. So many who would kill their host. It enrages them. They manage to grab the warden and spin, twisting the air around them into a swirling, hectic vortex that sucks in and destroys anyone standing too close. They feel Cletus’ rage at the man, rage at the vile words spat at him, the mistreatment suffered in his box of misery. Happy to help him expel this rage, they pull back from his face, letting him look in the man’s terrified eyes. They feel his sad*stic delight, feeding into theirs. Yes. Yes, Cletus. We will show him who the real god of this cell block is. You and I.

Cletus grins viciously. “Any last words, Warden?”

“Don’t! Please!”

They take back control and bite into his neck, severing his screeching head. Delicious. But they’re full and getting dizzy, so they stop the vortex and burst out of a nearby window, retreating into their host. He’s warm and soft inside and very comfortable. They curl around his heart, listening to its gentle rhythm. They can still recall the feeling of their parent’s host’s heart, softly pulsing through the parent’s mass. They like this one better, and as they rest, they hear their host crooning a fun little song.

San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell

May your walls fall down and may I live to tell

And I’ll walk out a wiser, stronger man

And Warden, you tasted just like ham

Chapter 9: Never Be The Same, Camila Cabello

Chapter Text

He’s so f*cked he expects to wake up pregnant. Cletus is gone. Escaped from prison, probably hunting Eddie down right this moment and his best protection is gone.

He thinks of Venom a lot. When he wakes up, alone, starting off a day of lonely anxiety. When he takes rapid showers under tepid water, using the cherry stuff Venom only liked because the color was pretty. When he cleans off the counters, filling the apartment with a fresh apple smell an alien used to love. When he wraps his arms around himself, trying to replace the gleaming, black ones that used to be there. When he realises he’s forgotten to eat, again, because there’s no Symbiote to nag him into it. When he sees the fire alarm, because the last thing he did to Venom was hurt him in a manner that could have killed him.

All while, his bank balance is better than it’s been in years, his apartment looks how it should and he’s getting fan-mail for the first time in a long time. Life is good. It just doesn’t mean anything, none of this. Not without Venom.

He could tell Anne. But that would mean admitting he lied, it would mean confessing that he was wrong. It would mean telling her he’d f*cked up.

He wonders if that bond is still connected to Venom, somehow. Like an invisible string that connects them even when apart. He wonders if Venom knows how much Eddie misses him. How he understands now that he had been lucky. Venom could have chosen anything. He’d chosen Eddie. He’d just not realised what was there until he’d chased away the last person who gave a damn about him.

He finds the tooth. There were others, scattered in places Eddie couldn’t figure how they’d gotten to. But this one, the first he’d found, was special in a weird way. He looks at it, its hundreds of miniscule serrations and closes his palm over it. It cuts into his flesh easily and he gasps at the sharp slicing pain that accompanies it. Tears spill over his eyelids. It’s not the cut that’s brought him to tears. The real pain, the serious hurt, is losing Venom. Losing his protection, his best friend, his basic decency. It’s not being tortured, murdered and eventually eaten by Kassady that scares him. It’s not even the idea of never seeing Venom again. No, what really gets him is that Venom will go on for the rest of their lives, thinking that Eddie meant the things he said. That he meant nothing, when he didn’t. That Eddie doesn’t know what he had, when he does.

It's too late. Eddie digs his knuckles into his eyes, enough that it almost hurts. He’s chased away the last person who wanted him. He’s on his own. “I don’t know what to do, Vee. I need you.”

But you deserve better.

They’re with a woman now. She’s tall, dressed in black, wearing boots that they were very impressed by. They sit her on a bench on the sidewalk, their eyes taking in passersby through the violet-pink tint of her contact lenses, another cool thing about her.

“Hey!” Another woman, clad in black, sits next to them. Her eyes are an unnatural shade of blue and her eyebrows have shining, silver hoops that catch the moonlight. She smells like alcohol and they decide to stick with her just in case. They have spotted the Tazer buckled into her belts at her hips, but still. “You look so sad.”

“I lost another kid.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.” She hugs them around their shared neck and squeezes, but she means it well, so they let her. “Is there anything I can do?”

“No. It wouldn’t have worked out anyway. I didn’t feel attached to it or anything, but…I tried to take care of it. Now it’s gone. I failed it.”

“Nooo. Trying means you give a sh*t. You tried so hard and it is not your fault, you understand me?”

“I did try, but it wasn’t enough. It’s never enough.”

“Oh…” She hugs them again, her grip tight. “Listen to me. Listen. Trying makes a big difference. It means you cared. You still care. That’s what matters. Caring matters. One day, if you want, you will be a great mommy. I’m so sorry it didn’t happen this time. But you are…you are caring and you are good. That’s what matters.”

“Stop it. You’ll make me cry.”

“It’s okay. You can cry. Tonight there is no judgment. I don’t judge anyway, but that’s not the point. Masquerade and Little Simz are not about that.”

Venom disentangles both themselves and their host from the sweet, drunk girl. “I keep seeing the posters. Who are they?”

“Well, if you go to the party, you’ll see. You deserve to have a nice night, okay, you’ve been through way too much for one girl. You deserve to be happy, even for a little bit. Go down the street and you’ll see a group and you’ll hear some great music. Go in and enjoy yourself.”

“I don’t want to leave you out here by yourself. You’re drunk.”

“But…I have a gun and a Tazer, plus my mom made me bring mace. I’m fine. Now go get drunk and dance and have fun. Go on!” With surprising strength for a hammered, short woman, she drags them off the bench and shoves them toward the group.

It was time to get changed anyway. They leave her and join with another, a male this time. He collapses, already lifeless. “Crapola!” why can’t they keep them alive?! They’ve grown weak with their time with Eddie. he can’t keep a plant alive by himself and they can’t keep a host alive. “Another one bites the dust.” They rejoin with another one, who also falls, but they bring him up, deciding to take form. Everyone is in a costume or disguise. They fit in. Everyone looks so bizarre, it would be hard not to. “Look at all these weirdos!” they marvel aloud as they rise from the floor. “My kind of people!”

They are noticed immediately. People swarm them, admiring them. They think I’m special? How kind of them all. They are all far more special, but it’s nice to be admired.

“Great costume!

“Awesome work.”

There’s flashing and Venom blinks. It’s a cellphone camera and they see their image next to a young person taking the photo. They really must like me. Eddie was wrong. No one is trying to cut me up. They like me.

“Greatest costume ever! Oh my god, is that Japanese?”

“No.” Venom says. “I made it myself.” Organically, too, they’d like to add.

“Hey.”

They look down, amazed at this new, more sultry attention. “Who, me?”

“Hello, gorgeous.”

How flattering. I’m being treated so nicely here. But they don’t work that way, not since leaving Eddie, for some reason. “Sorry, no, you’re not my type.” They hope she won’t be offended and move away quickly, explaining further. “I’m out of the Eddie closet.”

“Down here.” They could just as easily take control of their host, but he’s been controlled for years. They would prefer not to join the long, tragic list of wrongdoers, so they give commands. “The alley, Cletus. You’re dressed like a prisoner. You’re free.”

“What is there down here, huh? A Macy’s?”

They rumble in amusem*nt. “No. Dinner for me. Clothes for you.”

It doesn’t take long for Cletus to see what they saw. A man dressed in a vibrant red shirt, covered by a leather jacket. Skulls adorn his fingers, one on a chain dangles down his chest, bright silver even in the dim lighting. He’s drunk. “Easy prey.”

“Why complicate things?” They cover their host, towering over their prey. Even in his inebriated state, they’re impossible to ignore. He doesn’t have time to react when they clamp down, severing through his spine and juicy blood vessels. They suck blood through his neck and let him drop, exsanguinated and lifeless to the ground. “Do you want me to save you anything?”

“Maybe later.”

“Suit yourself.” They retract and assist him in removing the man’s jacket, pants, jewelry, shoes, socks and shirt. “What about his underwear?”

“I’ll wear my own underpants, thank you.”

“Prude.”

Cletus grins. “Shut up.”

While he dresses, they alternate between picking off the rest of their victim’s organs and watching. The shape of him enthrals them. He’s strong, muscles still defined by years of hunting his prey. Time spent in prison hasn’t robbed that of him. They drape tendrils over his biceps, feeling the flesh harden and swell as he undresses. “Incredible.”

“You’re the incredible one. All I did was sit back and watch.”

“Before I came along, you were fearless and you were strong and you were human. We can be so much together.” They remove their touch to allow him to pull his shirt on.

Cletus slips out of his pants. They stare in fascination at the hairs covering his legs. They want to touch, but maybe not just yet. Later, definitely, once they regain the opportunity. Even the leg muscles are pronounced and strong. He’s strong all over. “I don’t even know if any of this is real. If I am dead, this is a hell of an afterlife.”

“You’re not dead. I won’t let you die.”

Cletus smiles and slips on the jacket. “You done eating?”

“Nearly.”

“Well, finish up, precious. We got places to be.”

They forage inside the man’s bloodless, rapidly cooling corpse. They regret sucking out all his blood now, the pancreas is slightly too dry for their liking. “Can we get more food later?”

“Sure we can. Just let me know when you’re hungry.”

They finish eating, full and content, slinking back inside their host. He’s so good to them. He’s desperate to find something, they don’t know what, but he clearly wants to make sure they’re looked after and he thinks they’re precious. They belong with him. Their perfect host.

“Hello, darlin’.”

They peeks out, looking through his eyes. All they see is a bright red, flashy car. They don’t know much about cars, only that humans use them to go places. This one is very shiny and nice to look at, but isn’t particularly special. But their host likes it. And what Cletus wants, they will provide.

“Ooh, racer red.” Cletus stops by it, looking in the car. “Got to have it.”

Then we’ll take it. This time, they do take control, giving him the tiny little push he needed to enter the car. It’s unlocked, but there’s no key to start the engine with. No problem. They take over Cletus’ hand, extending the tips of their fingers to manipulate the workings of the small slot where a key would normally go. The car starts, exhilarating their host. “Let’s get this party started.”

“Oh, hell, yes.” Cletus puts his hands on the wheel and takes off, gaining speed as a valet comes running behind them, like he has a chance of catching up. It’s when they’re hurtling down a bridge, engine roaring, wind screaming through their senses that he sees their eyes in the rearview mirror. “You are real.”

“I am.” They are real. My parent didn’t want me to be, but I am real. I am here. And they will pay for their rejection. They need to tell their host of their plans, they would prefer to have his full cooperation. “And once I kill that thing that made me, we will be indestructible.”

Cletus closes his eyes very slowly and then those blue circles are back, looking in their eyes. He’s with them, they know that instantly. He’s on their side. “I know where to find him, but first I need you to help me find something I lost.”

That seems fair to them. They’re not unreasonable. “Deal.”

“Deal.” Cletus steps on the gas and laughs when they grab the car in front, tossing it off the bridge. “You got a name?”

“You called me precious before.”

“Well, that’s…you know, a pet name. What do I call you?”

“I haven’t got a name. My parent wouldn’t have bothered, even if I hadn’t been born to you.”

“Well, you sure do cause a lot of carnage.” Cletus meets their eyes again. “Carnage? That do you?”

Carnage. They show their rows of teeth in a deadly grin. “I like it.” How can they not? It comes from Cletus.

Chapter 10: I Miss You, The Henningsens

Chapter Text

“I want to drive.”

Cletus takes his hands off the wheel as it hurtles down the quiet road. “Knock yourself out.”

They take control of his arms and his feet and grip the steering wheel. They expect it to be a lot more fun than it actually is, even when they go so fast their host’s adrenaline spikes. They enjoy the sharp tang of the chemicals produced and go faster when Cletus calls their name. The name he gifted them. “I love it when you say my name.”

“Carnage.” Cletus sounds both amused and patient to their senses. “My precious Carnage, I love your enthusiasm here, but you’re using up all our gas.”

“It’s fun.”

“I know, but we might break down and get stuck out here and I won’t be very happy if we do.”

They slow down by ten miles, the difference of which they think must be noticeable to their host. “Better?”

“Give me back the wheel.”

“Boring.”

Cletus just grins at them, eyes full of the warmth he holds just for them. “We’ll stop at the next gas station. That okay for you, precious?”

They suppose it is. Mostly because they don’t want Cletus to be unhappy because the car’s fuel is out. “I thought you said the clothes guy didn’t have much money.”

“Money? We ain’t payin’ for gas, Carnage. Way I see it is, they don’t care about us, so why should we care about them?”

“I agree. But if you didn’t need his money, why take it?”

“Because I want to buy Frances a real engagement ring. I made her one when we were last together, made from my pillowcase in St Estes. She deserves way more than that.”

They know who Frances is. His one bright light. His love, his girlfriend. They feel something sour course through their cells. “Fine.”

Cletus glances in the rearview mirror, finding their eyes again. “What? You’ve gone all funny.”

“Oh, I’m fine.”

Cletus stops the car right in the middle of the road. He folds his arms and gives the mirror and, by default, them, a serious-looking stare. “Do not give me that I’m fine sh*t. I didn’t even take it from Frances. If we don’t communicate our issues, none of this works.”

They swoop out of him, showing their teeth in an angry snarl. “Do you think you are in charge here, human?”

Cletus, to their annoyed surprise, laughs. “I’m sorry. I know you’re trying to act tough here, and you are tough, don’t get me wrong. It’s just…come on, you know neither of us are in charge. It’s a mutual thing. You don’t try and possess me and I…well, I ain’t the possessing kind. This…this thing is not about control. But all relationships need truth in them. Now. You got something to tell me?”

They lick over their teeth in thought. They do want the best relationship they can get, and they don’t really want to lie to their host because he’s been so good to them. “I’m not as important to you as she is. You might refute me.”

“Now, why would I do something like that? Fate brought me two angels. One is a being of pure light and the other creates miracles. Both of you make me a better man.” Cletus’ fingertips touch their jaw and they almost melt. “You are every bit as important, Carnage. Every bit as loved.”

“Love?”

“You don’t got to say or feel it back. We’ve not known each other long, but I just feel this connection.”

“We are connected.”

“No, love is like a…an emotional thing, not physical. Like how you hate your father. But hate is the opposite of love.”

“So, when you love someone, you want to make them live?”

“Yes.” Cletus answers slowly. “You do want your loved ones to live a long time. That’s normal. Love is…it’s when you care about someone else more than you care about yourself.”

Just like that, Carnage understands. They understand that he loves them and that they must love him, too, because they feel the same way. “Mmm.”

“Mmm.” Cletus repeats in a way that suggests he dares mock them. Before they can show their anger, he takes their head in his hands and presses his lips to the top. He must sense their confusion, because he says; “That’s what a kiss is.”

“I don’t know how.” Or if they can. They don’t have lips, that they know of.

“That’s okay. I can do it for the both of us.” His kisses go lower, trailing down their jawline, soft lips sucking at their mass. Something stirs, a change in his brain chemistry registers to them. They know it has something to do with an instinct to mate, but for once, he has no idea what to do. He’s nervous. They grin. He notices. “What are you smilin’ at?”

“Look at you, all shy.” They pull from him, towering over him in their enormity. “That’s okay. I can do it for the both of us.” They wait, just long enough for his nerves to meld into simple curiosity, and act. They find the levers that allow the seats to recline and push him back, feeding off his growing lust. The chemicals he’s producing are intoxicating. They grow long, thin tendrils and inch them slowly under the waistband of his pants, feeling the thick mat of hairs that surround his painfully swollen manhood. They entwine a tendril around it, tightening their grip while he writhes and gasps, grabbing handfuls of them in turn as they explore further up, finding his tip. It’s so sensitive that their host’s eyes water. His breath quickens and they revel in his pleasure.

“Oh, god, Carnage. God. I love you.”

They get curious about the hole on the tip. They know what it’s for, they’re not uneducated. But they wonder if it can be used. Thinning the tendril, they slip it in, feeling the tight passage constricting around their contact. Their curiosity pays off, their host’s utterings turn into mindless howls of pleasure. While the tendril they’ve grown teases their host, they use another to explore the most direct route to his prostate – a magical thing that acts as a pleasure button. It has other uses too, of course, but they’re not interested in those. “I am going to make you come.”

Cletus doesn’t appear to have heard them, but he grips their shoulders in a way that would be painful if Carnage was human. He gasps, and a sharp stab of something bitter ripples through the supply of chemicals that had been so delectable only moments before. They stop and he looks at them with crazed, burning eyes. “Don’t stop, precious.”

“It hurt you.”

“It’s okay. Don’t stop, precious, please. Keep going for me.”

They do, but only because he’s begged so nicely. They find the tiny, perfect piece of flesh that will bring their host so much pleasure and tease it. He curses them for being cruel, which they decide means they should prolong the release.

“Carnage…swear to god, I will do this to you.”

They rumble with dark laughter, enjoying his futile struggles. “I would love to see you try, Cletus.”

“Careful what you wish for, precious.”

The use of their special name is deserving of a reward, they decide. They stop teasing and start assisting it in sending the necessary chemicals to their host’s brain so he can enjoy a well-deserved climax. He stiffens and yells like he’s dying as hot, sticky white fluid ejects from around Carnage’s tendril. They remove it, careful not to hurt or damage the delicate tissue inside his most delightful parts. They aren’t sure what to do now, he’s panting and twitching like he’s suffered a calamity, so they hold him. It starts awkwardly because they’ve never held anything before, not like this, but he wraps both arms around them and holds them back like they’re the only thing that matters in the world. “Do you still think me cruel, Cletus?”

“I do, precious. But it’s in a good way. You know that saying, cruel to be kind.”

They don’t know that saying, but they pretend they do. “Can we stay like this? I like this.”

“I do, too. We can take a little time, but I have a feeling you’ll want to eat soon.”

They want to eat now, but the serenity of this moment, sky full of stars, content host in their arms, is slightly more appealing for the timebeing. “Will there be people in the gas station?”

“Not many, but someone will be working the graveyard shift.”

Carnage snickers. “The irony.”

They love this place. The music hasn’t got any high pitches, there’s eclectic lights in all the colors humans know and the people are so nice. Every person in the place has given them a compliment and a group of people with skulls painted on their faces made them necklaces and bracelets out of glowsticks, bringing them shots of alcohol that makes them feel giddy and warm.

I’m so glad I stayed on this rock. They think as they wander around, feeling the admiring touches of the other partygoers. I don’t need Eddie.

“Venom!”

They’re not so drunk they don’t know their own name. They squint at the singer, not remembering talking to her, but there’s so many people crammed in this space that it’s likely they have and just can’t remember. But can’t they remember everything? They give up on trying to make sense of things, deciding that’s a job for when they’re sober. They approach the stage, the woman’s voice growing more urgent as she repeats their name, almost frantically. She stops singing and looks around like she’s confused, even though she was the one that called them. They gently take the microphone from her relaxed grasp. “Thank you.” they look out at the crowd of people, all as different as they are, though they still have their humanity to protect them from scientists and government officials. Lucky. You’re all so lucky to live on a world where you can be free and…what the hell is that? They see a board at the back of the room, with a list of songs on it. Venom. f*ck. She wasn’t calling for them at all. Venom is the title of her song. “Oh, sh*t.”

In the crowd, an invisible voice shouts. “Your costume is amazing!”

Just with those four words, they remember where they are. Surrounded by the most accepting, supportive and encouraging people in the world. This doesn’t matter. They won’t hold it against them. “Thank you, one person!” they listen to the drunken cheering and their previous nerves vanish. All evening, they’ve had offers of kissing, sex, long-term relationships and marriage. They’ve refused them all and now is the time to explain. “Eddie was wrong! He kept me hidden, because he was ashamed!” There are sympathetic eyes in the audience and something twinges in their chest. They know how much a breakup hurts. But why would anyone be ashamed of them? They’re all perfect. They’re human. They hold the microphone with both hands, almost muffling the head. “But look at me now! You love me! And I’m free!”

They cheer, the sounds more of celebration than understanding. The same faces that looked so knowing of their hurt have now got smiles.

There is more to say, so they go on. Maybe in the crowd, someone might be able to help with this more pressing issue. “Stop this cruel treatment of aliens. It is wrong. All of us should be able to live together upon this ball of rock!” No one seems to be rushing to amend this problem yet, but that’s okay. They are at a party, after all. “Free to be who we be!”

“I love you!”

They don’t know who shouted that out, so they address the crowd. “I love you, too!” They hold their arm out and let the microphone fall to the ground where it makes a light thudding sound. “Lethal Protector out!” they move past people in costumes, and face paint, some more luminescent than even they are, the ones on stilts who tower overhead. What great people. I love them so much. I don’t need…I don’t need…

They come to a very sudden stop. Emptiness eats at them. They’re loved here, they’re wanted. They’re finally appreciated. Why isn’t this enough? Why do they still want him when he made it perfectly clear that he had no place in his heart for them?

Maybe for them, the party’s over.

They find an exit into a darker, emptier room. An empty bar stands at one end and lights try to lift the gloom, but don’t do much in spite of their gentle glow. They feel so heavy, so bleak. It doesn’t help that they haven’t eaten since disjoining. They just…don’t see the point. They put a hand on the cold stonework of the closest wall and then turn, sliding down it. For all their talk, they know it’s a lie that they don’t miss him. They do. It’s like they’ve lost themselves. Like they’re dead and have only just realised it. All they want is him, but he doesn’t want them and it hurts. “I wish you could have seen me tonight, Eddie.”

The attendant’s skull bursts underfoot. Cletus stands on the pieces of bone, stepping on the gray matter that once made up the man’s brain. There’s a computer and he hesitates. Computers are mines for information, real fountains of knowledge, but he was never any good with them before he got jailed. Back when they were big, chunky things. This one looks complex. “You got any of those…internets?”

Carnage doesn’t say anything, but takes his hand, growing red tendrils from his digits, slipping them into the ports at the side of the machine.

Images flash up before Cletus’ eyes.

Frances Barrison, Resident of St Estes, Shot

NO! Not my angel, god, no…

Police Report

Top Secret

Code Required

Eight asterisks appear. Cletus waits.

Transferred to Ravencroft

Approach With Extreme Caution

Sonic Level 10

“You’re alive.” Of course she was. His angel was no less a survivor than he was. “God. Alright. Come on, precious.”

Carnage snakes out of him. “Wait.”

“What for?”

“You said I could eat somebody here.”

Cletus steps away from the pulpy remains of the man’s head. He could literally kick his own ass for forgetting that Carnage was hungry. “Guess I got a little overexcited. First kill in years…his organs might be good.”

“But he’s dead. I need brains to be fresh. And organs aren’t the same.”

“If you want to get technical, a brain is an organ, so-”

“Cletus.”

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forgot you need to keep your strength up. Ravencroft will have staff there, which means lots of fresh bodies.”

Carnage licks his teeth hungrily. It’s tempting, but he ain’t biting. “Can’t we wait for somebody to buy gas?”

“Well, we could, but that means both of us putting our plans on hold.”

Carnage hisses softly in annoyance. “This is very disappointing.”

“I’m sorry. Is there anything you want to grab from here? Uh…” Cletus grabs the nearest edible thing which turns out to be a family-size pack of M&Ms. “Here. Chocolate. Everyone loves chocolate.”

Carnage is very delicate as he picks out a green M&M. He flicks it distastefully to the floor and then finds a yellow one which meets the same fate. “I can’t get the red ones.”

Cletus looks through the pack himself, looking through the colors. “Why the red ones? They ain’t blood or strawberry flavored, you know.”

“I know that, I’m not stupid. I want the red ones, because they’re the same color as me.”

“Oh, right.” Cletus finds one and blinks when a long tongue swipes it from between his fingertips. Another blink and the pack is grabbed from his hands and emptied down a very hungry Symbiote’s throat. “Better, precious?”

“I expect a steady supply of brains in the future, but these are fine for now.”

Cletus grabs two more packs for the road, but a red tentacle dumps the entire rack of M&Ms into his arms. “Are you seriously this hungry or are you stocking up for if we can’t find people?”

“I am this hungry.”

“Oh, precious. Won’t be long and you can eat all the heads you want.”

Carnage surprises him as he walks them out. He nudges his head, all soft, against Cletus’. “I’m holding you to that,” he warns, but there’s a titillating air to his words.

Cletus jumps back in the car, tossing the candy into the passenger seat. “I think you’ll find I’m a man of my word. Just you wait.”

“Oh, I’ll wait.”

Chapter 11: Your Love, The Outfield

Chapter Text

The ring on her finger is frayed from years apart. Every night, she turns it, feels its fabric that had once been rough, now turned smooth from countless hours running her thumb over it. She never takes it off. Not when asleep, not when they scan her to check on her mutations, not when getting changed, not when using the wipes they give her for cleaning herself up. It will stay with her until she dies.

Until she sees Cletus again.

Thinking of him makes her eyes burn. Even the one that cop took from her. With him gone, there’s nothing left and these f*ckers won’t just let her die when she wants to. “Baby. There’s no reason for life without you still in this world.”

“Well, Frances.”

Frances only looks up to the psychiatrist to glare at her. Bitch. She’s a true sad*st. Cletus has nothing on her. Oh, Cletus.

“It seems your sweetheart has done a Houdini act over there at San Quentin.”

He’s gone? He’s alive? This news has her on her feet, misery forgotten. If he’s escaped, surely he’ll…

“It’s all over the news.” She sees the look on Frances’ face and smirks coldly, enjoying the words Frances already knows to expect. “Oh, don’t get excited. He’s not going to find you.”

The only retaliation she has is the keypad. She types in two simple words. “Screw you.”

The psychiatrist doesn’t react. She’s long grown use to France’s typed outbursts. “How flattering. But you’re not my type.”

Homphobic and racist. You’re not my type either.

“I wonder where he could be.”

Anger dissipated, she sinks down on the solid mattress. Where can he be?

“I’m right here.”

Frances looks up and there he is. My baby. He’s come to save me. He’s here, he’s alive. Cletus!

He turns to her and their eyes lock. He doesn’t seem the see the twenty years, the vivid white of the sh*tty prosthetic eye they crammed into the socket. He doesn’t see the flaws and imperfections she’s gained over the years. He just sees her. Exactly like before. She can see something retract into his shoulder, the cold, heartless woman who took joy in her pain drops, skin mottled. But none of that matters. He’s here.

He steps to the mic and presses it so they can talk. “Hi, baby.”

His voice has changed so much. It sounds so strong. He’s a man now, not the boy he was. She presses to the glass, hoping that soon they can finally feel the other again. she can’t talk, but dry sobs of exhilaration keep escaping. He’s here, he’s here, he’s here…

“I…don’t want you to freak out, okay, um…”

Her suspicions peak. Why would I freak out?

“I’d like you to meet Carnage!”

Red ropes leave his body. They look like gleaming strings of raw muscle, so strong, so different. She starts laughing as they encircle the glass box she’s been stuck inside for two decades. “That is so hot!” He laughs too, nerves gone. The thing, the gloriously strong thing he’s found, takes him up and she sees him up close and personal. The glass shatters and they seize the other, kissing both passionately and tenderly. Something wraps around her legs and she starts. “What’s that?”

“What’re you doing, precious?”

A head forms somewhere from behind Cletus’ shoulder. She’s struck by the vivid red color, the black splashed in the center of the monster’s face. Teeth like slivers of marble show themselves in a display of promised violence and the eyes are like moonstones. “You’re so beautiful.”

It looks at her, head tilted, like it’s not been told that yet. “Really?”

“sh*t, didn’t I say?”

“Cletus! I can’t believe you haven’t told it.”

“Him. I like to be called him, not it.”

“Him.” She reaches out, careful. All her life she’s been manhandled and grabbed, poked and prodded while powerless to stop. She’s unmuzzled now, unrestrained, and so is this thing. But she won’t touch if he doesn’t want her to. “Can I?”

He takes her hand, wrapping a tendril around her wrist and lets her press her palm to his neck. He rises, taking them both up, way high. “You will be safer up here, both of you. Cletus promised dinner.”

Enthralled by the satiny feel of the creature, she looks into his eyes again. Flashes of rainbow shine in the white surface. “Are you going to eat those animals?”

“No. I will devour them.” He releases her wrist and removes himself from view.

“He found you for me.” Cletus whispers in her ear. “The three of us are gonna find every single person whoever harmed us and we will make ‘em pay. Carnage was good enough to choke the life out of that mean old woman, did you see it? She choked the joy out of you, didn’t she? She’s gone now, baby. Just you, me and Carnage from now on. All we need is us, Frances. God, I missed you, baby.”

She listens to his words, feels them nourish what’s left of her soul and presses her lips back to his. She can’t get enough. Carnage takes off running with them and she parts from the allure of Cletus’ mouth as Carnage leaps up. Suddenly, he’s gone, and she’s sat at the wheel of a ’66, bright red in color and still shining. “A ’66, my dream car!”

“Yeah, I remembered!” Cletus looks so proud of himself that the years melt away and it’s like she’s been reunited with the 17-year-old who banged intensely on the barred window of St Estes as they were torn apart.

“Let’s see what you got.” Frances puts the car in reverse and revs the engine, hurtling them backwards. She sees the shock in Cletus’ eyes and can’t help but laugh. Yeah, baby, your girl knows how to drive. Let’s get the hell out of here! She spins them around, trying to find the exit and finds it, narrowly missing another cop car as it comes blaring in, blue lights flashing. She’d hoped the first blue thing she saw outside Ravencroft would be a blue sky, but hey. Can’t have everything, right?

Carnage must be bored with the driving because he ejects long, thick tentacles that launch the car off the gravelled road. From up here, both Frances and Cletus can see him attach his extensions to Ravencroft, out from the line of fire.

So hot. She indulges in Cletus, feeling the warm wetness of his mouth, the heat of his flesh. God, you’re both so hot.

Cletus withdraws, his skin bubbling red. Suddenly, he’s gone, and there’s Carnage, a red, muscle-bound thing of beauty. A long tongue snakes out from his razor-sharp maw and he snarls at their multitude of enemies. He lays waste to the remaining cars, slicing one in half with a tentacle he’s extended into a blade while she cheers him on, encouraging him to do more. Do all he can. All he wants.

There’s a whirring sound, vibrating through the air and bullets crack the windscreen. She’s loud enough to kill, but she’s not bulletproof, so she huddles down. The bullets hit something else and she peeks out, seeing him holding up a cop car as a way to shield her. So sweet. But I can protect us, too. She sits up, gripping the wheel and inhales air through her mouth, feeling every airsac in her lungs swell. She expels it in the way that kills, the way that got her imprisoned in this hellhole. The force of it breaks the remaining glass in the windscreen, but it takes out the chopper.

And Carnage.

He makes an awful, shuddering wail as he retracts into Cletus, searching for protection. She stops, because hurting him is not part of any plan she’s considered, but the car drops, now his tentacles aren’t holding them up any more. Cletus yells to her frantically. “Stop! You’ll kill him!”

By some miracle, the car remains driveable, even after dropping ten metres. She glances at Cletus to see if Carnage is out yet, but there’s no hint of red. She hits the gas and drives like crazy, wanting to leave this place behind and fast.

Cletus sits up in the passenger seat. “He’s sensitive to sound.” Tentacles shoot from his back, reaching for the Ravencroft sign now behind them. He looks troubled, even as the sign gets dragged, clanging noisily behind the fast-moving car. Another chopper comes and she lets them deal with it, focused on the road. Carnage shoots out another extension of himself and crashes the chopper so it erupts in a cloud of fire and smoke behind them. They cheer and yell in celebration of their escape and destruction of this place. “Who said romance was dead?”

They can’t do this anymore. The constant bodyhopping is draining their energy and even their prior apathy isn’t much of an appetite suppressor any more. They push their host onward, down the familiar street Eddie used to walk them down. They hope to see him. They hope not to.

They don’t know how they feel any more.

They reach the door and push it open, the bell jingling in its sweetly familiar way.

“Hey! No drunks in here!”

They are aware of that rule, but in their defence, they aren’t drunk any longer. Bile ejects from their host’s mouth, to Venom’s shock and Mrs Chen’s disgust. They can’t blame her for being grossed out, but they can’t control him any more. He’s dying. They need to leave before he does. They use his voice, one last time as he collapses. “Help me. Food.”

“Out! You get out!”

In preparation of exiting, they tint the dying man’s veins black. “Chocolate.”

Mrs Chen sees the veins and the request for chocolate must make her realise who else is on her floor. She kneels by them, concern in her deep-colored eyes. “Venom?”

They trickle from the corner of the man’s eye, oozing out of him like thick tears. “I’m having trouble keeping them standing, Mrs C.”

“Where’s Eddie?”

Hearing their best host’s name makes them feel the prickling, crushing sensation of grief. They’re nearly out of this one, but they use his mouth to say one final word. “Food.”

She cradles their last host’s head, hugging his prone body. “I don’t know how long I can keep you, but come on. I’m here.”

They are very hesitant, because she’s a friend and they couldn’t live with themselves if they killed her. But she holds out a hand to them and instinct forces them to accept her invitation. She’s not Eddie, she’s not Anne, but her body accepts them without question. You’re a good host too. I never would have guessed.

She steps back from the man and finds an old cell in her pocket. “We’d better call an ambulance for him.”

“Tried to keep them alive.”

“I know you did.” She rips open a pack of M&Ms and hums as they form their long neck to delve into it. “I can feel you and not feel you. Does that make sense? Is it normal?”

“Yes. I’m in your cells. As far as your body is concerned, I am a part of you.”

She taps in the three numbers and asks them if they know of any allergies or illnesses their prior host was ailed by. When she gets through, she simply tells the operator that a drunk man stumbled into her store and collapsed. While they wait for the ambulance, she cups the back of their head, gently scratching their mass as they dive again and again into the large boxes holding their food source. “I hope you understand that I have questions.”

“I do. I hope you understand that I won’t be answering them until I’ve finished eating.”

“I do.” Blue lights flash through the store windows and she peeks through. “Cops. Something must be going on today. All I’ve heard is sirens.” She glances at the window again and says “Ah. Paramedics are here.”

The paramedics ask several questions about whether the man complained of any symptoms, whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol and other things Venom barely takes in. They curl up around Mrs Chen’s heart, rising and falling with its steady thump. When they’re finally alone, she turns the sign from Open to Closed on the door, shuts off the lights and takes them to the back, going through a door and up a narrow flight of stairs. “Where are we going?”

“I’ll finish shelving the delivery tomorrow.”

“You never close early.”

“I do when it’s an emergency.” She unlocks another door and bright warm light fills their senses. It’s nice up here. Pictures of smiling people adorn the walls. She smiles when they touch the frames, caress the glass. “My family.”

They see a picture of a young man, face lit up in a wide smile. Beside him is a young woman in a bright red dress, her smile every bit as joyful as his. “Is this you?”

“I was pretty once, you know.” She takes it off the wall reverently and lets them hold it. “Our wedding day.”

“He looks kind.”

“He is.” Mrs Chen kisses the glass and replaces the photo. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”

They admire her living room. Red is everywhere, the color of her couch, the drapes, the lantern-style lighting. Even the wallpaper has red flowers blooming against a warm, magnolia background. “It’s nice in here. So red.”

She smiles. “It’s the traditionalist in me. Red is symbolic in Chinese culture. Brings good luck, success and joy.” Her smile drops slightly. “In theory.”

“If you like it, that’s what matters.”

“I do.” She touches a small, wooden table with loving tenderness. “But red was always his favorite color.”

The see another photo, in a polished gold frame, of the same young man in the wedding photo. This one is older by at least ten years. On either side of his photograph are ornate pots of a similar gold to the picture frame, with long thin sticks, smoldering with aromatic smoke. A wooden bowl filled with oranges stands to one side and a gold circle sits on a scarlet cushion. A shrine. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too. A monster got him. Shot him dead for the crime of being Chinese” She looks at his photo in the bright gold frame and there is not just sadness, but love and guilt. “Now, our daughter is training to put away more monsters and our son is trying to learn his father’s trade. He would be proud of them both. I tell them, but children never listen.”

“What happened to the thing who killed him?”

“He met another Chinese man in jail and didn’t survive the encounter.”

A small amount of justice. But not enough. They look in the eyes of her husband, eyes which are still warm and gentle in later adulthood. No, not enough. “I wish we’d been there.”

“Venom. It’s okay. I’m not going to say I’ve made my peace with it, because I’m not sure I ever will. But I was lucky enough to have him in my life for fourteen years. It’s what matters most. He blessed me, not the color red.” She brushes a black strand of hair from the shrine’s polished table. “Whatever’s happened to you is much more recent, so we’ll talk about that.”

They look at her husband, those soft eyes. They are sure he would never have been so ungrateful to his wife. They are positive Mr and Mrs Chen never argued, not once. “I don’t know where to begin.”

She does it again, I’ll eat her face.

Well, you can thank whatever god, deity or lucky star you got that Frances didn’t hear him say it. Cletus taps his foot on the cherrywood floor. They’ve stopped by the closest house so Frances can get out of her whites. They call us monsters, yet they were the ones who made her wear socks with Crocs. That’s the real evil here. The whites are now drenched with crimson, the gun-wielding homeowner lies in pieces, his head long-since digested by the Symbiote who is sitting next to Cletus, eyes roaming over the ceiling where Frances is tearing through closets. He’s somewhere between curious of their new surroundings and impatient to get going.

And Cletus has a bad feeling he doesn’t really like Frances all that well.

Just gotta be careful, here, Cletus. He might be twelve feet tall and have the body of a god, but he’s sensitive. He puts an arm around his shoulders, the Symbiote turning his head sharply to look at him. “Precious-”

“Don’t you precious me.”

“Sweetheart. You can’t eat Frances, okay? Anybody else, I got no problem with, but not her.”

“Why?” Carnage snarls the question.

“Because I love her.”

“So, you’re fine with her hurting me, but not me hurting her?”

“No, I am not okay with that. She didn’t mean to hurt you, precious. She was trying to help.”

“I was handling it. I don’t need help, Cletus. I just need you.”

And I thought I was a romantic. Clet us grabs his jaw. Looks into his eyes, sees the infinity of color splayed out over a pearlescent backdrop of white. And something else. There’s an emotion in there somewhere. “Carnage. Tell me what’s wrong.” He feels it then, a flicker of terror through their connection. “What are you so scared of?”

Carnage hisses air out softly between his teeth. “I don’t know where to begin.”

Chapter 12: Easy, Camila Cabello

Chapter Text

“My parent was starving. That’s how I came to exist.”

“How do you know that?”

Carnage hesitates. “There’s a shared network of knowledge I can access. Knowledge about my kind. We impregnate ourselves or join to create young. From what I’ve learned, the most common way we are conceived is in times of danger to ourselves. I know my parent was malnourished. I know he fought with his host. He was being starved and chose to stay.”

Cletus can’t associate Brock with intentionally mistreating his Symbiote. But who really knows what a man is capable of? Especially a man who condemned someone doing him a favor to death. “Sounds like your daddy had Stockholm Syndrome.”

Carnage growls, the sound low and vibrating in his throat. “I don’t care what he had. He rejected me. I’ve seen what happens to rejected spawn, Cletus. What my kind do. They’re abandoned or devoured. It doesn’t happen before birth, it happens after, if the young is seen as too weak or sickly to survive. My parent didn’t even wait for me to be born and he chose to reject me. He didn’t think I was worth keeping.”

“My parents were bad, too. You’ve seen ‘em. I know you’ve looked in my memories, tryin’ to see what you’d got yourself into.” He looks into the shameless eyes of the giant alien being he loves so damn much and almost smiles. That’s it, Carnage. No guilt. Not for things like us. “I know how you feel. You know what I did to my blood relatives, after they wronged me?”

“You killed them.”

“That’s right. I didn’t get the old man, he was a little much for me. But you…if you kill your father, he can’t hurt you again like this. He rejects you? You’ll reject him harder. That’s the plan, right?”

“It has always been the plan. Getting attached to you wasn’t part of it. Neither was she.”

“You knew about Frances, Carnage. I told you, she’s as important as you are. You’re my two halves.” He touches the angles of their pointed jaw, the silken flesh taut beneath his touch. She’s right – he is beautiful. “You scared I’ll choose her over you? Like hell I will. There’s no life in me worth living without you or without her. Two halves.” He still sees doubt in those pretty, pretty eyes. He presses his mouth in an angry, thin line. There is not a single person in this house without some kind of parental issue. He gets up, dragging Carnage with surprising ease to the staircase. He should be heavy, but it’s like pulling air. Maybe it’s because of their physical connection. “Come on. You got to communicate with Frances and you gotta do it now.”

“No.”

Carnage says it petulantly enough that Cletus has a fleeting mental image of having to drag him up the stairs. He’ll kick my ass. “I’d do it for you.”

Carnage gives him a scathing look of defeated rage. “This is manipulative.”

“I know. Get your ass up them stairs.”

“What did you just say?”

“Please? For me, sweetheart?”

Carnage looks from him to the stairs and back to him. He’s not happy, but resentfully stomps up them with enough force that they creak with every step. “I’m only doing this for you.”

“I appreciate it, precious. You know that, don’t you?”

Carnage rolls his shoulders in an offhanded shrug. “Yes.”

“I was starving, to the point it got deadly. And, just like with the fire, I got pregnant. Again. It was too soon. I know I should have been happy, but I wasn’t ready for this one.”

“Venom.” Mrs Chen takes their hand and puts a steaming cup of something that smells warm and comforting in their palm. “There is no law that says you must be happy with a pregnancy. It’s not been long since the miscarriage.”

“I thought I was over it. But when I realised what was happening, it terrified me. All the way through, I was so sure it would happen again. I…I rejected it, Mrs Chen.”

“Rejected?” Her voice is careful, she’s trying hard to not sound judgmental, but they already know she doesn’t judge them for their feelings. “Did you give birth to it too soon?”

They can’t think of the painless birth. Ironically, it’s too painful to think about. “No. I just couldn’t accept it. Not the pregnancy. The young itself. I didn’t want it.” They’re so ashamed, saying it, that they can’t look at her. They focus on the gold-amber depths of the tea she insisted they drink. “I couldn’t bring a new young in this world and care for it when I still grieve the one that came before. And I was having Eddie issues. You see…he’s not wanted me for some time.”

“Oh,” she folds her arms around them. “I’m sure that isn’t true. Everybody has periods in relationships where they don’t like each other very much. Even me and my husband. It’s just…well, it’s life. We don’t always like each other. People drive each other crazy sometimes.”

“It’s true, Mrs Chen. He doesn’t want me. He threw me out.”

She freezes. “He did what? In your condition?!”

They have to stop her grabbing her cell and calling Eddie to deliver what they’re sure would be a ball-busting lecture on the many ways he acted like an asshole. “No, no, wait! I didn’t tell him! I thought it would make things worse between us, you see, if he knew I was pregnant again. I managed to keep this one a secret. And then he got involved with that serial killer.”

“Cassady? That sick son of a bitch.”

“Yes, that’s the one. He got involved with him and he’s still in love with Anne and wouldn’t accept any help in winning her back. She got engaged and he was so sad, but tried to pretend he wasn’t in front of her.”

“If you really love somebody, you don’t try to control or possess them.” Mrs Chen sips from her cup. “At least that can be said for him.”

“He’s far too stubborn and prideful for his own good.” Venom tries the tea, having grown curious about its flavor. It tastes spicy and warm, like the cookies they tried to bake at Christmas. They don’t stop Mrs Chen from refilling the cup. “I tried to help. I did everything I could to make him feel better about Anne being engaged and it was working, but then a postcard came from the prison, from Cassady. He wanted to see Eddie before he got poisoned to death.”

“Let me guess. Eddie got all noble and went to go see him.”

She knows him just as well as they do. “He wouldn’t listen to reason. We went there and Cassady said terrible things and, well…I may have attacked him. That lunatic bit Eddie and…the baby was born. It went from my mass, coursed through Eddie’s blood and that was the last I felt from it.” They place their cup gently on her coffee table. “It went into Cassady. I don’t know if it was strong enough to bond, if it…didn’t survive his body, but it definitely went inside. He even said he could taste the difference between human blood and what he tasted. I…tried to tell Eddie when we got back home, but he was so angry that we fought. It was the worst fight we’ve ever had. He said I destroyed his life. He said…” they struggle to find the strength to repeat the more painful of his vitriol against them. He was right, but it still hurts to think. “He said I couldn’t protect anything. I don’t think he meant the first baby, but I just don’t know…”

“He didn’t know you were going through all this, Venom.” Mrs Chen takes their hand in her smaller one, delicate fingers gripping theirs. “He was a dick, but he would never fault you for the miscarriage, or for this. How could you have known what was going to happen?”

“It gets worse. He used the fire alarm on me, knowing exactly how lethal it could have been. And then…I got to the prison and Cassady was already dead and…they incinerated him along with my offspring.”

Mrs Chen’s eyes fill. “I’m so sorry.”

“I may not have wanted the young, but I didn’t want any harm to come to it. I could have come to terms with it, in time. Now it’s gone and it died thinking I hated it. Rejection is so painful to a Symbiote, second only to fire. It knew both because of me.”

“This isn’t your fault. You didn’t reject the baby to be cruel. You rejected it because of grief for the one before it.”

“And now I’ve lost two.”

Mrs Chen’s voice is soft and coaxing. “You’ve been through a lot and a great deal of it is still fresh. You need to rest and let yourself grieve.”

“What right do I have to grieve?”

“It’s okay to let things out one at a time. When one thing is dealt with, the other things are a little easier. You can deal with the easier thing first.”

“I don’t know what the easier thing is, Mrs Chen.”

She accepts this with a nod of her head. “Stupid thing for me to say. A lot’s happened, Venom. You’ll be able to get through this, but it will take you a little time. You got through the miscarriage.”

There had been a time they hadn’t thought they would ever be able to get through that, so they think she must be right. “I don’t know what to do right now.”

“If it helps, you did the right thing in coming here.”

“I know. Seeing you again has helped. Has…Eddie been here?”

“Not lately.” She takes the pale yellow lid off the teapot and peers inside. It’s empty and she puts both their cups back on the little tray, eyeing a small brass-toned clock on the wall. “You can stay here with me as long as you need to.”

“You’re getting tired.”

“I’ll be alright. I clocked out early tonight-”

“I want you to feel your best. And I haven’t forgotten that you invited me in when I needed help.”

She squeezes round their shoulders, so small compared to Eddie. Nonetheless, she’s a very enveloping, protective presence, this tiny, fierce woman. “Maybe we both need rest. Does that seem fair?”

They consider. Mrs Chen is stubborn enough that she will undoubtedly refuse to go to bed until she feels she can. But she’s also very shrewd, definitely clever enough to know if they try lying to her. And it’s not like they haven’t shared a bed with a human before. “Yes.” They say. “That seems fair.”

They just wish she was Eddie.

Frances never really got to choose her own clothes. When she was a child, it was whatever precious, perfect oh-so-beautiful Mommy wanted to dress her up in, like a doll.

A broken doll, if Mommy was to be believed.

The system didn’t exactly give her a sartorial choice either. She was just given a trash bag any time she had a growth spurt, until she got to St Estes where they dressed the kids the same and turned a blind eye, claiming they couldn’t tell which kids were beating the sh*t out of the other ones.

Then she’d ended up imprisoned in Ravencroft.

Now she had some choice. Pants, blouses, shoes, skirts, jackets, shirts, dresses. Even jewelry. It was overwhelming. What to wear, what to wear…

“Baby?”

The sound of her boyfriend’s voice snaps her out of her own mind and into the present. “Am I taking too long?”

“No, no. I want you to have nice things. Take your time.” Cletus shrugs, looking a little guilty. “That being said, we should take off soon before the cops come.”

It touches her soul, gently heals and blesses it, how sweetly he treats her. Some men thump their chests, some play nasty little games, but not Cletus. She picks out a playsuit from the closet and traces the black and red squares patterned onto the soft, floral-scented fabric. I have my entire life to pick what I want to wear. She looks back at her two rescuers, tilting her head at the pair of them. “What brought you up here if we’re not in a hurry?”

“Carnage has something to tell you.”

“I hate you, Cletus.”

“Well, you just told me somethin’. And now you tell Frances.”

She can’t help feeling a little wounded. “You hate me?”

“No. I think.” Carnage pauses to think and, much more confidently, says “No. But I hate that thing you do with your mouth.”

Confused hurt gives way to offended anger. “You hate when I talk?”

Carnage hisses out air in an irritated sigh. “I hate your screams. They hurt.”

“I only use my power to protect us.” She drops the suit on the bed and folds her arms. “The three of us. I never meant to hurt you. You saved me. You and Cletus.”

“I don’t need protecting.”

“Neither did I, but that didn’t stop the government trapping me in a glass cage for twenty years. Everybody needs help at least once, even someone as strong as you.”

“No more sound.”

“I’ll compromise.” Frances cuts him off before he can interrupt, those eyes of moonstone glaring at her. “I’ll only use it if sh*t really hits the fan. When we’re in serious trouble.”

Carnage’s teeth show more of themselves in a smile. “I won’t let it get that bad.” He lets her approach and lets his head tilt as he looks down at her. “If you’re alone and in trouble, you should use it.”

“I knew that already, smart guy.”

“I won’t be drying his tears if you get killed.”

Cletus shakes his head. “Heartless.” He brushes his callused knuckles over her cheek, eyes full of love. “And the other thing. Go on.”

“No, I can’t. She will think I’m weak.”

Frances takes in his strength, the defined muscular structure of his body. “Only an idiot would think you’re weak.”

Carnage shakes his head. “Not a weakness of the body. Of the mind.”

“You know how weak my mind got over the years? Come on. I’m one of two people who are not judge you if you’re having a crisis.”

He scuffs the end of his long-clawed toes against the expensive carpet blanketing the floor. “I was rejected before Cletus. And now…I don’t want to be rejected after Cletus.”

It takes her longer than it should to realise what he means. “I got rejected too. I wasn’t what my mom wanted.” She sees a kind of understanding in the creature’s eyes and goes on. “So, she got rid of me. It was very hurtful. It made me feel so…so…”

“Defective.”

She nods, glad he thought of the word she struggled to find. And sad, because he clearly knows exactly how she felt, how she still feels. “And then Cletus shows up to rescue me with a beautiful red alien he met in prison.”

“But you don’t fear rejection?”

“No. And neither should you, ‘cause he doesn’t want you going anywhere and neither do I. I like you, Carnage.” It’s more for the looks than the personality, because she doesn’t know him yet. But she will. “I don’t know what you are, but I’m sure if you wanted to make Cletus abandon me, you could.”

“I could. But it isn’t an option.”

Frances reaches out her hand. This time, he lets her touch, independently of his control. She touches his jaw, the flesh deliciously cool under her fingertips. “Possession ain’t your thing.” It’s a statement, not a question, and he must understand because he doesn’t give any sort of reply. Just looks at her out of polychromatic eyes. “You’re perfect for us.” Her heart jolts at the sight of him. So dangerous, yet the way he cradled them in the vines of his mass, the white jewels of his eyes, those teeth… She bites her lip. She can’t help it. They’re just both overflowing with whatever it is that makes her motor run.

Cletus’ voice is teasing and low. “You like him too, don’t you, baby?”

Oh, dammit, baby. You know me so well. “That would be telling.”

“Then do tell.”

Frances’ mouth curves into a smile of sheer deviance. He also thinks the alien is hot. She knows he does. She’s also sure he knows she thinks the alien is hot. She doesn’t know what Carnage thinks, but she would love to find out. “I have a feeling you boys have been playing without me.”

“I would like to take the opportunity to tell you that Carnage was the playful one.” Cletus’ hand joins hers in caressing the alien, the skin as soft and beguiling as fresh rose petals. “Someone likes neck kisses.”

She didn’t know it was possible for a man-eating giant to look shy. “It’s a good thing you’re not a jealous man.”

“Oh, no, baby. I’m lucky you’re not a jealous woman. On the count of three?”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“What are you talking-” They stop him dead by kissing his neck. He stills and melts in the same second. She’s not so sure he’s getting the exact enjoyment a human would, but she can see him experiencing it, showing pleasure moments after Cletus does. They must share it. As long as we’re all having fun. She lightly pinches some of his flesh between her teeth, making him growl in a very tantalising way. When Cletus copies her, he grabs them both, claws digging in. There’s no anger in his voice, no real danger. He seems to know this is a little game before the big show. “You dare bite me with your pitiful teeth?”

Cletus whispers. “I told you, didn’t I, precious? Be careful what you wish for.”

“Are you forgetting how much more powerful I am than you both?”

“That can’t be right. See, you’re the pretty one in this relationship. That’s what we think, isn’t it, baby?”

Carnage’s voice lowers to a thrumming snarl and the next thing she and Cletus know, there’s tendrils curled around their wrists and legs like bracelets and anklets from fine, red leather. “We shall see.”

The air is forced from her lungs as fine, hair-like tendrils wind their way up her legs. Already, her body is crying out for release. “Oh, god.” She turns her face to Cletus, crashes her lips to his, biting and sucking on them in frantic need. “f*ck.”

The alien’s voice is smug, aware of the hold he has. “Still believe I’m just the pretty one?”

“Y-yes.” She cries out in sheer ecstasy as his extensions trail over her swollen lips, teasing over her cl*t. She is pulsing with lust and tries reaching for Cletus, the bulge of him showing through his pants. “I wanna…give him to me.”

“Say it.”

Cletus winks at her, the action unseen by their tormentor. “You’re the powerful one. We surrender! Give us to each other and you’ll feel somethin’ so good, you’ll be beggin’ for more!”

“This had better be good.” Carnage hurls them on the bed and looms over them, his hold still present, but loose now he’s been mollified. He watches as they tear each other’s clothes off, grab each other’s flesh, leaving love-bites on everywhere they can. When Cletus finally enters her – he feels like heaven after all these years – he grabs the alien by one of the tentacles from his back and pulls him down with them, the cool of his skin shocking against her hot skin as she wraps her legs around her lover’s waist. “Cletus?”

“Look at me. Listen.” His arms are clamped around her as he thrusts, deeper and deeper, eliciting her hissed noises of pleasure. His hands still grasp the alien, his eyes show those slivers of opal and moonlight. “You belong to me. I belong to you. We belong to her. She belongs to us. Got that?”

“Yes.”

Frances turns her head and kisses his jaw. “Carnage…Cletus…” All mine. Mine. Something travels between her legs and Cletus roars in agonised rapture. She can feel something wet, hot, slip down between her breasts and then…her vision blacks out with the force of her org*sm. Tears rush down her cheeks and she screams, nails digging in to Cletus’ shoulders, drawing his blood. He shudders and grows limp in her arms and she thuds against Carnage, breathless. He keeps them still and protected in his arms, those tentacles brush her tears, flick Cletus’ hair in a gentle way. How sweet.

“Marry me.”

She barely has the strength to open her eyes. “Baby?”

“Both of you. I can’t wait a moment longer.”

“We have vengeance to take first.”

“If we get revenge first, we can start off a marriage with a clean slate.” Frances points out. “But, yes. Of course I will marry you.” She finds Carnage’s face and cups it, stroking her thumb over the perfection that is him. Cletus, she kisses and wonders how she ever got this lucky.

Chapter 13: BLVTH, No Shame

Chapter Text

Jesus.

Whatever happened here had nothing to do with God or Jesus or even the devil. This was something even unholier than that. Monsters, if half the city and the remaining prisoners are to be believed.

Pat sees a tablet half-hanging from the wall, a dead white-haired woman slumped below it. The psychiatrist, whose name he forgets once he reads the name on the flickering screen.

Frances Barrison.

I’ve been lied to. They let me believe I killed her. Christ, with what she can do, with Kassady, with this monster… his left ear surges with agony he can barely mask. This isn’t the time to freak out, Pat. Keep your sh*t together, goddammit. “Put out an APB. Form a perimeter. Blockade state lines.” He gives the officer closest to him his full attention. Only one person really talked with Kassady, just one. Eddie knows more than he had Pat believing, and this crap ends now. Too many people are in danger. “And bring in Brock.”

Mrs Chen might not be Eddie, but she is at least a comforting presence. She wakes up early and holds them, though they have to be careful of her hip even though they’ve fixed its nerves which were being pinched by the bones. They stay like this, entwined in each other’s platonic adoration until she sighs and they know she has to get up to work.

“I will keep you company.”

“Thank you, Venom.” She dresses underneath her robe despite their offer to hide and not look. She scratches her head when she finishes and blinks when they bring her a cup of green tea, having looked through her brain cells to learn her morning routine. “I thought you said you’d never had tea before last night. And when did you make this?”

“I made it when we were relaxing and I looked in your head to see how to make it.”

“Did you do this for Eddie?”

“No. I made him coffee.”

“Every morning?”

“Yes.”

“That idiot didn’t know how good he had it.” She sips on it, closing her eyes. “Thank you. You made it perfectly. Have you had some too?”

“I tried. It’s not for me.” They made another cup of ginger tea. They don’t know what it is about the taste, but they can’t get enough. “This one is very addictive.”

“You can get ginger with chocolate coating. I think I might have some somewhere in the store.” She finds her apartment keys and locks the door behind them. Then she pauses, looking at them. “You know, he might come in here.”

“Then send him back out. Tell him you updated your store policy to no assholes allowed.”

“Let’s get you some chocolate.” She goes down the steps quickly before they can argue any further and sends them to delve in a box of 3 Musketeers’ bars. While they eat, they help her stock the shelves, something she not only notices, but appreciates. “Look at you, multitasking. You’re a huge help.”

They finish eating and cram the wrappers in a waste basket she holds out to them. “Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Appreciating me.”

She sighs and they feel pity through the connection. “It’s okay. Time for us to earn our keep.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll soon see, won’t you, precious?”

Annoyed with the non-answer, they look at their new fiancée. They didn’t sign up for her, but she has grown on them dramatically. “Do you know?”

“I won’t know until Cletus tells me.” Frances flicks his hair. “Stubborn baby.”

“Well, you’d sure know.”

She laughs, and cheers as Carnage makes Cletus’ foot press down on the gas. they cover his hands with their own mass, swerving the car from side to side. “Tell us where we’re going.”

“It’s a surprise! Carnage, I swear to god, you crash this car…”

There’s a wide part in the road and they make the car spin in a rapid circle, Frances making a shrieking noise barely an octave lower than her power. They seize upon it as she grabs their arm, checking that she didn’t hurt them. “I’m not hurt.”

“Yet.” Cletus bites out between gritted teeth, to their amusem*nt. “You do that again and I’ll leave a handprint on your ass.”

“Kinky.” They give Frances their undivided attention. “I have a pet name for you.”

“Yeah?” She smiles. “What’s that, baby?”

“Shriek.”

“Shriek?”

“Yes. For the power you take care not to harm me with.”

“That’s actually pretty sweet.” She kisses their jaw and threads her fingers through Cletus’ when he reaches out. “So…I have a question.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you guys want kids?”

Cletus doesn’t answer for a minute. Carnage wishes they could roll their eyes. “We can do better.”

“I know that. I just…I don’t know, never saw myself as being anyone’s daddy.” He drifts his gaze to Frances and to Carnage and the serotonin levels skyrocket. “But with you, I can be anything. Sure, baby. We can have kids.”

Her eyes roam over Carnage, soft in their curiosity. “What about you?”

“My kind reproduce, gestate and birth alone. I only have one parent, but…maybe our cells can join and create something new.” It doesn’t seem impossible, but nothing does seem to be impossible with the three of them.

“Maybe we can call last night a trial run.” Cletus turns his head to kiss Carnage’s shoulder. “Ask that network of yours.”

“Network?”

“Oh, it’s like a…hivemind. Carnage is far from the only one of his kind. You just happen to be the best one of your kind, don’t you, precious?”

They don’t answer. “I’m thinking, Cletus.”

“And they say miracles don’t happen.”

They take over his hands again, to his yells of protest. “It will be a miracle if you don’t crash this car, Cletus.” They warn him gleefully and they force him to drive like a maniac for the next two miles, which go by very quickly because they’ve taken over the gas pedal foot too.

“Disproportionate retribution.” Cletus mutters angrily once they’ve given back control. “Just you goddamn wait. Frances, baby, don’t laugh.”

“You were screaming louder than I can!”

“Oh, I’ll make you both scream later on, don’t you worry about that.” He wraps an arm around Frances, one arm on the wheel. When Carnage puts their head on his shoulder, he presses a score of kisses on their brow. “My two greatest loves, seeing as neither of you have the patience to wait for it, I will give you a hint. We are about to take a trip down memory lane.”

The words mean something to Frances. She shivers, her mouth thinning in an angry scowl. Is she cold? They pass the soft coat she chose to her, pressing it over her bare arms. “Keep warm, Shriek.” Warmth is important to humans. Cletus told them so when they asked why his skin had erupted with tiny bumps when he was getting changed in that alley. Goosebumps, he’d called them, which had raised more questions that it answered. But he had answered. And Shriek is their fiancée now, which means they must take care of her, like Cletus takes care of them both. Which brings them to a pressing issue. “I’m hungry.”

“Place closed down in 2009. We’ll find somewhere before we get there, precious.”

They’re very curious about where there is and what it is, but, as Cletus makes a sharp turn, pulling up outside an old-looking house, they find themselves not caring if only for a moment. They can see a plentiful food source right before their eyes. “We won’t be long, Shriek.”

“No eating kids.”

“Of course not.”

The ginger chocolate is hot in their mouth. They like it, but they prefer chocolate in a whole form. Still, nobody else wants it, so Mrs Chen lets them eat what they want from her supply. They hear more sirens screaming past and share theories with her about why there’s so many cops going around lately.

“More aliens?”

“Vampires?”

“Psh. Zombies?”

“It could be aliens. You’d be surprised by how many there are.”

She gently pats her chest where they snuggle around her heart. “You’ll be okay. I know you’ve been waiting for him to come.”

“I don’t care. I don’t need him.”

“I know you don’t, Venom.”

They know she knows they’re lying. “He said life was better before me.”

“That was very ungrateful of him.” She scratches their head with short fingernails and holds them when they press against her in search of comfort. “It’s going to be okay.”

He’s in an interrogation room. Twenty years after the first time he was ever in one, but this time, he hasn’t done anything.

Except chase away the only person who could have saved him from getting in this mess. He’s in deep sh*t, he just doesn’t know how. The door swings open, creaking shrilly and he doesn’t know if he should be relieved or not when Mulligan comes in, a file in his hand. “I’m no use to anybody here. You’re just wasting your time.”

Mulligan doesn’t buy it. “Well, you know what I keep thinking? I keep thinking what else is Eddie Brock not sharing about Cletus Kassady? Now, why was it Eddie that Cletus wanted as a witness to his execution? Huh?” he spreads the file open on the table, showing Eddie photographs he barely registers. “Bad things happen around you. Multiple dead bodies at your building last year, that bizarre outburst at the lobster restaurant…”

Thanks, Vee.

“And only you at the Life Foundation when that rocket exploded.” He thumps the table irritably with his index finger. “And now Clyde’s found Bonnie and there’s a dead psychiatrist at a facility I knew nothing about until today. And people are talking about seeing monsters!”

Monsters. His suspicion about Venom. Eddie feels a cold, trickling sensation sneak up his spine. “Monsters? What do you…what do you mean, monsters?”

“Monsters, Eddie! Wherever Cletus goes, so goes this supposed monster!”

Eddie can feel a headache conceived by horror and guilt building in his head. “Oh, god.”

Venom’s complaints of hunger. The lack of brains. the times he told Eddie he was starving. He told me so and I didn’t listen. God, Vee. You were pregnant. You were pregnant. Cletus biting into Eddie’s hand, licking something from the corner of his mouth. Venom’s softly spoken worry as they left the prison.

You couldn’t protect anything!

No wonder he got pissed. Oh, Venom. Why didn’t…why didn’t I just ask? You went through this by yourself. Now our baby’s…Oh, god. It’s alive, but at what cost? What’s it become? Our child…

“What’s the secret? How’s he making people see things?”

He’s not making people see anything. That monster is real. It might even be salvageable. I gotta get Venom back and save that kid. We gotta. “Alright. I can’t answer any more of your questions without making my phonecall.”

Mulligan isn’t happy, but he steps back, icy disdain clear in his eyes. “I’ll get your phonecall. But you know what secrets want, Eddie? They want out. that’s why they’re so hard to keep.”

Eddie is hardly listening. Four things are burned into his mind. Call Anne. Find Venom. Stop Cletus. Save the kid.

St Estes is no less bleak than it used to be. Graffiti is etched on the walls, the glass is smashed, letting in the cold night air and it’s clear people have been living in here. Their old roommates, not knowing where else to go? People trying to keep warm in winter? Cletus doesn’t know. He just knows this place makes his blood boil and his eyes sting. “Home, sweet home, baby.”

Frances’ grip on his hand tightens. “Where we began. So many happy memories. Being left here at the door…”

“Heads shaved any time there was a lice infestation…”

“Two-minute showers…”

“Bread thick with mold…”

“Bedroom doors locked every night…”

“Always a blind eye to the bullies…”

“Punished if you stood up for yourself…”

The list goes on. And on. Carnage’s arms envelop them, a protection from the hurt resultant from all the sh*t that happened here. When they finish reminding the dead building of all its wrongs, he thrums gently. “This place is irredeemable. What do you intend to do about it?”

“I think we should burn it to the ground.” Cletus holds up a lighter he found in the glovebox. “Baby?”

Frances’ lips twist in an agreeing smile. “This place is already dead. We should cremate it.”

“Too bad nobody from the old days is here to turn into ashes.” Cletus kicks a bunch of trash in the center of the room. It’s the old dining area, where the cooks would spit in the kids’ food and smirk as they either went hungry or ate the tainted offering. He drops the flaming lighter into the makeshift tinder and watches as the room lights up in an orange glow, breathing in the scent of smoke.

“It’s never been so warm here.” Frances holds her hands out, rubbing them together. She turns her head to the right, squinting in the now dark corners of the blazing room. “What’s wrong?”

“Fire. It’s deadly to my kind.”

“Then we’ll watch it light up from outside.” She grabs Cletus by his hand, takes Carnage by his and pulls them away. Behind them, something whooshes and Carnage retracts so fast that both Frances and Cletus wonder where he’s gone for a second. “Oh, I get it. We go out, you go in.”

Cletus snorts. “Oh, really? Nice and warm in there, is it, precious?” He shakes his head and walks on, the flickering orange casting their shadows. “I don’t know about you, baby, but it’s doing me a lot of good psychologically to know we beat St Estes. We won!”

“Eddie asked you to do this?”

You are a glutton for punishment, Anne.

It is weird how she was just thinking, offhandedly, how Eddie hadn’t contacted her in a while and then there’s a call from him, begging for help. The fact he needs help isn’t a surprise. It’s just the timing. Did he know she was thinking of him?

She glances at Dan, whose eyes are narrowed in both concentration and annoyance. He’s pissed, but didn’t hesitate to offer to drive her. She can understand his upset, they’re meant to be at a family get-together with his relatives to celebrate their engagement. Instead, they’re on their way to save her ex-fiancé from whatever stupid decision he’s decided to make. “I mean, he didn’t have anybody else that could help him? We’re going to be late for the party.”

“He’s in trouble, Dan.”

“Yeah, trouble is his thing.” He says it like he’s pissed at Eddie, but they both know had it been him Eddie had asked for, he would have also dropped everything. Dan just wishes the timing had been better which she can’t fault him for. She wishes the same. Dan focuses on the road for a second and then on her. “Are there going to be aliens again?”

“No.” Anne says, knowing there could well be. “Of course not.” Whether he knows it or not, Dan brings up a good point – what’s Venom’s involvement in Eddie’s current predicament?

Dan parks up outside the station and leans over to open her door. “I’ll be right here, sweetie.”

“Thanks.” She gets out and kisses him, nuzzling her nose against his. “And, I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. Do your thing and give him a tiny, little kick in the ass. But tell him it’s from you.”

“Oh, it’ll be a big kick in the ass, Dan.” She waves her fingers at him as she goes up the stairs. She barely gets in through the door when an officer comes up to him. “My name’s Anne Weying. I’m here for Eddie-”

“Yeah, I know who you are. Come with me, I’ll take you to him.”

Wow. Someone’s parents didn’t teach him to play nice. Cops and lawyers don’t always get on, it’s a fact of life. So she contrasts him with cold, clinical professionalism. “I’d like to speak to him alone.”

“Yeah, well, your duty of honesty supercedes your duty to the client if someone gets harmed.” He stops by a door, facing her. There’s an intense look she’s seen in the eyes of people searching for justice too many times. He’ll burn out or drive himself crazy. She guesses the latter. “They teach you that at posh school?”

Anne chooses not to dignify that with an answer. She goes in without bothering to wait for permission and concern wraps itself tightly around her chest. She knows things must be bad for him to be in here, but his eyes…she’s never seen him like this before. He’s so relieved she’s there that he falls over his words, showing gratitude she never saw before. Which is nice, but what circ*mstances to have it in. “Boy, that little guy’s a charmer, huh?” She sits opposite him, taking in the bags under his eyes, the nervous way he moves, the fear dilating his pupils. “How much do I need to worry about you right now?”

Chapter 14: Catch On Fire, Josh Tobias

Chapter Text

Ah, this is the life. Roaring fire, starlit skies, the laughter of your beautiful fiancée…Cletus steps with her as they dance across the soft lawn, lush grass so soft underfoot. “I promised we’d be free from here.”

Frances puts in words the rest of their adolescent dream. “And we’d walk to the cathedral on the hill.”

The idea of finally doing this, marrying his love after all these years…they skip down a slope of the grass to where their tree used to be. “Be my wife?”

Her hand hasn’t left his since they returned to St Estes. “My husbands, joined in holy acrimony.”

“I still want Eddie Brock.” Taste more of his flesh, use some of it to feed Carnage. Sweet mother of god, he tasted good.

Carnage doesn’t see the appeal. “Boring!”

“A wedding needs guests and I want him!”

Frances’ voice is warm, amused. “Trust me, you do not want to live with him when he’s like this.”

“Fine.” Carnage doesn’t argue against it, but he slowly extends as Cletus walks on. “Guests? Who else is coming? And why?”

“It’s a way for us to get our clean slate. Your father and Eddie are like us.”

Carnage roars, the sound anguished. Hurt burns with acidic ferocity through the connection. “Take that back!”

“Sorry, I worded it badly. What I mean is, they’re together. We get them. We get Frances’ cop and we spray their blood over the walls and pick out the good bits. We will start off married life with no enemies.”

“Hmm.” Carnage curves over Cletus’ shoulder, looking at them both. “I want to tell you something.”

“What’s that?”

“There is a way we can combine, all three of us. It could be the perfect offspring.” He looks at Frances. “If you don’t feel comfortable carrying young, I can.”

“It takes a long time for a human pregnancy. Nine months.”

“I took a long time, too. Five.” He trails a tendril over her face, brushing over her eye scars tenderly. “You have more seeds than I do. But if I took one, combined it with his sperm cells, I can meld one of my seeds to the fertilised seed.”

“Would it hurt?”

“Well…it has been known to happen by accident.”

Frances’ eyes widen. “Holy sh*t. You could be carrying right now.”

“Possibly. If I am, I can transfer it before it’s due to be born. It could live in you, for example, if it is more Symbiote than human. If it is more human, you could give birth to it. Your body will accept it as a normal pregnancy. I would only transfer it if I needed to.”

“Look at us three, havin’ babies before marriage.”

“What would our parents say?” Carnage flashes a smile that shines dangerously in the combined moon and firelight. The wedding has regained his attention. “A wedding.”

“Three guests.”

“One for each of us.”

“The cop that took my eye.”

“Eddie Brock.”

“And Venom.” Carnage never mentioned his father’s name before and Cletus doesn’t miss the tone. The Symbiote’s father was in for a hell of a time when they finally reunited. “A red wedding.”

A lot. That was how much Anne should be worried about him. She’s already done him a favor, so he doesn’t tell her that, just dives in to the explanation part. “I messed up.”

“Okay. How badly?”

“Anne, it couldn’t be worse and it’s all on me.”

Her huge, dark eyes soften and he knows he must look a mess. “Whatever you did, Eddie, you just need to tell the cops the truth.”

He shakes his head before the words leave her mouth. “No. No, no, I can’t tell them that they’re chasing a serial killer,” he leans forward, hand over his mouth, whispering as quietly as he can. “Who’s also got an alien inside of him. And he is capable of killing everybody.”

Anne whispers too. “Venom. Talk to me, what’s happening?”

He doesn’t need Venom to cry in front of Anne, it turns out. The mention of the Symbiote’s name has saltwater burning his eyes, a scratchy lump growing in his throat. The one person who took care of him unconditionally, even at his worst. Who conceived, kept the new baby secret because he must have felt so sure Eddie wouldn’t support them. The one he hurt. Venom. “No. He’s not…he’s not here.” His voice breaks. He’s not here.

“Is this like an I’m lying he’s not here or is this a real he’s not here?”

Eddie’s voice is more broken than he is. “He’s not here.”

“Jesus Christ, Eddie.” Anne looks like she has a million questions. “What…where could he be?”

“I don’t know. There’s Mrs Chen’s, but…god, I don’t know-”

“Think. Eddie, think.”

“I don’t know. All I know is that he can’t go long without eating food, right? So, he’s eating chicken and he eats chocolate and that’s it. And that is only if he is still observing the rules.”

Anne gives him a look of wounded pity. God, why didn’t he just tell her? She would’ve understood, she would’ve helped.

She’s here now. “We need to find him.”

She lets out a deep breath. “You mean I need to find him.”

“Yeah. You need to find him, please.” He thinks of the heart he broke, whatever passes for a heart with a Symbiote. “And then I…I will fix it.”

She moves, eyes full of resolve. “I’ll try.”

“Thank you.” The door closes behind her and he’s left alone. The emptiness in his head is encompassing, swallowing him whole and all he can think of is an alien who once grieved for its lost young. Not again, Vee. God, not again.

It’s just before closing time when the bell signals another customer. They register Mrs Chen’s resigned annoyance and look through her eyes. They can’t believe it. It’s Anne and the torturer she’s chosen to waste her life with. “Tell them to go away.”

“Mrs Chen?”

She doesn’t, ticking off the items on a long checklist but she does the next best thing. “Who’s asking?”

“It’s me.”

“Wait. You know Anne? How do you know-”

Mrs Chen stand up straight, folding her arms over her chest in a show of disapproving anger. “What do you want?”

“She’s a charmer.” Dan mutters. He’s clearly not brave enough to say it to her face.

“Okay, listen…”

“He’s a puss* and she broke Eddie’s heart. Tell them, Mrs Chen!”

“You broke Eddie’s heart.”

Anne shows no remorse. They don’t especially blame her after how he treated them. “Okay, I actually don’t have time to explain why that’s wildly off the mark. Do you know where Venom is?”

“You wanna break his heart too?”

“I’m not gonna get into who did what to who. Eddie said that he might be here because of the chocolate. I just need to speak with the alien.”

Dan stares at her. “What- hey, you said there weren’t going to be any aliens.”

“I meant more aliens.”

Behind the counter, the TV announces breaking news. Dan gestures to it. “Can you turn the volume up, please?”

They only allow it because he asked politely.

“Kassady and Barrison should be treated as armed and extremely dangerous-”

Kassady? He’s dead. Isn’t he?

Mrs Chen shuts off the TV, killing the image, turning back to the couple. They look worried, suddenly. “So?”

“Cletus has a Symbiote.”

They’re shocked into silence. There can only be one thing, one Symbiote in particular that kept him alive. My offspring. It’s alive. It’s alive!

“Oh my god!” Dan sounds fully exasperated, which would normally be funny, but all they can think of is their child, stuck with a murderer. “Any other information you’re pathologically lying about?”

Mrs Chen, unprompted, gives Dan a look of disdain. “puss*.”

They are delighted. “Very good, Mrs Chen.”

“Excuse me?”

Anne looks fiercely into Mrs Chen’s eyes. “Eddie needs Venom.”

“Venom doesn’t give a sh*t.”

“She just called me a puss*.”

Mrs Chen ignores everyone but Anne. “He said he didn’t need him. That life was better without him.”

“Okay. I don’t understand, what do you care…” Anne stops. “Oh, wait a second.” She peers into Mrs Chen’s eyes so closely, they can see the oak, amber and onyx fragments that make up the deepness of her eyes. She glares. Mrs Chen glares. “You get out here, right now.”

She sounds so serious that they show their eyes, for her, and their teeth for Dan.

He freaks out like the wimp he is. “Do you…do you see that? Seriously, do you see that?”

“Yeah, hon. I’ve seen it.”

They don’t give Anne a chance to defend Eddie. It hurts too much. They’ll let their offspring eat his head before they reclaim it and find a more suitable host. “Eddie’s going to have to fight this battle all by his little bitch self.”

“Oh, don’t be a big baby. Go help your friend!”

“He said I couldn’t get a job fixing toilets!” Eddie clearly didn’t tell Anne the full story, but what can they expect? It isn’t like he’s ever in the wrong.

She looks at them and it’s clear she understands why they’re angry. She knows they’re upset, so she tries appealing to their moral center, which they wish they didn’t have any more. “Cletus will come for him. He won’t survive without you.”

“Of course he won’t. Because I am the hero of the two of us.” Angry as they are…can they really let him die? Could they even let their young eat his head? They aren’t entirely sure. They aren’t sure of anything anymore.

“Yeah, you’re the big, sexy hero. You’re the coolest, you’re the bravest, you’re the hottest.”

This is unexpected. They look down at her as she bats her eyelashes. “I am?”

“You know, I’m still standing right here…”

“No one likes you, Dan!” They want to hear more nice things, so the look at Anne.

“I love seeing you in action.”

They preen. They can’t help it. They love being appreciated. They would have done anything for Eddie, had he only…”Hmm.” They’re being played. But it has made them feel a little better and they can’t use Mrs Chen forever. Perhaps it is time to join with Eddie once more. “Let’s go save that asshole.” They flow into her like water and envelop her. “Thank you for giving me a place to stay, Mrs Chen.”

“You’re welcome. If there’s a next time, take me crimefighting with you.”

“Sure thing.” They turn to Dan, towering over him, assuming a female form. He stares at them in awe. “See anything you like, loverboy?”

“Anne…Annie?”

“Venom, quit screwing with Dan and let me out.”

They do. Dan is wide-eyed in incredulous shock as they walk out together. “You said you felt amazing, but you never…you never told me you looked amazing.”

“I can’t take too much credit. Venom’s the one in charge of aesthetics.”

“Well, you…you do a good job, Venom.”

Anne laughs, the noise soft and mirthful. “Is She-Venom hotter than me?”

“It’s about the same.”

“Diplomacy is not your thing, is it, Dan?”

They would be annoyed at their bantering, but they’re too focused on Anne’s hormones. Those exquisite hormones that Eddie used to feel so constantly are present, flaring with every second she looks at Dan. She loves him. When she looks away to get in the car as Dan opens her door, the hormones die down, simmering, but dormant. Why aren’t those chemicals there when she’s parted? “Anne?”

“Come out. We’re in the car.”

They do, in their serpentine form. “Are you sure you’re in love?”

Dan rolls his eyes as he starts the car. “Wow.”

“Venom. Not this again, seriously...”

“No, no. I’m curious. I don’t have your chemicals. I don’t understand something.”

“What’s that?”

As the car pulls away from the kerb, they curl around her shoulders. She smells like rose petals and the light sprinkle of pollen fills their senses. “Eddie felt those chemicals all the time. The love chemicals you have whenever you see Dan, they dimmed when he left, even for a short time. They were still there, but not as intense. Eddie’s love chemicals never left.”

Dan and Anne share glances. She strokes over their neck, her hands so warm, so careful. “People tend to get surges of those chemicals when they see their loved ones. Just because Dan left for a couple seconds, it doesn’t mean I don’t love him anymore, but I am happier when he’s here. It’s the same for you, right?”

Dan nods his agreement as he checks the rearview mirror. “That’s right. If Eddie’s love chemicals didn’t drop in the entire time you’ve been together…it’s not Anne he’s in love with.”

“Then who?”

Anne pokes them lightly. “The one person he was never without.”

They bolt from her shoulders upright, smacking their head on the car roof. They hiss angrily at it for being so awkward and use a tendril to make Anne rub their head better. “It can’t be. He isn’t that stupid. He thought he was in love with you.”

“This is Eddie we’re talking about. You need to hold his hand through this kind of thing.”

“He doesn’t want me, Anne. If he wasn’t in trouble, I never would have seen him again.”

“What was the fight about, Venom?”

“How do you know there was a fight?”

“I used to date Eddie.”

That’s a more than reasonable answer. They think. How to explain it all? They consider and finally they pull away from her, wrapping arms around her that are far more slender than they’re used to. She holds them and they cling to her like a child, unwilling and unable to care about dignity. “The Symbiote Kassady has is my young.”

Chapter 15: Bastille, Quarter Past Midnight

Chapter Text

“Wow.”

“I know.”

Dan shakes his head. “You were between a rock and a hard place weren’t you?”

“I’m still in a hard place.”

“Hey!”

“Not you, Anne.”

Dan takes a left. “So, this…offspring, does it know what happened before it?”

“No. We are not born with our parent’s memories. We know of their feelings toward us and their experiences at the time of our gestation. That’s it.”

Anne rubs their back. They can feel the cold, gleaming band of her ring scrape softly against their mass. “Could it have felt your reason for rejecting it? The grief?”

“Hmm.” They’re not so sure. They can’t remember much about their parent during their own gestation, just the chilling acceptance and fleeting moments of hunting-fuelled rage, the hunger they caused as they grew. “Possibly. The thing is, it came at a bad time. There were problems. My host was rejecting me and the first young, it…it haunted me.”

“And you didn’t tell Eddie.”

“I couldn’t. How could I, when he was so clear on the ways I was ruining his life?” They sink partially back into Anne, wanting to see where they’re going. “I expect when we’re finished with Kassady, we’ll go our separate ways again.”

Anne, to their surprise, smirks. “I don’t think so. He was a mess.”

“He’s always a mess.”

“Venom, he cried.”

“No.”

“Yes.” Anne points at her head. “Look in there if you want, but I am telling you, he was in that police station, voice cracking like a twelve-year-old, because he knew he’d f*cked up. And you know what made him like that?”

“What?”

“Telling me that you weren’t there any more. He loves you, Venom. You know he does. I’m not telling you all this so you’ll forgive him, I’m telling you so you have all the facts.”

He must be very upset if he actually did cry. Perhaps Anne is right.

“Wait, babe. Stop here. We’ll go get Eddie.”

Dan stops the car in an empty alley by a large dark building. “Station’s like twenty blocks from here, honey.”

Anne smiles as they cover her. “Don’t worry.”

They finish her sentence for her, grinning sharply down at Dan. “We won’t be long.”

“Why are we here?”

“People dress up when they get married. Traditionally, the groom isn’t meant to see the bride in her dress before the ceremony.”

“Is he not?” Carnage peeks over the top of the dressing room, seeing a glimpse of black lace before something tugs on the tentacles on their back. They snarl. “Cletus!”

“It’s bad luck!”

“I’m technically not the groom because I don’t have a gender.”

“Do you go by male pronouns?”

“Yes.” They do, because Cletus is male, too. While they don’t share the characteristics of a human male, they like to be known as “he”, when Cletus talks about them. It just makes them feel closer to him.

“Then you’re the groom.”

"I don’t have to wear a dress too, do I?”

“You can, if you want, but you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable doing. Grooms usually wear suits. Something nice that they wouldn’t normally wear.”

Carnage looks around the empty store. No owners or security around meant no food, but that was fine. They would be eating later. They think the whole getting dressed up thing is ridiculous, but if it’s important to their loves, they’ll put up with it. “You could wear me.”

“Come on now, Carnage. We can’t do that without Frances on our wedding night-”

“I don’t mind. You two carry on.”

“You have such filthy little minds. I didn’t mean that.”

“Sure you didn’t.”

“I meant you could use my form.”

“Oh. To be honest, I’ve already fallen in love with this jacket.”

Carnage would sneer at it if they could. “Why don’t you marry the jacket instead?”

“Don’t be jealous. It’s not a good color on you.” He smiles as Carnage touches the skulls adorning his fingers. “You like jewelry, don’t you?”

“It’s shiny. I thought you said you wanted to get another ring for Shriek.”

“I do, but things got a little hectic. We’ll go ring shopping after we get married.” Cletus touches them smoothing rough hands over their flesh. “You’re lucky. You’re so beautiful, you don’t need to dress up.”

“I don’t?”

“No.” Both Shriek and Cletus tell them simultaneously, but they like the sincere look in Cletus’ eyes as he says it. “You can if you want, but I don’t know if there’s much point. Let’s face it, what we wear won’t be staying on for long.”

Shriek pulls back a soft red curtain and steps out. A bag is clutched under her arm and she snatches a box of black powder into it. “All done?”

“I think we’re good. Before we leave, are we clear on the plan?”

Shriek exchanges looks of amused exasperation with Carnage. “Yes.”

“Remind me.”

“Oh, god, Cletus. Fine. We go by Brock’s. I stop his Symbiote from coming out and you two find another car, so I don’t risk hurting Carnage on the way to the cathedral.”

“Alright, good. Carnage?”

“We look for Shriek’s cop. And then, finally, we get married and murder all who wronged us.”

“My cop’s name’s Mulligan. He’ll be deaf in one ear, look for a hearing aid.”

“Alright.” Cletus wraps an arm around Frances and interlinks his fingers with red tendrils Carnage offers. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Wait.”

Anne pauses outside the door. Being one with the alien was every part as exciting as before. The power was intense and exhilarating. How could Eddie not have wanted it? “What’s that?”

“When we go in, don’t tell him you found me. Let him sweat.”

“God, you’re pure evil.”

“You think it’s funny. I can tell.”

“Maybe we’re both evil.” She pretends to study something on her cell. “And then what?”

“Oh, I will come out and we will save that prick. I might have to cause some damage to the station, but I think you’ll enjoy it.”

“I like having superpowers. They’re fun.” She slips her cell in her pocket and peers in the glass door. “Hey, Venom?”

“Hmm?”

“If you find yourself struggling to find a host for your kid, I’m available.”

Anne comes in, wearing a serious expression, and entirely alone. Eddie looks in her eyes for unnatural white, looks for blackened veins, but there’s nothing. Venom’s not with her. “You didn’t…you didn’t find him?”

The left corner of her mouth lifts in a smirk he doesn’t understand until she starts growing. Black, silken lines envelop her and before he knows it, opaline eyes that he thought he would never see again are there. “Did you miss us, Eddie?”

“Vee…”

“Anne says we need to be quick.” Venom takes giant steps to where he’s standing and scoops him up, easily, like a knight carrying a princess. “Brace yourself.”

Eddie tucks his head into Venom’s shoulder as he bursts through the wall. Pieces of plasterboard and stone crash around them and there’s a jolt as they land on an opposite building. Venom wastes little time, leaping from one building to the next. Moonlight shines off his skin and Eddie feels something inside him fix. Things are okay, now Venom’s here. It was crazy to think they would be better.

Venom jumps down from a building whose bricks shine dully red in the pale glow of the moon, landing at the top of a flight of stairs, putting Eddie gently on his feet. He peels back to show Anne who says; “Go down there. Dan’s waiting.”

“Okay.” He feels unsteady, but there’s no time to waste. Dan’s not in the car, he’s waiting outside it, looking understandably nervous given everything that’s going on. Thank god Anne has someone normal in her life. “Hey, Dan.” There’s so much going on. Too much for him to really focus on. Right now, he needs to talk to Venom, learn more about the offspring he birthed. “Alright, let’s go.”

“I’m not talking to him!” They deserve a grovelling, desparate apology. Them and Anne.

Anne stops in her tracks. She doesn’t try to force them, instead she looks at Eddie. “Well, he doesn’t want to come out.”

Eddie looks in Anne’s eyes, but there’s no doubt that he’s talking to them. His voice is urgent, but there’s a tender look in his eyes. “What do you mean? We have to leave right now, ‘cause Cletus is gonna wipe the city out.”

“We are not doing sh*t until he apologises.”

Anne accepts their conditions in a manner they hope Eddie will. “So, he’s looking for an apology. Look, I know that amends aren’t really your thing…”

“An apology? As in, right now, an apology?”

Sometimes, things happen at bad times, Eddie. You would know that if you hadn’t been such a dick. “I need him…to beg.”

Anne doesn’t say that. She just shrugs, to Eddie’s growing chagrin. They’re not too upset. She’s on their side.

“Fine. I will be the bigger of us.”

Eddie is not making them want to forgive him. At all. Tiny, dumb human. “I will always be the bigger of us. But go on.”

“What do you say?” Eddie remembers that they aren't talking to him and redirects his question to Anne. “What is he saying?”

“He said he’s listening very sincerely.”

“Alright, listen to this.” Eddie gets their attention and then riles them up. “I am sorry.”

That sounds to them like he will be expecting an apology back. Not likely. “Not the right tone.”

Anne shakes her head to relay the message.

Eddie tries again. “I’m sorry.”

It sounds sarcastic to them now. “No!”

“I…I am sorry.”

They don’t even give that a reply. What kind of half-hearted…

“I’m sorry!”

Both Anne and Venom are startled. She gives Eddie a cold look. “I don’t know why you’re shouting at me.”

“Because…” And then something truly miraculous happens. They see the emotional barrier break, witness it in his eyes. “Okay, well, fine. I was…I was a loser before I met you.”

“Yep. That’s right.”

Eddie’s way out of his comfort zone, bouncing on his heels. He literally can’t keep still and they sad*stically enjoy the longing in his eyes. “And now I am someone. You made me…special.”

“Damn right!”

They’re happy enough, but Anne must really want them to get all they can out of this. “Why don’t you put a cherry on it?”

“A cherry? On that? Right, um...” It floods them with warmth how he doesn’t fight the request. “I am truly very sorry for everything I said-“

“Mmm.”

“-and everything I did not say-“

“Mmhm.”

“And for everything I did and for everything I did…I didn’t…I did not do.”

They consider. He wronged them, but he’s remorseful. They can make out red capillaries at the edges of his sclera, they can see the pleading in his eyes. He cried for me. And he has apologised so nicely. “Hmm.”

“Yeah, he’s thinking.”

“Mmm.”

Eddie starts fidgeting. “Come on, come on…”

He loves me. They can’t stand the look in his eyes anymore. “Okay!” They shift and flow from Anne, back into Eddie’s heart.

Anne is so warm in his arms. He’s pretty sure he can feel Dan’s alarm behind the wheel of his car, but the important thing, the only thing that matters is who is back among his billions of cells. Just like that, everything is right with the world.

“Kiss her!”

Goddammit, Vee. Although, she is hanging on pretty tight. “Are you…are you going to kiss me now…?”

“No! Oh, god, I am never doing that again...”

Ouch is all Eddie can think as she walks away. She sure made my kissing technique sound bad.

“God. Well, maybe never. Honestly, it’s really fun.” Anne slips in next to Dan, closing the door with a soft clunking noise. They look good together. They fit.

“If we save the day, can we call ourselves the Lethal Protector?”

You and that dumbass name. Eddie can’t refuse – he knows very well the reason why Venom likes the name so much and if they are to save the offspring, some lethal behavior is required. “God, that is so 80s.” He stoops by the open car window, looking in at Dan. “Dan, pack quickly, don’t stay. And if, for any reason…”

“Fire and sound.” Anne’s tone is matter-of-fact, but Eddie can read between her lines. She doesn’t want anything to happen to the young, but if it’s a matter of life and death…

“Fire and sound? What is that, a band?”

“No, it’s what kills them.”

Or harms. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” Dan takes his eyes from Anne, looking into Eddie’s eyes. There’s no fear, just calm resolve that nothing bad will happen. “Look, man, I got her.”

Thank god. Eddie puts his arm through the window, feeling Dan’s hand firmly grip his. He’s just about to say a quick thank you and run when his free hand slaps Dan’s cheek. Crap! And then it happens again, to his horrified shame. Why, Vee?

“Not sorry!”

Millions of years old and you still can’t act like a grownup. Eddie takes his hand back, the skin tingling. “God, I’m so sorry.” He doesn’t wait to be either forgiven or yelled at. He runs straight ahead, searching for the closest alleyway in this maze of streets he knows so well.

They had been hoping Anne would kiss Eddie so they could try to learn how to do it. They have done it, but that was once, very long ago.

Maybe YouTube might know how to do it.

Right now, their most pressing concern is Kassady. The young. Their hurt, rageful young. The one Eddie must know about as he takes them in a building up a flight of stairs that ascend them so high, they’re sure it must reach the heavens. They don’t dare bring it up until he finally reaches the highest point, looking out over the flickering jewels that are the city lights. He rests his hands on a pale wall that reaches his middle and is quiet and musing. “Venom.”

“Yes?”

“I meant everything I said, back there with Anne. I just…couldn’t tell you in front of her that of all things, I’m sorriest that you couldn’t tell me you were having another baby.” He turns his back to the city, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Come out. Please.”

They leave the confines of his flesh and copy his movement, connected by a thin piece of their own mass. They don’t know what to say. Or do. Of a sudden, they feel so small, so vulnerable that the secret they’ve tended for five months is laid out, that Eddie knows they had a baby. “Are you angry with me?”

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut, shaking his head. “No, darling. No. I’m angry with myself. I’ve been killing you, Vee, and hurt your trust in me so bad, you couldn’t tell me you were pregnant again.”

“I’m not innocent, Eddie.” They’re too ashamed to look at him, a child of a rejective father. He will likely hate them for this. “I rejected it.”

“Was it because of the miscarriage?”

“It was just too soon for me. A year is a long time in a human lifespan. In a Symbiote’s lifespan, it is less than a blink of an eye.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me. It was too much for you to have another offspring and that’s okay.”

“But it doesn’t know that. All it knew was it wasn’t wanted. We Symbiotes hate rejection. We take it very personally. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that our young despises me for rejecting it. But I never, I didn’t mean for it to bond with Kassady.” They pace, unable to go far, due to the connection. “When you and I parted, I bodyhopped back to San Quentin. I heard people talking about a death certificate and an announcement of Kassady’s death. I thought he was dead and my young incinerated.”

“Oh, god.” Eddie says quietly. “Jesus, Vee.”

“I’m relieved it survived. I’m not a monster, I never wanted it dead, but…why did it have to be him? Corrupting my child…” The thought agitates them, that it could be just the same as the other millions – hungry for blood and with no regard for alternate life forms. A bad guy. “I don’t want to kill it!”

Eddie grabs their arm and pulls them to him, wrapping them tightly. He’s tiny, so much smaller than they are, but he feels all-encompassing and so, so safe. “Shh. Listen to me, okay. I was an idiot before and wasn’t there for you, but I’m here now. Whatever it takes, we will get it away from Kassady. I promise.”

All they can even think to do is hold onto their host. He’s never broken a promise, but how can he keep this one? “I’ve already lost one baby.”

“I know.” Eddie’s arms tighten. “You are not going to lose another.”

“We need to find them.”

“They’ll find us. We gotta be really careful, buddy. Police will be searching for us and if either one of us gets seen, it’s going to add to our problems.”

“What’s one more?” Venom mutters. Eddie is right – the young is hunting them and Kassady is hunting Eddie. And there was another… “Who is Frances Barrison?”

“Um…Mulligan said she was Cletus’ girlfriend a long time ago. Why?”

“She’s with Kassady. I heard it from Mrs Chen’s television.”

“Huh. Mulligan said she was dead. I guess it is kinda romantic that he busted his girlfriend out.”

“I busted you out.” Venom reminds him.

“That was romantic, too.” Eddie lets them go, but his hand wraps around theirs. “Does, uh, does the hivemind show you where they might be?”

Venom shakes their head. “The hivemind shows me many things. The whereabouts of this offspring isn’t one of them.” They look at the glittering lights of the city, knowing very well that the young could be anywhere, but they can’t sense another of their kind and they just don’t know where Kassady could be with their offspring. “I don’t know if I can just wait for them to turn up.”

“They will find us. I know waiting sucks, but we will be found. We’re better off staying in one place. It’ll be easier for them.” He frees his hand, stretching out his fingers. “You guys can be seriously determined when you want something.”

They look down the building, the dizzying, sheer height of it. Eddie hates heights, but this must be one of the tallest structures in San Fransisco. He’s trying to keep us safe. “I couldn’t stop it from being born. It just went. I didn’t even know it was possible for young to transfer themselves from a wound into a new host. I couldn’t love it, but I was responsible for it. I failed to protect it, Eddie.”

“You’re trying to protect it now, buddy.” Eddie tentatively joins them, huddling close to them, one arm round their waist. They can pick out the city lights, sparkling in his eyes. “You’re not alone anymore.”

They drape one of their arms over his shoulders. The intoxicating flow of his love chemicals is lulling. He loves them. And they know they love him. Perhaps they have done for a long time and it took the pain of parting for them to realise. They keep their eyes on him, taking in his face that they know so well. They could watch him forever. Their one gloriously imperfect host. “No,” they say. “We’re not.”

Chapter 16: Sevyn Streeter & Lavish, Forever

Chapter Text

“Okay, precious.” Cletus opens the car door, all business now Shriek’s left them. “Time for us to go on a hunt.”

“Finally. I’m so hungry, I could eat you.”

“Well, you know I don’t have a problem with that.”

Carnage slows their pace. “Look out, Cletus.” They warn. “There’s a car heading for us.”

Cletus looks up from the road, stopping of his own accord as bright headlights shine into his eyes. Carnage fixes the minimal damage caused and they both watch as an officer bursts out of the car, a gun in hand. “Deaf cop.”

“My starting course.”

“Kassady, place your hands on your head.”

Cletus pauses, just long enough for Carnage to know his sense of theatrics is coming out to play. He holds his hands out and very seriously asks “Which, um…hands?”

They cover his hands with their red mass. To their fury, he shoots at Cletus, but when he’s protected, safe inside them, the cop keeps going. They find that funny. I am unkillable, stupid little human. They grin as he finally comes to his senses. Yes, this is the one.

“What the…”

“We found you.” They interrupt, encircling a tendril around his wrist. “Shriek will be so pleased.”

Brock’s apartment is different to what she was expecting. Frances thought journalists were meant to be rich. Oh, well. She doesn’t think he’s even home, which is just so damn inconsiderate, after all the jailbreaking and murder that brought her to his door, but she takes the time to look through the place. It’s weird, it’s not a big place, but so much nicer than the glass box she was stuffed in. It’s…homely.

She flicks disinterestedly through some papers on his desk and opens one of its drawers, curious to see if he has any treasures. Then she sees it. A little black box, like Cletus always promised her. She takes it out, holding the velveteen softness of it in her palm. Inside is a solitaire ring, a glimmering diamond set in silver. It’s so classic, so perfect. Before she knows it, it’s on her own finger, every one of its fractals glinting in the light. It’s not hers, but she can borrow it, right? It is her wedding night. “Now, whose finger were you meant for?” A frame catches her eye and she pulls out a photograph from the drawer. A blonde woman stands on a short flight of stone stairs, holding an ugly fluffy cat in her arms. The ring shines on her finger. Gold pen is scribbled on the glass.

Love Anne
xxx

“Ah.” So this was the fiancée. She could be pretty useful in locating Brock. “A nice, shiny lure for a little fishy.”

“Baby, I love the way your mind works.”

“I love the fact my cop’s in the trunk.”

Cletus lets Carnage take the wheel so he can look at the new piece of jewelry she’s acquired. “It suits you. Just hold on a sec for me, we really should write out an invitation for Brock.”

“You care far too much about propriety.”

“I’m a traditionalist.”

“Do three people traditionally get married to each other?”

“Thank you, Shriek.”

“Both of you are bad, bad, bad influences on each other. Now, both of you be quiet or I’m not putting out tonight.” Thankfully, they listen. He loves them to insanity, but it’s hitting him just how much he’s got his work cut out for him, what with a snarky, temperamental alien and a superpowered, equally vengeful woman. He finds a pen and a serviette and thinks out the invitation. Eddie’s not the only one good with words. He gets an idea suddenly and stabs the pen into his skin. I’ll write this out in my own blood.

“Do you have to do that?”

“Without my blood, there wouldn’t even be a wedding, ‘cause you wouldn’t be here, precious. I’m trying to make a statement.”

“Can I write it with you?”

“Yeah, sure. If you can drive at the same time.”

“Try me.”

EddIE

You are cordially invited to the

WEDDING

CLeTUS Frances
KASADY BaRrisoN

Tonight MidNight

The GRAce CaThedRAL

He wanted to add Carnage’s name, but red had looped his wrist. “Don’t you want your name on here?”

“I will not hear my name from my fathers’ mouths. Only from yours.”

Cletus smiles at them in the mirror, pulling up by a kerb. He leans over and kisses Shriek, at once lightly and fiercely. “Knock ‘em dead, baby. See you at our wedding.”

It’s easy, overpowering the man outside of Anne’s place. Would have been easier if he hadn’t fought. He didn’t seem much like a fighter from behind, but who does? Frances bounds up the stairs, marvelling at the soft carpeting underfoot, trailing her fingers over clean, creamy walls. She notices a small travel bag, passports neatly placed on top of the expensive brown leather. “Oh, you want to go away someplace? Oops. Sorry to mess with your plans.” Blindness has given her better hearing and the sound of soft footsteps deep in the apartment makes her silent. I found my lure.

Out of a room comes a woman. Frances slips beside a bookcase and, as she approaches, steps out. Up close, she is so pretty. Such stunning, glossy eyes, like the dark citrine in Mommy’s biggest ring. How that had left a mark. “Hello, Anne.” She finds it funny how Anne looked tall in her photo. In person, she’s tiny. Stairs really do a lot to make people look big. “I just incapacitated your boyfriend.” She steps closer, towering over her, looking into coolly defiant brown eyes. Wow. You’re made of tough stuff. But there’s a look. A neverending flash of sickened fear that makes her eyes shine. Crap. Give the woman some hope, Shriek. Don’t be like those people. “He’ll be okay. With an answer about where Eddie Brock is.”

Anne laughs. Like it’s a joke between two friends. “Well, I’m sure as sh*t not gonna tell you that.”

Well, there goes any chance of doing things peacefully. This is why taking you was Plan A. Frances takes a last look at Anne, at her chilled demeanour, the fierceness in her eyes. So much tougher than the men she liked. “It’s a shame to hurt you.” Raising her chin, she brings it against the blonde’s forehead, making her crumple to the floor. A trick from St Estes. Crouching, she feels for a pulse on Anne’s wrist, relieved to find one. “I know it’s not fair. But that’s life.” She pulls Anne’s arms over her shoulders and lifts her on her back. Nice and easy. And then she spots another ring, sparkling on her finger. “I hope you’re not going on some crazy wedding diet.” She takes the stairs slower this time, no hopping, no energy and opens the trunk of the ’66. It’s not got a great deal of space and she makes sure Anne isn’t twisted in an uncomfortable position before binding her wrists together. She’s just finished, when those night-colored eyes snap open.

“You think Cletus won’t kill you one day?”

“I know he won’t. You and the rest of the world, you don’t know the real him.”

“He’s a murderer, Frances. Why do you want somebody like that?”

Frances bends closer to her, whispering into her ear. “He accepts me as I am. I accept him. We both accept our Symbiote and our Symbiote accepts us. It’s called love, Anne. Does pretty-boy not accept you?”

“Oh, god. You’re dating a baby.”

“Oh, trust me, he is not a baby. He knows how to please a woman better than…”

“Stop! Oh, god. Venom’s gonna lose his sh*t. That Symbiote is like three days old.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Frances rolls her eyes as Anne grimaces in outright disgust. “Don’t be judgy. Now, we gotta go. The three of us are getting married tonight. Our relationship got an upgrade. It won’t take long, but I gotta close the trunk. Don’t freak out.” She smiles serenely as she slams the trunk down, silencing Anne’s protests. “I’m sure Eddie will come.” She crosses the street to the car she’s trapped Anne’s new flame in and opens the trunk, looking down at him. He’s sweating and terrified, but he glares at her and she’s impressed. Not so weak after all. She leans in, holding out Cletus’ invitation. “Tell Brock Cletus will make a swap. Her head for his.”

He doesn’t touch it as she hurls it on him. He gives it a look of disdain and focuses his attention on her. “He’s going to kill you both.”

Frances isn’t impressed any more. It’s a boring threat she’s heard repeatedly through her life. And she has a wedding to get to. “Peeps have tried that already. Botched it.” She walks back to the ’66, gently thumping the bonnet. “Time to go, Annie.”

“Vee, I know it’s stressful, but making me pace isn’t helping.”

“Why hasn’t he come yet? Perhaps we should make ourselves more obvious-“

“No, Venom. Look at that police presence out there. They’re looking for him.”

Venom’s frustration threatens to boil over. Symbiotes can be good at hiding when they choose to be. If their offspring hasn’t been found, that’s because they’ve chosen not to be found. “They can’t find him!”

Eddie’s voice is saccharinely patient. “They are hunting us too, buddy.”

They hear his phone ring and feel an urge to throw it off the building as he answers. They had told him to silence it. He hasn’t, clearly, yet he still worries over them being seen when the ringing is so loud it can be heard over the sirens. They try focusing, thinking through the many lives in many different universes. The trouble is, there are too many universes with too many possibilities. In one universe, they don’t have any offspring. In all others, their different versions have variable numbers of young. They come in different times, they happen with different hosts. Their problem is, they don’t know which young this one is. Or if the fact this is their first living child means anything. Or if Kassady even matters, because in differing universes, he does bond with one of their offspring and sometimes it’s a normal one, like them and other times, it’s…it’s red. The names differ. The strengths. The stories. The places Kassady and his Symbiotes from other universes like to go. How Venom’s own variants have relationships with their offspring. They see a lot. Many tragic, pitiful tales. And none of them even remotely help with this one. Of course it doesn’t. Those are different universes. You’re in this one. The hivemind cannot help you find this young.

“They took her where?” Eddie’s voice filters through to them and they don’t really understand as he says. “We’re on our way.” The tension has seeped from his muscles, independently of them and he slips his cell into his pocket. “Alright, it looks like we are going to a wedding.”

“Oh!” They’ve never been to a wedding before. They always look so fun on TV – people laugh, cry, and announce their secret relationship with the bride or groom when asked for reasons why the couple shouldn’t get married. And there’s cake. “Will there be canapés?”

“You bet your ass.”

Chapter 17: Jesse Winchester, Just So Much

Chapter Text

He’s loved Anne since the moment he saw her. The more he got to know her, the deeper he fell in love. Cliché, even to his own romantic heart, but that was the truth. But here’s the thing about the romantics in fairy tales – they will absolutely f*ck up anyone who dares even threaten the person they love.

Dan jiggles the red can, hearing the gasoline splash around. Will it be enough? It gives him pause, that he’s planning on potentially murdering an alien which is only three days old. What kind of monster considers killing an infant? They don’t age like us, Dan. And, hey, you never know. It might even listen to reason.

But, just in case, he picks up a lighter and drives in the direction of the old cathedral.

“This is just a normal wedding.”

The priest, wide-eyed, looks from Cletus to Carnage. “But…but there’s three. I don’t…there’s no…”

“Then Cletus and I can count as one.”

“Are you sure, precious?”

“No, I just thought I would suggest it. You know how much I love the sound of my own voice.”

“Ooh, sassy tonight, aren’t we?” Cletus sucks air in between his teeth. He looks back at the priest. “You heard Groomzilla here. Just relax, Father.”

The priest sits down on one of the pews. He’s under every obligation to carry out the ceremony, unless he wants to lose his head. Cletus is fairly sure he’s starting to wonder if God is worth it.

“I am not a groomzilla. That is you. You made us stop for rose petals and candles.”

“It looks pretty, Carnage. You know. Romantic.” He locks their fingers together, looking into the world’s loveliest eyes. “We’re one, huh?”

“You are one of my halves. And I am one of yours.”

It fills him with heady lust to hear those words. “God. I could f*ck you right here.”

Carnage grins, the one that drives Cletus from crazy to outright insane. “We have to get married.”

“Oh, sex before marriage is way overrated.” Cletus plants a kiss on those teeth. They part and he feels the satiny mass of Carnage’s mouth drop slightly, making it feel like he’s kissing a pair of human lips. “Fine,” he whispers. “We’ll wait, precious.”

“Special delivery!”

Cletus turns to Frances. She’s dragging a smaller, flaxen-haired woman alongside her. “Good job, baby!”

“Make sure she’s somewhere comfortable. It got cramped in the ’66.” Frances points at her wrist. “Time’s tickin’. I gotta get dressed.”

“Almost midnight, precious.” Cletus kisses on Carnage’s jaw. “You okay with her? I mean, you can be gentle.”

“I suppose.” Carnage looks around the cathedral. “The box is padded.”

It’s a coffin, which isn’t ideal, but there’s not a lot Cletus can do about it. At least it will be comfy. “Don’t put the lid on, she’ll suffocate.” Cletus watches Carnage approach her. Anne. Her name’s Anne. Not what he pictured Brock with. She looks like she has her sh*t together.

She just looks up at Carnage with both curiosity and sadness in her eyes. “He didn’t hate you.”

“Who?”

“Venom.”

Cletus has to physically stop Carnage from snapping her in two. He grabs his arms, prying him from her with difficulty, while his wounded Symbiote screeches in fury. “Stop! Shh!” He grabs his face, pushing it into his shoulder, somewhat muffling the noises. “Shh. Come on, precious, you know she doesn’t understand.”

“I don’t care. I will eat her head!”

“Her head means losing his. I think we can agree our shared gift is the one that wronged us most. Just be patient-”

“No.”

“For me?”

“You’re far too manipulative for my own good.” Carnage extracts himself from Cletus’ arms and stares down, into the blonde’s eyes. “He rejected me. He must have hated me.”

Cletus nudges him in the direction of the pews. “Go sit down and take a deep breath.”

“I don’t breathe.”

Cletus would dearly love to roll his eyes, but Carnage’s mood is shaky enough. “Go relax, precious.” He keeps a hand on the woman’s back, between her shoulderblades, moving her on. “His daddy’s a sore spot for him.”

“I noticed. But-”

“Don’t bring him up again.” Cletus warns. “I might not be able to save you a second time.”

Frances steps down the aisle. Tiny candles light her way, golden petals unfurling soft waves of sweet-smelling smoke. Red rose petals are scattered on the stone floor, filling the air with heaven-sent fragrance. It’s perfect. My dream wedding. Her grooms stand ahead, eyes on her. My dreams. She can only see one, but that’s okay because the other one is definitely here. He’s checking on their gifts. The black veil does nothing to hide the water shining in Cletus’ eyes as she draws closer and he holds out his hand for her to take. Finally, it’s here. The wedding they swore they’d have. For a moment, they look in the other’s eyes, lost in their own world. And then he reaches out, lifting her veil over her head.

“That distant cathedral is all I see,” his voice is so soft, so loving, she could die. “Fractured angel, the other part of me.”

Two halves, baby. She feels the satin of Carnage tracing between her fingers and holds onto his touch before he carefully extracts it. Two halves.

“So, how do you separate a Symbiote from their host?”

Venom waits for the vibrant beam of the helicopter overhead to take its shine away before sprinting over the next several buildings. The cathedral is finally in sight. Soon, they will see their young for themselves and destroy the host it got stuck with. “We can be torn from hosts in our full form. Or we eject ourselves in times of great danger. Fire. Sound.” They land heavily, the cathedral’s imposing height directly ahead. “This will hurt it.”

“What about after?”

This is when they pause. “I can contain it. Riot contained us, do you remember?”

“I try not to.”

For a human, tight conditions aren’t favorable. From a Symbiote’s point of view, they are adjustable, if not ideal for long periods of time. “It will be stronger than I am.”

“You’ve got me. Strong host, remember?”

They could smile. Strong host. True, yes, very true. They can only hope it hasn’t been corrupted by Kassady, that his evil hasn’t destroyed their young. Most of all, they hope nothing has happened to Anne, because they really don’t know what they’ll do if she’s been killed. They sprint out, running the stone pathway to the cathedral and jump at the door, breaking it open. They roar out a question, for Anne, for their offspring. “Where is she?!”

Chapter 18: Back To You, Bebe Rexha, Louis Tomlinson

Chapter Text

They burst out of Cletus, bubbling from each of his cells. They look at their parent, feel the hurt blister into rage. “There you are. Death to you, Father.”

The priest, who Carnage had forgotten about, devolves into panic. They’re fairly sure he thinks they’re a type of demon, which is mildly offensive, but so far he’s been nothing but helpful.

They make a hasty effort to calm him down, taking their eyes from their father. “Not you, Father.” It hits them that there’s a chance that their parent may also have thought they meant the priest, so they turn back, pointing at him. “You, Father.”

Venom hadn’t been able to believe what they were seeing. They still can’t. Sure enough, another Symbiote, sure enough, their own eyes staring back at them. But he is red. A vivid blood-red, with all that comes with it. Their variants across universes mostly all have a red offspring. Just one, but that one is enough. Carnage. But you were always the firstborn in the other universes. That’s why it’s such a shock to them that their second offspring is their Carnage. He’s not meant to be second.

But, they have learned in the past few hours, Carnage and Kassady always somehow find each other. I should have searched for him. They look at their offspring’s leering snarl and their resolve to fight if needed vanishes. A red Symbiote is unkillable. They don’t stand a chance. “Oh, sh*t!”

Eddie is both surprised and confused as they vanish back into him. “Uh…where are you going? What are you doing?”

“This is much worse than I thought!” Venom explains as Carnage elicits a cascading shriek of warning. “That is a red one!” And how they ever managed to produce one is beyond them. They are in awe of him, how can they not be? He’s far more powerful than most other Symbiotes, and definitely more powerful than them. “Wow!”

“A red one?” Eddie repeats as if the color has somehow escaped his notice. He’s not half as nervous as he should be, opposed by such a force.

They don’t have the time to explain. “We should leave! Immediately! Annie will get over it.” They watch as their offspring sinks back into his host. Strange. Joining with a host is meant to be seamless, like with Eddie. It must be something the red ones do. “We never liked her anyway! So, let’s go.”

“Now?”

Oh, right. They need to show some manners, they suppose. This is a wedding. ”Congratulations to the happy couple.” They use Eddie’s arm to point to the church door, which hangs open, letting in a cold breeze. “We are leaving.”

Coward. Inside their host, Carnage hisses ragefully. “Make him come out, Cletus. I want him dead.”

Cletus calls out to their parent’s host. “Eddie! Yoohoo!”

Eddie looks in their direction. He’s not what they expected. They expected someone bigger, more forceful, that he starved their father and kept him trapped. He does, however, look like the owner of the heartbeat that soothed Carnage when they were still adhered to their parent’s cells. They had loved that sound once, but he almost got Cletus killed. He must die, too. “I’ll be right with you, alright?”

You had better be. I’m so hungry, I might just take a bite out of that priest. I don’t think we need him anymore.

“Okay, you need to come out right now.” Eddie’s voice cuts through their thoughts. “Because I am feeling super, super vulnerable right here.”

Shriek whispers to Cletus. “Brock’s just like you?”

“Not for long.” Cletus strokes over their snaking tendril, a polite request to not eat the priest just yet. “Eddie, over here!”

It’s not in their nature to flee from a fight, but this is insane. They know they have no chance and they suspect Eddie must know that too. He just won’t run. His faith in them must be very high. It doesn’t stop his voice from wavering in terror as he repeatedly commands/begs them to show themselves. “You need to come out here, right now. I will let you eat everybody! You can eat ‘em all!”

That gets their attention. They are incredibly hungry. They were thinking about snatching the priest and taking a quick bite, reasoning that a man of God would be happy to help a starving alien. But now Eddie’s freely offering them their pick of everyone in the room. It’s a very tempting proposition.

Of course there is a catch. Eddie points at the quivering priest. “Apart from him! In the robe. You cannot eat him.”

That leaves two people to eat. They’re happy with that. “Promise!”

“I promise!”

Venom envelops over their host, eyes on their offspring. This is going to be fun.

Carnage feels something before they take full control. A shift. They don’t know how else to explain it to themselves, but something has changed. Something twitches and they realise. There is life in me.

But they have to kill their parent before they can become one themselves.

They howl a promise of agony and watch as their parent charges to them. I accept it, this little toxin. It is mine and it will be incredible. They stance themselves and, when their father gets to striking distance, lunge forward. Noise fills every one of their senses and both they and their parent keen in distress. Shriek. You promised you wouldn’t do this! They lash out, knocking her to the floor, which they regret, but if she’s harmed the young…

Cletus pulls out of them, hands outstretched. “Baby!”

“Shut your mouth.” Carnage warns Frances as she starts picking herself up. They will announce the upcoming birth, as soon as their parent is dead, but this simply isn’t the time. They don’t want their father to know there will be another generation soon.

“Marriage trouble? Already?”

Carnage can only scream in their parent’s direction. They will murder Venom. Eat his host. Perhaps they will even make their parent watch his host die.

Venom glares into Carnage’s eyes. They know Kassady is in there somewhere. “Time to die!”

“That’s the spirit!”

They can understand his confusion. “I mean us! We are going to die!” They use the pews as both barriers and jumping spots, narrowly missing deadly projectiles thrown their way by their young. They make it to the first three pews when Carnage uses a scythe from his own mass to destroy them, leaving Venom with no other choice but to leap on some scaffolding clinging to the other side of the cathedral. For a second, they look at each other, Carnage growling softly, and Venom wishes so much more than they have before that they had refused to allow Eddie to go to that f*cking interview. I will free you from that monster. They spring from the poles, noticing their offspring copy their movements and are unable to help colliding with him. Their fist goes through Carnage’s mass – a feat they wish they could do – and they both slam into the floor.

Carnage uses his weaponised fist to strike them and they hit back, an action that has them thrown back, landing on their feet. Carnage uses relentlessly strong tendrils to push them back and they kick upward, their foot catching the red Symbiote’s chest, making him lose balance and fall with a winded gasp. They grab the winding tentacles from the offspring’s back, flinging him into a stone pillar that splinters with the force. If they can just weaken the young, they can separate him from Kassady. And with luck, they might be able to avoid being murdered.

Carnage runs back toward them and they grab the other Symbiote’s neck, hurling them back on the floor. Stones crack, but neither pay much attention. Venom remembers seeing something from the sports channel and throws themselves high in the air, landing on their stunned young before they can escape, their elbow stabbing into Carnage’s red flesh. They abandon the attack, standing away, eyes narrowed. When Venom’s own parent had taught them to fight (though it had been more like an outright attack than a genuine teaching moment), they had thought it would be a good idea to pretend to be dead. Their parent had very passionately disagreed. Now, they look at their own young, thinking that perhaps, their parent had been right to be so pissed. Get up, you little sh*t. I know you’re faking.

Carnage flails suddenly, all limbs and tendrils. Venom grabs him as he approaches, but there’s a slicing pain that their healing cells struggle to fix as a sharp red blade pierces them. As they adjust to this, they are hurled back, slamming into a pillar. Red knives bore into them and they can only yell out as their body tries – and fails – to mend the damage. They make eye contact with their incoming young and drily whisper. “Carnage.”

Their name stops them dead. “Who told you?”

Their parent doesn’t answer. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Then why did you?” They spot Shriek crawling away from the corner of their eye and send a tendril after her. She’s gone to the cop. That’s fine. As long as she doesn’t scream. “What did I do to make you hate me, Father?” they look into their parent’s face and notice the eyes. They share those eyes. Heaviness fills them and they turn, dragging Shriek away from her cop. She fights and threatens to use her power again, intaking air, so they dump her on the carpeted flooring. “You, kill him, but keep your mouth shut.”

“Our wife knows what she’s doing.”

She looks at them, simmering lividity in her eyes. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

She might be their wife, but she’s a threat to the young the three of them share. “Just turn it down.” Because I won’t hesitate to kill anyone who threatens this piece of us. You. Cletus. Myself. A movement catches their eye and they all look as the cop slips up metal stairs, moving at some speed. “Stop him.”

“My cop!”

Falling rock alerts Carnage to the presence of their parent. He’s escaped his bonds, so Carnage turns back to Venom, shooting out more tendrils, bonding him to another pillar.

“Honeymoon over?”

They recognise that Venom is talking to Cletus. Anger fills them. They need to finish this thing that birthed them, but he is damnably tough. They find the priest, bringing him around as he struggles and begs. “Power up.” His head crunches delightfully between their rows of teeth and they savor the warmth of his blood running down their throat. Very tasty. They will have to eat more priests. They use the new energy boost to strengthen themselves, towering over their helpless parent and stab him again. “You talk to me of failing relationships, Father, but what of yours? Your host starved you and you allowed it!”

Venom looks at them, really at them. “He didn’t know he was killing me.”

“And then you gestated a child you hated enough to reject.” Carnage sees the way their parent looks away. Shame? Or is it fear? “Nothing else to say, Father?”

“I do not hate you. I have never hated you-”

“Liar.” They show all their teeth in a show, promising violence. “I asked you, why. What was it that made me so defective in your eyes?”

“It wasn’t you. It wasn’t anything you did or were. How could it have been? You were innocent.”

“Not anymore.”

“I didn’t mean to leave you. Carnage, being unable to accept you never meant I wouldn’t have taken care of you. I would have protected you. I would have tried to accept you.”

Cletus’ voice purrs inside them. “Don’t listen to him. Did he come back for you? Does he love you? Nope. It’s lies, precious.”

Everything their host is saying is the truth. They weren’t wanted and that’s the simple, cold truth. And protection? They could laugh. “I am protected. Cletus takes care of me. He loves me.” They leer, their fangs on display. “He won’t risk my life, like your host did to you.”

“Eddie didn’t know.”

Cletus huffs. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me? Inconsiderate is what that man is.”

“And what of when he learned about me? Was he as reviled as you?”

Quietly, their father repeats himself. “Eddie didn’t know.”

It takes Carnage a fleeting moment to realise that their other parent hadn’t even known of their upcoming existence. “You pretended I didn’t exist.”

“Carnage-”

Bitterness expands within them. They imagine their anger feeding their young, giving it strength. “I did not deserve to be born to you. You deserve to die by me!”

Red covers their vision and they feel every tiny hooked barb in their offspring’s tendrils as they entwine with another over Venom’s maw. He’s trying to suffocate me. Does he not realise I don’t need to breathe? They bite at the attacking ropes, pulling away from the pillar he has them pinned to. They kick, sending him flying and a bright firefall cascades, landing on their anguished offspring.

A voice calls out overhead. “Fire and sound! Except without the sound.”

Dan? You’re in such danger. Don’t I have enough to do without looking after you too? Carnage’s screams go through them. For a moment, their cells flare and they remember. The same thing that gave them their first is threatening to cost their second. No.

Fire hurts far worse than they imagined. It paralyses them, leaving them temporarily powerless to do anything other than screech and try their hardest to resist the urge to abandon Cletus. My young. Something is trying to kill my young!

“Carnage! Save yourself!”

They want nothing less. They can’t abandon him, reject his love. They hear Shriek calling for them above their head and scream out to her. Fire. Sound. Nothing is safe in this world, unless they make it so. I will make it so. The flaming torrent ends and they find it takes no time at all to heal, although their cells feel charred. They care little for their minor issues and scan above for their attacker who drops one of his weapons and flees. Run all you want. I will find you. They lunge from the heated slabs and use their tendrils to aid their ascent, winding one around their attacker’s neck. Found you. He looks so tasty. Wide, fearful eyes, nice large forehead…

“Quit drooling and eat the second part of your wedding breakfast.”

The attacker wasn’t on the menu, but they suppose they can make some room for his grey matter. They open their jaw, stretching it as widely as it can go, anticipating the first, succulent taste…and then something loops around their throat, snatching them away from their meal. Damn you, Father. Why couldn’t you just let me eat in peace? I am your son. Your very hungry son. They flail, accidentally freeing their victim and think of all the horrible ways they will murder their parent. They will…they will set him on fire. Yes. And they will eat his host’s head. And then set the host’s body on fire. Or, maybe they can…

Something evil rips through the air, vibrating through their multiple, intricate fibres. They can feel every cell that makes them tremble and create the friction that causes heat, resultant from sounds. But this time it isn’t Shriek.

It’s this f*cking cathedral.

Midnight is here.

Church bells being able to harm Symbiotes is a new one on Eddie. Venom holds off retreating for as long as he can, but as soon as Eddie’s cleared to land, he vanishes. Carnage is gone, too. Just Eddie and Cletus, metres apart while their prospective Symbiotes try to recover as fast as they can. For them. You are not that different to your dad. He cares about his host, too.

“Mano e mano, Brock.”

Eddie vaguely remembers that from La Tele de Arana. And then Cletus kicks him in the head. Pain blooms in every pain receptor he has and he can feel Venom in there, trying to fix both Eddie and himself. His pain vanishes and reappears as Cletus grabs a handful of his hair, pulling his head back so far, he’s sure it’s going to be torn from his shoulders before he decides to just punch him instead. You remember what I told you, huh?

Cletus pulls him up, grappling with his jacket while Eddie tries his damnedest to avoid being strangled. “You know how I spent my endless days?”

For a second, Eddie feels something soft, silken, under his touch. Carnage feels exactly how a Symbiote should. Like water turned to fabric turned to flesh. But he feels even softer than that. And the eyes, the black splashed in the center of his face… I should’ve been there. I will be there. Venom covers him, the rougher feel blanketing Eddie’s senses. The two fight, Carnage smashing Venom into the wall behind them, puffing dust in the air, seizing his parent and hurling him into opposite scaffolding, just as that f*cking bell causes Venom’s form to retract.

“I spent them thinking about how you only told one side of the story.” Even from here, Cletus’ eyes look manic. He’s furious. More than that, he’s hurt.

But Eddie Brock the journalist wasn’t told about the abuse in full detail. Eddie Brock the beaten kid was. I couldn’t write it, Cletus. I don’t want people knowing that about me.

Dumb as it is, there’s still a part of him that still fears pissing off his dad.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

There’s terror in his eyes. Not the one she pushed in to the back of its socket. That one’s dying. Maybe already dead. Too bad, she’d planned on offering Carnage his choice of whatever he pleased from the sh*tbag who’d blinded her. “Barrison…”

“Shut up!” She kicks him square in his ribcage, hearing something crack. “What was my crime? Can you tell me that, Officer? What was it that a seventeen year old kid did that was so bad, she had to spend the best years of her life locked away?”

“Do you want an answer?”

“Oh.” She smiles at his question. “You seemed like such a shy, sweet kid back then. Look at you now, huh? Look at us.”

“I didn’t shoot you for fun. That what you want to hear?” He can’t get up, staying on his knees. “You tried to kill me. Any last words, remember?”

“So, you think you’re the victim here?” She shrugs her braids over a shoulder and steps closer. “You took my eye.”

“You took my ear.”

“You’d better shut the hell up before I take your other one. And answer my question.”

“Okay. You disabled people. You were getting strong enough to kill. Certain people were getting scared by how powerful you were.”

Bad people. Anyone who thought they could molest the younger kids, anyone who harmed her or Cletus. The ones who deserved the pain. “Go on.”

“I think you could’ve learned to control it. But kids in that kind of place…you got dealt a sh*tty hand. Nobody bothered to find you any kind of help. They just labelled you as dangerous and wanted you safe before you turned eighteen.”

“I was not safe.” Tears leak from the corners of her eyes and she deftly wipes them before he can see. “I was never safe.” She composes herself, looking at him through the rain, thunder softly roaring in the sky. “You took away my chance to be safe. I just wanted to be free.”

“I didn’t know. I was an eighteen-year-old newbie. They just told me to mind my own damn business when I asked about you. I didn’t know I was helping to screw you over.”

“No, cop. You screwed yourself over. You ever hear that thing about how if you lose one sense, another compensates for it? My hearing got a lot better after you took my eye. And, for some reason, my power grew more than even the doctors thought possible. I can shatter the world. But instead…I’d prefer to just kill the man who shattered mine.” She smiles, breathing in through her mouth just to freak him out. “I’ll give you a headstart. When I count to three, I’m coming to find you.”

The wind howls in her ears and her honed senses pick up on the bell clanging and the sound of her husband screeching. Soon, baby. We can start our family soon.

The polished stone smashes into shards beneath Cletus and Eddie. Inside their host, Carnage tries to shake off the tingle of their cells revolting against the bell. If it dares ring again, I’ll destroy that thing, destroy this place…who even likes cathedrals anyway? Too loud.

Cletus steps over to Eddie, snatching up a plastic sheet. “You didn’t write about the part where Cletus was abused by Mommy, Daddy and Granny!” He wraps the sheet over Eddie’s airways and Carnage has a moment of weakness where they think about how rapidly his once-gentle heart must be beating now. But Cletus is what matters most.

“Yes,” they urge. “Kill him. He made you look evil. He deserves it-”

That’s the moment their parent bursts through and Eddie’s life is saved.

Fortunately, they can assist now and they take over, grappling with their parent until he grabs the back of their neck and flings them on the broken floor like they weigh nothing. They find that very offensive. How dare he not struggle? They see the bell threaten to ring again and grab the long piece of metal with an elongated tendril. That’s better. Now we can murder each other peacefully. To their annoyance, Venom seizes it, bringing it against their throat. Sneaky. Very sneaky, Father. They push back and that’s when Venom truly impresses them for the first time in either of their lives. He grabs one of their tendrils and elongates his legs, so quickly, they only know what’s happening when they’re spinning in a circle. It would be a lot more fun if their father wasn’t also crashing them into the stone pillars surrounding them. Suddenly, his grip is gone and they fly through the air, none the worse for their experience. In fact, they rather hope it will happen again. They attach scarlet vines to the inside of the cathedral, slowing and securing their path and weaponise every limb they can. They see the black mass of their parent charge and screech as they hurtle toward them. He jumps, ready to intercept. Oh, Father. You can’t win. They collide together and Carnage uses every weapon in their arsenal, slicing, stabbing and slamming their father. They hear him cry out and watch him crash into the pews. That will slow you down for a while.

“Carnage. Precious, mind if your husband finishes his little talk with your mama?”

“Of course not.” They land gently, more for him than for them and rest inside him as he kicks apart a broken pew to get to Eddie.

Cletus shows them their other parent, water sheening on his forehead. He looks so pale. “You didn’t tell the world how he was a scared little boy that no one cared about and no one came to save!”

Carnage is slightly distracted by some weapons on the floor. One looks like the blades they can make and the other has a square head on a short handle. “Cletus, what are those things for?”

Cletus notices them. He picks up the square thing and presses his heel against Eddie’s chest, swinging it against his thigh. Carnage is entranced by his reaction to the screams elicited from their parent’s host. “That’s bad journalism!” He bellows as if that’s the only thing that’s upset him. Carnage knows better, though.

And, as the head makes vicious contact with Eddie’s legs again, they can’t truthfully say they love hearing the screams from this human.

“Found you.”

Frances has enjoyed watching her cop crawl, but it’s her wedding night, she has babies to make, mindblowing sex to have and a man to kill. She wraps chains around his neck. Here. I made you a beautiful silver necklace. Wear it with pride! She looks into his dying eyes and feels her joy soar. “Oh, happy days.” She pulls herself up and kicks him, sending him from the precipice, where he lands on his back and…nothing. He’s dead. Well, I may not have shot the sheriff, but I did defenestrate a cop. She stays still, watching him as he turns pale After all, the dead don’t always stay dead.

She is proof of that.

Cletus is thinking of the hostage. He’s thinking of Eddie, who he’s turned his back to, safe in the knowledge that Carnage will defend and protect them if needed. He’s thinking of his hurt. Carnage thinks they know what he wants. “You want her dead?”

“He nearly cost us Frances.”

That is true. “If you’re sure. Can I eat the hostage?”

“You can eat whoever you want, precious.”

“Precious?”

Cletus turns to glare at Eddie. The bones are fixed, no longer poking through his jeans. “How do you not fall in love with someone who loves you the way these things love? All he’s done for me…he is precious.”

“He’s a baby. Cletus, he’s three days old.”

“Did he look like a baby to you when he was kicking your ass? Symbiotes are not like us, Eddie. You should know.”

“Carnage. A lot happened before you were born, alright? But that doesn’t mean Venom didn’t worry over what would happen when you came or that we wanted you to be stuck with this psychopath-”

“Psychopath?” Offence rises in Carnage’s host. “You think I’m crazy, Eddie?”

“A lot of evidence points that way, if I’m being honest.”

Cletus strolls back to him. He crouches, giving Carnage a view of coaxing, teal eyes. “I’m not a crazy man. But I am a vengeful one.”

They cover him as he stands, looming over Eddie. “You’re going to watch her die.”

Chapter 19: Lykke Li, I Never Learn

Chapter Text

“Anne!”

Before Eddie can so much as whisper her name, slabs of rock fall as the Symbiote takes her higher up, breaking apart the cathedral as he goes. He can’t move as they land, flattening his lungs and crushing his bones for only moments, but Venom’s there, taking the weight he can’t. Together, they can only watch as she’s taken further and further away.

You can eat whoever you want, precious.

Bastard. f*cking bastard. The only reason he even has Carnage is…is…because of me. I might’ve well as pulled Carnage from Venom and handed him to Kassady. He thinks of the alien who is protecting him from certain death while frantically watching their only child about to do something terrible. Vee, I’m sorry.

“Do something!” Dan pleads. He starts looking for something to shift the rubble while Venom struggles.

The Symbiote is weak. Eddie can feel it. Carnage had said he was dying. God, not now. Eddie doesn’t want life without him ever again. He would rather die with him now. “Eddie, I’m afraid we cannot beat them.”

She can hear the cathedral splintering as her husbands approach. She steps closer, standing only two feet from a sheer drop to certain death. But they won’t let anything happen to her. She can hear muffled screaming and that’s when she sees her. That cute, little blonde, ensnared in Carnage’s bloodlike tendrils. Anne isn’t meant to be harmed. They have Eddie, they have Venom. This isn’t fair. “Baby.” Carnage comes closer to her at her beckoning, bringing with him the woman. Something isn’t right with him. He’s been weird since they got married. He’s looking at her like she’s not safe to be around anymore. “That’s too much.”

Carnage’s eyes narrow and she hears his low rumbling growl. He won’t listen to her, but his tendrils wrap around her like lines of silk.

She tries Cletus. “You’ve got to stop him.” The words are barely out when his tendrils tighten, squeezing her so she can’t breathe. Another crushes her lips so she tastes blood and she struggles. She meets his eyes and wordlessly asks a single question. Why?

“What are you doing?”

She will kill them. Carnage can’t risk anything else happening to the young. There’s been fire, there’s been sound…they can’t risk more danger. They’re starting to panic. I would expect you to kill me if I endangered this young, Shriek. Forgive me.

This is already taking a toll on them. They snarl. “I’ll shut her up for good.”

She starts screaming behind the tendril they hold over her mouth. Despite the barrier, it’s shrill and painful, a reminder why they must do this. They still don’t like doing it.

“No! Stop! You’re hurting her!”

It’s not just Cletus’ growing distress that makes him almost escape them in his desperation to get to her. They might not love her in the exact same way, but she is one of their halves. But they picture her destroying the young made by the three of them and they simply can’t allow it.

Better to lose a half than a third.

That’s my baby.

I failed him.

That’s my friend.

I failed her.

“Get up!” Eddie keeps trying to encourage them, but they feel so weak, so undeserving of a host.

“I can’t.” They just keep looking up, waiting for the evil they caused to come into bloom. Blood will spill. It will be their fault. Theirs alone.

“Look! Look!”

What do you think I’ve been doing, Eddie? Venom focuses their eyes on what lies ahead. Kassady keeps lunging out of Carnage. Hmm. That’s definitely not normal. Unless…

“They’re not symbiotic.”

Far above, Carnage shoves Kassady back into his mass and lets Barrison drop. You are my secondborn in this universe. You found Kassady, but he isn’t the fit he normally is, is he? It starts making sense. The gory transformation. The way Kassady is able to partially leave.

“They’re not a match.”

“We are.”

“That’s right, we are.”

Those words make pushing the slabs easier. They have a perfect match. In this universe, like all others, Eddie is their other half. With him, they are the strongest they can be. “Together, we are the Lethal Protector!”

“You killed her. Our wife, Carnage!”

“I didn’t have a choice, Cletus.”

“She loved us and you murdered her!”

“I’m carrying!” they hiss it, low enough for their hostage to remain unaware. “Do you want our baby to die?”

“She would never have hurt it.”

“She couldn’t control that voice. One scream, just one…is that a risk worth taking?” They glide up the intricate stonework, feeling the cold rain splash against their skin like tears. “We can’t be like the first generation who scorned us. We must be better.”

“Carnage-”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t do it to hurt you. I did it for our offspring.” They slow as lightning flashes in the sky. Will it hurt like fire? “You’re my halves. I know you’re angry about Shriek and I understand why. Have I lost you, too?”

“No. Precious, no. Just…give me time.”

I am losing him. Their killing of Shriek has lost them more than they intended. They tighten their grasp on the hostage and see a spot, high above the gaping hole in the cathedral. My parents will lose her.

They feel frail. Usually, they can leap up buildings like this one, even with the rain making things difficult, but now they rely heavily on the sharpened pole they carry with them. They meant to use it as a weapon, not a climbing aid. They keep retreating to the shadowed areas between towers, trying to avoid helicopters that whir overhead. They know there will likely be guns on the air vessels and one stray bullet will be lethal for Anne.

They cannot risk that.

They see Carnage first, his eyes fixed on Anne, who struggles violently as the red Symbiote unhinges his jaw, showing rows of pearl-bright fangs. Oh, no you don’t, my son. They leap from their vantage point, the silver shard held out. He must sense their impending arrival, because he looks up. The pole impales him, bloodlessly between his eyes and he screeches, arching back. He won’t die from it and they doubt it even hurt, but it’s a very good distraction. They burst from him, catching Anne in their arms before she can crash through the yellow glass that makes up the cathedral clock face. Something slices their leg, vicious enough that their healing cells can’t mend it like they usually would. Carnage. He thuds against them, a forceful boulder, and they fly forward, curling themselves to protect Anne as the clock face draws nearer. As the glass shatters, they land on a small ledge, the impact knocking Anne from their hold. They grab out, expecting to reach thin air, but they feel the small bones of her fingers trapped in their palm and for a moment, all their strength is used on holding her.

It will only be us soon. Cletus, me and our young. We will have more. We will own this planet. There will never be another danger to our family. Just our bloodline, our hosts. Just us.

The lightning blinds them and they declare their intent to the skies. “Let there be carnage!”

He will be back soon. They look into Anne’s terrified eyes, concern for them filtering through and feel water swell in their own eyes. I might die today, but you won’t. Goodbye, Anne. They elongate their arm, the fingers turning to one great tendril as it lowers her gently to the candlelit oval below. They see Dan running over and as Carnage’s blades run through them repeatedly, they don’t move until she is safe. Take care of Dan, too. They can only crawl now. Their motivation, their strength is at an all-time low and their enraged offspring knows no relent. They see Barrison, lying on the floor motionless and one of Carnage’s blades impales them through their chest. Then another, on the other side and they can feel their lifeforce seep out of them as he guides them up. Stop. Please stop. He does, dropping them to their knees where they take in air, trying to revive their healing cells. They hear Barrison gasp drily and sense Carnage coming closer.

“Father, one of us must die.”

Removing him from Kassady isn’t an option. He’s too strong, too resilient. They lower their head, accepting of their fate in a way they’d wanted to be for their son.

“We need fire.” They can hear the struggle in his voice. He dies, they die. They die, he dies.

The thought of him dying gives them a burst of energy. He’s their home, their biggest source of strength, their peace and their motivation. He loves them. And they have always loved him, but never knew it until Anne had helped them put two and two together. They will not lose everything. In fact, they will lose nothing. “Or sound.”

Monster. She stands on the creaking stones, teeth baring, though she knows they’re pitiful in comparison to his. This is love to you? She will scream so loudly every living world will hear her rage.

Singlehandedly, she can and will kill the thing she made the mistake of marrying. It will be just her and Cletus. And if she is pregnant, then they will raise it together, to be unlike the monster that dared try to kill her.

You scorn me? You f*cking scorn me?

She breathes in, lungs expanding. You hate being rejected? You’re really not gonna like this, baby. She’s just about to expel the pressure when something whips against her sternum and she flies back. It was a tendril, but it wasn’t red.

It was black.

She has very little time to process this as she frantically reaches out for anything to stop her descent. Her powers are limited to her voice, she knows if she falls, it will kill her. She feels the rough, coarse strings of a rope and clings to it, breathing heavily, looking into the bronze cavern that makes up the inside of the church bell. Something nudges it and she realises the sharp edge of the bell is cutting the ancient fibres and she can only watch her own impending death in horror. No. No. Cletus. Carnage!

Nothing saves her. The rope snaps and she is weightless, floating in the darkness for the most fleeting of moments before gravity yanks her down. Well. If I’m gonna die, I’ll take you and your daddy with me.

Her scream burns their cells. They have every urge of leaving their host, but to do so will leave him very vulnerable to a drop they’re not sure he will survive. So they resist, their mass writhing in his cells which makes him hurt, which hurts them more. It’s a vicious cycle that only ends when something small, but slate-blue jumps out of their mass and they feel newly empty. Their young. “No!” Motivated by the need to find their infant, they leave their host, intending to quickly absorb it, somehow, and then return to Cletus. He falls and they, unused to this inelegant form, cannot reach their young and see it approach Shriek’s dead cop as they descend. No. It’s impossible to survive in a corpse. You’ll die! Come back!

But it doesn’t. The last they see of their young is it nuzzling the cop’s broken ear, like it intends to fix its mother’s damage.

Venom floods back into him, a protective shield. For all the crashing he does into already broken pews, Eddie doesn’t feel a thing. If Symbiotes were common on Earth, there would probably be an extreme sport based on what they’ve just done – namely falling a billion feet, hoping the Symbiote won’t be too slow to catch you.

If he didn’t hate heights so much, he would likely do it again just for fun.

“My hero.”

“Heroes are overrated.”

“My anti-hero.”

“That’s more like it.”

Eddie sees slowly-moving red, creeping over the rubble to Cletus who holds out a shaking hand. “I see our kid.”

“I do, too. If we do this, there’s no going back.”

“He’s a part of you, Vee. No going back.”

Venom walks slowly, but it’s clear there’s no escape for the young. “This will not be pretty.”

They stop him by pressing a foot on his mass. He makes noises that are typical of Symbiote young, a high-pitched squealing-hissing sound, the fibrous material that makes him up is stringing itself out in all directions. It must look very much like they’re about to kill him.

They stoop to pick him up, and he’s soft, so soft. Harmless to them in this form. They are reluctant for what comes next, but they can’t risk him fighting his way out of this fate, because he will. In all universes, including this one, Carnage will always fight back. In all universes, they despise one another. But in this one, we don’t have to. They have never hated him. He has every right to his anger, but maybe in time, they can reach an understanding. They look at him, their child, and bite down. Hard. They can hear him, his noises of distress and are sorry to cause it, but they know what he is capable of. He will destroy this entire world unless he is either soothed or killed. I won’t kill my own young. I am not my parent.

Carnage has ceased his struggles, but they can feel his fibres move over their face, some even clinging to their hand in an effort to avoid being sucked down their throat. It looks like he’s being eaten. They’re sure Kassady thinks so. There are two ways of absorbing a Symbiote. One is to envelop them when they’re bonded to a host, gaining food and a new power source in one. The other way is this – remove the Symbiote and swallow it. Inside them, he will be safe and so will everybody else. They will have to consider things in the long-term, but for now, it’s the best solution. They feel Kassady’s eyes on them and pin him with an icy stare. You corrupted my young.

Father. Don’t hurt him. I made him do it. It was me. Kill me.

Kassady lays his head back, eyes shut. He’s a dying man. They will have to be quick. To Carnage, they whisper. “I’m not doing this to hurt you. I’m sorry.” They slow down his alertness, placing him in the closest thing to sleep a Symbiote can have. A first host is special. Carnage doesn’t need to see this. They look at Kassady’s dazed face and show their fangs in a deadly smile. “He did not taste good.” They stalk over to him, relishing in his defeat. They may be down a head, but at least it’s Kassady’s. They grasp his neck, more than ready to eat him when they feel Eddie’s hesitation.

“Wait. I want to see if he has anything to say. Give a man his last words.” Venom peels back. Eddie can see teeth in his peripheral vision, but his focus is on Cletus. He looks at him, waiting patiently, looking into deadened eyes.

“I’m a killer with or without the monster, Eddie.” Rain tracks down his face, so pale. His eyes are searching. Did he really love Carnage? Or is it the loss of Barrison? “You know what I really wanted?”

“No. What was it, Cletus?”

“I told you, but you weren’t listening.”

“Well, I’m listening now.”

For a moment, they’re kids again. Only this time, the broken, sad one with sorrowful eyes is Cletus and the intensely listening, cold one is Eddie. “I wanted your friendship.”

We were friends. But you grew up to enjoy hurting people and I didn’t. Some chasms you just can’t cross. “I’m sorry, Cletus.”

“f*ck this guy!” They crunch his head between their fangs, feeling his teeth mingle with their own. It’s like eating a million slabs of high-quality, dark chocolate. Such perfection from such a twisted brain. They don’t have long to savor it, as lights shine into the ruined cathedral, illuminating them in all their glory. Oops.

All secrets must come out, they suppose.

“Get back in here! We gotta leave!”

They obey, more than happy to rest. Carnage’s unknowing mass is docile amongst their own. They won’t keep him like this forever. Controlling others isn’t something they like doing, unless it is either necessary or amusing. Unfortunately, it’s necessary for now. When it is safe, they will let him be free. Anything else would be cruel.

Eddie takes them to an exit, where they meet with Anne and Dan, the five of them sprinting into the torrent of water cascading from the heavens. Already, they know that this is where they will split. Perhaps forever.

Anne turns back, her eyes on Eddie’s. “You in there, get him out of here. They’re gonna come for you both.”

No. They’ll come for the alien. And for Carnage.

“I know.” Eddie sounds resigned, but with resolve. “Hey, Anne. Take care.”

She almost smiles. “Yeah. You too, champ.”

Venom comes out, snaking from Eddie’s shoulder. “Dan!”

The doctor, who is surprisingly helpful despite his torture machines, turns back. He didn’t back down from helping Anne, not even when Carnage was at his worst. He’s good. With him, she’s in the best hands.

“You take care too.”

“Thanks.”

“I like you.”

Dan doesn’t say anything. He takes one last look at them both and runs with Anne, disappearing as Eddie turns.

Now they’re gone, Venom talks more freely to Eddie. “We totally didn’t need him, though. Honestly, I think he was more of a hindrance than a help.”

“Oh, Vee.”

“What?!”

Red tendrils. Black tendrils. Huge, pearlescent eyes. Jaws filled with fangs The rage of a powerful woman unjustly treated. Serial killers. Pat opens his eyes. The world looks so different. Everything seems so bright, so vivid.

So blue.

His eyes might be damaged, but he knows what he saw.

“Monsters.”

The rain has stopped and the scent of wet grass lingers in the air. They sit on the bench where Venom had asked Eddie to raise the first baby with him. Now they sit with their second, the kid they didn’t mean to screw up, but did. We will fix this, Vee. Swear to god.

Eddie’s eyes keep locking on the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Their relationship wasn’t so dissimilar to his and Venom’s. Fought like hell, but did better together than apart. Maybe Venom might like the story. “I ever tell you about these guys?”

“Hmm? No. Who are they?”

“That there is Don Quixote and the guy next to him is, uh, Sancho Panza. They’re two very different people who have very different takes on the world. Different ways of doing things. Sometimes they didn’t like each other a whole lot, but ultimately…they worked together to bring out the best in each other.” He wonders if Venom gets it, if he understands his tongue-tied attempt of confessing something he’s only just realised. Venom is the best of him. Without him, he is nothing.

“Eddie, the time has come. I must go alone. It is me they want.”

If you think I’m letting you out in the world with our extremely vulnerable child to get caught and dissected, you can think again. “Yeah. Well, my dear Sancho, facts are the enemy of truth.”

“What does that even mean?”

He’s doing this on purpose, Eddie thinks. Just so he can have a little ego boost. “It means…it means that we are Ven-”

“Fugitives!” Venom loudly declares.

Maybe he wasn’t looking for vindication after all. “Um, yeah. Yeah.”

“On the run!”

Why the hell did I ever let you watch Bonnie and Clyde? “That too.”

Her fingers bleed as she reaches through the tiny gap under the bell. How it didn’t kill her, how it didn’t sever her head or slice off her feet…how she’s able to move after falling so far…she remembers hearing stories about how babies in the womb send stem cells out if their moms suffer a heart attack.

Hell of a way to learn that I’m pregnant.

The baby must be part Carnage. But it’s also her. Maybe even Cletus. The thought of him gives her the strength to lift the bell enough to slide under it, her muscles screaming. Even this recedes and she cups her belly, still flat under her touch. “Thank you, sweetie.” Then she notices the scent of blood, thick in the air. It turns her stomach, makes her last meal want to come up. And then she sees a headless body, blood congealing around the gaping neck, wearing her husband’s clothes. Her knees touch the floor and she hugs around her middle, hot water streaking down her face in burning lines. “CLETUS!”

Chapter 20: Avicii, Waiting For Love

Chapter Text

Going on the run was a lot easier than Eddie thought it’d be. At the very least, no police or guys in black suits and sunglasses turned up asking questions. The sketchy cab drivers didn’t ask why he wore a cap or why he had so much cash crammed into his pockets. They just accepted their pay and left him alone.

So, yeah. It could’ve been a lot harder getting here.

“What is this place?”

Eddie looks around the motel. It’s not much, but it’s in a good location. Close to the beach, close to an area of jungle they can get lost in if things go south. Not the first place the cops will look. They’ll look in his past, go to Anne, ask his old friends. They’ll probably find his dad. “Mexico.”

“Why are we here?”

“We’re on vacation.”

“I thought we were on the run.”

“We’re multitasking.” He opens the motel room door and steps out, looking at their new home. It’s a poor town, but it’s beautiful and the people look happy. He lowers his cap and walks down the stairs. “We need to get some stuff. Then we can, you know, enjoy our status as fugitives.”

“I am already enjoying it. Mm. Sea air really does smell good.”

“Yeah. I think beach life will suit you, Vee.”

“Can we make a sandcastle?”

Eddie mentally adds bucket and spade to the list of things they need to buy. He really needs some shorts and sandals. It’s not hot, but definitely too warm for what he’s wearing. And who wears socks to the beach anyway? The bucket and spade catch his eye first – there are several stacks of them just outside a little shop opposite the beach. It would strike him as hilarious that an alien Venom’s age wants to build a sandcastle, but he finds it more sweet. Another human experience Venom wants to know. “What color do you want?”

“Um…”

While Venom struggles with the decision, Eddie rifles through the clothes that are hanging on a wonky rail. For once, he can actually make the choice, free of Venom’s “suggestions”, down to the footwear. By the time he turns back to the toy selection, he’s ready to sit on the most secluded part of the beach and get blackout drunk while he’s at it. His hand goes straight to a bucket in a vibrant blue, a little matching spade tied to its handle. So this is the one. “I bet you only picked it out because it’s the same color as the sea.” He says as they take a quick detour back to the motel. It’s a good thing the motel owner offered to exchange dollars for pesos, he thinks. If not, he’d still be slowly cooking to death now.

“The sea is pretty. Much more beautiful than in the movies.” Venom is silent as Eddie redresses. “When did you get these?”

“When you were choosing what color bucket you wanted.”

“You could have asked my opinion.”

“You didn’t ask mine.”

“I don’t need to ask you yours. You tell it to me without any prompting.”

Eddie pulls the shirt over his arms and slips his feet into the sandals. “Well, you’re not complaining, so…”

Venom growls. “Hmm.”

“I’ll let you choose a co*cktail for me.”

That has the effect Eddie had hoped for. When they went out, occasionally, to the quieter bars in San Fransisco, he was always in awe of the options on the co*cktail menu. He would pick one in particular and that would be the drink of the night, with chocolate martinis thrown in here or there. “We love co*cktails.”

“Mmhm. We’ll find a spot where you can come out a little. Watch the sun go down.”

“That sounds nice.”

Eddie finds a wooden hut, where a man stands behind the bar. He has the most soulfully beautiful brown eyes Eddie’s ever seen and that would be enough to make him stumble over his words without Venom’s request. “Um…Sex on the Beach, please?”

Venom laughs like the asshole he is. “You’re getting flustered.”

Dammit, Vee. The jerk’s enjoying this. He has such a twisted, sad*stic little mind for someone who cries at romcoms. He strolls out, drink in hand, thinking of the bartender. He’s stunning, but…his heart’s not in it. He doesn’t know where it is. He walks on, leaving the bartender, the bar, the thriving town, all of it behind while water beads on the thin glass and the ice numbs his skin. Finally, they’re isolated enough that he kicks off his sandals and places the glass halfway in the sand before sitting on the golden grains. “You wanted to feel sand between your toes, right?”

It feels wonderful. Hot enough to be just comfortable underfoot and the texture, caught between roughness and smoothness is delightful. They wriggle their toes, feeling the fine powder trickle between them. And then they realise they haven’t said thank you yet, so they swoop out, the sun warming their flesh in an instant. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

Eddie leans slightly to the direction of their voice. “Yeah, you’re welcome, buddy.” His eyes are fixed ahead, on the lowering gold-red circle before them. “It’s beautiful, huh?”

They can’t take their eyes off him. He’s their focus, not the sun. “Mmhm.”

“I’m sorry that we can’t do anything about the old wind in your hair situation.”

He doesn’t need to be sorry. This moment, this place, just being one again is enough. “Osho says when you love someone, you accept the whole person with all of their defects.”

“Osho?” Eddie must have been more transfixed by the sunset than they realised. “Defects?”

“Nobody is perfect.”

“Just go back. Go back a minute.” Eddie takes a moment to get his thoughts all together and then looks at them. All the seas and oceans on this world could never match the beauty of his eyes. “You telling me…you just said that you love me.”

You love me too, idiot. Venom tries to think of a delicate, compassionate manner of telling him and utterly fails. They, too, aren’t always very eloquent. “Umm…”

“You did.”

And just like that, words fail them. They don’t know what to say. This is newer to them than it is to him and, honestly, they thought he would have more of a clue. That’s what I get for falling in love with Eddie. For now, they change the subject. For now, because if they don’t revisit it, he certainly will. It’s just a matter of time. “Where will we go?”

“I don’t know.” Eddie shifts around on the sand, little sparks from the crushed shells glinting fiery red in the sunlight. “Anywhere that needs a Lethal Protector, I suppose.”

Something about his tone is different. It hits them suddenly, he was sincere. “Oh! You really meant it!”

“Yeah.” Eddie agrees to their observation as if they were stupid for guessing otherwise.

They think back to the vigilante shows, in particular the cartoons that sometimes showed on Saturdays. “We will need a cape and a mask.”

Eddie doesn’t sound so convinced of this idea. “No. No, I think you got that covered. We’re good.”

For a while, all is quiet, bar the soft lapping of darkening waves on the shore and seabirds chirping above. Venom watches a hermit crab scuttle around and then looks at Eddie, wanting to show him, but stops at the look on their host’s face. He’s either thinking or is starting to have a headache.

“I don’t…love you.” Eddie slightly looks their way and continues. “I mean, I like you, a lot, but love? Nah.”

They aren’t hurt. They know better. They’ve also seen enough romcoms to know how this denial will end. “Of course, Eddie! You must fight it!” However stubborn he is, they know his brain. They know these chemicals. So, they remind him. “Hey, Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

“You do love me!”

“No, I do not.”

And on and on they go. Eddie denies it, stubborn asshole he is, and Venom insists on it, stubborn asshole they are. “That is the face of a man who’s in love,” they eventually tell him, having grown bored of the quarrel.

“With who?” Eddie doesn’t continue his paper-thin argument upon their silence. He watches the far distance, the blackening sky. His voice is so quiet, they almost miss it, his shy confession. “Maybe a little.”

He thinks that Venom didn’t hear him. On the way back to the room, he tells himself that it’s a good thing. Why complicate matters that are complex enough? But also, he wishes he’d spoke up louder.

“How do you not fall in love with someone who loves you the way these things love?”

He pushes away the thoughts of Cletus. Of the cathedral battle he’s sure God must be hugely pissed at him for. But the man was right. One way or another, the care is appreciated and love just naturally happens. I’m only human. And humans fall in love.

Venom steps out of him, taking a better look at the motel room. He pulls the cord on the cheap fan so it wafts humid air around the room and watches it spin like it’s the most incredible sight he’s ever lain eyes on. And then he looks at him. Opaline eyes that have seen a billion different hosts and still see him as being the best of them. The only one worthy of this alien’s love? Maybe a bit hopeful, a bit narcissistic, but how many Symbiotes can fall in love? Maybe it’s a once in a lifetime thing. For them both.

“I’m not…perfect. You’ve seen me at my worst, but it’s only with you I’m at my best. Oh god, that sounds manipulative. I’m not trying to trap you or anything, not that I could, but that’s not the - crap, this is hard. …Look, Vee, what I’m trying to say, really badly, is…I may kind of…I love you.”

Venom’s eyes don’t change. His hand reaches up, smoothing over his face, over slight bristles, smooth skin. “Thank you.” he says softly. “I know love confessions aren’t your strength.”

“I don’t know if love even is.”

“That’s not true. You took care of me when I was sick and when I was sad. You tried your hardest to provide for me. You claimed responsibility for our children. You thought of me when you brought us here, even though you prefer woodlands.”

“I don’t mind the beach-”

“Eddie.” Venom puts a finger over his lips. “My Eddie.”

Eddie interlocks his fingers with the long, clawed ones of his Symbiote. “My Venom.” He remembers the kiss, so long ago in a moonlit forest, and raises his head, looking at those fearsome rows of teeth. “You still remember how to kiss?”

“Why don’t we find out?”

It’s gentler this time. Venom pulls as much mass over his razor-sharp teeth as he can, slowing the process, but it’s sweet. It’s like kissing the petals of a venomous rose, but this one is safe. This one loves him. And he loves him. His missing piece, his savior. His darling.