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The LIFE foundation building is pitch dark, the lighting’s been off for days, and Eddie doesn’t dare switch on a torch. The whole place is still in lockdown and will be for probably the next few months until the dozens of lawsuits finally pull it down.
But they can’t wait that long. Fuck, but they might already be too late, Venom is a trembling tangle of wretchedness at the back of Eddie’s mind, dread running down his spine like an anxiety attack that doesn’t quite belong to him. “In here?” Eddie whispers, glancing down the empty corridor.
Yes. Even that one word seems to exhaust the symbiote and Eddie feels him dredging up every last reserve to stay here, stay focused. It had taken him too many precious days after the rocket for him to be able to communicate again.
“You should have told me,” Eddie turns down the corridor. Everything’s a blur of grey and blue-black, and finally Eddie gives in and uses his phone as a flashlight, wincing in the suddenly dazzling glare. “I’d have gone in and found them for you.”
Wanted to. Didn’t dare. Forbidden. Riot would have- he can’t quite finish, just a worn-out shudder, too exhausted by terrors to summon up more.
“Okay, fair enough.” Eddie rubs his knuckles over his stomach where- he thinks- Venom is. He hopes he is, anyway. Maybe he can feel the gesture and understand what it means.
Yes. Thank you Eddie. So tired Eddie wishes he could pull Venom in for a hug, but there’s too little of him for that. So much burnt away and what little left huddled inside Eddie for shelter.
Another crossroads. Eddie’s completely lost but that’s fine. Exit is going to be the same as entrance- through an unguarded window. He waits for Venom to tell him where to go.
But Venom can struggle up the words, instead, he opens his mind to Eddie, a bright, desperate call, like a tug on his brain, thin razorwire wrapped around his heart. Eddie nods, this way.
Through wall after wall of holding cells, a brief stutter as he recognises where they are- God, that was Maria’s cell. They cleared up the glass but the door is still broken where he smashed it.
It’s a burst of grief, and an answering wretched wave from Venom. He’s sorry. He’s so sorry for Maria but they were both dying, starving together and please Eddie please move he have to go please we have to they’re going to die-
Eddie shakes himself, rubs his stomach again, and keeps going, down behind the gleaming steel and glass facade into the grim concrete and pipes service corridors behind. A cleaner’s cart is abandoned, overturned where the staff must have fled when Drake went berserk. The door of the storage closet is still open, a mop slumped across the corridor-
THERE and Venom is sudden bright and desperate in his head, a deafening roar every bit as loud as he had been before. But Eddie doesn’t need it because he feels it too, the little coils of thought brushing against his, exhausted and cold and frightened and alone oh fuck how long have they been in there-
Eddie crashes into the closet, knocks over a stack of cleaning supplies and falls to his knees, fingers digging across the concrete floor, trying to find- where are they? There must be a crack, a mousehole- something-
There! Oh god there and thank you to whatever anonymous cleaner had left that bucket of filthy water in the corner of the closet. So much of it has evaporated that the kids are huddled at the bottom, struggling to keep covered away from the air that would burn and scorch them and oh thank you thank you-
Eddie doesn’t know how much of the blind, hysterical joy is his or Venom’s. He plunges both hands into the bucket and feels the shivering, frightened touch of the little symbiotes. Venom’s kids. The kids he’d struggled to hide from Riot and LIFE and even Eddie and they’re safe, they coil around his hands and huddle inside him as they realise who he is.
“It’s okay.” Eddie chokes, “Plenty of space in here. I got your dad, and we’ve got some rabbits and guinea pigs at home for starter hosts. You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.”
Venom doesn’t say anything, he’s beyond thought, coiling over and over the children huddled inside Eddie, shuddering in exhausted joy and sheer shuddering relief.
The LIFE foundation building is pitch dark, the lighting’s been off for days, and Eddie doesn’t dare switch on a torch. The whole place is still in lockdown and will be for probably the next few months until the dozens of lawsuits finally pull it down.
But they can’t wait that long. Fuck, but they might already be too late, Venom is a trembling tangle of wretchedness at the back of Eddie’s mind, dread running down his spine like an anxiety attack that doesn’t quite belong to him. “In here?” Eddie whispers, glancing down the empty corridor.
Yes. Even that one word seems to exhaust the symbiote and Eddie feels him dredging up every last reserve to stay here, stay focused. It had taken him too many precious days after the rocket for him to be able to communicate again.
“You should have told me,” Eddie turns down the corridor. Everything’s a blur of grey and blue-black, and finally Eddie gives in and uses his phone as a flashlight, wincing in the suddenly dazzling glare. “I’d have gone in and found them for you.”
Wanted to. Didn’t dare. Forbidden. Riot would have- he can’t quite finish, just a worn-out shudder, too exhausted by terrors to summon up more.
“Okay, fair enough.” Eddie rubs his knuckles over his stomach where- he thinks- Venom is. He hopes he is, anyway. Maybe he can feel the gesture and understand what it means.
Yes. Thank you Eddie. So tired Eddie wishes he could pull Venom in for a hug, but there’s too little of him for that. So much burnt away and what little left huddled inside Eddie for shelter.
Another crossroads. Eddie’s completely lost but that’s fine. Exit is going to be the same as entrance- through an unguarded window. He waits for Venom to tell him where to go.
But Venom can struggle up the words, instead, he opens his mind to Eddie, a bright, desperate call, like a tug on his brain, thin razorwire wrapped around his heart. Eddie nods, this way.
Through wall after wall of holding cells, a brief stutter as he recognises where they are- God, that was Maria’s cell. They cleared up the glass but the door is still broken where he smashed it.
It’s a burst of grief, and an answering wretched wave from Venom. He’s sorry. He’s so sorry for Maria but they were both dying, starving together and please Eddie please move he have to go please we have to they’re going to die-
Eddie shakes himself, rubs his stomach again, and keeps going, down behind the gleaming steel and glass facade into the grim concrete and pipes service corridors behind. A cleaner’s cart is abandoned, overturned where the staff must have fled when Drake went berserk. The door of the storage closet is still open, a mop slumped across the corridor-
THERE and Venom is sudden bright and desperate in his head, a deafening roar every bit as loud as he had been before. But Eddie doesn’t need it because he feels it too, the little coils of thought brushing against his, exhausted and cold and frightened and alone oh fuck how long have they been in there-
Eddie crashes into the closet, knocks over a stack of cleaning supplies and falls to his knees, fingers digging across the concrete floor, trying to find- where are they? There must be a crack, a mousehole- something-
There! Oh god there and thank you to whatever anonymous cleaner had left that bucket of filthy water in the corner of the closet. So much of it has evaporated that the kids are huddled at the bottom, struggling to keep covered away from the air that would burn and scorch them and oh thank you thank you-
Eddie doesn’t know how much of the blind, hysterical joy is his or Venom’s. He plunges both hands into the bucket and feels the shivering, frightened touch of the little symbiotes. Venom’s kids. The kids he’d struggled to hide from Riot and LIFE and even Eddie and they’re safe, they coil around his hands and huddle inside him as they realise who he is.
“It’s okay.” Eddie chokes, “Plenty of space in here. I got your dad, and we’ve got some rabbits and guinea pigs at home for starter hosts. You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.”
Venom doesn’t say anything, he’s beyond thought, coiling over and over the children huddled inside Eddie, shuddering in exhausted joy and sheer shuddering relief.