LOUD MOUTH → PETER PARKER ✓

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Clock Tower

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: THE CLOCK TOWER

Getting shots at the doctor's office suck. No kid ever enjoys seeing a doctor walk into the room with a syringe and a sterile pad at the ready. The thought of it invokes fear into child's minds for years, even after the worst has come and gone. But the truth is, they're over in a second. A little pinch and a band-aid later, kids are walking away in relief, probably to get a lollipop from the desk of a receptionist.

There were no lollipops now. This was more than a pinch. With the needle in Callie's arm came an icy hot flood through her veins that seemed to spread throughout her body in moments. An involuntary yell came from her lips as she watched the serum go in, spreading deep black ink into her body. She stumbled back, clutching her arm. She looked up at Harry, who seemed to melt into madness right before her eyes. "Harry," she said in a harsh whisper. Her knees abruptly gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.

She could feel the poison in her body, burning rivers through her muscles and ravines in her bones. Her mind went with it, thoughts running so quickly that she could barely stop to understand one. She barely registered Harry's feet stepping closer and closer, craning his neck to look at her. "Well, well. Look who's alive!" he said in the odd gameshow host voice again. He turned back to the box, loading another vial of the venom into the gun like he had seen the man do.

"You've had it all this time." he mumbled as he worked. "It's my time for redemption."

Without another word, he stabbed the needle into his own arm, spreading the serum into his veins as quickly as he could. There was no savoring the moment, there was no slowing down to take it all in. There was nothing but greed in Harry's eyes as he made his choice to take his last saving grace.

Callie felt herself dying. Claws from inside tried to scratch their way out of her, ripping imaginary tears in her skin. She screamed and writhed against it, but the feeling never stopped. The pain would not cease, even as Harry's gun clattered to the ground and he came with it, screaming from the same pain she was feeling. As the man left, he triggered the alarm system, triggering the lights to go dim and a harsh alarm to blare throughout the building. Every noise was magnified by a thousand. Callie clamped her hands over her ears, trying to rid the sound from her mind, but the alarm never went away. She was screaming. Harry was screaming. Matching black veins were running through their bodies, infected by the same poison that threatened to kill them both.

She was vaguely aware of Harry crawling away in pain, screaming as she went. She couldn't see her own eyes turn to black, her skin becoming pallid and pail, and her body becoming covered in thick purple veins that popped up like mountains on her skin. If she wasn't dying, she was becoming something other than human. And that terrified her more than death.

She became aware when Harry's screaming stopped, and she wondered if the venom had taken him already. Though every part of her body felt like pure fire, she turned slowly, to see where he had gone. Her body went cold.

Harry was above her, flying on what appeared to be a hovercraft, wearing an armored suit she had seen in one of the earlier display cases. His eyes had gone green, his nails turned long and claw-like, but he was alive. The suit was keeping him alive. He smiled at her, and she saw fanged teeth glowing with venom. He said nothing as he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up and onto the hovercraft with him. Every movement felt as though needles were stabbing into her skin, trying to stop her from moving any further. She had no choice but to cling onto Harry as the hovercraft began to fly.

There was an explosion above them, and as they came up through the elevator, she saw the dead bodies of about a half dozen SWAT men, including the man Harry had forced to take them down to Special Projects. It was in the glass window ahead of them that Harry got to see firsthand what he had turned into. His skin was pale and green vein protruded from his skin. His eyes were wild and crazy, his mouth foaming. The sight seemed only to enrage him more, a barbaric growl coming from his mouth. Callie was too afraid to even look at herself, to wonder what was happening inside of her.