Venom // H.S.

chapter 10

The girls and I all went silent, trying to figure out how we should tell our stories. One of the biggest things about the Agency is that they were really good about diversity. All different skin tones, body shapes, math levels, and most importantly, initiation stories. No two of our agents have the same story of how they were brought into this life, our stories were unique to us. At least we can die knowing we had at least one thing that was specific to our souls. I knew I wasn't going to explain myself first, if I chose to at all, so when Valerie started to talk I exhaled a minuscule breath of relief.

"My story isn't too sad. I grew up in California, before I was born my father had gotten caught up in the 90s hip-hop street life, got in with a bad group, and ended up in jail for manslaughter. My mom, God love her, tried her best, but without my dad money was tight. We ended up moving to Riverside when I was about 9-years-old and we were good for a while. My mom found a job and even started dating a guy, it was like a fairytale for the first few months. But when the red flags started to get bigger and bigger it was harder to ignore the obvious. Her boyfriend, Carl, was a Santo. He was never mean to us, he always made sure we had what we needed to survive, bought us gifts, he would even spend days with me and we'd call them daddy-daughter dates. It was a quiet, but beautiful, fall day. I was doing my homework while my mom was making dinner when these two men busted our door down. They were looking for Carl but he wasn't home. My mom tried to fend them off for a while but they got impatient, put a bullet through her skull. When they came I hid and called the police but when I heard the gunshot I ran to my mom and Carl's room and found the weapons he had kept under the floorboards. I had watched enough cop shows to understand how to remove the safety and fire a gun, so with the little amount of courage I had running through my small prepubescent I stood at the top of the stairs and shot the two men. When the authorities showed up they told me to stay with Officer Danner, and I complied. Answered every question that man asked me, obeyed every command, I acted like a docile bird, which I definitely wasn't. When Officer Danner took me to the station he gave me an ultimatum, either I got put in the system or I talked to his friend about a super cool boarding school, I chose the boarding school, and now 17 years later, I'm a part of the best team of agents the Agency has."

Valerie had always been the most open with her story. She always told us she lost the emotional attachment she had towards it once she graduated from basic training, it was something she needed to do in order to become the stoic robot the Agency expected her to be.

Stella went next, sharing the same basic rundown.

"I was born in Delaware. Wilmington to be exact. I didn't have a traumatic life, I grew up in the city. The gangs and gun violence wasn't as bad as it is now, but it was a progressive thing. I had a group of friends that I hung out with every day, my grades were decent, I even had a job at an ice cream shop called Rita's, it was great. The one not-so-great thing about Wilmington is that everyone knows everyone. If you talked shit the person would've known an hour later, and unfortunately, I did just that. I was upset that a girl at school was making the moves on the guy I liked, called her a slut behind her back, and twenty minutes later we were scheduled to fight at the Sallies vs. Saint Marks football game. I remember getting ready at my friend Sarah's house, putting on Sallie's merch to try and grab the attention of some cute seniors on the team, I had painted those stupid face paint dots over and under my eyes, I looked like an annoying freshman, which I was. We fought during half-time. She punched me in the face while I was flirting with number 18 on Saint Mark's team. I was embarrassed as hell and vowed to not let her drag my ass. I didn't realize that she had stopped fighting back when I was straddling her. Three football players had to pry me off of her. When reality hit, I started to run, and run fast. I got to the closest Charcoal Pit before I got caught by police. Turns out I killed her. Much like Valerie, I got a deal from an Officer named Jay. He told me I'd either go to court or he'd convince his friend to put me in his boarding school in California. I chose California. Now, my specialty is sniper assassination and on-foot combat."