Hazardous

II. Welcome Wagon

| Steph |

The Pentatonix cover of "Little Drummer Boy" blares from my phone. I changed it in light of the holiday season; Halloween may have just ended, however there's no such thing as "too early" when it comes to celebrating Christmas, and if you disagree, well... there's the door bitch.

I rub my eyes, trying to erase the sleep from my face entirely, but I'm only human; there's only so much I can do to not look like a zombie every day.

My mood brightens when I immediately remember that I've decided to take a day off today; enjoy myself for once. Which means I don't even have to wake up at 7 am today.

I smile and close my eyes, thinking of all the things I have the freedom to do to day now that I'm unhindered by my occupation.

I sigh, and shove myself further under the blankets, determined to remain in that exact position until 10, at the very least.

| Eddie |

Even when it seems like nothing is going on in LA, everything is going on in LA. That's just how this city is.

Eddie... you've deprived me of proper nutrition for far too long... can we at least eat that jackass who told us to fuck off when he almost ran us over yesterday?"

"No, we cannot. A jackass is still a person, not food. What if he had a girlfriend he was going to see? How would she feel if we ate her boyfriend?" I said, trying to calm him down down he didn't force me to do anything I didn't want to.

I had the opposite reaction.

Why would she care? Remember how your relationship with Anne went? How she maliciously ripped put your heart and refuses to take you back, no matter how much more of a man you are than that pussy Dan? He growls.

I wince. I've come to move on from Anne in these past months, but the wound is still fresh. I thought she was the one.

"It's my fault she left," I reason with him. "I hurt her, messed up her whole career, and abused her trust in me. There's nothing I can ever do to fix that wound." I say.

He sighs. Eddie, you are a sad man. I pity you and your balllessness. Now, cut the sappy shit. You're trying to stall. You can't starve me forever Eddie, bad things happen."

"Is that a threat?"

Most definitely.

I roll my eyes. What a douchebag of a parasite.

That's it! I'm taking control now, he yells, an heir of decisiveness in his tone.

"Venom, wai-" I begin, but he's already in control. I hate him for that. Forgetting that I have the power to remove him from myself at will and live free of him whenever I want. I choose to take care of his sorry ass.

"Stop whining like a baby, Eddie. I need food, and you need somebody to protect you from my food. That's why this isn't parasitism, Eddie. We both benefit from each other," he boasts.

Really? Because I think I'm the one keeping your ass alive, and you're being a pain in the ass! I yelled at him, but he ignores me.

"It's... mutualism. That's what it is, Eddie. Mutualism!" He cries, before scaling the side of a building and crawling up onto the roof. He sprints across the rooftop and uses the edge of the brick edges to push off of this one to the next, hopping from building to building.

Eventually, he stops, perched on the edge of a building overlooking a packed city street. He's on edge, looking for any "bad guys" to satiate his ridiculous hunger.

This behavior is a little unusual for him; for one, we usually don't make these little trips in daylight. Especially not in busy streets. His eyes scan the scene below, checking to see if possible threats are lurking below.

Venom, buddy, I really think we should just go back and heat up some tater tots, go pick up a bunch of those caramel Ghirardelli chocolate bars you like... I ramble, in hopes that he might give up on his rigorous searching and forget the whole ordeal.

"No! I will not be persuaded by a feeble-minded idiot to do his bidding," he hisses, tongue lashing out in frustration. He leans forward more, searching passersby even more diligently than before.

Something seems off. He's been hungry before, but never seemed this tense or frantic about it. It's like he's worried about something but doesn't want me to know.

Whatever it is, he's up to something, and I'm not gonna let him get away with it without telling me first.

V, what the fuck is up? You're really on edge and I know it's not because you're hungry. Fess up, I push, hoping he won't shoo me away from his thoughts like he usually does when he's upset. He's like a child sometimes... constant temper tantrums.

"Eddie... I'm afraid we might have... company," he says, slowly, like I might freak out at any moment and spontaneously combust.

Company? As in, more of you? I ask, beginning to feel the terror rise.

My experiences with these "symbiotes" hasn't been exactly warm and cuddly... Carlton Drake tried to kill me with his little buddy, Riot, and Cletus Cassady, in his deranged, psychotic fantasy land, thought that the way to earning my friendship was by obtaining a symbiote, Carnage, and killing me.

As you can see, quite the welcome wagon into the alien world, isn't it?

It seems that Venom is just as nervous as I am about these newfound inhabitants. He takes a moment to think about his response, to try to deescalate the situation.

"When I first jumped onto the first building, I felt something... something I haven't felt since I first arrived here with the others."

Oh shit. So maybe he's got like, some sixth sense when it comes to knowing where others of his kind are. Freaky.

Do you know for sure that there's others? I mean, this isn't just some paranoid feeling that could be totally wrong? I fret. You know that stupid squealy thing your voice does sometimes when you're worried? Yeah, it's doing that.

"I'm afraid so. They'll need to be terminated immediately. And if I happen to catch a few snacks along the way... well, that's that, then," he says. Despite his nerves, a smile stretches across his cruel lips.

Though dangerous, and wild, and unruly, he enjoys the hunt, the sheer thrill of the adventure.

With a growl, he leaps from the building, and out of sight from the public eye.

Time for us to be the welcome wagon.