Are We Only Roommates? Venom and Eddie College AU

Chapter Twelve

Carnage walked into the men's locker room and headed to his assigned locker. Seeing a note stuck on it, he pulled it off and looked at it.

You know what to do.

Carnage snarled and crumpled the note in his fist, angrily throwing it onto the ground.

"Dicks!" he spat. Wrenching open his locker, he paused. He couldn't do it. He couldn't!

Closing his eyes, he tried to throw away the screams, the agony, the fire, the torture. He could hear himself roaring in pain as the needles were injected, pumping something inside of him. He remembered the dim lights, the angry voices, the deal they had made.

It all came back again, all too clearly. It actually felt like he was in that chair again, restrained and rebelling. It hadn't been part of the deal but his boss had been firm. This had to be done.

Everyone saw him as a menace, and that hurt. But he wasn't! He wasn't! Just because of a stupid name he was given at birth meant that he was a dangerous monster!

But he wasn't! He wasn't!

And now he had just burrowed himself deeper into this mess. He had tried so hard to reach out to others, to show them he wasn't what they thought he was. But they just shoved him away.

Overtime, he had become so downcast, so depressed and so far gone, he had taken the title. He didn't care anymore. The only thing people would see from him was a dirty, rebellious monster.

Carnage paused as he turned to go out. There was one person who hadn't been like the others.

Eddie Brock had tried to reach out to him, had tried to connect. That had been nice. No one ever spoke to him and if it was, it was only threats and shuns. But with Eddie....

Eddie cared. Even when he had been suspicious of Carnage, Carnage knew that Eddie wanted to help him. He knew Eddie could sense something in him and wanted him to see it.

So when they had been paired for labs, Carnage had been excited. He tried to make up for his mistake at homecoming. It wasn't his fault that he had been purposefully drugged too. He hated himself for doing these things, things he didn't want to do to others, hated what he had done to Eddie.

He had apologized to him while they had been working together on their lab, and Eddie had accepted it. Even so, Carnage was afraid. He was afraid for himself, for Eddie, for everyone.

He was just being used. Used for a plot to—

Shaking his head, Carnage grabbed his water bottle from his locker and slammed the door shut, angry and scared.

He really didn't want to do this. But there were no other options. Either follow along or the whole college suffers.

He was surprised when he collided with Eddie who had come in the locker room at that exact moment.

"Oh, sorry," Eddie gasped, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Carnage replied, avoid eye contact. He tried to get around him, but Eddie didn't move.

"Hey, are you doing okay? You're not looking too well."

Carnage smiled softly. This man was so nice to him.

"I'm fine," he said. "Thanks for asking, though." And then he stepped around him and exited.

Eddie stood there for a few more seconds, pondering the alien's behavior.

He seemed sad to me, he thought. I should probably ask him later after classes are over.

Eddie was diligently typing away at his computer working on a paper while Venom was doing some push-ups when there was a knock on their door.