this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine)

confession

the final chapter... holy cow. it's been such a ride y'all. i hope you enjoy!

~*~

"Get me up there," Flash muttered, warily glancing around him as he stood beneath Betty's balcony. He'd gotten into her backyard through questionable means, so he might as well double it up and arrive onto her balcony with the same semi-legality.

Flash suspected symbiotes weren't even covered in the New York penal code.

Why don't you go in through the front door?

"And let Mrs. Brant know I'm here?" Flash shook his head. "She's nice, but some things are better left unshared with adults. At least at first."

Flash would know—he had extensive personal experience in clamming up around his parents.

Fine. Hold on.

Identical tendrils of symbiote emerged from Flash's arms, and with the might—if not the grace—of a professional athlete doing an impressive pull-up, Venom flung Flash up and over and down onto the balcony. The thump with which he hit the floor made Flash grimace, and not just because ow, he wasn't a rag doll.

Rather, the voices inside Betty's room that had previously been chattering sharply fell silent, sending a chill down Flash's spine.

Guess they heard you.

"Yeah, I think so," Flash muttered. Still wincing from the impact, he pushed himself to his feet. As he reached out to tap on the glass doors, the curtains swung back and the door slid open in near-perfect simultaneity, revealing Betty Brant wielding...

A can of hairspray and—a lighter?

"Flash?!" she said, and Flash couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Wow, you really do have a makeshift flamethrower."

Fire?!

Flash's arms were thrown up into a position of surrender.

Betty shook her head. "What are you doing here? How did you get up here?"

"Ah... long story," Flash said, distracted by his inability to lower his arms. "What's going on?"

Fire! A very, very uncomfortable experience for symbiotes.

Okay, apparently sound wasn't Venom's only weakness.

Betty's hands fell, and Venom's relieved sigh was so loud Flash could hardly believe Betty hadn't heard it, too. Thankfully, Venom dropped his arms once the threat of flame had dissipated.

"You left your car at the school," Betty finally said. "We were worried you were staging a repeat of last night."

Flash winced. "I know, I'm sorry, I just needed to—" He paused. "Wait, 'we'?"

A glance behind Betty and into her room revealed Ned and MJ were sitting on Betty's bed, a laptop open between them as they watched Flash's conversation with a mixture of wariness and concern. Once Flash's eyes met theirs, they both shifted in eerie simultaneity to hide whatever website was pulled up on the computer.

"Guess I missed the memo," Flash said, trying to break the awkward silence. "What's, uh—what's going on?"

Betty sighed. "Get inside."

With a nudge that probably could have been gentler—not the Flash deserved such—she made sure Flash was fully in her bedroom before sliding her balcony's glass door shut and closing the curtains.

"The better question is what's going on with you," Ned said pointedly, crossing his arms over his chest. "We thought we'd need to stage an intervention."