Distant Closure.

Hidden In The Mind

After Eddie presumed that Charlie had gone to bed, he sat down with Anne and Dan to talk about the situation at hand. He was already several tater tots in and was halfway through a bottle of beer.
"So are you going to tell us why you arrived with some kid? And why I need to look into her and do tests?" Dan read what Eddie had scraped together into a text message off of his phone. He turned it off and looked at him curiously. Eddie slouched back onto his couch.
"Well she's been talking to herself, and apparently she ate a rat before she found me." He rambled on, Anne stopped him.
"What do you mean she found you?" She questioned him, a frown hit her face. Dan took out a notepad with intentions to note any symptoms Charlie had.
"Some guy was following her while we were in Las vegas, she asked me to help her so I acted as her dad. He was probably trying to kidnap her or something." He drank some of his beer while Anne and Dan assessed what he had told them. "Let's hope they weren't some dumb government agent stalking me and happened to run into her." He looked between the two and they looked back at him with a look that he couldn't figure out if it was concern or confusion.
"Let's not list off the reasons some creep was following the poor girl." Anne sighed. Eddie shrugged.
"So if it is true that Charlie does have a Symbiote using her as a host, how do we get it out?" He taped his pen against the clipboard while he spoke. "I'm sure we can try to use the MRI like we did with you and Venom?"
Eddie showed discomfort. "MRIs still scare me. But if it gives her any closure we can try."
"Great. I'll set up an appointment for her within the next week." Dan stood up. "It's late right now, but give me a call if anything changes." Anne stood up as well.
"Take care Eddie. Get some rest." After Anne said that, she and Dan left a few minutes later. Eddie finished his drink and went to bed on the couch.

-

"Eddie! Welcome back. Good to see those people didn't kill you." A lady at the counter of a small convenience store said. She had a name tag, but Eddie just called her Mrs. Chen. Next to him stood Charlie wearing one of his hoodies. She seemed anxious. There was a ringing from the lights that made her put her hands over her ears. "Who is the girl Eddie? You both adopted her?"
"What does she mean both?" Charlie whispered. She followed Eddie as he took two handfuls worth of chocolate. "Uh, sure. Yeah." Eddie answered Mrs. Chen. He looked at Charlie. "Grab a bag of tots from the freezer for me?" He nodded towards some freezers at the back of the store. Charlie paused but eventually went to retrieve the food. Eddie completely disregarded Charlie's question.
"Where is Venom? No word from him?" She looked at him judgmentally, she rang out his chocolate and eventually the tater tots.
"He's not speaking right now. We.. Er.. Fought."
The total of it all was free due to his protection of the store. She bagged his things and Eddie took it.
"Well make sure you fix what happened before he comes to me expecting an apology from you." She gave him a small nod, and he returned it.
"Who is Venom-" She made a short yelp sound. "A symbiote? Did you say that?" Charlie had to walk really fast to keep up with Eddie.
"Venom was my friend, best friend. Kind of a parasite but he didn't like being called that. If I'm not wrong, you're being used as a host by a Symbiote. We'll know after your appointment with Dan on friday. Symbiotes are dangerous and can kill you from the inside out. Hopefully it's a sane one and not a murderous one. I can tell you more when we get back to my apartment." Eddie looked at her, he said it like they were basically there by how fast Eddie was walking. Charlie had already eaten one of the chocolate bars.
As Eddie put the key into the lock of his apartment door, he spoke up. "Ask it what its name is." He pushed the door open. Charlie spoke to herself. It took a few minutes of her short conversation that Eddie could only hear the half of until she spoke to him.
"It only trusts me with one. Refer to it as Neurov. That's what it told me."
"Can Neurov make a physical form and speak to me?" Eddie pushed on. Charlie shook her head no. "He doesn't want to speak with you."
"Why not? Is there a reason?" He pressed.
"It says you hurt him. He did so much yet he got nothing in return. There is more than one.. They're fighting.." She zoned out, trying to assess what the beings in her mind were talking about.
Eddie hit a realisation. Her hunger was much more intense because she had to sustain multiple Symbiotes. It made some sense, but the fact that she wasn't dead while being host to multiple different Symbiotes concerned him.

-

"This might be more difficult than we thought it'd be. She has more than one Symbiote using her as a host. This could be dangerous, especially if one or both are hostile." Eddie told Dan over the phone. "We need to be cautious. And make sure no one finds out what's going on with her. If the sick government finds her, they could kill her. Like they almost did with me."
"Yeah this doesn't sound good, not at all. We'll speak on Friday, just keep her rested and fed. Like you said, they could be hostile. Last thing you want to do is make them hate you or Charlie."
"Agreed. I'll call you back again, I just wanted to make sure that you knew what was going on with her. Updates, like you said." Eddie's eyes drifted to the bedroom door. Once again Charlie was sleeping in his room. He didn't mind the couch, but he'd have to figure out another place for her to sleep in the long term if he wanted to keep his bed to himself. "Yeah, talk later." He ended the call abruptly and quietly walked over to the door. He could hear her talking to the Symbiotes from behind the door.
"He's trying to help." She whispered. "All three of us. Charlie, Neurov and Venom."