What if: Venom - Let There Be Carnage (english)

Chapter 3: Confrontation

The next morning, Alex was picked up as promised. Detective Mulligan was already waiting at the entrance to San Quentin Prison and accompanied her part of the way with a guard. The corridors were monotonous and voices could be heard in the distance. An eerie place. She was glad when she could leave it again.

The guard told the detective that he was no longer allowed in from here, which he just dismissed with a nod. Meanwhile, the guard explained the rules of conduct to her: she had to stay 2 feet away from the cell and under no circumstances was she allowed to come any closer, as there was too great a risk that he might try to reach through the bars and injure someone.

When they passed several bars and finally ended up in a room, Alex's pulse had risen immeasurably. She sat down on the chair that was placed in front of the cell and looked at the person opposite her, who just smiled at her.

»I have to be honest, I didn't think you'd come. But it's nice to see that you're here now«, he said kindly.

»I wasn't expecting an invitation either, but you asked me to come«, she replied firmly.

The person sitting opposite her was a complete stranger to her. Even the journalist who had interviewed him several times in the last few months knew him better. But saying that out loud would perhaps only annoy him.

»Do you want to talk about something specific? You certainly didn't ask me to be here today without an ulterior motive.«

It felt as if he was piercing her with his stare. She could hardly bear to look him in the eye, but she didn't want to show him any weakness and kept her expression as neutral as possible and her gaze remained steadfastly fixed on him.

»Actually, I wanted to take the opportunity to get to know you«, he said after a short silence.

That caught her off guard.

»It's many years too late for that«, she replied briefly, but clearly more uncertainly than before.

»That may be true, but I never had the opportunity.«

»Then you probably shouldn't have murdered all those people.« His answer was a cold, joyless laugh that sent a chill down her spine.

»That's true, but I had to do it. They took my angel from me and someone had to pay for it.« He grinned at her.

A guard came through the door and brought a tablet with the last meal on it, but Alex hardly noticed him. He handed it to him through a hatch and left again. At that moment, Alex realized what she would have given not to have to sit in that chair. She wanted to get up screaming and run for the door. The situation triggered the same emotional chaos in her as her nightmares. But she couldn't just wake up here.

When Eddie and Venom arrived on the motorcycle at San Quentin, they were there more than half an hour before their scheduled visiting time. Detective Mulligan was already waiting at the entrance, calmly smoking a cigarette.

»You're on time«, he said with a slight undertone.

»So I can have as much time with him as possible«, Eddie replied sarcastically.

»Maybe he'll be chatty today«, he added.

Eddie looked at him confidently, but Mulligan just gave him a dismissive sideways glance.

»He hasn't told you anything for months, why would he suddenly do it now?«

»I don't know, but he wanted me to visit him one last time today.«

»Then make sure he chats!« He threw his cigarette on the floor and crushed it.

»Asshole.« Eddie had to smile, but he didn't show it.

»Luckily for you, I have another ace up my sleeve.«

Eddie looked at him confused, but Mulligan didn't look like he was going to tell him what he meant. He walked through the entrance, closely followed by Eddie. As always, there was a not exactly pleasant body search and he had to hand over everything he had with him: cell phone, keys. He was only allowed to keep his notepad, pen and recording device.

After that, he went under the guidance of a guard through a long corridor past bars and muffled noise. Another guard came towards them, who seemed to be escorting a young girl. You could see that she was close to tears. Their eyes met, but she quickly looked down at the ground. He looked after her for a moment until he too went through the door into the room where Cletus was already waiting for him.

»Hi Eddie«, he greeted him with a devilish grin.

»Hey. Looks like you have more visitors today.«

»People love serial killers, after all,« he replied as he continued eating his food.

Eddie stood at the yellow marking on the ground and took the small recording device out of his pocket, which he switched on and placed visibly on a crossbar.

"Okay, so we've done this quite often. But why am I here today? Do you have any final words to say before that happens?« Eddie looked towards the death row.

»I actually just wanted to say goodbye to you. After all, we know each other quite well by now. So it's only fair that we see each other one last time.«

His devilish grin appeared again, which was more than just fair for a serial killer like him.

Eddie was visibly disappointed, but tried not to show it. He hadn't come here just for that! He wanted to get information out of him and also write his article about it, after all he had to earn money somehow. He thought about how he could get Cletus to tell him something interesting.

»We could force him to reveal something«, Venom suddenly said in his head. Eddie gave in to the thought for a moment, but quickly came to his senses and answered it in his mind with a short no. He jumped briefly when Cletus cleared his throat again.

»But I'll tell you a secret if you come a little closer«, his look was challenging.

Eddie didn't like that at all, but he definitely didn't want to leave the room without something useful in his hand.

»Okay«, he finally replied and took a step towards the cell, but he realized too late that he had made a mistake.

At the same moment Cletus jumped up and grabbed him. He pulled him towards him and whispered something in his ear:

»Carnage is on the way.«

Venom stepped in and pushed Cletus against the wall with a tentacle that he manifested from Eddie's stomach, but Cletus remained stubborn and immediately pounced on Eddie, pulled his right arm towards him and bit in his hand. Eddie screamed in pain until a guard grabbed him from behind and pulled him away. Eddie was bleeding slightly and was holding the wound with his other hand. Venom was already healing him. Cletus looked at him, more than just confused.

»Eddie?«

»Back with you. That's it for you«, the guard said angrily.

He told Eddie to go to the door. Since he hadn't followed the rules, he had to leave the prison, even though he was supposed to be present at the execution. When he finally got back to his motorcycle, he sighed and put his hands over his face.

»That was a mistake.«

»Shut up«, Eddie hissed angrily.

He had no choice but to put on his helmet, get on his Ducati and drive home.