The Girl with Venom

Chapter Fifteen

A/N

Congrats to @ma_names_erma who got to customize Samael's henchmen!

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"It's her."

The woman on the other end of the phone remained silent. He continued to follow the girl out of the cafe and down the street through the crosshairs of his rifle scope.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked. After a long pause, she finally spoke.

"Bring her to me."

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Rose

Monday came faster than anticipated. I smacked my hand around on the nightstand desperately trying to silence the alarm. The incessant noise stopped and I slouched back on the bed, exhausted.

"Good morning " Venom says.

Yeah you too. I stretch and get up, making my way to the kitchen, getting ready for school.

Half an hour later, I'm locking the apartment door, and shoving the keys in my backpack. I leave the building and walk out into the chilly side walk, the normal hustle of people bumping around me. I text Erin and ask if she is walking to school with me and she responds immediately saying she has a dentist appointment in the morning. I sigh and pocket my phone, and begin my walk down the sidewalk. I plug in my head phones and turn on some music, flinging the hood of my jacket up.

"This is a good song," Venom says halfway through. I laugh and roll my eyes. Coming to the cross walk, I stop and wait for the light to change, the bright red hand blaring. Glancing around, I watch as a yellow balloon floats into the street. Then I see a small girl run into the road after it, her mom yelling. A car comes out of nowhere, and before I can think, I run in front of the girl, and time seems to slow. I reach my hand out and slam my eyes shut, the darkness encasing my arm as the front of the car crunches around my arm. I hear screams, and then silence.

I open my eyes and see the girl staring in awe, yellow balloon in her hands. I turn back to the totaled car, and see the driver stumble out of the driver side holding his head, confused. I look around and notice all the traffic has stopped, and the face of hundreds of cameras faced towards me. I clench my hand and turn it over, seeing the black fading away, my hand unharmed.

Oh shit.

"It could have been worse," Venom suggests. And how could it have been any worse? I think.

He doesn't respond. I calmly begin walking away to the other side of the road, and people part, staring. I speed up and tug my jacket hood done farther. Far away, I hear sirens.

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The day was a blur, and I couldn't focus on any of my classes. The trashed classroom from the prank pulled during the dance didn't even make me feel better. Not that I felt bad about saving the girl, but that people saw us stop the car with my bare hand. My phone was going off nonstop with texts from Erin, already debating who the superhero who saved the girl was. No one had any idea who it was, and people on social media were sharing videos from the event like wildfire. I ditched my jacket in my locker and tried to act normal.

I shove past the double doors and out into the cold air, the school day finally over. Marching across the lawn, I feel a tap on my shoulder. "Hey," I say, turning to Peter.

"Hey! Did you hear what Mrs. Andrews did? She was so pissed about her classroom being trashed that she gave everyone in her class who went to the dance detention!" He laughs.

"Wow," I reply with a small smile. His grin falters. "Hey are you okay?" He asks, a concerned expression on his face. "Yeah," I say. We both turn and begin the walking. The way home is filled with talk of school, the cleaning of Mrs. Andrews room, and the poor innocent kids who have to clean her room in detention.

"So I wanted to ask... are you free tomorrow evening?" Peter asks as we stop by my apartment building.

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you want to go out then? We could go to a fancy restaurant or take a walk in the park or whatever you want to do."

"Yeah that sounds good," I reply.

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Peter

I say my farewells to Rose and begin walking, amazed at how I didn't screw up that conversation. I'm still not sure what we are going to be doing on our date, but I'll think of something. I look to my left down the narrow ally and walk to the dumpster. Crouching beside it, I unzip my backpack and take out my suit. Glancing around, I quickly yank my shirt and pants off, and pull on the suit. I stuff my clothes in my backpack and shove it behind the dumpster.

I climb up to the roof of the building and walk to the ledge and begin slinging. I lose track of time and eventually find myself sitting on the edge of a tall random building. I grab my mask and pull it from my head. I breath in a deep breath and look below at the tiny cars and people, like ants. I sigh and look at the sunset; a beautiful swirl of red, orange, and yellow. I wish Rose was here and could see this. I figure we could go to a restaurant and then maybe a walk in the park. That would be nice.

My spidey senses tingle and I frown. I get up and walk across the roof to the other side and look down. I pull on my mask and see three people chasing a woman, reaching for her purse. They catch up with her and knock her down, the contents of her bag spilling out onto the concrete. I sling some webbing across the ally to the other building and quietly lower myself down to the street. Releasing the web, I walk behind the three men, the woman still on the ground, eyes wide.

"Well, hello there," I say. The men turn to me, confused. "You might want to give this woman her purse back," I say. "And all of its contents." The men laugh, and two of them lunge at me. The third begins searching the woman's bag. The man on the left throws a sloppy punch and I easily dodge, punching him in the stomach. He crumples over. The second one lands a punch across my face and I stagger back. He comes at me again and attempts another swing. I land a kick in his stomach and send him flying back and landing on the wall with a loud crack. The third man notices his comrades are down and grabs a large knife from his coat pocket. Neither of us move, and I motion for the woman to leave. She begins frantically grabbing her belongings from the ground and shoving them into her purse. The guy turns to look at her and walks towards her. I run towards him just as he reaches the woman. All of a sudden he turns and slashes at me with his knife. A stinging sensation rips at my stomach and I jump away. He grins, and waves his knife at me again, this time coated in blood.

"Stay back or I'll gut you!" He says. His mistake. I throw my arm out and web his knife, yanking it out of his hand. He runs at me full speed, yelling. At the last second before he barrels into me, I jump, easily leaping over his head, and web the back of his head. I land and give the web a hard tug, and he crashes down backwards, knocked out. I stand there breathing heavily, grinning. The woman had run away at some point during the fight, and I drag all three men against the wall and search their pockets for a phone. I find one on the guy who punched me and open it, dialing 911. The operator answers and I leave an anonymous tip and the location for the ally. Tucking the phone back in his pocket, I stand up and walk to the end of the ally. The adrenaline rush begins slowing down, and the tingling sensation on my stomach becomes a burn.

By the time I sling my way to the roof, I feel as though my abdomen is on fire. I stumble and sit down, leaning against the ledge, my hand on my stomach. I shakily pull my hand away and see that it's covered in blood. I look up at the dark sky, not wanting to see the damage. I suck in a breath and look down. Peeling back the slash in the suit, all I see is red. "Shit shit shit," I say out loud.

"Karen," I say.

"Yes Mr. Parker?" my suit says.

"Call Mr. Stark please."

"Of course, would you like me to play smooth jazz while you wait for his response?"

"No thanks," I reply, my head leaning back and vision clouding.

"Now playing smooth jazz," Karen says. A saxaphone fills my head as I stare at the stars.