Demons [Eddie Brock] Venom

21. Parasite

The faucet in the bathroom dripped.

Dripped.

Drip.

Rory flipped onto her stomach and stuck her face in the couch pillow, every little noise waking her now. A creak in the stairs made her jerk to an upright position, but when she waited for a knock she was disappointed. Her ears were in tune to the next-door apartment, but she still heard nothing. Glancing at her clock, she noticed that it was nearly eleven; earlier than she thought, but still strange that Eddie never came home.

"He's found someone else."

That voice in her head came crawling back, it was always Carlton's voice.

She shook her head to rid herself of the demons; it was in the past, it no longer mattered. She had to overcome these things before she could possibly move ahead, and yet he still lingered there in the back of her mind like a parasite, slowly sapping all the life out of her, the drive, the courage and independence.

"Shut up," she hissed at her own thoughts.

And then at last she heard a clattering and she scrambled tiredly to her clumsy feet. She nearly took a tumble but steadied herself with her hands and made it to her apartment door. Before she could yank it open, the knocking came. It was intense, angry, and should have terrified someone like her, but Rory didn't even look through the peephole, she yanked it open and saw a disgruntled Eddie; that was a colossal understatement. He had bark in his hair, blood on parts of his shirt, staining and blossoming like little red flowers. His eyes were wide and there was something off about him.

"Eddie, are you okay?!" She half-shrieked in a panicked state. She backed up to let him in the room, and his eyes were wide with terror, or something like it.

"I'm..." his head craned to the side. "I'm so hungry."

In the back of her mind a voice told her to say that she had dinner ready hours ago, but she was not his wife made that he didn't come home, she was his friend, and she was worried about his well-being first and foremost. She shut the door behind them and tried to get Eddie to sit down, but he shrugged her off and went straight to the fridge. Grabbing the heaps of takeout that went untouched, he riffled through and began to shove a handful of noodles into his mouth, acting like Rory had never seen a sane human being act before.

"Eddie what the hell is going on?" Rory asked.

"I made..." He threw the food back down, unimpressed with hours old, ice-cold take out. Rory would be too, but she certainly wouldn't behave this strangely.

She walked over to him and pressed the back of her hand against his forehead. She felt just long enough to sense he was burning up, before he jerked back.

"Eddie, talk to me."

Eddie looked at Rory, something about the world felt different. Like he was seeing it through new eyes; she didn't look as pretty when she was this scared, and he realized it was him who was scaring her. He backed away from her when she touched his forehead, locating the door and wondering if he should go. Thoughts of what happened at the lab were coming back to him, all the strange things he did to get out of there with hardly a scratch; how did he do that?

"Me." A voice said in his head, dark and menacing, dripping with poison and ill-intent.

Eddie looked around, frantically trying to locate the voice when Rory stepped up to him and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him back to reality.

"Rory, I made a mistake, I think..."

"What are you talking about? Please, sit down. You look like shit."

"That's rude. Hungry."

"Don't come near me," Eddie said warily. He stepped back, closer to the door. "Look, I... I broke into the Life Foundation-"

"You WHAT?!" Rory screamed, suddenly in a rage that matched one he saw once before on Anne's face. His heart sunk as he realized he crossed another line, time and time again he would always cross these lines and lose people. Why couldn't he just learn from the first time and stop doing this?

"Because you're a loser."

Eddie shook his head viciously, placing his hands over his ears.

"Why? Why would you do that?!"

"He's killing people, Rory, I had to know..." He didn't want to admit that he walked by Anne's house and realized he still cared about her and seeing her with that loser Dan made him feel sick.

"He's not a loser."

"Get out," Eddie muttered, then addressed Rory again. "Look, Rory, he's using people... Testing something on them, and it kills them. Look, look, I have photos."

"Stop," Rory growled. "Do you realize what you've done? I could forgive you for finding out my past, and showing me just how easy it was to figure out who I was. Yeah, I could overlook that because I'm trying not to live my life in fear. And what, two weeks pass and you go to the fucking Life Foundation and break in? You're going to lead him right back here, so we might as well say our goodbye's now."

"No, Rory... Please, something... Something is in my head."

"No, actually, I'm not so sure what's in there right now. You're an idiot for doing what you've done. You can leave now."

"What did I say? Loser."

"Get out, please." Rory opened the door, her hands shaking. Eddie wanted nothing more than to tell her that she would be okay, but not even he knew if that was true now. He decided to text Dr. Skirth back, to make sure she was okay. And to try and figure out what was happening with him. With one more forlorn look in Rory's direction, he left her apartment and flinched when she slammed the door shut in his face.

He knew that this was irreparable, he knew that someone was talking to him in his head, and he knew that he was...

"Hungry."

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There, he's finally here. Are you guys happy? Now stop nagging me about Venom haha, and also if all you have to say is "update" without anything else, it does come off as rude. I clearly update every day, so don't nag me. I post more often than most Wattpad writers, alright?

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. 

Do you think Rory's response to Eddie breaking into the Life Foundation was justified?