The first thing Eddie did after waking up was call out for Venom. "I had a very strange dream," the fugitive on the run said. But he didn't get a response.
That was strange.
"Buddy?" You could hear the slight concern in Eddie's voice, as he patted over his body, trying to feel where Venom might have hidden.
"He is not here. And he is never coming back." Some random military guy said from next to the bed. Eddie hadn't even realised there was another person in the room at all.
"But I need him back," sounded through the quietness of the room, and it seemed to catch off-guard both the people present. Eddie had spoken without thinking. The words came to him so naturally, he didn't register what he was saying until he had heard his own voice.
The realisation of how much he had grown accustomed to Venom's presence hit him all of a sudden. How used he was to having the symbiote just hanging around, being there, with Eddie, anywhere at any time.
So many feelings suddenly started to awake, hitting him like waves, one after the other, over, and over, and over again. He felt as if something heavy was lying on his chest, making it hard to breathe. Both his eyes and his mouth felt too dry, probably from waking up not long ago, but Eddie knew that deep down, it was also because he felt like crying.
He felt an overwhelming sadness. Like reality had been broken, something had been broken, beyond repair, and Eddie was completely and utterly helpless, no power, no strength to do anything about it.
The voice of the military guy from before stood as a distraction. One the reporter really appreciated at the moment, because he really needed to have something other than Venom filling his head and the turmoil of emotions that came along with it eating away at him.
Eddie hummed in confusion and tried to focus on what the guy was saying.
"For your bravery, you have the thanks of a very grateful nation. And as a token of appreciation, you get a new start. Everything that has happened until now and in the last few days – it didn’t".
And while Eddie was lying on the bed, trying to take in the new information and all that was said, the guy went to leave. But before getting out of the room, he turned back, and in a firm, cold tone said, "Just to make it clear, if you ever share with or speak to anybody about what happened, you'll find yourself in a cold, deep hole you'll never be able to leave".
As the guy finally went away, Eddie softly and groggily complained, "I don't know about you, but that sounded like a threat to me. A bad one, but still".
No response.
Eddie's breath caught up in his throat, he choked up and felt a tiny wet drop slide down his cheek. Then another. And another, this time on his other cheek. After that, for a while, they just kept falling. And what started as a few motions akin to hiccups turned into quiet sobs.
Eddie didn't bother drying his tears because he knew they were just going to keep coming. When his nose became stuffy, he didn't move at all, even when it got to the point he was forced to breathe through his mouth. An action which just surved to make his sobbing grow louder.
Not that there was anyone to hear him. Or care.
He was all alone, and Eddie gave himself the chance to just feel. Try to embrace all the emotions, as painful as they were. Try to understand and value them. Because both his mind and body refused to accept the fact that Venom was gone. And those feelings – they weren't his own. They didn't belong only to him. Those were the feelings he and the symbiote shared, weren't they?
Now, Eddie couldn't ever ignore something as important as that, right?
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Eddie hadn't stayed in the confined room any longer than he had needed to.
After everything that had happened, he was hurt. Both physically and mentally.
For physically – it was easier to ask which part of him hadn't been hurt. His whole body was covered in all types of cuts; he probably preferred not to know from what. He had a few burns here and there. Scratches on his face. One of his knees had turned in a strange direction, and they must have put it back how it was supposed be, but something still felt strange, even after leaving the what he guessed was a hospital.
For mentally – Eddie refused to think about it.
After letting himself cry his soul out the first day, he had become empty. Not speaking much, drinking and eating just enough to stay alive, trying to sleep most of the time, staring at the ceiling, thinking about how he shouldn't let himself think. His expressions were non-existent; no smiles, no frowns, no nothing. He looked empty, and honestly, he felt no different.
The crying had helped, in a way. Helped him accept that Venom really was gone. That the alien was no longer with him; no longer by his side. And it hadn't been only the crying forcing him to accept such an awful reality.
Eddie was in pain. In so much pain.
Maybe because he hadn't really been exposed to much pain in the last year, but everything hurt so bad. Had he forgotten? Does it hurt more because he had forgotten the sensation?
Eddie didn't know. Couldn't answer. Maybe a part of him didn't want to know. Because it would only further stand as proof he was all alone now. That there was no longer someone to tend to his wounds or numb the pain.
After leaving that tiny room, most of the physical damage having been dealt with, Eddie found out he was still in Las Vegas. With some of the few thousand bucks they had left for him on the nightstand, probably out of pity and nothing more than pocket change in their eyes, Eddie found a dirty, cramped, cheap apartment to rent for a week.
He didn't have a single thing with him. Only the clothes on his back and a heavy emotional baggage. He wasn't even sure when was the last time he had seen his phone.
With a very loud and dreadful groan, Eddie let his body hit the mattress and burrowed his face in the way too soft pillow. Not a long time passed before he was completely knocked out, regardless of the loud and busy buzzing day ongoing outside.
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Eddie was quite literally unable to keep track of time. He had no idea how much time had passed since he had rented this place.
He just slept, woke up, refused to leave the bed, went back to sleep, woke up, stared at the ceiling, fell asleep again. A repeating cycle which you couldn't see the end of.
There was this other scary thing happening as well. Ever since Venom had disappeared, Eddie felt somewhat disconnected from his own body. As if, at this point, it had become nothing more than an empty shell.
He told himself many times lying around and doing nothing wasn't helping anyone; not him, that was for sure. But it didn‘t matter what he tried to do. His body was probably trying to adapt to the huge change, and it simply refused to do as it was told.
He drank a little bit of water only when his throat had gotten so dry, he could feel his every breath scratching its surface. Food was out of the question. He didn't feel even a tad hungry, and when he tried to keep some food down, it didn't work. So Eddie just gave up on eating all together. He would trust his body to tell him when it couldn't take the lack of food any longer.
The simplest things from life felt dreadful.
When Eddie looked at the bathroom sink, all he could think about was the first time he had clearly heard Venom's voice.
"Eddie."
It had scared him so much. But it had turned into such a sweet memory as well.
When Eddie opened the tap and looked at the water spiraling down, all he could think about was the first time Venom had shown himself to Eddie, after jumping into the water to get them away from Drake's colleagues.
"I am Venom. And you are mine." The symbiote had said back then, having pulled them out of the water. And his voice rang loud and clear in Eddie's head, even at this very moment. He remembered it like it was yesterday.
Had it really been a year since they met? It sounded like such a long time had passed, and yet, it also felt as if not even a week had gone by.
Not enough time had passed. And Eddie knew that, regardless of how much time passed, it would have never actually been enough. Not for them.
Looking at the tiny space which was supposed to represent a kitchen, all Eddie could think about was Venom's whining about being hungry and wanting to eat brains or bad guys. All the reporter could see was a clear picture of Venom's tentacles pulling slightly at random parts of his body, making a complete mess out of their kitchen while trying to cook. And hell, were most of those meals probably poisonous, but Eddie ate them all the same, with a slight smile always tugging at the corners of his mouth because Venom had tried. Tried to be helpful, tried to cheer him up when he was in a bad mood, tried to make him forget any worries and concerns.
The kitchen in front of him blurred, and Eddie realised it was actually because his eyes were starting to water.
He found his way back to the mattress, pressing his face into the pillow. If he turned his head at some point and felt two damp spots where his eyes had been not long ago, Eddie ignored it.
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He only understood a whole week had passed like this when the one who had rented the place came to kick him out.
Regardless of how much time he had spent sleeping, Eddie still felt tired, totally burned out. Grabbing the three and a half things he had come with, he left without listening to the random guy's speech about overstaying his welcome or something.
Back on the streets, Eddie wasn't sure what to do now. What could he do? He was in Las Vegas, all on his own, with no phone, no information, no plans – nothing, but some money.
Money. Why did that ring a bell? Eddie knew it had him think of something usefull, but he had forgotten what it was before thinking it over. He massaged his temples with circling motions, trying to ignore the chaos of people passing by, and just think. What could it have been? Money...
While trying to come up with something, Eddie had a very hard time ignoring the memories of Venom using their only 20 bucks and losing them quite quickly. Tried to get out of his head Venom's childish excitement as the slots rolled again and again.
Wait. They had lost their last penny. So what exactly happened after that?
"Oh!" He finally remembered. "Mrs. Chen!"
A whole week had passed, even longer since he had been in that hospital-y place and was getting treatment as well, but could it be she was still in Las Vegas? Thinking about meeting somebody familiar had Eddie feeling a bit of hope.
With nothing better to do, the ex(?)-reporter decided to check the hotel where Mrs. Chen had been staying. Even if the chances were slim, close to none, even, it was possible she was still there.
And maybe Eddie wasn't completely alone, after all.