At first you hadn’t noticed the car doing laps past the field where you were training, you hadn’t seen anything suspicious or out of the ordinary until practice had ended, the rest of the team clearing out while you hung back to call Eddie. The phone was still pressed against your ear when you spotted the vehicles surrounding yours in the otherside deserted lot.
“Shit” you swore, fear filling you instantly. “Eddie I think there’s going to be trouble, there are these cars-”
“Just stay where you are, I’ll be right there promise” you slowed down, trying to think of an excuse why you would be loitering after you’d seen them, was there any way to stall for time without letting them know you were onto them? Three men slipped out of a blacked out van heading your way. You backpedaled ferociously, clutching at your kit like a lifeline.
“Eddie they’re coming this way, I’m going to go hide back in the bathroom, hurry!”
“Shit! Y/N, I’m coming, don’t hang up” It was Eddie’s words but Venom’s voice, and you knew your they were coming for you as quickly as they could. You abandoned the pretense, turning and running as fast as you could back to the locker room, heart pounding. You didn’t know what these strangers wanted, but you knew you were in danger.
You dropped your kit as soon as you were inside, slamming the door, scrabbling to dig your bat out of the bag. You clutched the improvised weapon tightly, hands shaking. The door rattled, then shuddered as something rammed against it. You tried to keep your breathing even, tried to keep from swearing or sobbing or curling up and leaving it to prayer.
The door burst open, nocked clean off its hinges by the force of the men ramming against it. The men stumbled in. You swung.
Your bat connected with the first guys arm, raised to shield his face. The bone broke with an ugly crack. Oh god, oh god. He fell back, another stepping forward to take his place, more men moving to flank you. The new guy wasn’t quick enough to evade your next swing, bat colliding with his head, vibration shaking up your arms, wet crunch going making you feel ill. Your grip loosened and in that instant one of the men had their arms around you, another forcing the bat from you. You struggled, but you were outnumbered and they were too strong.
“Eddie!” you screamed when they hoisted you into their air, dragging a cloth bag down over your head. You thrashed, kicking and screaming, trying to get away, but there were too many of them. They carried you from the room, bound your hands and feet and threw you into the back of the van. You collided with the opposite wall, too dazed and slow to think to lurch towards the door that was already sliding closed. It was no use, you just hoped Eddie found you before they killed you, or worse.
Eddie’d been to your field before, he knew the way. It had taken seconds for him to discard thoughts of using the bike, taking to the city as Venom even in the grey-dusk. Adrenaline and fear mingled in his body, spurring him on.Venom was silent in his head, just as worried for their girl as he was. Eddie was near the field when the floodlights shut off. He could’ve sworn his heart stopped.
Hurry Eddie , Venom said in his head. Eddie hurried, rationalising to himself that it was an automatic process, they turn off half an hour after practice to save power, don’t panic the whole way. It was dark when Eddie arrived, parking lot deserted except for your empty car. They headed straight for the lockers. The door was off off its hinges, and your stuff was inside, bat bloodied and bag abandoned. Your phone was smashed and tossed hastily aside, and–
Eddie, he’s still alive. He turned, seeing the man sprawled on the floor, he certainly looked dead but Venom was never wrong. Rage burned within them, and Eddie gave Venom free reign. They reached down and hoisted the man into the air, shaking him roughly. He startled into consciousness, dull eyes sharpening with terror as he saw Venom.
“Where is she?” Venom hissed, “where is the girl you took?”
“I’m sorry man, I’m sorry!” the man begged, struggling weakly in their hold. The left side of his face was bloodied and broken, cheek shattered. Venom’s tongue oozed from their open mouth, tasting the dried and crusted blood. Y/N did this. If the situation weren’t what it was Venom would be taking her against the nearest hard surface, rutting against her, showing her just what her vicious act had done to him. Our Y/N is a fighter, when this is over we will reward her. Will go slowly and gently until she breaks down and begs us to split her in two.
“I don’t care for your pathetic apologies. I will eat you. I will start with your toes, bite them off one by one, I will strip the flesh from your bones, crack your legs open to get at the marrow inside. You will be delicious. I will tear your arms off, and slowly crack open your ribcage. You cannot change this, but you can chose– will you be alive and suffering while I take my time savouring your worthless carcass, or will I end you quickly?” The man looked green now, somehow managing to physically manifest his queasiness despite the total lack of blood in his face. He was sobbing, his fear palpable in the air.
“Kill me quick, please just kill me quick, bite my fucking head off”
“I will. But first, the girl. Where did you take her and why?”
When you woke your head was pounding, headache pounding like a sentient thing. You’d fainted, apparently. You’d be disappointed in yourself if the situation didn’t seem like a massive exception to every rule you’d ever given yourself. Why the fuck had you been taken in a targeted kidnapping? You weren’t anyone, no one had any reason to want to take you specifically, did they?
“She wakes” you jumped at the voice, eyes flying open as you suddenly became aware of your surroundings. You were in some sort of building– either warehouse or basement you didn’t know, duct-taped to a chair, two men facing you.
“Why- what- please let me go” you knew it was pathetic, but you didn’t care. You were scared, and alone. What if Eddie and Venom never found you?
“We can’t let you go lady. Look I’m sorry it had to be like this, but your pal Venom wrecked one of our suppliers' places last month–”
“Drugs? Are you talking about drugs?”
“Now she gets it. Anyway, as I was saying, your boy the nightmare of San Fran made a real mess of the joint, took out all the top dogs, a clean sweep, decapitated the lot. Now I aint a fan of vigilantes, but I’ve gotta thank the guy for the promotion. But still, we’ve got to save face now, you know how it is. So we have a couple of guys keeping a watch out for tall-dark-and-nasty and they see him frequenting your joint. Now lady, I don’t want you thinking we care what you get off on, who am I to judge, but that sick freak needs to pay and you’re how we can get to ‘im, it’s nothing personal promise. We aint gonna hurt ya, just keep you here for the next time he shows his ugly mug”
“Here” someone said, thrusting a wrapped sandwich in your direction. It was the guy from earlier, Carlos. He was a good guy, kind of, you were glad you weren’t being held by a bunch of rapist psychos at the least.
You shook your shoulders, wincing as it pulled at muscles made sore by the way they were held.
“Kinda hard to eat while my hands are tied” You said, Carlos sighed, moving behind you to free your wrists.
“Thanks” you said, honest in your gratitude. You took the sandwich, and then threw it in his face, making a dash for the door. Carlos cursed, lunging after you. Your fingertips scrabbled ineffectually at the door handle, just out of reach as Carlos barrelled into your side, tackling you to the ground. Your shoulder protested, taking the fall as both your and Carlos’ combined weight crashed to the hard floor.
“Stupid bitch” he hissed, stringing to keep your struggling form subdued, “why’d you have to do that? You would’ve been just fine, I gave you my word didn’t I? Now you’re gonna get hurt”
“You kidnapped me!” You shrieked, trying to force the man off you. He merely scoffed, dragging you to your feet and throwing your body away from him as if you weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. You collided with the back wall with an aching thud, pain instantly blooming behind your eyes.
“Nughhh” you groaned, head lolling. Carlos pulled your head up by your hair and you yelped, crying out in pain when the first blow hit you across the face. The second hit you across the other cheek, Carlos shaking you roughly by the grip he had in your hair before he dropped you to the ground. You slumped against the cool concrete, glad for the cold seeping into your injured face.
You were against the wall in a regular living room when the visitors arrived. You’d been moved to where the druggies could more easily keep an eye on you. Your head ached, throbbing dully, injured shoulder protesting at angle it had been forced into when your wrists had been to the back of the chair again. They’d taped your legs still too. Still, you were glad it wasn’t worse. You were still wearing the tights you’d put on after training, and your legs hadn’t been forced open. You could imagine the alternative, stomach rolling. Yes, you were glad that the men who had kidnapped you seemed to have no interest in that, or hurting you just for the hell of it.
The man who arrived oozed money and arrogance. He wore an expensive fitted suit and was accompanied by half a dozen men who instantly fanned out to the edges of the room, hands resting at strategic points on their clothing. Oh shit, you thought, they have guns. You struggled through the fog in your head, forcing yourself to pay attention to the conversation between the two groups. What was this? A drug sale? Something worse?
“What is it, exactly that you want from me? You weren’t very specific on the phone” The man smiled, as if he was in on some secret joke. Asshole , you thought, someone like that’s probably never had to work a day in their life.
“We want non-guilty, one of our boys is going to trial, we were told you can make that happen”
“I can, for a price”. What was with this guy’s false macho overly dramatic phrasing? This really was all just a game to him, the law his plaything, these mens lives less than nothing to this dickwad. They were interrupted, one of the rich guy’s security goons speaking up, motioning to you.
“Sir, this is the girl you were going to have us tail, that reporter’s girlfriend”. A slow, predatory grin bloomed on the man’s shark-like face. “Is she now? Well this is my lucky day, I’ll be taking her with me”.
“Hey man, you can’t do that. She’s our insurance against Venom messing in our business!”
“So she’s a little slut” the man turned to me, all sharp pressed lines and intimidating angles “does Eddie Brock know you sleep around with the city’s nightmare?”
“I don’t– fuck you”
“You wish sweetheart” he turned away, back to talking to the drug dealers, charming persona a thin veneer over his ugly self. “You’ll have to take your chances I’m afraid. Truly I am being reasonable here gentlemen, I could just take her and still charge you the cash”. He flicked his wrist, the sheer arrogance of the move palpable. Two of his men stepped forward, making short work of blindfolding and gagging you, hefting both me and the chair I was still fastened to. You thought of Eddie, and Venom. You hoped they found me soon, and you hoped Venom tore the rich asshole apart.
Venom had tracked the kidnappers to a house in the outskirts of town, low income area, high rates of crime and poverty. Eddie would’ve felt bad but Venom’s instincts were running high, his body a mess of findprotectavengekill. His heart thrummed– Y/N, Y/n, Y/N. They were close, they would get you out of here, none of this was ever meant to be your mess to deal with, they would apologise, after you were safe.
Venom burst through the wall of the house like rage itself. People scattered, fled screaming.
“Where is she? Where is Y/N?”
“He took her man!” One of the men yelled, “you ain't got no business here no more. Blake Williams, the congressman came in here and took her”
They went cold, fear and hate surging within their combined form.
Eddie?What is it? Why do we recognise that name?
He’s the guy we’ve been investigating for our– day job. He’s a big time crook who’s into everything– buying out investigators, politicians, juries. He’ll do anything for anyone for money.
He has Y/N.
And now he has Y/N yeah, because of me.
We will eat him. Yeah well it’s not like he couldn’t bribe his way out of jail, you can take care of it. Venom grinned, saliva pooling in their mouth, dripping from between offset teeth.
“But first, you will die”.
“Now listen here sweetheart, your boyfriend is a really good investigative reporter, and that makes him a really big potential thorn in my side. I’d like to nip that little threat right in the bud. Mr Brock has dug up some things about me that I’d rather not have becoming public knowledge. I’m sure you understand” He reached out and patted me on the cheek, smiling winningly. I wanted to spit in his face. “Look, this is easy doll. We can kill you, and kill your boyfriend, but we need to know who else he may have told, or where he hid the information. A man like him has to have safeguards”
“I don’t know anything” you said. It was the truth, you and Eddie never much talked about your jobs, you weren’t privy to the details of any of his investigations.
“I don’t believe you” the congressman said, pleasant expression still on his face. “I’m going to ask you again, what are Mr Brock’s safeguards, and you’re going to tell me what I want to hear, or else my associates here are going to do some not very nice things to you”
“I don’t know” you snapped “he’s my boyfriend, I’m not his keeper. His business is his business” The man tutted at you, turning and walking away from you.
“Such a shame it had to be this way Y/N”
It was the noise that first penetrated the dense fog shrouding your mind. Glass shattering, wood splintering, gunshots, people screaming. Unimitigated chaos contained within rich asshole’s luxury penthouse. Relief flooded you, surged so quickly that it made you dizzy. Venom was here, they’d found you, you were saved. You felt the irrational urge to cry, tears welling, threatening to overflow. You were safe now, you could go home.
Venom roared, sound carrying, vibrating the very edges of the world. They sounded angry, you thought distantly, hysterical laughter bubbling up from some untapped spring within you. More screaming, and then the door was shuddering, collapsing inwards. You shrunk back even though logically you knew you weren’t going to be beaten again. There was a dark shape looming in the doorframe, huge and only vaguely humanoid. Venom.
You struggled to lift your head, groaning, vision swimming in front of your eyes, world off kilter, unhinged. Distantly you could see Venom, a blur of violent motion and unsuppressed rage. You closed your eyes, stomach twisting unpleasantly. But it was okay, you were safe now, you were–
Your eyes closed, and darkness reached up to meet you, luring you into its temping embrace.
They knew where to go, knew he would be exactly the type of sick arrogant bastard to be keeping Y/N in his fucking house, probably chained to his coffee table or some shit.
Venom roared, vicious eruption of angerprotectrage exploding at the thought, eclipsing all else. Eddie took his hands off the proverbial wheel, letting his symbiote control their actions completely. It would make for faster reactions, and there wouldn’t be the knot of disgustrevoltion cannibalism making them hesitate. They moved as one, minds in sync, two halves working in perfect symbiosis. This wasn’t the first time, but it was the first where Eddie didn’t have the presence of mind to relish the feeling, the power, the unity. They were a moving, hunting, deadly bundle of instinct and unconstrained ferocity.
They barreled directly in through the side of the fucking penthouse, not even noticing the shattered glass that rained down around them, cascading over their combined form. Find Y/N. Eddie didn’t know whose thought it was, didn’t care when they were so tangled together that there was no way of finding the point him and Venom became separate entities. They were one, and they were angry.
Venom tore through the Congressman’s hired guns like tissue paper. Blood stained their teeth, they spat a man’s head into a corner and kept going. Pile of bodies, pile of heads. FInally. It was more a statement of fact than anything, they weren’t wasting time swallowing their prey, tearing through the place as efficiently as possible. They needed to find Y/N.
There, a closed door, the scent of her blood. They lost any semblance of controlled thought, throwing themselves forward, obliterating anything between them and the door.
Heads rolled, blood spilled, guts twitched, suddenly exposed to iron-soaked air.
Eddie came back to himself slowly, as if working his way through a dense fog. Venom’s words were like a dousing of ice water along his spine, mind instantly snapping back to full awareness.
Call Dan. Y/N smells of hurt.
She was unconscious. They scooped her into their arms, carrying her through the carnage before hurling themselves out the decimated window. They would come back for the men who had done this, if they yet lived.
You woke in a hospital, aware of your body aching as if from a distance. You were probably on pain meds, you could vaguely remember everything hurting, your descent into– you threw yourself forward.
“Ve- Eddie!”. They were right there, of course they were, at your side in an instant. Eddie took your hand, tendril sliding up the inside of your forearm. You relaxed, sinking back into the crisp white sheets.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“I– yeah”. You studied Eddie’s face. His expression was taught, but his eyes were soft– he was glad you were okay. His skin had a healthy, almost pinkish flush to it. It was clear that Venom had fed recently, and was well sated.
“You remember Venom trashing the place, leaving you alive. How you got out and called me, and I brought you here?” His eyes were bright, insistent. Ah, of course. It would be too suspicious to go with something closer to the truth, you were glad Eddie at least had thought ahead, you didn’t think you were up to making up something on your own.
“I- I think I was unconscious for the trip here, I don’t really remember anything after I dialled your number”. Eddie grinned, and there was a hint of Venom in his expression.
“The police said someone will be in to take your statement once Dan checks you over. You’re gonna press charges yeah?” You blinked.
“The asshole rich guy’s still alive?” Eddie smiled, and you knew it was Venom controlling his face. Something at the edges of his grin just a little off, a little too many teeth showing, eyes burning a little too bright.
“He may be missing an arm, and most of a shoulder. His left leg and torso is also severely damaged. Blunt force trauma, heavy bruising. Someone may have recreated that youtube footage from the fight in New York a few years ago, you know the one, with Hulk and Loki? Only immoral assholes don’t walk away quite as easily as literal gods”. You fought hard to suppress a giggle and mostly succeeded. Eddie leaned forward to press a kiss against your temple and whispered “we thought you might like to finish legally, let you have the final word. We can always kill him later”.
“Thank you” you said, and turned your head to capture his mouth with yours.