Chapter Text
Eddie’s eyes moved over the charts and imaging. He’d seen a lot of shit like that in the past few months, but he still didn’t have a clue what any of it meant. He looked up. “Give it to us straight.”
The grimace was brief.
It was clear Dan was well practiced in trying to keep perfect, bedside manners. Eddie caught it though. Just slightly. The confusion. The uncertainty. The pity.
Eddie looked away quickly. He was glad Anne wasn’t here this time. She hadn’t hid the pity at all.
“I still don’t understand how the government let you just walk without explaining any of this.”
“Didn’t really want to stick around,” whispered Eddie.
“I guess that’s fair.”
“So? The verdict?”
“Well, there’s two big things to note. One, the pain is coming from here.” Dan pointed to a spot that vaguely looked to be in the center where the outline of Eddie’s lower torso was.
“It’s not one and the same?”
“I think we both know the root cause is the same.”
“Right,” Eddie whispered. He looked away again. Looking wasn’t really helping to explain anything anyways. He just focused on Dan’s voice.
“There’s a…a cavity in your body. It’s where…where Venom was. Your organs naturally moved and adjusted to the new…new organ. For lack of a better word. And with it suddenly gone, nothing is supported like it once was. Surgery is possible, but the extent of the damage makes me worry we could cause you more pain in the long term and actually make the healing process harder. It’s your call, but despite the current pain you’re dealing with, I think it’s safer to ride this out. To let your body naturally adjust and only perform any surgeries later if absolutely necessary. I can prescribe you something for the pain–”
“The other thing?” Eddie interrupted.
“Your body’s not producing phenethylamine like it should be.”
“Why does that sound familiar?”
“I mentioned it before. It’s why Venom liked chocolate. Why he liked…heads.” Dan grimaced at that. Venom would have made a joke. Or spooked him. But Venom didn’t do either of those things. Eddie glanced to his side even so. Out of habit. Instinct. No second head rose to meet him. He continued to stare at the empty space as Dan talked. “Low phenethylamine is linked to a lot of symptoms. Depression, anxiety, weight gain. It would explain your concerns about feeling cold and struggling to get warm. Why you’ve had a harder time working. Concentrating.”
“So you took the comforter with you. Course you did.”
“What?”
Eddie almost said, “I wasn’t talking to you,” but that sounded so much worse. He removed his gaze from the imaginary friend on his shoulder. Looking to Dan, he settled on, “Nothing.”
And there it was again. The fucking pity. It was Eddie’s turn to grimace. He looked away.
“There’s ways to substitute what your body can’t produce," Dan forced out. “Stimulants. Antidepressants. Considering the severity of some of the symptoms you’ve given me and the stress your body is currently under, I don’t want to immediately prescribe just anything. I need to look over these results again. I probably won’t be able to sign off on anything while I’m here, but I’ll give you the number of a trusted colleague here. I’ll talk to her. Have her prescribe you the medication and do your follow ups with her.”
“Thanks.”
“I wish I could do more.”
“You didn’t have to do any of it.”
“The symposium here was just a front Anne came up with. I actually flew all this way to check on you.” When Eddie didn’t laugh, an embarrassed look came over Dan. “T-That was a joke.”
“Right.”
“Anne does say hi. By the way. She was trying to see if she could take some time off and fly out here with me but work. You know?”
“Yeah. I get it.” It was better this way anyways. “Good luck with the rest of the symposium.”
“Thanks.”
Eddie stood. Dan hurriedly got up with him. His wedding ring glinted as he waved a clipboard around.
“Hey! Why don’t we get dinner? After the symposium. This is my first time back to New York in a while and–”
“I’m good. We’ll talk to you later Dan. Thanks again.”
“Eddie–”
They left quickly. Eddie shook his head. No, he left quickly. He shoved his hands into his pockets. A shiver ran down his spine. Why did hospitals always have to be so fucking cold?
The black cockroach scurried closer and closer to the large vulture. It stood in the middle of some cracked asphalt. Just to the left of the yellow line going down the middle of it. The sweltering Nevada sun beat down on the cockroach. It began to sweat.
Red, featherless skin dug into a browning carcass. A tire track could clearly be seen through the dead beast’s center. The cockroach continued to hurry forward. The vulture shifted slightly. It sounded like its beak broke a rib. Its head remained bowed.
Closer and closer the black cockroach came.
Skitter.
Closer.
Skitter.
And closer–
The ground began to rumble. The vulture turned its head upwards. With a few quick flaps of its wings, the vulture left the road. Its wings spread wide. Temporarily, the black cockroach was in the shade.
Squelch.
An engine roared forward. A tire ran straight through the corpse again. Bits of flesh and blood spattered to the left and right. With the vehicle came a gust of wind. The black cockroach was temporarily picked up. It tumbled through the air. Round and round before it landed unceremoniously on its back, several feet from where it had been. Its wings fluttered. Legs struggled.
One black, weak tendril moved from the black cockroach’s back. It flipped itself over.
The vulture landed back at the corpse. The black cockroach started to skuttle back towards the vulture.
By the time it reached the corpse though, the vulture had its fill. Its wings spread out again and the creature took off. The black cockroach stopped moving.
Venom sighed even though not a soul could hear it. Well, not anyone except his ride. But his ride certainly didn’t comprehend the sentiment. Venom moved over the carcass. The mandibles clicked towards the meat. Picking up little pieces here and there. Eating the whole thing would have brought back some of Venom’s energy, but Venom barely had any energy to hold onto his temporary host.
Instead, he ate what he could. Cleaned himself up. Venom continued down the never ending stretch of road.