Chapter Text
The thing didn’t look back again to confirm Eddie was following, but somehow he knew it didn’t need to. It took measured steps, easily avoiding any branches and roots with practiced ease. Eddie struggled slightly to get through a few sticker bushes and over muddy puddles but he never lost sight of the bear.
The only sounds were the steady rhythm of the beast’s footfalls and Eddie’s heavy breathing.
Unsure of how long he’d been walking, Eddie figured it must have been maybe thirty minutes before they came across a huge tree with a trunk that stretched so far above he couldn’t see the top and roots larger than one of Eddie’s legs.
The bear stopped, Eddie freezing on the spot, before it leaned down to a hole in the roots and disappeared into a tunnel.
Eddie peered down the large hole with no small amount of reluctance, suddenly thinking of Alice in Wonderland leaning into the rabbit-hole and falling into Wonderland.
Steeling himself, Eddie stepped over a root framing the hole and set his foot down on the soft earth inside. Air gently flowed from inside, smelling faintly of moss and something sweeter. Taking one final look back, Eddie ducked inside.
It was pitchblack and he went on his hands and knees to slowly shuffle his way through. All he could imagine was the ground abruptly opening beneath him and falling headfirst in. It was impossible to see a few inches in front of him and he was starting to feel rather claustrophobic when he spied a gentle light glowing up ahead.
He could hear the sound of wind blowing through leaves and running water. Eddie picked up the pace, shuffling faster to escape the walls pressing in around him.
The tunnel curved upwards slightly until he could see trees above and the sky peeking out between leaves. Night had fallen, dark clouds covering the stars, and Eddie almost paused in surprise. Hauling himself up and out, Eddie collapsed on cool grass with a soft sigh. As he caught his breath, he looked up to see that he was in some kind of meadow.
It was closed in on all sides by a plateau of dirt with roots of massive trees creeping over the edges, effectively cutting off all escape. A ring of sky was exposed where no trees grew in the clearing, clouds illuminated by cold moonlight. A small waterfall flowed over the dirt wall across the meadow and a tiny creek bubbled towards the center where it emptied into a pond.
Eddie slowly stepped closer, the grass gently brushing against his shins. Wildflowers grew sporadically around and fireflies fluttered in the air, gently lighting the surroundings. It was almost painfully beautiful, making Eddie feel entirely out of place.
A deer padded quietly around the pond, bowing its head with grace to lap at the water. It raised its head and stared Eddie directly in the eyes before padding away.
“Shit…” He muttered, wiping a hand down his face. Where had he landed himself this time?
Venturing into a maybe haunted forest to end his life hadn’t been the smartest choice, but here he was in a place straight out of a fairytale. Something sweet and heady filled the air and a bed of moss surrounding the pond looked almost appealing to lie down in to sleep.
Almost like he was in a trance, Eddie stumbled forwards and kneeled besides the clear waters below. They reflected his rumpled appearance back at him. He looked away, instead placing a hand over the squishy moss to test how comfortable it was.
Softer than expected, he settled on his side and closed his eyes. It was probably another stupid decision but something about this place was soothing and the call to sleep was nearly impossible to ignore.
Beneath his eyelids he saw visions of falling to the Earth, the ground igniting where he touched and miles of trees surrounding him everywhere he went. A huge grizzly bear seemed to appear wherever he went, watching him from afar, and sometimes the murmuring voices rose to a roar.
Waking with a gasp, Eddie blinked blearily as he struggled to recall where he was. He sat up with a stretch and his back cracked with a satisfying sound.
Nothing much had changed besides the weak sunlight painting the flowers in vibrant shades and the waterfall sparkling like crystal. It truly was breathtaking, Eddie couldn‘t believe he‘d been allowed to find this place. Something told him that he would have been dead long ago if the forest had wished it.
He got to his feet and turned to see that the hole he’d arrive through was gone, replaced by smooth dirt without a trace there’d been a path there at all. Groaning, Eddie should have known more crazy shit would happen.
There was a soft sound beside him and he turned to come face to face with a bear. Stumbling back, Eddie was shocked to see not the mutated monster he’d met the day before but a normal brown bear peering at him with watery brown eyes.
It was still pretty huge for a bear, but nothing compared to the other beast. There wasn’t an ounce of aggression in its body language and stupidly Eddie extended his hand for the thing to sniff like it was a dog. It snuffed the extended limb and a rough tongue peeked out to lap at his fingers, the texture similar to a dog but rougher. He let out a hysteric laugh as he pat its head, its eyes closing with a content groan.
“You’ve finally lost it.” Eddie muttered, feeling like crying.
Eddie .
“Fuck!” Eddie cursed. The voice hadn’t been louder than a breath, deep like a lullaby, but he’d been startled to hear his name spoken.
Eddie .
“You’ve definitely lost it.” He whispered, clutching his head.
Come closer, Eddie.
The voice was coming from the pond, seemingly echoing from deep below while still being right in Eddie’s ears. Approaching it with hesitant steps, Eddie peered over the edge and into the body of water.
Something jet black and long like a tentacle was reaching up from the bottom.
Eddie screamed, falling on his ass as the thing breached the surface. The bear had taken a few steps back, but not out of fear or alarm. It simply watched.
The tentacle, Eddie could now see was a large mass of seaweed, slowly pulsed like a large heartbeat thrummed through its entire being. The thing extended towards Eddie, who hadn‘t moved from shock, the plant unnaturally dark and slimy looking.
Do not be afraid. Will not harm Eddie.
Another hysteric laugh nearly escaped his lips, but he swallowed it back as he watched with wide eyes. The seaweed vine slithered across the ground as if it would be less threatening while still extending towards the sprawled man.
“W-what are you?” Eddie asked. The thing paused, as if thinking.
We were once called Venom.
“Venom…” He muttered. The vine shuddered once and began its slow creep towards Eddie’s legs. Before he could kick it away, it wrapped tightly around his ankle and began tugging him closer. “Hey! Wait, cut it out!” He dug his fingers into the dirt and kicked at Venom but it was useless.
Eddie . It rumbled again.
For a moment, he thought he would be pulled into it’s pond and dragged to the bottom where he’d either drown or be eaten by whatever Venom was. Instead, it pulled him to the edge and began winding further up Eddie’s pant leg. Another plant tentacle rose from the waters and slid up to wrap itself around his waist.
Panic choked Eddie as he frantically gripped at them, fingernails skidding over the slick surface, and he opened his mouth to scream again when his sight whited out.
Suddenly Eddie wasn’t himself and instead was gazing at his pale face with black and white vision. He was much taller than he was used to and a dozen or so swift shots of different woodland passed before his eyes made him dizzy before he was once again staring this other Eddie down.
He was growling Leave and stepping closer when he tasted fear, panic, loneliness, that Eddie knew all too well.
Now, this other Eddie wasn’t standing in black and white and instead a mess of colors ranging from deep blues to crimson. Memories that did not belong to him flickered forwards, of more nameless humans stumbling into its territory where they died swift deaths at its hand.
It had not seen another human like Eddie before, never seen one try to enter its forest to end its own existence. The protectiveness of its home trickled away into something else, like curiosity and intrigue.
Eddie’s mind is different from other humans. Eddie is different.
Mind spinning, Eddie was back at the meadow with Venom still holding him tightly in place.
Venom’s voice was low and pressed in on all of Eddie’s senses, making goosebumps erupt up and down his arms.
“So you...brought me here?” He ventured, reeling with confusion and the overwhelming feeling of jumping into a mind far vaster than his own.
Yes... it hissed. Keep Eddie here.
“Keep?” He suppressed another shiver. “You can’t do that!” Venom made a small curious noise.
Eddie has no life out there, no family. Eddie can stay here, Eddie will not be alone.
And that hurt like a bitch to hear. It was true though, they both knew it. Eddie had no family, no job, and nowhere to go.
“Why do you want me here? Don’t you have like, an entire forest?” He yanked futilely at the vines, but they were unyielding.
The minds surrounding us are not compatible. You, Eddie, could bond with us. We do not know why, but Eddie is different.
It wasn’t exactly a reasuring thing to hear someone say when you already thought you were a major fuck up. Of course Eddie was different, he ruined everything he touched.
“I don’t want this! I don’t want…” He began struggling anew, ripping and clawing at the alien holding him.
We do not understand. Venom’s voice seemed to raise slightly in what could have been frustration. Eddie tried to die, yet you wish to leave?
He blinked back tears, feeling like the world was spinning out of control. Hours ago he’d been regressing and drinking and wanted to end it all, now this thing- Venom -wanted him to abandon his life forever.
Yes, Venom agreed. Forever. Never lonely again. Together.
Eddie really must be crazy if that was starting to sound like an okay deal.
“Wait, wait. Give me a moment. Stop, stop, get off.” Venom had begun spreading exploratorily over his skin again, creeping higher under his clothes.
With a low grumbling, Venom retreated and extracted itself completely from Eddie’s form. He rolled over and panted into the grass, shivering lightly.
Venom was right, to a degree. Eddie did have nothing for him out there, no one to come home to. That feeling of being wrapped up had freaked him out but now he was cold and almost reached out towards where Venom’s tentacles were waiting silently. He had felt him but more than just on his skin, he’d been in Eddie’s head. It should have felt violating and wrong to have something else poking around in there, but it was like his mind was simply accepting the thing’s presence.
“If I did stay…” Eddie began, not looking at it. “What would happen?”
We would be together. Came the simple answer.
“Like, you’d be in my head like before?” He asked.
Yes. We’d have perfect symbiosis.
Eddie had no clue what the hell that meant but he did know that he was seriously considering Venom’s offer. Slowly, he extended his hand towards the vines and they seemed to shiver in excitement before pressing into Eddie’s hand. Like some kind of pet, it rubbed eagerly into his fingers and Eddie nearly started petting it until he realized it might be ridiculous to pet the thousand year old forest entity.
Will Eddie stay? It asked, a hint of pleading in the tone.
“Is this what you look like?” Eddie dodged, gently pinching the surprisingly squishy tentacle.
We will show Eddie.
“Show me? What do you-hey!” Venom gripped his wrist and hips, raising Eddie into the air and into the pond.
Eddie squeezed his eyes closed against the cool water he was enveloped in, getting dragged further towards the bottom. The pressure nearly sent him into a claustrophobic panic attack, but it suddenly was gone and Eddie peeked his eyes open.
He was still floating in water but it was in a small cave that didn’t seem possible to exist under the small pond. Breathing deeply, Eddie squinted hard to see if there was anything else there in the strange place.
This was us when we came here.
The voice surrounded him from all sides, the water gently vibrating with it. Eddie turned, trying and failing to find a source.
We are unlike humans with one form to keep us static and unchanging, we shrink and grow and twist as we please. Here, Eddie can see what we looked like before coming to Earth.
Something brushed past his leg and he flinched back, watching a dark mass slowly surface beside him. It was like a blob of slime, slightly glistening and misshapen. It pulsed softly, sending soft ripples across the water. It wasn’t plants or seaweed or anything he’d seen before, whatever it was was not from Earth.
Hesitantly, he brushed his fingers across it. A humming seemed to fill the cavern. Venom moved closer, a tendril extended in an almost exploratory manor. Eddie allowed it to wrap around his wrist without protest, treading water with just one arm. Seemingly embolden, Venom raised itself slightly out of the water, revealing a long tentacle keeping it connected to some larger system.
When we came here, we could find no hosts. No true symbiosis. So we found the pond and buried ourself deep beneath its waters and connected to the growing plant life. Eventually, our forest spread to what it is today.
Water gently dripped off it’s slightly gelatinous form, another tendril wrapping itself around Eddie’s fingers. To his surprise, it shuddered and morphed until a face was meeting his gaze. Bald head with large, white eyes that seemed to almost glow. Glistening teeth were bared in a frightening smile, exactly that of the bear Eddie had encountered.
“ Eddie.” Venom’s voice was right there, some how more intimate than when he’d spoken directly into Eddie’s mind. “ Stay with us, Eddie. Say you will be mine. ”
“I…” Eddie trailed off, biting at his lower lip. Staring directly at Venom, Eddie could picture it. Despite being slightly invasive, Venom had only handled Eddie with care and there was no doubt Eddie would be safe and cared for in Venom’s forest. “Would you kill more people?”
“ We protect our own. ” Eddie nodded slowly.
“Yes…” He said firmly. “I‘ll stay with you.”
A happy hum echoed around them and Eddie was suddenly enveloped in many tentacles, much larger than the ones before, all of them squeezing and holding gently. Surprised, Eddie simply clung to the part of Venom still around his wrist.
They resurfaced in the meadow, a slight chill sending shivers across Eddie’s skin. Immediately Venom warmed its skin to a sufficient temperature and Eddie felt almost cozy as he was laid back against the moss.
More of the black mass emerged from the water, afternoon sun spilling across the clearing and making the sweet scent in the air stronger. Venom’s monstrous head towered over Eddie’s prone figure, a sound akin to purring rumbling from deep within.
“ Eddie .” It wasn’t a question, Venom seemed to just like saying his name. Eddie made a sound in response anyways. “ Together, safe and sound forever. ”
“Yeah,” Eddie replied, fingers softly cradling the entity's face as it leaned in close. “Forever. I promise.”
And he meant it.