Chapter Text
When Eddie’s life fell apart, the first thing he had wanted was to get out. Staring after Anne’s back as she stomped away, box of her things in hand and heels clicking along the sidewalk, he had gotten back onto his motorcycle and taken off. Without a destination or plan, Eddie had simply sped off into traffic and lost himself between the purr of his bike and the road stretching ahead of him.
As cowardly as it seemed, he hadn’t been able to bear the thought of going back to their former apartment and clearing out his possessions. Something ugly and unpleasantly hot bubbled in the back of his throat so he revved his engine harder and let the roar fill his ears.
Halfway down a highway he didn’t quite recognize, Eddie suddenly realized he had completely left the state of California. It was so jarring that he had to abruptly pull off the side of the road, switch his motorcycle off and tear his helmet frantically off his head.
Scrambling off his seat and onto his knees, Eddie took deep gulps of air as the silence started to press painfully against his eardrums. He got back to his feet with a noticeable tremor running through his limbs, but he managed to mount his bike and merged into traffic.
It took nearly half an hour but he soon came across some signs telling him he was in northwest Nevada and heading further north. He nearly turned back, but Eddie recalled a family vacation passing through Nevada and into Oregon.
Despite constantly trying to forget most memories of his family, it set something aflame in his skull and he was quickly following the freeway leading him closer to familiar land.
It had been years ago, but now his mind was flooded with sunny afternoons cooped up in an old family car with his father grumbling at the wheel as his mother played her “girly shit”. Something ached deep in his chest, but Eddie knew that he couldn’t shake the idea that’d taken root in his head.
Eddie had grandparents in Oregon he’d use to visit for Christmas. They had an old cabin they owned in a sleepy town with a population in the double digits. It was crazy that they even found any real estate out there for them, but they did and the cabin became a vacation home for their little family.
He could remember thinking that there had been nothing to do there besides wander the empty streets and making increasingly stranger snowmen in the backyard. With the whole town being covered in a couple inches of snow, Eddie’s parents had barred him from exploring the woods. It didn’t help that there’d been stories and legends spread through the town about crazy bear attacks and people going missing when they ventured too far into the thick wood past the abandoned water mill.
Now with a new purpose to his journey, Eddie continued to drive through the night until the wee hours of the morning when he came across a pit stop. He was lucky there was a motel and he could get a room for the night with only the cash he had on hand.
Arriving in the little town was like stepping into the past. Eddie was filled with nostalgia for golden tinted memories of his childhood before it got fucked up. The only restaurant, a little mom and pop dinner, still stood with it’s blinking neon sign and peeling blue paint. The old fashioned town hall still had the bell he’d only ever heard chime at noon every day, the metal dull and splattered with traces of bird poop.
Strangely enough, seeing how seemingly nothing had changed, caused a lump to form in his throat. Rolling up to the dinner, Eddie cut the engine and stepped down with a heavy gait, sore from the hours of nonstop travel.
Inside, there were only four people occupying the small space. Two men in grubby clothes nursing mugs of coffee and two waitresses in soft pastel pink uniforms.
Eddie immediately recognized one of the women’s faces despite the obvious signs of age changing her appearance. She used to sneak those old fashioned caramels into his hands when his parents hadn’t been looking while pressing a finger to her lips, fake nails gleaming.
“What’ll it be?” Laura asked, a friendly smile spreading across her face and exposing crows feet around the corners of her eyes.
“Do you still have blueberry pancakes and chocolate milk?” Her eyes lit up and an almost astonished gasp left her lips.
“Eddie Brock, is that really you?” She exclaimed, leaning forwards across the dinner bar. Something soft unfurled in his stomach and a bit of tension leaked from his posture. They both knew how each time Eddie’s family made the trip to Oregon, he had eaten the same meal for breakfast every day they went to the diner. Laura owned it with her late husband and worked full time there so she had started making it in advance whenever she knew they were visiting.
“Hey, it’s been a while hasn’t it?” She laughed, catching the attention of the second waitress and a side eye from the two other patrons there.
“It’s been forever! You take a seat wherever and I’ll bring you those pancakes right away. On the house.” Before he could protest too much, she had already disappeared into the kitchen and Eddie was left to sit in a sagging booth seat.
It was comforting to close his eyes and listen to the soft noises in the building, pretending that this was another trip and not a desperate escape from his crumbling life.
It wasn’t long before Laura returned to set a steaming plate in front of him with a glass of chocolate milk. He had mostly been joking, but the brightly colored bendy straw she had added sent a shocked laugh through him. He had always demanded one as a kid, stubbornly complaining the drink tasted different without.
“I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything else, don’t be afraid to ask.” Nodding mutely, Eddie picked up his utensils.
Once he’d finished up, he said his farewells and stepped out into the cloudy sunlight. He’d only ever visited in December when snow began to fall, so it was strange seeing the town soggy and dark.
Driving along the familiar dirt road into the trees nearly had Eddie backing out. It had been years since he’d been there, there was no telling what state the place would be in since he had no clue if it was still in use after his grandpa’s passing. Maybe it’d been sold or rented out? Maybe it was demolished or left to rot.
When he pulled into the front yard, he let out a sigh. The cabin looked nearly identical to how he remembered, the only difference being the lack of snow and bright windows.
The quiet after he shut his bike off was nearly all-encompassing. The only thing keeping it from being too much was the gentle whisper of wind and distant sound of birds.
The front door was locked and so were all the windows. Circling around the back, Eddie found the old cellar doors and hesitated just a moment before hauling them open. They moaned and complained loudly, but thankfully weren’t locked. It was dark and smelled slightly of mildew, but Eddie hopped down and landed on the cobblestone below.
Blinking feeling around, he eventually located the old fashioned gas lanterns mounted on the walls. The cellar was the oldest part of the place and hadn’t been remodeled since it’d been built decades ago.
Quickly making his way to the actual cabin, Eddie hauled himself into the little water closet that also doubled as a tiny laundry room. The whole place was pretty tiny despite housing him, his parents, and both his grandparents for a week or so. He used to sleep between his mom and dad on the only guest bed until he’d gotten older and started crashing on the couch in the living room with a thick quilt his grandmother had made.
Now, much of the life had been leached from the old cabin. No fire burned warmly in the fireplace and all the lights were off, the murky light streaming from the windows reminded Eddie of a horror movie set. With a shiver running up his spine, he went about turning on lights and wandering through the rooms like a ghost. He kicked up dust wherever he went and the strong stench of mold followed him through the house.
Much of the furniture had remained untouched since the last time Eddie had been there, like the grandfather clock sitting in the main room that had long since stopped ticking, and the large queen bed with that ugly floral print his father had often laughed at.
Eddie was unsure of what to do with himself. He had run impulsively from San Francisco without a single thought besides the need to get out . He felt rather silly now, standing inside a skeleton of his past. What was he doing? Sitting down heavily at the kitchen table, Eddie resting his face in his palms. He had to go back, move his things from Anne’s apartment and find a new place. A new job. A new life.
Just thinking about it caused his gut to jolt anxiously and a wave of guilt and grief to wash over him. Once again, Eddie Brock had spectacularly fucked everything up.
Night steadily fell across the small town, all the windows pitch black and the lights inside a warm orange. Deciding a night in the shack was better than driving back to California right then, Eddie gathered the sheets off the guest bed and beat them out an open window until they felt clean enough to sleep on.
Shedding his jacket and jeans, he curled beneath the heavy comforter and shut his eyes against the cold reality that awaited him in the morning.