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Love and Gloom Chapter One

Rating: T for Teen

Contains: Adult language and situations

Summary: New York City there is thousands of people inhabiting it, including aliens, heroes, and villains. Mara and Neil, two college students attempt to survive this city. Both coming from broken homes, their hearts struggle to heal. They will soon encounter all sorts of people who are just as broken as them, but will their hearts grow stronger or break them down even more?

Main Pairing(s): Female OC x Eddie Brock/Venom - Male OC x Max Dillon/Electro

We hope you enjoy. <3

Chapter One: Mara Lovell

It was a cool October night when Mara Lovell and Neil Yūutsu finally brought up the last box into Mara’s new studio apartment in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. The brunette woman had finally left her abusive household and was now living on her own.

It terrified her.

As she took a long look around the apartment, she felt a strange mix of both anxiousness and relieving freedom in the lived-in flat. As she took it all in, the sound of a box dropping to the floor snapped her back to reality. “Finally we are done!” Neil stated and sat on one of the boxes containing books, wiping a tiny bead of sweat off his brow. “Your punk ass mother had to make things difficult by being all ‘woe is me, my daughter is leaving’ and shit.” He reached over to the counter top next to him, grabbing one of the many cans of his Tiki Punch he brought for what he called a ‘test of his strength and endurance’.

Mara rolled her eyes at him and sat on a box across from him. “Yeah… but thankfully we won’t have to deal with her anymore.” She said both ashamed and exhausted.

“No… YOU won’t have to deal with her anymore. Bitch ain’t gon’ try me again like she did today.” He said as he took a sip of the maroon-colored drink, earning another chuckle from the brunette.

Roxanne Red Lovell, formally Roxanne Red Stewart, now known as ‘punk ass mother’ by Neil, stopped Mara from getting most of her things from her mother’s house.

“I bought you those clothes, so they’re mine!” Her mother would yell, “The furniture too! Your father left it to me not you!”

“Vernon is gonna kick your ass if you talk shit about him just you remember that!”

Vernon was Roxanne’s boyfriend for thirteen years now. He was a meth head that frequently got high around the house, and took ecstasy with his friends which often included Roxanne. He did nothing for a living, just lived off of social security income for a reason that Mara didn’t care enough to find out about.

Mara looked over at a box of clothing sitting on the slightly worn couch. They were clothes that Helen Stacy had given her.

Helen was the mother of her best friends; Gwen Stacy. Helen gave the young college student Gwen’s old clothes when she heard that Mara was moving out.

“She doesn’t need these anymore… She’ll want you to have them.”

Gwen… It’s been a year since she died. The day that she was kidnapped by the mad supervillain, ‘The Green Goblin’, was one that Mara would never forget. Ludicrous name. He kidnapped her and threw her off the George Washington Bridge. The hero ‘Spiderman’, tried saving her but he ended up being the one who caused her death. The string of webbing he shot to save her caught her by the leg mid-fall, and the sudden stop broke her neck. Mara didn’t blame the Spider-Man for killing her friend as she would’ve died from the fall anyway, but she was not a fan of the wallcrawler either.

Her friend took a glance at his watch before standing up and taking a stretch, “I gotta head to work now, Sugar, they really need me tonight. Sorry that I have to leave so soon.”

Mara’s reminiscing was cut off by this, and she looked up at her bestie with her silver eyes, “No no! Don’t be sorry! Thank you for helping me with all of this.” She stood up and opened the box of Gwen’s clothes. “I know I can be a nuisance someti-.”

“You are not a nuisance, your mom is.” He interrupted as he walked over to hug her tightly, “Are you sure you don’t wanna just live with me and not alone?”

She smiled and hugged him back with a giggle, “I need to take care of myself for the time being.” The brunette then gave him a wink. “I appreciate the offer though.”

They let go of each other and walked towards the door.

“I understaaaand.” The Japanese student said as he shrugged his shoulders took a step out the opened front door. He turned around and smiled at his friend, “Take care of yourself, darlin’. Call me if you need anything okay?”

The French American smiled and stood in the doorway, “You know I will, take care. I love you.”

“Love you too girl. Byyye.” He said, throwing a peace sign above his head as he sauntered away down the hall.

Mara watched him before he turned the corner out of sight. She closes her apartment door and sighs, leaning back against it. She was finally free of her mother. After a moment of basking in her freedom, the woman grabbed her phone, adorned with a pink case with lizard designs, to check the time.

6:10 pm

“I guess I should organize a little before making dinner.” She said to herself before putting her phone back in her pocket, pushing herself off of the door, and walking back to stack of boxes to unpack.

⧫⧫⧫

The next hour or so yielded some progress. One of the boxes she worked on contained literature she loved to read. Some included the Great Gatsby, A Little Princess, and of course Romeo and Juliet. She was quite fond of reading fantasy and romance novels, as she could easily escape her reality by diving into the pages for hours at a time. The college student looked across the room near one of the wide, worn windows and found the small old shelf Neil gave her as a moving gift. Smiling softly at its presence, she pushed it to the wall before stocking it with books.

One of the books slipped from her hands, the pages fluttering in the air before hitting the ground and expelling a small photo she once used as a bookmark. She hesitated, seeing that it was a book Gwen had given her a long time ago as a birthday present. Mara picked up the photo to see Neil, Gwen, and herself, smiling happily in front of one of the stone lions at the library. Looking down at the page the photo fell from, she read one of the quotes.

"’Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you. ’You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’”

As a teardrop fell and darkened on the page, Mara quickly put the picture back in the book and put it away.

“No, no… I can’t think about her now…” The brunette thought to herself sadly. She promised herself she wasn’t going to cry anymore.

“Let’s room together Mara, it’ll be fun. We can stay up all night watching Netflix with no curfew!”

Gwen was silly around her. Gwen was nice. Gwen was cool. Gwen was beautiful. Gwen was smart. Gwen was her best friend.

Gwen was alive…

The woman took the picture back out from the book and placed it up on the shelf, “We got our apartment Gwen. Just like you wanted.”

Tears filled her eyes and her heart felt heavy, “I always wanted to share this moment with you.” Her tears rolled down her face before she left the bookcase and went to her other boxes.

She opened another box and found her black case containing her glasses. Mara was colorblind, she had tritanopia meaning she was blue and yellow blind. She opened the case to see her broken glasses only containing one lens. It broke when Vernon threw them on the floor and crushed them because he was angry at her. Mad at her for what? She thinks it was because he thought she took his last beer when he was holding it in his hand.

He was also the reason she was colorblind. Mara used to see normal color but it all changed when Vernon came into the picture.

⧫⧫⧫

When Mara was little and still lived in California, she picked golden daisies for her mother. They were Roxanne’s favorite, because she loved the color yellow but mostly because it came from her one and only daughter.

Around the time she was six, her mother and father divorced. At seven, Roxanne took her to live in New York to be far away from her father as possible. The mother took care for her child till she found Vernon and sadly Roxanne was a weak woman. She felt like she needed a man in her life to show her affection. When Mara was eight Vernon moved into their house, he used to be nice till he moved in of course.

One day when the eight year old was walking home from school she found some golden daisies and picked them for her mom. It was a nice day, school was fun, and her artwork was placed on the classroom’s wall. What a great day it was.

But when she got home Vernon was screaming in front of the house with a beer bottle in his hand. Mara was scared but she slowly walked towards him.

“Where the fuck is it then!? Where the fuck is my lottery ticket!?” He screamed stumbling around, “It had fifty fucking dollars on it!”

He then spotted the little girl and had a realization.

“You.”

She turned her head to look behind her, confused, she looked back at him. Her?

“You.” He pointed at little Mara with the hand that held the beer, “You took it you little shit!”

“No I didn’t.” She said scared.

“Don’t you dare lie to me!” He shouted grabbing her by the hair.

The girl screamed dropping the flowers for her mother on the ground and grabbed his hand, trying to pry it off of her brown hair. But that made him angrier. He smacked her head with the bottle which made her call out in pain and collapsed on her knees.

“MOMMY!!” She cried as she felt hot and cold liquid roll down her face.

Roxanne came out smoking a cigarette, disinterested but mildly annoyed.

“What?” She said plainly.

“MAKE HIM STOP!”

“Just give him his lottery ticket you fucking idiot.”

Mara’s eyes widened. What? Why wasn’t mommy helping her? Why would they think a eight year old took a lottery ticket? What did she do wrong?

“Yeah!” Vernon shouted, dragging her to the wooden beam and smacked her head on it. “Where is it!?”

The little girl saw stars.

He smacked her again, “Where is it you little shit!?”

Everything was fading away in black clouds.

Again it happened, shouting the same thing.

Blood dripped to the ground and vomit oozed from her mouth. Today was supposed to be a good day.

The little girl’s body went limp and her eyes went completely black.

She woke up in a hospital bed. Bandages wrapped around her head. Everything looked weird, the colors seemed off. She looked around to see a doctor talking to her mother.

“Your daughter was attacked when she was walking home? Where were you?” The lady asked.

“I was getting groceries with my boyfriend and I found my child on the floor doctor!” Roxanne said with tears rolling down her place, “Why would someone do this to a child!? I should’ve walked her home, but the school is just right across the street!”

She was lying. Why would a mother let that happen to a child?

Mara blacked out again, later she found out she went color blind. The head injury caused it. Vernon caused it, for a fifty dollar lottery ticket that he hid in his sock drawer the whole time.

Her world went grey, because of a stupid mistake and her mother didn’t help her.

The golden daisies turned white and she never picked them for her mother again.

⧫⧫⧫

Mara slammed the case and glasses onto the ground in anger. She shouldn’t be remembering these bad times. She grabbed her phone to check the time again.

7:08 pm

“Food will make me feel better.” She said and looked through a box to find her rice cooker. She went to her small kitchen to place it on the counter and plugged it in. She filled the cooker halfway with water and placed three packets of ramen noodles in it. She closed it and put it to cook.

The colorblind girl looked around her small empty kitchen and then looked at the ramen, she wondered if the kitchen was going to get any use. It was most likely she’ll only eat instant ramen for a few months since she’s broke.

Money is saved up in her bank account, but for only a few months of rent. Some of her money was from her father who passed away when she was twenty. Her rent is only $800 a month, which is pretty cheap thank god, but the landlord will raise it to $850 around December.

If she is careful and save while working at her new job at a singing cafe called, ‘Purely Purple’, she should be A-OK.

“I’m going to die.” Mara mumbled as she sat on one of her boxes and waited for her rice cooker ramen to finish cooking.

⧫⧫⧫

After she ate, Mara went back to unpacking. She unpacked her art supplies, her art, framed posters, pictures, she stopped unpacking when she found her scrapbook. The book was tan and had red text painted on it (it looked pink to Mara). The text was a quote from a book that she hadn’t read yet it said, “Maybe Memories Should Be Left The Way They Are.”

One would think the scrapbook would contain pictures of friends, but it contained newspaper clippings from the Midtown High School, the Daily Globe, and the Daily Bugle. Why? Because the articles were written by a man who she had a crush on since high school, Edward Charles Alan Brock. Mara had articles from Welcome to Midtown High! to Confessions of a Sin Eater. The college student always liked his writing, she buys a newspaper everyday just to see if he had written anything but the last few days she hadn’t bought any because of her moving situation. Maybe she could ask her friend Peter Parker if he could get them for her since he worked at the Daily Bugle as well.

Mara smiled as she went through the articles. Eddie Brock was and still is very popular with everyone, to her he was perfect in every way, but that could be that she’s in love. She imagined being with him but never attempted to actually ask him out, mostly because he already had his perfect girlfriend Anne Weying. Well… ex girlfriend now, they broke up two years ago.

Anne was Eddie’s life, he wanted to marry her and everyone knew that but Anne wanted to finish up school first before they do that. No one knows exactly why they broke up though. One would say that if you like him just ask him out, but Mara was a very shy person with very low self esteem, she doesn’t feel she was good enough for Eddie. Anne was an amazing girl, and how do you ask someone out who was set to marry the girl of his dreams? Was there a time of grief he still needed to do? Romantic relationships was indeed not her forte.

Mara wondered why he wasn’t dating anyone, maybe Anne was his one and only? Eddie was very handsome, goes to school, works at the Daily Bugle as a writer and part-time photographer. He’s a former football player, but when he stopped playing two years ago he gained some weight, he now has a belly and his cheeks were a bit chubby, yet he was still beautiful to the colored blind girl.

She flipped a page and saw the poem she wrote in high school, My Dear Football Player.

⧫⧫⧫

My Dear Football Player

My dear football player how I love you so.

The way you look at me and make my cheeks glow.

Sweet eyes like stained glass.

That turns me into brass.

My love for you is but a prayer.

To hug and hold my dear football player.

In a black and white world your are most colorful.

And your smile is bright and so so meaningful.

If only you could be mine.

But someone else promised to love you till the end of time.

I just smile and wave.

And cherish the happiness you gave.

To me you are the world.

To you I am just an ordinary girl.

In the shadows I watch you craft.

And mourn for the dear football player I will never have.

Grey is my world, color is yours.

My eyes grow tired as the salt water pours.

I hate to say goodbye dear football player.

But I will never be yours, not even in my hopeful prayer.

-Midtown’s Silly Lizard

⧫⧫⧫

Midtown’s Silly Lizard was a secret name when she anonymously sent poems for the school newspaper. The name had her initials on them.

Midtown Mara

Silly Stewart

Lizard Lovell

Though the student doesn’t have a middle name, she used her dad’s last name Stewart, which helped throw people off her trail, because the teens in that school wanted to know who made that pathetic love poem. Flash Thompson assumed the poem was about him and the girlfriend was Liz Allen. The witch hunt only lasted about a week and everyone forgot about it.

The only people who knew about it was Neil and Gwen. They encouraged her to show her more artistic side to the school, but the shy girl decided she would rather do it actual art form and not writing.

The brunette yawned and then checked her phone for the time.

10:53 pm

“I should get ready for bed.” She said softly to herself and looked around, she pretty much organized everything. She just needed a dresser for her clothes and she’ll be set.

Mara put her scrapbook in her shelf and grabbed the air mattress Neil bought her (that she will pay him back for later) and started to inflate it. When it was done she grabbed her African patterned quilt that her old lady friend Fae Miller made for her and grabbed one of her pillows, and placed them on the mattress. The curvy woman stripped to only her underwear and shirt and snuggled into the bed.

⧫⧫⧫

Meanwhile in a facility in Newfield, New York.

“MIRANDA! MIRANDA!” A scratchy voice called out.

“Yes LouLou?” A young woman said in a doctor’s coat and holding a clipboard.

“MARA LOVELL MOVED. RESEND INVITATION.” The voice said.

The woman pressed her reading glasses back and walked over to the computer, “Thank you for telling me.” She typed on the keyboard and accessed into the system to go into Mara’s files.

Name: Mara Stewart-Lovell

DOB: 06/21/**

Height: 5’5

Weight: 158 lbs

Hair: brown

Eyes: silver

Social: ***-**-****

Address: 300 Quincy Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11216

Work: Purely Purple, 631 9th Ave, New York, NY 10036

School: Empire State University

Major: Fine/Studio Arts

Relative(s): Roxanne Red Lovell-mother

Disorder(s): tritanopia-color blindness

“Oh so she moved to Brooklyn?” The woman said before printing out her letter, “Nice place. Hope she isn’t with her mother, horrible woman according to my research.”

A green parrot flew and landed on her right shoulder, “HORRIBLE HORRIBLE! BAD MOTHER BAD!”

The researcher shushed the bird as she grabbed the piece of paper from the printer and wrote her signature.

“LouLou.” She said as she placed it in an envelope, “Give this to Richard.”

Green slime came out the bird and grabbed the envelope, it then slithered out the parrot which made the pet flapped its wings rapidly. The green ooze shaped itself to look like a slithering imp and skittered away.

“Hi.” The bird squawked and nibbled her hair, it can’t say proper sentences without its parasitic friend.

“Mara Lovell, with your help we can change the world.”

“Change!” The bird squawked earning a smile from the woman.

“Yes, for a better world.” She said as she softly patted her parrot’s head.

⧫⧫⧫

As Mara slept she started to dream.

The silver eyed girl was sitting on a bench at Central Park. She breathed in the fresh air and smelled the fresh cut grass and hotdogs being sold around her. It was peaceful.

She then saw her friend Neil in the middle of the field with Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. Mara smiled brightly as she went to get up and run to her friends but she couldn’t move.

A look of puzzlement spread on her face as she looked down to see she was chained to the bench. This struck fear inside her as she tried to yell for help but a breathless screamed came out, no one could hear the poor girl.

She tried to yell again but again no one heard and she started to sink into the concrete. She screamed but only a squeak came out before she was completely emerged in the darkness.

Mara tried to wake up, she struggled to breathe. Her limbs felt stiff and all she could muster is a twitch now again.

“Is this how people die?” She thought before realizing she was now in a dark room on a bed.

The woman got off the bed and noticed she was naked and when she looked at her body she was filled with large holes. Her body ached where the holes were, like she actually felt her body rot away.

The woman got off the bed and walked to the door and once she opened it, she appeared in the hallways of Midtown High School.

She looked around and saw some people she knew. The girl walked down the hall exposed and saw what they were doing. The high school jock Flash Thompson was making out with his girlfriend in high school Liz Allen and right next to them were Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy making out also. The boys however didn’t have their eyes closed like their partners, they were staring at a naked Mary Jane Watson who was laying sensually on the floor. The red head smiled confidently with her eyes closed as she laid there.

“Mary Jane!” Mara cried out and grabbed her arm, “Don’t let them look at you like that!”

Mary Jane opened her green eyes and glared at the empty girl, “Don’t be jealous that I receive the attention and you don’t. You are disgusting.”

“Mary Jane I know I am but you shouldn’t expose yourself like this!” The dreamer said almost in tears.

The iris’ in her friend’s eyes enlarged as she said, “You’re the one hiding secrets.”

⧫⧫⧫

Mara woke up in cold sweat.

“Oh god.” She mumbled sitting up and rubbed her aching arms. Mara could still feel where the holes were on her body. The dream was confusing and surreal, she didn’t understand it. What did dream Mary Jane meant about ‘hiding secrets’, Mara didn’t have secrets…

“I don’t have secrets…” She murmured.

(She was in love with Gwen Stacy, that was a dirty secret.)

She lied, she did have secrets. Secrets the college student tried to hide.

(She’s hopelessly in love with Eddie Brock.)

“I have no secrets.” She told herself and laid back down.

(She fell for a person who scammed her.)

Mara was embarrassed about her secrets. Some of them she knows that Neil knew, but there was one she keeps from everyone.

(She thinks she deserved the abuse her mother and Vernon gave her.)

“This move stressed me out more than I thought.” She said as she laid on her side and went back to sleep.

(And the biggest secret of them all… she is broken.)

⧫⧫⧫

Mara woke up around 11:00 am. She missed a few texts from Neil and her friend Alma Alvarado. She yawned as she opened her texts.

Neil: Hey gurllllll. Got you dumplings. Come over when you can. (sent: 1:22 am)

Mara smiled, her best friend was so kind.

Alma: Hey, can you watch Kima Tuesday? I’m going to a party. Thx. (sent: 6:00 am)

“Huh? Alma I just moved in…” Mara muttered to her phone and quickly laid back down, “I don’t have time for that…” She fell back to sleep.

Then her phone rang. It played Please Don’t Make Me Love You from the Dracula musical. She groaned as she grabbed her phone to check the caller I.D. It was Neil. She picked up the phone and yawned, “Hello?” “Girl! It is 11:30, get your ass over here and eat your dumplings!” He stated over the phone.

Mara rolled on her side and stretched, “Okay, I’ll bike there in a few minutes.”

“Kay, don’t keep me waiting. I’m making breakfast.” The Asian said sweetly.

“Make coffee too please.” She said sitting up from the air matress. “I don’t drink coffee, there is no coffee.” Neil said, “I have juice.” “Aw. Learn how to drink coffee.”

“Learn how to live without coffee.”

“I can’t, it’s my essence.”

“Then find a new one.”

“I’m getting dressed right now, I should be there in an hour.” The woman said sitting up and looked for clothes to wear.

“Kay, I’ll be waiting. Love you.” “Love you too baby bugga boo.”

Neil hung up.

Mara looked through Gwen’s old clothes. She could almost still smell Gwen’s perfume on them.

“Thanks, Gwen…” She muttered and took out a green and black striped blouse, a pair of blue jeans, a red belt, a pair of green socks, and a pair of black sneakers.

“No underwear or bras…” She mumbled, “I need to buy some.”

The brunette got undressed and wore the outfit she picked out (without undergarments) and then brushed her hair. She then grabbed Gwen’s signature black headband and placed it in her hair. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw Gwen.

“This is creepy… I look like an obsessed stalker.”

Perhaps she was, but who stalks a dead girl?

Mara grabbed her phone to check the time. 12:03 pm

“I gotta go.” She thought to herself, grabbing her old brown leather bookbag and old white bicycle and head out of the flat. The woman placed the bag in the basket before rolling it down in the hallway towards the elevator. Once she went down she left the building and started biking to her friend’s apartment.

⧫⧫⧫

It was a nice day for a bike ride in New York. It was sunny but wasn’t too hot, there was a slight breeze. What a nice day to go biking.

She smiled as she turned into an alleyway to avoid the streetlights. When Mara was halfway down two men came out from a doorway from the wall and stood in the way.

“Oh shit..!” She muttered knowing the men planned to mug her, the alley was too narrow for her to turn her bike around so she quickly got off, snatched her bag, and ran.

But there was a man behind her.

“Hey little lady, where you think you’re going?” The man asked taking steps towards her making Mara take steps back.

“Please just let me go.” The woman said scared.

“What? Let you go?” The second man behind her said. “Why was a lovely young lady like you going down in a old alleyway anyway?” The third man said smirking, “Just screaming for someone to grab you.”

Mara took a deep breathe and gathered all the courage she could muster and yelled, “Leave me alone!”

The man in front of her laughed, “Did you hear that boys? She’s being so rude to us! Should we punish her?”

Hearing that her body felt numb. She had to escape. Mara attempted to run past the man in front of her but her just grabbed her and his friends rushed behind her.

“Oh no, you can’t leave.” He stated.

Mara struggled and yelled, “LET ME GO!”

One of the men behind her covered her mouth and whispered harshly, “Not till we have fun with you girlie!”

“That’s what you think!” Someone said, but it didn’t sound like a person, it sounded like a monster.

A figure jumped off the wall and landed on its feet. The three men stumbled back and screamed in fear, Mara’s eyes widened, it really WAS a monster.

It was seven feet tall and huge! It’s skin looked like black tar smoothed on a bodybuilder’s body, with a large white spider printed on it chest. The monster’s teeth were razor sharp with large amounts of saliva oozing from its mouth, it had what seemed like a permanent, demonic smile, and its eyes were pure white blotches, emotionless, but so sinister looking. Its stare just pierced the souls of the four humans in front of it.

“Despicable villains, threatening an innocent! We hate scum like you!” The monster stated lifting its muscular arm up and shot white webbing at the chest of the criminal standing in front of Mara, and pulled him fiercely towards him. The man screamed before the monster punched him in the face, knocking the man out stone cold and fall to the floor.

“O-Oh my God..!” Mara thought shaking staring at man that fell to the ground, he didn’t move, was he dead?

“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” One of the men shouted, before he and his friend started to run the opposite of the demonic spider.

Mara wanted to run but she was petrified. What did this demon want with them?

“Not so fast!” The creature said shooting webs from its hands again. The webbing wrapped around the men’s legs and it pulled them harshly, making them scream as they fell face flat on the ground. Then the monster started to drag them towards it, “We’re not done with you quite yet!”

“Oh God please--! Someone help us!” One of the men shouted as they were dragged.

The other man clinged onto the college student’s leg tightly making her yelp as she fell on the floor and dragged with them.

The monster sneered as he snatched the man who held onto Mara away, forcing him to let go of her.

“You scum! It is too late for you to beg for help, you poltroon!” The monster stated before its long slimy tongue slipped out of it mouth and licked the scared criminal’s cheek, “Did you know we like brains?”

“Brains!?” Mara thought horrified covering her mouth with her hands.

The man stared at him terrified, tears leaked from his eyes, and his heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest, “P-Please! I-I’m s-s-sorry!”

“Too late for atonements we’re afraid.” The monster said simply as it’s oily skin crawled onto the man’s face and covered in completely, “Hurting the innocent is the most hideous sin, my boy.”

The woman and the other man watched in horror as the man struggled and thrashed in midair. He kept struggling till he went limp and the spider man dropped him to the ground.

Limp and lifeless, just like his friend next to him.

The last man was shaking, he and the girl next to him couldn’t comprehend what exactly was happening. A strong smell waft through the air, it smelled like urine. Mara looked at the man next to her, he pissed himself. Oh God, it was so weird seeing criminals being scared shitless… Well… pissless.

“Now for the last one.” The monster said glaring down at the two humans under it. It squatted down over the piss soaked man with its tongue out, “Mmm-Mm-Mm! We can’t wait to eat your brains.”

The man just shook in fear as the monster’s tongue and gave him a lick on his cheek. The third and last criminal fainted making the behemoth chuckle. It the grabbed the man’s body and and sprayed webbing on him to stick the man to the wall.

“Miscreants like you should not be done with so easily.” It said grabbing the other men and webbed them to the wall, “But we have to tend to the lady.”

“Tend to the lady!?” Mara thought as the monster turned to her, its eyes pierced her soul. When it took a step towards her, she got up and booked it. She did not want to die this way.

“Wait! Mara! Don’t be scared!” The creature shouted with its long muscular arm reaching out towards her.

Her mind went blank. It knew her name!? Distracted from her own confusion the young woman tripped over her bike and fell hard on the floor. Her bookbag slid away from her and Gwen’s headband fell off of her head. She felt pain on her right arm as she struggled to get up.

Mara then felt strong hands grab her from her waist and lift her up gently to her feet. Once the hands let her go she turned around to look at her savior.

“Who are you?”

“Sorry for being rude.” The monster said patting the top of her head, “We’re Venom.”

“Ve-Venom?” She whispered before remembering seeing him in newspapers.

Venom Lethal Protector! Venom the Alien Menace! Spiderman and Venom: Arachnids of New York!

“The… The Lethal Protector?”

The creature couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

“We see you’ve read the papers...” He said shaking his head, “...We don’t care for that title much.” The monster looked back up at the woman before noticing the scrape on her arm, “Poor thing. Here.” Venom then grabbed her arm and webbed the wound. “That’ll help it heal.”

“O-Oh…” Mara said rubbing her arm, “Thank you.”

“Where are you heading to?” He asked picking up her bookbag and headband.

“Crown Heights.” She answered as he gave her back her bag. She wore it over her shoulder.

“That’s not far from here, we’ll give you a lift.” He then placed the headband on her head.

The woman blushed and shook her head, “No that’s okay. I have my bike.”

“Nonsense.” The alien said grabbing her bike and webbed it to the wall, “We insist. We will take your bike home afterwards.”

“I appreciate the offer but---” She said as Venom lifted her up, “Ahhh!”

“We’ll get you there in no time.” He embraced her making her wrap her legs around his waist.

“S-Sir. I can go by myself.” Mara said before the black alien walked on the wall making her stare at the ground as they got higher and higher. She tried to find an excuse for him to put her back down, “Venom, we can’t just leave the men there!”

“The law enforcement will handle them.” He said simply as they reached the top of the building, “Hold on tight Mara.”

He then jumped from the building, making the college student close her eyes and held onto the spider for dear life. She felt his cold smooth skin against hers as he swung building to building. It was hard but yet he could expand it, like he was made of liquid marble.

To most people who didn’t live in New York would think that was ridiculous, but when you live in a city that had men made of sand, water, and electricity. So marble skin that could stretch wasn’t too far fetched.

They were both silent for a few minutes before, well the alien was singing a song. Mara believed the song was Mr. Telephone Man by New Edition. It was odd hearing a sweet song being sung by a deep voiced monster. It was terrifying.

When Venom finished his song he started humming. Curious of where she was, she opened her eyes to see the streets below her. Mara gasped and clenched her eyes back shut and wrapped her arms and legs tighter around her transporter.

The spider gave an awkward grunt as he continued to swing building to building, “Afraid of heights?”

“No… Just falling. (To my death.)” She answered with her eyes still closed.

“We’ll never let you fall.”

“Thank you… Good to know.”

“Being sarcastic?”

“No no! Just…” She gulped, “Just want to be put down.”

They were silent for a few moments, making Mara feel bad that she hurt her savior’s feelings.

“You can let go now.” Venom said.

“No no no! I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings!”

“You didn’t.” He said as he patted her back, “We’re here.”

The woman’s eyes snapped open to see that she was on top of a building, but the world started to spin so she closed them again.

“Dear lady.” Venom said awkwardly, “Are you still scared of falling..?” “... Yeah.” She admitted sadly, “Everything is spinning.”

“Ah, we see.” The hero said looking around not knowing what to do, “We’ll just sit you on the ground.” Venom’s skin expanded lifting her off of him and gently placed her on the ground.

She opened her eyes, she was still dizzy.

“Th-Thank you.” Mara said standing up but stumbled to the monster making him catch her, “S-Sorry.”

“No problem Mara.”

She moved away from him, “How do you know my name!?”

He was silent for a moment before answering, “We read your mind.”

The college student looked dumbfounded. Could he really do that? Well this is New York, anything can happen.

“So where do you live so we can deliver your bike there?”

The woman blinked before answering his question, with a question, “I thought you could read minds?”

“We’ll just leave your bike then.”

“So you don’t read minds?”

“We’ll leave now.” He said as he hopped on the ledge.

“It’s 300 Quincy Street in Brooklyn.” Mara said making him turn his head back at her.

“300 Quincy… Got it.”

He was about to jump off before Mara called out to him, “Oh Venom…”

Venom looked back at her, “Yes?”

“Thank you… for saving me.”

“No problem. Take care of yourself, Mara.” The man said with a grin (A bigger grin than usual.), before hopping off the building and swung away with his webbing.

Mara went to the edge and watched him till he was gone before realizing she was on the roof of Neil’s apartment building.

“Can he read minds or can’t he?” She asked herself before grabbing her phone and called Neil.

“Hello?” Neil answered.

“Hey uh, Neil? I’m on the roof.”

“The roof!? The roof of what?”

“Your apartment.”

“My apartment!?”

“Yeah. And I can’t exit the door, so can you open it for me?”

“How in the hell did you get on the roof!?”

“Long story, can you get me please?”

⧫⧫⧫

After Neil opened the door on the roof for Mara, they hurried to his apartment. She told him about getting mugged but being saved by Venom.

“Who?”

“Venom.” She answered earning a stare from Neil.

“The Lethal Protector?” She said earning silence. The woman sighed and grabbed her phone and googled the hero. She faced the phone to him that had a picture of the spider creature standing on a rooftop with his tongue out.

“That’s a lot of man…. But a whole lot of ugly.” The oriental student said simply as Mara put her phone away.

“He is rough around the edges but he’s nice… I just can’t look at him for a long time.”

“Because he’s ugly.” Neil stated.

“Y-Yeah.” Mara nodded.

“Like… I don’t mind him using his tongue on me, he just needs to wear a bag over his head and I’ll call him daddy.”

Mara laughed, “Eww. No thank you.”

The male student chuckled before stating, “You’re not going home tonight, you’re sleeping with me.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s a blessing to sleep with me girl!” He stated before grabbing plates of food, “Also I don’t trust you being alone after all of that. You’re sleeping here tonight, come with me to school, then I’ll walk you home.” He then placed a plate of pancakes, sausage, and eggs in front of her.

“You know, I don’t mind. I felt lonely in the apartment anyways.” The silver eyed girl said, “But what do I do for clothes?”

Neil smirked devilishly, “We don’t wear clothes here.”

“I do.”

“Fine. I have a spare skirt and turtleneck in a box.”

“Where did you get that?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Kay.” The girl said simply before she started to eat the breakfast her friend made, it was delicious.

Later they watched movies and shows together till it was time to go to sleep. Mara wore Neil’s shirt and shorts to bed in his spare bedroom and quickly fell into slumber.

With a day she had, sleep was a must.

She enjoyed her sleep before Neil woke her up in the morning, shaking her shoulder.

“Mara! … Mara!”

Groggily she woke up confused, “Wh-Wha---”

“Look!” He stated before showing the front page of the Daily Bugle Newspaper.

She rubbed her eyes before examining the paper. It had a picture of Venom swinging around a building, holding her bike. The colorblind girl then looked at the headline.

Venom Steals Bike!

“Oh my fucking God…”

#fanfic #venom #electro #max dillon #eddie brock #spiderman #Love&Gloom

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