“You know I know, right?”
“I- I don’t even know you-“
“Don’t play dumb, Anthony, we know it’s you,”
“Don’t be such a killjoy, live a little!”
“You’re a fucking bore, you know that?”
“You sure you have to go out again? Can’t we just, I don’t know, get some of those blood packages?”
“From where? Sam, get the fuck over it! I gotta eat or I’m eating you, and not by choice!”
“You did this to me! You know that! I’m tired of doing this every night, you know I have to!”
“No! No I don’t but that’s how it is! What else am I going to do?”
“I’m telling you, Gareth! I can find ways, I-I can fake an ID I can rob a damn hospital I’ll do it!”
“Why?! I’m here just let me help!”
“We lost mom and dad, we lost our sister, I’m not losing you to jail, Sam! Their death couldn’t be avoided but yours can!”
Tara scoffed, taking another breath from her cigarette, smoke leaking from the sides of her mouth and rising into the air,
“I’ve seen you around, ever since you came here… we knew you weren’t normal,” she said, holding the cigarette between her middle and pointer, resting her elbow on her elevated knee, her other leg hanging down on the edge of the building they sat on.
Anthony had his mask off, hood up. He sad next to the symbiote host and stared down at the streets below. He let out a low hum, “I knew I wasn’t hiding it well, I didn’t try to. More to spite him more than anything,”
“I get that. I’d do the same,” Tara said, “but with Karma, well,” she shrugged, “it’s a bit different,”
One less student went to their high school, at least. But they weren’t anyone Gabe liked anyways. That didn’t keep him from feeling guilty. Carnage begged to differ.
“It was deserved, he never left us alone about this and we barley know him!” The symbiote snarled, “he wants us to go to his parties that are shit anyways even though we already said no!”
Gabe pursed his lips, brows furrowing as his face scrunched angrily, his hands curled into fists in his pockets, “I know-“
“Then why feel like this?! We should be happy he’s gone!”
Gabe slammed the door closed in the bathroom and flicked on the lights, staring at the mirror and at the red and black symbiote’s face, slamming his hands against the counter at the sink, “It’s not about that! It’s the fact that you ate a fucking person on the streets without letting me know what the fuck you were going to do!”
Gareth never thought that standing over a body drained of its blood would get any easier, but now, he barley even feels it. It’s just another day, another lost soul. All because he had to eat.
He could go weeks without it, but once its time, it’s time. He doesn’t go for the parents, the children, he tries to desperately not to and avoid them. Instead, he prefers going for those spoiled rich CEOs.
However, murder is murder. It didn’t feel good afterward. No matter how much that bitch deserved it.
“It gets better,” Tara said, “it was an adjustment… us getting used to each other but, we made it work,”
Anthony hummed, looking at the other, then back down at his lap, “I’d imagine- I just- well,” he shrugged, “I’m not entirely like you two, I can reason with my powers, they just… are,”
The red haired girl put out her cigarette with symbiotic claws, tossing it to the side as her hand transformed back to human. She straightened her posture, stretching her arms over her head before setting them behind herself, bracing her body onto her arms as she let both her legs dangle over the ledge,
“You’ll figure it out. After all, they’re still your powers. In control or not, they belong to you… I guess you just have to make the best of a situation sometimes,” she scoffed, staring down at her own lap, “damn, I suck at comfort-“
“No,” the other teen said, taking in a breath. Tara looked over at him, titling her head,
He clasped his hands together in his lap, gripping at them tightly,
“No it-… it helps… it does,”
“You can’t just do whatever the fuck you want like that!”
“He was hurting you! Hurting us!”
Gabe exhaled sharply, whipping his head to the side before facing the mirror again, staring at the stubborn symbiote in their pale eyes,
“The least you could have done was tell me!”
“You would have said no! I did what I had to!”
Gabe pointed an accusing finger at the mirror, “Don’t fucking baby me! You share this body!”
“We share a body but you let it get stepped on all over!”
Gabe knocked over a glass cup off of the counter and it smashed on the ground with a loud crash, “Don’t lecture me about keeping myself alive!”
“And don’t lecture me about saving our dignity!”
“THIS ISN’T OUR BATTLE, THIS ISN’T YOUR BODY!” He screamed, “ITS MINE! MINE! NOT YOURS! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!” The teen mindlessly gripped the side of the mirror and ripped it off of the wall, throwing it to the side into the empty bathtub where it shattered with a crash into massive shards.
He was breathing heavily. The symbiote kept quiet, as silent as he could. Gabe knew he was there, but somehow, he felt even more alone. Gabe pressed himself against the wall, not even realizing he was backing up to it and slid to the ground. He didn’t realize he was crying either.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, right? Right. Gareth felt full and then some. At least he ate sooner than later. He might last longer. Who fucking knows anymore. Not like Sam asked what the hell this serum did or the effects of it before letting that scientist bitch give it to him.
He sighed. Pulling his knees to his chest as he sat on his bed in clean clothes after washing up. It wasn’t Sam’s fault but… no, he couldn’t have known, they didn’t tell him everything.
He would have died without it.
But was it worth it? Would Sam have given him the serum if he knew what it would do to him?
Would Gareth have wanted to die there and then if he knew this was what he would be?
He didn’t know. He couldn’t decide what was worse.
He decided he didn’t want to figure it out now. He was tired.
So he lied down in his bed, pulled the covers over himself.
And he stayed awake, staring at the ceiling. His mind begged to differ.
