Rain hammered against the apartment windows hard enough to sound like static.
Evelyn Carter barely noticed.
“COME ON—COME ON—COME ON—”
Her fingers flew across the keyboard with desperate precision while neon lights from her monitor painted her cramped Seattle apartment in shades of blue and purple.
Empty instant noodle cups covered half the desk.
A hoodie hung from the back of her chair like a corpse.
On-screen, her character had exactly twelve HP left.
Twelve.
One mistake and the raid was over.
In her headphones, six people screamed simultaneously.
“EVE, LEFT SIDE!”
“I KNOW!”
“HE’S CASTING—”
“MOVE!”
“I SAID I KNOW!”
Eve slammed a key hard enough to nearly break it.
Her assassin-class avatar vanished into shadow a fraction of a second before the boss attack detonated across the arena in a wave of digital fire.
The Discord call exploded.
“No fucking way—”
“She CLUTCHED—”
“EVE IS INSANE!”
A grin spread across Eve’s face despite the exhaustion burning behind her eyes.
There it was.
That tiny rush.
The one thing that still made her feel awake lately.
Three monitors illuminated her tired expression.
Dark brown hair fell messily across her face, unwashed after nearly two days indoors.
She wore an oversized black hoodie and mismatched socks while surviving entirely on caffeine and bad decisions.
Outside, thunder rattled the building.
Inside, her PC fans screamed like jet engines.
“Okay,” Eve muttered, stretching her stiff shoulders.
“Maybe I’m actually built different.”
“You say that every raid,” one of her online friends replied.
“And I’m right every time.”
A louder crack of thunder interrupted her.
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Eve frowned.
“…That’s probably fine.”
In every horror movie ever made, those words guaranteed death.
Unfortunately for Eve, reality apparently agreed.
The lights went out.
Everything died instantly:
monitors, PC, router, the cheap LED strip taped to her wall.
Darkness swallowed the apartment.
A collective groan echoed through her disconnected headphones before silence replaced it completely.
“…Seriously?”
Rain continued pounding the windows.
Eve pulled her headset off with an annoyed sigh.
“Fantastic.”
The apartment suddenly felt colder without the electronic hum surrounding her.
She reached for her phone flashlight—
—and froze.
Something moved in the darkness.
A sound.
Wet.
Shifting.
Like flesh dragging itself across concrete.
Eve stared into the black apartment.
“…Hello?”
No answer.
Then her dead monitor flickered.
Once.
A line of static crawled across the screen.
Her computer should not have been on.
Eve slowly stood from her chair.
“Okay.
Nope.
Absolutely not.”
The monitor flashed again.
For a split second, she saw something reflected behind her.
Tall.
Black.
Wrong.
Eve whipped around.
Nothing there.
Her breathing quickened.
Thunder exploded overhead.
The monitor burst back to life.
White static flooded the screen.
Then words appeared.
WELCOME, PLAYER.
Eve blinked.
“…What?”
The letters distorted violently.
ERROR.
ERROR.
ERROR.
The room temperature dropped sharply.
Something cold brushed the back of her neck.
Eve jerked forward.
Every instinct in her body screamed at her to run.
But before she could move—
the screen erupted with blinding white light.
Pain detonated through her skull.
The world vanished.
Sirens dragged her back to consciousness.
Eve groaned weakly.
Her entire body felt wrong.
Heavy.
Burning.
She opened her eyes slowly.
Red emergency lights flashed overhead.
Metal walls.
Broken glass.
Smoke.
“…What the hell…”
She pushed herself upright with shaking arms.
The room around her looked like a destroyed laboratory.
Containment pods lined the walls, many shattered open from the inside.
Wires sparked from exposed machinery.
Blood stained the floor in long smeared trails.
Bodies lay everywhere.
Some wore tactical armor.
Others wore lab coats.
Eve stopped breathing for a moment.
“…Oh my God.”
One corpse near her had been torn open almost vertically.
Not shot.
Not stabbed.
Torn.
Like an animal attack.
A horrible smell filled the air: burned electronics, blood, chemicals, and something strangely organic underneath it all.
Eve stumbled backward.
“Okay.”
She swallowed hard.
“Okay okay okay okay—”
This had to be a dream.
Hallucination.
Mental breakdown.
Something.
Because there was no possible way—
A distant explosion shook the facility.
The emergency lights flickered violently.
A computerized voice echoed through the corridors.
“Containment breach detected.”
Eve froze.
“…Containment breach?”
Another voice followed immediately.
“Warning.
Experimental specimens released.”
Her stomach dropped.
Nope.
Absolutely fucking not.
Eve turned toward the nearest exit.
And finally noticed the black substance covering her right arm.
She screamed.
The material moved instantly.
Liquid black tendrils slithered across her skin before retracting under the surface like living ink.
Eve stared in horror.
“No no no no no—”
Her pulse skyrocketed.
She clawed at her arm desperately.
The black mass reacted immediately, forming jagged shapes beneath her skin before disappearing again.
Something moved inside her body.
“Oh God—”
A memory surfaced suddenly.
Venom.
Symbiotes.
Marvel.
Eve went completely still.
“…No.”
That was impossible.
Actually impossible.
Her breathing became shallow.
“No.”
Another explosion thundered somewhere nearby.
Gunfire erupted down the corridor.
Human screaming followed.
Then silence.
Wet silence.
Eve backed away slowly.
“This isn’t real.”
Something sharp formed briefly over her fingertips.
Black claws.
She nearly fainted.
“This is NOT real.”
A monitor near the wall flickered alive.
On-screen text appeared rapidly.
SUBJECT V-9 STATUS: COMPATIBILITY CONFIRMED.
HOST SYNCHRONIZATION: STABLE.
Eve stared at the designation.
V-9.
Venom.
Her face slowly lost color.
“No way.”
Another line appeared.
WARNING: SYMBIOTE CONSCIOUSNESS ACTIVE.
A chill crawled down her spine.
Then she heard breathing behind her.
Eve turned instantly.
Nothing there.
But she knew.
Absolutely knew.
She wasn’t alone.
The voice came from inside her head.
Calm.
Female.
Amused.
“Your panic is becoming irritating.”
Eve’s soul nearly left her body.
She slammed herself against the wall with a strangled scream.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
Silence.
Then:
“Oh.
You can hear me clearly.”
The voice sounded curious now.
Interested.
Eve grabbed her head.
“Nope.
Nope nope nope.”
“You are loud.”
“WHO SAID THAT?!”
“You did.”
“I DIDN’T—”
“You think very aggressively.”
Eve hyperventilated.
There was a person in her brain.
No.
Not a person.
Something worse.
“Oh,” the voice murmured suddenly.
“These memories are fascinating.”
Eve froze.
“…Memories?”
“Yes.”
A strange sensation spread through her skull.
Like fingers turning pages inside her mind.
“Video games.
Sleep deprivation.
Emotional repression.”
“STOP READING MY BRAIN!”
A pause.
Then:
“…Why are your memories full of lesbians?”
Eve went completely red.
“What?!”
“You appear unusually interested in women.”
“I—THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE RIGHT NOW!”
“It is a very consistent pattern.”
“Oh my GOD.”
The voice sounded thoughtful.
“I approve.”
Eve stared blankly at the wall.
This was happening.
This was actually happening.
She had died.
Or been kidnapped.
Or both.
And now an alien goo woman was psychoanalyzing her sexuality inside a murder laboratory.
Somewhere in the distance, automatic gunfire erupted again.
The voice spoke calmly over the chaos.
“Hostiles are approaching.”
Eve blinked.
“…Hostiles?”
Heavy footsteps thundered through the corridor outside.
Armed voices shouted orders.
“Sector C clear!”
“Find the specimen!”
“Shoot anything non-human!”
Eve’s survival instincts immediately activated.
“Oh shit.”
The voice inside her sounded almost pleased.
“Yes.
That feeling.”
“What feeling?!”
“Fear.”
Black material spread slowly across Eve’s fingertips.
Warm.
Alive.
Protective.
“We should leave.”
“We?”
“We are currently sharing organs.”
Eve nearly blacked out.
“Sharing WHAT?!”
The laboratory doors exploded inward.
Three armored soldiers stormed into the room with rifles raised.
The lead mercenary immediately spotted her.
“There!”
Flashlights locked onto Eve’s face.
Then onto the black veins spreading across her neck.
The soldiers stiffened instantly.
“Confirmed infected!”
“Infected?!” Eve shouted.
“I’m not infected!”
“Containment authorization granted!”
Rifles aimed directly at her head.
Eve raised her hands instinctively.
“WAIT WAIT WAIT—”
Gunfire erupted.
Everything happened too fast.
The voice inside her became sharp.
“Danger.”
The black substance exploded across Eve’s body.
Armor formed instantly over her skin like living liquid.
Bullets struck her chest—
—and bounced off.
Eve stared down in disbelief.
The soldiers opened fire harder.
Nyx moved before Eve could think.
Tendrils erupted violently from her back.
One mercenary screamed as black spikes slammed him into the wall hard enough to crack concrete.
Eve felt it happen.
Every movement.
Every impact.
“Oh God—”
Another soldier rushed forward with some kind of electrified weapon.
Nyx reacted instantly.
A massive black blade formed around Eve’s arm.
It sliced clean through the weapon.
And almost through the man holding it.
Blood sprayed across the floor.
Eve screamed in horror.
“I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO THAT!”
“You did,” the voice corrected calmly.
“Your body moved.”
The final mercenary panicked.
“What the fuck IS this thing?!”
Thing.
That word changed something.
The symbiote’s emotional response slammed into Eve’s mind like a wave of icy anger.
Predatory.
Violent.
Hungry.
The black armor expanded.
White eyes formed briefly across Eve’s face.
The soldier stumbled backward in terror.
Nyx spoke through her mouth.
Their voices overlapped unnaturally.
“We dislike that word.”
The mercenary fired wildly.
Nyx lunged.
The next few seconds became a blur of screams, claws, and tearing metal.
Then silence.
Eve stood motionless in the ruined laboratory.
Breathing hard.
Blood dripped from black claws extending past her fingertips.
Bodies surrounded her.
She looked down slowly.
The symbiote receded slightly from her face.
“What…”
Her voice trembled.
“…What did we just do?”
Nyx answered softly.
“We survived.”
Sirens continued screaming throughout the facility.
Somewhere above them, another explosion shook the building.
Chunks of ceiling collapsed nearby.
The entire place was coming apart.
Eve stared at her shaking hands.
This wasn’t cosplay.
Wasn’t fantasy.
Wasn’t a dream.
She was inside Marvel.
And she had become something monstrous.
Nyx’s presence curled quietly around her thoughts.
Not threatening.
Not cruel.
Warm.
Protective.
Ancient hunger lingered beneath it all, but there was something else too.
Relief.
“You are calmer now,” Nyx observed.
“I killed people.”
“They were attempting to kill us first.”
“That doesn’t make this NORMAL!”
“No,” Nyx agreed.
“But it is efficient.”
Eve let out a hysterical laugh.
“Efficient?!”
“You are emotionally unstable.”
“You are INSIDE MY SPINE!”
“That is fair.”
Despite herself, Eve barked out another laugh.
Half panic.
Half disbelief.
Somehow the absurdity almost helped.
Almost.
A distant roar echoed through the facility.
Not human.
Something massive slammed against metal walls somewhere nearby.
The surviving alarms shifted tone immediately.
“Warning.
Apex specimen released.”
Nyx suddenly became very still inside her mind.
Interesting.
Eve noticed immediately.
“…What?”
Nyx’s voice lowered.
“We need to run now.”
For the first time since waking up…
the symbiote sounded afraid.
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