Chapter 01

- 4 years later -

Four years of being here... FOUR-FUCKING-YEARS. Pure torment is what we had here. No respect for the "patients" I knew I was not the only one in this place. AND USING MINORS IS FORBIDDEN.

Oh, I haven't told you: my name is Blake Fixgard, when I came here I was 11 years old, now I'm going to be 15 soon.

Back to where I was, I was in my "room" standing in a corner, hugging my legs. I have been subjected to various kinds of torture. I can barely move at all. They were kind of a test of how strong we became. I say "we became" because I wasn't entirely alone... That living mace was what kept me company all the time. The symbiote has been keeping me company all this time. How did I know it's a symbiote?

"He" told me.

- "I know you want to get out of this prison. I want to get out of this place too. But try as we might, it can't be done. It's strictly guarded. Believe me, I have seen him" - He has told me many things; how he got here, what they were doing here, and why he was here.

- "I know that. I can't stand living here. I don't know if my family is OK, it's OBVIOUSLY not going to be OK. I just want to have a normal life again, like a normal girl... I'm losing my hope to get out of here" - Thanks to him, I learned something that left me disturbed: the reason they kidnapped me, is to be able to experience the symbiosis in a young body, that is, a child. He was attached to several test subjects, who were adults, but they only lasted about 5 minutes and the host died.

The scientists here concluded that he is not like the other symbiotes like Venom to have a host to live in, he must endure all the strength he has, even his starvation state. With a child around 11 to 16 years old, you could do the symbiosis without any problems, or so they thought. And that's what happened; they found me, kidnapped me, and used me as a test subject. They took me away from my family, they took away my life... everything I ever wanted was gone.

The day he started talking to me, I started hating him for being with me. He just smiled and said "Don't worry, soon you will be able to control all that hate" After a while, he started to relate more to me, he started to help me when I was being treated like an animal. And I helped him when he didn't want to be touched. We took care of each other, forming a friendship. We made a promise: "If one of us died, the other would go his way for him".

When we were being studied, we heard that it would be ALMOST impossible for us to be separated. Since both the symbiote and the host are compatible. They could hardly die. When I heard that, I looked at him, and he said it was the first time he had found a perfect host. That's an advantage we mustn't waste. But the bad thing is that if we were to be forcibly separated... both of us would only have a maximum of 2 days to live before we die.

Back to reality, the door to the room begins to open, revealing the person we hate the most: Carlton Drake.

- "Good morning, Blake, how did you wake up?" - Carlton said mockingly, I remember he was the person who was smiling when I got here.

- "That's none of your business," - I said dryly and averted my gaze, having him in front of me I can't be cordial or respectful to him. After all, he is the one who runs this company.

- "Oh...but I do care about your welfare...."

- "Yeah right, if your welfare is 'watching one of my disposable humans with his dangerous symbiote'." - I said sarcastically because it was true: he doesn't care about someone's welfare, he only cares about himself and his murderous projects. He hid from all of San Francisco that he was not involved in the missing girl. That makes my blood run hot because of how much I resent him. If I could kill him right now, I'd get out of here. But I have a device that will electrocute me if I try to escape.

- "Never mind, I just wanted to see how you're doing with your little symbiote friend" - At that, "he" pops out of my back into a head, glaring hatefully at him.

- "I'M OK. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN," - He says dryly, Carlton just steps back a little.

- "Your host is still alive. 4 years is already something evident that you can live without the child dying" - That comment almost made me go over to him and hit him, but I refrained from doing so. - "I hope it stays that way in the morning," - He turns and leaves, closing the door with a code. There has to be a way to escape.

- "You almost scared him off," - I said, turning to look at him with a half smile.

- "Ha, yeah, I almost did. I'd like to kill him and get the hell out of here."

- "At least we have a common goal, don't we, Grid?"

- "Yeah..."

- "Now. Cover the cameras" - I reached out my hand slyly and Grid dropped part of his "body" to the wall and started to go after the camera in the corner of the room.

Once he got there, he covered the camera lens and that's where we could act: I went to a window that was made of bulletproof glass, and with Grid's help my hands became claws that could cut this glass. How did I know? The other day I accidentally stuck a claw into the glass, making a hole. So I'll do it again but with both hands.

- "Ready?"

- "Ready" - With force, he thrust his claws in, successfully breaking the glass. I reach in further to pull them out and break the glass completely. - "You got better."

- "No time for compliments. We have 2 minutes until they know we've escaped" - Then I climb out of the hole and sneak around the place, careful not to be seen. I didn't speak, but I spoke to Grid through the mental connection we had.

~ Careful, there may be guards watching the entrance. ~

'Then I'll go through the roof. I don't think they'll be smart enough to know we're right under their noses'.

I let Grid transform, so I could scale the roof. I'm not going to say much about what I look like, but imagine I'm red with certain phosphorescent green veins, and I'm quadrupedal with a long tail. When we were on the roof, I started walking stealthily, I didn't want them to accidentally hear me and turn upstairs.

* Alert: A host is out of its containment chamber *

They already noticed our escape. The guards started to move and went to my room, when I lost sight of them, I turned my attention back to my own. There were not only security cameras but also infrared cameras, they could detect us if we were hot. So to speak.

'Blimey, how do we get past that?'

- "There are ventilation ducts around the corner. But they'll detect movement in these. One or two."

'You've got to risk it. The ducts.'

Grid nods and climbs down from the roof unnoticed. We headed for the ventilation ducts and got inside quickly because guards were lurking around.

Once we were in the ducts, we started going through the ducts, trying not to make too much noise or movement. We were close to getting out, but something stopped us...

- "A reporter came in and another symbiote escaped."

- "FIND THEM" - Carlton didn't sound happy.

- "I guess it was Venom who escaped. Let's move on" - We continue on our way and exit the duct, Grid de-transforms and I walk out to the elevator. But I fell to the ground with tremendous pain in my right shoulder. I touched the painful area and saw that it was bleeding.

- "STOP!" - The guards had found us.

- "DON'T MOVE!"

- "Fuck you" - I cursed and Grid attacked them with his limbs sticking out of my back, knocking them all down.

- "Let's get the fuck out of here" - I nod at Grid, and we enter the elevator, I open the hatch that was in the ceiling because they already know we are in the elevator. We got on top of the elevator and I started to climb as fast as I could because the elevator was going up fast.

- "GRID."

- "Don't mention it, I already know" - He transforms and picks up the pace, leaving the elevator behind. We find another duct leading to the surface, we don't hesitate to enter and run to get out as soon as possible. I don't want to be in this torture anymore.

When we saw a light, we started going faster to get there. Everyone was distracted by that reporter, so it gave us a head start. When we came out of the pipeline, we took four shots straight to the abdomen, Grid almost didn't get hit, but I did. Only two managed to hit me. Even with this pain, we ran out of there, without looking back. We don't want to be there again. We noticed that we were on the Golden Gate Bridge, we were already out of reach, so I changed to my normal form covered my face with a hood, and passed like a normal pedestrian.

After passing the bridge, we were looking out over the San Francisco Bay. 4 years without seeing this scenery.

- "At last. We are..."

- "Free." - Says Grid, completing the sentence. I unconsciously smiled a happy smile, we were free at last. I just have to look for my family and I will have a normal life again.

- 5 hours of walking later -

It was a long walk from the Golden Gate Bridge to here. It was only about 2 blocks from my house. I was excited to see my family again.

- "I want to hug my parents already. Tell them what happened to me these past four years. Of course, leaving out the detail that a symbiote is with me."

- "I almost don't care about that. But it must feel good, that emotion. I'm not usually very sentimental."

- "I've known that for four years. Just one more street and the whole 5-hour walk will have been worth it" - I said as I was about to enter the street where I live, when we arrived I saw that my home was a different color, but maybe it had been painted because of the time I had been gone. Not caring about that detail, I went to my house and stood in front of the door. I knocked a couple of times to wait for someone to open the door.

But no one came.

I knocked again, but no one opened the door. I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned to see who it was and it was a neighbor.

- "Can I help you with anything?" - He asked strangely.

- "I'm looking for the Fixgards, do you know where they are?" - When I mentioned my parents' surname, his expression changed dramatically. That scared me already.

- "They... they died a year ago"

What? They're dead? But how? Four years to get out of that prison, a long walk here... to find out they're dead? It can't be. It's my fault. If I hadn't disappeared, this wouldn't have happened.

- "Why? Were they acquaintances of yours?"

- "No... thanks for the information" - I was devastated, I could hardly speak. I left there with a broken heart, crying silently.

Grid didn't know how to act, he wasn't very good at comforting someone. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to the sky.

- "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME, EVERYTHING, YOU TOOK MY FAMILY AWAY FROM ME, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!" - I cried out in pain, I fell to my knees and started to cry, why them and not me, WHY? I want this to be a nightmare, this must be a bad dream.

I had no choice but to go to an alley and sleep there. There must be a way to assimilate this.