Peter's POV

He sat on the floor of his apartment, the darkness in his eyes entirely gone now; his bangs were out of his face and the bags beneath said eyes had vanished. He was himself again, wholly and truely. But he still felt... empty. It hadn't made a damn bit of difference. He had still done something entirely wrong... so many things. He couldn't even cry anymore, the tears being unable to release themselves from his soul.

Immediately after Christina broke up with him and left him alone, Peter had suited up and swung to the church tower he'd been staring longingly at. There, he had moped about for what felt like hours, just reflecting on the memories that he could recall, the memories that weren't suppressed by that goddamn symbiote. While he hadn't been in complete control, he had still been in the wrong entirely, unable to blame it on anything else.

He had humiliated his girlfriend... ex-girlfriend now... and he had utterly broken her heart when she had already been through hell and back.

He had seemed not to care in the slightest about what he had done, being antagonistic towards Christina for no reason.

He had swung around and struck Mary Jane in the face super hard even though she had done nothing wrong – she had just been trying to break up the fight between him and the security guy.

And now the love of his life, the woman of his dreams... she had left him. It had been the right thing to do, which was why he didn't beg her for forgiveness. He didn't deserve to be forgiven.

At his lowest, most desperate point, Peter had entered the church and had torn his physical being away from the disgusting symbiote bonded to his skin. It had been a long and torturous process only helped by the ringing of the church bell negatively affecting the alien substance. He had screamed and sobbed in anguish the entire time, and all he had been able to see was Christina's face... her pained, broken face that was lovely all the same.

And now he was alone, more alone than ever. He had called Christina but it had gone to voicemail. He had figured she didn't want to answer the phone at all so he just poured out his whole heart in a message before hanging up. And then he had called Aunt May and assured her that everything was fine.

A knock came at his door. He didn't react, just figuring it was Mr. Ditkovich wanting to bother him about not having paid rent yet again. But he had. He just wanted to be left alone, unbothered forever. He lowered his head and his forehead touched his knee as he hugged his knees to his chest.

But then the knock came again.

Sighing, he got up and lumbered over to the door, his face one of a man with the worst kind of depression.

He reached for the doorknob and pulled it. It slid right out, breaking entirely. He rolled his eyes into the back of his head in annoyance – What else can go wrong tonight? he thought – before grasping the edge of the door to open it with great effort because it still stuck.

There, on the other side of the door, was Aunt May. He instantly put on a smile for her, though it was strained.

"Hi, Peter," she greeted him warmly, as she always did.

"Hi," said Peter.

He stepped aside so she could enter the tiny apartment, looking around as she hummed with curiosity. "You don't seem to have changed the room around very much," she pointed out, which made Peter sigh quietly to himself as he tried to fix the doorknob by pushing it back into place.

In the process, the other end of it feel right out as well, thudding onto the floor with a metallic clang.

"Of course, there's not much you can do, is there?" May added on as she sat down on the corner of Peter's bed while he placed the broken doorknob on a shelf, figuring he could get a repairman to fix it one day. Just not tonight... or any other day, for that matter.

While he smiled at his aunt, it instantly dropped when he went to the glass balcony doors at the other end of his room to look out them. He was incredibly distant, his mind and heart shut down with what had just happened. He felt weak and helpless. Pathetic. He felt just as he had a year ago... but for an entirely different reason.

May seemed to notice her nephew's mood and she decided to do the talking for him, clearly very concerned. "When we spoke on the phone," she said, "I sensed that something was bothering you so... I thought I'd just come by."

Peter didn't respond. He couldn't bring himself to speak... he was too defeated and too distraught. He felt as if his insides had been ripped from his stomach and crushed in a higher being's grip or that his heart had been plucked from him and squished. He closed his eyes, his eyebrows knitting together with the effort to not cry again.

"How's Christina?" May asked him gently, seeing that she had not gotten a reply at all.

"I don't know..." was all he could say.

May raised an eyebrow, puzzled. What was up with Peter? The last time she'd talked to him, when he had told her that Spider-Man had killed Flint Marko – "Spider-Man doesn't kill people," she had said –, he had acted so unlike the Peter she had raised. He was like a stranger then. But here... he was just a shell of his former self, which hurt her deeply. "I never heard from you..." she mumbled. "Did you ever propose?"

That was when Peter turned to her, his eyes open again. And the elderly woman saw all of the terrible pain in her nephew's – her son's – eyes. It broke her heart and she wanted nothing more than to hold him as she had done when he was a little boy, almost instantly after the death of his parents when he was four years old. His face eerily matched how he had looked as a child, and she just wanted to do anything she could comfort him.

"You said..." Peter murmured as he walked up to May. "...'a husband's gotta put his wife before himself...'" He then gulped and dug into the pocket of his jeans, withdrawing the tiny ring she'd given him. He stared at the glittering diamond on top of it before sighing and handing it to her, seeing that her hand was outstretched for it in surprise. He placed it in her palm and said, "I'm not ready."

"But what happened?" May replied gently, raising an eyebrow. "You seemed so sure..."

"Yeah..." He looked her in the eye again and tried to say something more but all that came out was a frustrated and confused and unintelligible mumble. "I, uh..." He sighed more heavily as he turned back to the balcony doors.

Why was this so difficult for him to open up about? He used to be able to talk to Aunt May so easily, to vent about everything that was going on in his life. But it seemed that, in the past year or so, that had turned out to be the total opposite; now, he was quieter and more closed off, which wasn't what he wanted. But he couldn't help it. He could barely talk and he couldn't even find his voice.

When he finally did find the words he needed to speak, they were these: "I hurt her, Aunt May. I don't know what to do."

May completely understood despite not knowing the context, and she nodded from behind him. "Well... you start by doing the hardest thing," she advised. "You forgive yourself." She then got up and placed the ring back on Peter's entertainment center while looking at him. "I believe in you Peter, you're a good person. And I know you will find a way to put it right... in time."

When Peter turned to look at her again, she was giving him that kind and caring smile that always made him feel better. While it didn't fully cheer him up, it seemed to give him the tiniest amount of hope. And so he nodded, a bit of determination in his eyes as he watched his aunt leave the apartment after saying this. He then looked back out the window and felt the smallest weight being lifted from his shoulders.

She was right. Aunt May was always right.

He could make it right with Christina again, he could fix it. He just couldn't do that right now. She had told him she needed time to think everything through, and he understood that. He couldn't blame her, he would have done the same thing if it had been done to him. While the guilt continued to gnaw at his gut, he knew that the right thing to do would be to give Christina space. She deserved some peace, it was the least he could do for her. Let her focus on herself and her family for now, he thought to himself. That's more important right now after the shit she's been through.

He accepted that the possibility of being with her again was slim since he knew he'd never be forgiven. He deserved it. He still loved her... but he put his respect for her above his love.

And he chose to respect her wishes. He always would.

_____

The Symbiote/Venom (Later)

It swung throughout the city with black webs protruding from its wrists, a low and gravelly chuckle leaving its fanged lips. It did not seem to care about the confused stares it was getting from the citizens on the sidewalks and pavements, as it was focused on one destination and one destination only. It was furious and fired up with pent-up rage that it had felt from its previous host tearing it from him. It wanted revenge, sweet old-fashioned revenge.

So it had tried to kill the blonde girl but, when she fought back, it figured that it would not be as easy as it seemed. She was quite the fighter, unable to be taken down with such ease. It briefly thought about abducting her to hurt him, but it did not seem that would be so easy either.

So the only thing it could think of doing was to go for the girl's and boy's hearts, to break them and bring them to their lowest point.

It had been drawn to the girl after hearing her rage towards the boy earlier, the negative emotions leaving her feeling like the sweetest tasting drug known to mankind.

Another chuckle left it as it shot out another web.

But her heart had turned out to be purer than expected, so it could not devour her with its influence, though her fear had egged it on and made it more hungry. It had been repulsed by her good nature as if it were lightning.

So it would have to try another way and –

WHAM! A humungous, sandy fist collided with its chest and it lost its grip on the web, landing roughly on the ground with a grunt. The burning fury built within it and it balled its hands into fists, baring its teeth as it tried to collect itself and get up from the alleyway pavement.

"End of the line, Spider-Man!" a much older man grumbled as he gripped its shoulder tightly, his sole focus to end it all for good. He drew his fist back and visibly recoiled when he saw that the thing he was staring at was not Spider-Man whatsoever, and his piercing eyes widened in horror.

It roared at the man, who looked familiar to it now as its jaw elongated, its slimy tongue sliding out to enunciate the snarl that echoed throughout the night.

The man gave out a cry of disgust as he flung it towards a nearby building, but it landed gracefully on the brick wall in a crouching position... a familiar crouching position. It then knew where it had seen that face before.

(you remember ben parker the old man you shot down in cold blood!!!)

(what does it matter to you anyway????)

(!!!!!EVERYTHING!!!!!)

"I want him dead, too, Flint!" it shouted in his direction, its voice a deep and horrific as it came out in two, still smiling like a maniac. "That's why I've been looking for you..."

Flint Marko turned to look at the thing with utter confusion, his eyebrows raised. How did it know who he was? He knew this could not have been the actual Spider-Man at all, he had encountered Spider-Man on multiple occasions! He knew that the masked webhead did not look like this. That face was not even a mask... it was the face of a literal demon from the pits of hell. It was nightmare material.

The thing – Venom – smirked devilishly as it began crawling towards Flint like a predator towards its prey. "Oh, yeah, I know all about you..." it grumbled. "Like the fact that Spider-Man..." The face of the thing peeled back with a slimy and wet sound that repulsed Flint, revealing the face of a man who did not seem to be any older than twenty-two. His face seemed innocent. But his eyes were certainly not. And his voice was completely normal. "...won't let you help your poor daughter. It's just... i-i-it doesn't seem right to me!"

Flint was paying attention now, tilting his head as the face of his daughter filled his head, the face that he constantly saw when he looked into the locket she gave him. Penny. His little girl... his baby. The idea of losing her to her stomach cancer horrified him; she was all he had left. He wanted her to grow up and live her life happily with love and tenderness in her heart. She was only eight and she was already being taken away from him faster than he could have thought.

Eddie Brock smirked and nodded, egging Flint on as he fully approached him on the brick wall. "Look, I wanna kill the Spider. You wanna kill the Spider. Together, he doesn't stand a chance."

As the face took over Eddie once more, Venom stared straight into Flint's soul, its gaze transfixing him to the spot like a man possessed. It had him where it wanted him and it smirked. "Interested?" it growled softly in those two voices again.

Flint's eyes were glassy and he did not even realize he had been tricked. He could only say the one word that reached his lips: "Yeah."

_____

Mary Jane's POV

She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder as she wiped the additional tears off of her face. She couldn't believe that had happened, that all of that had happened in the course of just five minutes in her place of work. Just when she thought her life would truly take off after her Broadway success and she had gotten a decent job, it had all unraveled in complete and total disaster.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror of the employee's bathroom, seeing that there was a red mark on her cheek from when Peter had hit her incredibly hard earlier. She sniffed and brushed her fingers against the mark, relieved that it didn't hurt anymore. It wouldn't become a bruise, luckily.

Mary Jane sighed and splashed cold water on her face before wiping it off with a paper towel. She then opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom, seeing that the night had carried on regardless of what had happened.

Her cell phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her purse, cheering up slightly when she saw that she had a text from John.

Hope work is going well, hun. I've got spaghetti ready for you when you come home. Love you! <3

She smiled and texted him back before putting her phone back in her purse, walking over to where Paul was talking to another coworker. She tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to face her.

"Hey, Paul, I'm gonna head home early, if that's alright with you," she said softly.

Paul nodded in understanding and smiled, patting Mary Jane's arm caringly. "It's perfectly fine, dear," he assured her. "Take all the time you need. If you need to, even, take a sick day. I'm so sorry for what happened."

"No need to apologize," she said with a returning smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Thanks."

With that, she stepped out into the cold night air and shivered slightly, wishing she had brought her coat with her to work. It didn't help that it had just rained, which made the temperature drop significantly. She bounced slightly on the soles of her feet as she waited for a bus or taxi to come and get her so she could go home.

She subconsciously touched her cheek again and closed her eyes, just trying to focus on the fresher air thanks to the light rainfall from earlier. It was all she could think about, since she couldn't bear to think about how Christina was feeling. After she had helped her to her feet from Peter hitting her and hauled him out of the club, she had never come back. She had seemed to just go straight home, and Mary Jane couldn't blame her for that. If John had done what Peter had just did, she would have broken up with him, too. Well, divorced him.

A stray tear fell down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. She hoped Peter would figure himself out. She had seen the blackness of his Spider-Man suit as well and knew instantly that it hadn't been good. If he didn't get any better, she would have no clue what would happen. And that scared her.

She prayed that Christina was okay, though she figured she would want to be alone. She considered going to her apartment tomorrow to spend the day with her in order to distract her from the pain. Yes, she would do just that. She would probably bring John with her so they wouldn't be alone.

She perked up when she saw a bright yellow taxi driving down the street and she held up her hand to signal that she wanted to be picked up. It seemed that the driver was particularly kind, because the cab pulled straight up to the curb in front of her. She smiled with relief, grateful she wouldn't have to walk home; she grabbed the car door handle and got into the backseat, setting her purse down beside her.

She reached over to grab the seatbelt.

"So..." came the voice of a friendly enough guy, which made Mary Jane perk up as she was ready to tell him what her address was.

Then the guy swiveled around in her seat... and smiled at her. It was sinister, morbid. Terrifying.

And Mary Jane saw his – its – eyes.

"Where to...?" the thing murmured almost seductively, his voice – voices – a little snarl.

A black and slimy hand clamped down over Mary Jane's mouth before she even had the chance to scream.

_____

Sidney's POV

The young girl was turning down her bed for the night, gently pulling the blankets back so she would turn in. For once, her expression was content and she ran her fingers through her brown hair; she sighed and overheard Aidan whining from his bedroom as Michael attempted to get him to go to sleep as well. He was insisting through said whines that he wasn't sleepy. "Me no sweepy!" he cried. "Me no sweepy!"

"Aidan, you are sleepy," Michael interrupted although he was laughing affectionately at his son's antics. "You're very tired and it's time for night-night. We've got to go sleepy times."

"No, me no sweepy!" Aidan sobbed.

Ever the one to baby her little brother, Sidney just smiled and left her room to walk down the hallway, the throbbing in her head from where Harry had hit her a few days ago more bearable. It was more dull than anything but it didn't have her crying out in pain anymore.

She hadn't heard from Christina in a few days, and she hoped she was okay.

She entered Aidan's bedroom and leaned against the doorway, smiling reverently at her baby brother as the tiny wrinkles around her brown eyes crinkled. The tiny boy was sleepily rubbing his eyes in the most adorable way imaginable and it made her heart melt; he was truly a cute kid, even if he could get very annoying at times. She then looked at her dad and saw that he was clearly exhausted.

"Need some help, Dad?" she asked him gently.

Michael turned to look at his daughter and sighed audibly with relief, instantly nodding. "Yeah, please," he said. "Your mom's doing laundry and she wanted me to tuck him in, but he won't quit arguing with me. He's the boy version of you."

Sidney laughed softly and nodded, carefully gathering little Aidan into her arms, gently shushing him and making soft cooing sounds to comfort him. "Shh..." she whispered. "It's alright, kid, it's alright. We've gots to go sleepy times, we're very tired..."

"Me no sweepy, Sid..." Aidan grumbled as he balled his tiny hands into fists and rubbed his eyes with them. "Me no..."

"Oh, buddy, you're exhausted..." she murmured tentatively, kissing his forehead as he grew sleepier and sleepier. The sight of his eyes drooping made her smile at him as she continued to pace the room with him, rocking him gently. "It's alright... go to sleep, Aidan... it's okay."

While he didn't fall completely asleep, Aidan was certainly beginning to doze off, sucking on his thumb as he grumbled tiredly. Sidney kissed his forehead again before carefully handing him back to their dad, Michael smiling at her thankfully in return.

"Thanks, Sid," he mumbled, tucking the little boy under the blankets on his small bed with a content look on his face. "You're a lifesaver."

"Glad to help the exhausted dad," Sidney joked as she patted Michael on the shoulder before giving him a one-armed hug. "I'm gonna head to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, kid," Michael said affectionately, making Sidney smile as she left Aidan's room and headed towards her own room.

After turning off the lamp on her nightstand, she crawled under the covers and sank into the mattress comfortably, staring towards the window on the wall opposite her. The night sky glowed with the hazy lights of the city reflecting off of it after the rainfall, creating an oddly eerie yet cozy atmosphere. It brought her peace as her eyes began to grow a little heavier but, for some reason, she found herself wanting to stay awake for a little while longer. She did not know why, but a part of her stayed on guard.

It probably had something to do with the paranoia that had been slowly building up since Harry's attack on her and Christina. Yes, that was it. Life had become so much harder for her since.

She hoped Christina was safe. She hoped she was recovering fine and that her wounds were healing. She deserved that sense of peace.

Ever so slowly, Sidney drifted off to sleep.

She had the strangest dream. However, she would not remember once she had awoken. In it, there was simply the thought of what life would be like had Christina not been associated with sadistic psychopaths such as Harry Osborn or Otto Octavius. It was peculiar and it felt out of place in Sidney's mind; she wasn't used to a world like that. She was used to the chaos; it had begun when she had first met Christina when she was ten at Margaret Johnson's funeral.

Even being around Christina had changed Sidney's whole personality, helping her go from an incredibly shy and timid girl to a slightly older girl with a sense to speak her mind rather strongly. She truly was like her older sister in appearance and soul.

But a world without chaos... that just wasn't possible.

_____

The Symbiote/Venom

It had merely been too easy for it to trap the stupid redhead girl in the taxi. As it parked the car beside the curb, it heard her pathetic whimpers from the duct tape put over her mouth; she was struggling violently against the rope it had bound her wrists and ankles in, her muffled cries that of defiance, not fear, though there was worry there.

The symbiote peeled away from its clawed hand and Eddie's human hand gripped the girl's jaw so tightly it left bruises, bringing her cries to a jaggering halt. "Shut up, you fucking bitch," Eddie Brock snarled as the black substance freed his face, his eyes filled with rage. "You just better be lucky I didn't kill you when I had the chance. I'm keeping you alive for a reason and –"

Mary Jane Watson was not listening and sharply brought her head forward to collide it with Eddie's in a brutal headbutt, not caring that it agonized her. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in fury.

But Eddie fired back by smacking her up to three times in the temple, finishing with a backhand across the cheek. "DO YOU WANT ME TO SLIT YOUR THROAT?!?!" he bellowed in her face.

Mary Jane did not reply, just glaring deeply into Eddie's eyes. She was not backing down and was refusing to listen to any bit of twisted reason within this asshole. She was so fucking done with this shit. She wanted to say something – anything – but the tape continued to muffle her ability to do so.

"What? Can't hear you," muttered Eddie and he ripped the duct tape off of Mary Jane's mouth, stinging her sensitive skin.

"Why don't you just go ahead and try to kill me, fucker?" M.J. panted with a look of anger. "I know people. You lay a finger on me, they'll try and kill you... if I don't try to kill you first."

Eddie cackled and his eyes turned an even darker shade of black for a moment. "I'd love to see you try, you dumb cunt," he growled softly, those eyes alight with inhumanity. "You don't even have the brains to lift a knife."

Mary Jane simply responded by reeling back and spitting in Eddie's face, earning her being shoved back against the seats painfully before the duct tape was put back over her lips. She just resorted to a fierce kick at the back of his seat... before the symbiote fully took over again, concealing its face.

"I have work that needs to be done..." it snarled gently in those two disgusting voices, making the redhead shiver with fright as it appeared to be completely unbothered.

And then Mary Jane turned to look at where they were parked...

She saw whose house they had arrived at.

Delirious and muffled screams of panic and outrage left Mary Jane and she thrashed around in her seat, moving to start kicking the window of the back door, which had been webbed shut. The glass didn't budge but the car rocked back and forth with the efforts as Venom ignorantly got out of the car, a sadistic chuckle leaving its slimy lips while he webbed the other side of the vehicle so she could not get out.

It approached the house of the family of four, the family of the frustrating blonde it had not been able to slaughter. Though it had drawn blood from her, it had failed to properly kill her.

It could see into the living room, could see an older man in his mid-fifties watching the television drone on and on. His wife did not appear to be there or his children – it remembered what those three looked like.

It reached out a clawed hand and hovered for a moment and then –

_____

Sidney's POV

– she heard what sounded like a small but incredibly loud explosion coming from downstairs. She bolted upright with surprise, having assumed at first that it had been a part of her dream. She could not have been asleep for more than five or ten minutes and she had already been awoken by something. Unless she had not been fully in her slumber.

And then she heard silence.

Had it been a part of her dream?

"What the –?" she murmured groggily before hearing a horrible scream emanating from the living room downstairs, making her dive out of bed and into the hallway. She saw her mother sprinting out of hers and Michael's bedroom and advancing towards the railing of the small landing at the top of the stairs, looking down into the first floor's layout.

"ALLYSON!" Michael howled from downstairs, clearly in a struggle with something or someone – Has someone broken in?! Sidney fearfully thought. "TAKE THE KIDS AND RUN! TAKE SIDNEY AND AIDAN AND RUN! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF! TAKE THEM AND –"

Sidney heard a nasty thud come from downstairs that cut her father's voice off as well as the sound of the most repulsive laughter echoing throughout the entire house. She squeaked and covered her mouth.

But it was too late.

Allyson had gotten to her in a matter of seconds and yanked her towards Aidan's bedroom, where the toddler was awake, standing on his tiny bed and already crying. Sidney gathered her brother into his arms and was also crying as she tucked his head beneath her chin in a feeble attempt to shield him from whatever was coming.

And that thing was coming to them fast.

"The window..." Allyson hissed at them, already heaving the window open and being greeted by howling winds outside. Another storm seemed to be arriving soon. "Kids, come on!"

"What'll we hold onto, Mom?!" Sidney whimpered as tears fell down her cheeks, her entire body trembling as she held a sobbing Aidan.

"It's not a far fall," Allyson assured her in as stable and tender of a voice as she could. "Come on, I'll lower you two down and –"

The bedroom door shattered apart as it entered the room, making Aidan shriek like he had never shrieked before, shattering the entire world as whatever the hell was coming for them locked eyes with them.

Allyson instantly sprang back upwards and dived in front of Sidney and Aidan, spreading her arms outward to make a wall between her babies and this monster. She had begun to cry as well. "No, not them!" she wailed, madly shaking her head as her knees threatened to buckle with terror. "Not them, please! Take me! Hurt me!"

"Mom, what're you doing?!?!" Sidney screamed as she held a cowering Aidan in her arms, not being able to understand what a noble thing her mother was doing in her delirious state.

"Step aside, you silly woman!" the thing snarled angrily, outstretching a clawed hand towards her. "Step aside and I won't hurt you! I just want them..."

"No, no, no!" Allyson howled like a madwoman, her eyes having become deranged in her attempt to keep her children safe. "You don't want them! You want me! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU! THEY'RE CHILDREN, THEY'RE –"

Venom simply cackled and swiped Allyson Johnson across the chest with that clawed hand, not killing her but hurting her incredibly badly as she fell to the floor, passing out from the immense pain searing her skin.

Sidney instantly put Aidan on the floor and stared straight at Venom, her pure fear replaced with outright fury. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!" she bellowed, rushing at the towering creature with a raised fist, unable to even think clearly in the moment. She was clearly out of her mind.

But Venom had taken the first swing, colliding with Sidney's side and bruising her ribs as she flew towards the wall, her back painfully hitting it as well as her head, knocking her out straight away.

And now there was only a not even two-year-old Aidan... sobbing and screaming hysterically as he was left completely alone with Venom.

_____

From the WMNY NEWS Channel 8 — 11:32 P.M.

The face of Hal Fishman flashes across all of the biggest screens of downtown Manhattan, his expression very distressed as he addresses the camera. He puts on his stablest voice and speaks up: "All of New York is holding its breath as the hostage crisis continues to unfold."

The scene cuts to a live feed of pandemonium erupting in the downtown area itself as police officers put up barriers to keep citizens away from the danger site, all while hundreds to thousands of citizens gather around to see what the commotion is all about.

Over the loud ruckus of people shouting and screaming of fright, the voice of a news reporter named Jennifer Dugan shouts professionally over them. "Just thirty minutes ago, police came across this startling sight: Two young women held hostage in a taxi suspended eighty stories above the ground in what appears to be a giant web!"

The camera pans up to the sight in question, where a bright yellow taxi is trapped above a layer of slimy black webbing. It is barely audible, but screams of terror can be heard from the taxi, though the two young women in question cannot be seen from this far below on the ground.

We cut back to the host, Hal Fishman, as he reads from a teleprompter.

"Every attempt by the police to rescue the hostages has been thwarted by the Sandman. Compounding the danger is the appearance of a strange black-suited figure. Early reports had believed him to be the black-suited Spider-Man. But he has now been identified as something entirely different."

_____

Peter's POV

Peter approached one of the bigger screens in a building near where his apartment was, having left the proximity of Christina's apartment just ten minutes before. She hadn't been home at all, which he had initially understood as she was incredibly furious with him and had the right to dump him. But now he was beginning to believe that, based on the live news report he was watching, it was because of something completely unrelated.

He had seen this black-suited figure on camera through the report, seeing it snarling and leaping at members of the S.W.A.T. team trying to intervene on the scene. And his eyes had widened with fear of his own. That person... that thing... it looked like a demon.

And he recalled something...

Trying to remove the black suit in the church... struggling painfully to tear it off... and a howl had escaped him that was not his own, but the screech of what sounded like Satan himself. And, right now, it sounded just like that. A shudder went down his spine and back up again, but he remained rooted to the spot.

Had someone been there when he had removed the symbiote...? Had they become a victim of it???

Please God no... he thought frantically as his breathing quickened and his heart threatened to explode with dread as Hal Fishman's face appeared back on the big screen.

"One of the hostages has been identified as Mary Jane Watson," Fishman announced... and M.J's face appeared in a blurred image on screen as well as the face of someone else, someone younger. "...an actress recently seen in a huge stint on Broadway. The second hostage, a young girl, has not been identified as of yet."

But Peter knew who that was.

That... That was Sidney!!!!!

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Peter screamed in his head as he made a mad dash to his apartment.

When he got there and opened his door, he rushed towards his bed and knelt down to the floor. He searched with his hands blindly and felt what he was looking for. A chest. He grasped it and yanked it out from beneath the bed, placing it on the mattress. The door was wide open, but he no longer cared about being caught. He was more desperate than he'd ever felt in his life.

It was nothing like the last times people he cared about were kidnapped... not like when Christina and Mary Jane had been taken by Norman Osborn on the Brooklyn Bridge... or when they were nearly sucked into Octavius's sun and Christina lost her left arm...

Now, it involved a child. A child that was practically family to Peter.

He reached over and turned on the television to his left to see if he could hear anything else about the situation.

Jennifer Dugan's voice came through the speakers after he had flipped through a few channels.

"We're only about a hundred feet away now, Hal and.... Wait! There seems to be some kind of activity in the web. It... seems to be creating some kind of gigantic lettering!"

Peter looked at the television scream and his blood chilled at what he saw. In a much bigger web than the other ones onscreen earlier, there were ginormous letters spelling out a single sentence in webbing of it's own:

SPIDER-MAN, STOP US IF YOU CAN

"Apparently, Spider-Man's being challenged to some sort of confrontation. And that raises serious questions about what kind of chance he'd stand against such overwhelming – Wait! What's that up there?!"

As he grasped his red and blue suit, Peter saw the camera panning up to a much taller building in the downtown area, zooming in on the roof in particular, and there were no railings to the roof at all. And curled into a terrified ball on that roof ten stories higher than Mary Jane and Sidney was... was...

_____

Christina's POV

"Aidan...?" she murmured weakly, her lower lip quivering with pure heartbreak and terror as she saw her baby brother in the worst danger imaginable. It was even worse than having seen Sidney and Mary Jane in that suspended taxi, and that sight alone had been enough for her stomach to plummet.

But this... this was unspeakable... unthinkable....

Her brother, who was still a damn baby, had been abducted by this bastard!

She had gotten to her father's house much too late, as police and ambulances had already swarmed the area long before she's arrived. Michael and Allyson were both still alive but badly hurt; Allyson had horrible gashes in her chest and ribs from claws and Michael had suffered a terrible concussion from having been knocked to the ground. He was still knocked out when Christina had reached them.

The only thing Allyson could think to do in her half-awake state when she saw her stepdaughter was to grip the collar of her shirt tightly and rasp out a few words: "Chris... if you find the bastard that took your brother and sister... my babies... kill that motherfucker..."

And all Christina had whispered back was, "I intend to."

Now, as she watched the news report on one of the biggest screens in Times Square, Christina Johnson became filled with the most blinding and hate-feuled rage known to the universe. She yanked her cell phone out of her pocket, her human hand having stopped bleeding ages ago; she merely ignored other citizens expressing their concern for her and dialed a number, holding the phone to her ear with her bloodied hand.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up..." she whispered shakily as she paced around one of the benches on the sidewalk.

A click on the other end.

"Hello?"

"I'm sure you've seen and heard..." Christina murmured under her breath into the phone. "Just this once... I need your help."

A/N: yeah... remember when i mentioned that christina's family would be put in danger in this section of the book? yeah, this is what i was talking about...

ANYWAYS, thoughts on this chapter? it's pretty tense throughout after that first scene with peter and aunt may.

speaking of, did you like how the scene with peter and aunt may turned out with christina as part of the context this time?

what do you think of how venom is portrayed in this version? i wanted to give it more of a pennywise feel with the way the creature's perspective is. and i am referring to venom as an "it" to make it far creepier.

yes, mary jane got kidnapped again. before i hear any of you complaining, there's actually a purpose. and she's way more active in this version of the climax of the film. she gets more to do and she does get to kick ass.

now... the moment where sidney is kidnapped... and aidan as well. yeah, i'm not fucking around with this book. venom took them both and hurt allyson and michael. thoughts?

what do you think will happen in the next chapter... besides peter obviously going to save them?

be looking forward to the next chapter! it's bound to be chaos!

-denbroughswife