11.House of Balloons

(Song: House of balloons/ Glass Table Girls- The Weeknd)

(Song: Hole in the Earth- Deftones)

(Song: Cherry Waves- Deftones)

MIGUEL'S POV

"You are exactly like me... A Monster" I was looking down at the now revealed face of Venom herself.

She looked just like her.

The nickname I gave her matched her perfectly.

La Llorona.

I felt my body stiff at the sudden appearance of the villain underneath me.

I let every little feature sink into me. Her plump lips that were cracked, her small angled nose, her round jawline, her thin eyebrows furrowed at me, the dark eyebags casted underneath those dark brown eyes that were glaring at me like I was some pesty insect.

She looked just like her. Every time I've thought of that woman, every singular detail is in her, from her hair to the gaze she is holding on to me right now.

A beautiful face plastered onto a disgusting creatures body.

(Art insert)

(Obvi art by yours truly)

VICTORIA'S POV

I was filled with rage and disgust for the large man that was hovering over my body as he held my arms over my head, his large hand gripping my wrists as he held me captive. His entire energy radiated off his body, daring me to launch whatever plan I was thinking of doing to escape from his overwhelming grasp.

I can feel my chest rising and falling as I take short breaths trying to calm my anger taking over me.

His chest was pushing down on me as I glare as him.

The images of Sherlyn playing back into my memory every time I blinked, feeling my eyes burning, the tears begging to release from my sockets, but I wasn't going to let them not after one escaped only a few moments ago.

Hearing the sound of her death over and over again I didn't feel the hot breath fanning towards my face the smell of peppermint and liquor as I turn my gaze harshly towards the revealed face of a tan man with a scowl touching his plump lips. For some reasoning I looked at every detail of this man's image, a fang poking out his mouth, his eyes dark looking at me like I was some shit he stepped on, his face was sharp, I can tell it was just like his personality, and as my eyes wonder his features so did his, until we finally met again. His eyes are the same color as my nails.

I try to launch forward as his grip tightens his large leg in between my legs as I growl under my breath annoyed.

(Art Insert)

(Art by yours truly)

His dark hair tussled forward as he pushes me down further.

"How do we get out of this?" Venom mumbled as I try to hold in my sigh.

"I'm trapped underneath a large 6 something man, that has superhuman strength, you have any bright ideas?" I thought, venom lets out a gruff laugh.

"How about luring him to your charm?"

I mentally roll my eyes "this copycat sees me repulsive."

"Not from what I'm seeing."

"And what are you seeing exactly? Him holding himself from beating the absolute shit out of me?"

"Yeah but another type of beating" before I can ask for Venom to elaborate of his comment I suddenly hear the sound of the large doors of his room open and as the sound caught his attention the grip on my wrist soften as I peel my arms down before landing a sharp jab on his face as he falters upwards the heavy weight on the bottom half of my body becomes less as I pull myself underneath him. I begin to get up when he grabs my right foot before pulling me back down as my head slams down on the levitating floor which was now slowly going down.

"Miguel?" the other Spider-Mans voice called worried.

"Pinche mujer... can't you just follow simple instructions of being a good prisoner" Miguel grumbled his voice hoarse due to the blow from earlier "si no entiendes ingles puedes-."

I pull my leg as fast as I can as I launch it back in his direction slamming it to his built shoulder as it pushes him slightly off the platform "I can understand you perfectly" I huffed out "I just don't listen."

"I told you! We should've had a civilized conversation, but nooooo we have to do everything your way-."

"If you are done complaining you can come help me capture her" Miguel rolled his eyes as I jumped off the platform heading towards the door aiming for my escape the bottom of my feet moving as quick as I can, I don't think I can feel the ground make contact with my feet.

"We're almost out!" Venom yelped happily as I slam through the steel doors ready to make a quick and easy run to only feel my body shiver as the eyes of many Spider-Men, Spider-Women, and Spider-Cat? What the fuck is going on here. I freeze as I glance around swiftly trying to find a way out, fuck, no mamés, without thinking I aim my arm up as I shoot a web up at a way as I pull myself as quick as I can.

"It's a Venom!" One of them yelled.

"Grab them!"

"Someone tell Miguel-."

"Uhm I think he knows" I turn to the voice and glance back seeing the large copycat hurling my way his webs red cutting mine off like before.

"Well, aren't we famous" Venom joked as he shoots a web to aim us to safety.

"We need to find a safe place in here" I sigh as glance around when suddenly I feel a sharp pain on my thigh, talons gripping onto it as I hear a meow "you're lying" I mumbled.

"Ooooh a snack for the road" Venom grinned.

"Crap!" I groaned as it's nails dig deeper into my skin as it tries to climb onto my body as I quickly use one of my free hands and grabbing the cute but annoying creature by the back of its neck before tossing it into the crowd of this secret fan club of Spider-Men.

"I don't know where to go" I began to panic as I swung up higher and higher trying to find an escape route.

"There" Venom spoke feeling my body move to the left quickly my hair swinging harshly due to our sudden movement, I was gaining more and more distance from the angry group until I felt something get stuck on my back.

"Venom!" I yelped.

I'll admit it.

I'm scared.

I don't know where I'm at, I don't know what I should do, I've always been so sure of myself so sure of my actions, when I stole Venom from my job I felt so sure of what I'd done. Even now I wouldn't change what I did, because in the end Venom became more than just a tool for revenge. He became someone important to me someone I am so entirely scared to lose. I can feel my body shutting down due to the stress of everything that has happened.

First with my Spider-Man... My Peter... I regret ever wishing harm on him, but he lied... they lied... to my face time and time again. Did they not trust me?

"Vicky."

I feel so stuck.

What am I going to do?

Where am going to go after I escape this place?

Can I start a new life here?

"Vicky."

If I get captured now I will no longer be able to return home. I won't be able to visit Sherlyn's grave, nor Dantes, my dad was still at home, I won't be able to light his candle for him. I won't be able to check on johns school reports for Sherlyn, no longer send lunch to her mom in secret, I won't be able to take revenge on the people that were preyed upon by predators, I won't be able to lay in my living room remembering every memory of Dante, I won't see his dad get home safely, I won't see Peter... I won't be able to apologize for everything I've done. To apologize to Sher for hurting him the way other villains have done, apologize to Dante for hurting his best friend, to apologize for all the wrongs I did.

Apologize for turning into the one thing they loathed.

"Vicky snap out of it!" someone yelled as I realize we were in a dark area, flashing red lights slowly fading in and out of the small room, my body was shaking with fear and terror as my brain was surely shutting down.

"I want to go home" I whispered.

"Go home to where? Peter is still Spider-Man, what will we do? He doesn't like me" Venom grumbled.

"And neither do they like you here... but I can't live another day being away from where everyone I loved are at, not here, not here in a place where they don't even exist, not where I exist and they don't" I mumbled underneath my breath as pull on my hair upset.

Venom stays quiet for the first time as I try to think of way to get back home, having no useful information to my knowledge as I felt my eyes begin to water. It was hard for me to cry, I never wanted to shed a tear after everything, but now as I feel so useless and stupid I just didn't know if I can hold it in, I've been trying to hold onto my sanity ever since I arrived here. I was holding it by a thread for Venom, he was only able to choose me after all the other failed experiments, so he was alone here too, he needed a host and I was the best option for him, but was I really? I mean look at where I am. I have no way to get home or feed him the way I used to back in our dimension, I was able to find convicted pedophiles, we were paid by families to take revenge for them, if we had no one to eat we were lucky enough for his other addiction to pop tarts, right now we don't know who's right or wrong, nor do they have damn pop tarts in this world.

I wanted to go back to my apartment and ask my father for advice, get a sign of what I should do, any little sign to help me out in this moment. I pulled my red rosary out, the one my father gave me since I was a young girl, I kept it on me ever since. I shift myself to be on my knees as I whisper to myself "Papa por favor, quiero regresar, te extrano, I can't stay here, I want to return back" I gripped on the rosary looking up at sky but was met with the metal cover of the hideout I was in, I felt so small, so disgusting as I beg my father for a sign, any sign as the red halo of the small room go in and out.

"I don't want to be here, tengo miedo, por favor" I hold back my tears fighting the urge to smash my head on the ground, I am so pathetic.

Suddenly I hear a footstep come in my direction I see a figure in all black come into view being faced again by a spider mask and a fedora on its head, but before they can take another step I had gotten up trying to plan out my attack as quickly as I can, I hold onto my rosary. Before I can lunge at the tall figure he takes off the mask seeing the face similar to the man from the club, I take a closer look and realize the very small features of my peter in him, but now seeing him completely clear I realized he was older, bigger, his feature defined with age. He lays his hands forward in a truce way as I raise my eyebrow lightly looking at him curiously "I want to help you, please, that is all" he spoke trying push the curl in front of his forehead to the back once again but failing as it falls forward.

"We don't trust Spider-Man" Venom spoke.

"Well trust me... look I was the one in charge of capturing you since the beginning-," Venoms cackle cut him off.

"So, you were the one that caught us?"

"No-no by all means I was trying for Miguel to capture you calmly, try to figure a way to send you back home, look..." the man in front of me seemed stuck on his words, making me remember how cool of a cucumber he was when I first met him "I will tell you truthfully that I'm not very good with your type of villains, however I believe we should let your Spider-Man deal with you, find your dimension and hand you over him."

"Just throw us to another one of you? No thank you" Venom growled.

"It's better than Miguel, he has no sympathy towards the enemies we capture, your Spider-man, maybe does" he looked at me raising his eyebrows.

I mean yes, Peter does, but what Peter wanted was to take Venom out of me, and I don't think I will be able to let that happen, ever.

Venom was now apart of me, mentally and physically, he was a friend now, who would I become without him?

"You seriously can't be believing him?" Venom spoke withing us as I sigh "what choice do we have right now Venom" I mumbled back at him "to not believe one of them, what if this is a trap?"

"And if it is? What? Where would we go right now? We are surrounded... I would rather take this large leap of faith then try to fight thousands of them... we won't make it" I mumbled.

"I'm just saying we should keep our walls up no matter what" I know he was upset at me, but we had no choice here.

"I'm not saying that taking you under my wing will prevent Miguel from showing you hostility nor does he know I'm even doing this" the man sighed "but me and Peter B have spoken about this, he believes with simply communicating with you we will be able to find your dimension, I know we came at you in a not so nice manner-."

"Yeah you put us down before electrocuting us multiple times then made me relive horrible memories" I glare at him.

"And that is what I was trying to prevent since the beginning" he placed his arm in straight stance in front of me as he raised his voice louder "I was told by my uncle ben that my power comes with great responsibility, and with that I know I must help as much as I possibly can, we all have a backstory, something that made us who we are, I wasn't in a good path at the beginning I was looking for revenge and it led me through a dark path" he shook his head before pushing up his glasses softly.

"I can see that you are in that path currently, your angry, and I might not understand maybe never understand what has happened to lead you to take that symbiote-."

"If you think for a second I will give him up, think again" I warn "he is mine."

The man eyebrows raised before seeing his eyes falter "you must understand that he is eating you alive right now, you become weaker and weaker as time passes as he becomes hungrier with each passing second." 

"Maybe that's your Venoms but I will never do that to her" Venom growled at him "if I was doing that to her I would leave her body instantly."

"Would you? Even if it meant you dying without a host?" The man argued.

"Yes" Venom admitted quickly.

He stood there looking at us as I grip onto my rosary, his eyes glance at it before meeting my gaze again before sighing "if we do this you must understand that you might have to follow all the rules of Miguel?"

"We don't have a choice in this situation now to we Spidey?" Venom mumbled annoyed as the man turns his back on us.

"Just stay here, let me have a quick conversation."

The man turns his head lightly looking at me before shooting a web and slinging off in the distance.

"Do you trust him?" Venom asked me as the man disappeared.

"We have to try; I don't want to stay here for much longer" I whispered before turning my back.

MIGUEL'S POV

"No" I grumbled as Peter swings down from beside me as I open screens from my wrist annoyed at the sudden escape from Venom.

"Noir has talked some sense into them, they seem willing only if they are able to go back to their dimension" Peter walked in a quick pace as I stop what I'm doing and glare at him.

"And why would I permit that?"

"Because apparently they can't be captured, they have broken out of grasp for the 2nd time in our own base Miguel, our own technology doesn't work against them and let's not mention that we still don't know the frequency of sound to get Venom out of her, to help her" he looked at me.

"Well, I don't want to help her" I mumbled turning my face in another direction.

"Even after prying into her memories like that, why did she attack you like that Miguel? What did she see for her to go ballistic that she was able to escape under your supervision?" he questioned at me as I sighed feeling the guilt slowly creeping into me "well what is it?"

I tussle my hair annoyed by him "I didn't know what type of memory it was, I assumed it was just a memory of her doing something illegal and, well, it wasn't" I say lowly as I look down at my feet "but if she only corporate-."

"And how can she do that when you're threatening her? Showing her disgust. Believe it or not Miguel but in the end half of the Villains that became who they are were just pained people that took the wrong road" Peter looks at me sighing "I had venom in me once and boy was he addicting, he would feed off my energy, my anger and thankfully he was rid of me before I could've done worse, not only that if he had come when I was at my lowest... when I lost uncle Ben I would've been a lost cause... what if he was there when you know" I look down at him as I feel a pang in my chest before I turn my back on him.

"And that's the difference between us and her, she accepted him with open arms."

"I say we try to help her, if we don't do this quickly then what will happen in the Spiderverse, do you think we actually have enough evidence of her dimension that we can find it? Because I don't think so."

"Then their world is an anomaly."

"Aren't you one too?" he dug into me as I turn to him glaring at me "put your differences aside and listen for once Miguel because right now Noir has her, and she even seems willing to make this work, dammit she's young Miguel, I say we give her back to her Spider-Man so he can deal with her-."

"Well apparently he can't-."

"Or he doesn't want to" Peter looks at me before sighing "maybe he was trying to knock some sense into her before she got sucked in by one of those portals, we may never know if you don't give this a shot."

I place my hand on my hips rubbing my temple annoyed "If it doesn't work it'll be on you and Noir, I won't be dealing with her, you guys keep an eye on her and find out another meal that can fill Venom before he starts looking at us as his meal course, you hear me?" I cannot believe I'm doing this, giving into these men.

"You know what happens when we do not follow our line within the universe Miguel, instead of us capturing her time and time again we should learn to co-exist until we hand her over to her Spider-Man after all he knows her more than we do in this moment" Peter looked at me as his hand comes down from his face before placing it on May'Days messy mop of hair "we cannot risk her Spider-mans world, not hers."

I look up at him sighing knowing the feeling.

It was weird of me to give in so easily, but as I recall all my moments with Venom never once did they glitch, nor did any alert come from their world, and right now I realize how strange that is. Nothing made sense.

"And who will supervise her to make sure she doesn't do anything wrong?"

"Well, who do you want? We can keep an eye on her till our own problems back home call to us like you said earlier, Noir is happy to keep her under his wing for now."

"And do you think he will be able to do that? You know he can't deal well with these type of Villains especially with what happened to his uncle Ben" I looked at Peter as he looks down at his feet.

"He can manage, I can assure you."

"And where would it stay? I will not have it roaming around anyone's dimension-."

"Then you can keep her by your side, we only suggested Noir since he will be able to speak with her, since you know... stand offish" he glanced at me "the only thing is you must let her free, no prison, no more with your- personality, because this plan won't work, we must try to keep the peace."

"Yeah peace" I roll my eyes "well she won't be able to roam freely like you hope, she will have a gps tracker on her at all time, and she will not leave the Spider facility unless it is under my supervision, I'm not all for this plan Peter, so if this goes to hell it is on you and Noir."

"I will come in whenever I can to speak with her, see when she can start opening up about her world, Noir will come the days that I am not free."

"Mmm" I mumbled under my breath biting the inside of my cheek to hold back what's really on mind.