#spider!tommy

Ranboo squinted through the trees again, desperately searching for any hint of light through the dark woods. Maybe she could see their house lights better now that it was dark?

As the thought crossed her mind, she noticed an orange glow through the trees. Thank God.

Ranboo carefully moved forward, her arms ahead of her, making her way towards the glow with minimal tripping and bumping right into a tree or two. Damn it, it was dark. 

Ranboo became steadily aware of the sound of hissing as she got closer, and after dodging through a few trees, she realized why.

It was the meteor.

Its crash caused the glow that guided her, as the earth around the crash site was still orange with embers from the meteor’s entry. The ground smoked and sizzled around the meteor, undoubtedly reacting to the heat it brought with it by breaking through the atmosphere.

Ranboo found it.

She wished her phone wasn't dead so she could take a picture. For a moment, she let herself forget she was lost, and leaned as close to the small crater as she dared to get a better look.

It moved.

Ranboo jerked back and fell flat on her ass.

The meteor crumbled as something seemed to crawl out of it, all tendrils and slimy in the low light.

"What the hell." Ranboo whispered fervently, desperately scooting back as the thing started coming closer. "What the hell, what the hell–"

Ranboo scrambled to her feet, her vision already fading into the darkness the farther she got away from the crash site. 

She heard the thing moving closer, so she turned around and moved as fast as she dared through the trees she couldn't see.

Predictably, she only got a few feet away before her shoe caught on an unseen root and she pitched forward with a startled yelp, seeing stars when her head collided with a tree trunk.

Ranboo blinked open her eyes on the ground, flat on her back. She let out a groan at the throbbing pain radiating from her temple. 

Then something unpleasantly cold and wet touched her leg, and she screamed, jerking away from it. The thing stayed fast even as Ranboo desperately kicked her leg to fling it off, and started moving up her leg towards her face at a terrifying speed.

Ranboo couldn't see anything, but just the feeling of the thing crawling up to her chest was enough to make her start truly panicking.

Her breaths came in terrified gasps, and she on instinct tried to grab the thing to fling it off of herself, gagging at the feeling of its cold and slimy form wriggling against her hand.

It slipped out of her grasp easily, and it felt like the frigid expanse of space incarnate settled inside her very bones as the thing dissolved into her chest.

Ranboo let out a choking scream, and—

—she was in front of her house, her head in Niki's hands.

"Ran!" Niki gasped as Ranboo fell to the ground, on her hands and knees. Ranboo retched, her throat searing with pain like fire as she ejected what felt like her entire being from her stomach.

"Oh my god, Ranboo–" Niki panicked as Ranboo heaved and coughed for breath, throwing herself away from the mess to lay on the wet grass. She was trembling uncontrollably, feeling feverish and ice cold all at the same time. She desperately tried to suck in a breath that wouldn't come.

Niki's unclear visage appeared in her range of view. It was dark, and she couldn't see her roommate’s face at all with the harsh orange light of their porch bulb at her back.

"Ranboo, you need to breathe," Niki ordered shakily, and she felt Niki’s hands on her shoulders. "In through your nose, remember?"

Ranboo desperately tried to focus on her voice, but she couldn't get her body under control long enough to take a proper breath.

"Ranboo, please," Niki pleaded, sounding near tears. Ranboo coughed and closed her eyes, clamping a hand over her mouth.

With her main airway blocked, she was forced to breathe through her nose, and her panicked gasps very quickly slowed as she just plainly couldn't hyperventilate with that small of an airway without passing out.

"There you go, there you go-" Niki breathed, rubbing gentle circles with her thumbs into Ranboo's shoulders. Ranboo's breathing heaved slower and slower before she felt it was safe to remove her hand from her mouth.

"W-wh-what ha-happened-" Ranboo stuttered, her voice raspy and breathless. Niki made a noise of despair.

"I just—I just found you stumbling out of the woods," She said, her voice breaking. "Were you attacked-? You look—oh, Ran-" Niki cut herself off and pressed a hand to her mouth, sniffling. Ranboo tried to sit up with trembling limbs.

"I-I need to go—inside," Ranboo said unsteadily. Niki sucked in a breath.

"Oh my god, of course—can you stand?" She asked shakily. Ranboo didn't honestly know the answer to that question, but she nodded anyway.

She ended up almost entirely bent over Niki as she dragged her to the house, their considerable height difference probably not doing her any favors. If Ranboo didn't feel like she was literally about to die, she would've tried to help Niki out more, but all she could manage was moving her feet with agonizing clumsiness.

Niki laid Ranboo as gently as she could on the couch, and Ranboo sank into it, her entire body protesting. It felt like she'd been put in a human-sized dryer. Every part of her ached down to her bones.

"Ran, tell me what I can do for you," Niki pleaded, wringing her hands tearfully. Ranboo was truthfully just trying to stay conscious at this point.

"I don’—dunno," Ranboo replied thickly. "It hurts."

"What does?" Niki asked, panicked, but Ranboo was already slipping away.

-

Her dreams were....weird.

It was all flashes of color and the occasional bite of bitter, freezing cold, colder than anything Ranboo had ever felt in her life. She also saw flashes of her own memories, her life, moments gone as soon as she recalled them in her unconscious state.

Then she was...flying? Falling? She couldn't tell, but it sent a surge of terror through her so potent that it wrenched her out of the dream immediately.

She hissed as she flinched at the light coming through the window, her body protesting, though the pain wasn't nearly as bad as last night. As she became more aware of her surroundings, she realized Niki was still by her side, asleep with her head laid on her crossed arms against Ranboo’s legs.

Ranboo could see where Niki’s mascara ran from crying the night before, and she winced.

"Niki," she whispered, nudging her roommate gently. Niki mumbled incoherently and buried her face into her arms.

"Niki, wake up." Ranboo pleaded weakly, nudging Niki more insistently. She roused enough to blink open an eye at Ranboo, and for a moment sleepy confusion muddled her expression.

Then, her eyes flew open and she jerked upright, grabbing Ranboo's wrists as if to ensure she was still there.

"Ranboo! Oh my god—are you okay?!" Niki asked fervently, pale and scared.

“I—I think so,” Ranboo uttered, her mind still confused and foggy. Her body ached like she just completed a triathlon, but she could ignore it. “What…happened?”

Niki’s expression went strained and distressed. “Y-you don’t remember? You came stumbling out of the woods, y-you looked like you’d been attacked-” Niki teared up again, and she pulled Ranboo into a tight embrace before Ranboo could even react.

Ranboo froze up, but hesitantly returned the embrace. She really must have scared Niki if she was acting like this…

“I…I’m alright, Niki.” Ranboo said carefully, not wanting to divulge exactly what happened, or at least what she remembered. She was sure that would just make Niki freak out even more. “I just…I got a little lost out there. I’m fine.”

“Why didn’t you call me? Oh my God, Ran, you looked like death-” Niki sniffled, squeezing Ranboo tighter. Ranboo felt an uncharacteristic pang of guilt in her chest.

“My phone died. I was just about to call you, I swear.” Ranboo quietly replied, trying to assure Niki so she stopped crying. It made Ranboo’s chest twist when Niki cried.

Niki exhaled and clearly had to force herself to let go, wiping under her eyes and smearing her mascara more. Ranboo cringed slightly.

“...How about we both go get cleaned up?” Ranboo awkwardly reached out to pat Niki’s shoulder. “I need to brush my teeth, and shower, and…you should freshen up, hm?” She tried to not sound mean, she really did, but Niki still uttered that exasperated chuckle that she always replied with when Ranboo lacked tact once again.

“...Yeah…that’s a good idea,” Niki sniffled and rubbed her face. “And I’ll—I’ll make breakfast. Do you…think it’s a good idea for you to go to school today?” She asked, her voice still a little wavery.

“I-” School? Ranboo just came into contact with an unknown lifeform and Niki expected her to be worried about school?

Ranboo shook off the thought. She had to act normal until she had all the information she needed (or wanted) to share with Niki.

“...We’ll see.” Ranboo replied vaguely, standing up from the couch with a small wince. Her body really hurt, God…

She left for the upstairs bathroom—her bathroom, explicitly—with the intent to have a nice hot shower and debrief with herself.

Ranboo got to the bathroom with a change of clean clothes before a deep, growly voice halted her in her tracks.

RANBOO.

Ranboo dropped her clothes, whipping around, but there was nobody in the bathroom with her, obviously.

“W-what the-” Ranboo whispered, her hushed voice pitched. “Who-”

FOOD. WE ARE HUNGRY.

“What the fuck,” Ranboo stumbled back, knocking over bottles from her extensive skincare routine when she hit the bathroom counter. “W-who’s saying-?!”

HUNGRY!

Ranboo choked on a strangled noise when her arm suddenly moved on its own, her breath sticking in her throat in horror and confusion. She grabbed her arm with her other hand, jerking her arm back to her side.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Ranboo whispered shrilly, keeping her voice down so Niki didn’t hear her. Her heart was racing so fast that she felt dizzy.

WE. ARE. HUNGRY. The voice was so close, practically in Ranboo’s brain, but there was no one there. FEED US NOW, OR WE WILL DO IT FOR US!

“Who is us?!” Ranboo asked frantically, on the verge of a panic attack. She was going crazy, hearing a voice that wasn’t there, she had to be going crazy-

Ranboo uttered a strangled cry when her arm moved out of her control again, what looked like black slime crawling out of her skin. Her arm jerked unnaturally, clapping her hand over her mouth before she could make another sound.

The black slime coalesced into a strange mass the size of a football, milky white eyes and rows and rows of jagged teeth manifesting into a twisted visage of a face. Ranboo stared in horror with wide eyes as the mass moved closer to her face, her own arm not obeying her impulses to release its position over her mouth.

“WE ARE VENOM.” The mass growled out, its terrifying voice finally external. “RANBOO IS OUR NEW HOST. RANBOO WILL FEED US. UNDERSTAND?”

Ranboo’s legs shook under her, her mind almost whiting out in utter terror. She felt that same black slime crawl down her legs to strengthen her stance.

“NO PASSING OUT. WEAK.” Venom growled, narrowing its milky eyes and leaning even closer. Ranboo was trembling, her eyes wide and fearful as she still couldn’t make a sound through her own hand. She forced herself to nod, the action jerky and shaking.

“GOOD.” That horrible, toothy mouth twisted into an unmistakably smug grin. “RANBOO IS LEARNING. RANBOO WILL BE A GOOD HOST. RANBOO WILL FEED US. RIGHT?”

Ranboo inhaled a shaking breath through her nose. She was completely at this—this thing’s mercy, and she only saw one way out of this right now.

She forced another small nod, trembling uncontrollably.

Venom’s terrible grin spread wider.

-

Niki felt a lot better as she exited her bathroom, rubbing her face with a small towel. What happened the night before was terrifying, but Ranboo was okay…they’d be okay.

Niki rounded the corner to get a start on breakfast in the kitchen, and froze up completely.

The kitchen looked like a tornado had blown through it. The cabinet doors were practically ripped off their hinges, and there was mess all over the surfaces and floor, remnants of packaging and pieces of food strewn about.

In the center of it all was Ranboo, hunched over on the floor and desperately digging through the trash can like a woman possessed. She looked disheveled, which never happened to her; it was well known that Ranboo would rather die than be caught looking anything less than immaculate, and now she was on her knees shoveling through garbage.

Ranboo snapped her head up when a floorboard creaked under Niki’s feet, and after a long, long silence of shared eye contact, Ranboo swallowed.