#whumpdevil

They’ve given him a drug that makes him–and Venom–sleepy and compliant. Venom purrs softly in Eddie’s throat when their thighs are massaged with oil. It gives a deeply satisfied rumble when they are dressed in warm clothes.

This could be worse, Eddie, it projects to him when they are left alone in the cell for a moment. 

“I don’t think you have a good grasp of what’s going on here, Vee.”

The door to their cell opens and two large men step in. They take them by the elbows and lead them out into the hall.

Nothing is a threat to us so long as we’re together.

—

Eddie is blindfolded and they are led into a room large enough to echo. Voices, indistinct and multiple, bounce around them. Venom curls up in Eddie’s belly, sleepy and disinterested now that they can’t see. 

(It doesn’t occur to them that Venom doesn’t need Eddie’s eyes to see. Everything feels distant under the haze of drugs, blurred and unimportant.)

“Moving along,” a woman on a loudspeaker announces. “We are very excited to present our next item for sale.”

Multiple voices react in hushed whispers. Eddie sighs and shifts on his bare feet. They are standing on carpet. What kind of auction block is carpeted?

“Before you stands a very interesting alien specimen of the symbiote variety.”

You hear that, Eddie? We are very interesting. 

“Yeah, buddy,” Eddie sighs, uncaring that he’s likely talking to himself in front of a large crowd. “But that’s not news to me.”

Aw, Eddie…

“Looks like a normal man to me,” someone from the crowd shouts. 

Venom prickles under Eddie’s skin. He is not a normal man. He is Eddie. Venom’s Eddie.

“Soon to be someone else’s too,” Eddie grumbles.

That gets Venom’s attention. What is an auction anyway?

The auctioneer interrupts their private conversation. “It’s what’s bonded with the normal man that we’re bidding on today. Symbiotes need a human host to survive Earth’s atmosphere. Would you like to see a glimpse of the symbiote?”

The crowd murmurs their affirmations.

Eddie winces. That doesn’t sound good.

There’s a snick of flint flicking against metal and then all at once, they ablaze. Tea tree oil is flammable. That’s why they rubbed Eddie down with it. So that once he was on the auction block, they could set him on fire.

Venom rises off of Eddie’s skin in sticky strands, writhing and screeching under the flames that lick up Eddie’s body. Eddie tries to unglue his teeth so he can shout at the auctioneer, to let them know there won’t be anything left to sell if they burn Venom to death, but as quickly as they were ignited…they are extinguished.

Then Eddie just…stands there, singed on the auction block. The haze of drugs is wearing off. Searing pain takes their place. 

Shit, shit, shit, Venom chants to itself as it works to heal Eddie’s scorched skin. What the fuck?

A round of polite applause scatters through the room. As if they’ve just performed a particularly clever trick.

I told you this wasn’t good, Eddie thinks. His lips are too charred to move.

Yeah, but you worry too much. How was I supposed to know they were going to light us on fire?