Arrived at Anne's, Eddie parked his motorcycle, went to the entrance and rang the bell. He hoped Dan wasn't there. He was nice, but as Anne's new boyfriend, and him, as her ex-boyfriend, it would be extremely inappropriate.

The silence in his head was strange. Venom kept saying what he was thinking. That was okay when they were alone, but in public, when someone was standing next to them, it was hard not to react.

Anne came down the stairs and opened the door.

»Hey. I'm glad you could come.«

He went for a hug and Anne paused, but then they hugged. She waved him in and he led the way. She still lived in the same apartment they lived in when they were together. But he immediately noticed that a lot had changed. A lot of the furniture was in other places and Dans had obviously moved in too.

»Sit down«, she said quietly, waving her hand at towards the window, in front of which there was a table. They both sat down.

»So what did you want to talk about?«, he asked.

"I don't know either, but I thought it would help us talk. It was all very crazy after all." She conjured up the images in her head and immediately banished them.

»You haven't contacted me in a long time«, was everything he said. He felt that wasn't all she wanted to talk about.

»I know, but I just needed time to process it all.« He really didn't understand. After all, he was the one possessed by an alien and hunted by the Life Foundation.

She saw his gaze and wanted to change the subject.

»And are you okay? I heard the news that Cletus Kasady broke out of prison. That's really bad.«

»Yes. I'm fine«, he said quickly.

She hesitated, then put her left hand on the table. A diamond ring was visible on her ring finger.

»Oh wow.« He stared at the ring.

»Yes. I didn't want to tell you that over the phone, so I thought I'd better tell you in person.«

She looked at him hopefully. His gaze shifted from the ring to her, looking more shocked than happy.

»Yes, I, uh... I'm happy for you«, he replied, slightly forced.

»Thank you,« she said shortly.

He looked like he wasn't going to recover, which Anne couldn't help but notice.

»May I ask you something?« she asked after the silence.

»Yes, what is it?« He looked at her in distress.

»Were you two that about the murders in town?«

»What do you mean?« He was visibly confused, but that was only playing since he knew what she was getting at. He had told her that Venom had died in the Life Foundation explosion, but she had already had her doubts and even now she saw through the game.

»Don't kid me, Eddie. I know Venom is still alive. You just acted so weird afterwards. I noticed that immediately.«

He didn't stand a chance.

»Fine. But we weren't!«, he said firmly.

»Is that supposed to be Cletus, or what? He can't have caused that much destruction. Come on. Venom, say something about that too.«

»He's not here«, Eddie snapped.

»What? Then where?«

»It's a long story and we don't have that much time.«

»But you're all right?«, she asked worriedly.

»Yes everything alright. He should be home soon too, so I should get going«, he drawled.

He got up and was about to say goodbye when he gave her some advice.

»You and Dan, maybe you should get out of town for a few days. Cletus is more dangerous than you think and he knows me. It's possible he's got some stupid ideas and maybe wants to hurt you.«

»Okay…«, Anne said quietly and they said goodbye.

Venom had meanwhile arrived at the hotel. It was quite large, so he went downstairs to the lobby and looked around. In order to get Alex's room number, he had to take on an employee for better or for worse. That suited him quite well, because this transitional host probably wouldn't last much longer.

After living in and with Eddie for a year, he was unfamiliar with looking for suitable landlords. He was the only one who could withstand him, apart from Anne, who was also a very good match. But with him it was just the perfect symbiosis.

When he finally spotted an employee on the edge who looked very busy, he ran up to him unobtrusively and bumped into him lightly. He was about to turn around, but Venom was faster and jumped over. The passer-by stopped and looked confused as he walked to the front desk and looked up her name on the computer. The system indicated that she was in room 117, so he slipped unobtrusively to the elevator and rode upstairs.

Arrived on the 11th floor, he then walked down the corridor. As he rounded the corner, he smelled someone and saw a policeman standing guard outside their door. He should have figured she'd gotten bodyguards. He decided to approach him and make a short trial.

She lay on the bed in her small room and watched TV. She didn't had the nerve for anything else at the moment and nothing else was possible in the room anyway. But she switched through all channels and found nothing that she wanted to watch for more than two minutes. Everyone only reported about the outbreak or the latest murder cases, about which she really didn't want to know anything. There has even been discussion as to where he might be, who helped him, and who was to blame for the outbreak. She finally gave up the search and stayed on some channel.

She would prefer to be far away. Far away from him and everyone involved, away from this planet, she indulged in the brief daydream of flying through space alone. She closed her eyes and imagined the craziest things she would do without gravity. Would it be fun to travel through space?

But reality quickly caught up with her and she was again alone in a hotel room in San Francisco.

Suddenly she heard a dull noise in the hallway and there was a knock on the door. She paused and there was a second knock. She got up slowly and silently crept to the door and looked through the spy hole. On the other side she only saw someone in hotel clothes, so she opened the door.

The policeman who had been on guard outside her room was lying on the floor. She wanted to close the door again out of panic, but the employee was already in the room. She took a few steps backwards and nearly tripped, stopping in shock. He closed the door and walked towards her. He had a smile on his face.

»It wasn't easy to find you. Half the city's cordoned off so it took a little longer than I thought«, he said nonchalantly.

»What?« she replied questioningly.

Alex looked at him and then she saw something moving in his eyes. They turned white and deformed in an unusual way and sharp teeth showed up. Then she recognized Venom and the shock subsided a little.

»Eddie insisted on getting you because Cletus is running amok out there. He was prevented at short notice, so I'm here now.«

»So you can jump from body to body?« She wasn't sure why she was asking such a question. He looked scary, but the fact that he wanted to keep her safe calmed her. He didn't do anything to her the last time they met.

He gestured towards the door and she grabbed her cell phone and just wanted to turn off the TV when she saw the hotel they were in on the screen. The lobby was in shambles and dust made it difficult to see. Apparently Cletus had found her.

Venom followed her gaze and went to the window. He looked down. That was about 40 meters, but there was a building opposite, the roof of which lay a little below them. They couldn't go downstairs anymore, so they had to escape through the window for better or for worse. But this body wasn't fit to take the three of them over there. He looked at her and grabbed her forearm.

»What are you doing?«, she cried out in surprise.

She tried to defend herself with her arms, but the employee was already lying on the ground in front of her.

»We have to flee through the window«, she heard his voice in her head now.

»No, absolutely not!« she exclaimed.

Venom pulled her to the window with a tentacle and smashed the glass. Her hands turned into his and he took control of her legs. She jumped out, which caused her to scream, but he quickly suppressed the impulse.

They were hanging on the outside of the hotel, claws buried deep in the concrete, and Alex looked down, terrified. Now I'm going to die for good, she just thought.

»No one dies today!«, it came back from him.

It was pitch dark and fortunately she was dressed relatively dark. Everyone on the street was distracted by what was happening below, so no one noticed. They pushed off and nearly flew across the street.

When they landed on the roof of the building opposite, she rolled very awkwardly and rolled over several times before finally landing on the gravel.

She stood and looked up, but the Klyntar gave her no respite. She kept walking to the roof end where he let her jump off and they landed in a small back alley.

Carnage had caused a lot of chaos in the lobby. If they had given out room numbers more simply, he might have been a little more forgiving. Then he would have only killed half of them, on the other hand he had enjoyed it very much, and once the police had arrived the fun really started for him. That's why it all took a little longer than planned. Then he went up the stairs to her room. But when he found the room empty, with the window glass broken to boot, he let out a deafening scream.

Alex turned around, startled.

»Oh shit. That is not good at all.«

»What was THAT?« Her voice trembled.

»Um… I suppose… your father? But explaining that now would take too long.«

»Then I advise you to hurry up with your explanation«, she said, her voice faintly menacing.

»Okay, but first we have to get out of here quickly.« They walked down the street. Not knowing the way, Venom took control of her legs again. And he was taking pretty quick steps.

»First you should know that I'm not from Earth.«

»Well, no shit Sherlock, I already figured that out. Do you have a name too?« She turned around again and looked back.

»Yes: Venom. I am a Klyntar and cannot survive long in this environment without a host. My weaknesses include fire and high frequencies. Now it seems like Cletus Kasady has one too. Even if I don't know exactly how that could have happened. But at least that explains how he escaped from prison and is now causing so much chaos.«

That made sense. If Venom could get her to jump out of a 40-meter-tall building without harm, his species was capable of anything.

»Then you have to stop him«, she replied, drawing a confused look from a passer-by.

»First we'll get you to safety, or Eddie will give me hell.«

When Eddie got home there were police cars parked outside. He dashed up the stairs and when he got to his apartment, some police officers cleared his desk. He wanted to stop them, but Detective Mulligan got there first.

»I would advise against that. This is serious, Eddie, we've got some more murder cases. This time someone was even kidnapped. Your records and information are now in the public interest, so we're confiscating everything. You'll get the stuff back when this is all over.«

»But not my laptop! I need it for work.« He reached for it, but Mulligan stopped him. Everything he had was there.

»You can probably do without that for a few days.«

His radio clicked on:

»All units to Ravencroft. Burglary and fire.«

»Damn«, he then shouted and warned the police officers to hurry.

They packed everything in boxes and carried them outside. Mulligan went last and closed the door from the outside.

»Bastard«, Eddie muttered to himself.

He went to the desk and looked at the chaos. They had been very thorough: records, notes, recorders, SD cards and all USB sticks. All gone.

He looked out the window and waited until they drove away. Then he went to his bed and pulled out a dusty box from under it that held his old MacBook. He had saved it for emergencies and dug it out together with the cable. He switched it on and fetched his data from the cloud, which he had just set up. Venom had suggested that to him, but unfortunately not all files about Cletus Kasady were stored there yet. There was a knock on the window.

Alex was sitting outside on the fire escape.

He got up and opened it.

»There you are«, he said in greeting.

She climbed through the window and Eddie immediately closed it again, then lowered the blinds so no one could look in.

»Half the city is cordoned off, so we had to take a few detours. Besides, the police were with you just a moment ago«, she said.

She took an awkward step forward and put her hand on Eddie's arm, which was clearly Venom's fault. The Klyntar materialized and crawled to Eddie so he could reconnect with him.

»Nice to have you back, mate.«

»Same to you.«

»That was crazy«, was all Alex said.

»Are you all right?« He looked at her worriedly.

»Is that a serious question? He made me JUMP from the 11th floor!«

»Yes, I know that all too well.« His smile was genuine and he heard a chuckle in his head. Eddie turned and checked the laptop to see what files he still had on Cletus Kasady.

»Cletus has a symbiote of his own«, Venom said without warning.

»WHAT?« Eddie jerked his head up and turned around.

Alex looked at him in surprise, but knew immediately what it was about.

»It must have happened during the visit, when he bit you.«

»This is really bad«, he burst out.

»Then…we must stop him! If he kills any more people, it will be our fault.«

Eddie made a big gesture and Venom was silent for a moment, but eventually revealed himself in his snake-like-form.

»But we'd have to find him first.«

»That's right.«

»Maybe there's something in your notes?«

Alex looked like she was ready for anything.

»Yes, but unfortunately they took everything with them. I only have a few files left. They won't help us on their own.«

»That's no problem!« He let Eddie run to the desk and picked up a sheaf of papers. He grabbed some pencils and started drawing. But not in a normal way, but much faster and with both hands at the same time. Alex slowly walked towards them and watched.

When he was finished, sheets of paper, some of which consisted of notes and dialogues, were scattered all over the place. But there were also strange drawings. She picked up one that had an angel on it.

»And where did you get that from?« She held out the drawing to him.

»These are wall scribblings from Cletus's cell.«

She took a closer look at the drawing. Next to the angel was written in illegible writing:

The distant cathedral

is all I see.

Fractured angel,

the other part of me.

»Odd. Who do you think he means by "angel"?«

»He's mentioned that before. But he never spoke of anyone who might be associated with it.«