Author's Notes: Forgive me if the typos are too much. I'm just too lazy to fix 'em, re-load the chapter n' all that shtuff…

Chapter 3: Freedom

"Carnage!" I pulled my robe around me tighter, taking a quick step back with a look of horror on my face I'm sure he took pleasure in seeing my expression. I could tell by the way that jagged mouth twisted into a gruesome grin.

He came in through the window, head ducking down to avoid the casement. It was incredible the way those tendrils moved. They were slow and steady, lifting and falling, wrapping and flowing. The light of the sun glistened off his costume, making it look slick and slimy.

Carnage began to advance on me. I continued to step back, as far as I could until I hit the wall. Panic consumed me. My breath was quick and my hands quivered.

He stopped as his foot hit the newspaper with his visage across the front and glanced down. As I stared at him, this living monster in my home, I began to realize why he had ordered me to re-assign myself to Ravencroft. He had been planning to escape for a long time, hadn't he? Had he been capable of breaking free all this time? Simply waiting for a good moment to strike?

"Hmm…" a tendril around his leg gathered the newspaper and carried it up to his hand where the talons eagerly snatched it up. He scanned over it, "They didn't even get my good side! If they wanted a good shot, all they gatta do is ask! I looooove the publicity, you know… Gets my message out to the masses real quick-like… You know all about that, don't cha, Doc? I've told ya, right?"

He was walking towards me again. I wanted to melt into the wall behind me and run away. When I opened my mouth to scream, I could feel his hand cover me to silence that attempt at a holler. Ooh, it felt too weird… His skin was crawling like dozens of snakes, smooth and silky, a little chilly against my lips. It smelled of cinnamon and blood…

"Scared of me, huh? Well, I know you're not stupid. You have every reason to be so rattled," He paused. "…You're shaking. Why? 'Cause now there ain't no wall to separate us? 'Cause I could kill you with one simple fling of a nail like I promised?"

He grew closer, brought his head down to hang over my shoulder. The lashing tendrils licked my robe, it seemed, with every chance they had.

"If I wanted to kill you, Georgie-cakes, I wouldn't have told you to leave The Vault. Or have you just not read the paper over there yet? Oh boy, I tell ya! It was tricky! Had to pull out all the stops! Not a great body count, yeah, but I can always make that up right here in the Big, Rotten Apple…" his hand fell from my mouth finally, but he stayed put.

All this time, I grew more and more curious. He had told me, during one of our sessions, how his random acts of murder was important to his cause and how killing simply because one can was the ultimate freedom. It perplexed me that he had kept me alive when he could kill me just because. Wasn't that what he was all about? Maybe, just maybe, Carnage has some favorites. I felt proud of myself that I might have caught the eyes of this creature. It was a strange exhilaration that this was a cold-blooded killer in front of me, leaning over me like that, exhilarating enough that my hand rose to rest on the curve of his neck. His costume responded with a shiver.

"Alright, Smart Guy. So how do I fit into your unplanned chaos? That is your point, right?" I think I got carried away at that time because my other hand began to busy itself by slithering up his side.

I must have triggered something. His suit exploded into thick tendrils from his chest and sides, wrapping around me in an uncomfortable, constrictive grasp. The air was knocked out of me and I gasped. I was like a doll to him, so light as I felt my feet leave the floor.

"I see potential in you, Doc," he sighed as he stepped back, holding me out to examine in front of him. The alien costume allowed a ribbon of red to wind around the shoulder of my robe, peeling it off like a child peeled the aluminum wrapper off of a chocolate bar.

"I wanna give you a glimpse of my world. If you like how it tastes, take the whole damn thing, 'cause that's the way it works in Carnage Land," he reeled me in, and before I could blink, I was being pushed against his body, staring up into those huge, blank bug eyes. His talons were running back through my hair, bringing my long brown locks around my shoulders.

He placed me down and stepped to the window from which he came, stopping to turn back with an out-stretched hand, "Come on, now…" he ordered and beckoned me to follow. I did. Why shouldn't I? I had no family to live for and this was, in a way, my job… I was breaking through Kasady's barriers into a place where no one has been.

He pulled me up, an arm around my waist, and locked me to his side. My arms swung around his neck and held as we lifted off in a jerk. My eyes shut out of reflex, legs curled around Carnage's hips. I felt his hand hold my thigh. This made my eyes open and I discovered then that we were actually flying. New York's buildings were whizzing by, and the world was swaying beneath us at every red rope casted out into the air by his fingertips.

I could hear screams below.

Chaos seemed to follow wherever Carnage went. Cars were screeching and crashing, women shrieked, and terror rushed over the streets like a tidal wave. I heard a shout to open fire. Bullets were suddenly bombarding us at full force and this seemed to aggravate him.

"Bah… I tell ya: Bein' famous ain't as great as it's cracked up to be. Everyone wants a piece of ya!" he placed me on a balcony and let me watch as he swung down into the street.

I understood now why, to him, chaos was so brilliant. It was an awesome sight to see. Such power! It was like all the people suddenly stopped functioning properly. All the great accomplishments man has succeeded in suddenly poof out of existence when primal fear holds dominion. Nothing's fair anymore and you are the one who is slaughtered just because you were there in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cars were crushed in his grasp. He ripped the metal side right off of a gasoline tanker and let it fill the streets. Sparks were lit and a great blaze grew. That's when he came back to claim me.

"Hello there, Beautiful! Sorry, I got distracted," he scooped me back up. I was slightly repulsed, but given the fact that I didn't have a choice, I again hung onto him and shut my eyes as we flew away.

Wherever we went, there was screaming. He liked it that way. It just fed his ego.

We landed in an alleyway somewhere, I don't know, but the brick walls were ancient. A trashcan had toppled over and its contents littered the ground. Bits of glass made the concrete glitter.

"Why are we here, Cletus?" I found the ground and stood gazing at my surroundings, this dark little hole in civilization.

He watched me move deeper into the alley before he lifted his index finger and pointed it out towards the streets. It stretched and plucked a random man from the crowd which, seeing this act, fled. The man was dragged into the darkness where we were, kicking and screaming, biting and clawing, fighting for his life.

"This is the entrance to my world, Doc. The admission to Carnage Land is one life. Not as much as Disney World, but I'm workin' on it," he shrugged.

Tentacles surrounded the helpless man and covered him, binding him to where he could no longer move. His head was pulled back to where his neck was fully visible to me. I knew what Carnage wanted. He wanted for me to kill this man.

"Pick up that nice, big shard of glass behind you…" he instructed as if he were a teacher walking me through a lesson.

"You don't really expect me to—"

"He's gonna die either way. I know that, you know that, hell, he knows that! Now pick up the glass!" that last phrase was like a bite to the ears.

I picked the glass up and started for the poor man. I didn't know what I was doing…

"That's right…" he cooed, acting like a demon seducing me into this sin. "There's nothing to think about… A life can be as worthless as trash. Act out."

The man was slowly suffocating in Carnage's grasp, a horrible way to die. I could end his torture quickly…

"Take all the pain and anger you've ever felt and use it. The law is beneath you. Become a god, Georgia. Take it… Take his life…"

Yes, I could feel it. All the pain and rage was resurfacing. It was eating me alive and making me burn. My mother, my father, Lizzie, those mother fuckers in med. school who thought I wouldn't amount to anything… So many faces, so much rage!

I pressed the jagged tip of the glass shard against the man's throat and sliced across. Blood. I didn't know people could bleed that much.

Carnage released the man into a crumpled heap squirming on the ground, holding his throat, trying to talk or scream, but only gurgled, blood spitting from the long gash.

I felt an arm around my shoulders, "Good girl… That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

No, it wasn't. In fact, it was just the opposite. It was a huge rush to the system. I felt free. I felt re-born! I felt invincible like nothing in the world could stop me!

"…More…" I heard myself whisper, much to my surprise, as I stared down at the man who finally stopped moving.

"You can have all you want, Doc…" he was whispering in my ear, more of a soft thrum than clear words, "…All you have to do is take it…"

I saw through his eyes now. I saw nothing but faceless people moving automatically: Lives wasted and blown off. No one really had to live. No one really mattered. They could be dead, like the poor guy behind me, and no one would care. Why had I ever hesitated…?

Behind me, Carnage suddenly perked up with a, "Huh?" and whirled around to catch a foot, which was lunging towards him. The possessor of the foot dangled upside-down with an expressionless face and big, white bug eyes not very unlike Carnage's. Instead of red and black, though, these colors were red and blue.

Ha! Spider-man!