Chapter 3 - A long talk of Exposition

Jane walked in the kitchen. May wasn't there. She looked over to the bedroom. The door was open. The Light was on.

Balls. I really don't want to have this conversation.

Jane walked in the room.

"So... " May started, looking at the wall of pictures, newspaper cuttings and printouts. The only thing missing from the wall was some red string connecting things. "are you a serial killer now?" May poked her tongue out again.

At least she's a bit light hearted about the whole thing.

"I, I want to find and talk to someone. But they're very elusive. As you've guessed… I've narrowed it down to churches." she took the bottle of wine off may. Walked over to her bedside table where there were a couple of empty bottles of red wine. Picked up the corkscrew. Now an icon of this awkward situation and started opening the bottle.

"That's it? who do you want to talk to?" May was looking closer at one of the photos.

"Her"

"who is she?"

"That's what I want to find out." Jane had the bottle open and took a big swig. she walked over to May and gave her the bottle. "Its fucked up."

"I can tell." May took the bottle off Jane and also took a swig. "Tell me the whole story, you look like you need to share"

"Fine." Jane took the bottle back. Drinking continuously she walked back into the kitchen and sat down on the sofa.

May joined her.

"So there's this woman… who I think is stalking me."

"WHAT? that's ridiculous"

"Oh shut up, don't interrupt, either let me tell you the whole thing or I won't tell you at all!" Jane shuffled and drank more wine. "I like… see her everywhere. Sometimes she's down the road or in a window across from me. Sometimes I see her at my front door when I leave. I… I've seen her across the street on the roof when i'm at home. And I'm not imagining it! Before you say that." she punctuated the end of the sentence by finishing the wine.

May got up and got more wine and some glasses, "So you've got a stalker? just get a restraining order." she said on the way back.

Jane didn't look at my when she gave her the glass. "I don't think it's quite that simple."

May couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why is it not that simple?"

"This is going to sound crazy. But I don't think she's entirely human…"

May sat there in shock.

Jane took a deep breath… "Do you remember spidergirl?"

May's mouth opened in shock.

"Red and black spandex… Nice ass…"

"Yes" May shouted in a high pitched yelp. "I remember spidergirl."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just what does she have to do with your animal lady?" May asked bluntly, "No ones seen Spidergirl in years. She appeared to get rid of the Green Goblin and hasn't been around since"

"Not animal…" Jane trailed off a little glassy eyed. So there was spidergirl, Spiderman before her, Spidergirl before her and Spiderman before him."

"Yeah, I know all this" May said as she took a sip of wine.

"Why do you know all this?" Jane Nudged her "do you like her bottom aswell?" she winked, enjoying the moment of normalness in this weird moment she found herself in.

"Lets just say I have a vested interest in Spidergirl's bum" she winked back and took a sip of wine.

"Ever the lady, aren't you May… ever the lady. Well spiderman had a black suit for a bit. Then there was an evil Spiderman monster thing. The tabloids called him Venom. He fought spiderman a bit. Then there was a "She-Venom," don't like that name, but who trusts newspapers. Then there's nothing in the news and it gets a bit weird. Apparently there was a secret military branch which had a venom, Agent Venom. Then it stopped. Then there's another lady venom who is around for a couple of years only spotted by a few people. Nothing on the web or anything but eye witness blogs and things. Then nothing. I can't find anything about her. Until she started stalking me."

"I don't know about any of this. So what, it's like a curse?" May looked extremely confused.

"There's theories and Fanfiction and stuff. But all these websites are super old. Like… the last sighting was about 30 years ago. But generally… they think it's an alien. An alien Living… skin." Jane, once again was a little bit glassy eyed.

May looked deep in thought for a while. She topped up their glasses and took a sip of wine. "So you're telling me some alien skinned lady is stalking you. After dealing with Spiderman and the army and stuff, it's now stalking you? Why?."

"I have no idea. But it's been happening for about three months. It terrified me at first. I thought I was imagining it. But when nothing happening, she didn't confront me or come anywhere near me I started to look into it. Then I tried to talk to her but she would always disappear. I would walk towards her and she would go round a corner, I'd go round the corner and she would be gone." Jane took another sip of wine.

"This is so weird. Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I was too scared. After the first time I saw her it scared me so much I thought I was insane. I couldn't sleep, I stopped eating. It was hell. I kept having nightmares, So I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to eat, on some level I didn't want to live. I… I didn't want to drag you into it if something went wrong. I was scared and that's the time I stopped talking to you. I was worried if she did come after me she'd find you." Jane's voice was a bit shaky, she was very taking long breaths between words, stifling tears. "I am sorry, I've been feeling better… just I saw her the next day after I last saw you. So I stayed away again. I'm sorry." Jane finished staring at her wine which she was slowly swirling.

May didn't say anything.

Jane looked up. May had tears in her eyes and was also looking down.

"Sounds like a familiar story," May whispered in a soft voice.

What does that mean, we clearly care about each other. Why did you disappear? Why did I disappear? How did I get to the point where I'm telling her i'm being stalked by some weird alien skinned woman.

May lay down on the sofa and rested her head on Jane's lap. They sat there for a bit while they calmed down a bit.

They finished the bottle of wine.

May got up to get another bottle.

"So this is fucking crazy." She walked around the kitchen a bit. Running through the details in her head. She uncorked the bottle.

Jane was staring at May, That look she looks like she's come up with something. "What are you thinking, you look like you've got something to say?"

May paused like she was really thinking. She went to say something then stopped and thought some more. Eventually she had decided on what she was going to say. "If she's a stalker… why did you stop talking to me the FIRST time you saw her?"

Jane went white.

This was the bit I didn't want to talk about.

"What are you not telling me?" Jane's reaction got May's back up.

How do I put this?

"Well… the first time I saw her… was… In… My bedroom." She pursed her lips, with a knowing face, that it was information that she should have told May. She looked down at her wine and noted that she was really feeling it now. She probably would have avoided or refused to say that part of information should she be sober. But the wine and thinking about the woman made her want to talk about it more.

"WHAT?!" May looked angry and confused, "She was here? What did she do?"

"Nothing… Nothing." Jane frantically answered. "I woke up, she was in the room. She just stood there. Then she left."

"What do you mean nothing. She's got creepy alien thing… she's in your room and she just … leaves?" May looked so confused.

"Well she was breathing and the skin was moving. And she kind of fell on the bed." Jane's face was getting hotter as she thought about it. "The skin like… went over her head and turned into a monster like with big teeth and a massive jaw that you could fit a head in. Then she jumped and crept across the ceiling and out the window." Jane pulled her dressing gown closed. She looked embarrassed.

May once again, was sat there with her jaw drooping open. Completely shocked at what she was hearing. Her brain was processing this crazy information. Crazy Alien lady was in Jane's bedroom with wiggly skin and a monster face. May looked up as if a puzzle piece had dropped into place. "Wait, where the fuck do the churches fit into your creepy puzzle."

"Ahhhhh" Jane had clearly put her detective hat on, less distracted and more analytical. Her voice sounded excited but in a more intellectual way rather than the creepy was the rest of the conversation had gone. "So there was this priest who used to write stuff. Apparently it was random jesusy stuff. But there's three posts that stood out. The site is long gone, so this might not even be true. But someone else along the way who was interested in this monster stuff screenshotted the pages. Apparently Spiderman went there once and he heard him punching the bell and making a racket, then, what he says he saw "the black devil" and describes venom, leaving the church." Jane was leaning forward now,passion in her voice. "Then a couple of years later a member of the parish is in the confession room, turns into "the black devil" he saw before, half way through admitting to murdering loads of people claws the confession room to pieces and leaves. Then ages after that like 30 years, as he is about to retire he hears a woman screaming at the top of the church tower. He goes to walk up there to see her and once he is halfway up the bell tower "the black devil" drops through the hole under the bell and runs away. I'm paraphrasing obviously but that's the story. So I'm trying to find that church." Jane finished very happy with herself and her explanation.

"Why is it so difficult? Didn't the blog link to the church?" May's mind was racing.

"Nope, because he was talking about confidential stuff. He omitted it the name of the church and all names so people wouldn't be able to tell where it was." Jane answered.

"Okay, so how are you going to find the church?" May was now extremely confused.

"When Venom smashed apart the Confession room, he scratched the floor. So I have been searching for those scratches." She pulled up a picture on her phone. It was a screenshot of a screenshot, with a blue border. Some floor stones and four relatively deep claw marks in them. It was a terrible resolution. "I know the church is in the city, I just don't know which one.

"How many churches are there?" May asked, expecting a reasonable answer for one woman to search alone.

"6000"

"What?! How are you ever going to search all of those?" May took a deep slug of wine. She was too drunk, too confused and had really expected to get laid by now.

"Well, most of them you can take away because they haven't got a bell tower. A load more because they're too new. Then looking at pictures you can see weather they have wooden confession rooms or not so that takes a load off. Then there's ones which have wooden floors or tiled floors or Different coloured stone. So that only leaves 82… and I've already checked 64 of them." Jane looked very proud.

"Holy fuck. Why are you so obsessed? Did she do something to you to make you so fucking weird about it. Anyone else has weird creepy woman in their room and they would leave, or run away, phone the police or kill themselves about how freaky a monster faced woman in their bed." May was weirded out. Her friend was scarily obsessed with this and it wasn't healthy.

"I… I don't know, I just feel like I have to talk to her. Know how she feels. And find out why she came to me." Jane wasn't looking at May.

"What do you mean feels?" May didn't know what Jane was going on about.

"Well… I don't quite know how to say this. But she was panting and not really paying attention. She was biting her lip and occasionally moaning." Jane was really blushing, "I… I think she was having an orgasm. Like the skin was doing stuff to her. And the closer she got to me the more she was enjoying it. And when I tried to talk… I got one word out and… That look may that look. There was this look in her eyes that I.. erm… that I've only seen on your face. Like everything was right with the world and nothing could be better."

May was completely red in the face. The way jane was talking about this was so intense. It was magnetic. Stirring up some memories of their activities didn't help her confused feelings about this.

"She came to me and I think I caused that. She's stalking me. And I think she's come back into my room a few more times but I haven't woken up. I don't notice the windows open when its summer." Jane was glassy eyed again thinking off into the distance. "Can you imagine it May? Wearing another living thing, crawling all over you, constantly moving wherever you and it wants."

May noticed Jane's hands rubbing her legs in a way that she had seen before.

"So this is a sexual thing?" May asked

"Yes and No. That's what made me more interested but now I've read the other stuff, It's the whole package really." Jane said this with a particularly dreamy look in her eye.

"So you want to be a monster?" May asked with disdain.

"NO! I want the power, apparently the rumours say the Military Venom was a guardian, only doing things for good. I could be a bit of a hero… maybe." Jane was defensive.

"Oh yeah and team up with your buddy Spidergirl? Seeing as you have such a crush on her tight spandex covered bottom!" May had had enough, she was making a joke to try and end this bizarre conversation.

"If I remember rightly, you were the one always dressing up as her. Kinky bitch. Never let me have a go in that costume did you?" Jane stood up to get some wine.

"I told you it wouldn't fit you! you can't have a three quarter length catsuit lanky!" May thought of the outfits Jane did wear for her. Her eyes went down the length of her dressing gown.

"You always said that. But I think you had some sort of complex that only you could be the hero and I had to dress up as a villain." Jane said in a cheeky tone.

May noticed Jane wasn't just wearing her dressing gown. There was shiny black in between the hem of the gown and her slippers. This reminded her of something she had seen earlier in the bedroom It clicked. She had to ask.

"Jane… This might be a silly question. But you haven't got the alien skin now have you?" May was cautious.

"No, otherwise I might not have opened the Door." Jane wasn't sure where this was going.

"Then… Whats all that black stuff on your bed?" she was confused but intrigued by what was on Jane's legs.

Jane turned around with a wicked look on her face.

"I thought you'd never ask!"