Carnage Part 5 - Harry Osborn's Past

The following story takes place the previous year, when Harry lived in New Jersey.

Harry Osborn was the ideal student: excellent grades, courteous to the teachers, and popular among his peers. It wasn't a stretch to say that there was no one in the school who disliked him. (Of course, he was fully aware that many people only liked him for his money. He expertly deflected their advances without ruffling any feathers.)

He was always able to read a person's feelings from their face. His talent to guess what you were thinking was so strong it could almost be called a superhuman ability. That's how he always knew exactly what to say, and exactly how to act, in order to make people like him.

He saw things in people nobody else noticed.

"Ugh... I'm so sick of biology," Michael moaned as he slumped over the table.

"Oh, shut up." Aaron picked through the food-like substance on his tray. "It's not like you listen to anything the teacher says anyway."

"I do so, and it nearly kills me."

"Your exam scores kill you."

"What was his last score?" Harry innocently asked.

"Fifty-two," Aaron answered.

Harry patted Michael on the back. "Well, at least you got a wonderful personality!"

"Gee, thanks," Michael said dryly. "Dude, what's your secret?"

Harry spoke like he was reciting an often-quoted speech. "I attend all my classes. I take careful notes. I study with my textbooks and make flashcards. And I always wear sunscreen."

"Huh?"

"Do you ever bribe the teachers?" Michael teased.

Harry grinned wide and replied, "I'm sworn to confidentiality on that subject."

Michael laughed. And as he was laughing, something caught Harry's eye.

Across the cafeteria, a boy with curly red hair sat alone. He didn't have any food. He was clearly watching Harry and his friends, trying to hide a smile.

Harry raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, he heard a loud gasping from his side.

Aaron was clutching his chest. He had a panicked look on his face and was wheezing loudly.

"Aaron?" Michael looked worried.

The boy fell out of his chair and brought his tray crashing on the ground with him. His body shook and the gasping grew louder. Everyone in the cafeteria noticed came forward in a panicked crowd.

"Oh my God!" Michael instantly went down to his friend and grabbed his shoulders. "Aaron!? Someone help! He's choking!"

While reaching for Aaron's backpack Harry yelled, "He's not choking, he's going into anaphylactic shock." The backpack was left beside Aaron's chair when lunch started. Harry tore it open and dug through the contents as fast as he could.

"Be there, be there, be there, be there," he chanted. He quickly found an EpiPen. Shoving the backpack away, Harry pulled up the leg of Aaron's shorts and stabbed the pen into his thigh.

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six..."

After ten seconds Harry took the autoinjector away. Aaron didn't open his eyes, but his spasms stopped and his breathing became calmer.

Harry let out a deep sigh of relief. Then he pointed to two random people in the crowd. "You call an ambulance... And you get the school nurse in the meantime."

Part of the crowd dispersed, but many stayed behind muttering to each other or just staring at the scene.

"My God, Harry," Michael whispered. "That was incredible."

"Hmm? Not really," he mumbled. "I was just copying what I saw on TV. The whole time, I was scared witless it wasn't gonna work."

"But how did you know he had an EpiPen in his backpack?"

"I didn't. I just hoped he did. I remembered Aaron has a really serious peanut allergy, so I hoped he might keep one handy."

"But lunch shouldn't have had any nuts in it..." Michael looked down at his fallen friend.

Harry suddenly remembered something. He stood up and looked across the cafeteria.

The redheaded boy got up from his seat and calmly walked towards the exit, still hiding a smile on his face.

Harry watched him every step of the way.

Two weeks later.

Inside a school stairwell, on the landing between one floor and the next, a redheaded boy stared out through a small window.

He waited... and waited... and finally slammed his fist against the wall. "What the hell, man?! He didn't fall!"

"You mean the maintenance man on that ladder? Sorry to disappoint."

He spun around and backed against the wall. A moment later, he saw Harry nonchalantly coming up the steps with his arms crossed. "It takes more than a few loose screws to make a ladder fall apart - but just to be safe, I refastened them the moment you left."

The redhead regained his composure and shrugged. "I don't know what you could possibly be talking about... Now if you'll excuse me."

Harry blocked his way. "Let me warn you, I'm extremely good at knowing when people are lying to me, so don't bother. And I've also been watching you extremely closely these last two weeks."

"Watching me do what?" he asked cautiously.

"Well, for starters, I heard about the Bunsen burner that malfunctioned and started a small fire in your class. I noticed a few other 'accidents' that you caused, too - I can only imagine how many I haven't noticed. Or are you still going to deny that you caused them?"

He looked Harry in the eye for several seconds. Then he gave him a toothy grin. "Empty your pockets."

Harry almost didn't flinch. "...Why?"

"I wanna make sure you're not bugged. I wouldn't wanna say anything incriminating if it was getting recorded."

After he refused to move, the redhead added, "I could always search you myself..."

Harry hesitated a few more seconds, then he sighed and took out his smartphone.

The shorter boy burst out laughing and snatched the smartphone from his hand. "You really were trying to get dirt on me! Man, I thought I was just spouting BS! I guess you can never be too careful." He opened the window and tossed the phone outside. "You don't mind, right? You can always buy a new one. It must be nice to be rich."

He slammed the window shut and turned back to Harry with an unfriendly smile. "So... do you still want me to confess even if you have no way of proving it, Rich Boy?"

Harry was undeterred. "Sounds like you know who I am. Now you should reciprocate the introduction. How many Cletus Kasadys are there?"

He blinked. "How... many?"

"I told you. I've been watching you extremely closely. You're not alone up here, are you?" Harry tapped against his own temple. "There's you, the psycho sadist who enjoys hurting people... But sometimes there is another you, ignorant about the fake accidents, then ashamed when he hears someone gossip about it. It's not just an act or a persona, is it? But a completely separate ego... At least that's my theory. Care to rebuff it?"

He stared at Harry, almost speechless. "Man... I'm seriously impressed. Just by watching me from afar, without even talking to me, you noticed the difference between us... No one's ever been able to do that before."

"I already know which Cletus Kasady I'm speaking to," Harry resumed. "Now I'm curious how many there are. Any siblings who cause trouble outside the school?"

"There're two of us - only. And don't call me Cletus. I don't want his name. He's nothing but a container for me. My name is Carnage."

"Carnage... Fitting name, considering you've been trying to kill people for two weeks right under everyone's noses."

"Now I really don't know what you're talking about. I never tried to kill anyone."

"Maybe your other tricks were non-lethal - and that's a big maybe for the fire in Chem. lab - but sending someone into anaphylactic shock? You must have known what eating peanut oil would do to Aaron. Why else would you sneak it into his food?"

"To make him uncomfortable for a minute, not dead."

"Ah, so you did sneak peanut oil into his food." Carnage lost his smile and Harry gained one. "You must have, but I could never figure out when you had the chance. Would you mind explaining from the beginning?"

"Don't act all smug. What difference does it make if I confess to you? The point is, man, I wanted that guy to survive. That's why I didn't steal his medicine. I love watching people suffer, but I wouldn't kill just anyone. My first murder has to be something special."

Harry's main objective was to get proof of Carnage's crimes. Barring that, learn as much as he could about him, trying to find something he could use against him.

Harry was excellent at guessing what people were thinking, but it wasn't magic. It involved trial and error. Carnage was a particularly frustrating case. Harry could sense he was suppressing something, but it was just barely out of his reach.

"Why did you stage those accidents? What's the point? What do you get out of it?"

"Why do I hurt people?" Carnage chuckled slowly. "For absolutely no good reason at all. I thought it would be fun. That's all there is."

"And that's why you don't try to kill them. If their pain ends, your fun ends."

"Heh heh... Maybe you're not the saint everyone thinks you are, Rich Boy. You seem to understand me pretty well."

"And the others don't?"

Carnage raised an eyebrow. "What others?"

"All the others... You were really surprised when I noticed the difference between you and Cletus... Nobody's ever noticed you before."

"You're wrong. People may not notice us, but they notice me. They notice the pain and destruction I leave behind. That's who I am. I'm not a name or a body. I don't make carnage. I am Carnage."

"Do you think you'd still be that way if you weren't attached to Cletus?"

"Absolutely!" he shouted. "I know it for a fact. Because I was like this even before I knew that I was Cletus' alter."

"But it's not the same now, is it? You can't hide it. Even if not your personality, something changed when you became aware of each other."

"Yeah, him. He used to be someone, before I showed up, but now he's my container and nothing more."

Used to be someone?

"Cletus is spineless. I taught him his place a long time ago."

Cletus came before Carnage... Cletus was whole without Carnage...

"It's fine. He never did anything worthwhile anyway. He was just an ordinary, normal person with an ordinary, normal life. That's boring. So I-"

Without thinking Harry blurted out, "Now I get it. You're jealous."

Carnage froze.

Everything froze.

The room almost seemed to get darker. Carnage started to tremble as he breathed, his stare drilling holes into Harry.

Holy crap... I stepped on a volcano full of landmines.

Carnage screamed. He lunged at Harry and pushed him to the ground by his throat.

"Shut up! Shut your damn mouth!" he screamed from his position above Harry.

His hands were tight around Harry's neck. Harry couldn't pull them off. But despite the whole situation, Harry grinned. "Heh... I hit a nerve," he wheezed. "Didn't I... Cletus Number Two?"

Carnage ironically looked more uncomfortable than Harry. Harry pressed his advantage. "It doesn't matter... what you do to me... It doesn't even... matter what you do to Cletus... You'll always... be his other half... His little add-on!"

"GO TO HELL!"

He slammed Harry's head against the concrete floor.

"GO TO HELL!"

He did it again, harder. He dug his thumbnails underneath Harry's jaw. Despite what Carnage said earlier, he was now seriously intending to murder Harry. Harry couldn't get any air at all. He started to see little specks in his vision.

"You can just die! JUST DIE ALREADY!"

"What's that shouting?!" a girl's voice cried from somewhere.

Carnage abruptly remembered where he was and let go of Harry. He quickly turned and ran up the stairwell.

Harry let out a hacking cough. He sat up and grabbed his own throat, still coughing and wheezing.

The girl came up to the landing from below. "What's happen-" Harry ignored her and stomped down the stairs. He and Carnage were both done for today.

Harry was diagnosed with a concussion and skipped two days of school to recuperate.

It was business as usual once he returned. He kept his ear to the ground for rumors of strange accidents and watched Carnage/Cletus from afar. But as far as Harry could tell, nothing happened in the time he was absent. Nothing still happened after he returned.

He and Carnage never spoke to each other again, but apparently Harry's message got across: Carnage wasn't as discreet as he thought. He couldn't do what he wanted unnoticed.

Carnage said he didn't hurt people (only) out of frustration. It was because he was a natural sadist. Just the same, he was also frustrated. He deeply hated the fact he was a secondary personality.

Inferiority complex, Harry thought. But a true complex is a subconscious influence - something you're unaware of. I threw it in his face, so it stopped being a complex.

Carnage is just lashing out like a kid who can't have his way.

Then at the end of the semester, Harry and his father moved to New York.

Present day.

Debra, Flash, and Kong were sitting alone on the bleachers outside the football field.

"The school newspaper is ahead of their deadline for once, so that's less work for us," Debra said as she shifted through her papers. "But we still need to get our survey typed up before the end of the day."

"Oh, that's okay, Debbie, I already got that." Kong handed her the printout.

"Thank you, Kong. So that just leaves our personal projects. Flash, did you look up the transfer student's old school yet?"

Flash stared out across the field.

"Flash?"

"Huh?" He came out of his daze. "Oh, sorry, not yet."

"What's up?" Kong asked. "You seem really out of it today."

"Out of it...?" he repeated. "I guess so... I've been sorta depressed recently."

"Depressed?"

"We started the Investigation Team, what, months ago? And in all that time, have we ever gotten so much as a real lead on Spider-Man? He was supposed to be our personal project, right?"

Kong replied, "Y-Yeah, things are slow. But, you know, that's just what happens when there's no info to work with. Spider-Man's hard to find. It doesn't mean we're bad investigators or anything."

Debra added, "Besides, we've researched several other interesting topics the school paper was able to use."

"Sure, the paper's thankful for us... but we only started that side stuff because our real goal turned up a big fat zero."

His harsh words made them silent. They couldn't deny it.

"We're a joke," Flash continued. "Some students are actually starting to make fun of us... I used to be mad at Parker for ditching us, but maybe he had the right idea. Maybe it'd be better if we quit now and made a clean break."

"Well... I know what you're saying," Debra spoke softly. "It's not as if I'm not discouraged too... But it'd be such a shame to quit now after we've come so far."

"Come so far? We're at square one and you know it. What do we have to show for our time?" He grabbed his backpack and stood up. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go home and soak in the shower. Talk to you later."

Debra and Kong were silent as Flash stepped down and walked away. The three people on the bleachers were never aware of the eavesdropper hiding beneath them. He had curly red hair... and he was not Cletus.

"So those punks are looking for Spider-Man..." Carnage grinned wickedly and wrung his hands. "Ooh... I've just had the most WONDERFUL idea..."

To be continued...

Author's Notes: (5/31/2013) I actually feel a little bad for the Investigation Team. I got them started because I thought it'd be interesting, but then I had no idea what to do with them. I couldn't very well let them discover anything important that early in the story, so they just keep hitting dead ends. I plan on making them the "stars" of the next chapter as a sort of retribution.

Edit: With this chapter, the word count of "Double Life" has made it longer than "Dual Identity." I've come a long way...

Disclaimer: The idea came from an episode of "Spider-Man: the Animated Series" where Debra and Flash made a brief investigation into "weirdo stuff." (I believe the specific episode was "The Return or Kraven.") I do not own "Spider-Man: the Animated Series."