Chapter Twenty Two – Moving On With Life
The crappy quality TV in the bar we were drinking in was showing flashes of Eddie's sentencing – over the last three weeks he had admitted to his crimes like he suggested he would. The judge had gone easy on him – he said he could tell an addict acting out of his control. The symbiote had, for all the damage it had done to Eddie's life, unknowingly saved Eddie's life. He'd have probably been facing life in prison with no chance of parole. As it was he had the possibility (even if it was slight) of release.
That was if they could remove Venom from Eddie's body.
They had tried but the symbiote seemed determined to remain. And high frequency sounds they had tried to bombard the pair with had apparently ran the risk of killing Eddie in the process, so they remained a couple, kept safe in the high security prison off the coast of New York unofficially nicknamed 'the Raft'. The main thing was Eddie was trying – he had been working towards dealing with 'his burden', just like he promised Spider-Man.
I raised my glass to my mouth and took a drink, then looked at the faces of my friends. Harry, Flash, Liz, Betty, we had all been through a lot the past few months, and surely there would be consequences. Betty still occasionally would come out in sunglasses, a sign she had been crying at Ned's absence. Harry had began to fall harder on his weed dependency once more, shaken up by whatever violence Eddie had subjected him to during his time as hostage. Even Flash had been shaken up by the events – he was waiting out the rest of the school year so he could drop out and join the army. He said he had decided he was done being useless and wanted to actually help people and make a difference – to be like Spider-Man was his justification.
My time as Spider-Man had quietened down considerably. With Venom and Negative off the street most of the big players were either now locked up or keeping their heads down. Even the Maggia seemed to want to play their cards close to their chest for the time being. I didn't even have Felicia – have Black Cat to fall on for amusement. Despite their protests JJ had run a big piece on how brave Harry and her were during the kidnapping, including in his own words how they had "picked up the slack left by Spider-Man in his reckless adrenaline junkie antics" and had saved the day. This had got Felicia some very unwelcome attention from those who knew her and were looking for her. She parted ways from me a week ago for California. I had joked that I'd have to head west to meet up with her at some point, then I felt my heart flutter in my chest as she had smiled and expressed that she'd like that.
We never ended up having that kiss. It never felt right. She had her issues and I had mine. Maybe in another life, but not now.
Another look at my friends. None of us were doing great, but we'd get there. We'd done it before, and I thought back to the night Gwen died. The feeling of my heart being ripped out my chest, of my life ending, but then of the light in my life slowly returning. We had recovered from that, and this would be no different. I had another mouthful of alcohol and met eyes with Harry, and saw the sadness hiding in the hazel of his irises. There was something else there though, something that peaked just behind that darkness, and it was hope. He knew, deep down, that no matter what happened we still had each other, and that would get us though whatever happened.
Song Recommendation: Life is Beautiful by Sixx:A.M.