𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 | 𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕠𝕞

05.

"Because it's true, and I-I believed in him and I-I told myself that it was worth it but now this is different. Something else," Dora tries.

"Go to the cops," Eddie states bluntly, keeping her look, trying to make her squirm, preferably out of his life.

"I can't," she murmurs, "I can't do that, I'm afraid of what'll happen to my family he's a very dangerous man, and I-" Dora wanders off as Eddie scratches the back of his head.

"I know- I know how dangerous he is because the first time I interviewed him, the very first time, I lose my job the next day," Eddie's voice drops to a growl of sorts, "I lost my career, I lost my apartment, I lost it all. You know why? Carlton Drake ruined me-- finished! And if you are who you say you are and you have genuine proof then you should be very, very, very afraid!"

Eddie was moving with anger in his veins, though Dora stayed relentlessly calm throughout his quiet outburst. She understood where he was coming from.

"I know," she nods a little.

Eddie leans in closer now, whispering fiercely in her ear, "you need to find yourself another white knight Ms. Skirth because I am done- I am done - with this shit."

And then Eddie walks away briskly, knowing his anger will only grow if he keeps talking to her.

But Dora Skirth is a Doctor. Specifically, a Doctor in cancer treatment. And when you work in that field of medical science, it might as well be stated as followed: kill or be killed.

In the correct terms: you save some, you lose some. And those you can save, you work relentlessly, tirelessly, until you can barely stand straight to save your patient. 

And with Eddie telling her no, which to her means death to those poor patients-- she won't take it. She can't comprehend that. She won't give up. 

"What shit?" Dora asks, continuing to stride to attempt to catch up with Eddie.

"All this 'saving my fellow man' shit. Okay, goodnight. I got a family to get home to too."

And Dora is left standing on the sidewalk to her surprise, as she doesn't follow Eddie. She's cold, tired, and worried, so she leaves it for him to think on.

Fortunately for her, she gets him to think about it. He knows he should be going straight back to the apartment for Riley, but instead Eddie finds himself on a bridge.

He's contemplating Dora's words with the cars behind him filling the usually empty void of silence. He thinks through some options, all having the same outcome.

He always ends up going to the LIFE Foundation to help Dora help these people, but there's one nag on his options. It's the most important thing to him in the world-- she is.

Riley, he thinks. What the hell am I going to tell you?

Unless he doesn't tell her at all; it would keep her the safest. And at the moment it seemed like the best idea-- he doesn't think it through, like most ideas. He just goes and tries to wing it.

Eddie pulls out the card Dora handed to him in Ms. Chen's, and he stares at it for a moment before dialing her number. The moments tick by when he waits for her answer, more doubt trickling into his mind.

But as soon as she answers, he knows two things: he's going to regret this, one, and that there's no going back now two.

"Yes Eddie Brock here," Eddie leans against the rail of the bridge, "talk to me."

"YOU sure this is gonna work?" Eddie asks from inside Dora Skirth's car.

"Just stay down and shut up," she replies, trying to hide her growing worry. Yes, her pleads earlier were real, but now she had to focus to sneak Eddie in.

But as soon as the car is parked and the pair is on their merry way, she relaxes a little. This is her territory, to a degree.

"Climate change and overpopulation, those are two things Drake cannot control,"

"Yeah, got it but-"

"We are literally two generations away from an uninhabitable Earth,"

"Uh, yeah,"

"Drake is using his personal rockets to scout real estate," Dora plugs in some numbers on a keypad as she explains. Eddie follows blankly, trying to understand some of what she's saying.

"You know that's a really interesting story but could you at least get to the part where he's killing people?" Eddie asks, nervously shoving his hands in his pocket as he follows Dora.

"Well, Drake sent a ship on a recon mission. On the way back, they found a comet--"

"A comet?" Eddie interjects.

"--Onboard communicators indicated the presence of life," the pair now step into an elevator, sliding in the downward direction.
"Of millions of organisms."

"Wait-w when you say millions of organisms what do you mean?"

"He brought back some specimens," Dora stays completely calm, as if this is something you talk about over dinner.

Eddie, on the other hand, believes he's starting to lose it, or this woman is crazy. "You talking about aliens? Like, aliens... E.T. oh no, aliens," he mocks, bringing his hand up to show the alien's movements from the movie.

"Yes," Dora deadpans, "but we don't call them that." She leads the way, with a sudden serious Eddie following.

He thought this was some cruel joke, but now he's got even more doubts.

"We call them symbiotes."

"Symbiotes?"

Dr. Skirth drops her voice down to a whisper, as does Eddie, "yes, and they cannot survive in our environment without help. Drake believes that the union between humans and symbiote is the key to our survival, but not here on Earth."

Eddie tries to visualize this with his hands, "Drake is trying to put humans and aliens together? S-so they can live in space?"

"We call them hosts," Dora nods. She expects Eddie to be angry, or confused, but he becomes enthusiastic.

"That's nuts! Isn't it-- that's completely insane-"

"Yes, and there's no protocol for this thing, he's just feeding them in! If that match is exact--"

Dora would finish if it weren't for the guard making a security check just around the corner.

And then suddenly she opens a sliding door with her ID and shoves Eddie in.

"Please just go in-- don't touch anything. G-go go, I'll take care of this."

But of course, if you send an enthusiastic- or semi revenge hungry -man into a room full of real-life aliens and tell him not to touch anything, then what would anyone believe he's going to do?

The one thing he isn't supposed to do-- touch everything.

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 -  happy new year everybodyyyyyyyy!!!!! like WOAH its already gonna be 2022?! yall fr i swear i don't even think 2020 ended still, like what the heck man! but hey, i just wanna come here and thank all you readers for the love and support, and to have a happy and healthy new year!! love ya!