Lady Venom

Three days before Nel’s cremation it was high noon and Charlotte was restless. She felt abnormally hot and bothered, uncapable of stop sweating even with the AC at full blast, her mouth felt dry and her eyes refused to stop watering. A steady stream of tears rolling down her scowling damp face.
She paced back and forth from side to side in her bedroom just as her thoughts bounced back to the same idea again and again, fully dressed “I have to go,” she repeated as a mantra, an orange prescription bottle with no label griped firmly in her hand with a few anonymous pills.
Eyeing her phone nervously on the nightstand “I can do this, I can. Come one Charlotte,” she said, to what her inner voice answered “I got a twenty with your name on it that says you can’t. Come on dear, I doble dare you.” Clenching her jaw in concentration she picked up the phone and dialed the last called number, waiting anxiously “Hello,” a mans voice answered on the other side of the line and Charlotte froze “Hello?” came again “you are losing him hun,” the voice snaped her out of her trance “Yes! Hello, its Charlotte-” the phone was silent and for a panicked moment she thought he had hung up. She had mustered all of her inner strength to call this once and did not know if she could do it a second time “How may I help you?” the voice on the other side of the line sounded exasperated; Charlotte sighed the knot in her throat relaxing “I- I was hoping you could pick me up and take me to the office today.” Another moment of silence, she half expected to have to beg “mam-” Charlotte listened intently holding her breath when she heard a faint sigh cares her ear through the speaker “I will be there in 20 minutes.” Charlotte nodded twice “Is this ok mam?” she blinked twice rapidly “Yes, yes- that’s perfect. Thank you. Good bye.” They hung up and Charlotte breathed again.
She entered the known strangers car, sitting, her knee bounced nervously as she stared blankly out the window “The boss is out today but we can let him know you’re coming, I am sure he will rush-” Charlotte turned sharply to find him looking intently at her through the review mirror “No, its fine” she interrupted a bit louder than she anticipated, gripping tightly at the oversized tote bag she caried “I just wanted to swing by and thank you all for your help these past days,” she shrugged “I won’t be long, It would be a waste to disrupt his schedule over this,” the man did not answer but no longer stared her way.
Arriving at the office Charlotte felt a thick overwhelming wave crash over her as she was received by the six members of Parks staff standing in two lines of three people at each side of the entrance, the unforgiving sun bounced off of the white walls of the angular building hurting her. Taking her possessions they welcomed her forward, straight in to the concrete monster’s mouth.
Once inside the seven men distributed themselves in a small living room set in the receiving area, staring at her expectantly, she could feel their piercing gaze like dull darts insisting on perforating her body, she turned with a weak smile, intertwining her hands to try to get them to stop shaking “Well… everyone-” she cleared her throat, so dry it stuck to itself choking her “I... I just wanted to thank you all for-” for what? Why was she grateful? for destroying, killing, robbing and lying, being the reason why people were afraid to walk home alone at night, for being the monster under the bed and the shadow in the window of society? … no, she wanted to thank them for cleaning her floor and taking out the trash as she lay in her room, bedridden by grief. Freezing she took a deep breath, a man in the back crossed his arms raising an eyebrow “for everything.” Her eyes looked around panicked, when she coughed sight of her bag she walked, almost running towards it retrieving and presenting the small white cake, her arms outstretched in offering “Let me.” The man who had driven her there interjected “No need I-” he shook his head impatiently “I insist.” And tugging it out of her grip he set it on a table proceeding to cut it, promptly serving it on the small paper plates she had brought with her. Offering Charlotte, the first piece, she only stared at it, the white frosting delicate and froffy, swirling in neat designs crowning the soft white bread like a king “Anything wrong?” the man serving everyone asked, instantly she felt everyone’s gaze on her once more or was it paranoia? Quickly shaking her head “I… I just, even now you ended up cutting the cake for me-“ he gave her a polite smile “No problem,” he stood there expectant until she took the first bite of small delicate proportions destroying the elaborated design of the cake, finally everyone began to eat, she took a few more bites before the sugar overpowered her and she set it aside “At least let me make us some coffee,” she announced decided, a few nodded distractedly and she made her way to the back of the room where a coffee pot rested on a high table awaiting her.
With shaking hands, she carefully measured out 8 spoonsful of coffee and filled the machine with a slow but steady stream of water “Twelve minutes.” Charlotte whispered under her breath “Twelve minutes to brew.” she sucked on her bottom lip, rubbing her knuckles, full attention on the now fogging glass pot that began to hiss and drip a rich brown juice, in her ears the distant murmur of voices, chewing, swallowing, empty plates being thrown away and the rustle of plastic, second portions being served, water gargling and falling, dripping, filling, a coffee pot half full.
Charlotte’s chest was tight, her throat swelling in around its self again so she tried to clear it with a small cough, it didn’t loosen, she coughed again “How long has passed?” she thought in sudden alarm and forcing her self to look away from her precious distraction she realized she was not the only one choking on herself.
The seven men around the room coughed loudly looking around at each other with an increasing alarm, pulling at their ties and shirts, face red, saliva dripping from the sides of their mutedly screaming open mouths as they had become un able to swallow, the veins in their increasingly purple necks protruding and palpitating, flushed cheeks bathed in thick rolling tears of pure desperation.
She cleared her throat and coughed bringing her hand to her chest, clutching at her shirt, eyes wide “3,2,1-” the voice inside her counted down in delight and the dripping of coffee stopped drowned under the death symphony around her.
The man who had been nice enough to drive her to the office stumbled towards her “What is he thinking?” Charlotte wondered, his bulging eyes angry or where they scared? Hands extended out to her, to reach for her, at her, the skin he had torn off of his neck accusingly screaming at her from under his neatly kept fingernails, accusingly “YOU!” they screamed through the violent coughing “IT WAS YOU!”
He coughed loudly vomiting cake and blood intertwined in a pinkish mixture that smelled so wrongly sweet Charlotte covered her mouth with a sharp gasp, he toppled forward catching on the side of the table bringing down the coffee machine, boiling liquid bathing his head and back. He did not cry out. Watching him convulse on the floor, his body flopping from side to side, his throat so swollen and closed he as un able of coughing or even call for help “It looks so painful,” the bodiless voice said “I wonder if he even minds the hot coffee. Say, which one do you think hurts more?” Charlotte rummaged desperately in her pocket producing the unmarked orange bottle, as she began to choke coughing more intently, she fought to get the lid off to get two pills out and on to her hand, she swallowed fast, they painfully ripped their way down her already closing throat.
Charlotte took a step backwards and collapsed sideways against the wall breathing shakily, her hart exploding in her chest, ears ringing. She clamped her eyes tightly shut, covering her ears with her palms, when she finally caught her breath breathing in deep, and slow she released her senses to a silent room.
She looked around at the seven still men littering the floor, finally they took the shape of the empty carcasses they had always been.
Charlotte walked around the room, paying special attention to every detail, she took her time taking the unfinished cake she had left aside with its plate and fork, stuffing them in a plastic bag she had brought neatly folded in her pocket.
Making her way to the back room she took the hard drives backing up the main cameras, bagging them. With an electromagnet she did her best to wipe every computer in the office and took every cellphone she could find; the plan was to drop them in to the sewer entrance right outside the building. Being satisfied and hopping it was enough she took a bottle of stamp ink from one of the desks drawers and wrote two huge letters in the middle of the beige couch, not before having to push one of the corpses out of the way, it read.
LV.
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Charlotte unstably stumbled in to her nest, throat dry, head throbbing. She made her way to the kitchen, drinking the bleached flavored water straight from the faucet, clenching her thirst for the time being.
She collapsed on the couch with her shoes still on.
For the first time since Nel she had a good, dreamless sleep of blessed rest.
Waking up the room was dark, her head was clear, made up and resilient. That day, on a suicidal impulse, Lady Venom was born