Symbiosis: When a Girl Meets an Alien (V.6)

Chapter 13: I Just Want to Go Home!

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America

The moment Emily heard her father, using her nickname, any facade the teenager had been building crumbled. She froze in place, her feet held down by invisible blocks of concrete.

"Dad...?"

"Emmie? Oh god just please open the door! We just want to talk to you!"

"Who is we...?" Emily asked, "Are there government agents with you? I know the National Guard is occupying the city..."

"No Emmie, it's just me, your mother and Chloe," Her father replied and she felt a breath of fresh air fill her lungs.

"Ven-"

"Let them in. They are your family. If there are no military or government with them we should hear them out,"

"Okay..." She let out a breath and approached the door.

Emily unlocked it, and cracked it open. For the first time in a week she saw her parents, and for the first time in months she saw her sister. Their faces were worn, drawn, and wrought with fear and exhaustion. When they saw Emily there was a small flicker of relief in their eyes. She opened the door wider and then immediately was wrapped into a hug by her parents. She felt at peace, but she knew it couldn't last forever as much as she wanted it to. She was still the subject of a national manhunt, and the government was a merciless foe.

She felt tears begin to roll down her face, and her chest hiccupped as she welcomed the moment. All of her freedom didn't matter now. She just wanted to go home. She wanted to sleep in her own bed. Sit at her own desk. Hell she'd take another beating from Jason Cooke over another day on the run. The opulent lifestyle meant nothing when she didn't have her family with her.

"Can we come inside Emmie? We just want to talk," Her father repeated and Emily nodded.

As soon as John Sr, Chloe and Isabelle were in the room she pushed it shut and locked it again. Chloe and Isabelle took a seat on the giant king sized bed in the suite, and John Sr. remained standing nearby.

Emily paced back and forth, "I'm tired of this. I just want to go home!"

"Emily, all you have to do is give up the parasite and they'll make this all go away!" Chloe looked up, "They don't want to hurt you,"

"PARASITE!?" Venom shouted in her head.

"Don't call him that!" Emily shot back, "Don't call my friend a parasite. That's not what he is!"

"Emily, we've seen the MRI scans... it - he - is covering your spine, brain, and nervous system... he's killing you from the inside!" Isabelle pleaded, "Please baby, this can end with you just giving him up!"

Emily felt her eyes go wide, "Venom? What?"

"No! They're lying to you! They know nothing about me, or what I can do to help you!"

Venom's words encouraged Emily to push back harder.

"You don't know what he's doing to help me. Nobody on this godforsaken planet understands!"

Now her father stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders, "Emily. Look at me. The parasite cannot help you..."

At a second mention of the word 'parasite' Venom began to flare, with some of the veins on her arms turning black.

"...We can help you. If you just give it up, the government will take it away, let you go, and all this will go away,"

"You can't guarantee that," Emily shook her head, "You put too much faith in them,"