Venom

15: The Steps We Leave

//AN: Previously on; Dragontales...lol jk.//

There are walls around people, structures so grand and sturdy that others can neither climb over or travel around it so all that is left for them to do is admire the design of the architect. Some areas as beautiful as modern buildings, with gleaming windows that allow them to look down upon all who lookup. Others are fortified and indecorous, uncaring of how they appear to the outside world. Rare are those put together brick by brick, tower by tower, a castle of desolation and utter despair despite the maze that lead the viewer with flowers that bloomed only to those worthy of the path.

But what of those of us who have both the power to rip down those structures to get to the heart of it all and those of us who wish to enter the world of the architect without destroying the story of their pain? What then? How do we walk into the maze when our very steps shake the foundation their world is built upon?

I was not a violent man, but I knew violence well. Death moved amongst us with such easiness that I think those that lived in the future, were taken aback when they were wretched back into the present.

All I had to do was remind her that I was more than a spectator. That if I could not step foot within her world, I would protect it. Even if it meant tearing down the structures of others, I would do so with everything I had.

Using all of the violence within me.

Viper had tried to tell me once, that our kind was not something that blended well with the creatures of now. That as timeless as we were, there were some things that rattled even the strongest of minds. Something about, changing the mind on what they knew to be possible.

I knew it, but to see it still made something in me unsteady. I had a fragile hold on her, no matter how intertwined our lives were, she was always on the run, and I the one to chase her. To the ends of the world if I needed to do so. I hadn't told her what I was, not out of fear of how she would react, but because I wanted her to hold nothing against me.

Monster, she called me. She was correct, but she knew not to what extent. She knew I was not like the others of her world or this one, something uniquely different. All I knew was that I liked how she looked at me when she tried to figure it out, watching me when she thought I was unaware. Now that look was gone and in place of curiosity and frustration, there was fear and disbelief. I could smell the anxiety coming off of her in waves as she tried to hold as still as possible. In another world, it would have been that very stillness that alerted me of her.

She avoided my gaze. I did not like that. She had such a particular strength in those rich brown eyes as if seeing straight into the very being of what one was, deception brushed aside as if she simply knew what someone wanted. I could not call it the eyes of truth because as beautiful as those eyes were, they were murky with secrets of her own. As small as this room was it felt as if the walls grew and expanded, stretching to accommodate the distance she was trying to rekindle. I could not have that, not when the true wall between us had finally been brought down.

When the hunter could not hunt, when the prey was in fact a ferocious predator the only sensible thing to do was either hide or run, but within my sights, she could not do either. I did not wish for her submission or her fear, what I wanted was a chance.

But if she hid from me, if she trembled in fear then all I was and all I held within this body of mine would...those eyes, those beautifully sharp eyes had to be cleaned so that she would see not the man nor the monster but Venom. As I watched her make her way back to her room, both of us aware of the other but silent on acknowledging what it was that we did, I looked for signs of flight. Steady breaths and slow steps, a tense frame but a strong gaze. Perhaps she had something planned? Or perhaps not? The thoughts within her mind were her own and yet I knew that if I delved into the dark that belonged to her, that lingered within my very own subconscious like black smoke that I could find a clue, but it was too soon. She needed time.