"Bang!" The sound of flesh meeting concrete echoed as the monstrous black figure—Venom, bonded with Ethan Cole—grabbed Rick Frey by the neck and slammed him hard against the basement wall.
The force rattled Rick's internal organs, and blood trickled uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth.
"Rick Frey!" Ethan's voice rumbled from within the monstrous form, deep and filled with icy menace. Venom's sharp claws pushed Rick against the cold wall again.
"Who ordered the hit on my car the other day?" Ethan demanded, his human voice dripping with cold fury and deadly intent. He needed answers fast—and then he would decide Rick's fate.
After speaking, Ethan loosened his grip on Rick's throat, letting the man gasp and wheeze for breath.
"Cough!" Rick slumped to the floor, clutching his neck in panic. Blood spilled from his lips with every ragged cough.
"Don't… don't kill me! I'm just a pawn! I'll tell you everything! Ahem!"
As a low-level thug, Rick had long known this day might come. Mentally, he had prepared himself.
Beg for mercy, spill what he knew, pin the blame on his bosses, and hope to survive.
Life was all that mattered—everything else was expendable.
"You can start," Ethan said coldly, voice void of mercy as he stared down at Rick, waiting for the man to talk.
"I'll tell you everything, just promise you won't kill me after."
Despite the monstrous symbiote covering Ethan's body—his shifting tendrils and razor-sharp teeth—Rick realized the man inside was calculating, deliberate.
"You have to understand, I'm risking my life here!"
Before Rick could finish, a scream tore through the basement—Ethan's symbiote tentacle shot out from his back like a gleaming black blade, slicing through Rick's wrist in one swift strike, severing his hand cleanly.
"You're wrong," Ethan said coldly as the blade traced a shallow cut across Rick's cheek, drawing blood.
"Your life is mine now."
Rick's fleeting courage shattered. The creature before him was no longer just Ethan Cole—it was Venom in full terrifying form.
"You've got two choices," Ethan growled, "Obey and tell me everything you know. I'll let you die quickly."
"Or stay silent, and I'll show you what true pain is."
More tentacles erupted from Venom's back, coiling like deadly serpents.
Only now did Rick realize today was his last day alive—but whether death would come quick or slow was up to him.
"I'll give you five seconds," Ethan warned, voice echoing coldly in the basement.
"If you don't talk, you'll learn what cruelty really is."
Those words crushed Rick's heart. His mind went blank, despair filling his eyes.
"One…"
The countdown began.
"Two…"
The black tendrils stabbed forward, impaling Rick's limbs and lifting him off the floor, pinning him mercilessly to the wall.
"Two seconds left," Ethan said flatly.
Rick's screams mixed with the sickening sound of flesh pierced by symbiote tendrils. Sweat drenched his face as his spirit shattered.
From Ethan's shoulder, Venom's voice hissed with a cruel smile:
"I smell fear flooding his mind. His soul's breaking."
The sight shattered Rick's last defenses. This was no man—it was a monster.
Two seconds later, Rick slumped limp and babbled incoherently, revealing every secret he had.
When he finished, Ethan reared back and with a brutal stroke severed Rick's head cleanly.
Blood sprayed from the severed neck like a crimson fountain, filling the basement with the sharp, metallic scent of death.
Though Ethan showed cold resolve, the gruesome scene was his first time witnessing such raw violence so close.
"Ouch!" Overcome by nausea, Ethan pounded his chest, fighting the wave of sickness rising inside him.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to dull part of your sense of smell beforehand," Venom said with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his monstrous head.
Ethan, still leaning against the grimy basement wall, retched violently. "No, no, it's just going to take some getting used to. I can't keep dulling my senses every time we do this."
Venom watched as Ethan struggled, his symbiote tendrils shifting restlessly. "From what Rick Frey spilled earlier, I can tell there's a whole web of people waiting for me to unravel. Ugh… yeah, I better get used to this fast."
If Ethan were an ordinary man, the aftereffects of the stench and brutal scene would have overwhelmed him. But thanks to his unique physiology—part human, part symbiote host—after nearly half an hour of dry heaving against the cold concrete, the nausea slowly subsided. He was starting to acclimate to the grisly smell of blood, sweat, and death lingering in the basement air.
"Huh~" Ethan exhaled deeply, turning to Venom with a half-smile. "So, are you still planning to eat his head? Even though I chopped it off first, it's still covered in blood and dust…"
Venom shook his massive, clawed hand. "Nah, it's too filthy. Not just the dust, but the fact he lost control before he died—that's worse. I'm not exactly a picky eater, but that's pretty disgusting."
Ethan nodded approvingly at Venom's surprisingly fastidious attitude. "Well then, let's clean up the mess and move on. There's more information to follow up on, more people connected to Rick Frey's orders."
Venom's shifting tendrils flicked in agreement.
Although Ethan had spared Rick Frey's head this time, he knew it wouldn't be the last. Next time, he'd make sure not to leave it so… unappetizing.
After meticulously wiping away any trace of their presence from the scene—the blood splatters, the broken debris, and the lingering scent—Ethan and Venom disappeared into the shadows.
Rick Frey was just a young pawn, and many more awaited to be hunted down and confronted.