Work Text:
Practical Magic
Darcy/Eddie/Venom
xXx
The townspeople whispered about her. They crossed the street when she walked by. The children scared each other with ghost stories about her home, about her family, about her. On a few occasions she was accosted, even attacked. If people weren’t so afraid of her, she was certain her property would have been vandalized every Halloween.
Her sister couldn’t stand the ridicule, having left years earlier, but Darcy had felt a pull tethering her there, to the house, to the town. She felt the fates were trying to tell her something, to keep her there for something important. A part of her was bitter. Her sister got to leave, live a normal life in the big city, far away from the people who grew up with stories of the Lewis women and their strange ways; shunning them, all the while coming to them in the dark of night to solve their problems. Darcy was sick of it, but she did what they asked of her, because as the aunts had drilled into her as a child, the fates were never wrong.
Eddie Brock came into town one cool October morning. He’d found his way into her bakery on main street and chatted her up, looking for a place to stay and things to do in town. He was apparently on a trip of self discovery, taking a leave of absence from his job and traveling the country in the hopes of finding something.... More. Darcy was instantly struck by him, his rugged good looks, his warm smile, his sense of humor.
Eddie stuck around for a few days, coming into the bakery daily. They talked and laughed and Darcy found she’d never felt lighter in her life. The tether that kept her there, that weighed so heavily on her mind, seemed non existent when he was there.
She should have known it wouldn’t last.
Darcy had a very strict rule, no substantial magic around people. The stories the townspeople told were all just stories, myths, legends. Anyone who didn’t live there would never believe them, some of the people who actually lived there didn’t truly believe them. So Darcy made sure that any magic she did was done in private. Potions and salves and concoctions were one thing, but no physical magic. She thought she was alone. She had been sitting in her office in the back of the bakery, they were closed, and she’d apparently forgotten to lock the door, because one minute her ledgers were flying from the desk to the shelves as she poured over them, the spoon in her coffee stirring itself, the next Eddie was in the doorway, standing stock still in shock.
“The stories are true.” he said, startling her out of her thoughts. She turned just in time to watch him back out before he turned on his heels and took off.
She was sure this was it, that he was going to confirm to everyone what they already suspected, but as the day progressed nothing changed. People came in for their usual orders, people crossed the road as she walked by on her way home. She was exhausted by the time she reached her street, exhausted from worrying, exhausted from the disappointment. She just wanted to go home, fix herself a cup of tea with a lot of Whiskey and curl up in bed to lick her wounds.
It would seem fate had other plans for her.
“Hey.” Eddie greeted as she walked the front walk toward the porch.
“Hey.” she replied. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I just… I wanted to apologize.” he told her, standing and descending the steps. “I reacted badly. I should have given you the chance to explain.”
Darcy sighed, looking away. “It’s alright.” she finally replied looking back up at him. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“A little.” he said. “Do you think that we could talk?” he asked.
Darcy nodded. “I was going to make dinner, your welcome to join me.”
Eddie smiled. “I’d like that.”
As they turned to head inside, Eddie’s cell phone rang. He took it out to check the caller ID. “Sorry, babe, I have to take this. Meet you inside?” he asked. She nodded and walked away. It was only when he was sure she was gone that he answered it.
“Hey, yeah, thanks for getting back to me.” he spoke into the speaker. “I know, I know it sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy too, but I know what I saw. This is it, man, this is the story I’ve been looking for. Any entire family of witches, living in the same house generation after generation, facing ridicule and fear from the town. It’s perfect. Yeah, no, I’m working on the research now. Straight from the horse's mouth, promise. I’ll call you soon.”
The spark of hope when she found him sitting on her front stoop was gone, replaced by a boiling rage that threatened to consume her body and soul. He acknowledged that she was a witch and yet he believed she wouldn’t over hear his conversation on her own homestead? The beauty she saw in him when they first met, the innocence, the kind heart was suddenly overrun by the darkness of greed and she shudder to think what might have happened if she had fully given him her heart. The fates were apparently quite cruel, sending her salvation in the form of a man who was so easily distracted from his own feelings by avarice.
Darcy sighed. Eddie was now in the sitting room, waiting for her to return with drinks to hold them over while dinner cooked. She would have to get rid of him, have to take away his reason for staying.
Once the tea was brewed, she crushed up some black salt and lined his cup with it. When that was done she put the kettle and cups on a tray and brought it out to him.
“I have to admit, the more I think about it, the more I find all of this fascinating.” he told as she prepared a cup for him.
“Is that right?” she asked. “What do you find fascinating?”
“I don’t know, everything I think. It’s just… we’re taught from a young age that magic isn’t real. I grew up believing everything was explainable and now… now it just seems so much more… wide open.” Eddie explained. “It’s a whole new world.” he thanked her as she handed him a cup of tea. He took a sip. “This is good.” he told her, taking a seat on the sofa.
“Thank you.” she muttered, fixing her own cup and sitting across from him. “So, what are your plans now?”
“What do you mean?” Eddie questioned clearing his throat.
“I mean, you were only passing through, you’ve been here for a few weeks now, I just wondered when you were planning on moving on.” She explained.
Eddie cleared his throat again, this time a little more forcefully. “I was thinking I would stick around.” he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I just feel like this town has been good for me and there’s still so much to do here.”
For a third time he cleared his throat, the action evolving into a cough. He set his mug down as the coughing refused to let up. Every so often he struggled with a wheeze, fighting to catch his breath as the coughing continued. His face was growing red, a trickle of sweat running down the side of his face.
“It’s funny you should say that,” Darcy replied. “Because I was thinking that it was about time that you left. You’ve overstayed your welcome.”
Eddie looked up at her, eyes wide as he struggled for breath.
“Don’t fight it Eddie, this is for the best. When it’s finished you won’t remember anything about me or my family, there will be nothing to keep you here. Nothing for you to exploit for your own gain.”
Eddie leaned over, overbalancing in his chair and collapsing on the floor. He continued to struggle until it was too much for him. His entire body relaxed after one last convulsion and the house fell silent.
Darcy sighed, pushing her emotions away. This wasn’t the time to think about the last few weeks they’d spent together. About how, for the first time in years she had felt whole, she hadn’t dreaded waking up in the morning. Now was the time to plan. Eddie Brock would wake from unconsciousness in a few minutes and she would have to explain to him what he was doing in her home. It would probably cause a bit of a stir when the townspeople realized he couldn’t remember the last few weeks, but it was better than letting him write about her family, telling the world about what she was, what they were.
Darcy tidied up a bit and when she came back from the kitchen to find Eddie still hadn’t woken up she knelt beside him and pressed her ear to his chest.
Her heart skipped a beat. There was nothing, no pulse, no rythmic thumping. Eddie Brock was dead, and she had killed him.
“No, no, no.” she chanted, beginning CPR. It was a futile gesture. She knelt over him, frozen as she stared down at his lifeless body. “Oh gods.” she whispered. “Oh gods no.”
xXx
It was in the spell book passed from one Lewis woman to the next. A forbidden spell, marked by the aunts as such. The notations were handwritten, the warnings in bold red ink. Life only flows in one direction, who you wish to bring back, won’t ever be the same again.
Darcy didn’t care about that. She didn’t care what he became, or what happened to him after this, she just wanted him to be alive again; wanted to him to leave her alone. He came into her life, made her feel like she wasn’t a freak, like she could really care for him and then turned on her the minute he realized she could benefit in some way. She just wanted him to go away, to let her get back to her life of dodging scared looks and kids with something to prove to each other. She just wanted everything to go back to the way it was, quiet, without the pain of lost love.
By the time Darcy managed to lift Eddie up onto the dining room table, the sun had set. She pulled herself together after the struggle and gathered what she needed, working through the ritual as best she could. She very nearly gave up when it came time to drive the long needles into his eyes, but she got through it, finishing the last of the ritual and reciting the incantation. She held her breath, waiting for him to take his first breath, the tension mounting as she stood by him. The emotions swirled in her chest, and before she knew it, she was crying.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” she sobbed. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, you were just supposed to forget about me, I’m sorry.”
“Who could ever forget about you?” Eddie’s voice sounded raspy with disuse. She looked up at him wide eyed.
“Oh thank the goddess.” she sobbed. “How do you feel? Are you in pain?” she asked examining him as best she could.
“We’re alright.” he replied softly, looking up at her, with what she could only describe as pure adoration. “What happened?” he groaned, sitting up.
“I lined your tea cup with crushed black salt, it’s supposed to make you forget, but I was too upset while I was working on it, I turned it into a poison instead. I’m so sorry, Eddie, I never meant to hurt you.”
“We’re alright now, Darce.” Eddie replied sliding off the table. His bare chest was still covered in black chalk and candle wax and he made his way over to the mirror backed china cabinet to look himself over. “We apparently need a shower though.” he continued. When Darcy didn’t respond he turned to find her where he’d left her, standing stiff at the table’s edge. She looked terrified and it was only then that he realized she was clutching a spade against her chest.
“Eddie? Who is we?”
There was a pause before a demented grin split his face.
xXx
Life in general had become stale. His work at the Daily Bugle no longer lived up to his standards and it showed in his work. His publicist friend gave him the idea to write a book, but when he sat down to write it, he realized he was running into the same problems. He just couldn’t muster up the interest. Everything he could think of felt bland and over done. The world didn’t need another true crime novel and he wasn’t in the mood to jump legal hurdles in regards to a book on government scandals. His entire life had been about exposing the truth, but at some point the truth had become mundane.
A freelance photographer at the Bugle had mentioned offhandedly that some day he hoped to travel the country, maybe even the world, snapping pictures of small towns and out of the way attractions in the hopes of finding a story worth telling. It didn’t take long for Eddie to realized that that was exactly what he needed to do. So he applied for a leave of absence, packed up his car and headed West.
After a month and a half of traveling he had found nothing and with Halloween fast approaching he was determined to avoid the cheese that followed the holiday like a bad smell. The last thing he needed was to build a career on ghost stories and con artists masquerading as Psychics.
He decided to spend October in a small town in California. It was cute, picturesque even. It had an amazing view of the ocean and the people seemed nice enough. The first business he’d stopped off in was a bakery, in search of a cup of coffee before he found a place to stay. Little did he know that one stop would change his life forever.
Darcy Lewis was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Long brown hair, stunning blue eyes and full red lips. Her smile made him weak in the knees, which was no easy feat.
“What can I get ya?” she asked as he approached the counter.
“A cup of coffee to go and directions to the nearest motel.” he replied. She got him his coffee and pointed him in the direction he needed to go. He thanked her and walked out, sure he would see her again during his stay. And he would, because the next day he was right back in the bakery, chatting her up over breakfast. Her name was Darcy Lewis and she was the last member of her family to still live in town. She and every other generation had grown up and lived in the old mansion on the hill, overlooking the ocean. She’d opened the bakery in hopes of keeping herself busy and giving the town a chance to warm up to her.
No sooner had she said that, than a group of kids on their way to school stopped outside the shop chanting; “Witch, Witch, you're a Witch.”
“You’d think they’d come up with a better rhyme then their parents at some point.” she replied, watching as one of her employees went out and shooed them away.
“They think your a witch?” Eddie questioned incredulously. He’d never been one to believe in hocus pocus. The world was quantifiable, and magic just didn’t exist.
“They think all the women in my family are witches. My aunts dabbled in homeopathy, my sister loved to pretend she could fly a broom when we were kids. They take all that and form their own opinions. The Lewis women have always been a little weird and people only like weird when it benefits them.” she explained.
Over the next few weeks, Eddie found himself in her company more and more. He’d spend hours at the bakery either sitting at the window and people watching or talking to Darcy. She’d invite him to dinner so he wouldn’t get tired of the diner food down the street and on a few occasions they took walks around the beach, just talking. He found himself drawn to her, and a few times he’d caught himself thinking about what it would be like if he stayed.
And then one day everything changed. The bakery was closed but she had left the door open and he wandered in to make sure she was alright. He found her in the back office. She must not have heard him enter, because she didn’t even attempt to hide what was happening. He watching in shock as she jotted down some notes in a ledger, closed the book and waved it away, sending it flying back to the shelf. Another book replaced it and she did the same, a dance of books from her desk to the shelf and back again. And if that wasn’t shocking enough her coffee was stirring itself, (in hindsight, that did not seem like quite the big deal he had made it out to be at the time, but...well.)
“The stories are true.” he said startling her out of her thoughts. He watched as she turned to face him.
“Eddie!” she called out to him, but he was already making a run for it. He ducked out of the bakery, and down the street, locking himself up in his motel room.
“Shit!” he explained, collapsing on the bed. What had he just witnessed but proof that magic was real. It had to be, that was the only explanation he had for why all of those things were happening. Thinking back she’d never actually said outright that she wasn’t a witch, she simply said the townspeople believed whatever they wanted. But now here he was, stewing over the fact that the woman he’d had serious thoughts about in the last few weeks was in fact a witch.
And then it came to him.
Eddie had struggled all his life with competitiveness. There had always been a little voice in the back of his mind telling him to win, to come out on top, to get the most, to have everything. He’d managed to stamp it down over the years but at that moment, when his mind was still reeling from what he had seen, the voice broke free.
“This is it.” it hissed from the dark corners of his mind. “This is the story we’ve been looking for.”
Eddie shook his head of the thoughts. He wasn’t going to exploit Darcy or her family.
“She lied to us. She let us believe magic wasn’t real. She had you ignoring the warning from all the townspeople. They tried to tell us that she was different and we chalked it up to small town superstition. But it’s real, she’s real and she’s the chance we’ve been searching for.”
Eddie shook his head as if he could dislodge the thoughts, but they kept coming. A steady stream of greedy ideas, telling him to take advantage of her kind nature. He could go to her, apologize for his reaction. She would forgive him, because it was obvious that she was lonely and didn’t want to be abandoned by yet another person and then he would carefully extract her family’s story from her. It was perfect. Yet the niggling feeling in the back of his mind still called for reason. Reason the darkness wouldn’t allow.
So he called his friend and left him a message and headed out.
He knew what time she got off work, so he waited for her on the front stoop. She was happy to see him, even if her expression was a bit guarded. He apologized for his reaction and she invited him in for dinner so they could talk. He sent her on ahead when his phone rang and when he was sure she was gone he answered it.
Darcy seemed a little different when he finally made it into the house, but he chalked it up to nerves. She disappeared for a little while in the kitchen, fixing a pot of tea, she had said and when she came back she fixed him a cup and they sat.
Eddie laid on the charm, even complimenting the awkward tasting tea. He’d told her he was thinking about sticking around, which truth be told he had been thinking about even before all of this happened. And then the coughing started. It began as a tickle in his throat that persisted no matter how much he tried to clear his throat. The tickle, quickly turned into a burn, that scorched his throat and sent him into a coughing fit. He struggled to breathe, pulling at the collar of his shirt.
“It’s funny you should say that Eddie.” Darcy said. “Because I was thinking that it was about time that you left. You’ve overstayed your welcome.”
Eddie looked up at her, eyes wide as he struggled for breath. What was she talking about? Had she heard him on the phone? How?
“Don’t fight it Eddie, this is for the best. When it’s finished you won’t remember anything about me or my family, there will be nothing to keep you here. Nothing for you to exploit for your own gain.”
Eddie leaned over, overbalancing in his chair and collapsing on the floor. He continued to struggle, clawing at this throat, until it was too much for him. His entire body relaxed after one last convulsion and the darkness overcame him.
“You’re a fool Eddie.” the voice whispered, but Eddie didn’t respond. It was too cold, too dark. “You just had to go and get us killed.”
“Killed? I’m dead?” Eddie thought, his mind foggy.
“Yes you are Eddie boy.”
“She killed me?”
“Not on purpose.”
“But I… I…”
“Love her? Sure, and from the looks of it she loves you too. You don’t just break a taboo like this for anyone.”
“What are talking about?” Eddie finally spoke, his throat burning with the effort.
“She’s about to bring us back to life. That’s dangerous, dark magic. She could hurt herself doing that.”
“Then I need to stop her.” Eddie exclaimed.
“How, your dead.”
“I’ll figure it out. She can’t put herself at risk like that, I should have never listened to you! I shouldn’t have done this to her.”
“Listened to me? Eddie, I am you. I’m the little piece of you that always has to have everything, that has to be the best and do everything better than everyone else.” the voice was near cackling now. Eddie struggled to move, but it was no use. “I am your demon of greed. I am the venom in your soul. And now that you’ve touched the darkness I’ll be stronger than ever.”
“No!” Eddie screamed, the sound of rushing wind passing him by.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Darcy sobbed, her voice muffled by his arm. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, you were just supposed to forget about me, I’m sorry.”
Eddie looked down, the top of Darcy’s head within his line of sight.
“Who could ever forget you?” he asked, speaking before he even realized he’d made the decision to say anything. He should be mad at her, she had killed him after all, accident or not, but there was just something about the fact that he wasn’t dead anymore that really spoke volumes about her power. If anything he loved her even more for that. They loved her even more for it.
“Oh thank the goddess.” she sobbed, viciously wiping at the tears down her cheeks. “How do you feel? Are you in pain?” she asked, trying to check him over. He’d busied himself with sitting up in the meantime.
He looked down at her, her blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears and he found himself drawn in. “We’re alright.” he told her. “What happened?” he continued finally succeeding in sitting up.
“I lined your tea cup with crushed black salt, it’s supposed to make you forget, but I was too upset while I was working on it, I turned it into a poison instead. I’m so sorry, Eddie, I never meant to hurt you.” she sobbed again.
So that’s why the tea had tasted funny. He mentally shrugged it off, it wasn’t important now.
“We’re alright now, Darce.” he told her, sliding off the edge of the table and onto his feet. His shirt was missing and he could see grease paint and wax caked onto his skin. He made his way over to the china cabinet with it’s mirrored interior and looked himself over. “We apparently need a shower though.” he joked, huffing a laugh. He continued to examine himself until he realized that Darcy had never responded. In fact, he hadn’t heard her move in a few minutes either.
Eddie turned to face her. She was standing right where he’d left her, her body stiff, eyes wide. If he looked close enough he could see her trembling. And then he noticed the gardening spade clutch tightly to her chest, knuckles white.
“Eddie?” her voice trembled in fear. “Who is we?”
What? We? What kind of question was that?
“You already know.” Venom whispered, the sound rolling from one side of his mind to the next.
Oh right, he did know.
Eddie caught Darcy’s eye a demented grin splitting his face.
“We are Venom.” he rasped, his voice layered with a dark much more sinister voice.
He took a step forward and she bolted for the door.
xXx
Darcy’s animal brain was working over time. Running was all she could do. Her instincts told her there was predator out to get her and if she didn’t run it would devour her. How had her life come to this? How had her mundane existence evolve into a mad dash through her ancestral home.
She could feel the hair pricking up on the back of her neck. He was right behind her, gaining on her, ready to strike her down. She’d just made it to the top of the stairs when she felt a coldness envelop her ankle. It tugged hard, knocking her off her feet. She hit the floor with a loud oomph, the wind knocked from her lungs with one painful gasp. As another tendril wrapped around her other ankle she regained her bearings, kicking and struggling against their hold but it was no use. Eddie’s footfalls on the risers were heavy, too heavy for his own weight. She turned to look over her shoulder, catching sight of him as he rounded the corner on the first flight.
A black mass was weaving its way around his body, making him look bigger. One of the branches was reached out for her and she realized rather belatedly that they were what was wrapped around her ankles. She resumed her struggle, trying to crawl away as he got closer.
“You can’t escape Venom, out little witch.” Eddie’s voice was almost completely gone now, replaced by the echoing rasp of the demon she had released inside him. She didn’t cease her struggles though, not until she felt the tendrils tug at her legs again, pulling her across the floor and toward the edge of the stairs. Eddie, or Venom rather was standing just a few steps below, watching her. A quarter of Eddie’s face was still exposed and she could see the fear in his eye. His face was red, like he was struggling to against the demon. The rest of his face was all Venom, a large white, pupiless eye and a demented grin filled with razor sharp teeth. A long dark pink tongue protruded from the mouth, flicking dangerously like a whip.
More tendrils shot out as she renewed her struggle once again, this time latching on to her waist, arms and wrists, flipping her over and lifting her into the air. She screamed, thrashing about.
“You can’t escape us, little witch.” Venom spoke again, his voice softer than she would have thought possible. Gently, it lowered her in front of him, a single tendril snaking out to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Do not be afraid, little witch. You belong to Venom now, as much as Venom belongs to you.”
Darcy watched as Eddie’s eye closed, a single tear falling down his cheek before the black mass swallowed the last of him. “Ours.” Venom whispered, as more tendrils shot out from it’s body, enveloping her and pulling her flush against him. “Forever.”