FicWad

Doctor Ashley Kafka is the director of a maximum security psychiatric institute. She has a problem: Cletus Kasady, known as Carnage, a mass-murderor with super-powers. He hasn't escaped his cell, but he's stll managing to tear the institute apart.

Horror, reference to past violence, cursing. Doctor Ashley Kafka, John Jamison Jr., Cletus Kasady, and Carnage are property of Marvel Comics. All other charactors and specific text are mine. No re-posting or archiving without my permission, please.

Please review! I've changed the story; I think it flows better now...



Lansdale stood with Brite at the guard's console. They were on a long, curving platform, looking down at the inmate. Nothing Kasady did could be hidden.
He was doing something now that engrossed both guards.
He sat on the white polymer floor, playing with part of himself- the Red part that coated him, and filled his body, and looked like human blood. It spun in slow ropes and rivulets on his muscles; pouring into snake-forms, lazing out onto the air. Every few minutes, a tentacle curved above Kasady and fell back onto him, sometimes with a smack.
Kasady wasn't a man to willingly sit down in silence. He moved violently when he was quiet, and talked swiftly when he was still.
Today, there was only this- a contained, personal movement. He hadn't spoken in hours.
He wasn't singing his filthy, homicidal lyrics.
Lansdale watched while Brite cycled the camera angles. They had instincts. They understood body language- definitely, the psychopathic dialect. Kasady had something hidden. There was something in his hands, in the scarlet loops of his alien blood.
The inmate himself was a killer- but the thing that lived in his blood, the symbiote... that thing made Kasady into Carnage. Before he bonded to the symbiote, Kasady had killed one by one, and in small lots. Carnage mass-slaughtered.
When he escaped, hundreds died. His containment had become something like the NASA of the incarceration field. It drove a new technology.
The inmate's recent transfer had involved a radiation "rinse," killing the symbiote- but it regenerated. It wouldn't stay dead.
Managing Carnage was a nasty task. Cynicism, passing like dust out of his cell, dirtied the skin and soul.
The upshot of Kasady holding contraband was that they could burn him senseless. Anything that could damage the radiation barrier would justify it. They both longed to punch that shiny red button on the console, flood his cell with a scorching flash, and hear him howl.
"Heh heh heh."
Both men looked out, past the metal railing, to the chuckling psychopath. Oh, he definitely had something. They bent back to the monitors, and now they saw it. He had it balancing, turning on a scarlet spike, showing it to them. A small thing... Nothing they could burn him for...but, oh, how they wanted to burn him now.
Lansdale spoke to Brite, using the intercom that linked the men's bio-mech suits.
"It's Miller's tooth. His goddamn tooth."

The elevator softly shivered the two passengers, while it sank down into the old building.
A man and a woman stood inside. The man was in dark, bio-mech armor. The tall woman was in civilian clothing.
She looked smart and decent- so why did she, so often, come down on the wrong side of things?
Her wool coat, perfectly set on her shoulders, swung open on her legs, firm and nude and slender. Her black hair was tucked in a bun; her lovely face looked carefully aware.
When the guard saw this, he wished he hadn't glanced at her legs. Then, he remembered the full helmet that hid him. This body-armor was an empowering thing. You could look at the Director of the asylum, any way you wanted, face to face. Who was to know? Not her- Hell, she would be the last to know anything.

Doctor Ashley Kafka stepped out of the lift, thanking the guard, who held the door. He didn't say one word to her- a bad sign. The incident with Miller was a steady issue.
It was summer, but no air conditioning could be installed in the stone walls. She was happy to have her office over the basement, flushed by its chill. It was secure, too, though Jamison wanted her to move. He called it a death trap, but then he didn't understand...
Ashley wanted to evade not the inmates, but the Ravencroft Advisory Board. They were a continual menace, but they weren't comfortable in her office. That was security- job security.
She slapped her palm on the lock-panel beside the door. The metal door swung in, and Kafka had a mild shock- she had company this morning.
Good company, thank God. Jamison. The young man sat in the chair facing her desk. He had a take-out cup of coffee in his hand. A second cup was set on her desk. Outside coffee! Brew that wouldn't scrape on the way down.
"Good morning, John." She put her hand on his shoulder, imagining the smooth turn of his dark crew-cut, the uncovering of a confident smile.
He looked up at her, sadly. "Ashley, you'd better sit down."
"Oh, no..." Kafka set her attaché on the desk, sliding back in her leather chair. She took a sip of smooth coffee. The beverage was what she had expected; that was some comfort. "Did we find another flaw in the new containment system?"
The doctor carefully chose the word "we" when she referred to security issues. She did not want Jamison to hear any message that he was alone. He was the Security Chief- but this Institute worked in unity, and they were partners.
"No, this relates to the last one."
"How is Miller?" Ashley asked, appalled by the thought that...
"Stable, they call it. Awake, communicating, walking- with his jaw wired shut and most of his teeth gone- like yesterday, and the day before."
Kafka looked down. "Kasady gets harder and harder to handle. I have to stop short of "excessive force," but I'll be severe with the radiation in the future."
"And Miller fucked up, and I fucked up- Ashley, it's the risk of the work."
"I'm not indulging in guilt; I'm not giving in to anger. I'm just taking responsibility."
"Oh, good."
She smiled. "Thanks, John. I know the incident is burning morale. I'm open to any suggestions. I could refer the personnel to outside counselors; that would help with our backlog- but it won't look good..."
"I'm here to ask you for YOUR thoughts. I can't handle the latest thing myself."
"The latest thing?"
"This morning, Ashley, one of Miller's teeth was found. We didn't find it."
"Kasady did."
"Yes. I got called down by Lansdale and Brite. They wanted to flood the cell. It's...well, it's more than anyone should have to take."
"I can't authorize that...for a tooth. I wish I could."
"He'd only swallow it, anyway. Once I told them that, I left...they should be fine, for a time. Eventually, they'll do it for the hell of it. Which would mean suspension. And I'm short on men."
"You want me to talk to Kasady."
"He's singing at my men. He's tossing that tooth like a play-thing. He's talking about Miller. It would help if you could involve him in a session. Give him a different target. Buy me time. Maybe I'll come up with something. Maybe he'll lose interest. Maybe the men can adjust."
"I'll be right down."


Kafka took the lift to the basement, stoic in the guard's silence. His gun-metal helmet and suit glimmered in the floor indicator lights. He didn't look at her now; he had squared his shoulders and stood coldly. Ashley thanked him. She stepped out onto the platform in the basement.
Lansdale sat at the console. Brite stood at his shoulder. They studied Kafka, nodded once, and returned to the monitors.
She headed down to the cell. A cage of white bars, lifted on posts, surrounded by hissing blue radiation- it looked flawless. The generator pylons formed a massive, open cube that shadowed the cell. They were the outer layer, but they were the center of the system.
The pylons should work for the staff in two ways. They contained Kasady, and they looked good doing so- both objective and subjective security, imposed in solid metal.
They found the catch before moving the inmate. The system had some conflicts with the technology in place. At a short distance, it sometimes caused paralysis in the guards' suits.
This shouldn't have made any difference. The protocol was burning the symbiote off Kasady, moving him in a subsonic pod into the cell, and getting the hell out before he woke.
This time, he'd woken too soon. He's tougher than he should be...
She saw him rolling off the modular bunk, standing in an affable posture. He had a sleek, jutting shape to his face, with the brows pitched into the narrow nose, and the chin sharp. His eyes were flashy, shining wide. He moved quickly. The symbiote did the same, blood-red with black ripplings. It rode softly on his slim body, but spiked fiercely at her, sliding out in sharp spines to the glass. They thawed in the heat of the radiation, squirming- confused? It looked as if they palpated phantoms in the air, sliding on curves not there...
Kasady snagged his one chair, whipping it into the habitual place. They met at the access box.
Kafka settled into her seat.
"Good morning, Cletus."
"Just about Good Afternoon, Doc. You sure took your time." He spoke loudly. "The mental health of these good men must not be the priority that mine is."
"Well, Cletus, this is your session. So, let's discuss your concerns. We can start by re-framing your observation. You're concerned about the mental state of the guards?"
"I'm concerned! Fuck, yes! About them, and MILLER, too. How is Miller? I can't wait to see his smiling face again!"
"Medical care is confidential. I won't disclose any personal information."
"No, of course you won't. That would be a violation of Miller's rights, for me to have something personal of his. Hey, let's start a betting pool. I say I knocked twenty teeth out of him. He can suck The Man's dick harder than ever, now."
"Cletus-"
"I know, Doc, I know- stop killing the messengers! The guards are just enforcing the will of society!" Kasady rolled his vivid eyes. "Well, then, line up the cattle of society and let's get this slaughter line rolling. Thing is, the guards are part of it, and they're so convenient. Do you have a few days? I can explain it ALL to you, again- I don't mind repeating myself!"
"Being interrupted is very frustrating for me, Cletus. It can make it necessary to cut a session short."
"Mm, sorry. Doc, I don't want to frustrate you- I love your long, long, long fuse. It's wild. I don't understand it, but it's sure interesting. You know, it makes me feel special, that you're sooo patient with me. Is this bonding? We both happy now? Did I validate you?"
"These sessions aren't about me. I gave you that information so we could work more effectively. Cletus, let's pick up from our last session. You were talking about some of your past impulsive behaviors. You say there were times you acted before you felt any conscious motivation. I'd like to hear more about that."
"Who wouldn't? But what's that shit got to do with me now? I've got loads of motivation these days. Let's pick up from the start of this session! My concern, you know, for Miller. Now, you were saying that it would be bad for me to have anything personal to Miller. A violation of his rights? And I was talking about his smashed face. We can talk about that, right? It's common knowledge."
Doctor Kafka nodded.
Having stirred Kasady up, Ashley had some sense of how this would play out. Sessions only went to plan when he had a plan. Today he would not come directly to the point, but he refused to wander far.
He felt he had something powerful.
He didn't need her confirmation. He was challenging her to admit her interest. Kasady wanted to know if she had the confidence to make a move.
That was his way- declaring himself the winner, and then playing the game, just to know what kind of fight was in his opponent.
"Yes, Cletus, we can talk about that. When you assaulted Miller, he did lose a number of his teeth- as we all know."
"Oh, don't be sure of what "we all know." Maybe those teeth aren't lost. Not all of them." Cletus laughed a quiet chuckle.
"It was reported that you found one."
"They report to you- that's funny. Mostly they plain-old talk to each other. But you- they report to you."
The hands on his lap were slick, red, veined by black. The vestiges of claws clung to the resting fingers. Slowly he turned up one palm, holding a clot of symbiote, a twisting knot, scarlet and obsidian. It slipped open, and the center splashed up into a hard spike, tipped with a red wobbling ball. This melted down, exposing the tooth.
Kasady sat smiling at nothing. Ashley saw that he was in a tightening hold of happiness, excited by the display. It was for her- while her face was for him. He did not stare at her, but she knew that he could "see" with the surface of his symbiote. The tentacles floating by the glass had slowly swarmed to her face.
She patiently looked him in the eye.
He clapped his palms together, pushing himself forward, curving over his flexed arms, elbows on his thighs, and all those tense surfaces rippling with a slow blood-flow. "So, Miller gonna press charges on me?"
"Yes."
"You know why, Doc?"
"You assaulted him- you punched him in the face."
"Did I ever! Seven times! But, NO, that's not why he's pressing charges. What justice would Miller expect? He knows the score. I'll be here, there's no other place for me. Nothing more to do to me- I'm just too sick to kill! I'll tell you WHY Miller's going to the system. To play an angle. Yeah, he wants some of that victim's compensation fund that the state set up. He wants it on top of what they'll pay out for his injuries, and his TRAUMA. His bonus for getting beat on by me- what's it called?"
"Worker's compensation."
"Yes, compensation. More compensation. Doc, what if I told you...no... No! I'll ask you something, myself."
Kasady slipped his snarl into a broad, saucy smile.
"Do you want this, Doc?" He tossed the white tooth into the air, following it up with a spurt of his blood, twining, latching to the tooth the moment it began to fall. "Why? What's got everybody so excited about this tiny thing? What's it to you, this bitty biter?"
"It's one of the teeth that Miller lost. You're extending the incident with this display."
"You mean, when I flip this-" Kasady watched as his symbiotic limbs bounced the tooth into the air, "I'm flipping them off." He nodded his head at the guards.
"Yes. That's how both you and they experience your behavior."
"Oh, how WE experience it. How do you experience it, Doc?"
"It's a diversion to our work. You can air your hostility in talk therapy- which you've found useful."
"But talk gets boring. Talk gets boring, and you're the only one who talks to me. Not that you're boring, Doc, you're en-...en- ...what the fuck is that word?"
"Engaging?" I hope, she thought, it's not enabling.
"Sure, but this is better, oh, all the kiddies want to play now."
"Cletus, I have two responsibilities to you as a patient. I have to provide for the best routine to support your therapy, and I have to ensure that your incarceration doesn't harm your health, mentally or physically. Cletus... I'd like you to put the tooth in the incinerator shaft. If you want a personal motive, consider this: the assault made the staff very tense. They may overreact to something you do."
"Ah, they may fry me for coughing? Well, I hope they do... Hey! What's holding you boys back?! Don't wanna kiss the retirement package goodbye? Well, you sure as hell kissed one of your packages goodbye! This one!" Kasady slapped one clawed hand onto his balls. "I know you think you're happy in your cages! You'll die there, you know... Life is short; it's always shorter than you cattle think- and then you'll be sorry! At the end, when it's too late, you'll want to do it ALL over!"
"Cletus."
"Hehhhh...yes?"
"I'm classing that tooth as an unapproved personal object, and I'm recommending its removal for both inmate control and therapy purposes. To that end, I'll ask the Ravencroft Advisory Board to authorize radiation."
"Damn. You'd face the RABid control freaks over this? Mmm. Well, you know, they're not gonna let you cook me for less than attempted assault or escape...but let's say they do. I'll just swallow the tooth."
"There's a good chance that you won't manage that. Radiation is very painful to you. Cletus, think about ending this."
"Sure- I'll think some, while you go file your recommendation with the board." Kasady chuckled, still handling his balls, unconsciously as a dog. "Let me know if I can help with the paperwork. I'll just be down here, alone in the basement...though maybe somebody will decide to play. Yeh, Doc, you may have competition soon! Better hurry if you want to stay the center of my world."
Ashley Kafka studied Kasady. His eyes were outraged. She was about to probe, when she saw it. "You're not pleased to have the entire floor to yourself? This is the largest and most expensive accommodation to a single inmate in the United States. A private investment group was established to fund it. No other inmate has the public so...involved in his care."
"Yeh? It's still the basement."
"You were in the basement before."
"And I still am- now, I'm the only one down here. Your office used to be here- now, you're up a floor. I should be on the top fucking floor! I should be where it's at! I am where it's at! I think they want to sweep me under the rug. That's bullshit. Don't they have the balls anymore to face me? It's pathetic, Doc." He stood, turning his back. "Pathetic! I'm getting tired of this shit; you're wasting my time."
"I'm here. I'm facing you." She looked for some footing in this...chaos.
"I did that! I made it happen. The fucking RABids think they've got me all packed up now, don't they? Don't have to waste a thought on me. Fuck that shit! Go ask them to let you play with fire!" He barked his laughter, pitching it high up the walls, a red, rattling color. "Let them know I'm stopping up the gears with a fucking TOOTH!"


Kafka stood in the lift. For the moment, nothing, no-one, but Kasady had any weight. It wasn't new for him to be status-obsessed- but he'd never before shown a flaw in his smug posture. Could she manipulate this? Could she finally motivate him?
What was she going to do, tell the RABids that Kasady was holding a tooth hostage, demanding a penthouse in ransom? It was...insane.
Was there some way to punish him, based on her new insight? How did you push a man lower than the basement? She imagined a cover on his cage, as if he were a parrot...
"Oh, John." Ashley whispered. "I'm out of thoughts."
The day continued as a bad connection. Messages she couldn't really receive, much less return. Too many exchanges that felt retraced, circular, and incompletely known. All she had for anyone was a slow head-shake.
That night, Ashley juggled two pills in her palm, before tossing them back...in the medicine bottle. She walked into the kitchen of the condo, not touching the light switch, found the Cabernet and poured less than a glass. She stood at the sink window. She watched the small lights in the darkness, and the blackest things she saw were her eyes. It was funny how they gave way so fully to the dark; while her body's surface could carry warmth and color. Kafka sipped her wine, waiting for her body to relax, hoping that her eyes would adjust- she'd catch more light- she'd fill in those blanks.
She got a chill, set the glass in the sink. She wouldn't touch the faucet- something could be in the pipes; it was dark, something climbing all the way from the basement (maybe a roach).
Oh, FUCK. Fuck HIM. She slapped the handle up. It hissed and she quivered; but the water came out pure. Well, New York pure. It caught the moon, a full moon, meaning that there would be more lunatics out tonight than normally. Maybe she was halfway to becoming one of them- but she was staying in.


She had nightmares; they left her head buzzing. Hearing the heating vent click on and huff, Ashley woke. It was the gray pallor of the night, so she lay in the cold; she waited. She was starting to think. Her thoughts were light and pesky, like weak water in her hair, a drizzle. She thought warmly, suddenly, of one object- the phone by her bed. She could call John, and tell him...what? That she had nothing.
It was in the shower that Ashley got her idea. It thudded into her mind in quick jabs, exciting her. Suddenly the hot water felt numbing. The steam seemed to be made of molecules so heat-expanded that they were useless to her lungs. Kafka shut off the shower and hurried to towel herself.
She thought automatically of the phone, without any desire, and quickly confirmed that she would NOT be calling John. Not for this.

It was barely morning when Doctor Kafka's blue Lexus pulled up to the double gates. She sat quietly while the guards used mirrors and cameras to scan the vehicle, checked the trunk, waved her on.
The road took an ungraceful, direct shot to the Institute. Rolling toward the building, Ashley found a clump of men jogging outward. They wore gym shorts and t-shirts in the cold, and all had a large build. The man leading them, a tall athlete with dark hair, half-turned to watch her car passing. It was John, naturally. She'd forgotten his morning jogs with some of the third-shift guards. No matter. He wouldn't be in time to catch her, question her, tell her that staff morale was not her responsibility; she shouldn't extend herself this way...
She understood things differently. It was all her responsibility, the whole Institute, nuts and bolts, nutcases and board-members. The guards- she was responsible to them, certainly. Think how much she had expected them to give, for so long, telling herself that her management, and John's leadership, had kept the demand short of too much. Now she had to return some of what they gave, match some of it. She had to risk a loss.

The skin tightened by Kasady's mouth, as if he'd felt the tingle of a tiny shock. Then he chuckled. He shook his head, and red hair flipped out of the matt on his scalp, onto his brow.
"Damn, this isn't the normal morning show! Billy's changing the tapes, and then you rush in. You're all up there whispering, the guards too. Billy walks out. He doesn't change the tapes. You say there's a defect in the new tape, and he went to get a replacement. So, the first part of our session won't be recorded...NOW, if it were anybody but you, Doc, I'd think somebody was setting up to fuck with me."
She sat quietly, giving him this moment.
Kasady laughed harder, showed his wet teeth to her. Sometime during the night, he had stopped bleeding his symbiote out of his body, or slowed the flow. Most of the liquid had gone to dust. A scarlet tracery roved his body. Gathering on his chest, it popped with spines and sharp blades. Kasady folded both arms over the symbiote, and when he dropped them onto his thighs, he was slit open, palm to shoulder. Scarlet and black, the fluid washed out. It bristled at her, while he laughed like he feared nothing.
Kasady finally rested. He stared at Kafka. "Well, if nobody's gonna record my important words, what's the sense in it? I guess I'll let the little people have a say."
He waved one newly-clawed hand at her. On cue, she spoke.
"It's coming to an end. I think there'll be an incident today. We moved Brite and Lansdale off-shift, but the new men are just as angry, and if you provoke them, they'll flood your cell."
Kasady smiled. He tossed the tooth at his face, opening his mouth, curving out a wet tongue. He snatched the tooth away with a whip of blood, at the last moment. Kafka's face started him laughing. "Oh, look at you, Doc. Listen, I TOLD you: I'll swallow it."
"That's not a good decision, given your history of stomach complaints. How is your stomach today?"
"Heh heh heh! Oh, noooo, Doc, NO! I don't need a transfer to the hospital wing, complete with a radiation rinse, to have my gut checked- maybe my stomach pumped? Hell, YOU need a check-up, thinking you can slip that one by an old hand like me. I'm fine. The image of health- physically. Try and justify inflicting ME on the good nurses. You've got it from the monster's mouth that he is in the Red of health."
Kafka looked down at the note-pad on her lap, at her hands on the cover, pressing. This part was difficult. She inhaled, tossed the cover open.
"I'll make a report of your complaint. It will stand for the official record. At 4:50 A.M., the patient made a complaint of severe, constant stomach pain, proceeding from the previous evening."
There was silence. She looked up at Kasady.
His brows shrouded his eyes- glaring, and darkness, an explosion and its black smoke.
Now, before he rallied. Now, while he would listen.
Ashley placed the pen on the page. She turned the book to show him the smooth, blank paper. "No, I won't do that. I can't. I do have those obligations to you, Cletus. I know you need to make the few choices you have, and I know that interfering isn't in the best interest of your mental health. I also have to promote a day-to-day routine that supports your therapy...and, clearly, the guards are important to your routine...and to the routine of all the patients."
"I'm supposed to give a FUCK?"
"No, you're not. You're not the Director of the Institute. I am. And I commit myself to that role. And following that one choice, I can make very few choices. But you know that, Cletus, don't you? You've referred to it many times."
"I'm more free than you are. More free than any of you."
"You enjoy being witness to my limitations. You enjoy having access to the person you see as being the most imprisoned soul at Ravencroft. It validates your choices."
"Right back at you, Doc."
She let herself smile, in a Kasady session, for the first time.
Kasady pressed. "You're not leaving me, Doc. You like this, too."
"I don't get to make choices based on what I like. I do my job. That's where the part about a supportive routine comes in. The security staff is the foundation. You've been adversarial to the guards for so long, that they've come to reflect your thinking. Now, things are coming to a head- and I don't have the guards' trust. I approved your new cell. I assigned you some small liberties to keep you extroverted. They don't see this as my job. They see it as an allegiance. I chose you, my work; I put the success of it higher than the cost to them. Without the support of management, they can't be professional. The only way I can reduce the tension here, even modestly, is by assigning you a new therapist. I'll have to advocate for you at a distance, Cletus."
The basement door opened on the guards' platform. Billy entered. He looked at her. She shook her head. The audio tech held up a fist, opened all five fingers, and closed the hand. Five minutes.
Kasady growled at her.
"Doc, I don't give a fuck for your advocacy. I want your song and dance, and I want you to cross your legs higher and wear shorter skirts. I want you because you can take it. And where do you go for your thrill of horror? How do you get your validation? Do you just sink back into dullness, go plastic?" Kasady stood. He curled his mouth with humor. "This is so fucking sad, Doc. Letting that shit pull you out of the game. Sad. I'll have to fix this for you."
He stepped close to the access box, where the wall of radiation was doubled. Kafka did not stand. She flipped the switch that cut the barrier on his side. Slowly, a tentacle slid into the box, pulling the tray out into the cell.
"I suppose I made my point- rattled the RABids' cage." Finally he was holding one fist, coated in blood-red and oil-black, over the pan. "Do you want this, Doc?"
She spoke with a dry mouth. "Yes."
He stared at the dull metal tray. Kasady's chest heaved, a short, fast movement. Twisting his hand down, he opened it. There was a spit of white, a clack on the tray, a rattle. He looked into the pan, and pushed it back inside with clawed finger-tips. The light on the box went out, showing that the metal tray had clicked safely into its dock.
Ashley turned on his barrier, shutting off hers. She pulled out the tray, saw the tooth. She took Miller's tooth in her hand, folded it into her fist. Often she had modeled politeness for Cletus, saying "you're welcome," saying...
"Thank-you."
She felt it this time.
"Oh, you're welcome, Doc." Kasady showed his teeth, wetly.
Turning away, only half away, the doctor nodded to Billy. She saw him walk to the audio console, and looked back to Cletus. It was time for her to go. She took her clip-board in one hand, but Kasady spoke.
"I should give you twenty-four hours."
Ashley stopped. "I don't understand."
"Twenty-four hours. You deserve it, Doc. This was very clever. They all think you strong-armed me, and you're going to let them think that, right? Shows them whose side you're on. They can't blame you for my bad behavior now. No matter what I do next. You must be getting a nice rush. I should let you enjoy. Twenty-four hours."
"Do you have something to say?"
"I have something." He was showing his fist, tangled and clotted, squirming. He laughed at her face. "No, not that. Not a tooth. Made you think! I have something better."
Kasady opened a perfectly empty palm. "I have the truth, Doc. You always ask for the truth. OK."
"Then tell me."
"Wait..." Cletus watched Billy. "And... roll tape! We're on. Time for more of the Truth as Told By Carnage."
He spoke loudly, and the guards looked up. Kasady waved. They stared; he sat back into his chair. He moved like a hard-ass at a tavern, loudly taking a place at the bar, daring any man to behave as his equal.
Curving forward, he continued in a soft tone. Now it was only the inmate, the doctor, and the audio tape that took in his words.
"Doc, first I want to tell you that you're not to blame- well, not to blame for the radiation "rinse" not putting me down. You didn't miscalculate. Well, you didn't miscalculate the dose! OK, truly, you're to blame and you did miscalculate...but not in any of those simple and forgettable ways! No, Doc, you're a more defective human being than that." He shook his head. "I gotta say, you do need to hear this. It's a bitter pill, Doc, hard medicine, but you can't quit now. This could be a huge break-through for you. Today you confessed your self-imposed limitations...and now, this could be the revelation that drives you to change!"
Kasady laughed.
Kafka could not be sure she hadn't begun to glare... "What is the truth, Cletus?"
"Amphetamines. Miller. He served my meal, before the transfer. He put a special garnish on my slop that day. That's why I didn't pass out when you fuckers roasted my symbiote offa me. See, Doc, Miller wanted me to hurt him. That's why he went to help me when I had my "convulsion." Oh, he thought I couldn't do much to him without Red. Not with him in armor, and me in pain. But all he needed was to get bruised by Cletus Kasady, the scariest madman in the institute. Carnage! He could use that to justify a life-time disability due to flash-backs- or maybe bed-wetting. I don't know, I can't be sure about his exact plans. But expect that law-suit, Doc."
"I...I'll make a report of your allegations."
"Yes. You will. It's the right thing to do."
"Do you expect a judge to...take your word for the truth, Cletus?"
"You do, Doc. Don't you."
"Why..."
"Why hurt him? It's what I do. Why expose him? This will completely fuck that punk-ass up. And maybe I'll get to go to court. Why the tooth...? Well..." Kasady built up a nasty smile. "Think if it had cost Brite and Lansdale their careers. When this came out, they'd be at Miller's house kicking the shit out of him with his wife and kids watching. I'd give MY teeth to see that. Still, this might be even better. They won't want to accept the truth now. So long as they belong to Ravencroft, they'll want to hold onto the belief...that they are good, good men, all of them... and it will sting them to watch me tear up Miller's case. Fucking cattle."
Kafka was numb. There was no sting for her, until his last words began to penetrate.
"How about you, Doc? Do you still believe in the side you're on?"



OK- you made it to the end- hurrah, and thanks! You must have liked it, a little.
I have a few questions. If you're familiar with Spider-man and these charactors, do you feel that this is a good depiction of them? If you're not familiar with Spiderman, were you able to follow the story? Did you get a feel for the charactors? Is there anything I should do to make things more clear? Did you get lost at any point? Where?
Would you be interested in reading another story on Kasady?