No One Killed Venus Wilson

IV. QUATRE

Why?

Just like a book, or movie, there is a lesson that lies within. It may take seconds to figure out what that lesson was, or it may take all of eternity. But there is a reason life is the way it is. There is a reason why life is so cruel to some and blissful to others. Many have figured it out already, others are waiting patiently just to know, why?

"I prayed to God every single day, just like I was told to do, and Daddy didn't go away. Why doesn't God love me?"

Oh, poor, innocent Venus Wilson, don't worry the end for you is near.

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     Raj hadn't realized that "the ends" could happen even if you were a seventeen-year-old boy. He didn't think anyone he knew would die at such a young age. Then Venus Wilson came into his life and he realized that the end was so near. It loomed so peacefully around the three he was afraid that if he were to blink the dark cloud would consume his breath and snatch his soul. Though death was not there for him, or for Venus in fact. Death always loved playing tricks on the happiest of people...

The first time Raj Khanna had met Venus Wilson, was at a party. It was his first party, but it seemed as if Venus had exited her mother's womb ready to party. That night, Venus Wilson looked drunk, and it scared Raj a little bit. The two were only fifteen at the time, alcohol and drugs were still a sin in their ripe minds. He remembered watching three men around the age of eighteen carry her into a room, and how he just stood there contemplating whether or not to interrupt. Raj knew that those boys weren't simply putting her down to rest. They were going to have a little fun as well.

There was a pause as he watched a girl look at the closed door with a distraught expression and then turn to her friend and let out a shaky laugh. Raj knew who that was, he tutored her in math when he was ten and she was thirteen. Her acne had visibly cleared, or it was hiding under the thick layer of makeup she had applied that had been slightly smudged around. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Raj examining her, which made him snap his head back to the door that created a barrier between him and Venus.

Despite the music, the bickering of three men could be heard from here. Raj dared to look again at the girl who seemed just as worried for Venus as he was, but she had already drifted back into the current of people dancing along with the music. It was up to him now. The decision seemed so simple under theoretical circumstances, but he knew that the second he told those three men what to do, he would be six feet under the floorboards of that room.

Just as he was about to walk away with his cup of water in hand, he halted. A nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach stopped him. It was as if the gravitational pull of the room Venus was in had miraculously increased, and before Raj knew it, he was right outside the door Venus. He watched as his hand reached out to grab and twist the knob. It was as if his brain had gone into autopilot mode and he couldn't control himself. And then he stopped. He let go of the knob and it turned back into its original position. Run Raj, she's drunk she won't remember it anyways! He shook his head rapidly. Once he focused back on the knob he placed the empty cup of water he had been carrying around and barged in.

The bass of the music resonated through Raj's bones as he stood frozen staring at the scene of the captain of the hockey team trying to get Venus to lay down, with her miniskirt hitched up showing her undergarment off. Anger mixed with fear and adrenaline pumped through his veins, the perfect drug. He didn't care if he was a scrawny little freshman who couldn't even defend himself. Raj only knew that he was doing the right thing. That was what he was taught to do: always do the right thing.