Why us?

Venus?

  Right away I knew that something was up, something was not right, was it the fact that she took a doctor's uniform and is now dragging me down a corridor or is it something else? After some thought I realized that it must have been that glint in her eye, her hugely determined face and her toothy grin, I had passed on whatever I had to her. "But psychosis isn't a disease, it's a disorder" the doctors words flashed through my head. If that were so then how does Venus have it? To be honest with myself I don't really care, my own fantasies were being played out right in front of me, once that thought had struck I felt something, I felt many things, sadness because this could be real, guilt because this must be what I truly wanted and it's so selfish, and also longing, because Venus must not actually be here.

  This sudden realization was enough to make me stop dead in my tracks. My sudden jolt of stopping force was enough to almost topple us both over, she turned to me and asked "Hey what's the matter?" The only sound I could get out was a sigh as I turned the other way back towards my room. "Hey don't fucking ignore me Mars!" She says as she reaches for my hand, "the exit is this way" she starts to move me in her direction again. "I know the exit is there" I say in a gloomy state, "but I can't go" "And why is that?" She says in with a small smirk on her face. "Your a fucking figment if my imagination Venus, right now your at home watching TV or some shit and I'm stuck here wishing that I could hold you one last time" I say, a single tear starts to slide down my face. The shock of my statement had made her suddenly stop, her eyes started to swell and she said "I'm so sorry Mars, it's me, it's me, I swear it, I'm as real as they come, can't you tell the difference?". "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" I say starting to grab my hair and slightly pull. She takes my hands away from my hair and wraps them around her, "Mars I'm real", she starts to sway and hums the song. Piano Man by Billy Joel. "You remember this song?" She says trying for me to grasp at the low sound that's coming from her mouth. "Of course I do Venus it's my favorite song" I say as I start to pull away. She again grabs my hands and wraps them around her, "I'm real Mars, how can I prove it?" She starts to tear up again. "I don't know Venus, if you were real what the fuck would you be doing here?" I say, positive she wouldn't be able to answer. "For almost 2 years I have been walking the streets, having a normal life, working a normal job, having normal friends, driving a normal car, and living my life Black and white. Two years is a lot of time to think, Mars I realized that I loved you back, it took me long enough I know, I'm here because I want you, and I need you, and you need to get out of here" by now she already had streams of tears going down her face.

  'I would never be able to know that' I thought. "Okay, you MIGHT be real" I say, she smiles, wipes the tears from her eyes and starts dragging me full speed down the corridor, we pass a doctor but he was to slow to realize, I'm guessing that all he saw was a black uniform and thought 'oh whatever', well that 'oh whatever' might have lost you your job buddy, I'm getting out of here. And it's all thanks to my wife, I look down at her hand and see that she's still wearing her ring that I gave her when we were kids. For once in my life it seems something is going right, I'm getting out of here and thats that.

  We are in the cafeteria and in front of everyone eating Venus runs me through the doorway and down again along the dark hallway, we reach a door that is actually labeled, it had a single metal plate with 'Exit' engraved into it, I wouldn't have been able to see this until I was right in front of it, as I was a second ago but now I'm in an office, Venus slows us to a casual stroll and "signs us out". She takes us outside and to a red car that I recognized as her first one, the outside view was overwhelming, for a good 20 seconds or so I was being dragged blindly through a white light but eventually I was able to see. We were in a big parking lot full of empty spaces and surrounded by large pine trees, a bid flock flying above, some small puddles, some stormy clouds, a light drizzle of rain, a soft bit nippy cold wind, and of course the building.

  The air was cold and it bit at my skin, which was turning red already. Venus leads me to her car and into the passenger seat of the 1994 Volts Wagon Jetta, she got in the seat and started to drive, as she did, some doctors cane out and started shouting but Venus didn't care. Inside the car was all parchment colored Swede fabric, there was a few beer bottles and some old chip bags in the back but other than those it was clean, she had a Hello Kitty steering wheel cover and a little embroidered cross necklace hanging around her center rear view mirror, there was also a little lion plush in the right corner of the dash, and an orange hat that said 'Save Earth-Chan'. I looked back at Venus as she was driving and in that black doctors uniform, it was probably a bad time to think it but she pulled it off, her face was mostly focused on the road but every now and again she would look back in my direction for a second, smirk, and focus back on the road. Two emotions were going through my head above all others, happiness, and guilt... why do I feel so selfish? We pass a few housing tracks and some fast food restaurants after about 5 or 6 miles of dense pine forests and a slight view of a river in some areas. The people on the sidewalk were staring at the car like we were maniacs. Only after I saw this was when I had realized that Venus was speeding at around 75 in a 55 zone, we passed a sheriff car that was parked in a gas station but it didn't look like they even moved an inch as we drove by. Venus starts to laugh, "what's so funny?" I ask. "Your eyes are so wide open, as if your taking in every detail sense we left" she starts to laugh again and she grabs my left hand. I smile and continue to 'take in every detail', again we are driving through heavily dense pine forest on a two lane road, of which there is only the occasional passerby driving the opposite direction of us, south. Venus had made a joke about stopping for pizza at one point in our lovely drive which made us both laugh, I hadn't realized how much that I missed this, how much I missed us, whether it was real or not, I just wanted to enjoy this, for however long that I could.

  Eventually I start to see the town come into view after going over a large hill and my heart leaps in my chest. I still have so many questions for her, but I have the feeling that I won't have enough time to ask them, so stupidly, I stay silent. I reach out and turn on the radio, and on preset channel 1, blares 'Have you ever seen the rain? - Creedence Clearwater Revival' I instantly start to hum it as the song nears it's chorus, when it does, Venus full on songs it and I join in. It feels weird though in the back of my mind, how are we this normal after what had happened, why was she acting like this, the real her isn't like this, why am I playing along? I pull my thoughts aside and think about what will happen when we get back to town, "Where are we going by the way?" I ask, sounding as casual as possible, as if I needed to keep my cool around her. My old self would scowl at me, or would he?

  Town is getting closer and closer by the minute and she still hasn't answered. "Venus" I say, "Yea hun?" She replies with a squeeze to my hand "Where are we going?" I ask again, "It's a surprise" she replies after a few silent seconds with only the low sound of 'Midnight City - M83', I decide to brush it off and ask "What are we gonna do?" "Ha ha, nice try" she says "those mean the same thing". "You caught me" I say with a smile to her and a almost indistinguishable shake of my head to myself.

  At this point we were about a mile out from the town and I even saw a sign that said 'Welcome to Saint Edwards Valley, population 6983'. Venus seemed to be restless, but she blames it on excitement, and within minutes of this we are finally in town but she takes a left turn which leads to the old trail which we used to get to our house, I mean the orphanage.

  We pulled up to the orphanage's drive and stopped just at it's edge, "We are home" Says Venus with a huge grin on her face as she unbuckles and starts to get out of the car. I look at the building which looked so different before, but now that I really see it, it makes me sad that I had forced her into living here even if it was only for 2 weeks. The building was almost entirely burnt to a crisp, it was a two story building with lots of windows but had the architecture of house, the garden below on the front had a walkway from the front door into it, it was almost entirely burnt but I can still imagine what it must have looked like, lines of roses and cacti, with fields of lavender and mint, or even small trees with lots of rocks, grass, and moss. There was a large white picket fence all the way around and keeping not only the ever growing pine forest at bay, but also the kids who lived at the orphanage inside its boundaries. I returned to Venus and my thought of 'Why would she ever want to go back here?', I voiced my thoughts to which she replies "I love it here, or at least with you", this caught me by surprise but my next words were "I feel the same".

  "Well good, because it's time to have our actual wedding"