Latest / Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories / Childhood Mysteries Unraveled: A Journey through Betrayal, Identity, and Secrets in Venus' Enchanted Garden

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Childhood Mysteries Unraveled: A Journey through Betrayal, Identity, and Secrets in Venus' Enchanted Garden · Shallow Nights: Scary Bedtime Stories

• 0:16
  We moved into the house on Wells Place when I was 8 years old.
• 0:21
  I remember there was a certain thrill to it, a whole new
• 0:24
  neighborhood to explore, and my parents had promised me that
• 0:28
  there were other kids in the neighborhood.
• 0:31
  I couldn't wait to meet them. I was a social child.
• 0:34
  I liked being outside, I liked meeting new kids, and I wanted
• 0:38
  to make new friends. My mom used to say I'd befriend
• 0:42
  anyone. I guess she was right.
• 0:46
  On the day we moved in, I was too young to help with the
• 0:49
  actual work. My dad told me to go outside and
• 0:52
  play so long as I stayed in our backyard.
• 0:55
  It was a new neighborhood and most of the yards weren't fenced
• 0:59
  off, so realistically I could have wandered wherever I wanted.
• 1:04
  I stepped outside onto the uncut grass.
• 1:07
  There was an infinite row of houses on either side of me, a
• 1:11
  surreal inverse of a suburban street.
• 1:14
  I saw play sets meant for kids sitting out in the open, but no
• 1:19
  other kids to play with. I doubt I'd really have noticed
• 1:22
  them even if they'd been there. No, my attention was immediately
• 1:26
  grabbed by the house right behind mine.
• 1:30
  I'd seen it before, but never up close.
• 1:33
  The red brick looked worn. It was clearly older than most
• 1:36
  of the other houses around it. The windows were always dark.
• 1:40
  Very rarely would you see movement behind them.
• 1:44
  None of that was what drew me to it though.
• 1:47
  No, I saw the garden that dominated its backyard.
• 1:52
  It looked like something out of a magazine.
• 1:54
  Countless beautiful flowers of all sorts of colors and
• 1:58
  beautifully trimmed hedges. Although I never saw anyone
• 2:02
  tending them. There was a lovingly placed
• 2:06
  stone pathway and the soothing sound of running water coming
• 2:10
  from a fountain deep within the garden itself.
• 2:13
  I saw nothing at first but that garden, and slowly I made my way
• 2:18
  towards it. I looked back once, making sure
• 2:21
  no one would stop me before I stepped through the hedges to
• 2:24
  explore. It dominated the yard entirely.
• 2:29
  The stone path had bits of fine gravel in between the stones and
• 2:34
  I saw a few beautiful statues sitting amongst the flowers,
• 2:37
  birds and squirrels that looked almost real enough to move.
• 2:42
  There was a beautiful smell of fresh flowers that wafted
• 2:45
  through the garden and the gently running water set me at
• 2:48
  ease. I approached the fountain.
• 2:52
  It too was stone and stood just a little bit taller than I was.
• 2:57
  Standing behind it was a tall and oddly frightening statue.
• 3:01
  It looked older than anything else in the garden, and wasn't
• 3:04
  made with quite the same craftsmanship as the others had
• 3:07
  been. It looked almost like an ancient
• 3:10
  relic, crude yet ornate in its own way.
• 3:15
  It depicted A blocky figure with a dress made of writhing snakes.
• 3:20
  They held a severed head in two of their four hands, and instead
• 3:24
  of a head, atop their shoulders were two kissing snakes, each
• 3:28
  with massive, terrifying fangs. I stared up at the statue,
• 3:33
  wondering what it could be. Slowly, I approached it.
• 3:37
  I reached out to touch it, but before I could, I heard a voice.
• 3:42
  Who are you? I turned suddenly, and then I
• 3:45
  saw her. She was a little older than I
• 3:48
  was. She was taller, but not by much.
• 3:52
  She was still very clearly a child.
• 3:55
  Her skin was pale and her eyes seemed to shimmer with an
• 3:58
  unnatural light. It was hard not to look into her
• 4:01
  eyes. There was something about them.
• 4:05
  She wore a bandana, but I couldn't see any other hair.
• 4:09
  She was thin and looked just a little bit sickly.
• 4:13
  She reminded me of my Grandpa Ike when he'd passed away.
• 4:17
  He looked the same in his final days.
• 4:20
  I didn't know what cancer was back then, but I knew what
• 4:23
  sickness looked like. I'm Jordan, I said.
• 4:27
  What's your name? She stared at me for a few
• 4:30
  moments, sizing me up before letting her guard down.
• 4:34
  Venus. She said.
• 4:36
  You're not supposed to be here. Mom doesn't like people in her
• 4:39
  garden. Sorry, I just wanted to have a
• 4:42
  look. I replied.
• 4:44
  It's really pretty, I like the statues, except this one, it's
• 4:49
  creepy. Venus looked up at the one I
• 4:52
  gestured to the woman with the two snakes where her face should
• 4:55
  be. That's Koalique, the mother of
• 4:58
  the gods. Mum worships her.
• 5:01
  Venus said she's old. Aztec.
• 5:04
  Mum says Aztecs, native people from Mexico.
• 5:09
  They're really old. Mum makes me read about them.
• 5:13
  It's kind of cool. I looked back at the statue of
• 5:16
  Koat Liqui. Terrifying as she was, it was
• 5:19
  kind of fascinating to think that some people had worshipped
• 5:22
  her as a goddess. Will you tell me more?
• 5:26
  I asked. Venus seemed to hesitate for a
• 5:29
  moment. I could, she said.
• 5:32
  Mom doesn't like me talking with people outside.
• 5:35
  Because you're sick? I asked.
• 5:38
  Venus paused. Yeah, she said.
• 5:41
  After a few moments, she took a step back.
• 5:44
  You should go. Mom might see, and she doesn't
• 5:47
  like people in her garden. We could sit behind one of the
• 5:51
  shrubs, I offered. You could tell me about the
• 5:54
  Aztecs. I don't think that thought had
• 5:57
  occurred to Venus before. She went silent, thinking it
• 6:01
  over Jordan. I looked back.
• 6:05
  That was my own mother's voice. Shoot, got to go, I said.
• 6:10
  I looked back at Venus. Maybe next time.
• 6:13
  She looked a little bit dumbstruck.
• 6:16
  Maybe. She finally said, then watched
• 6:20
  as I took off, headed back home to get scolded by my mother.
• 6:25
  She'd called me back to meet the neighbors.
• 6:27
  It was a small family just like mine who live next door, Howard
• 6:31
  and Lauren. They had a kid just my age named
• 6:35
  Emily. I remember that they wore muddy
• 6:37
  jeans and kept their hair in a ponytail.
• 6:40
  Just looking at them, I knew we'd be best friends.
• 6:43
  I got the feeling that they were thinking the same.
• 6:47
  It wasn't 5 minutes later that we were outside together already
• 6:50
  getting to know each other. So where are you coming from?
• 6:55
  They asked. Out by Sudbury, I replied.
• 6:59
  We moved here because Dad got a new job and wanted to be closer
• 7:02
  to work. How far is Sudbury?
• 7:05
  I don't know, Dad said. 4 hours. It was a really long drive.
• 7:09
  We had to stay in a hotel when we were looking at houses.
• 7:12
  Emily whistled as we walked along, hands in their pockets.
• 7:17
  Sorry you had to move all the way out here, they said it's not
• 7:21
  so bad, though. Jane lives just a few houses
• 7:24
  down, and she goes to my school. Then there's Megan.
• 7:27
  She's down the street. People can be mean to her, but
• 7:30
  she's really nice when you get to know her.
• 7:32
  Then there's Nikki. She's super nice.
• 7:35
  What about Venus? I asked.
• 7:38
  Venus. They raised an eyebrow.
• 7:40
  Yeah, the girl in that house there.
• 7:43
  I pointed to the one with the garden.
• 7:45
  I could see someone else standing by the fountain, but it
• 7:49
  wasn't Venus, and I couldn't make out the details of her
• 7:51
  face. She was very tall, very thin,
• 7:55
  and wore a wide brimmed sun hat. I imagined it must have been
• 7:59
  Venus's mother. She was staring at us, but I was
• 8:02
  too far away to read the look on her face.
• 8:05
  My new friend just frowned. I've never met her, honestly.
• 8:10
  I think I saw her a few times out in the garden, but I've
• 8:13
  never actually met her. I ran into her earlier.
• 8:16
  She seemed nice. Maybe you can meet her sometime.
• 8:20
  Yeah, that'd be pretty cool, they said.
• 8:23
  We looked at the woman standing by the fountain and we both
• 8:26
  watched as she turned and went inside.
• 8:29
  With that, we moved on to other topics.
• 8:33
  I met most of the other kids on the block, but I think I got
• 8:36
  closest to Emily after just a few months.
• 8:39
  We became almost inseparable. We shared everything we could
• 8:42
  share. Being neighbors helped.
• 8:45
  We could see each other whenever we wanted to and it was almost
• 8:48
  like having a sibling. I did return to the garden
• 8:52
  looking for Venus, but I never saw her.
• 8:55
  It was always empty, save for the calming sound of the running
• 8:58
  water. My dad had set up a tent outside
• 9:01
  for us to play in since I was a little too old for some of those
• 9:05
  play forts. Emily and I spent a few nights
• 9:08
  in there reading scary stories and hanging out.
• 9:11
  It was one of the last nights of summer when we were having a
• 9:14
  sleepover in there. They'd gotten me into James
• 9:17
  Bond, and we were watching one of the movies on a portable DVD
• 9:20
  player. I wish I was James Bond, Emily
• 9:24
  said, as Bond fought Gustav Graves on a crashing plane.
• 9:28
  Because you'd be a cool spy? I asked.
• 9:31
  Why not Jinx? She's a cool spy, too.
• 9:34
  Yeah, but Bond goes on all the cool adventures in every movie.
• 9:38
  It's usually the guys who get to be cool.
• 9:41
  There's cool girls too, I pointed out.
• 9:44
  Like in Terminator? Yeah, but not as many.
• 9:49
  I don't know. I don't like being a girl,
• 9:51
  though. It's hard to explain sometimes.
• 9:56
  Sometimes I think God made a mistake.
• 9:59
  I'd still like it if you were a boy or a girl.
• 10:01
  I said, and they looked over at me.
• 10:04
  There was a thoughtful look in their eyes.
• 10:07
  You mean it? Of course, you're my best
• 10:10
  friend. That wouldn't change.
• 10:12
  After a few minutes they nodded. I think that something I'd said
• 10:17
  had set them at ease. I could tell there was something
• 10:20
  they wanted to say, but they were choosing their words
• 10:22
  carefully. Near the end of the movie I
• 10:26
  noticed that they'd fallen asleep.
• 10:28
  They were face down in their sleeping bag and snoring softly.
• 10:32
  I turned off the movie and went to take the DVD player inside,
• 10:36
  just in case it rained. The house was quiet.
• 10:39
  It was pretty late, but as I came back out, I heard someone
• 10:43
  singing softly. I stopped.
• 10:46
  It wasn't a song I recognized, but I knew where it was coming
• 10:50
  from. I walked past the tent towards
• 10:54
  the garden of the other house. The singing got louder, and as I
• 10:58
  walked down the stone pathway, the gravel crunching under my
• 11:01
  footsteps, I heard it stop. Hello.
• 11:05
  I recognized Venus's voice immediately.
• 11:08
  She rounded the corner and stopped when she saw me.
• 11:12
  There was the only the calming sound of the fountain left to
• 11:14
  fill the air. Hi, Venus, I said.
• 11:18
  I haven't seen you in a while. Hi.
• 11:22
  Our tone was guarded and shy. I expected her to tell me to
• 11:26
  leave, but she didn't. I was looking for you, but you
• 11:29
  weren't in the garden when I came back.
• 11:31
  I said. I saw Mom doesn't like me going
• 11:36
  out too much. Venus said shyly.
• 11:39
  I saw your tent, though. It's really nice.
• 11:44
  Thanks. Emily's staying over right now,
• 11:47
  but they're asleep and I heard you singing, so I wanted to say
• 11:49
  hi. Venus smiled shyly.
• 11:53
  I was praying, actually. She said to Koaliqui.
• 11:59
  Mom says that if you pray hard, maybe she'll bestow a gift upon
• 12:03
  you. What kind of gift do you want?
• 12:05
  I asked. Venus hesitated for a moment.
• 12:09
  To not be sick anymore, I guess. She said I was born the way I
• 12:14
  am, but I don't like it. Mum says to embrace it because
• 12:19
  it's part of me, but I don't want to.
• 12:22
  I don't know if praying to Koat Liqui will help, but it makes me
• 12:26
  feel better. Well, I hope you get your wish,
• 12:31
  I said. Maybe if you get better, we
• 12:34
  could hang out more. Venus stifled a laugh.
• 12:38
  Hang out? She asked.
• 12:40
  Yeah, you seem really nice and I still do want to learn about the
• 12:44
  Aztecs. I saw a small smile on Venus's
• 12:48
  lips. She looked back towards her
• 12:50
  house before deciding if it was safe.
• 12:53
  Well, if you really want to know, I've got a book I could
• 12:57
  show you, since I don't really get to go out much.
• 13:00
  I read a lot. We could read it together?
• 13:04
  I offered. Her smile widened.
• 13:07
  Yeah, I'd like that. I waited out in the garden
• 13:13
  behind a hedge as Venus left to get her book and a flashlight.
• 13:17
  Then we sat there in the dark and I listened as she told me
• 13:20
  everything she knew. It wasn't long until it all
• 13:23
  spilled out of her, just like the water from that fountain.
• 13:27
  I realize now just how lonely she was.
• 13:30
  Even now, I don't think I really understand just how much it
• 13:34
  meant to her to be able to share this with someone, but I'm glad
• 13:38
  she could. Of course, I had to introduce
• 13:41
  her to Emily. I told Venus I'd be happy to
• 13:44
  meet her the next night and asked if I could bring them
• 13:47
  along. She'd been reluctant, but she'd
• 13:50
  said yes. I could tell that Venus was
• 13:53
  happy as she told us all about the gristly human sacrifice
• 13:56
  rituals of the Aztecs, and we ate it up entirely.
• 14:01
  The three of us were so taken in by what she was saying that we
• 14:05
  barely noticed that most of the night had slipped away from us.
• 14:10
  I remember that Emily had listened in with wide eyes,
• 14:13
  leaning forwards. It was kind of nice to see.
• 14:18
  The only thing better than making new friends was bringing
• 14:20
  them together. The three of us built something
• 14:23
  that night, something that was probably going to last forever.
• 14:27
  I hoped it would. Our lives continued like that.
• 14:32
  Emily and I would go to school together and we had our lives
• 14:35
  there, but whenever we got the chance, we'd go into Venus's
• 14:39
  garden together and hang out. It gravitated from stories about
• 14:43
  the Aztecs to movies and scary stories.
• 14:46
  We never really left the garden. Venus seemed most comfortable
• 14:50
  there, and neither of us wanted to push her out of her comfort
• 14:53
  zone. I never really saw her mother,
• 14:57
  and I never saw her father, if Venus even had one, but I
• 15:02
  suspected she knew what we were up to.
• 15:05
  The closest I'd ever come to a conversation with the woman had
• 15:08
  been when I'd entered the garden once, looking for Venus.
• 15:12
  From time to time, it wasn't uncommon to hear some work being
• 15:15
  done in the garden, the sound of a hammer hitting stone.
• 15:19
  I assumed that they were building a new statue or
• 15:21
  something. New ones showed up in the garden
• 15:24
  from time to time. A couple of times Venus had been
• 15:27
  the one out there, breaking down excess stone and scattering it
• 15:31
  amongst the gravel. I just wanted to take a peek and
• 15:35
  see if it was her. The sound stopped as I got
• 15:39
  closer, and I stepped quietly as I made my way through the garden
• 15:43
  and stepped towards the fountain.
• 15:45
  I found her mother there, a hammer by her side and dust on
• 15:48
  her hands. She was kneeling before the
• 15:51
  statue of Koat Liqui, silently praying.
• 15:55
  I was about to slip away when her head darted to the side and
• 15:58
  she looked at me with the same piercing gaze Venus had.
• 16:03
  I froze dead in my tracks when she smirked.
• 16:08
  She's asleep. She said.
• 16:10
  I'd never heard her speak before.
• 16:13
  Her voice was soft and maternal. She'll be out later.
• 16:17
  Oh, oh, OK. I stammered.
• 16:20
  Her mother looked me over before giving out huff of approval.
• 16:24
  You're bold, I respect that, but please do watch your step.
• 16:29
  There are things in my garden that bite of provoked.
• 16:33
  With that, she turned and left me alone.
• 16:36
  It was the closest thing I ever got to a blessing on our
• 16:39
  friendship. When we were 12, Emily had asked
• 16:43
  me to stop calling him by that name.
• 16:46
  He was James from now on and I was just fine with that.
• 16:50
  His parents didn't agree with the change, they still called
• 16:53
  him by his dead name. I would never use that name
• 16:56
  again or refer to him as a girl. He never was one.
• 17:00
  I didn't completely understand, but I respected it.
• 17:04
  James was my best friend. More than that, he was my
• 17:08
  brother, and I loved him like a brother.
• 17:12
  As we walked home together after school one December evening, I
• 17:15
  remember that he looked to be in high spirits.
• 17:18
  He'd cut their short hair, although it was just a little
• 17:21
  bit shaggy. He liked his sweaters and jeans.
• 17:25
  He'd thrown out all his dresses before he'd told me that he was
• 17:28
  a boy. I think he was working up to it,
• 17:31
  inching towards becoming the man he needed to be and slowly
• 17:35
  discarding every part of his identity that he didn't want
• 17:39
  until only the parts he wanted to keep were left.
• 17:43
  Some people tried to give him shit for it.
• 17:45
  I didn't let them. James was my brother, and nobody
• 17:49
  picked on my brother. I remember that as the snow was
• 17:54
  falling beautifully and we were shooting the shit.
• 17:56
  On the way home, we talked about going to see if Venus was
• 17:59
  around. She'd become more comfortable
• 18:02
  coming into my house during the winter.
• 18:04
  We could sit on the couch together and watch movies or
• 18:07
  play video games. She still looked sickly, but as
• 18:11
  far as I could tell she hadn't gotten worse.
• 18:14
  I never asked about her condition.
• 18:16
  I already knew she preferred not to talk about it.
• 18:21
  As we turned onto our street, though, we saw the police car.
• 18:24
  James stopped dead in his tracks.
• 18:27
  They were right outside his house.
• 18:29
  I could see the fear on his face.
• 18:32
  I felt it too. We didn't know what had
• 18:34
  happened, but we knew it was bad.
• 18:38
  Without a word, he took off through the snow.
• 18:41
  He raced towards his front door with me at his heels.
• 18:45
  The front door hung open and I could see his mother with two
• 18:47
  cops, one on each side of her. I don't remember the
• 18:51
  conversation that followed. I remember fragments.
• 18:55
  I remember that they kept calling James by his dead name
• 18:58
  and he couldn't form the words to correct them.
• 19:01
  I remember the tears streaming down his face as he was told why
• 19:05
  his dad wasn't coming home. It was the snow.
• 19:10
  He'd taken a turn too fast and his car had skidded off the
• 19:14
  road. It was an accident, but that
• 19:17
  didn't take away the sting. I remember watching James back
• 19:22
  away from the cop, tears streaming down his face, and
• 19:26
  then he ran as if he could leave the pain behind in that room.
• 19:32
  I could only watch him go, rooted to the spot by my own
• 19:36
  grief. Even if his parents didn't
• 19:38
  understand James and dismissed his transition as just a phase,
• 19:43
  they were still like family to me.
• 19:46
  I couldn't hate them for their ignorance and I couldn't help my
• 19:50
  own grief. James, I remember calling.
• 19:55
  He was already long gone. I managed to move my feet to
• 19:58
  chase him outside before I followed his tracks in the snow.
• 20:03
  I found James on his lawn, on his knees and sobbing.
• 20:07
  All I could do was wrap my arms around him and hug him as the
• 20:11
  tears flowed from both of us. I'm here, I said to him.
• 20:15
  I'm sorry man, I'm so sorry. He couldn't answer.
• 20:21
  I didn't expect him to. That night I met Venus in the
• 20:26
  garden. I told her what had happened,
• 20:29
  and I remember the quiet, pensive look on her face.
• 20:32
  Her hand covered her mouth. She seemed almost ready to
• 20:36
  double over. Is he at home?
• 20:39
  She asked me. He said he just wanted to go to
• 20:43
  bed, I replied. I don't blame him.
• 20:47
  Venus slowly nodded. We stood by the fountain in the
• 20:51
  front of the statue of Coatliquay.
• 20:53
  If I don't see him before you do, tell him I'm sorry.
• 20:57
  She said after a while. I will, I promised.
• 21:02
  She looked up at the statue, staring into the eyes of the
• 21:05
  twin serpents that made-up her face.
• 21:08
  Jordan, will you pray with me? She asked for James and his dad.
• 21:16
  I'd never prayed to Koaliqui before, but I hoped it might
• 21:19
  make me feel better. I told her I would and we knelt
• 21:23
  in the snow side by side. She taught me how to sing to
• 21:26
  Koaliqui. I didn't know what the words
• 21:29
  meant and I struggled to even pronounce them, but it did make
• 21:33
  me feel better. It was as if something was
• 21:36
  really listening to me, even if it was just a Venus.
• 21:42
  I was there for James as he healed, as was Venus.
• 21:45
  He was quiet for a long while after, but we still made him get
• 21:49
  out of the house. We went through the motions,
• 21:52
  even if the sorrow radiated off of him like a disease.
• 21:56
  Grief doesn't go away. You can't forget about the ones
• 21:59
  you love when they're gone. It's like an old wound.
• 22:02
  Sometimes it opens and the pain comes back.
• 22:05
  I think not everyone can understand that.
• 22:08
  I'm lucky I've never had to deal with the death of a parent.
• 22:12
  But James did, and I watched as he tried to move on.
• 22:17
  As we turned 14, then 15, he went back to his old self.
• 22:21
  For the most part, I knew that the wound would never truly
• 22:25
  heal, and it never would, but James found a way to live with
• 22:29
  it. Until Kaden Lauren, James's mom,
• 22:35
  started dating a little under a year after his dad had passed.
• 22:39
  James told me a bit about some of the men she'd introduced him
• 22:42
  to. She met Kaden while we were in
• 22:44
  9th grade and he'd stuck around. I remember the first time I met
• 22:49
  him. It was a weekend in May.
• 22:51
  Our first year of high school was almost over.
• 22:55
  He was in James's backyard grilling on the BBQ.
• 22:58
  The steak smelled a little burnt.
• 23:00
  I'd come over looking for James when I saw him.
• 23:03
  He was a short man with a receding hairline and a graying
• 23:06
  beard. He spoke in a friendly, jovial
• 23:08
  tone when he saw me. Hey, buddy, you one of Emily's
• 23:12
  friends? Emily.
• 23:14
  It took me a moment to realize who he was talking about.
• 23:18
  He goes by James? I said.
• 23:20
  Kaden's smile faltered, then he shrugged.
• 23:24
  Well, she's upstairs, can't come out right now.
• 23:27
  Got into a bit of a spat with her mom, you know?
• 23:30
  His upbeat grin never once faded.
• 23:32
  I knew that James and his mom fight.
• 23:35
  Actually, I thought the relationship had been getting
• 23:37
  better. I'd even heard her calling him
• 23:40
  James. Oh, do you have any idea when
• 23:44
  he'll be out? Kaden tilted his head to the
• 23:47
  side of it. Sorry, not sure.
• 23:50
  I don't make the rules, buddy. I could throw an extra steak on
• 23:54
  the BBQ if you want to join us for dinner, though.
• 23:56
  You're Jordan, right? She talks about you a lot.
• 23:59
  Why the hell was he calling him she?
• 24:02
  That was really starting to grate on my nerves.
• 24:04
  James hated it when someone misgendered him, and I hated
• 24:08
  hearing it. I'm all right, I said.
• 24:11
  I didn't want to be near this guy.
• 24:13
  Beneath his two friendly facade, something felt off.
• 24:17
  He watched me as I went, his friendly smile never fading and
• 24:21
  never actually seeming all that friendly.
• 24:25
  James had to wear a dress to the wedding.
• 24:27
  Kaden didn't like his short hair and wouldn't let him cut it.
• 24:31
  He didn't like the way James looked without makeup, so he had
• 24:34
  to wear it. He didn't like the name James,
• 24:37
  so he called him Emily. I was at the wedding and I sat
• 24:41
  with James at a table. I remember how tense he was,
• 24:45
  almost as if he was on the verge of tears.
• 24:48
  It wouldn't be the first time I'd seen him cry over Kaden.
• 24:52
  In just a matter of months, this man had come into his life to
• 24:55
  fill the void his dad left, and he had changed everything in the
• 24:59
  worst of ways. I avoided Kaden like the plague
• 25:03
  whenever I could. He was never rude to me or
• 25:06
  anything other than clawingly polite.
• 25:09
  Somehow that was worse. I didn't tell James what he'd
• 25:12
  said to me before the wedding. When he'd stopped me outside.
• 25:17
  I'd found a statue in my backyard, a stone squirrel that
• 25:21
  looked like it was in the process of trying to run away.
• 25:24
  That happened sometimes. Venus's house was on a slight
• 25:28
  incline above mine, and sometimes the wind blew statues
• 25:32
  towards my house. That's how she explained it, at
• 25:35
  least. I was always amazed they ended
• 25:38
  up so close. We jokingly called them
• 25:40
  runaways. I could hear the sound of a
• 25:43
  hammer breaking down stone in the garden.
• 25:46
  Venus was probably out there. I'd been bringing that runaway
• 25:49
  back when Kaden had called out to me.
• 25:52
  Hey, Jordan. Just the man I wanted to see.
• 25:56
  I turned to look at him, almost flinching at the way he said my
• 25:59
  name. He walked up to me with the same
• 26:02
  bullshit smile on his lips he always wore.
• 26:05
  How goes the buddy? You doing all right?
• 26:08
  Fine, I replied curtly, trying to end this conversation.
• 26:13
  Great, great. Hey, hey, if you got a minute, I
• 26:17
  wanted to talk to you about Emily.
• 26:19
  You mind? Very much so, but I let him
• 26:22
  continue. It's not like I could have
• 26:24
  stopped him. So I keep hearing you calling
• 26:28
  her James. Yeah, that's the thing you guys
• 26:30
  do, right? His name is James, I replied.
• 26:34
  Well, see, that's the thing. It's actually not.
• 26:40
  It's Emily. Now, Emily is a little bit
• 26:43
  confused. She's kind of sick.
• 26:45
  I'm talking to her mom about getting some therapy for that.
• 26:48
  Always sorts that kind of thing right out.
• 26:51
  But if she's going to get better, you got to stop
• 26:53
  pretending she's something she's not.
• 26:55
  You've got to start calling her Emily.
• 26:56
  OK, bud. I looked at Kaden dead in the
• 27:00
  eye. I hated this man.
• 27:02
  I hated him for the way he treated my best friend, a guy I
• 27:06
  thought of as a brother. I felt the statue in my hand and
• 27:11
  I wanted to hit him with it. His name is James.
• 27:15
  I repeated. Kaden's smile faded.
• 27:18
  Yeah, sure, buddy. Look, I really don't want us to
• 27:22
  not have to be friends, but if you're going to go around
• 27:25
  helping Emily believe these delusions, I can't let you
• 27:28
  continue being around her. I almost laughed at that.
• 27:32
  We were next door neighbors who went to the same school.
• 27:35
  What the hell was he going to do to stop me from seeing him?
• 27:38
  That flash of anger in his eyes made me think twice about
• 27:41
  calling his bluff, though. I was alone out there with
• 27:44
  Kaden. My parents weren't home.
• 27:47
  I think he knew that, too. He was still an adult.
• 27:51
  He could take James out of school.
• 27:52
  He could even move. Those were extreme measures, but
• 27:56
  something told me he'd do them. I couldn't leave James alone
• 28:00
  with this asshole. I couldn't risk that.
• 28:04
  All right, I said. Whatever you say, whatever you
• 28:09
  say, Sir. Kaden corrected.
• 28:13
  Whatever you say, Sir. I repeated.
• 28:17
  Kaden grinned. He put his hand on my shoulder,
• 28:19
  squeezing it. Attaboy, I knew you'd get it.
• 28:23
  See you around, kid. With that, he left, and I glared
• 28:27
  at him as he left. I never told James about that.
• 28:31
  He didn't need to know. At school, I brought a change of
• 28:36
  clothes in my backpack. James hated wearing dresses, so
• 28:39
  I gave him something proper to change into.
• 28:42
  He could get away with not wearing makeup.
• 28:44
  It wasn't ideal, but it was better than misgendering him.
• 28:48
  Most of the other students knew to call him James, as did most
• 28:51
  of the teachers. School became the only place
• 28:54
  where James seemed happy anymore.
• 28:57
  There were a few assholes who tried to give him trouble, but I
• 29:00
  did what I could to keep them off his back.
• 29:03
  We made it through high school this way.
• 29:05
  It wasn't perfect, but it was better than nothing.
• 29:10
  We were in 12th grade when things came to a head.
• 29:12
  James was looking forwards to heading off to university in
• 29:15
  Toronto. He was going into the same
• 29:18
  program as our friend Jane was. I was just planning to do a
• 29:21
  victory lap. I didn't know what I wanted to
• 29:24
  do yet and thought the extra time to figure it out would be
• 29:27
  nice. It was March, winter was ending
• 29:31
  and spring was coming back. James and I walked to school
• 29:35
  early, then I gave him my backpack as we dipped into the
• 29:38
  washroom so he could change, just like we did at the
• 29:42
  beginning and end of every school day.
• 29:46
  James was quiet on the walk in, but unfortunately that wasn't
• 29:50
  all too unusual. I could sense that something was
• 29:52
  wrong, wronger than usual, but I didn't want to force it out of
• 29:56
  him. He knew he could talk to me, he
• 29:59
  always knew that. James was in the stall changing.
• 30:03
  When I heard the first sobs, immediately I was there for him.
• 30:07
  James. I asked.
• 30:09
  Hey, are you OK, man? No, his voice was utterly
• 30:14
  broken. What happened?
• 30:17
  He didn't answer for the longest time, but when he did, I do not
• 30:22
  want to repeat what he told me. He told me about Kaden, how when
• 30:27
  his mother wasn't home, sometimes Kaden came into his
• 30:30
  room. How he would stroke his hair and
• 30:32
  say things to him. He told me so much more than
• 30:36
  that. I don't know how long this had
• 30:38
  gone on for. James never told me.
• 30:41
  I have never asked him. I remember the hollow feeling I
• 30:44
  felt in my chest as my head leaned against the stall,
• 30:48
  listening to my best friend cry. It felt like someone had scooped
• 30:53
  out my insides and left nothing in their place.
• 30:56
  When James came out of the stall, I wrapped my arms around
• 30:59
  him, unsure of what to say. The gravity of this was not lost
• 31:03
  on me, but I didn't know what to do or how to stop it.
• 31:07
  All I felt was pure rage bubbling up from my core.
• 31:12
  After school, I came home with that feeling still in my chest.
• 31:15
  Letting James go home felt like sending him off to a death
• 31:18
  sentence. I remember stepping out into my
• 31:21
  backyard. There were more fences than
• 31:24
  there had been years ago. There was one between mine and
• 31:27
  Venus's house, but a short one with a gate I could go through.
• 31:32
  James and I still shared a backyard.
• 31:34
  The last snow of the year was still melting into the grass.
• 31:38
  I could hear the distant tweeting of birds.
• 31:40
  Speaking of birds, I saw Stone One laying on the ground near my
• 31:44
  porch. I picked it up.
• 31:46
  A runaway. Slowly I made my way over
• 31:49
  towards Venus's garden. I could hear her praying before
• 31:52
  the statue of Quatliquay and heard her stop when she
• 31:55
  recognized my footsteps on the gravel.
• 31:58
  Hey, Jordan, She said cheerfully.
• 32:00
  Her gentle smile when she saw the look on my face faded
• 32:03
  quickly. I set the stone bird down
• 32:06
  without comment. Are you all right?
• 32:09
  Venus asked. I didn't answer.
• 32:12
  My body was quaking with the emotions I'd held in all day.
• 32:16
  The eruption was coming. Tears welled in my eyes and
• 32:19
  Venus ran to me, her arms quickly wrapping around me as I
• 32:22
  hugged her and started to cry. Maybe I shouldn't have told her,
• 32:27
  but it felt like all I could do. Kazan.
• 32:32
  Kazan, he's, he's been going into James's room at night.
• 32:37
  Venus didn't answer. I felt her holding me tightly.
• 32:41
  Her silence spoke of volumes. She knew what that meant.
• 32:46
  I could feel her tensing up. She was just as angry as I was.
• 32:51
  We sat there in silence, holding each other in mutual grief for
• 32:55
  what that man had done to our friend.
• 32:59
  I regretted telling Venus almost instantly.
• 33:02
  That wasn't my trauma to share, and yet part of me almost felt
• 33:06
  better having done so. I didn't stay long.
• 33:10
  I'd come to return the runaway, not to shoot the shit.
• 33:14
  I went to bed early that day, too miserable to stay awake.
• 33:19
  It was the sirens that woke me up, flashing red and blue out
• 33:22
  front of James's house. I could see a police car in the
• 33:25
  driveway. The sight was sickeningly
• 33:27
  familiar to me. It filled me with dread.
• 33:31
  Immediately. I was up and partially dressed.
• 33:35
  It was 4 in the morning, although I didn't have time to
• 33:38
  look at the clock. I just ran for the front door
• 33:41
  and outside. I didn't give a damn about
• 33:44
  James's mother. She had worn out the last of my
• 33:47
  goodwill when she'd let Kaden into his life.
• 33:51
  I didn't care about Kaden either.
• 33:53
  The only person that mattered to me was James.
• 33:57
  The front door was open. I heard the police talking to
• 34:00
  James's mother in the kitchen, but otherwise no one saw me.
• 34:04
  I don't know. He just never came back.
• 34:06
  I heard her say. This isn't like him.
• 34:10
  I didn't hear James. He had to still be upstairs.
• 34:14
  I took them two at a time, heading for his room.
• 34:16
  I didn't bother knocking. James looked at me from his bed.
• 34:21
  He'd been by the window, looking out at the police cars in his
• 34:23
  driveway. He looked pale.
• 34:27
  What happened? I asked Kaden, he replied.
• 34:32
  He went out last night. He didn't come back in.
• 34:37
  Mom's freaking out. Wait, he's gone?
• 34:41
  James nodded. Yeah, I don't know what
• 34:44
  happened. He's just, he's gone.
• 34:49
  He didn't sound upset, more so confused and afraid.
• 34:54
  His eyes settled on me, as if asking if this was my doing.
• 34:58
  I didn't have an answer for him. Then I heard it.
• 35:03
  The sound of a hammer hitting stone Venus.
• 35:07
  This early in the morning, though, it wasn't unheard of,
• 35:11
  but something about it didn't seem right.
• 35:14
  James heard it too, but he didn't seem as interested in it
• 35:17
  as I was. Still, he knew something had my
• 35:21
  attention. What is it, Venus?
• 35:25
  I said. I looked at him.
• 35:28
  I, I saw her yesterday. I'm sorry.
• 35:33
  She asked me what was wrong and I, I started crying and you told
• 35:39
  her I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have.
• 35:42
  I know. What the hell, Jordan?
• 35:44
  James snapped. He was on the verge of tears
• 35:46
  again too. I'm sorry, I just, I hated
• 35:50
  feeling helpless. James bit his lip.
• 35:53
  He looked out the window. He was furious with me, more
• 35:57
  than he could express, but that sound had his attention now too.
• 36:02
  It seemed to stand above everything else.
• 36:05
  Do you, do you think she? He started.
• 36:10
  He couldn't finish it. I don't know, I replied.
• 36:14
  I looked at him. We needed to see her.
• 36:18
  Nobody stopped us as we left the house.
• 36:20
  James walked ahead of me, not wanting to speak to me.
• 36:24
  I understood I'd betrayed his trust, but this gnawing feeling
• 36:28
  in the back of our minds couldn't be ignored.
• 36:32
  Together we walked across the backyard towards Venus's garden.
• 36:36
  The sound of a hammer hitting stone grew louder and louder.
• 36:40
  I could hear bits of rock crumbling to join the gravel
• 36:43
  below. We both tread carefully, trying
• 36:46
  not to give ourselves away as we crept through the garden and up
• 36:50
  to the center where the fountain and Coatliqui waited.
• 36:54
  James saw it first. He stopped dead in his tracks.
• 36:59
  A hand covered his mouth, and it was a moment before I saw it,
• 37:03
  too. Venus stood over a fragmented
• 37:08
  statue, a hammer in hand as she shattered the rock with every
• 37:12
  swing. Neither of us had ever seen her
• 37:15
  hit. Without her bandana on, we'd
• 37:18
  assumed she was bald. We never would have imagined
• 37:21
  what was really under it. A mass of writhing snakes
• 37:25
  twisted around on her head. Some of them followed a bird
• 37:29
  who'd perched on a nearby shrub to watch the scene unfold.
• 37:33
  Some of them looked at us. On the ground at Venus's feet
• 37:38
  was Kaden, or at least what was left of his stone visage.
• 37:44
  Most of his lower half was gone, reduced to pebbles as Venus
• 37:48
  swung the hammer down over and over again, destroying any
• 37:52
  evidence of what she'd done. She paused, whirling around to
• 37:57
  see us. Her eyes widened in horror.
• 37:59
  The snakes atop her head hissed. No.
• 38:04
  The word was caught in her throat.
• 38:06
  James stumbled back a step. The hammer fell from Venus's
• 38:10
  hand. No, aye.
• 38:14
  She backed away from us. For a moment we just stared at
• 38:17
  each other, drinking in the truth of what we were seeing.
• 38:21
  I looked down at Kaden's stone face, frozen in a horrified
• 38:24
  scream. His eyes were wide with terror.
• 38:28
  He'd seen the same thing we saw now, and it had been the last
• 38:32
  thing he'd seen. I'm sorry, Venus said.
• 38:37
  I I just wanted him to stop. I was the first one to move.
• 38:43
  Slowly, I closed the distance between US and picked up Venus's
• 38:47
  fallen hammer. My eyes never left her.
• 38:50
  She shrank back, raising her hands as if she was ready to
• 38:54
  defend herself. I didn't take the hammer to her
• 38:57
  though. Do you have two more of these?
• 39:01
  Was all I asked. I looked over at James, who
• 39:04
  still kept his distance. The police are here.
• 39:08
  It'll go faster with all of us. Venus blinked slowly.
• 39:12
  The snakes on her head watched me intently.
• 39:15
  After a moment, she managed to reply.
• 39:18
  In the in the shed. One SEC.
• 39:22
  With that she took off. I looked at James again and he
• 39:26
  slowly drew closer to me. He looked down at Kaden's stone
• 39:29
  corpse. The fear was draining from him
• 39:32
  and quickly being replaced by a quiet conviction.
• 39:36
  I offered the hammer to him. He took it and brought it down
• 39:39
  on Kaden's face. When Venus returned, we both
• 39:43
  helped him. I think it goes without saying
• 39:46
  that they never found Kaden's body.
• 39:50
  James doesn't talk to his mom these days.
• 39:52
  I don't blame him. She brought Kaden into his life
• 39:55
  even if she didn't know what was going on.
• 39:58
  There were other sins she was complicit in.
• 40:01
  He has me though. He is still my best friend and
• 40:04
  my brother after all these years and I will still support him and
• 40:09
  I will support him for as long as I can.
• 40:13
  We went to Megan and Jane's wedding together.
• 40:16
  I was there when he graduated university.
• 40:19
  Every year we go to Pride together.
• 40:21
  One day, I hope to be the best man at his wedding.
• 40:24
  He'll certainly be my best man. But I'm sure you're wondering
• 40:28
  the most about Venus. There isn't much to tell.
• 40:33
  After we disposed of Kaden, James and I went back to his
• 40:36
  house and Venus disappeared inside.
• 40:39
  We didn't say a word about what happened, but it wasn't the last
• 40:42
  time I saw her. I still see her whenever I can.
• 40:47
  She has that house to herself now.
• 40:50
  I don't know where her mother went.
• 40:52
  Venus probably doesn't either. She told me it's not good for
• 40:57
  two of her kind to stay so close together.
• 41:00
  She's not alone, though. She has me and she has James.
• 41:05
  She usually keeps her bandana on whenever we see her.
• 41:08
  The snakes are easier to manage when it's on.
• 41:11
  I know she's afraid of them biting me or James and turning
• 41:14
  us to stone. It's the venom that does it.
• 41:18
  I've seen what it does to the unfortunate birds or squirrels
• 41:21
  they strike out at. As far as I can tell, she has no
• 41:24
  control over them. For what it's worth, I do think
• 41:28
  they like me. At least I hope they do.
• 41:34
  Venus is still one of my best friends and she always will be.
• 41:42
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• 41:43
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• 41:47
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• 41:49
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• 41:52
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• 42:07
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