27/12/2020 10:50 PM
On a narrow steep lane surrounded by wooden houses, a girl ran uphill, splashing her wobbling feet in rainwater that shone in the moonlight, declaring mare presence of light in the otherwise foggy-dark lane. Wolves echoed far away but she was running from the far more dangerous creature. The girl worn a black coat on a skirt up to her knees, soaked in blood, with furry white shoes in her feet, shoulders bend in tiresome that overshadowed her long height. She had a hatchet in her one hand which had fresh blood on it.
She encountered the worst fear of her life tonight. With tears pouring into the bite mark on her left cheek, she looked back to ensure no one followed her. It was too much for a thirteen-year-old girl; it would have been too much for any girl. She had always heard of it somewhere—newspaper, TV or from some friends but tonight was different. It seemed a different world to her back then. She always thought that the world was safe for her; Mother and father ensured it. it was unfair that a single incidence was gonna change her life forever.
She stopped running in front of a two-storey house surrounded by a fence made of white sticks. She opened the fence gate and walked to the main gate of the house, still hardly managing to walk upright. She knocked on the door with her trembling hand and waited for a reply calming down her raspy panting. The Fingers of the boy who choked her printed red marks on her neck. she felt like she had lost her sweet voice forever, trying to speak up.
She whimpered, “Momm!” but it was too low to be heard. When No-one replied, she stroked the door with the hatchet, but it was weak, so was her. No matter how much she hated them for what they did, she couldn’t keep her mind of the scream that boy made when she swung the hatchet through his chest. She turned back and dead-walked to the deodar tree in front of the house looking down to her legs and dried blood on them that came from in between them.
She remembered the day her brother bought her the shoes when her sight focussed at stains on the fluffy shoes. Four days ago, her brother gifted her those shoes and she thought she was the luckiest girl in the world.
She took the hatchet and tried to dig a small pit and with every stroke, she wished it was those boys’ head she was hitting. Soon she realized hatchets were not built to dug pits, for it wasn’t helping at all, so she removed soil and grass with her trembling hands. Then she put it in the pit and covered it back. With tears in her eyes, she stood up and looked at the house with those poor little things. She cleaned her eyes with her hand thinking about the long walk she had to make.
With the first step, she fell on the ground. Her mind was fading and she felt the energy emerging in her heart. Now she could remember those three years she spent with Rosie, so clear and detailed that she had forgotten what happened less than an hour ago. She felt something moving inside her body. But soon the pain bested those memories. She closed her eyes thanking her mother who allowed her to join defence program Rosie ran back in the days. It was only that training that saved her.
Tessa gasped and looked up as she heard the footsteps, hoping she would get attention.
Amir, her brother, who came from downhill, didn’t even notice her and walked straight to the main gate in hurry. He opened the gate and entered the house. Scene become immotile once again.
Tessa heard her breathe but couldn’t talk. After a few minutes, his brother came out of the house. Her sight was blurred but she still recognised him. She breathed heavily so he would notice her. He did and walked toward her. Instead of helping he ran back into the house. He couldn’t leave her in that condition. Tessa thought he was probably calling help. She waited and waited but her brother didn’t come back. She was sure she was gonna die there, under that banyan tree.
Now that she thought of it, she wished she had killed herself three days ago when her father found out about her sexuality. She never had hurt a single soul in her life. Yet, she had to face terrible things, things that tore her soul apart. She had handled well when Prasad, her father misbehaved with her mother. He listened Tessa and she felt like an angel who saved Prasad from ascending darkness in his heart. She never bonded well with Mary but she would still miss her. She was never afraid of death but she didn’t want to go this way, lying under a tree wounded and nobody to help her.
Time passed and about half an hour later, a car stopped outside the house. Her mom, Mary, a late thirty years old lady in her suit stepped out of the car blabbing about something unclear and worriedly ran into the house. Tessa looked at her hoping she would look at her but she didn’t. Ever since Mary got the news from her school three days ago, Mary’s life had become worse than hell. The life was checking Tessa’s patience and that was hurtful, even more than gut-wrenching pain in her heart.
Prasad, her father, came...