Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 6 ~'~'~

"There's more?" How could there possibly be anything worse than what she'd already been told had happened to the young woman whose sad eyes stared up at her from the picture on the table? Being raped was bad enough, but then to have her assailant, a classmate she'd had a crush on, go free was even worse.

"Unfortunately," Jisoo mumbled softly. She rubbed a hand over her face, trying to gather the strength to continue the story about events she'd lived through with her best friend. "Jennie never really recovered from what happened. Well, not really. Physically she healed quickly, and I think things would have been okay after a while, but..."

"But he got away with it," Lisa completed her train of thought. She could already imagine how that would have affected her. First, she was viciously attacked, and then the bastard wasn't even punished.

"Yeah," Jin said with a nod. "But it's worse than even what you're thinking, though."

"Cameron Walker was like a hero in this town," Jisoo once again took the reigns of the conversation. "He was a star athlete, smart, likable, and he was the police chief's son. People didn't want to believe he'd done it. And add to that the police chief's best friend, our very own mayor, lending his support to Cameron."

"It got real ugly real quick," Jin supplied, shaking his head at the events from years ago. "Jennie had always been popular in school and in town. She was funny, friendly, and well, as you can see from the picture, no hardship to look at. But when going up against the power people of this town, she was nothing."

"Everyone pointed their self-righteous fingers at her," Jisoo continued on. "The medical exam and DNA tests proved that she'd....well, Cameron's sperm was detected, but it was a pretty much a 'he said-she said' sort of deal on what happened between them. And everyone believed him."

"He said it was consensual, said she'd wanted it rough," Jin bit out, barely containing the rage he felt.

"It wasn't consensual," Jisoo stated adamantly. "Jennie had been a virgin, and she took sex seriously. She always said she wanted to wait until she was in a serious relationship."

Though she never knew Jennie, Lisa felt her eyes watering at her pain. Lisa felt for what she must have gone through. She'd been violently attacked by a classmate, and what was worse it was her first sexual experience. Not that made it different than what another woman might have gone through, but she could imagine the scars that would leave on a young girl.

"Everyone rallied around Cameron, and they ostracized Jennie," she explained further, her hands twisting continuously in her lap. "They said she was a slut, or that she was getting back at him for having sex with her but not dating her. It was awful."

Jin placed a comforting hand on Jisoo's back. The memories of what had happened weren't easy for either of them. Dragging them up again and telling them to Lisa wasn't helping, but they'd both felt it was better Lisa get an answer to her questions from them rather than asking around town. They knew very well how people treated anything related to Jennie. If she'd kept asking, Lisa would have put herself in a very bad position.

"She was harassed at school, on the streets. Anywhere she went she was a target," Jin went on.

"It took its toll on her. She tried to be strong, and she never gave up hope that people would eventually believe her." Jisoo shook her head, knowing they should have known better. But they'd been young and idealistic. "Any of her friends who stuck with her became enemies of the town, too," she said with a thin smile, remembering her own harassment. "Then things got worse."

Worse, Lisa thought. How could this situation possibly get any worse? What more had this poor girl been subjected to?

"She started getting phone calls all the time. Sometimes they'd say nothing, sometimes they were obscene. And then the visits started," Jin explained while Jisoo again tried to compose herself. "She said she'd wake up in the middle of the night and there would be someone on her room. Her parents forced the police to investigate."