Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

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

"But they never found anything," Lisa assumed, guessing that the police were loyal to their chief, and by turn, the chief's son.

"Right," Jin nodded in agreement. "It kept on like that for two years after the rape, people following her, calling her. Just constant harassment."

"Jennie closed in on herself," Jisoo supplied, remembering how she'd seen her friend turn from a bright, cheery girl, to a quiet, fearful young woman. "She was afraid of everything. She stopped going to school and barely left the house. She was petrified of going out during the daytime." She shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment. "I know that sounds strange, but she seemed to associate the rape with daytime. If she went out then, people would be able to see her."

"The few times we could get her to go out, it would only be at night," Jin added in. "She thought it would allow her to blend in to the shadows better and that people wouldn't notice her."

The logic of that was weird, but Lisa could understand it. She would have imagined that someone who'd be sexually assaulted would be afraid to go out at night because someone could sneak up on her easier, but in her situation, Lisa could see how she'd think she could hide when it was dark out.

"People started saying she was crazy, in a literal sense," Jisoo continued. "They said she was making it all up, or imagining things. It just never stopped."

Jin pulled Jisoo closer to him as she let loose a choked sob. He rubbed her back as he looked to Lisa. "I suppose in the end, it did drive her a little crazy, but not like they say it did."

"She couldn't handle it all," Jisoo said with a sniffle. "And the people's opinion of her only got worse after she attacked a group of guys."

"Attacked?" Lisa repeated in the form of a question.

Jisoo knew how it sounded. It would be hard for anyone, even someone who'd only ever seen a picture of Jennie to imagine her attacking anyone, so she explained. "We'd gotten her to go out for coffee one night. We'd just gone inside the café when she remembered she'd left her purse in the car." She paused, lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. "I offered to get it for her, but she said she'd do it. I think she was trying to prove she was strong and could handle it. Next thing we knew, people were screaming that there was a fight outside and that 'Jennie the psycho' was attacking people."

"She told us later that they'd said obscene things to her and cornered her by the car," she went on. "The guys, though, claimed they were just walking down the sidewalk when for no reason Jennie came at them." A mirthless laugh escaped.

"Everyone believed them," Lisa posed what he was thinking.

"Yeah," Jin confirmed, her lips curling in a snarl. "Bloody awful it was. They pressed charges against her and they stuck. What no one bothered to pay attention to was that the guys were all Cameron's cronies. She got a police record and a hefty fine out of it. The worst was that everyone started saying she was insane and violent and that she should be put away somewhere before she really hurt someone."

"That was kinda the last straw for her," Jisoo said softly. "I don't think she ever left the house again."

There was a lapse in the conversation and Lisa took the time to think about all she'd heard. Lisa wondered what had happened to Jennie. They'd said she was dead. Had she killed herself? If she had, she couldn't blame her. She didn't think suicide was the answer to one's problems, but she could understand why she would have done it. There was only so much a person could take before they broke.

What kind of town was this, she questioned silently. Some poor girl is raped and everyone turns on her. It was the stuff nightmares were made out of. Only this wasn't some bad dream. This was reality. And Jennie, the pretty young girl's whose picture sat in front of her had lived it all, along with the two people on the other side of the table.