I said NO (Completed)

No more 'Shh'

For one single moment she got sucked up in that night again. She and her 7 and half years older sister had decided to go to someplace for a vacation and also for celebrating her 18th birthday. They always had a strange fascination for the sea. She could especially relate herself with the calmness and fury of the oceans and seas. Their gentleness as well their roughness... she could feel herself being reflected by them. 

They had decided to spend the whole evening on the beach. It was her sister's idea to prolong the time till midnight. They shouldn't have done that. They came sometime around 11:30. The beach was empty and the only sound was that of the sea.

"They were drunk." She hadn't noticed when she had started speaking, "We could smell the stench of cheap beer in their breathes. They were 7. We were just two. Outnumbered."

The memories of that night were as vivid in her mind as if the incident had happened just a night ago.

"They held our hands backward. We were powerless. We felt weak. We told them to stop, we begged them. But they just laughed. They kept on laughing. They called us whores. Sluts. Bitches. We tried. We tried to loosen their hold on us. Useless. They had our clothes ripped. And then - "

She paused. The night was once again right in front of her eyes. She could once again feel their dirty hands on her body, her bare skin.

"That moment...", she stared ahead, not noticing anyone in front of her, " ...that precise moment when you know that you are really going to be violated in the worst possible way, that your pleadings have fallen to deaf ears.... every rational thoughts flees your mind. I could have shouted. But I didn't. I could have kept on struggling. Maybe, just maybe things would have been different today. But I didn't. I... I couldn't. It was like my whole body was paralyzed. It was the worst betrayal one's body could ever do. My mind was in a haze. Just one thought, 'Why me? Why us?' "

"With my face pressed against the wet sand, the first wave of pain hit me. I tried focusing on something, anything to not think about what I was going through, what we were going through. My fist curled leaving an imprint on the sand. That was when I noticed the shell in front of me. Beautiful. I felt myself thinking how it had come there. Did the sea bring it? Did it fall off of the basket of a kid... of a basket of someone like us? The sea reached towards me, touching my face, clogging my nose every now and then, like a devil. I didn't know what happened to my sister... I could hear her voice but... " 

A sound pulled her out of her trance.

She looked towards the source of the sound. Her mother was crying. She never knew what had exactly happened in such detail. They had left them there like that, naked, cold, shivering, and almost dead. Her sister hadn't made out of it.

"To all those rapists out there", she pried her eyes away from her sobbing mother. She needed to say this, "I have two questions. What pleasure do you get by having sex with a person who is not interested in it? And what is rape in your definition?"

"Is it punishment? Is it a twisted way of showering the girl or the boy with compliments that she or he has a great body? Or is it a way of correcting a girl's dress code, behavior and life-style? Is t your way of introducing him to the world of "responsible adults", your way of saying how beautiful he is, your way of testing his strength?"

"Oh I am sorry! How fool of me to ask these sort of questions!" she grinned, "Of course! You have all the right to do whatever you want to without showing any bloody reason. After all, we all know that, when God has gifted you with a hanging appendage instead of a vagina and a pair of breasts, He has simultaneously given you the right to do whatever you want."

"Or when He has given you burly muscles, you have every right to force yourself on a weaker boy. I am sorry, really sorry for my brazenness. Maybe you should punish me again. How about a second round of rape? Hmm?"

"The fact that you can't keep a check on your hormones even at the sight of colorful watches and a pair of blasted legs, how can I ask you to keep a check on your hormones at the sight of our blasted cleavage? Really un-thoughtful of me!"

"We all know what people say. Practice makes a man perfect! And knowledge makes a man powerful. How about a little of both? Hmm?" her grin widened, "To all those rapists out there, and all those who have even thought about raping a girl, take a few concrete rods, tie them together and shove it up your asshole without any sort of lubrication. Feels heavenly, right?" She finally stopped grinning as she let her anger take control of her thoughts.

'Why, fucking, why do you feel turned on just at the sight of two legs? Just because they belong to this strange creature called a lady? What are we? Warm, breathing fuck toys? Yours to use and then yours to throw away?'

She took a deep breathe and continued, "I don't find any use in talking about this anymore. Everyone of you in this room, everyone out there, everyone who has raped a girl, even thought about raping a girl, and who is raping a girl, right now, at this very moment, knows that this is wrong. Yet, they do this. So instead of trying to make them see reasons, I am more interested in making our society see it."

"Dear Society", she rolled her eyes, "Stop trying to find faults of the victim. A victim can wear whatever she wants, whenever she wants, walk home alone at 2 in the morning, go wherever she wants, be it an orphanage or a bar, and curse whatever the fucking fuck she wants... she will never be "worthy" of being raped. And just because he couldn't fight back, just because he had sported an erection, doesn't make him any less of a victim or emotionally weak."

"And the victims out there... this is not your fault. This is why I actually arranged for this today. Why should you hide in a corner, weeping and scared when it isn't your fault? Why will you shy away from showing your face? Please don't go into that corner because once you go there, you are lost."

 "For 10 years, people have suspected that this whole 'Me-and-my-sister-getting-raped' thing is staged. To all those people, just because I am fighting back, just because anyone is fighting back and not being all "submissive", doesn't mean that I or that person have not been humiliated in the worst possible way. Face your damn fears, tell people what exactly has happened that day, make them pay, make them cower in fear... but do not hide."

"And just one last thing, no is indeed no. There is no complicated reason attached to this two-lettered word. And I said 'NO' .... we all have."

There was not a single sound, not a single person from media following her when she walked out of the building.

Face your fears.

She walked back to where she was standing on the beach before and looked down, getting a glimpse of the foamy water just before it retreated back.

I can't do this.

She took a shaky breathe and muttered, "Hypocrite."

Then she slowly placed one foot in the water. Immediately, a jolt ran down her body. She closed her eyes and for a moment she was revisiting that day... the cool salty water hitting her face and clogging her nose, making her shiver... the wet sand filling her mouth every time she screamed...

No! Step out of it! Face your fears!

She took two deep breathes and placed her second foot in the water. She tried to focus on her rapid breathing and fast heartbeat. Finally... after a long while... she opened her eyes. Her breathing has calmed down and her heartbeats had almost lessened down to normal. She took one step forward.

And then another.

And another.

Soon she was standing in a knee-deep water.

A slow grin formed on her face as she exhaled loudly. It would be a while before she would be able to love the sea like before but... the first step towards it had already been taken.

Far away, standing in front of the door of the building, Mrs.Sen silently watched as her daughter conquered her last fear.

She smiled.

A/N:

It is high time we finally let go of our prejudices and start living a non hypocrite life.

RAPE IS NOT THE VICTIM's FAULT... NOT EVEN IF HE OR SHE IS A MURDERER.