It’s evening time. The scorching sun slowly fades away, making the weather almost pleasant. She’s walking by herself, enjoying the exercise after being indoors for so long. Unlike other girls a year or two into their teens, she isn’t bothered that the sweat probably makes her look hideous. She’s just having fun.
A car stops beside her.
“The driver’s probably lost,” she thinks. The innocent, ignorant fool doesn’t have the sense to run. A window rolls down. There’s a man grinning at her. Something’s wrong.
A chill passes down her spine. She shivers involuntarily.
“Want to ride with me?” the man asks her.
Warning bells go off in her head. The man looks down. Her gaze follows his.
He’s wearing no pants.
Or underwear, for that matter. Like a terrified animal she runs. The man follows her, reveling in the sadistic pleasure. He knows she can’t outrun the car so he drives slowly, letting her run in front. The hunted turns, but the hunter refuses to let go of the chase. A rabbit in distress will jump into a hole where the dog can’t reach it, and that’s what she does. She knows the narrow alleys that’ll take her home. She leaps into the hole and sprints at top speed, not once looking back. The fear and paranoia create an adrenaline rush. It is all that carries her through the terrible ordeal. She has lost the sick, perverse dog. The prey beat the predator, but her innocence is gone forever. It has been snatched away, leaving her indelibly mentally scarred. She is no longer oblivious to this irrational lustful sickness in people and the shockingly casual mindsets in them, which allow them to not abhor such repugnant behavior. It hits her suddenly that everything she has heard about the times of today is not just a story in the paper; it is the harsh reality.
After the incident, the thief walks freely. Who knows how many such morbid pleasures he enjoys? Who knows if he continues to simply steal innocence or proceeds to violate bodies? In a world where money is power and connections can provide “back” (up), I’m willing to bet he remains unpunished for his crimes. Hers, on the other hand, is a different story.
Darkness is terrifying. Who knows how many monsters lurk behind its veil unseen? It also brings the night. Night brings bedtime, and bedtime nightmares. In the confines of her dreams, her sub consciousness conjures up her fears and shows her the repulsive images she is desperate to avoid. She is scared that her nightmares will unfold in front of her eyes, and she blanches at the very idea of going out alone.
Her independence is crushed by the crippling fear that he will come back and do nasty things, and it is only strengthened when other such incidents continue to happen. They don’t stop as everything is acceptable in the modern educated world.
And then they wonder why girls these days grow up so fast.
Sanya Sharma
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