The burden of the righteous

Sunlight dripping through the curtains, draining the last of night’s dark intoxications, bringing with it the stench of work, duty and responsibility. Hailey honestly didn’t know what was more difficult: the fact that she would have to eventually get up or the fact that she hadn’t ever been asleep to begin with. Insomnia had taken her as a victim early in life: before the advent of cellphones, in case you were wondering. And now it had worsened. It had started small: an hour of restlessness or so before sleep would win the battle and so on until it had been an absolute slaughter of sleep.

Well, no point being philosophical. Hailee got up from her imaginary sleep, brushed and was ready by half an hour. She was always amused and irritated by the fact that everyone thought that girls always took time to be ready. But this was no time for her. She had to hurry. Or else…

College was quite nearby but she had to put in quite a lot of effort to reach it. “Hailee,” Sophie called out, “ ‘Sup? What happened last night?” Sophie was as dumbstruck as she was horrified. The only thing she remembered about last night was the booze, oh the booze! And the music, oh the horrible music! The next thing she remembered is peering at her phone restlessly all night. She was blank, in between. It seemed strange that she had not thought about it much until now, although she had been up all night. Her inner thoughts resumed playing the devil with her head. “What did happen?” they seemed to whisper, “Did I get fucked?Or raped? Or …or…..” Before her mind could unravel any more ripples, Sophie seemed to bring her back to reality. She was saying something but what was it she was saying? Oh yes, the words made sense now. “We were really worried, you know. For you. We tried finding you but you weren’t there. Where were you?” “Home…” was all she could say before rushing off at the sound of the bells signifying the start of the classes.

Classes were pretty much drab the rest of the day. She knew she would have to read it up by herself later anyways, one night before the exams. So she paid no heed and glanced out through the window. The garden seemed to be bursting with green today, seemingly welcoming the sun and the warmth of summer. However, people didn’t seem to share that view. She could see people with banners depicting the words “Ban Alcohol. Ban Drugs. Save Lives. Say No to Abuse.” Shouting the same under their breaths. It seemed that the entire college had been shaken by some issue. “Probably some junkie getting wasted who ended up with a broken car and/or broken ribs,” she thought to herself. She was even gonna guess how it all would have happened. Just a few days ago, there had been a long vacation. Many people had gone home for the vacation. But Hailee,she had stayed along with a few of their friends. And last night, they had partied and boy, had they partied hard! But what had happened to her that she herself wouldn’t have remembered? She had always told herself to drink a bit less but the vodka was too good. And the meth was…..awesome. She was sure she wouldn’t catch sleep for at least another day. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn’t hear herself being summoned. The class had ended and everyone had left, there was a strange woman calling her name.

She followed the woman into a well-decorated office. She knew that office all too well, it belonged to the Principal. The same man who had forced himself on her all those years ago, on her birthday, when he had taken her with him to give her his “gift”. And he was every bit as bitter as his gift. He separated guys from girls, lectured both on the principles of Christianity and the concept of sin and went on spreading the word of Christ everywhere he went, whether people received it or not. “Hailee, we have disturbing news,” he began. “There has been an accident and it was a nasty affair. The local councillor’s son, you knew him right??” She knew what he was getting at. Jason hadn’t replied to her texts since last night and she hadn’t even seen him today. “Y-y-yes,” she managed to stutter. “Well, seems like someone murdered him last night. His body was found beside the old canal today.” “But, but, how is this possible?”thought Hailee, “That’s exactly where we get high, and we did too last night.” While she was imagining thus, Mr. Charles told her, “As you can imagine, his mother, the Councillor is heart-broken with grief and seeks vengeance.” Its normal. But why is he telling her this? “She thinks that…that you had a part in the act,” Mr. Charles managed to say. “But….but that’s absurd. I don’t even remember what happened last night. All I remember is that….that we got high, all of us and then after that , after a long time, I was in my bed, scrolling through my feed,” blurted out Hailee, in a desperate attempt to save herself, even as she was being dragged away from the office.

They put her in a dark cell, with no windows and only one door, with no source of light inside. As she sat there in the darkness, she heard voices, voices coming from outside or maybe, inside. “Yes, we have arranged everything,” he said, “ Jason was hit on the back of his head by a bloody rock. Jason had come to know of Hailee’s love for his money and was gonna dump her. So she hit him on the head with a rock. We have her DNA samples on it. All her other friends will swear by it.” And then there were other voices.

“No, Jason….no please. What are you doing?? Why is William taking off his pants? Why is Sophie smiling? No Please don’t do this.”

“Do this, if you wanna prove you love me. Do this.” “No, how can I?? I love you, not William, how can I fuck him instead of you?” “You didn’t put enough in her drink, idiot,” yelled Sophie, “I told you I should have done it. Anyways, guys  what are you waiting for?” And then several hands over her breasts and her waist and her ass and her pussy, trying to finger her or to squeeze her or whatever they wanted to, until they weren’t. But she wasn’t in any pain. They were. Blood oozing from his temples, William tried to grab her but she had escaped from his clutches by then. But then, there was another strong arm holding her, not letting her go. She grasped the rock and flung it back at him, only to behold the victim of her outrage. As Jason lay bloodied, William went on after her but she just gave it another fling and he lay flat on his back. And then she ran. On and on. Until her legs wouldn’t carry her anymore and she was on her bed, going through useless stuff. Instead of remembering anything, it had all been a blackout for her.

When the judge sentenced her to life time imprisonment, she didn’t even hear it. She didn’t notice the flashes of photographs from the reporters, or the jostling crowd outside or even the fact that all her inmates were looking at her much as a lion looks at a gazelle. As she was led inside her cell, the only words that she remembered were: “Save Lives. Say No to Abuse.”

-Souradeep Roy Choudhury