THE ROYAL MISFIT

Ch34: Chandralekha's Backstory Part 2

Vikram caressed her cheek lightly and nodded for her to continue as he said

"I'm here. I'm listening."

Chandralekha smiled once again but the smile fell soon as she remembered every single day that she had lived, every day that was so nightmarish that even the strongest of men would scream in pain.

"I was in a coma for 3 months. I was in shock. Rather my mind and body was. The doctors said that since I had suffered mentally and emotionally, there was still a chance that I couldn't be normal after I woke up. They said my body was also affected severely because of the assault. They said maybe I would never be able to conceive because I would start hating intimacy."

Vikram rubbed her back as Chandralekha sobbed lightly.

"Once I woke up randomly struggling in the middle of the night as I felt nasty hands gripping my skin as I tried to free myself from them. I scratched and scratched myself till my skin broke and blood oozed out. But the doctors were called at the right time and they stopped me."

She gave a small pause and gulped away the tears.

"But this wasn't the only bad thing. Misfortunes after misfortunes took place. My dad had a bypass surgery. My grandfather died. I was restrained to a wheelchair and I couldn't walk. Everybody in the family talked about me in hushed whispers but nobody came forward to help."

She chuckled sarcastically.

"I couldn't recover from the incident. I felt nasty hands groping my skin all day long and I scratched myself trying to get rid of them. My parents told only the closest family members of ours who pitied me rather than empathizing with me. Some would even say it was my fault because I got closer to that monster. Some even said I gave him weird hints and he took it the wrong way."

She scoffed and looked at Vikram who widened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows gripping her hands firmly and trying to soothe her but was in fact, tormented from inside as well.

He wondered how could one's own family say such things.

The people who one grows around, they should be supportive but instead they put it on her.

Something she had no control over.

This is ridiculous!

"Akshat walked away without any charges because my mother asked my father not to say anything to the police because I would be having the disadvantage and I would be infamous rather than the demon who committed the sin. But I agreed with it for the sake of my mother and her happiness. I thought if she thinks it's not required then it isn't... But how foolish of me!"

She cried and wiped away the tears as soon as they fell and Vikram cried along with her.

"I also couldn't go back to school because I was admitted to a hospital for my recovery. I saw people attending farewells and going to college while I was still in a wheelchair waiting for everything to occur the same way with me as it was with other people..."

She took a slight pause and then continued.

"But all I saw was sorrow around me. Everyone crying and helpless. All because of me... What the doctors had predicted also occurred, I despised intimacy whether it was from my parents or Shekhar. I allowed no one to come near me. It was a sort of.. Phobia. Even if a person would come close to me or try to, I would get a severe panic attack. I wouldn't be able to breathe. Nobody came near me. Nobody touched me. Not even my own parents. Well Ma didn't want to touch me anyway but... it was difficult..."

She choked on her tears and wiped them away feeling her temperature rise with every second and making her face so heated and warm.

"Ma couldn't even look at me. She would sometimes stare at me from a distance and whenever I called for help, she wouldn't budge from her seat. The doctors said I had to be helped even to go to the washroom but Ma did nothing to help me. One time, I remember, she screamed at me out of nowhere for 'spoiling their lives' and left the house. When papa came from work, he thought I said something to Ma. That day, I lost a little faith in my father too. But then he brought her back and nothing was the same after that."