Nemesis

Rain had stop falling, left the cold air and puddles on the holey pavement. The sky was so dark, clouds hid the stars and the moon, the night was darker than usual. It wasn’t 9 o’clock yet, but it felt like almost midnight. There were still many vehicles were passed through the road.

She moved slowly in the dark, among the shadow of the walls along the way. She stopped at a bus shelter which had not enough light, so She didn’t have to find a dark place to hide. She joined the people there, standing behind their shadows.

A bus came closer from a distance. Inside, Tina was prepared to get off. She grabbed her things and walked down to the bus door as it stopped next to the bus shelter. With her bag and goods in her hands, she managed to get out among some people rushed in. But right after she stepped onto the bus shelter, out of nowhere, suddenly there was a hand grasped her breast and squeezed it. Shocked by the attack, she cursed blatantly and jumped aside to avoid that filthy hand.

“What had happened, Miss?” asked a woman near her.

“An asshole had squeezed my breast!” Tina replied, shaked with anger. She observed every man in that place, looking for the jerk. Deep down inside, she really wanted to tear off his nasty face and cut off his dirty hand. But he must be somewhere hidden, acted something had never happened, and secretly put a disgusting smile on his face. “Jerk!” She cursed more.

“Oh my God!” the woman concerned, felt sorry for her. She noticed that Tina was a young lady, wearing a grey shirt and a knee-length black skirt. Her shirt was quite loose and neatly buttoned, even there was protruding parts slightly seen behind it. It wasn’t that young lady’s fault to have such a perfect-sized breasts, besides she wore a proper suit. That man, was the one who had the problem with his mind. What a jerk, that woman thought.

The bus left the bus shelter. Tina went away with upset, still swearing quietly. Suddenly there was a shout from inside the bus and the chaos happened. The bus stopped again, the passangers burst out of the bus panicly. Some men dragged out a man who cried in agony, and put him on the bus shelter. There was blood all over his face and his hand. Some people tried to help him, some of them called the police, and some of them did nothing but watched him astonishedly, including Tina.

“What happened with him?” asked some men.

“I don’t know,” someone replied. “All of sudden he screamed really hard, covered up his face. It was bleeding so bad, like something had scratched all over his face at that moment. And his hand was cut off, just like that!” he explained it with fear on his face.

Tina felt sick. She left that place immediately. But somehow, even she was terrified to figure what had happened, she felt so peaceful inside;

She really wanted to tear off his nasty face and cut off his dirty hand.

From a distance, she still could hear that man’s scream.

She dissolved with the wind as dark mist, among the shadows of the trees. The night was getting darker. The air was getting colder. The wind was blowing higher, spread the dark mist and change it shapes by its movement. With undefined fragrance of a particular scent, She moved towards to the darker place.

Lena didn’t know how long she had been fought, tried to break away from the van that moving so fast along the dark deserted road. Felt like it has been a long fight, her energy was getting weaker because she had been doing everything she could to defense herself from 4 men since they beat Rudy to nearly dead and thrown away of the van, wounded and faint. They locked her, hold her tight, and plugged her mouth with her own veil so that she couldn’t scream. After drove away from the main road to the woods, the driver stopped the van and joined them at the back seats.

They lifted up Lena of the van and put her on the ground. She was still trying to escape with her last strength, but they hold her back, and they were way too much stronger for her. In between the gruesome laughters and the nasty chatters, Lena could hear someone started to open his zipper. She cried to know what is going to happen next, she didn’t want it to happen to her. She screamed out loud.

Suddenly the lamp in the van went black out and the environment became so dark. No moonlight nor a single starlight to make them see anything. One of them exclaimed to the other one to check it out. The light was on for a minute, but then off again. Cold air breezed, a lot colder than before. Lena shivered, cold and terrified.

“AAARRGGGHHH!!” someone screamed suddenly, followed by the others, one by one almost in a same time. They screamed in so much pain, without exactly knew what had happened to their friends first or to themselves, while they took their hands off from Lena. Without wasting time, Lena immediately stood up and run away. Her heart was beating fast, she kept run and run. From a distance, she could hear painful moans and raspy curses.

She run far and found a house, its owner helped her when the van’s lamp turned on again by itself. From that dull-yellowish dim light, there was seen five men lying on the ground, soaked in a pool of blood. They groaned in agony, held their red-drenched crotches, suffered from blood loss.

She stared those five men with her anger face but yet beautiful. Her hair and Her cloak, all black, flapped by the wind blows. Her sharp eyes looked like was throwing a death sentence. Slowly, those hair and cloak scattered to thin dark mist, Her figure dissolved in the air, writhed with the breezing cold wind. Ghastly melodic sound swished in high tone, deafened those who could hear. She rode the wind, heading to the other darkest place.

Ina was hiding in the closet, tried to hold her breath so that her presence wouldn’t be found. The noises had stopped, right after she heard a walloping sound and her mom screamed for the last time. A moment ago, at 3 o’clock in the morning, her dad got home drunk. Mom yelled at him and threw some household appliances to him. Dad did not say anything, but he smacked mom’s head until she fell against the chair and fainted. After that, Dad looked for Ina to wreak his anger. If Dad was angry, he would hit Ina and rape her.

This house consisted of two rooms and one bathroom. With such a narrow space, Dad could easily discovered Ina’s hiding place. Ina glued her little body more to the corner of closet when Dad opened it’s door. But with only one hand, Dad carried her out of closet and slammed her onto the hard wooden bed. Ina grimaced in pain. She was frightened when Dad approached her slowly.

She begged to Dad not to hurt her; the terrible thing he always did that gave her soreness and bled. But Dad didn’t give her mercy, he slammed her once again instead. Nearly faint, she still could smell the alcohol and saw someone behind Dad, a beautiful woman in a long black cloak. She was so tall, Her body was almost touch the ceiling. Her long black hair was waving magically, as if there was strong wind inside the house. When the smell of alcohol was getting stung her nose more, Ina fell unconscious.

Dad approached her more, but before he could touch her, suddenly a beautiful woman in black cloak appeared right between them. He was bemused for a second, thought that it was just his hallucination caused of the alcohol he drank. But when the woman opened her mouth and threw out thick black smoke that instantly round up his body, Dad felt extremely pain. His body was like burning from top to toe. He couldn’t move nor scream. Until the smoke was getting thinner and disappeared, Dad’s body was gone. Only the stink of burning flesh left on the place where he was standing.

The dawn was breaking, morning was coming. She looked at unconscious mother and daughter, and felt pity. But knew that there’s noone will ever hurt them anymore, She smiled. Slowly, She faded out and turned to be dark mist, floated in the air. She swerved out through the window’s lattice when the sound of cocks crowing from a distance were heard. By the time the morning came, when Ina regained consciousness, she would realize that the beautiful woman in black she saw last night was a Goddess.

***

*published on http://patiagni.wordpress.com with two versions; Bahasa Indonesia and English.

*Bahasa Indonesia version published on Pati Agni - Antologi Ajal book and e-book

*grammar nazis are welcome ;)