THE VICE

Chapter 4

So, theses marks are from the knife wounds they, inflicted upon me when I was sixteen. They were ruthless and wild. Just like an untamed animal they can prey upon anything and everything. There was that smell of dirt and piss that still lingers beneath my nose, from that dark room, four years back.”  

“Who are they?” We continued walking back to the crowd of students, who had come forward and were almost prepared enough to fight against the police.  

“I repeat” Blared the speakers from the police side,  

“Stand down and surrender, or else we won’t show mercy. Things and issues can be settled over talks, we are ready to negotiate from the government side, now all you have to do is to drop your arms and surrender. Then we can progress!” 

The screams of the students once again filled the air, and the police pushed the barricades further. 

“I’m an orphan from birth. Maybe it was my fate, who had decided to play games with me, or maybe I am a faulty human who can never fit into this society, but was eventually introduced to this world in a cruel way. The people at the shelter house, never liked me much and always did ‘things’ with me like, I was an object of experimentation.”  

Her voice broke off, and she was caught halfway in between her tears. I put my arm round her shoulder, for support.    

She quivered for a while, before calming down again. I let my hands rest there as she didn’t protest. We kept on walking towards the crowd who seem to run towards us. There was a huge uproar tearing through the air. My mind was panicking and my heart raced, as I knew what would be following after that. She stood there firm and unmoved.  

I was surprised and was a bit taken aback. Somewhere I got this feeling running through my body, that she wasn’t like anyone else. She would stare at the sky at times infinitely before speaking up again. All this while her eyelids would freeze just like ice. Her cold stare had a subtle peacefulness which was so unreadable, but every time I looked at them, the peacefulness would captivate me, if only for a while.  

The protesters passed by us, so much possessed by this game of changing powers, that no one bothered to give a glance. We kept walking, my hands resting on her shoulders and chest was moving up and down.  

“So, one day I woke up in the morning, and everything felt different. I was afraid yet the happiness was lingering from my mouth to my eyes. I told all my friend that the tomorrow will be different for me. The warden, who was a stern man heard me during one of these conversations, and pushed me to the edge you know. He held the knife close to my lips and dug the sharp edge with a little pressure.”  

She stopped one again. And traced her fingers on her lips. It looked as if she was rubbing off the blood from a fresh invisible wound. But somewhere I think, the bleeding never stopped truly.  

“Everyone dreaded of the red room. I was no exception. The girls who have once visited there, like a psychopath would change all of a sudden and they would fear even the simplest of the noise. I once tried to ask one of them, but as it happened I ended up being beaten up badly. So, I was compelled to tell the warden the secret behind my happiness. He calmly gave me a creepy smile and walk off. His eyebrows furrowed and the smile was flat like a table top. That night, they held my hair and dragged me to the Red Room.” 

There was a pause all of a sudden. Her eyes were still closed and I felt that she was struggling to make the sentences to deliver. I looked back, and noticed that we have come far away from the crowd, and the hydraulic jets were spraying water all over the crowd. Tear gas shell would explode at certain moment and there was noise of people shouting and barricades being dropped.  

“I can’t explain what happened there. But I was stripped and there were three or four people, who did things.”   She sighed heavily and for the first time remained clung to my shirt gripping it tightly as if her legs were giving up.  

“The next morning, I fled from there. I don’t remember how, but there was this nurse who was very kind to me. She would always nurse my wounds and would always sing me to sleep whenever I felt afraid. She would whisper into my ears, ‘Don’t give up kiddo, the world is waiting to embrace you in their arms.’ She helped me to slip into her uniform and come out of the compound. That’s it. I ran very hard that day, never caring about the way my legs were taking me. In this world no one is mine, and there for there is no place I belong to.”