Revenge or Revolution?

18.

'You are back!' Brian greeted Sandra as she slowly closed the door behind their house. 'Enjoyed your day with Aisha?'

'Yeah, it was alright. I want to talk to you about something.' Sandra sounded serious and this made Brian's stomach drop.

Was she talking about his extra flings and hookups? Who would have told her? No way had someone betrayed him. All the worst things came in his mind.

'What's up, baby?' Brian tried to be as relaxed as he could.

'I had gone to meet Steve. He had called and it had been a long time, so I met him. I had already forgiven him for that letter. After all, he had just the idea. It was Sean who can't be forgiven. He was the one who did what he did.' Sandra paused to see the reaction on Brian's face.

Brian didn't even flinch. As much as he hated Steve, he had never let it be known by Sandra. If he worked a little bit harder, he could have been a fabulous actor.

'What did you two old friends talk about?' Brian smiled and asked. He could fake his own death and no one would suspect it. Steve was wrong about Brian. He did have talent. A talent that was needed the most in today's fast and deceptive world – a talent to manipulate people.

Sandra was surprised that Brian showed no emotion at all on the mention of Steve. He seemed to be outraged the last time we talked about him.

'He seems to be alright. We talked about normal stuff. He is also going to come to the reunion. He wants to meet us together.'

Brian was going crazy from the inside but he maintained his outer façade.

'Are you sure you want to meet him again? I know you have forgiven him for the letter but maybe it's because you forgot what he had written. Let me read it again for you.' Brian went to their room to find the letter which he had given to Sandra to explain the disappearance of Steve and which made Sandra so angry on Steve.

'I remember it perfectly. I don't want to hear about it right now.'

But Brian wasn't going to NOT read it. He started.

"Sandra, you are...." Sandra reached for the paper and grabbed it. She wanted to talk to Brian and it was clear that he was deflecting. Not today. She wanted answers. She NEEDED answers.

'I came honest with you. Is there anything you want to get out in the open with me?'

'No. what are you talking about?'

'Forget about it. Tell me, have you ever talked with Kyle or Sean?' Sandra knew that it was no point going round and round till she got no answer. She had to ask such question which won't let him know that I knew about things but also in such a way that she got some kind of confirmation that it was Brian behind the murders.

On the other hand, all Brian could hear were 3 names- Steve, Kyle and Sean. All the 3 were connected and as much as he would do the whole thing again, it haunted him sometimes. But he thought that he had gotten away with murder. But Sandra met Steve today and that made it clear that he did not exactly.

'No,' Brian considered his next words carefully, 'Why would I meet Kyle after you told me the night of the prom that you hate him. I would never do that to you, baby.'

'What about Sean?'

'I knew Sean before we met. We used to go to parties together. But he was so addicted to alcohol that it was getting more and more difficult to handle him. He was a bad influence. And when I came to know about what he did to you that night, I completely broke my relationship with him.'

'Are you still angry at them?'

'I would kill them if I saw them ever again. How dare they do such things to my beloved girlfriend? If it wasn't for your promise, I would have strangled both of them.'

In his usual experience, Brian knew that such aggression was liked by women. It made him look brave and caring. But what he didn't know was that Sandra was not like any other girl. He might have gotten her when she was the most vulnerable but now was not the time. His words just made Sandra more suspicion on him.

The motive was clear. Brian himself admitted that he would kill Sean as well as Kyle if there ever came a chance. She hated both of them but that didn't justify their murder. Her conscience always overtook her hatred. People's life was above all. No amount of misbehavior or crime equaled to someone's death unless it was homicide. She was clear on that and so she didn't find this attitude of Brian attractive.

'I think we should go out to have some dinner.'

'Nah, let's just eat something at home and go to sleep.'

'Are you alright? You seem tired a lot. Should I call my uncle to ask them if any medication can be given to you??'

'no.' Sandra blurted out. Brian can't talk to his uncle. He would spill that she came to meet him today.

'What I meant by eating at home was that we should just spend the rest of the day together instead of getting all ready and going out. Instead, I can cook something and we can enjoy here at the house!'

'No. you go and freshen up and I will cook something for you. After all, you were out all day today. I'll make my famous pasta!' Brian said.

'That's the only thing you know how to make.' Sandra chuckled and went in the room.

She was still holding the letter which she had snatched away from Brian and she could not help but read it.

"Sandra, you are a curse to the society and a shame to the name of friendship. I considered you my best friend and I loved you but you went behind my back to go out with that moron Brian. I wish nothing but bad things to happen to you.

I have been nothing but nice with you and you have never reciprocated. And so this was my gift for you. It was me that gave Sean the roofies which can be used to make someone unconscious.

I was the one who wanted to see you get ripped off of all your respect as you did with me when you rejected me and made me an embarrassment in front of the whole college. Now you know how it feels to be used. I was used mentally and emotionally, now you are used physically.

Don't you dare try to call me ever again! I hate you from every single bone in my body and I don't wish to see your ugly face. Go and show your shameful face to the world.

Your biggest hater:

Steve."

Every time she read this, a tremor would go in her body and a tear would roll down her cheek. This letter was a reminder what had been done to her. Sandra always thought that she was given her beauty by her parents and it was a blessing. But her beauty had turned out to be the biggest curse. She had seen boys ogling at her but she always thought Steve was a good guy who liked her for her personality but this letter was a proof that he was just like other male – thinking that they were the superior gender and could do anything with female as if they were some kind of property.

Sandra suddenly felt alone. She thought whether all the women in the world feel like this. She felt unsafe. She was surrounded by these people. On one hand, there was Brian who didn't give a damn about people's lives and on the other hand, there was Steve who didn't care about women at all.

Are all the women surrounded by either misogynist or psychopaths all the time? Being from a rich family, she had never experienced this feeling. But she suddenly understood why all the girls she had ever met were so scared. They had lived their life in the fear of getting raped and killed. The former had happened with Sandra and now after 3 years, she was waiting for the later to happen. But she had no proof. If Brian had done the crime, he won't be stupid enough to just blatantly admit it. And she could not find any proof 3 years ago that she was raped. She could blame Steve all she wanted but for everyone around it seemed that it was consensual. No such chemicals were found in her blood when she went to test herself. Steve had been protected then and after 3 years, it was useless to take out the buried skeletons.

Sandra felt helpless and scared to do anything. But she wasn't coward. She was intelligent and even if she didn't have the arm muscles to beat these males, she had the most important muscle of all in her head and she was going to use that to come out of this situation.