AanchalPuri2
My Last Rites
My Brother Performed My Last Rites While I Was Still Alive.
At fifteen, I was called a monster for a crime I never committed.
My family performed my last rites and declared me dead while I was still alive.
I begged them to stop.
No one listened.
I begged them to believe me.
No one did.
At sixteen, I watched the same ritual with numb detachment.
At seventeen, I stopped caring.
At eighteen, I watched it with amusement.
Because I knew...
It would be the last of my last rites I would ever witness.
I laughed.
Because I knew the next funeral would be real.