TO ALL RAPE AND DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS: THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO LIFE.

This Is Not Just A Trgedy

Her heart skipped a beat as the stool she stood on threatened to fall. "Stupid!", she thought, "Here I am trying to commit suicide and I'm scared of falling from this stool". She wiped the beads of sweat on her forehead as she tightened the noose around her neck. She could still hear the piercing cry of the baby in the cradle making its way through the silence in the room. She let the tears that she had been holding back in her eyes go free and they ran happily down her cheeks. She didn't want to do this, she still had a lot to live for, but how could she face her father? How could she explain the paternity of the baby? Or what was she going to tell the boy happened to his father when he grows and starts asking questions? "If only I had stayed away from him that night as mother had asked me to. If only I had ignored his calls that night.", she sobbed, as her mind drifted back to that night, the night it all happened.

Her mother had stormed out of the house that morning with a swollen face, a result of the boxing practice her father had whenever he was drunk. Somehow, he found her mother to be a very suitable punching bag & never failed to make good use of her after downing several bottles of liquor. But unlike other similar occasions, her mother had left the house with her bags ignoring the pleas, apologies & promises that escorted her to the front-door. She remembered her mother asking her to come with her & how she had bluntly refused. "Had I known", she whispered to herself as tears continued running down her cheeks.

That day had been the slowest day of her life. Her father had locked himself up in his room all day reeling from the regret of what he had done. It however came to her as relief when he finally opened the door at night and told her he was going to get some fresh air. She had started preparing dinner immediately he left the house. She could tell how hungry he was,since she hadn't had anything to eat all day herself. Dinner done, she decided to have her night bath. It was while she was in the bathroom she heard her father stagger through the door calling her name at the top of his voice. Scared, she quickly covered her body with her towel and ran downstairs to answer him. She didn't want to provoke him, not in that state he was. She closed her eyes as she remembered how her father had looked at her in that towel & how he had taken pleasure in raping her that night. She winced as she remembered the hot slap she received when she begged him to have mercy on her. She had cried herself to sleep that night wishing her mother was by her side.

Contrary to her thought that everything had ended that night, she started vomiting 2 months after the incident and realized she was pregnant. She wasn't just pregnant, she was pregnant for her father. Since she was a catholic, it was against her faith to abort the baby, even though it was an abomination. And so she was delivered of the baby, but still haunted by the trauma of what had happened. And now she had found a solution for the trauma, permanent sleep. She looked at the cradle sadly and wiped the tears off her eyes. She closed her eyes and whispered, "I forgive you, father." And saying those words, she let the stool fall from under her feet.
_Dedicated to all rape victims
_Dedicated to all domestic violence victims
#DrinkResponsibly
                                        -MEstery