THE SCARLET WOMEN

Story 2 - Absolution

Everything was happening around me like I was in a coma but I knew I never was. I just didn’t know what to call it when you're lifeless in one moment and again full of life in the other. I feel like the universe is just trying to see how far I'll bend before I break. But the universe didn’t know that it picked the fight with the wrong one. At the same time, I was hoping for courage and trying for faith. But I'm scared.

-Today I want you to take out for some more fun. –Julia said.

'Where'? I asked. Though I was not willing to move out of my place, I can't deny her. I just put on some clothes and left with her.

We were at this bar in the middle of town. It was past midnight and inside of it was like the nights have just blossomed like some night flowers. The name of the place was also quite interesting, 'Cocktail Dreams'. Here we don’t have to worry about unveiling our true identity because everyone out there was already naked taking off the mask of morality they wore during the daylight. I just found the difference of that mask in between us and them.

-'Two regulars please.' Julia ordered the bartender and he served us both within a minute. Then I realized that Julia usually hangs out here.

'C'mon let's do it ones. This is the best tequila cocktail you'll find in this town. Julia said and rose for a toast. 'Toast to your transformation.' And we drank it in one sip. After that, I could not count how much we had of it.

'Let's dance'. She pulled me to the discotheque which was full of people, the faces of whom could never be seen clearly in flashing lights. And then I disallowed my mind taking control over my body.

When I woke up it already was the eve of the next day. I didn’t know for how long I slept but my head was still aching and heavy. Julia already had left. I watched myself running up to the pool. I launched myself outward, legs splayed in a sort of swallow dive, and hung for a moment in the air before splashing thunderously into the depths. The whole of me was inside the water like a mass of nightmares; to me, it was the moment of complete loss and I wished this world could change when I close these tired eyes forever.

'Mark my words.' We always are considered de trop and the news of our death by some detrainment or by some devastation will not surprise many. Can't we fly much higher than this? Who knows?

Perhaps, I may be wrong. They befriended us, taking away all of ours and gifting us this war. But I'll never leave you alone whatever befalls.

-God must be right if war is the truth. –Julia said.

-'Ah Julia' I know you'll never. The story of me and you are not just only a story but are a divine revelation.

Looking back I could clearly see what's killing me inside. I lost my faith and realized that it will never come back as a whole. I know how I could bear all this brutality without even whimpering. For me, the end becomes the beginning when I try to recollect the feathers of broken wings. The scars of whiplash of this war are still on it.

When I asked her what people who don’t have faith could come alive, she said with a confident smile: 'The sermon of faithless'.

'What? I asked is 'The sermon of faithless'.

It's just the same faith but not faith as before. -she answered. When you'll get through it, you'll know how stronger the soul you carry inside of you.

-How come? And I got the answer, I figured out what's 'The sermon of faithless.' I don’t fear to be faithless any more. I don’t fear to fall from this edge no more. And then I reckon of walking over all my fears through flying with the same broken wings. Now what we carry a belief is of existentialism and what we believe upon is 'The sermon of faithless.'

I still see my family in bliss when we were together. All those reminiscences of past, when there was peace all over us, comes to me like a ripple of waves and leaves me back to the shoreline. Ah Julia, why this war robbed us? Ain't it like robbing the poor like us and making rich the instigator of this war?

'This war was inevitable.' –Julia said. This war was designed by all of us who never raised their voices against injustice. We just let it happen in front of us and stood like a crowd of blinds and deaf. And their curse is falling upon us to let us know how it feels like dying of unjust miseries. There is every cause for suffering the wrath of this war when we refrain to stop injustice happening to the same human like us. Unless this part of the world is ruled by evangelical supremacy, whose only aim is to continue oligarchy, this war would never end.

I knew I could not end the war outside but for the renunciation of this sinful life, I'm waiting for my turn to appear before his court to defend myself.

'I've decided to help those like us'. Will you help me, Julia?

'I always have seen this flame in your eyes, Scarlet'. It always gets brighter when you decide not to give up without a fight. I believe whatever you decide to do, it'll be like a decision made by myself.

Let's forget about this whole world for a moment. Let us close our eyes together and try to see what we always want to see. I believe we share the same dream.

'I could see them all happy together'. They are laughing and running all around chasing each other. They are daydreaming sitting on the seaside and soaking up the sun. The breeze is blowing her hair in its direction and she doesn't care much about it putting her head on the father's shoulder. His grace is showering all over them like rain. I could see blithe optimism in them and more joyous than ever. I could see them carried along with the tide of exultation. I wish I could just fly to such Utopia and be with them forever.

I decided to donate all these sinful money for a sacred cause. They wanted to know more about me and put me on top of their donor's list but I preferred to be Scarlet over my true identity. I didn’t want to give this society one more chance to remember me nameless.

'So how do you feel now? Does it help to lessen your burden of sins?

Go, Julia! No! I didn’t do it for some absolution. I just wanted to help those in need. I just wanted to make this world realize that we aren’t born sinners.

Let the angels of death dance like deities and not like demons. Let this world fall upon us and burn down its philosophies of war for our renunciation.

'Oh Julia, if we die together there would be nobody for mourning our departed souls. So I want you to be my courage and never let me live for undying hatred.

'Will you carry my soul before I leave this body, huh?' Will you help me to find my salvation?

-You cannot purify those things which never were impure. We always carried the holy souls no matter the holiness of this body had been put into question sometimes. What we carry is unrivaled and beyond all these worldly fake immaculateness. There are only our souls that could find us our salvation and transcends human woes and miseries.

'Yeah, I know. Right…we cannot decay in the grave; immortality of us doesn’t sleep there.'

"I think you should learn to love again". Oh, Scarlet, one sin could only lessen the retribution of others. At that moment the music of anvil chorus stopped. And I could see a round orb behind her head.