THE SCARLET WOMEN

Story 2 - Darkest Night

There's nothing left I could ask more from this life. I ain't going to die without getting a chance to live. If and only if I could forgive myself for all those sins; but I believe there some reasons behind every sin which itself is not forgivable. There was a time in my life when everything was taken away by the same who put a burden of sins over me and still blames me for my incognito. Today I feel like I should not shrink him from the truth.

-I've to tell you something, Mr. Christopher.

-What you are trying to tell me Scarlet? –he asked. Is there some problem with the house or in your work?

-No, Mr. Christopher. There's nothing wrong with anything like such. –I said. I'm trying to tell you something about myself.

-About yourself? –he smiled. But I know everything about you Scarlet. And I guess I don’t like to know more than this because I could not hold myself being drawn more into you. I don’t want answers of questions never asked.

-But for every moment with you, I want to be true to myself. –I said gently.

-I already believe you, Scarlet, even sometimes more than anything else. –he said calmly. I know you always are true to yourself, and you always were even before we met in those inapt circumstances. Sometimes in life, we don’t need much reason to believe somebody. Even for the first time I met you, I believed you with my life.

I could not speak more. I just rested my head on his head like a pillow. Now I'm not afraid of any eventuality. He was already asleep but my eyes were kept awake as like everything of my past is happening in front of my eyes so vividly.

After that night of destruction, everything changed. We saw death so closely in front of our eyes that we didn’t even dare to call for help being petrified. We surrendered in front of it. That night turned so dark that we became unrecognizable to ourselves. And it threw me into such bewilderment that I closed my eyes and to be tormented by imagining this, like a delirious and disfigured person, so that at the start of the wanderings of my imaginations, the face of a certain woman with disheveled hair appeared to me, who said to me, "You'll surely die".  Nothing exists within our reach and myriad of horror turns itself into non-existences. Such non-existences come after us to make us wail in the pain of insufferable and bear more than flesh and blood can stand. And then after that diverse other faces appeared to me, terrible to look on, that said to me, "You're already dead". So my imaginations beginning to wander, I saw the eyes looking through me and tearing me apart, the pulsation was nerveless and I could not even feel pity for myself, frightening voices of consternation causing more perturbs, I came to place not knowing where I was, and it seemed to me I saw a woman weeping with disheveled hair, going through the street in extreme darkness; and the sun seemed to me to be darkened so that stars showed themselves of color such that I judged they were weeping, and it seemed to me that birds flying in the air fell dead, and there were massive tremors. That was the time I met Julia for the first time, the time when I felt like everything I touch dies of the death inside me.

On that night we were having dinner together. Suddenly the whole of these sounds of this gunfire and shouting and boots marching everywhere seemed familiar to me. I knew the war has already started outside. We all got afraid of those dreadful sounds of war.

-Let me see what's going outside. –Uncle Sam said and stood to open the window. You all just get inside and lock yourselves in another room.

-Father, father, please come to save us. –Emma started crying in fear.

-Oh, my child…oh, mines…nothing will happen to us. I promise father would definitely come to save us.  We locked ourselves in another room.

-Come here with me Emma…come here to me. –Aunt Helen said. We'll never let anything happen to you, my child. Let us pray together.

-Is everything all right Sam? –Aunt Helen asked from inside. We want you here to pray together.

-Yeah, Yeah…You guys go on. I'll just stand guard to our door.

Suddenly somebody knocked on the door. We got more frightened.

Slam! They were inside now. We could hear the voice of Uncle Sam begging for their mercy. But they already have gone deaf in-ear, blind in eyes and shallow in the heart. Now they were the messenger of death. But I could not know whether they were the messenger in the uniform or without it.

 –Who're you hiding inside, old man? –one of the voices came nearer to us.

-Nobody. –Uncle Sam said in a scared voice. I swear to God there's nothing useful in this house for you all. Just these few foods are left which you could take away. For God's sake, please mercy this old man.

They broke our door now and took us outside one by one. I wish we could just disappear or could get invisible. Our prayers seemed ineffective around those malignant powers. Morbid fears of those monsters took over all of us and the voices of screaming and weeping for help remained unheard in a vacuum. I remembered you; I remembered your promise to come to save us. The last thought that came to me was the moment we were as happy together as a family.

One of them came near to me and tried to touch me in the wrong way. 'Look what you've been hiding inside old man. –he said.

-Don’t you dare to put your filthy hand on her, you f*****g bastard? I'll kill you. –Uncle Sam now tried to wrest the gun from his gun. It put some grit inside me and I too joined him.

'Bang'…quickly I turned to the sound and saw Uncle Sam covered in blood. I felt helpless again and have no choice but to break like the wind. My whole courage split and scattered like the broken thread of the pearl.

-You bastard,' 'I'll kill you.' Aunt Helen stood to snatch the face. 'Bang'…'Bang'…'Bang'…and darkness was all around. The roars of their laughter were only heard and not even my own cries. I lost control over myself. I didn’t feel anything except the defilement. I just found myself defenseless after the assault. I saw departed souls before death.

The whole village was burning including our home. They torched every house before they left. The sounds of bombing and gunfire outside seemed soundless of the chaos inside.

-Emma, Emma…my child….my angel…No…Emma, No…look into my eyes, look into mother's eyes…you just cannot leave…we’ve to fight and never give up…we’ve to…we's to wait for father.