Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 47 : Journal : Molested

By the time I finished my dinner almost all the guests left. I was unable to locate Daniel dada anywhere. There were 4 boys who were still there and looking at the body language I could very well understand that they are none other than Harsh and his 3 best friends. I tried to avoid the four of them fearing the possibility that if they recognize me, it is going to be humiliating.

As I was leaving the room, someone called me from the back. The word they used, to call me, was really insulting and it nearly made me cry. I wanted to avoid them, but Darika didi ordered me to come or else I had to face the worst. Even though after 2 days I don't have to be dressed as a girl anymore, but the family members are bullies, so you can never say when they will change their mind.

I had no alternative but to face them. Things turned worse when all of them removed their masks and Garima told Harsh that when Aarohi was alive, I used to put on Aarohi's clothes secretly, so uncle decided to allow me to wear her dresses so that they could cope with Aarohi’s absence. I was afraid that my sisters will try to humiliate me by revealing a lie, and that’s exactly what they did.

The 7 of them started making fun of me and started calling me names like Tranny, Crossy, Sissy, and Lady-boy. I was too scared to express my disagreement or retaliate. I tried to run away from there, but together they were much stronger than me. To my horror, the inevitable happened. Harsh removed the mask off my eyes, caught hold of my hip with his right hand, and pulled me close to him, and kissed me in front of everyone. I was so ashamed that I pushed him away and slapped him.

The slap bought the monster within Harsh and they caught hold of me and tied my hands with a scarf which Garima bought from her room. I tried to resist but for some reason, I have become really weak and I was unable to fight back. He then dragged me out into the hall, pulling me by my hair. He kept suggesting a threat to teach me a lesson, I won’t forget, because I love to fight. The pain was unbearable, and I kept crying and pleading with them that I was sorry, but all of them formally supported Harsh’s bid to teach me a lesson for slapping him. My sisters also agreed that I need to be punished.

I was dragged to our basketball court and then they blindfolded me with Garima’s dupatta and told me to run while I try to escape from them. He told me that this game is called catch the fox. They want me to be the fox and hide, while they will be the hunters who has been tasked to catch the fox who has been scaring the little children. They will use balloons filled with water as munitions to hunt me. Everyone was given a packet of balloons to fill it with water. Aamaya di took the game to the next level and took out the plastic pellet guns that dad had once gifted to 5 of us. I was never allowed to touch those guns, ever since the incident with Harsh. She thought it would be fun to use those guns too and gave one each. Darika and Garima was told to use only the balloons. They gave me 5 minutes to hide.

I pleaded with them not to do this, but Soham came and pressed my breasts very tightly which almost made me cry, and then he whispered in my ear that either I run and hide, or face the worst, which will be more embarrassing. I didn't resist much and started running to find a safe place to hide from them. 

I was unable to see where I was running because of the blindfold and on top of that the wedges made it more uncomfortable to run. If that was not enough, they didn't relieve my hands. While trying to hide, I tripped and fell. With my hands tied behind I struggled to get up but was unsuccessful. A few minutes later someone helped me get up and everyone started shouting at me to run.

I felt a balloon hit me, but I was unable to dodge it. While running I tripped again and fell face-down into the ground. My ankle was hurt but I was not able to use my hands to caress it. Soham and his friends pulled me up and made me run again. It continued over and over again. They kept throwing balloons at me, but I was unable to dodge them. Every time I tripped, they pulled me up and made me run again. I finally had enough and decided to stand up for myself. My binds came off too. I was bleeding from my face, but I stood ground and shouted at them, to fight with me. The 5 of them took out their pellet guns, kept them aside until that time for some reason. Aamaya di ordered everyone to make sure the pellets shouldn't touch my face. 

They kept shooting at me till the magazines were empty. I tried to dodge the pellets, but they were much faster and every hit hurt me a lot. It didn't bleed but the pain was unbearable. At that moment all I could do was to cry and beg for mercy, but they kept turning a deaf ear to my pleas. At some point, I even cried out Papa’s and Monika’s names with the hope that a miracle would happen, and they would appear out of nowhere and come to my rescue, but it didn’t help me either.

Once the guns were empty, they started to throw the remaining balloons at me, and finally, Harsh landed an uppercut punch at my jaw and I fell on the ground. My lips were bleeding, and they tied my hands behind my back again. Soham helped me stand up and slapped me very hard and I fell on Aamaya di's arms. She caught me by my top and slapped me hard and I fell on Grihamani’s arms he did the same and I felt on Darika's feet. Darika and Garima also joined hands in slapping me. This continued till I was lying down unconscious on the ground.

I don't remember how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up, I was inside the house, lying on the floor. They had tied me up again and this time they tied my legs as well. I saw my skirt in Soham's hands. I looked down and found that I was not wearing anything waist down other than my stocking and inner. My cheeks were hurting, and I felt a pain in my neck too. I came to know that they have placed a collar on my neck with a chain on it and Aamaya di had the end of the chain on her hand. I kept struggling to relieve myself of the binds but was too helpless, my head and face were hurting badly from the wounds.

The boys have already left. To my horror, Aamaya di said if I want my skirt back, I should not mention the incident to uncle. I looked up and ignored her comment and replied in an angry tone that I am going to tell Abhishek dada about it. She took off both her shocks and stuffed it in my mouth so that I cannot utter a single word. As I started to choke in her stinking socks, I kept whimpering, trying to tell her to remove those shocks out of my mouth, but they ignored me. 

Unable to address my suffering and being ashamed of my current condition, all I could do was to seek certain divine intervention and let the tears roll down my eyes.

Aamaya di stamped my face with her shoe and said, this is where I belong. She told Soham that he has nothing to worry about anything that happened today, I don't have the balls to tell anyone. She also said that if I tell anyone about what happened today, she will convince Abhishek dada that i was lying and then he will make sure that I will not have my balls at all, and will make sure that I will have to stay as a girl for the rest of my miserable life. Perhaps they will also christen me with a new name. Saying that she dug her heels deep into my wounds, it started to hurt, even more. I kept whimpering in pain, but they ignored my pains outright and began to mock at my misery.

At around 9 p.m. the doorbell rang. It was aunty and when she saw me on the floor all tied up, gagged, and my skirt on Soham's hand, she scolded Soham and told him to leave the house that very instant. After Soham left, Aunty started to beat Aamaya di till she was hurt and began to cry. It felt like aunty really cared about me, but she followed it up with words of caution that what they do to me should remain a secret inside the house. They can punish me any way they want, but outsiders should not be involved in it. I could finally understand that all she cared about was her reputation in front of others, I meant nothing to her.

Finally, my miseries receded. Aunty untied me and told to put on the skirt once again and then told me that she was sorry and that she should not have left the house. She touched my forehead and found that I had a very high fever. She promised me that Soham would never enter the premises again. My life has become a living hell. I just wished that the remaining 2 days pass smoothly without any incident and I get back my true self.

I guess when people say that your bad deeds will come back to haunt you, it might be right. I remember the day dad gifted us the guns we were playing cops and robbers and just for fun I had hit Darika and Aarohi with the pellet g*n a couple of times. They were crying because they were hurt but later, Aarohi forgave me for it, but maybe Darika still couldn’t find it in herself to forgive me for this indiscretion.

*** Oh my god… what the hell was that all about… this is pure bullying and molestation… I don’t believe it… I wonder how much Abhinu could be in pain that day. I just wished Daniel dada would have stayed in his place for one more hour and this incident could have been averted… ***

I remember a few years ago, Daniel dada had to leave school because everyone found out that he considers himself to be a Gender Binary which created a lot of problems in school, and he was expelled. I guess that was the reason why he didn’t come to any conclusion when he saw Abhinu cross-dressed. I never knew that Sam had a crush on Abhinu. 

Daniel dada is among the few people who knew Abhinu and Sophia were the same person. There were times when he spent longer and longer periods with Aamaya di’s family on the pretext of being friendly, all the while only seeking to distract them from bullying Abhinu and simultaneously protecting Aamaya di as well. His gesture was subtle yet effective enough not to raise any suspicion. Those semblance or brief periods of respite had a positive effect on Abhinu, and I think it might be the sole reason why Abhinu was not completely lost within Sophia and managed to cling to his identity.

                                                              TO BE CONTINUED…

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