Commensalism

Betrayed…

“SON OF A b***h!!!! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED THAT DEVIL YEARS AGO!!! Shout the father, slamming the glass in front of him to the floor after the two police officers comes and handed him a warrant to have her daughter called for interrogation….

“HOPE THAT b***h GET CAUGHT SOON ENOUGH! MAY SHE ROT’S INPRISON!!!” He shouts angrily, as he leaves the house…

****

Febri…. Where are you….?! Though Agustine as she was looking around the city in the middle of the night, throughout the spots her sister usually hangs with her bike gangs….

****

Limping, in pain, shivering, the girl walks aimlessly under the heavy rain that pours that night….

Her eyes looked empty…. She has been walking for three days, with torn uniforms she still wore, and black and blue face from the brutal beating from the school bullies….

She doesn’t care, or even aware of the looks from the people who saw her in pity as they saw her as a ‘mentally ill’ or just a simple ‘crazy girl’ who wanders through the city….

Poor girl….

Still young….

Looks still newly troubled….

She looks pretty…. What a waste….

****

The morning still bore the clouds from the evening heavy rain….

The owner of the soho who function his shop as a custom motorcycle garage huff, annoyed to see sight of the bum, sleeping on his terrace of the shop stained with grease and oil….

He just about to pour a bucket full of water on the figure when he realizes…

“My God…! Febri….?!”

****

When she finally regains her consciousness, she found out that she was lying on a quite comfortable bed….

Slowly she scanned the room…. A cross hung on the wall across her feet, which she can saw from the opening on the curtain that pulled around her bed….

She can feel a sharp pain at the back of her hand and she found the IV tube placed there, and another tube that flows oxygen to her lungs….

She then hears a worship song being sung which makes her turned her sight and saw her sister, with her tired eyes closed, as she continues singing praises and worship, hoping for a miracle….

Her sister looked pale…. Her eyes puffed from crying and lack of sleep, showing exhaustion she endures….

“Sis…” She said in slow, hoarse voice as she feels her throat still sore….

“Bi…!” shout the sister, as she looked at her waking sister….

“Oh, thank God…!” She exclaims, hugging her sister tightly…. Tears of joy on her cheeks…

“Miss Febri….!” Said the old maid, happy to see the girl already wakes up, and hugged both girls she loves so much…

The three of them cries….

****

“Sis…. How can I end up getting in here….? Who brought me here…?” Asked Febri as she eats the meal provided by the hospital….

“You passed away in front of Ryan’s shop…. He brought you here….” Said Agustina who weirdly enough, turn her gaze away from her sister….

“How can you know Ryan…?” Ask the girl, who definitely will not backed up until she got the answer, she wants…

“I know him from church….” She said shortly, with the tone who sounded happy before she changes the subject, quickly…

“What about you…? How did you know Ryan…?” She asked with the same attitude as her sister was….

Febri grins to the questions…

“It was from my time when I still joining the bike gang, we use to come to Fran’s shop…. Watching the mechanics… There’s where I started playing with engines….”

Tears runs from her cheek, which quickly wiped by her sister…

“Finish your meal, Bi…. You should take your medicines too…” She said changing the subject…

When the time comes, she will tell me what happened, eventually….

*****

“This is the criminal you’ve been looking for!” Said the father in harsh tone as he slides the curtain off her daughter’s bed….

“Go ahead and process her, sir…!” He said sharply, with pleased and satisfied eyes as he saw the girl that looked shock, knowing that her own father handed her to the police, and he doesn’t’ care at all if her condition was still weak and in the stage of recovery….

“Dad! What is this…?!” Shouts Agustina, as she saw two police officers forces her sister off her bed….

“Sis… Help me…!” Shouts Febri, panic and frightened….

“Sir…. My sister still recovering…. Please have mercy…!” Said Agustina, protecting her sister but his father’s firm grip on her shoulder stopped her…

“Put her in jail, Sir…! She’s no good of a person…!” Shouts the father as he holds his old sister who keep struggling to free herself….

“Sis… Help me….! Sis…!” The girl looking to her back as the two officers takes her through the people at the hospital, who was surprised to see the scene, where the girl whose face still bruised from the beatings, she has, as she being dragged by two police officers, and to see the older sister that being hold by a man…

“Let her! Let the devil rot in jail!” Snapped the man, shakes his daughter shoulder, as if he wanted to shakes of the evil off his daughter that caster by the devil that being escorted by the officers….

Suddenly Agustina managed to break free, she turned and slapped her father’s face, hard… Making the man stunned, can’t believe his daughter able to do that on him….

“YOU’RE THE DEVIL!!!” Shout Agustina as she runs to catch the two officers….

“Sirs…. Can’t my sister take her rest here…?!” She begged, trying to hold the polices…

“We’re sorry, Miss…. We have to take Miss. Febri into custody; she’ll be watched by our medical team….”

“Please, Sirs…. I’ll take the full responsibility….” She pleads… “I’ll take her place in jail, sirs…. Just let her rest in here…” She begged, trying to negotiate, willing to make an exchange for her sister….

****

The old maid slumps on the floor….

She was shocked to see the drama of the family, she got a heart attack, even the efforts made by the emergency medical team couldn’t save her… The old maid passed away, carrying the deep sorrow in his heart….

****

Agustina keeps on holding her sister hands, who was weeping and crying….

The iron bars finally separate them apart….

“I’m sorry Miss… Can you follow me for your sister’s paperwork…?” Said one officers who feel pity on her heart, having to separate the sister’s apart, but her duty and responsibility forced her to….

“Bi, let me and Ryan takes care of everything…. You have to be strong…” She said, crying as she followed the officer, to meet up with Ryan who already called one of his lawyer friends, shifting through the paperwork laid before them….

****

Is this justice…? Who is the real victim, here….? Is this just nothing but a joke….?

It is true that justice will finally be served….

The boy also gets his share of punishments, even though it was not for the rape charges, because just like he said, from the recording that went viral, it was shown that the girl did gave her consent to the boy, which makes the boy get punished for the revenge porn he distributes, and his punishments added by the stupidity of his friend whose hobby of recording their fights and bullying, had the video of them beating the girl mercilessly leaked and went as viral as the revenge porn videos….

The anger of the spectator at the courtroom erupts as they saw how those bullies beaten up a girl without any remorse and to the scene where Anton spit his hock a loggie at the girl’s beaten, bleeding face, which makes the spectator looked at the bullies in disgust….

Is this fair…? Is this justice…?

The girl loses her virginity, her dignity, getting beaten up, humiliated when her video got viral…

But just because she’s the one who throw the first punch at the boy who makes her as a bet, and about to share her body with her friends….

Just because she chooses to takes the matter into her own hands and not reporting it to the authority, the court sentences her with six months jail prison time, which was rejected by the families of the bullies, especially Anton’s who shout….

“IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!”

The booing of the spectators to the family of the boy, enough to tell who the real victim is….

But still….

****

Agustina cries at the warm embrace of Ryan as she sees the back of her sister’s disappear inside the prison….

****