A loud truck horn woke me up. I opened my eyes, was blinded by the bright sunshine, and closed them again. I slowly opened them again and tried to make sense of where I was. And why it was so bright.
What the hell? I was on the roof of our house, curled up naked under a thin sheet that was half covering me. My first instinct was to pull it to cover everything, and then sit up. I was buck naked with just a sheet on the roof. The roof that was visible to a bunch of other houses and buildings all around. I had no recollection of how I got there. In fact I had no recollection of anything at all.
And then it all started coming back to me. The celebration with my friends. Then Lallan forcing himself on me. The fucking, the blowjob, vague flashes of the sodomy. But that's where it ended. What had happened after he invaded my asshole on my bed? How did it I end up here on the roof?
Carefully, I looked around. None of the immediate neighbors were on their roofs, thankfully. I scanned the balconies of the buildings. I saw some people. I didn't know of they saw me. Luckily, I was in a relatively secluded corner of the roof and not far from the door.
I wrapped the sheet around my naked body and walked into the house.
"Hello?" I called out. "Lallan?"
I walked down the stairs. The house seemed empty. It was a mess though. Furniture and other stuff knocked over, four empty liquor bottles on the cabinet, plates of food spread around the living area. Jesus, what all happened last night?
I could not think too much because my entire body was hurting. My head throbbed. My arms hurt, my thighs were sore. My cunt felt like it had been pummeled with rocks. But the worst was my sore asshole. It hurt and it was sticky. Lallan had definitely and successfully sodomized me.
And then I heard my phone ringing. I didn't know where it was. I followed the sound and found it under one of the couches in the living room.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hey honey, how's it going?" It was Anup, my husband.
I tried to say something but no words came out.
"You there, Shikha?"
"Yeah....yeah I'm here." I said, laboriously walking around the house, trying to see if Lallan was still around.
"Haha, you sound hungover. Looks like the Stanford celebration was really wild." he said in his usual good humored way.
"Yes, wild. Very wild." I said, clutching my throbbing head.
"So....what else is new?" he casually asked.
And I had a long answer ready at the tip of my tongue. What is new is that your wife has just been raped by a random sadistic slum thug. He even fucked her in the ass. And made her give him a blowjob, something which she still doesn't do for you. But instead, I just said,
"Not much. Listen, I am late for work. Can I call you later?"
"Sure, honey. Love you."
"Love you too."
I disconnected the call and then checked my phone. It was a little past 9 in the morning. There were a couple of missed calls from Anup. Then a couple of missed calls from a number I did not recognize. And a text message in Hindi from the same number.
- Fun night. Address by 3 pm. Or it all goes on whatsapp.
I then opened whatsapp and saw that Lallan had sent me dozens of pictures and videos. Of me naked, bending over, sucking his dick, getting fucked. I was barely able to get through a handful of them before closing the app.
I slumped to the floor. So it was not all some nightmare. It really happened. My perfect life, with the perfect husband and the perfect future, had been shattered because of one stupid mistake. That of saying my address out loud in front of Lallan.
I went to the bathroom, started the shower and just stood under it crying, letting the water wash all over me, willing it to clean me of the dirtiness of the previous night.
The most cruel irony here was that the rational and professional side of me, the one who counseled women about the right thing to do, was very clear on what should happen next. I call Inspector Dubey, make a formal complaint that I was raped by Lallan. That pushes him from just an abusive husband on the run to a full on rapist. The police machine kicks into high gear to hunt him down. Given my personal warm relationship with cops, they would take the case very personally and hunt him down before the end of the day. I get therapy myself, come to terms with the trauma of what happened, move on.
Sounded very logical and straightforward. But then, for the first time, I found myself in the shoes of the very women I counseled. And I realized, it's not always that easy.
Lallan had these dozens of pictures and videos of me. Even if he was arrested, or rather, especially if he was arrested, they would be forwarded far and wide. Everyone would see them. I didn't know if I could live down the shame. And more importantly, I didn't know if I would ever get taken seriously in the social work field ever again. Even if it wasn't my fault.
I was in the shower for almost an hour. Finally I dried myself, went back to the bedroom, which was a mess. I could see a bunch of stains on the sheets. I put on a clean pair of panties and a bra. It almost felt strange to have fabric against my skin after being naked for so many hours at a stretch.
Just as I was pulling on some trousers and thinking about what to do next, my phone rang. The screen said "Inspector Dubey".
"Hello?"
"Hi Shikha, how are you doing?"
"Hi Anil." I sounded as tired as I was. And the canny cop that he was, he heard it right away.
"Shikha.....are you okay?" he sounded concerned.
The words got stuck in my throat. No, Anil, I am not okay. I have just been raped all night by the very sadistic psychotic monster we talked about. Please catch him. But then those pictures and videos flashed in front of my eyes.
"Yeah....just a little tired and hungover. Had a late night celebrating the Stanford admit with some friends." I said.
"Ah okay. Anyway....I am calling with some news about that Parvati-Lallan situation." he said.
"Oh."
"I am afraid I have some bad news. I had a few cop friends in other states track down Lallan's truck after our last conversation. Turns out he's not on it. Looks like someone told him what happened and he is on the run."
"Oh....that's too bad." I said, trying to sound genuinely surprised.
"We will keep an eye out for him of course. But you be careful, okay? You know how these guys can end up blaming social workers for what happened. Just watch your back, and if you see or feel anything suspicious, call me."
Again, the rational part of me was crying out, tell him, TELL HIM!
"Thanks, Anil. Will do."
"Anyway, at least we got the wife and girls out in time. So even if this guy is in the run, at least they are safe. You did great convincing her, Shikha."