THE MASK pt2

Stella woke up with a start. How long did she pass out? Minutes, hours or even days? Where was she? Slowly, it all came back. A silhouette,a tattoo, now she remembers. Tears come streaming down freely from her eyes. She sobs and then wails without sounds. Her mind swirls and churns. The numbness gives way to guilt and then shame. The realization that someone breached her security and raped her in her very home is devastating. Go to the police station and report, her head tell her. Who will believe her? She feels dirty. As she tries to stand, her knees buckle and she fell. She feels weak. "Oh God! Why me?" She says in between tears. 

"What do I do now? Who should I tell that I'm a victim of rape? How will I overcome the stigma that comes with it? Oh God!" Stella sobs louder
                                      *****

The phone rings and Alex gropes his hand around the bed, with eyes still shut, praying the caller will stop calling. Is it dawn already he wonders? He glanced at the bedside clock and was shocked that it was already 8am. Thank God it was a weekend, cos he really wouldn't have known the excuse to give his manager for coming late to the office. The caller is persistent and Alex finally picks it, in a sleepy voice, trying to convince the caller that he is still very much asleep, he answers "hello", the voice he hears clears the cobweb of sleep from his eyes. "What did you say!!" The voice and news he just heard has dimmed the last ember of sleep left. "Give me thirty minutes, I will be there " is all he heard himself saying as he hangs up the call. Like lightning, he stands up, switches on a light and is already dressed with a t-shirt and jean lying on a chair from last-night. With his wallet and car keys, he locks the door and runs to his car. He starts the car and while driving out, he realized he hasn't brushed his teeth. "That can wait" he tells himself.

                                          *****

Claribel saunters in, after a cursory "hi"to a neighbor, she knocks on the door and waits. Claribel, petite and dark skinned, in her late 20's. Full of life and fun, she and Stella have been friends since their university years and the friendship has been forged through years of thick and thin and a little bump here and there. Claribel is Stella's house-mate and all thanks to Claribel's rich parents, who also loved Stella like their own, and Claribel being the only child was spoilt silly. So when she begged her parents to get an apartment for both of them, they didn't blink to get this 3 bedroom well furnished apartment.
Since she didn't hear any sound coming from inside the house, she assumed that Stella was still asleep, and then brought out her keys to unlock the door. "This girl too like sleep" she murmured while shuffling with the keys.

Clickk, gbam! Someone is at the door, who is at the door? Stella thought in fear. Does her rapist want to come for a second round? She had managed to get herself cleaned up but couldn't do anything about the bruises sustained in the incident. She felt sore and broken, couldn't even leave the house or go to the hospital for fear of being raped outside. Not knowing where the thought came from, but it won, she'll remain indoors till God knows when.

Click, thud! The sound at the door panicked her, but one thing was certain, her attacker will not have her again. She tiptoed into the kitchen, grabbed the ridiculous pestle her roommate Claribel insisted on buying for whatever reasons she gave then, which they have never used before. "Well, you can serve your purpose now" she whispered to the pestle. She shook her head when she realized that she was talking to an inanimate object. "I must be going crazy" she thought while tiptoeing back into the sitting-room. Stella stood in a perfect position, pestle in hand and aimed at the door. "I'll hit him so hard when he comes in."

Thud! The door opened forcefully, and then she struck at her attacker, but her attacker was quick enough to dodge the finely targeted pestle. 

"Jesus, what in heavens name is wrong with you Stella? Did they send you to break my head". Claribel shouted from the floor where she fell while trying to dodge the blow. 

"Answer me? What is wrong with you?" She stared furiously at her friend while she tried to get up on her feet.

"I'm so sorry Clare, I thought... I thought..." then she broke down in uncontrollable tears. A shocked Claribel dropped her bag and rushes to her friend and tries to extract what happened.
"I'm sorry bae, didn't mean to sound that way. What's the matter? Please talk to me before I join you in tears". She was puzzled about the drama cos Stella was always the strongest of both of them, hardly becomes emotional. Whatever happened must have cut really deep for Stella to cry this painfully.
"Clare... night... some..one...came...raped..." Stella wails louder.

In between wails and teary eyes, the only words Claribel could understand was "rape and intruder". "WHAT?!!! HOW!!! WHEN!!!

                                         *****
In another side of town, Alex is driving to Stella's place. What he just heard left him angry. Did she just say RAPE!? Who would dare rape Stella? Where did she go to to be raped? In his anger and confused state, he never noticed the parked car around the curve. He saw it too late and like a slow motion video, his feet couldn't move too fast off the accelerator, he saw himself being thrown off his seat, it just dawned on him that he wasn't wearing his seat-belt, "Oh No!!". Before he could hit the brakes, he ran into the parked bus and blackness befell him.