No Honour, No Mercy

Veera! Veera! Wake up Veera! You can't die! You just can't! Wake up!

I opened my eyes. As soon as I opened them, I was shocked to see where I was. My body was floating underwater. I was bruised, battered, beaten...yet still alive. I didn't want to recall what had happened. Not at this moment. Though I was alive, only one person was on my mind.

Samar! Where was he?!

I had no time to think. I started swimming downward into the canal to the best of my ability. I kept going. If I could shout for him, I would. Everywhere I looked, there no sign of him. Please tell me this can't be. I want to see him. Please!

Then, my eyes spotted a body laying against a rock down in the waters. His eyes were closed. He wore the same black suit which was now torn apart, revealing the bruises on his body and face. There was a bleeding scar right near his eye. And there my heart began to pound. It was Samar.

I swam as fast as I could towards him. Once I got to him, I grabbed hold of him, swimming upward. I finally popped my head out of the water, struggling to breathe again as I pulled Samar off to shore. I rested his body against the sandy ground, lightly hitting his face to wake him up.

"Samar! Wake up!" I tell him, continuing to shake him. "Come on! We're safe now! Samar! Samar?!"

I tried to press against his chest, but nothing happened. I put my face near his chest, trying to hear a heartbeat. There was nothing. My heart sunk at that moment. Samar was dead.

I stood up, standing back from Samar's dead body as it laid on the sand. The sand began to cover the blood stains on my feet. I stood in what was now my blood stained wedding dress, covered in bruises and marks that were reminders of the brutality I faced on this day. I faced the unimaginable today. All I wanted for today was a simple register wedding with Samar. We were in love. That was it. Yes, he was Muslim. And I am a Hindu. But religion did not come in between the love we shared. Only an evil came in between. An evil that not only stole my happiness but the one person in my life who gave me love.

I screamed in terror, looking up into the sky. Why?! Why was everything snatched from me in that moment?!

Just when we came for the wedding, my brother, Arun, had come. He came along with a gang. And that was when they took us from the altar to this canal where they would beat the both of us to death. Yes...this was an honour killing.

The pain was still evident on my face. As my brother was beating me to the pulp, all I could do was scream, "Why?!" repeatedly. I pleaded with him, but he wouldn't let me go. When he dragged our bodies to the canal, his last words to me were whispered in my ear, "May you both rot in hell." And just like that, he threw us like trash into the waters.

Why couldn't I die as well?! Why did I have to live?! Samar is now gone. There's nothing left in me anymore.

But then, I wiped my tears. There was something I had to do. Because that's why I was still alive. Something had to be done. I walked down across the sand, and then I noticed an iron rod on the ground. The same iron rod which Arun used to beat me to death. I picked it up, noticing the blood stains on it. I left. I had something to do.

I walk into the streets. And as I walk, I see Arun. He's in the alley, taking a sip from a bottle of beer. As he continues to drink, he stops. He can see me walking towards him. And that was when he dropped the bottle on the ground, shattering it to pieces. I walk towards him, my eyes burning with rage and my heart beating like a drum.

"Veera?!" he says, completely surprised to see me. "Why are you-"

Before he can even finish talking, I hit him right in the head with the iron rod. He falls to the ground, starting to feel dizzy from that hit. "Listen...I don't know how you're still alive! But you can't beat your brother like this!" he tells me.

I don't say anything. Instead, I start to cry. Can he really say something like this to me?

"Brother?!" I cry out. And then, I hit him again, right in his face, making him fall against the wall. "You were never my brother."

He starts to pain. And I don't care. I wanted him to. The same pain I faced...I wanted to see that in him.

"Brothers are kind!" I beat again and again on his body, slamming the iron rod as much as possible as I watch him shriek in agony. "Brothers look out for you! Brothers console you! Brothers love you! And one thing's for sure...a real brother never leaves his sister to die for the sake of mere honour! And for you...you no longer have honour...nor my mercy!"

He lays on the ground, coughing out blood as he himself lays in a pool of blood, bruised all over his face and chest. I then look down and see his gun has fallen out of his jacket. I pick it up, pulling the trigger back and forth. I finally raise it right at his chest. The final blow has to be delivered. I shoot him. And right there...his body laid, dead.

I look down at his body and am reminded of what Samar was left as. A tear comes down my face as I look up in the sky. Samar, I did this for you. Wherever you are now, you're safe. As for me, I will walk on in this world. I fought not only for the person I loved...but for the fact that I am human and deserve to be treated as such.

With that, I walk down the alley, holding my iron rod in my hand as I look on at the world, bold.