Retribution Of Scarlet

Author: Fatema Ferdaous Prithy  

Scarlet fell into a deep darkness, feeling as if she was ever sinking. She suddenly opened her eyes, only to find herself in the sea. She saw the yacht exploding the moment it touched the shore. She saw herself blown into pieces except for a hand, a hand which was eaten by a piranha, only leaving the little finger. She screamed hysterically…

How could that be! Why was she here? Was she really dead?

  

Suddenly, the scene changed and Scarlet saw some people standing at the seaside. Among them, one was Justin, the man whose face she hasn’t seen for last five years. Justin remained expressionless and merely stared at the sea… Scarlet swam towards him as hard as she could only to find that she couldn’t move no matter how hard she tried. 

Then the scene changed again and she was in a villa where Justin was holding a small box with her finger in it… He lay slumped by the bed and cried…

Tears continued to fall from Scarlet’s eyes as she cried out loudly, “Justin! Justin! Here I am! I’m here. Please look at me! Please, please….!! Boohoo…”

She saw with her own eyes the scene of Justin being huddled up on the bed, clutching his heart and crying so helplessly as he endlessly called out that he loved her and asked her to come back to him. She felt her heart aching as if it was being stabbed by thousands of knives and she cried out desperately, “Justin, please look at me. I’m really not dead… I’m not dead. Don’t be sad, okay?”

As he was lying in bed, Justin suddenly got up and walked to the washroom. Scarlet hurried to follow him, but then she saw Justin punch the mirror in the bathroom and saw his hands become dyed red with blood, she regretted doing so. “Justin, I’m begging you. Don’t hurt yourself like that… It’s all my fault. If I had logged into my email box, I would have known how you loved me for so many years, and I wouldn’t have been so hard-hearted as to refuse contacting you. Please… don’t hurt yourself like this…” Scarlet came forward to seize Justin ’s hands, only to find that she simply couldn’t grasp hold of them…

She was only a ghost right now and couldn’t do anything!

Scarlet was in deep pain as she helplessly looked at her hands. Why was this happening? She couldn’t touch Justin … Somebody please tell her what to do….

She had never felt so helpless before, even when she found herself dead, but now she felt so helpless. She couldn’t touch Justin, and he couldn’t see her. He was hurting himself… but there was nothing she could do! She crouched beside Justin, whose body had become soaked in the shower, the blood from his hands continuing to flow and be washed away by the running water… 

It was a long time before Justin finally stood up, and then she heard the sound of a phone ring… Justin picked up the phone in his bathrobe, and then she saw the look on his face gradually changing. He shouted hoarsely, “Who are you?” “Scarlet?” Justin ’s voice trembled as if he couldn’t believe that the person on the other end of the line was Scarlet, but he had a hunch and felt a sense of surprise that came from the depth of his heart. Was it really Scarlet? He stared at his scarred hands as he asked, “Is this Scarlet?”

Scarlet nodded and reached out to touch Justin ’s face, “It’s me. I’m right here beside you. Look at me…, look at me…”

Suddenly, Justin threw away his cell phone and sat slumped on the bed. His eyes red, he mocked himself in a low voice, “She’s dead. How could she call you? Justin, stop dreaming! What makes you think you can live in your dream forever?”

“Justin, you aren’t! You aren’t living in a dream. I’m by your side! I’m right here beside you!” Scarlet shouted wildly upon hearing Justin ’s lifeless words, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying… Scarlet abruptly stood up and attempted to break something to attract his attention, only to find that she couldn’t touch anything…

She crouched beside Justin, holding her head in sorrow. “Why is this happening… Why is this happening…”

Suddenly, her vision turned black and the whole scene changed again. She had come to Boracay White Beach which wasn’t unfamiliar to her. She looked around and saw Justin walking alone by the sea. He didn’t look very good. His stubble was a bit long and seemed not to have been shaved for some time, which made him look like a man who had experienced vicissitudes.

Scarlet was no longer so emotional after the villa scene. She quietly followed Justin, watching him walk along the beach step by step and occasionally stop to look at her as if she were visible.

Scarlet, with a faint smile on her face, reached out for his hand and asked softly, “Why are you smiling?”

Justin gave a gentle smile and smoothed the hair around her ear, saying softly, “I’m smiling because the illusion today is so real. You’re smiling at me.”

Scarlet felt her heart ache again. It turned out that he was walking peacefully on the beach, not because he had forgotten her, but because he was living in the dream, he had weaved for himself. He was fantasizing that she was by his side. She hugged Justin and whispered, “This isn’t an illusion. I’m by your side. Justin, you can see me, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can see you, so this isn’t an illusion.” Justin reached out to hug Scarlet, but Scarlet saw that he was embracing the air, and her tears fell down uncontrollably…

How… how could this be?

He could see her, and she had caught his hand just now. But why couldn’t he touch her! Why? Justin suddenly went towards the sea, and Scarlet shouted in alarm, “Justin, it’s dark now so let’s go home. The sea is very cold, don’t go to the sea!”

Justin looked to the side and then behind him. Suddenly, he frowned, and then nodded with a smile, saying, “Okay, let go back. Let’s go back for dinner. Scarlet, are you hungry?” Scarlet nodded. “I’m hungry. I want to eat. Let’s go back to eat, seafood paella okay? Don’t stay by the sea.”

Scarlet was really afraid. She was afraid that Justin would kill himself. He was trying harm himself by walking into the sea…

She reached out to grab Justin ’s hand, who held hers and said softly, “We’ve been here for several days. Red, please go back to England with me in two days, okay? Boracay White Beach isn’t fun.”

All Scarlet could see was the love of her life moving far away from her every second. She couldn’t stop him neither could she tell him that all her life she only loved him and she regretted deeply for not saving their relationship earlier. Regretted that she had died before she could even tell Justin that even after they broke up, he was the only man in her heart, that in last five years, she tried hard not to break down and forced herself to forget him. But now that she died, she finally realized that she was wrong all along. Sometimes, you have to let go of your ego in order to keep things beautiful. 

Finally realizing that she won’t ever be able to be a part of his life again, Scarlet fell on her knees and began to scream in agony. But none of this mattered anymore to anyone. Her parents were long gone from this world and the man she loved was going to live the rest of his life without her. 

Justin kept on walking and Scarlet began to fade away slowly. Once they promised each other that they would stay be each other’s side no matter what. But maybe it was Scarlet’s retribution for choosing her ego over love, maybe it was God’s punishment for her to die alone, without letting Justin know how much she has suffered too just like him.