Requests

Consequences (part one)

An Introduction of Sorts

I feel like I need to explain this story so that my readers won't hate me. I had a very, very bad experience recently that has been hard for me to reconcile and it's difficult to let these feelings go. It's also why I've been having a difficult time writing recently, because my thoughts are a jumble.

So to the actual explanation. This story is going to be tough. My bad experience was one of feeling helpless and angry for a person that I love. See, in my heart, I kind of have an adoptions r' us policy. If you gain my love and trust, you're in the family. And in my family we take care of our own.

I recently learned that my best friend's sister was raped. That best friend is practically my sister. She is family. And her sister (who is also my dear friend) was raped. Raped by her own husband. I'm so angry. They've been together for like five years and apparently she had never told him no before when it came to his husbandly privileges (you'll notice I say privilege and I mean that, they aren't rights, they are a privilege that can be revoked). But she told him no this time and he didn't care. He held her down and did what he wanted. Then he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. So when she packed up her bags and took the baby and left the next day while he was at work, he actually had the audacity to get angry at her.

I hate this so much. My best friend had two sisters. One died a couple of years ago, but like seven years ago her boyfriend cheated on her, and it was like the whole family came together to support her and make sure that her ex-boyfriend got what he deserved. Which was for everyone to know that he is a piece of shit and why. I'm aware that my feelings in this matter border on obsessive. Now the second sister gets raped. I have heard the statistics ... 1 in every 3 women will be the victim of some kind of sexual assault. None of us want to imagine that happening in our own family, to someone we love, because those are just numbers and our families are real people. But it happened, and this isn't the first time for someone I care about to be hurt this way. Of course, he didn't get away. Her uncle and her older brother kicked his ass and he was reported to the cops. Luckily, in the US, husbands are not allowed to rape their wives, but that isn't the case in every country. Some women have it much worse.

I'm always talking about sharing the love and learning to forgive and trying to treat others with kindness and respect. I truly, down to my bones, believe that love is the only way to heal the past and move toward a more positive future together. However, I also believe very seriously in consequences. Every action has a consequence. Whether the consequences are good or bad depends on the action that preceded it. And karma is a real thing. Even if your payment doesn't come until you go to your grave, every soul pays for their unrepented sins.

The thing is that I wasn't there. I didn't get to see him get punished and I didn't get to castrate him. So now I have nowhere to put all this hate. How can we all continue to live in a world where this kind of thing happens?

When I really need to let emotions go, I write. It's how I get rid of my stress and pain and try to move on. This story is about some pretty serious consequences, a way for me to work out my anger in fiction so that I don't actually go back to the US just to castrate a rapist. And I write about the Two Moons characters almost exclusively right now. So in this particular story, those same characters are going to hurt with me until I can let go of that anger. Sorry in advance to those characters and those of us who love them. (I include myself in that group.) Honestly, I debated about even putting pictures on this story, because even though I used the characters names, I felt like the actions did NOT represent the characters as they were originally written.  These actors definitely do not deserve to be associated with the feelings I have while writing this story.

I don't feel bad about writing this story, it really did help me process my anger, by kind of venting my feelings of wanting to make someone suffer for what happened to my friend. I know, that isn't a very forgiving attitude, but I believe real forgiveness takes time so I'm just not there yet. I do feel bad about using these characters, so I hope you'll forgive me for that. Maybe I should have made new characters, but I didn't.

(Sorry, when I made the cover, I was feeling pretty creepy and now I think this story has a Halloween vibe, but it definitely wasn't meant to be seen as a Halloween story. I love Halloween, so this should not be associated with a Halloween theme in my opinion.)

I'm writing the first part in Phana's POV and I hope by the end you can see why I chose to do so. I kind of want to show this from the side of someone who doesn't know everything and see things from one point of view. I want it to be a limited perspective so that I'm not weighed down with the feelings of the victim, which in my case feel all too real and overwhelming. It's kind of beautiful to me to see this from the side of that brother-in-law who didn't realize he'd done anything wrong and feel like not only has he paid a price but he's learning exactly how big of a consequence there will be for his actions. The next part will be Yo's POV, because that one is going to be harder for me to write but I feel like it needs to be done or it would leave the story unfinished. I'm publishing the first part right after this introduction (It's actually entitled, "Consequences (part two)."), but you may have to wait a few days for the next part. UPDATE: Yo's part ended up being two parts, so the whole story including introduction comes to four parts.

I want to remind everyone that rape is a real EVIL in the world. It isn't funny, it isn't a game or a joke, and the consequences for the victim and rapist are serious and hurtful. The rapist should have to pay for his crimes, but the victim will have to deal with the consequences of someone else's actions and I believe that is an additional debt the rapist will one day have to pay. Since rape is such a serious and rampant problem in the world, I want to share some statistics. These aren't just numbers. Try to imagine these numbers representing people you know and love. And they aren't just about how many people get raped, they're about the consequences the victim has to face, even though the actions were not his/her own.

This represents information regarding rape in the US (reported rape, keep that in mind as well because a lot of rapes don't get reported).

1. While the frequency of rape in the United States varies from state to state, it averages out to one every 1-2 minutes.
2. Women ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape or sexual assault.
3. 94% of women who are raped experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the two weeks following the rape. 30% of those PTSD cases last at least nine months.
4. 33% of women who are raped contemplate suicide.
5. A high percentage of rape victims experience ongoing professional and/or emotional issues as a result of the attack.
6. While the majority of sexual assault victims are female (82% of juveniles and 90% of adults), males around the world also experience sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape every day.
7. Transgender people and those with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of sexual assault or rape.
8. In the United States, 70% of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows.

Here is a link for more information and where I collected this data. I'm sure other sites will have different numbers, but I'm not looking for an argument over how the data was collected and reviewed. I'm just going to state these as acceptable fact and know that the truth may be much, much worse.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/rape-statistics-by-country

As a reminder: this is a fanfiction. The characters are not my own. They are based on the characters in the Two Moons stories by Chiffon_cake. I do not own any rights to these characters. Pictures are property of their respective owners and also do not belong to me. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people and/or events is coincidental and not intended to be harmful.

If you have been a victim of this kind of crime, please know that you're not alone and that many people want to support and love you. I hope we can all teach our children and our future generations that rape is wrong, and maybe even imagine a future where rape will never happen.

PS I started and finished this in about one hour, so I can't vouch for the grammar. Please forgive any mistakes I might have made and let me know when you see them, so I can fix them. Let me know what you think of the story.