In this post, our guest will be showing us her short story. Stick around till the end and the author will be explaining the process of how she crafted it!
As a warning, some veiwers may find some of the details upsetting.
Table of Contents
He Too- An Untold Story
Aadil knew his battle had just begun but he was already exhausted. He had become a lawyer with the hope of fighting for people who had had to suffer like him.
But never in his life had he imagined that the very first case that he’d have to fight for, would be such a case. For, certain events kindle a wave of memories; Memories that you had always wished you never had to relive. Memories that you would wish that you hadn’t had them in the first place.
They send a wave of pain rushing through you, engulfing you and consuming you into a virtual time machine that hijacks you mentally from your present and takes you back in time when the event happened. And, then they send chills rushing through your spine, shivers running through your body and sweat cascading all over your body.
That’s exactly what was happening to Aadil now. Aadil was now physically present yet mentally absent in his present. His eyes were all teared up. Yet, his memories refused to spare him. They had by now, hijacked him to those days of angst and pain and they put him right there in the mills of his mind where they kept grinding him again and again and again
Aadil was fifteen then. An age when he was gearing up to spread his wings out and take on the world. It was also an age when he was mature yet innocent. That’s what adolescence is all about. You are so mature yet you are so naïve.
Unfortunately, the world his filled with some crooked minds that look to exploit the naivety of such fragile minds. They stomp it and walk all over it.
And, that’s exactly what they, or rather, she did to Aadil.
Aadil had been an ‘average student’, as termed by his teachers and parents, at school. It was not much of an issue to him, until, one day one of his closest friends committed suicide because he was not able to score better grades at school and live up to the expectations of his parents.
It was an incident that had torn him emotionally apart. On one side, he became an anti-suicide crusader while on the other side he was shattered into pieces at the loss of his closest friend.
When you have a problem running on inside of you, it becomes evident in things that you do outside of you. And, so did it happen to Aadil as well.
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Aadil’s grades fell. Somehow academic performance has become that standard to gauge a person’s intelligence. Maybe someone needs to remind the society that most ‘greats’ that walked the earth like Edison, Einstein, etc., had some worst grades at school.
So Aadil’s parents got him a home tutor, Raveena. The first few months went on well for all of them. Raveena was a very compassionate teacher. She had helped Aadil heal his wounds and come out of his loss, in a matter of months.
Gradually, she also helped his grades improve- much to the delight of his parents. Aadil’s parents were happy to have met Raveena. They felt he was in safe hands. Or, was he? Maybe, had they known her vested interests, maybe if they had known that she was only gaining their confidence, things would have been different. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so for Aadil.
One day, Raveena had invited Aadil home for her birthday party. That day, after the party, she sexually abused him. He sensed that something wrong was happening to him. He desperately wanted to scream out for help. But his voice was choked. He wanted to run away from there to a safer place. But his legs froze.
Soon, she had stolen Aadil of his innocence.
Then, it continued every day at Aadil’s own home in his very room. Every time she did that to him, he would freeze. Somehow, at that instant, his brain failed to see that there was another danger-coping option too- fighting it out. It’s this naivety that people like Raveena exploit.
Soon, his days became hell. He cried. But nothing moved her. Aadil started becoming reclusive. He began hating himself. He began shivering at the mere thought of Raveena.
After lots of internal fights and turmoils, Aadil mustered the courage to open up to his parents, hoping to put an end to all the chaos in life. And he did. His parents immediately understood the gravity of the situation and filed a complaint with the police. That’s when all hell broke loose for him.
Raveena committed suicide. Aadil and his life now became a media sensation. The press ran his stories across pages. The media debated on his life for hours. There was one section of the society ridiculing him and blaming him for not being able to fight for himself and the other that was fighting for him, saying no other child was to go through this trauma again. Suddenly he realised, he couldn’t step out of the house again. From the way people glared at him, he realised that they recognised him, or maybe his mind tricked him into feeling so.
He was now afraid of anyone and everyone and felt the need to hide away from their glares. Aadil gave up his studies. He now had to quarantine himself at home. He couldn’t get himself to talk to his friends. After all, they too would be ‘learning’ about him from the media.
He couldn’t get himself to talk to his parents. The pain in their eyes was too much for him to bear. No child wants to see so much pain in his parents’ eyes, and worse to him was being the reason for it. Slowly, Aadil confined himself to his room. But how could he stay there? That’s were Raveena had vandalised his life. He cried. But boys don’t cry. That’s how the society had conditioned him, as if boys were supposed to have customised defensive mechanisms to cope up with such situations. So, he would wipe away his tears and tried to look for other coping up mechanisms, but, in vain. Aadil fell into depression.
Aadil was now desperate for an escape route out of his forsaken room, out of his forsaken house, away from the glares of everyone around him, away from this city or maybe even away from this world, if that could save him from this trauma. Yes, the same guy who fought as an anti-suicide crusader after his friend’s death just the year before, succumbed to his depression and contemplated suicide.
As he gazed through his room in emptiness, suddenly his eyes fell on his penknife. They say in Neuro-Linguistic Programming that Reticular Activation System or RAS as it is called, in the brain helps your senses quickly identify things that your mind is searching for. And here, his RAS worked overtime right at the wrong time.
Aadil slit his wrists. Aadil thought he would bleed to death. Even that cruel death appeared better to him as compared to fighting this humiliation and trauma for the rest of his life. But destiny had other plans and Aadil survived; to fight for him and for other boys who had gone through the trauma like him.
Aadil landed in the hands of Dr Nethran, a renowned psychologist. Dr Nethran helped Aadil heal his wounds, bury them inside and move on. He helped him regain his lost self-confidence. He helped him find a new purpose in his life. He helped him create a new vision for himself.
Two-years after his failed suicide attempt, Aadil resumed his studies again. This time he needed no coach. There were no distractions. Aadil knew what he wanted to do. He went on to complete his Bachelors in law. He practised as a junior under leading lawyers before gearing up to take on his first case that is due for its first hearing tomorrow.
He was fighting for a boy, Nizam, who was sexually abused for three months and killed mercilessly by his landlord. Aadil could relate to Nizam’s pain and suffering. That’s why this case meant so much to him. At the dawn of tomorrow, Aadil will be appearing for his first case. He will be fighting for Nizam, for himself and for other such poor boys whose stories remain untold.
It’s going to be a new dawn for all of them. For now, let exhausted Aadil sleep tight. Good night.
The Writing of He Too- An Untold Short Story
If you have always wanted to write a story and wondered how it’s all done here’s a brief explanation of how I came up with this story.
1 Conception
This short story is inspired by a true story that I had read on news sometime in 2019. When I decided to write a story, the title “He Too” stuck with me. So, I looked for a crux of the story that would go with this title. Since he too almost invariably reminds me of “Me too”, I was immediately reminded of the boy’s news I had read and this formed my story plot.
2 Introduction
Every story begins with an exposition or introduction which creates a lead up to the main character.
Since my story focuses chiefly on human emotions, I packed the introductory part of the story with words that hint at trauma and emotional turmoil which show that the main character has had some turbulent past.
In this and the rest of the short story, I used Grammarly to automatically pop up errors that I could revisit once I had gotten the bulk of the draft finished.
3 The Rise
The next stage of a story is the rise or rising action wherein the actual plot unfolds.
This part of the story focuses on some problem that the protagonist goes through.
Again, since my focus is chiefly on the emotions of the protagonist, I have elaborated the rise to explain the various incidents that happen in Aadil’s life and his emotional transformations at each of the time.
4 The Climax
The next part is the climax, the action-packed part of the story. That’s where the story heats up.
So, the focus was on the various turn of events in Aadil’s life and his emotional transformations, right from the suicide of Raveena to him falling into depression and making a suicide attempt that eventually failed.
The chief focus every time sticking to the genre that I had been working with- emotions.
I’ve been using Skillshare courses to practice my writing skills to conformably create my own stories from scratch. Check it out if you have time with a 30 FREE Trial.
5 The Return or Fall
The next stage is the return or fall of the story, when slowly the dust settles and things get clearer.
Again, this part has been briefed in his transformations after the failed suicide attempt.
6 The Revelation
The concluding part of a story is a revelation.
In this case, is covered with the explanation of how Aadil was going to take on his first case and how he had transformed.
In every case, the focus of the story was restricted to events in Aadil’s life and his emotional transformations.
That’s how this short story evolved! Good luck to you in coming up with yours! Let me know in the comments your thoughts. Until then.
Author Bio
Manju S.M. is a blogger at www.mymindvoice.com. I blog over a variety of topics like poems, short stories, parenting and personal wellbeing. Follow me on my social media handles for some interesting read.