TW: Sexual Abuse

I crept into the dimly lit bedroom, my eyes adjusting to the shadows. I didn't expect him to be here, not tonight. Detective Amad Yusuf stood in the middle of the room, his presence both a surprise and a challenge.

"Good evening, Soma," he said calmly. "Took you long enough."

I smirked, stepping further into the room. "Detective Yusuf. I must admit, you’ve become quite the persistent shadow."

"Seven years. Seven years of your carnage. I finally get to see the face behind the mask."

His words made me chuckle, but there was no humor in it. "And here I thought my little note would throw you off. Seems like you’re more capable than I gave you credit for."

He took a step forward, his eyes never leaving mine. "This ends tonight, Soma. I need to understand why. Why do you do this? What drives you to hurt people?"

His question was not unexpected. They always want to know why, like that would help with anything. I felt a familiar anger rise within me. "Justice, Amad. The kind the justice system fails to deliver. The kind that’s denied to victims while their abusers walk free."

His voice remains steady. "And who are you to decide their fate? Who made you judge, jury, and executioner?"

My heart pounded in my chest as I recalled the pain of my past. Now I am enraged thinking about Stella and what that bastard did to her. “I saw my best friend crumble under the weight of blame and shame, and her rapist laughed in the face of justice. She took her own life because no one would believe her. Someone had to act. I chose to act, and I am proud of the outcome. I am sure she is too, wherever she is"

He sighed, a sound full of frustration and sorrow. "Revenge will not bring her back, Soma. It only creates more pain."

"Don’t preach to me about pain, Detective. As long as the pain is felt by the right people, I am happy. You sit there, bound by rules and red tape, while monsters walk free. I do what you can’t—what you won’t."

He shook his head, his expression one of pity. "You think you’re making a difference? You’re just another criminal. You’re not better than them."

His words stung, but I kept my voice cold. "If being no better means stopping them, then I accept it. You should be glad I only decapitate them so they don’t cause pain anymore."

The tension between us crackled like electricity. He reached for his gun, but I was faster. We clashed, a flurry of blows exchanged in the confined space. He managed to pin me against the wall, both of us breathing heavily.

"It’s over, Soma. Surrender," he panted.

I winced in pain, my body aching from the fight. "Over? Not quite."

With a twist, I freed myself and delivered a sharp kick to his side, sending him staggering. I pulled out my tranquilizer gun, aiming it at him. His eyes widened, but he didn't move.

"You don’t have to do this," he said desperately.

I smirked and fired the tranquilizer dart. He grunted as it hit him, his vision blurring. He dropped to his knees, struggling to stay conscious as I approached and crouched down to look him in the eye.

"Amad, you can’t stop this. Not now."

"I... will... find you... again," he slurred, fighting the effects of the tranquilizer.

"I’ll be waiting."

I stood up and left the room swiftly, my heart pounding in my chest. As I slipped into the night, the distant wail of police sirens filled the air. I knew this wasn't over. But for now, I had escaped. The hunt would continue, and so would my mission.

***

"Let's learn to drive after our exams are over so we can drive to lectures together when we're in the university."

"I agree"

I had this conversation with my best friend and sister Stella, a few days before our final secondary school exams. At the time I did not know our plans were going to be moot in a couple of days. Stella and I grew up together and we were both only children so our parents treated us like siblings. Stella was my sister. The day it happened, I had woken up from a nap, one of those that knocked you out and invaded your mind with horrible hallucinations.

My phone had beeped with a text from Stella, it said - "Help me, this man is following me, I'm at sebubfdchjool..."

I got up and ran downstairs to look for her. Her house was behind our house, separated by a fence on the next street. I could have yelled her name from the backyard but I wanted to see her in person so I ran to the next street.

I saw Abigail, the help on her way out of the house when I got to her house.

"Where's Stella?" I asked her.

"She commot, she talk say she dey go driving school go check something"

I nodded and paced the front of her gate while I kept trying to call her phone. It rang for a bit and then went off. I tried to use the tracker app we had both installed to find each other in case we were ever in trouble. I found her last location before her phone went off. I ran back home, grabbed the keys to my mother's Toyota, and begged Uncle Joe to drive me to look for Stella. He refused to help me until I blackmailed him - I told him I knew he had been sleeping with Abigail and Mary - the maid next door.

We got into the car and drove to Stella's last known location. It was the driving school on the way to our secondary school. Stella must have gone there because it was close to places we frequented. As we got there, I noticed a small red Audi driving out of the building. There were bloody spots on the fender at the back. I did not think much of it as I directed Joe to park and wait for me while

I went in and asked about Stella.

The man at the desk claimed to not have seen her but when I showed him her picture, he started to look nervous and insisted he had not seen her. I became unsettled and got the grand idea to follow the red Audi we had seen earlier. I noticed it turned right when it left the compound. I turned around and ran into the car and told Joe to follow the car. He looked suspicious but followed my instructions anyway. We soon found the car after driving for a while. The driver made a left turn and then another right turn and we followed all the way. Meanwhile, I kept trying to reach Stella. The phone began to ring now and I opened the tracker and saw she was right in front of me. My heart skipped a bit as I looked from the red Audi to my phone. She picked up the phone and I asked

“Stella, where are you? Are you good?” 

“Soma, he raped me. He put me in the boot of a red Audi, please find me.” “I will find you, Stella. I am with you. Don’t hang up.”

I instructed Joe to overtake the red Audi and block the driver. Immediately after he did that, I told Joe to grab the driver while I rescued Stella and called the police. I jumped out of the car and the driver jumped out and ran away. Joe followed and tackled him to the floor while I opened the boot of the red Audi and carried my best friend out. She had been beat up and her face was swollen and there was blood on her shorts. She hugged me tight and cried and my heart broke.

In a few moments, we could hear police sirens. Joe held onto the driver until the police arrived and picked him up and took him to the station. They also seized the red Audi and took it to their station. Joe and I took Stella to the hospital.

At the hospital, they ran tests on Stella. The doctor took the assailant’s DNA samples from Stella’s vagina and fingers. They recommended a psychiatrist for Stella’s trauma. I called her parents and they were at the hospital in minutes. 

When we were leaving the hospital, we had to dodge a swarm of journalists who had come to cover the story. I heard whispers from the nurses at the hospital, calling my friend a slut. I was so angry but I couldn’t do much about it aside from giving them dirty looks.

Stella’s dad went to the police station to raise hell while her mom and I took her home. I followed her to the bathroom and prepared a bath for her to soak in. She asked me to give her space, so I left her in the bathroom and went to her bedroom to call my mother and tell her where I was and what happened. I had expected Joe to already tell her what happened.

Forty minutes later, Stella had still not come out of the bathroom so I ran in to see her bent over on the floor sobbing. I picked her up, and put her under the shower and held her while the water ran down her body. I was so heartbroken for her but I had to be strong for her. I let her cry for a few more minutes before I took her out of the shower, undressed her, changed her clothes and tucked her in her bed to sleep. 

I sat in her swivel chair and watched her sleep while I plotted my revenge. Her mother knocked on the door a few minutes later and brought a tray of food. She said Stella’s father had come back and he was going to press charges and the police were going to come to the house in the morning to take Stella’s statement. 

I nodded and told her I would keep an eye on Stella while she slept to make sure nothing happened to her. She nodded and left the room. Stella did not sleep well that night. I dozed off on the chair but I was woken a few moments later by her screams. I climbed into the bed and cuddled her to sleep. She kept on like this the entire night. 

The police came the next morning to take Stella’s statement and I was there the entire step of the way. Stella’s father had called the lawyer to be present during the statement. The lawyer had prepared Stella before they arrived to make sure her statement was consistent.

Trial was set for two weeks after the incident and we all went to court. In those two weeks, I did not leave Stella’s side. I held her hand through everything. My sweet girl cried when she was on the stand and had to recount that horrible experience again. The defense examined and cross examined my best friend until she broke. 

The bastard was acquitted because he had claimed he and Stella were in a relationship. He kept insisting and my Stella was too broken to defend herself. He lied on the stand and the jury believed and got the case thrown out.

Stella’s father said he was going to appeal the case. We left the courtroom heartbroken. When we got outside, my best friend was hit with an egg. There was a crowd outside the courtroom booing and calling her names. My sweet girl broke down and crumbled in my arms. 

We took her home and tucked her into bed. I went online and people were saying all sorts of things on the blogs and social media. They called my best friend a slut and said her father was trying to use his money and connections to ruin a young man’s life.

We were supposed to resume school for our supplementary exams next week and I worried about how she would fare. Teenagers are terrible and I was worried. I left Stella in her bedroom and went to find her mother to recommend we schedule psychotherapy sessions for Stella. I sat with her while she called one of the therapists recommended by the hospital and scheduled weekly sessions. 

When I got back to her room, I found her bleeding on her bed with her wrists slashed. I screamed at the top of my lungs and her

parents ran into the room. Her father carried her and ran to the car while her mother held her wrist to prevent her from bleeding out. I ran out with them and her father drove us to the hospital. Fortunately, Stella did not die. But something in me died that day and I vowed to take revenge for my sweet girl. That was the beginning for me.

***

Today, another sexual crimes criminal has been acquitted. I have followed this case since I first saw the news about it. The headline had read - "Town Outraged as Innocent Man's Life Ruined by False Rape Allegations: Who's the Real Predator?" Innocent man??? INNOCENT MAN???? When I am done dealing with this criminal, I will find the editors of this newspaper and teach them a lesson. 

After I almost got caught exacting judgment on Stella’s assaulter. I developed a taste for revenge and set up a system to punish sexual assaulters in my city and beyond. It was a three-step system - find the criminal’s location, visit them, and castrate them. It is a lot more complicated than this but I will not bore you with the details. It has been 10 years since Stella’s incident and my sweet girl never recovered. She became more of a shell each day. Her parents put her in a mental facility to help her recover but three years later, Stella attempted suicide again and this time she was successful. 

While my Stella suffered, I went to school and studied criminology. I lived like a recluse in university, learning to hack systems and

fight and shoot. I had started planning my revenge and needed all the skills I could get. When Stella died, I was not quite ready but I set my plan in motion. I had been stalking Stella’s assaulter and he had gotten over the incident. He had even attempted to rape several other women and I sabotaged his plans every time. 

As part of my plans, I got a job as a cleaner at the police department so I could gain access to all the information I needed to carry out my plans seamlessly. This was where I bumped into Detective Amad Yusuf. He had worked in the police department for years and I watched his progress from police officer to detective and he was on track to become a police captain. He was a brilliant detective but I was always going to be several steps ahead of him. I did my job as a cleaner and hid in plain sight while I observed all the police investigations. This job coupled with school work occupied me so much that I could not be there for Stella when she passed.

The day I got the news about Stella’s passing, I was enraged. I screamed until I fainted. My university roommates had never seen me like that before. When I came to, I saw them looking at me with worry on their faces. I packed a bag immediately and went home. The day my Stella was buried was a rainy day. She only had her parents and my family to mourn her. Everyone else had forgotten about her in the years she was in the mental facility. I saw a man watch the funeral proceeding from afar. I recognized his frame as the assaulter. The nerve of him! After the funeral, I stalked him to his house. I got into an argument with him and he tried to assault me. I had gone with a knife. I never moved around without a knife after Stella’s incident. I stabbed him and cut off his penis. I had his blood all over my body by the time I was done. I took one of his balls as a trophy. I cleaned my fingerprint from all the surfaces I had touched and snuck out when it was night time. I snuck into the house and washed his blood off my body and dress and went to sleep. 

I cried in my sleep that night. It was going to be one of the many times that I would cry after these adventures. I always relished the news headlines the day after my escapades. I learned to fight and operate under the cover of darkness so my victims would never be able to identify me. 

For this particular criminal, like all the others I will first hack into the police investigation records for his information. Then I will pay him a visit and as usual, I will cut off his penis and take one of his balls. I have a box under my bed where I stored all the trophies I have collected since the first one. The last time I checked, I had 21 balls. Men are audacious. They never learn so I will never stop cutting off their penises. 

My victims began a secret association to try and hunt me. I am aware of this useless association. They think they are smarter than me but they don’t know that I will always be steps ahead of them. The police have a special team dedicated to hunting me too. They even tried to set a trap with a brand new acquitted sexual assaulter. I still cut off his penis and evaded the nonsense investigators. That particular day, I went to the club to celebrate. Very foolish bastards!

The justice system in this country is a mess. It favors criminals over innocent women. I am fighting for justice for women. People might think it’s too much but nobody had any gracious words to say to my sweet girl or any of the other victims. Many of them ended up making attempts on their life but when they heard what happened to their assaulters, they were encouraged to go on living. The police did not suspect the victims because they always had strong alibis, and I went to the assaulters in male disguise to protect the identity of my victims. 

I developed a male persona because of this vendetta. I am still very feminine. I suspect that someone knows about me. I noticed him

following me. I have followed him too. I know where he lives and what he does for work. He is a detective at the police regional headquarters. He is on to me as I am onto him. I have plans to put him in his place and I will take action soon. But first I need to create a plan

I am going to visit him and leave a message and I know the perfect message to leave. I will leave him my first trophy. I will be sad to let it go but it is time to let it go. He lives in the upscale part of town and for an officer of his rank, I wonder how he can afford to live there. I take a jar of pig’s blood with me and leave a message on his crime board where he put my investigation details. Then I glue the ball to the board. I chuckle as I make my way out of his house.

My security camera captured a breach of my space a few days ago. A security breach on my space is dangerous for me so I arranged for movers to move my things before I made a move on the detective. His name was Amad Yusuf. I got his information from the police department’s records. He violated my space so I made it my side mission to violate his life. 

When I left his house, I drove to my new safe house and set up my crime board for my new criminal/victim. I had followed the news story on the incident that made him famous. His victim was a 17-year-old girl. She had registered in his examination center and he had begun to harass her. The other students at the center bore witness against her. He had favored her instead of them and they were jealous of her, so they mocked her for being sexually assaulted and bore false witness against her in court. The court acquitted him as usual. Now I would be put out of business if courts convicted criminals like this but that has not been the case since Stella’s incident.

I drove to his location and checked for my knife and tranquilizer gun in my pocket before I stepped out of the car. I would have loved for them to be awake while I castrated them but castrating them while they’re unconscious made for a cleaner get-away for me. It is always fun when they wake up and find out their penises have been cut off. I head into his building and take a look around and it is suspiciously quiet. I peep through his bedroom window and see a figure lying on the bed. I pick the locks in the back door and locate the bedroom. I open the door slowly and aim the tranquilizer gun and I see Amad Yusuf.