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The last waltz before rape
Short story

By Majid
October 15, 2001
The Iranian

All her life she had chased her own reflection in the depth of their eyes only to see it disappear... vanish in the dusk of their lust. She seemed completely lost, a prisoner of their seducing stares in which there were always hints of a violent ending.

But there was something dull and arduous about the stare of this man; this roughhouse of ideas and ideals. She had looked long and hard into his eyes, but the picture had not changed; she could not see herself. There were no fading shadows, no disfigured shapes or shades, but an undiminished emptiness; a complete void.

He gorged her with soft cunning whispers, promises and compliments. Yet in the bosom of each word dwelled the budding eyes of a greater sense of invalidation. She was submerged in a rhythmic coma that pulsated from her lack of self-confidence. The confusion and the chaos emanated from years of inner conflict had swelled into a tumor that ate away at her memory; at her senses. She saw in any shipwrecked heap of a man the prospect of an impregnable refuge; and in this man she could see no more and no less.

He reached calmly to hold and press her uncertain hands. Her breath sunk back hard and coldly into her lungs. He sensed the vibration of its impact and that thrilled and awoke the dark side of his imagination. She instinctively knew that those hands had marched to conquer her. She tried to evade his advances but his eyes grew wilder in dimension; swallowing and crushing the vessel of her resistance in the abyss of his lust.

Suddenly he retreated his hands and stood glowing amidst the darkness he had created. She looked again into his eyes searching for her own reflection, but the picture had not changed; she could not see herself. There were no fading shadows, no disfigured shapes or shades, but an undiminished emptiness; a complete void.

Thousand and one unclaimed words were exchanged in between the peaks of their distanced stares. Their thoughts danced timidly along and across the frontiers of their dark and light thoughts; at the end the darkness was the music accompanying their last waltz. A sigh announced her surrender. She disrobed, disinheriting her pride. He disrobed, disinheriting his humanity.

The music played on and when the last note broke out the silence anew; she saw in his eyes herself in entire. There were no fading shadows, no disfigured shapes or shades, but an undiminished emptiness; a complete void.

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