Even so, the crowd beneath the platform stayed furious. Rotten vegetables and spoiled eggs flew through the air, hitting the stage as they screamed insults at me.
“Fake friend! Rapist’s protector! Go to hell, you witch!”
On the big screen, my memories began to play in reverse. The first one appeared for everyone to see.
It was three days after Lizzy’s death.
They had dragged me to her wake. Everyone demanded that I tell them who the rapist was. Some spat on me, others threw stones.
One person yanked my arm so hard and then another pulled my hair until it was a tangled mess. Fists hit my body over and over until my whole body turned black and blue.
I ran away in fear, with the villagers chasing after me like I was the criminal. When I turned back, I saw smoke rising in the distance. My house was burning. Those people had set my home on fire.
I just stood there, helpless.
With nowhere to go, I ran deep into the forest with Bruno, my loyal dog. Unfortunately, the villagers found us again. Right in front of me, they killed my dog and used its body to make a pot of soup.
Heartbroken, I held one of his bones and cried until I couldn’t breathe.
I was only sixteen then. I had no father, no mother.
On the stage, Ivana looked at my crying face on the screen and let out a cold laugh. “Selina, don’t you deserve this? If you hadn’t protected the rapist, would people treat you like that? Do you really think you’re the victim here?”
“You have no right to feel sorry for yourself. You protected a criminal and this is your punishment!”
Others agreed and shouted, “She has no shame! How dare she complain after everything she has done?”
“Trying to use these sad memories to make us pity her, huh? Ridiculous. She helped a rapist! That makes her no different from him. She belongs in hell!”
“Who is really pitiful here? Lizzy’s family lost everything. A family lost their daughter, the mother went insane from broken heart. Who is more deserving of our sympathy?”
Just then, a soft, cheerful laugh echoed from the screen. “Lizzy, wait for me!”
Lizzy’s young, smiling face appeared on the screen. On a snowy mountain, she ran toward me, laughing as she threw a snowball. “Catch this!”
“My daughter…” Lizzy’s father collapsed in front of the screen, crying uncontrollably. Seeing his daughter’s bright smile again after ten long years broke him completely.
After Lizzy’s suicide, his hair turned white almost overnight. Every day, he went to the police station asking, “Did you find the rapist yet?”
But every time, the officers only shook their heads.
Back then, there were no cameras in the village and my house stood apart from the others. No one knew who followed Lizzy that night. The only person who knew the truth… was me.
On the screen, the younger me knelt before the mountain god’s statue, hands clasped in prayer. “Please bless my friend with health and happiness. May our friendship last forever…”
Watching that, Ivana’s face twisted with rage. “Selina, you liar! How dare you pretend to care? You liar!”
She stormed forward, pointing at me. “How dare you show those memories? You disgust us!”
“Ten years, Selina. Ten years and you never told us the truth. You don’t deserve to call us friends!”
Then the next memory appeared, me secretly throwing away the mango that Lizzy had given me.
The crowd exploded. “She’s so fake. Pretending to accept it in front of her but tossing it behind her back?”
