Dear Diary: Rape Took Kode's Life by @Toyin1Coker

On the day Kode was raped, I was shattered!!! Not just because she was my best friend, but because I could have protected her… It’s been 7 years already, 7 very tough years but I remember vividly just like it was yesterday. My scars are re-opened each time I read, hear or see a rape victim because I see a part of Kode in them.

***

On that sunny afternoon, Kode and I just finished swimming at our local pool in our not so elite community, arguing over a bar of chocolate as we walked back home. I noticed some guys walk very briskly towards us and immediately I told her, let’s run! But you know Kode… she is very strong headed she refused… "the streets should be safe enough for us to walk through without getting hurt” she said. I sense danger kode, but she won’t listen. 

As they approached us I ran leaving my best friend behind. As I raced as fast as my feet could take, I heard screams and pleas, it was Kode! And she was in great danger, but I couldn’t stop, my adrenaline rush would not let me. As I got into the compound our families share, our mothers ran out ‘’What happened? Where is your sister? They asked?’’ (We were called sisters, even twins) she’s in danger at quaver street I said. I watched our mothers wail as they ran off. Immediately, I felt a deep sense of guilt, I could not have ran without her. We could have faced them together.

***

It’s been 3 days I have been sitting beside Kode’s hospital bed day and night but she wouldn't open her eyes, I have cried, prayed and begged but it does not seem to work. At 2:15pm on the 9th day, she blinked!!! KODE WOKE UP!!! But too weak to utter a word, she only smiled as I held her hand and told her how much I have missed her and how I have done her assignments and copied all her notes. It’s been the toughest 9 days of my life; I can only imagine how difficult it has been for my best friend

***

The doctor broke the news….

She suffered internal injuries which have bled through the 9 days she had been in coma; this has affected a side of her brain throwing her into seizures every now and then. I thought that was the worst news I’ll ever hear until I overheard the doctor tell Kode’s parents that the oxygen supply kode has been using will have to be switched off, which only meant one thing: she will DIE…

Mr Rapist, hope you are happy now. Well… I can’t continue writing, I am too heart broken

***

As she was laid to rest, I watched in disbelieve as her grave was covered up, she was gone and gone forever. She was one of the nicest and most confident people I ever knew. Her last words rang in my head ‘’the streets should be safe for us to walk through without getting hurt’’. She was right, years after, I still hear those words in my subconscious.

***

The crowd cheered as I ended my tribute to Kode, it’s her 7th year remembrance today, and I miss her. I miss her matching my clothes, I've never really been good at that, I miss her voice, I miss her singing those lovely songs that never made it to studio, I miss our arguments, I miss her helping me with my assignments (Kode was a brain). I miss you Kode, each and every day, but you are in a better place now, void of rapist and full of more love than we could ever show you on earth. I will be 20 next month and I wish you were here to celebrate the 2nd decade of my existence with me.

***

Dear rapist, it is very unfortunate you never got caught, but just in case you read this, you broke the hearts of the people that loved and cared for Kode, and you killed all her dreams that very moment you took a decision to rape her. You reduced her from a jolly happy girl to fighting for her life and surviving on an oxygen mask. I wish she ran with me that day 7 years ago, but it was not her fault, IT WAS YOURS. I hope you change because deeds have a way of catching up with us; but most importantly I hope you die in a more humiliating way than Kode did.