As many of us know, pain can be caused by anything. It could be pain from an injury, pain from guilt or even pain from anxiety. I'd like to talk about the pain that comes from betrayal.
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If you've ever been betrayed in your life, especially by a close friend, then you'd know that betrayal really hurts. The fact that a person who you relied on and trusted actually double-crossed you or stabbed you in the back. People who are victims of such events sometimes make up their mind not to trust people easily, irrespective of how angelic the person looks.
This reminds me of a time in highschool when all the class girls were betrayed by one girl.
It so happened that we had night class one night. Our further mathematics teacher had told all of us to wait for him in our class hall by 7pm. We all gathered in the class; thirty minutes later, the man was nowhere to be found. We had a similar occurrence last time and we were flogged by the man for not waiting for him. This time around, we decided to give it forty-five minutes.
Staying outside with your fellow classmates at night can be fun but exams were drawing near and such fun had to be put on a halt. The female senior prefect announced in front of the whole class that all girls should start heading back to the hostel as she had no way to confirm if our class will still hold.
A group of girls started walking towards the hostel when we saw the boarding master approach. It's worthy to note that the boarding master wasn't in charge of the girls and he could only punish us with the permission of our boarding mistress.
This man came out from the shadows and told every girl on the pathway to get on their knees; the girls that were still in the class heard this and scurried out to join the rest of us on the pathway. He held three terrifying whips in his hand and we automatically knew our fate. Some girls tried to explain to the man that we had a class and that we stayed a little longer because of the previous occurrence. This man didn't want to hear any explanation.
The first question he asked us was "how many girls are you?" "Fifty-three" we chorused. He went on to ask again "are you complete?". We did a head count and realised that one girl was missing. The man concluded that he would flog all of us because one girl had made it to the hostel earlier.
This girl went back to the hostel, told the boarding mistress that the girls didn't want to come back because they were with boys. The boarding mistress in turn–without confirming the news– called the boarding master and the boarding master came in all his glory, ready to give girls a good arse whooping, hypothetically.
I was the second person to be flogged that night because I was in front. We all got back to the hostel and we're so eager to find out who backstabbed her fellow girls. I found out and I couldn't even react. She was someone who sat right beside me that night at class. I wondered why she just took her book and left. I thought she wanted to go to the next class to read. The pain that accompanies betrayal set in. How would she do that to us, me especially. We were literally talking that night in class and now this? It was very heartbreaking but what to do? That night, we moved from being friends to just acquaintances.
Such situations harden people. After the incident that night, I knew what the true definition of betrayal was and that too, a betrayal from a close friend.
Why is betrayal so devastating?
This is because we're always betrayed by close friends or loved ones. A random stranger can't betray you because they know nothing about you and if a stranger knows something about you, then they were most definitely told by a close friend of yours.
We will all suffer betrayal at some point in our lives but this shouldn't destroy the trust we have in other people.
It's typical to grief when one finds out that he/she has just been betrayed and that's totally okay. Grief all you want but don't spend all your life sulking over spilled milk. We learn from such experiences after all, so it's best to get up, wipe the dust off your clothes and keep moving. I don't think that the pain accompanied by betrayal ever varnishes, but the memories are sometimes swept under the carpet and the betrayers are kept at arm's length to; prevent a reoccurrence.
Thank you for your time
With love, wongi ✨