One Minute

Chapter Fifteen- The Sentence Hearing

“Welcome to the sentence hearing of Zora Montero!” I could hear Lady Nisha speak from outside the large, mahogany doors. She must have been using a microphone of some sort. The crowd roared and cheered like it was some sort of football game—this must have been an event that they long waited for.

            I stood outside the large doors, waiting, wrists and ankles bonded together with heavy shackles. I wore the just like asked with my hair down and some black eyeliner and strawberry colored lipstick.

            I hadn’t seen you all day today—you weren’t in bed when I woke, and when I asked Nikolay in the morning where you were, he didn’t answer me.

            You were all hiding something from me, weren’t you?

            “Now then,” Lady Nisha said, “Let us begin!”

            The doors opened slowly, dramatically and I watched as the courtyard filled with light; all of the members of the Cadre were lined up on the left and right side of the courtyard, standing up straight with their shoulders squared, their hands behind their backs, chins up in the air. They all fell silent as the door opened as if by routine, as if they were all brainwashed by Lady Nisha, but that wouldn’t surprise me. She looked like the type that would take complete advantage of her power and destroy the beautiful minds of these people.

            “What’s our motto?” Lady Nisha yelled.

            Everyone answered in the same, monotonous tone simultaneously, “We are brothers and sisters of darkness, any person in our way will be slaughtered. Kill with no mercy.”

            She smiled and roared, “Court is now in session! Bring Miss Montero to me!”

            I gulped and felt a hand grab my arm; I jerked myself away and began to walk slowly, eyes fixated on my black heels for a moment before staring at Lady Nisha, who . I did my best to walk straight on the cobblestone, watching the members from time to time out of the corner of my eye. At the end of the row to the right side, I saw Eric and Nikolay, standing straight. They didn’t say anything, nor did they give me a look of sympathy.

            Raymond was up there beside Lady Nisha in a nice dress shirt and slacks. He remained tranquil and actually showed emotion unlike the robots here.

            And then there was you.

            Right when I was to step up to the platform, I saw you standing there. I hadn’t noticed before because you were dressed like the rest of them—in a white dress shirt and black slacks. The only man who wore something different was Nikolay because of his father’s zoot suits.

            Your eyes were in my direction, but you weren’t looking at me, you were looking straight through me. You looked better though, not as sick as you were yesterday.

            Your expression was indifferent like all the rest of the members, and your dark hair was neatly combed. Looking down, I noticed that you were actually wearing dress shoes, and not your normal Vans.

            “Come forth, Zora Montero.” Raymond stated. I stumbled a little on the last step—my foot couldn’t go up that high. Lady Nisha chuckled softly.

            “Now then! Face the crowd!” She ordered, lips pursed.

            I did as she said without hesitation, eyes focused on you. You didn’t look at me; you kept your gaze straight ahead. I wondered what you were thinking. Were you excited for this like everyone else? Were you scared like me? Or were you indifferent?

            Maybe Lady Nisha really did brainwash you. Yeah, I’m going to stick to that.

            “Zora Montero, on behalf of the Cadre, we have decided to give you a sentencing hearing. Here, we will discuss how you will die in two days. Now then! Where shall we begin?”

            Eric rose his hand, “You could exile her and leave her stranded until she dies—” Nikolay jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow, “Ow! Hey! This is a fair trial here! All suggestions are welcomed!”

            I scowled at Eric in my mind. I was able to understand though, we didn’t really get to know each other, so I was able to see his point of view—he was clearly unbiased on this.

            Lady Nisha thought about it, “There’s the chance that she’ll survive, and that will take too long, haven’t we waited enough?”

            How the hell was this a fair trial?! It was pretty much just a long discussion on how I should be killed!

            Someone else called out, “We could put her in the electric chair!”

            “That’s a possibility,” Lady Nisha rubbed her chin.

            Nikolay raised his hand this time. “Tell me again why we’re killing her?” he gulped slightly.

            “It wasn’t up to me. When Zora was born, her number was given to us by the computer. Just because she’s innocent now, it doesn’t mean that she won’t do something in the future. It had been my decision that we did this now rather than later—you can’t risk anything happening, you know.”

            “In this case,” Nikolay shifted a little, “why don’t you just do the old medieval beheading?”

            “Exciting, but out of style I’m afraid. We do have a reputation you know.” I was plucking off a hair from my dress, coughing into my elbow. The room fell silent again.

            “What about you, Roivas?”  Lady Nisha motioned her hand over at you and everybody turned to look at you, even me.

            You looked around, a little surprised before looking up at Lady Nisha. “I-I don’t know…” Your voice grew softer, faint. Lady Nisha gave you a look and you straightened up again.

            “Well? What will it be?” Lady Nisha crossed her arms and tapped her foot. You didn’t answer her—you simply remained silent.  Lady Nisha took in a deep breath before sighing. When everyone fell silent, she smiled at laughed.

            Clasping her hands together, she looked towards the crowed and stretched her hands out, “Well then, my decision is final!” She paused and I looked up to stare ahead at the mahogany doors.

My body felt cold and I wanted to throw up. This was a very uneasy feeling and I wasn’t looking forward to what Lady Nisha was about to say next. It almost felt like time had stopped—where the Earth stopped orbiting around the sun for this one moment to make it seem like it was much longer than it actually was. In my eyes, everything had slowed down, and I could hear the heavy pounding of my heart.

What was she going to do to me?

“Sacrifice the virgin!” She cried out loud enough that the room echoed those words. I grew confused, but the crowd must have known because they all cheered wildly, laughing hysterically like hyenas.

            It took me a while to realize what she meant by that before my eyes widened in utter fear.