Instant Freeze

The Courthouse

It had been twenty-four years since the Actaea Courthouse had last seen use. Being fifteen, Henry Branagh only ever remembered peering inside to see the place covered in dust and cobwebs, to stand before it now with the doors wide open, the adolescent wondered if this was some strange dream...

At fifteen years of age and a height of five feet and five inches, Henry was a ruddy-skinned boy with short, curly red hair and heterochromia, resulting in his left eye being blue and his right eye green. He was lean in appearance with a hooked nose and a square jaw. He was wearing a red blazer, a red pair of dress pants, red dress shoes, a white dress shirt, a red necktie and his ever present glasses. This was not how he usually dressed, but Henry had a gut feeling that everyone would be well-dressed for this big event and was even seeing many well-dressed people of all ages waiting outside already, for just not was the Courthouse seeing use for the first time in twenty-four years, but Campbell Ward, that mad scientist leader of the outlaw motorcycle club the Ninth Circle was being put on trial.

Another mad scientist? Henry gave a small chuckle. Kyle Johnson had brought Dr. Jekyll's formula to life, but what exactly did Campbell Ward do? The press labeled him a mad scientist but did little to explain wherefore.

Holding onto his arm was Katharine Sharp. She was his age, slender and taller than him by an inch with light skin, large, reddish-brown eyes and red hair that was long and straight. She had a good pair of legs, a cute mouth, and an honest face. Overall, she was attractive. She was wearing a red dress with a tight waist, narrow shoulders and a voluminous skirt, a pair of red heels that were short and thick, triangular gold earrings and, in a change from the red usual red hibiscus on the right side of her head, a red sunhat, while a black purse hung from her shoulder.

This was their fifth day of knowing one another and in those handful of days of knowing one another, Henry and Katharine had met an extraterrestrial named Moloch, encountered Men in Black and their young counterparts, seen the dead wyvern Carchemish rise, seen a prehistoric marine reptile in the Berens River, which was then killed by Carchemish, and, of course, met Kyle Johnson as his alter ego Mister O'Connor, who anti-climatically died by being hit by a truck before he ever got the chance to properly menace Henry. What would come next? That was a wonderful question, but one that would not doubt be answered in time.

"Henry! Look!"

Henry followed Katharine's finger to see that she was pointing to a teenaged boy a year older than them, with soulless, oversized coal black eyes and pasty skin. The boy was black-haired with a quiffed haircut. The boy's attire seemed rather casual, just a black shirt and pants. Henry and Katharine had seen this guy before, the night they had met Moloch and the Men in Black, that same night when Carchemish had risen from the dead. There had been two black-eyed children with him, so where were they? Where was the remaining two Men in Black? Immediately, Henry and Katharine both looked around. Where were the shadows of the Men in Black?

"A mad scientist leader of an outlaw motorcycle club is being put on trial and one out of three of the Men in Black's younger counterparts are here." Commented Henry, his voice a deep baritone.

"Do you think there is a connection?" asked Katharine. Henry could only guess, but there probably was. The only question was what?