Alive

Judge & Jury (Part Two)

TW: Cursing, murder discussion, outdated views on mental illness, police, yelling, homophobia

Virgil's POV:

"So, Mr Griffis.. About a year and a half ago, your family home was completely destroyed in a fire via an unknown source, of which you were the only survivor in your family of 5. In your original conviction for the murder of your two sisters and parents, a witness said that they heard you areguing with your father the night before the fire.

"After a very short trial, you were deemed to be clinically insane, and spent three months at a mental hospital, only leaving for the death penalty that you recieved to be carried out. Shortly before this event, you escaped from police custody and were not seen on the radar at all until precisely four days ago, when these three teenagers sat beside you showed up with you at the county police station. Is, to your knowledge, all of this information correct?"

He gives a nervous glance to us, before turning back and nodding as he speaks. "Uh, yeah. Yes. ..sir."

"Okay," The judge purses his lips, as if thinking, and, please could you remind me of your relationship with.." He looks down at the paper in his hands once again. "Remus, Virgil and Zariah."

"Remus and Virgil are.. my friends who I met at that mental hospital. Zariah is a friend of Virgil's who he met at a different hospital."
"And.. did all three of them know the whereabouts of where you were staying while on the run?"

He shakes his head. "No, your honour. Uhm, only Remus knew. The other two didn't know until the morning that Remus and I called them to ask them to come to the police station with us."

I'm assuming that Janus said that Remus knew, because, his parents are in the courtroom, and they could very literally give statements which would prove that. I appriciate him keeping me out of it though.

"Now that we have all of that confirmed, could you please go over any new information that you wanted to share with the court? This applies to any of you with information, please remember that you are under oath." The judge talks sternly.

Zariah takes a breath in, looking to the rest of us to say that she'd like to answer this before she does.
"Your honour, that man over there.." She pauses, looking nervously to the man, who is sending her the harshest death glare you could imagine. "Is my father, who we believe is responsible for the fire that killed Janus' family."

The judge nods, prompting her to carry on.

"I, um, well, I was in a relationship with Janus' older sister, Elizabeth, and-"

She has to pause for a moment for the jury and audience to murmur, some of them louder than others. When they don't calm down for a moment, the judge bangs his gavel. "Order in the court, please!"

They all stop talking.

"Sorry, Miss Williams, carry on."

"Well, my father didn't approve, and we believe that he thought the easiest way to end our relationship was to kill her and attempt to kill her whole family who accepted us. Only a few weeks after her death, my father sent me to a mental hospitlal to quote unquote: cure me, and that's where I met Virgil."

Nobody in the room responds for just a moment, then the judge turns to Mr Williams. "Do you have a response to your daughter's accusation, sir?"

He breathes out in frustration, his eyerows furrowing with anger.

"I think that her accusation is bullshit. Why the hell are we taking statements from four mental hospital patients?! Isn't there a law against letting people that aren't sound of mind speak in courtrooms?!"