Revisiting Her

-? Enough-

I am feeling sick. Daphne stood next to me completely still. Her expression was empty, her eyelids moved gently and the look in her eyes was serene. Her hands hung naturally on her sides and her posture was straight with a strong base. I am so proud of you...

We were all gathered by the lakeside only this time at the light of day. In front of us, tied on a wooden pole closer to the shore, was a beast unlike any other we had encountered before. Beaten and in pain, he still maintained a smile on his face. His robe was now covered in blood and mud, with little to no white areas left at all. We had decided to bring the matter to the community so that we at least question him, with everyone present before we decide his fate. Me, Daphne, Nadia and Julia formed a line in front of him and the rest of our community observed from the sides.
"Do you have a name?"

"Yes."

"State it."
"Who will remember?"
Nadia remained silent. Keeping my eyes fixed on the wretched man I saw him looking straight at me as he spoke.
"My name is Markus and I am a free man." He said finally looking away. What's with this son of a bitch...?
"Markus, have you been associated with the brutal murder of a family-based northeast from here seven days ago?"
"I have no knowledge of the event." He said laughing at Nadia as if she had just said anything ridiculous. Julia approached him steadily and punched him in the face.
"Have some respect swine, this is murder we are talking about." she spat in his face and headed back to our position. Nadia continued.
"I repeat, have you been..."
"Are you going to pass trial as well at some point? You are definitely accused of murder, invading another community of people, butchering everyone in your path..."
"To save one of our own you decided to abduct, drug and rape with the intent to sacrifice. Had you asked, we would have denied and where things would go from there is a different story!" yelled Nadia back at him. Her voice broke towards the end. Her missing arm was causing her excruciating pain, but even though we insisted that Julia should handle this, we couldn't get her to agree and stay in bed to rest.
"And you decided that public trial..."
"Public trial is the best you get."
"Why is your feud with me of interest to the rest of the people?"
"Are you or are you not responsible for the slaughtering of others of our own?!"

"Does even one of you actually care?!" He shouted, addressing everyone in the crowd. "Does any of you give half a crap about what happens to the others when you go to sleep every night?! Has any of you felt the remote responsibility to act in the place of others, for others that are in distress but nowhere in sight?! Hahaha what if we had been armed and came back in larger numbers to take care of the rest of you?!" Julia was about to make her way toward the man again but Nadia stopped her with her good hand. Everybody was silent, not even a single whisper escaped into the air. All eyes were on him, staring cold. "Just how has such an irresponsible person gained your approval to take justice into their own hands without asking the rest of you? Do you call this a community? You are playing neighbors!"
"So you would have them leave?" asked Nadia.
"Shut up bitch! They are to speak first! If you think it matters to them at all, they should be the ones asking the questions!"
"Would you have taken my girl?" Asked a woman from the crowd. She had long, wavy brown hair and blue eyes. She was embracing a little girl in front of her. Her name was Jasmin and the girl's Christina. They had joined the community a few months back. They were based about a mile away from the lake. The woman's face was stone cold but her voice was strong and steady as she asked. The man had a look at them.
"She is too young ma'am! Her life is still innocent and will hopefully keep being for a while. It is to humans who are near completion of their innocent lives I performed my duties."
"Duties?" Continued Jasmine, plainly.
"I live my life with the goal to offer people the opportunity to end their lives at the moment of the discovery of a form of pure ecstasy. This world is finished with us, we are doomed to disappear from this rock floating in the uttermost boring part of the galaxy. Cause we did enough, we are all guilty of disgrace, gluttony, lust, hate, envy...What have our innocent children done to condemn them to live in this horrific world with us? We will end up dead as well sooner or later, but I myself wouldn't dare bring another child into this world. Why trap children who are growing up in this chaos, here, forever, when they can leave this world earlier, without spoiling their pure souls by taking a life for example?"
"Because we still have hope." Replied Jasmine.
"Irrelevant, do you not put wounded animals out of their misery? People who have been severely wounded or worse infected?"
"What..."
"Your LEADER has also decided it's a good idea to bring this severely traumatized girl almost back from the dead to continue living...what?! To her, this is all a joke! Look at her!" He screamed and pointed towards Daphne."Look at her empty eyes, look at her condition! How would you do this to a human being?!" I reached for Daphne's hand as all eyes turned briefly to her. She pushed my hand away and started to head slowly toward the man. Nobody moved. I stared in shock, not knowing what would follow. She was spending most of the days ever since she woke up sitting somewhere as she was too weak to move around a lot. It was only yesterday I saw her walking more normally. I still had to carry her for a third of the way to here today and now she was making her way closer to the man steady and strong. What are you doing?