After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 50

January 19, 1993. 12:54 PM.

The courtroom was quieter than usual that fatefully heavy Tuesday afternoon. Jack Merridew knew that silence didn't often creep into a room full of people of its own accord. Silence existed to make room for things that were big and daunting, the kind of things that made people feel shaky and ill. It was clear to Jack that most everyone in the courtroom that afternoon knew what was coming. Dana Barnes was no longer after just one boy.

She was coming for every last one of them.

The silence was broken by the que of the clock. Judge Eldeson re-entered the courtroom and the opening proceedings were gone through for the second time that day. The jury was brought and sworn in, and the floor was handed over to Barnes. Right on schedule.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the court and welcome back. As most of you know, the prosecution has concluded the sharing of the evidence against Subject 0008: Larry Evans in the case of the death of Johnathan Benson. At this time, we'd like to proceed to the introduction of the Bennett case, Your Honor" Barnes spoke to the room, and then the judge to announce.

"Any objections?" Judge Eldeson turned to Reynolds at the defense table to question.

"No, Your Honor" Reynolds quickly rose to agree before taking his seat again.

"Very well, you may proceed, Councillor Barnes."

"Thank you, Your Honor" she nodded warmly at the elder man. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the story you are about to hear is not for the faint of heart. It will be brutal, messy, ugly, and even traumatic for some of you. This is a story I wish I didn't have to tell, one that has broken my own heart every time its crossed my mind..."

At this moment, Jack rolled his eyes dramatically. It made him sick to listen to Barnes talk about this thing she so clearly didn't understand, tell a tale that was like nothing more than a chapter in a history textbook to her. It wasn't her story to tell like she understood it, like she was there, Jack thought. She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, and yet she owned the narrative and all the power to determine how it was told.

"... Simon Bennett was just eleven years old, a boy whose loving parents didn't get to see on his twelvth birthday. Instead, Simon turned twelve on an isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... that is, if he made it to twelve at all. You heard me right, ladies and gentleman, this eleven, maybe twelve-year-old boy was not one of the twenty-two boys who was rescued from the island on January 27th, 1991... nor was he one of the sixteen who didn't survive the plane crash. How could that possibly be, you might ask? Well, the dark and disturbing truth is that Johnathan Benson wasn't the only person who was murdered on that island. Little Simon Bennett was murdered too. At only twelve years old, Simon was stabbed to death, like Benson was. However, unlike in the death of the pilot, Simon wasn't killed by one triggered boy. Poor young and defenseless Simon was stabbed to death dozens and dozens of times by a swarm of twenty-two boys, all of whom are sitting in the courtroom today. Twenty-two against one... think about that. No matter how big or small those twenty-two boys may have been, there were nearly two dozen of them, and only one of Simon. He never stood a chance. Every defendant you see sitting in the courtroom gallery today participated in the brutal and horrific murder of twelve-year-old Simon Bennett. He was one of their own, and yet not one of them hesitated before running at him, toppling him down, and stabbing him repeatedly. These boys were not afraid, they were not defenseless, they were not victims. There is no excusing what they did, for what they took away from Collin and Rachel Bennett. The only way to get justice for this innocent boy is to find every last one of his killers guilty of the voluntary manslaughter charges each one of them are facing here today" Barnes finished before doing the dramatic, striken walk back to the prosecution table, the one that made Jack's eyes roll even further back into his head.