[Scar/Dream] Heart Thief

56. The Trial II

After the prosecutor spoke, it was Mumbo's turn to give his opening statements. Dream did his best to focus back in then, wanting to pay attention, but it was so hard when his heart was pounding, blood rushing in his ears.

"My client is a kind man, a gentle man," Mumbo was saying. "I can assure you he would never harm anyone without reason. What occurred was a tragedy, yes, but Mr. Clayton only meant to protect his partner and himself through any means possible, and I intend to prove that he only acted in self-defense and without malicious forethought. He is not a murderer. He was a scared young man, acting desperately against an armed intruder, and that's exactly what I'll be showing you all today. Thank you."

Mumbo came back over to sit down and Dream gave him a thankful look. He couldn't imagine standing up in court and talking like that, but of course, it was Mumbo's job. He did this all the time and he was fantastic at it.

After that, the prosecution was asked to bring up their witnesses. Dream watched numbly as a couple forensics experts, along with one of the cops who had come to the house, all came up to talk about how things had looked, and what their investigation had turned up. The bat Dream had used was brought out and Dream swallowed, feeling nauseous at how dented it was. But he felt bad too. That bat had sentimental value to Scar. The signature on it was from Doc, showing off the dexterity of his latest prosthetic arm. And though Scar would get the bat back after this, it would never be the same. Dream hoped the signature wasn't ruined.

The witnesses painted a pretty gruesome picture of the situation, but Mumbo went up to cross-examine each of them, asking clarifying questions that they mostly answered yes or no to, but most of what they said put Dream in a better light. Did Dream look violent when they arrived? No. Did he look scared? Yes. Was Scar holding him and looking after him? Yes. And so on.

Dream couldn't stop feeling grateful for how thorough Mumbo was and how illuminating his questions were.

Then the prosecutor called up the next person and Dream felt cold when he realized it was the second robber who had been in the house. He had heard they caught the guy but hadn't really kept up with what was happening, as Scar was handling the legal stuff around the robbery itself and didn't want to trouble Dream with it too much.

The man wouldn't be going to trial, having already taken a plea bargain, and Dream wondered how long he was going to be in prison for. The guy glanced at him as he passed Dream's table on the way to the stand and Dream briefly held eye contact before looking down, feeling guilty. Both the robbers had been violent, sure, but Dream still felt bad for killing the man's friend right in front of him.

The robber identified himself as Chris Rodger when asked for his name, then he was asked to tell them what happened that night when he and his friend broke in.

"Well, it seemed like a... a typical break-in, for us," Chris said slowly, seeming nervous about talking about it, but he pressed on. "We knew the guy was rich, thought we could get some good money out of him, or at least take something valuable from the house. We kept an eye on him for a while before that. We knew he had partners that visit. We thought he was alone that night, that was why we chose to do it then. We had no idea that guy... Dream, was there."

Dream swallowed, looking at him again. That was the main snag with the cover story. He hoped though that that wouldn't be enough to affect the verdict.

"So we went in. Scar was in the living room, he put up some fight, but I had a knife and Dennis had a gun, and all we had to do was threaten his stupid cat to get him to cooperate. The cat ran off though and he started mouthing off after that, we were about to just shoot him and search the house, but then he came downstairs." Chris pointed to Dream. "Thought he was some homeless guy who also broke in. He had this mask on. His clothes were dirty and faded. But he came in fast, right at us with this bat. Dennis got a shot on him and hit his arm, and that's when he attacked him. Just went crazy, hitting him in the head again and again, and when I tried to stop him, he hit me too. It hurt, he was a lot stronger than he looked. Dennis hit the floor and tried to get his gun, and Dream hit him again, until he stopped moving. Then Dream came at me, and I decided it wasn't worth it. I just ran. I didn't know then that Dennis had died. Just thought he had knocked him out or something. I couldn't stop to check. I just wanted to get out before I got knocked out too. I only found out later that he was dead. Brain bleed, they said. That little..." Chris took a steadying breath, then continued, "Dream beat him to death."