From Hate Flourishes Love (Editing)

I Do Over

🅚🅐🅘

The courtroom feels small. Their nearness crawl under my skin. I tell myself not to recognize them, not to remember. And yet the memory of him, on top, claws its way back.

"All rise."

The words crack through silence. Chairs scrape back. And the judge enters.

"Madam Foreperson," the judge folds his hands. "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

The gray-haired woman with glasses stands from the jury.

"We have, Your Honor."

Zander lifts my shaking hand from the bench, and pulls me a fraction closer, shielding me with his body. I press my head against his shoulder, and feel safe to stare ahead.

"Please read the verdict," the judges instructs the juror.

She takes her glasses down from her hair, placing it on her nose as she unfolds a paper in her hand.

"On Count One, aggravated kidnapping ... we, the jury, find the defendants guilty."

I could hear the rustle of the paper as she unfolds the length of it.

"On Count Two, torture... guilty."

Zander squeezes my hand tightly as she continues reading.

"On Count Three, aggravated kidnapping causing serious bodily injury ... guilty."

I watch the men who had kidnapped me—and helped Harold torture me for days — listen quietly. No twitch, no sigh, no glance betrays what they were thinking.

"Count Four ..."

I bite my knuckles, waiting to hear the last verdict. The one the defense fought the hardest against.

I wait.

But I can only hear my pulse hammering loudly in my ears.

" ... conspiracy to murder, guilty."

Someone exhales sharply, and a chorus of whistles ripples through the gallery.

The judge raises a hand. "Order."

He waits on the court's silence before he looks down at the two men. "The jury having found you guilty on all counts, this court enters judgments of conviction."

For the first time since the trial began, there are cracks in the men's masks as they turn toward their lawyers.

"You will remain in custody," the judges adds. "Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date."

It took nearly two years for the trial to start, and it feels surreal that I'll have to endure even more waiting for the sentencing.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

"Ow!"

"Ow!"