Revived Souls

P A R T T h i r t y T w o

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|T H I R T Y t w o|our Silence
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Flynn kept his replies short and curt even though it was tangled with snappiness. He wasn't afraid to refute statements made by Mr. Hawke. Sometimes he seemed to be on the verge of piercing a bullet through Hawke's head. Even though Hawke played with his twisted questions, Flynn decided to play fire with fire. He wasn't exuberantly great that his testimony would free us from the accusations. But he was brilliant with his words. Hawke now appeared a little disarmed and had lost the annoying triumphant grin.

When my name was called, my breathe quickened and my legs felt wobbly like a Jell-O. I chewed on my lower lip and closed my eyes for a moment making a small prayer to God.

Mustering up courage, I walked briskly to stand on the infamous cage and swallowed a lump in my throat. My hands were shaking, my palms sweaty and I was pretty sure my face was drained of any color. All the epinephrine was surging through my body activating my parasympathetic divisions. My heart was like a drum beating loud against my chest.

I saw my dad and Lance sending me a reassuring smile from where they sat in the stands. I returned it as they gave me a nod.

My eyes searched for Flynn and I saw that his eyes weren't meeting mine. He had an indifferent look playing on his features.

Just as I turned to face the opposition lawyer, my eyes briefly caught a smug smile planted on Margo Braun's lips. It was supposed to make me cower away in fear but somehow I found my resolve to fight against her lies.

"Ms. Ridlers, when did you first meet the victim?" Hawke began his torture on me.

"It was during the fire on Silverstone Hotel when we found her all alone as she cried for help. Nobody seemed to respond and everybody was trying to escape the fire and protect themselves. And I...I couldn't find myself to abandon her." I said looking down at the ground.

"Hmm, you made yourself like a superhero, huh? Was that to make Regen to warm up to you guys so that you could kidnap her?" Hawke asked with a smirk.

"We did not kidnap her. Like Inspector Arnold said, her parents were missing and all we did was take her under our protection." I heaved a long sigh already getting a headache from the questions.

"Ms. Ridlers, what do you have to say about the phone call then?" Hawke raised an eyebrow at me.

"That was not even real." I scoffed.

"Oh, in that case, Ms. Ridlers, you should know that it was made from your phone number." Hawke had the nerve to chuckle mocking my frigid state.

"It was fabricated. I never made a phone call to Margo. I have never contacted Margo in the first place." I stood my ground firmly. I clenched my fists trying to gain strength.

"Any proof, Ms. Ridlers that it was fabricated?" Hawke looked at me with a bored expression.

I looked away as I muttered, "No."

"Now, your honor, it is quite obvious to see that Ms. Ridlers obviously has Regen. Dead or Alive? I don't know." Hawke kept pacing back and forth throwing me all sorts of glare which I equally returned.

"I do not have Regen. She went missing when we were in New York. I was with her alone in Flynn's apartment and when the doorbell rang, I had gone to open it wherein I was chloroformed. Then I woke up in the hospital bed to find that Genie was gone!" I tightly gripped on the bars of the cage.