Locks and Keys

Chapter 29

I walked into the courtroom with my brother and boyfriend at my sides, neither of them letting go of my hands even when we sat down in one of the many rows of chairs. It had been three weeks since I had returned from hospital and today was the day that the final judgment on Ava and Kacey's crimes would be made. Behind me sat my family and friends, with Ava and Kacey's families on the other side of the isle, sending snarled looks our way. This was all apart from Emily, who was sitting with us rather than her family. I had heard that over the last few days she had gotten a lot of grief from her family about siding with me, so had decided to leave them and was currently staying with Kent and his family. They had welcomed her with open arms and were glad that Kent had such a lovely girlfriend.

My hands shook slightly, so I laid them in my lap to stop it from being so obvious, but Ollie seemed to noticed and grabbed into it again and held it tightly. He smiled down at me and I sent a smile back, once again grateful that I had him. I had been anticipating this day for a while and the fact that I had all these people supporting me was reassuring. It gave me the confidence I needed to stand up on that stand and say my testimony.

The court was called to order and everyone fell silent, anticipating what the judge had to say. An elderly man waddled up and sat down in front of the court and began listing off the names, ages, genders and crimes of the defendants, before ending with the line: "How do you plead?" to which both girls said immediately "not guilty", which was idiotic of them both, seeing as though the evidence was stacked against them. 

I tuned out most of what they were saying, until Ollie firmly squeezed my hand, at which point I processed the fact that they had just called my name. It was time for me to say my story. They made me swear to tell the truth, which wasn't exactly hard to do, but then came the difficult part. I started with the basic background of how I had just moved back to the country, to then explaining about the threatening texts. The next part was still a little blurry from the memory loss, but over the last few weeks I had managed to piece together most of what happened after Ollie, Lock and I had driven into the school parking lot. I had gone over the story a couple of times with Lock, just so I could sort the fact from the hallucinated fiction, most of which was pretty clear to spot because of the rainbow lines circling each of the people it involved. When I finish the recount, the defending lawyer proceeded to ask my questions, trying to probe the details of the story. If I'm being honest, I was fine up until they asked me about my memory loss.

"Is it true you suffered from memory loss after you were found on the night in question?" The lawyer asked.

"Yes, it is true, but I have regained most of my memory since then." I replied. My fingers twitched and I could feel my nervousness drip down the back of my neck, like they could accuse me of causing my own memory loss or something.

"But how can you be truly sure that you remember the details of that night correctly? It could be possible that you don't actually remember the night you were found, how can you be sure that it was Ava and Kacey that did this to you?" The lawyer asked.

"Because my memory has returned, along with the fact that Kasey and Ava were found at the warehouse with the baseball bat used to attack me!" I shot back, angrily.

"Vanessa, please calm down. Mrs. Watson, please avoid asking the victim anything that can cause her discomfort or stress, she is still under the care of the city hospital and we have been advised to keep her in a calm state because of her condition." The Judge said, and I silently thanked him, I was beginning to get a headache.

"I apologise your honour, that is all." The defending lawyer said, before sitting back down.

My lawyer then proceeded to ask me a few questions about my story, all of which they had told me they were going to ask, so I was able to calm down and answer the questions without a hitch.