This was a short story I had to write for English class. I was given 20 vocabulary words and I had to write a story with all 20 words in it. It was super fun and a great way to challenge myself into writing with large and extravagant words! (see? I'm using words like "extravagant" now!)
Anyway, hope you enjoy! And please leave a comment and vote!
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Description: Ashley was kidnapped and held in a tiny basement for over a month by a strange man. Now that she is free, she must face the ever looming press and long hours in a court room. But not everything is going to go exactly as planned.
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The girl stared at the front of the courtroom, her eyes unseeing. The court had long since adjourned, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.
“If he actually wins this case...oh, I swear!” A woman sat next to the girl, trembling with rage. There was so much resemblance between the woman and the girl, that one would only guess it was her mother. “Let’s go, Ashley. We’ll come back later.”
The woman rose quickly from her seat, casting an angry glance at the man in the orange jumpsuit who had a smug smile on his face. He slowly turned around, locking eyes with the girl. She sat, unflinching, staring coolly back.
Ashley stood, pushing into the aisle and walking briskly out of the uncomely courtroom. The voices disappeared behind her, and she relished in the silence. But outside the courthouse was a flurry of cameramen and newscasters who snapped pictures of her as she passed, the flashes of light blinking erratically.
As she slipped into the car that was waiting for her, a newscaster pushed forward, holding her microphone out to Ashley’s mother.
“When will she be allowed to be interviewed?” the woman asked in a loud, almost commanding voice. Ashley’s mother stared intently back at the camera, anger flashing in her ivy eyes.
“Never,” she responded tersely, then fell into the seat next to her daughter, slamming the door shut. The car rolled forward.
Ashley watched her mother curiously, examining the hateful expression across her rosy cheeks and bright eyes like a doctor would examine a patient. The constant media attention was fodder for her mother’s anger towards the man who had kidnapped Ashley, holding her for over a month in his small basement. These expressions her mother wore were alien to the young teenager. She had seen her mother mad, and sometimes distraught, but this was something new- something deeper and more sinister. Ashley shuddered; never again did she want to see that face.
“We’re going to have to fortify the house to keep all the press out,” her mother mumbled angrily. Ashley snorted, staring out the window at the shops and vendors that whizzed by as they drove down the road. In a few hours, the court session would continue. “Later” would bring even more hell.
And hell did come. Ashley sat again at the back of the courtroom as people began to filter in. Her mother had no idea why she continuously insisted on coming to the trial.
“It just sullies everything!” her mother had cried. “You won’t move on if we keep seeing him.”
“This is helping,” Ashley had shot back. “To watch him slowly realize he’s not dissolute to it all is helping!”
Constantly, as he had stared back at her from the basement door, she had told him he would be caught, that they would find her. He had only ever laughed and contradicted her, and as they days wore on, she had begun to believe him. But she still said it to him every day, right up until the moment her words became truth.
He’s breaking, she thought. Nobody knew him quite like her. She had spent a month watching him, how he acted, how he moved. Studying- it was all she could do not to go insane with boredom. She could see it in his face; he was becoming vulnerable. He may have pleaded not guilty, but he would break soon. For now, though, he would not let anybody subjugate him.
Ashley watched as he took the witness stand. He had claimed he wanted to say something to prove his innocence. Throughout the trial, he constantly would say that he had a friend living with him, and the friend was the one who had kidnapped her, that this friend had hid her in the basement without informing him. Every time he would say this, anger would boil in her.
What a lying little-! She took a deep breath. No anger. Not when surrounded by so many people.
She watched as he took the oath of truth and sat down at the witness stand. His lawyer stood in front of him, staring with a look of boredom.
“Tell us the evidence,” he ordered.
The man leaned forward, clasping his hands on the witness stand. His eyes roamed the room for a few moments before he took a deep breath, and began.
“My lawyer is the reason I pleaded not guilty,” he said, loud and clear. “Personally, I thought it was ridiculous to attempt something so stupid, but he was so sure he could win.”
Surprise flickered among the crowd, especially on the lawyer’s face. He grew rigid, his complexion pale.
“It is true,” continued the man, “I did have a friend, but he did not live in the house with me. I owed him big time, and I needed something to compensate him with since I had no money.”
Ashley’s blood ran cold as she saw where this was going. She leaned forward in her seat, eyes wide.
“He needed a girl, so I looked for the most tantalizing girl I could spot, and that’s how I found Ashley.
“I thought she would be quite lucrative, and so I took her.” A sinister smile crept across his face. “She was stunning, and as the days flew by, I found it harder and harder to give her up.”
A tremor rippled down her back as he spoke. His eyes met with hers, and she found it impossible to break away. She was rooted to the seat, speechless and utterly in shock.
A confession. Nobody had expected a confession. Even his lawyer didn’t know what to do. The judge’s jaw was slightly agape as he stared at the man. The silence and sudden surprise proliferated around the courtroom. He leaned back in his seat, looking quite satisfied.
Then, the whole room shifted at once. Reporters jotted down notes as police yanked him from his seat, cuffing him. They began to drag him down the aisle. As he passed her, he suddenly froze, looking at her as she sat on the end of the row. She looked back up at him, unsure of what her expression was, but guessed it was something along the line of fear mingled with hate.
“Here,” he said with a wink, tossing a small, crumpled up piece of paper into her lap with a twitch of the hand. Her mother reached for it as they hauled him away, but she snatched it up too quickly. She leaped from her seat, following the horde of reporters that ran after him. His expulsion from the courtroom had riled up a frenzy, and she found it difficult to push through the thick crowd.
By the time she was outside, he was already being pushed into a police car, the crowd jeering after him, lead by the reporters who had seen the confession.
When the reporters saw her, however, they bombarded her. She ducked down, feinting to the right and disappearing into the courthouse lobby. There, she examined the mediocre decorating and the businessmen who waited in the lobby as her heart thudded furiously in her chest. The people around her gave her curious glances, but she ignored them all.
When her heart had finally stopped racing, she uncrumpled the piece of paper he had given her and carefully read the near-illegible handwriting.
"Someday, we’ll be together."
