The Vindicated With The Monstrous

Twenty Five

Lauren wasn't in there very long, in reality it was only basically the whole night, but it felt like much more when she woke up early in the morning. She didn't know she had woken up early until she waited for what felt like an eternity to finally hear footsteps approaching the cell. She thought it was time for her trial already and got excited but the shot of her cell only opened and her breakfast was dropped through, leaving Lauren disappointed as she finally at least knew she had quite a waiting time before she leaves for trial this afternoon.

In that waiting time, Lauren quickly found out hot maddening being in the cell could be when you no longer can sleep. Lauren tried to will herself to sleep but it wouldn't work, so she was reduced to writing again. She wrote more letters to Camila, challenging herself to write down every single thing she could name about the girl that she liked. Then her mood got damper as she remembered how long it's been since she's seen the girl.

I hope you're at trial today.

Lauren mentioned again, not even realizing she already expressed this just three paragraphs above on the same page, or six times among all that she's written since she started. Lauren stared at the sentence while biting her lip in thought, she shook her head in disagreement with her own sentence.

I feel like I should be saying that I know you'll be in trial, but I can't. I don't know, and I hate that I don't know.

Lauren stopped writing, putting her pencil down as she laid back down in her bed trying to calm herself down. She could feel herself on the brink of tears and had to stop it so that she wouldn't break down. She refused to break down just yet, she was scared of what could come if she let herself succumb to sadness while trapped inside this tiny enclosed cell. She closed her eyes back, resting her eyes and forcing her mind to go blank for a few moments until she heard footsteps approaching her cellar. She jumped up immediately when they stopped in front of her cell and looked at the door open in anticipation. She knew it was finally time for trial, and for once she was actually excited for it, it was not only a chance to hopefully see Camila but just a chance to be outside that she desperately needed.

--

"She was a kindergarten teacher, she loved children so much, it was her passion," Richard said with tears in his eyes, "She devoted everything she had to the children, she even set up multiple charities and benefits to fund lesser fortunate and orphaned children. There is no one that I know of that could have done that to Abby, she had no enemies, nothing. Everyone knew who she was and what she stood for, only a monster would take such a special girl from this world," Richard's voice and demeanor got angrier with that last sentence as he side glared at Lauren.

"Mr. Jones, can you please tell the members of the jury what you recall from that day involving your daughter?" Ally asked, quick to change the subject because his mournfulness turned into anger which was not a good look for the jury.

"I didn't get to see her all day that day, as you can imagine I really regret it," Richard sadly sad as his eyes looked down at the ground.

"But you did talk to her, in fact you called her once in the morning and another time in just an hour before her death is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct. I called her in the morning to see what she was doing that day, if she was going to stop by because her mother and I hadn't gotten a chance to see her in a few days since she was so busy with the start of school. She told me she would maybe come for dinner, I called her around six o'clock to see if she was going to but she decided against it, she was starting some sort of cleanse. That was the last time I spoke to her," RIchard replied, his deep voice back to being firm and assured.

"And she usually went out on evening jogs?" Ally asked, Normani and Lauren both seem uninterested in this testimony all together, but as Normani looked at the jury members she was a little bit worried. Some of them seemed to just be eating up Richard's testimony, hanging on every word he said, although it was bringing absolutely nothing substantial to the floor.