The People with Useless Power

Chapter Thirteen

Mara sat Emily down in an empty auditorium chair forcefully. "I think you'll like the show," she smiled, tying her hands together and walking up to a podium.

She didn't know what was going on. All Emily knew was that Mara had found her bus, and found her.

"Mara, what's going on?" Emily whimpered.

"Your best torture method," she snickered, glee dancing in the hollow orbs of her eyes. Mara started to laugh, shaking and clutching onto the podium as if her life depended on it. Insane, nervous laughter that had a bad ring to it, as if it were forced.

The room slowly filled up with people. Grayson sat to the left of her, and Vincent to the right, and they were both looking at her like she was made of glass. Gray took out scissors and cut the rope around her wrists off. She started to move them, but he held up a hand.

"Leave them be right now," he ordered in a whisper.

Emily nodded and looked around. Everyone was wearing black, and she felt out-of-place in her jeans and hoodie, but she tried to ignore that. Emily had a bad feeling about them, anyway.

Someone wearing a black hood was led into the room and stood in front of the podium, in front of Mara, who had calmed down rather quickly. She stood with her usual perfect posture and glanced down at the hooded figure, who was pushed onto their knees.

Emily's blood ran cold when Mara spoke, "Emma Taylors. Accused of leaving the building without permission or supervision, attempted murder of Lavender Array, attempted escape, assistance in an attempted escape, threatening murder of ten counts, alcoholism, and jeopardizing our location more than once. What does the defendant have to say?"

Emma's hood was pulled down, and her pink hair tumbled out in waves. The guards behind her hit the back of her head with their guns, and she sank lower into the floor, her head down. She made a noise- a sort of garbled, forced noise- but it sounded like 'guilty'.

Gasps echoed through the room, and Vincent let out quiet sobs. "They cut out her tongue," he whispered.

"Good. So you're finally not lying." Mara gave her a dark scowl. But something was wrong in her eyes. Somehow, they were... dimmed.

Gray squeezed his eyes shut and stretched out his hand. He opened his mouth and breathed heavily, as if he was in pain, but Emma's head lifted again.

"I'm not finished," she snapped, and Mara screamed, covering her mouth with her hands. "I did all those things, sure. But the 'attempted murder' was self-defense. And you told me, to my face, that I could leave whenever I wanted to. I also suffered a great deal of depression when- well, you know, and you didn't offer me support; you offered me drinks. As for the threats, that isn't a rule, and neither is jeopardizing the location."

The room was silent.

"Even if all of that is true, you still escaped and helped Emily here escape. That's against the-"

"Well, we should be able to leave when we want to! This is like a prison!" Emma yelled, standing, and a few people stood with her.

Mara regained her composure, anger flashing in her eyes, and she snatched the microphone. "This is a prison, and I can't find it in my heart to care."

The room went silent. Everyone stood.

"What, don't tell me you're surprised?" Mara growled. "As long as you all kept living your fantasies, you were safe from the outside world. That's not a bad thing. I was supposed to round you people up and keep you someplace where you can't-"

Vincent raised up his hand, and Mara screamed, falling on the floor and twitching madly. Emily finally moved her hands to push back the chair and hide behind it.