The Deceit Among Us

FREEDOM

Victoria Coleman

"Based on all the evidence given, the party pleading innocent is seen as guilty of all charges. The jury has returned a verdict of guilty. Court dismissed.", the judge says and hits her mallet on her desk three times before leaving the courtroom with two policemen.

The court rises and as people begin to exit the room they look at me with plain disgust and pure hatred.

I don't blame them.

After all, I was an eighteen-year-old girl who had just been sentenced to prison for ten years for killing her brother.

And to think I just turned eighteen, I had my whole life ahead of me.

•••

That was nine years, three hundred and sixty-four days ago.

I felt so much remorse and disgust towards myself even though I knew I didn't do it. Every single day I thought of how stupid I was, how could I have been so idiotic, foolish, and overall so dumb.

To walk in at the wrong time.

I look around my surroundings for the last time and wonder how I possibly stayed in this filthy place all this time. I glance up to the top bunk of the old and rusting bunk bed and notice that my cellmate, Carla, is not in her bed, where she usually is. Not that I should worry, she loathes me.

I see a line of prisoners walking to the cafeteria, a guard opens my cell and nods towards the cafeteria silently indicating to me, lunchtime. I follow protocol and in my orange jumpsuit, I follow the line.

As I set foot into the prison cafeteria, I feel my back being kicked and I'm sent plummeting onto the ground, hitting my nose. I turn around to see who hit me, and my eyes land on Carla with a smirk on her face letting me know she was proudly responsible.

"What the hell Carla?!", I question as I look up at her from the dirty prison cafeteria floor.

"What? Little princess can't handle a little push?", Carla snaps.

"What?", I ask confused.

Carla rolls her eyes, "Me and my girls decided to give you a goodbye party."

She walks over towards me to hoist me up and punches me in the face, I'm thrown back, thinking I'm going to hit the floor or a table but the pain doesn't come. Instead, I feel myself being lifted by two people, who I'm guessing are Carla's minions. They squeeze my arms hard and face me towards Carla. She slaps me with so much force I feel blood trickling down my nose, before I know it, I feel a sharp pain in my stomach telling me I've just been kicked. The pain is so much that I collapse on the floor, panting, wanting, waiting for someone to help me, but of course, no one moves.

I look up and see Carla's face so close to mine that I could smell her breath, she pulls me up higher using my hair and sneers when she sees me wince in pain,

"Goodbye Victoria, I hope I never see you ever again.", and with that she throws me across the room like I'm some ball and when I hit the floor, I feel darkness start to consume me and then, I feel nothing.

•••

It's black everywhere.

All of a sudden, I see colours swirling around me and they begin to merge with shapes and those shapes turn into something I have come to know all so well.

It's the warehouse I found my brother dead in.

Then I'm being sucked into the warehouse. I hear screams. Familiar screams.

"Vicky help me.", an echo whispers.

"Vicky save me.", it continues.

"Help me!", the echo seems to be louder.

"Vicky how could you leave me to be killed?", the darkness with the echo accuses.

"HOW COULD YOU VICKY?!", it shouts.

As the darkness clears out, I start to lose my breath as I'm met with my brother, covered in blood and screaming at me, accusing me of leaving him to be killed.

I start panting and sweating, I feel my heartbeat start to accelerate and I feel the imaginary world start to close in on me, my legs start to buckle under me and I feel myself slipping and falling.

•••

I open my eyes and I'm met with blue ones staring intently at me.

"Good, she's awake.", a woman, dressed in a nurse's uniform, says.

I look to my right and I see a policeman walking past the window with a handcuffed Carla walking in front of him, she catches my eyes and glares at me so hard, I shudder. Another policeman enters the room and I hope he comes with good news.

"Miss Coleman, you were blacked out after an ambushed fight with Carla Mains. You've been out for two days now."

My eyes started to widen as I realize that ten years was over yesterday. I sit up and my body punishes me with shocks of pain, making me instantly lay back down. Although I'm in immense pain whenever I move, I put a huge smile on my face, and I can't help chanting, "I'm free, I'm free, I'm free", in my head.

I'm pulled from my brief euphoria to the voice of the policeman.

"Miss, the doctor says you'll have to stay here for another day or two. But when the doctor releases you, I would need you to come with me to the office to sign the transfer and release papers. After that, you would be free to go.", the policeman informs.

I slowly nod. Even though I'll have to stay in this dreadful place another day, I keep the mindset that I'll be free to go soon.

A/N:

Hope you guys liked the first start of this journey.

Questions for readers:

What are your predictions for the Carla and Victoria situation we got going on? 

What do you think/what's your opinion on the dream about the whole accusation scene? 

What are your predictions on how this story will go? \ i rlly wanna hear them :) \

Feel free to ask questions, give ideas, suggestions, and constructive criticism in the comment section.

xoxo

Next Update: *working on it/hopefully sunday or monday*