Shadow turned around and opened the door. He sat down next to the woman, he assumed was Lynn Moss. She was skinny and fairly new at this. “Hello, I’m Lynn,” She reached out her hand, expecting him to take it.
He smiled. “I guessed,” he left her hand hanging in the air, “Ok, now let’s get one thing straight. I’ve already been questioned by the police and they didn’t get anything out of me. I highly doubt this will be any different. You’re not going to be able to change anything. You’re not going to make me talk. I know that if I confess, then me and my sister will be locked away forever. That is not going to happen.”
“Shadow you must know that there is no definite guarantee, that you or your sister will be locked away. I’m just here to help you through this process. I’m completely impartial. Nothing said here will be used against you. Anyway when I was first approached about this case, I was told that you and your sister had to live on the streets at quite a young age. This would be an extremely traumatic experience for two fully grown adults let alone for two young children. Please tell me all about it.l it would be a very good idea to talk and share your feelings, rather than keeping them under lock and key, so to speak.”
Shadow considered briefly. “Ok. once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a beautiful princess-”
“Very funny Shadow, but that could develop into an interesting story. Have you ever considered anything down that road?”
“Are you trying to help me pick a job? I’m not sure that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“No Shadow, I’m trying to help you, but you’re not making it easy.”
“That is the general idea.”
The door slowly opened and Inspector Crosby walked through. “How are we doing?”
“Not so great, but with a bit of time, I think we might make some progress. Shadow has quite a tough exterior, but if we break through that-”
“Please, don’t talk about me like that.” Shadow moaned.
“I’m sorry Lynn, but Shadow is quite a difficult person. I’m not sure if we have the time.” Lynn slowly nodded and walked out.
“Why did you think a social worker was going to help me? How desperate are you?”
“You’re right. I am running out of options, but I think this one might work.” Gravity, Bliss and the man he knew as Consultant Gideon Jones entered the room. Shadow observed that Gravity had glasses over her eyes and her hands were cuffed behind her back. The lenses to the glasses were blacked out; Shadow knew that this was a wise decision. For Gravity to kill someone, she needed to look directly at them. It was Consultant Jones who spoke first. “Shadow, it seems so long ago from when we first met in the waiting room of that hospital. I’m sure the first question you want to ask me is, why did I let you go earlier? The reason is, now this might come as quite of a shock to you, but I have had our DNA compared and this has confirmed that I am your biological father. Also you remember Fiona Davids,” the children’s faces remained blank, “she was your first victim, the receptionist at the hospital waiting room, remember? Anyway I had her DNA compared to yours and you both have the same DNA, which means that Fiona Davids was your mother and my wife. You siblings killed your own mother.” Gravity sat down heavily; she was not prepared for this.
Shadow shook his head in disregard. “She deserved it.” He said, his voice full of contempt.
Gravity shook her head. “No, she didn’t. Oh my god, I killed my own mother.”
“Gravity, it’s Ok, I’m sure something happened to you while you were on the streets, which turned you into a murderer. Tell me about it.” Consultant Jones encouraged.
Shadow shook his head. “We’re not telling you anything.” He injected, defiantly.
“It’s Ok Shadow. I think we cant trust him.”
“What? Somebody tells you that they’re your father and you decide to tell them your life story?”
Gravity ignored the comment. “Ok, Consultant,” she knew she was not ready to say dad yet, “Obviously you know the part, about my abandonment at birth, but for the police’s sake, I’ll repeat this point. I was born premature and blind. According to my parents this made me an embarrassment. I was little more than a week old, when they placed me by the local stream and left me to die-”
“That is absolutely disgusting Gideon. She was your little girl and you left her to die. You are sick.” Sarah protested.
Gideon rolled his eyes. “I had my reasons or doing it. If you would please continue Gravity.”
“Anyway I was down by the stream and luckily my brother Shadow found me. We returned to the house and found that our parents no longer wanted us there. Then we turned to our grandparents, they were lovely sweet old couple, much better than our original parents. However when I was four years old, my grandmother started to come down with Alzehimer’s. It was onto the street from thee. Our grandparents had given us six hundred pounds, but we were stupid. We just tired to go for comfort. For luxury. So we rented out an apartment. We managed to stay there for a month. Then we ran out of money, after that we were kicked out. The next elven months were tough we had spent most of the money on the apartment’s rent. We were begging, struggling to make ends meet. For eleven months we were like that, until early the next year, thing began to change. We had come to the attention of a local gang, nothing too big or important just a little gang. Anyway we started to do tasks from them: petty thefts and things like that. Two very important factors came to the attention of this gang. One, that I was a female and two, that I was very young. I’m not exactly sure what they did, but they operated on me and made me able to kill, by any way possible. I could also comatose and control people, as well as wiping their memories, with my sight or my touch. They offered us very good money, if I managed to carry out assassinations. You see, we were young and we were so desperate for money that we accepted. For the next six years I killed enemies of this gang and we were paid in cash. Although we did receive enough money for shelter, we just bought food. In retrospect we probably should have saved our money, but we couldn’t do that. we were so desperate to eat. Now only one year ago, the gang was broken up and mos the members were arrested. Us and a few more people managed to get away and then we were out on our own for one year.”
Mitch frowned. “I guess, I was a little sexist. I did not expect the killer to be a teenage girl. Why did you still continue to kill people?”
“We did it, because you see when you’re begging your income remains very low. You have to do various deeds, so you know where your next meal is coming from. So continued to kill people and we stole their money to pay for our food. We killed the last man, because he tried mugging us of our money.”
“Why did you target people associated with medicine?” Sarah asked.
“Partly because it was good money and also because all people associated with medicine refused to help ups. You could say I did it, as an act of vengeance.”
“How did you manage to blow up the hospitals? Where would you get C4 from?” It was Gideon who inputted this.
“We’re still in contact, with a few members of our old gang. We acquired the C4 of them.”
“Did you kill Cameron as well?” Mitch asked.
“Yes. I acquired some poison of our old gang and using money I took from that trainee stockbroker. I paid them to plant the poison in his water.”
“Why did you attack Cameron and Melissa in the first place?” Mitch enquired.
Shadow groaned. “Gravity can answer this one. I can honestly say that I had no part in it.”
Gravity sighed. “We originally went to them, as Shadow is very good friends with him. Cameron was a really nice guy and he had agreed to give us some fresh money and clothes. However his fiancée Melissa was horrible. One thing you should know is that usually people react unkindly when they see my eyes, which is why I try to keep them shut. I didn’t want to upset anyone, but Melissa wanted to see them and I felt I could trust her. She looked into them and leapt back screaming. This angered me a lot and I wanted to get revenge.”
“How did you kill Fiona Davids? She was in her own home and we didn’t find any trace of forced entry.” Sarah asked.
“Isn’t it obvious, as I have already said we were still in contact with some members of the old gang, so we managed to acquire some pick locks off them and we got a laser cutter of them too.” Gravity explained.
“Why are you telling us all of this?” Sarah asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? We’re clearly gong to jail. Nothing we do will stop that, so you might as well know the whole story.” Gravity answered.
Shadow shook his head in very strong disagreement, but his sister ignored this.
Mitch turned to Gideon. “What happened between you and Fiona, when your children had run away?”
“We tried to get on with our lives. Fiona never shed a tear, when you left us. When Shadow and Gravity ran away, she felt like they had betrayed her. She despised them. I was never really comfortable with the decision and we got a divorce. She went back to her maiden name and I decided to change my last name. I wanted to wash all aspects of the horrible incident away. We decided to stay in contact with each other and I arranged a job for her at the St. George hospital.” Gideon explained.
Sarah turned back to Shadow. “Could you also shed some light, on the trainee stockbroker’s death?”
“What do you want to know?” Shadow asked.
“We found the victim’s own fingerprints on the murder weapon, but then we found the knife buried in his garden. It seemed you tried to make this look like a suicide, but then why did you bury the knife?” Mitch replied.
“After we had covered the knife in the stockbroker’s fingerprints we realised, rather stupidly, we had stabbed him in the back. We knew it would not have been a believable suicide. So we panicked and we hurriedly got Bliss to bury it in his garden.” Gravity responded.
Sarah turned to Mitch. “We’d already found their fingerprints on the knife? Why didn’t we bring them in then? What was the point of waiting all of this time? Surely it would’ve been a cleverer move, if we had arrested them then; we could have saved so many lives.”
“I completely understand where you’re coming from. I was about to contact Milton about it, when he called me in and he gave me a dressing down. In my view he was being really unfair and this angered me so much that it completely washed my mind of the whole affair with the knife,” the two police officers turned back to Shadow and Gravity, “anyway another thing that I was wondering is why did you leave one of your targets alive? Why didn’t you kill him?” Mitch spluttered.
“According to you we have killed lots and lots of people and all of our “victims” are getting mixed up in my mind. Which victim are you talking about?” Shadow asked.
“The man who you attempted to kill, but failed. He was up at three a.m., watching TV.”
“I remember him. We were going to kill him, because he works in the medical industry. We were about to do it, when we heard police sirens. We panicked and wiped his memory, before making a run for it.”
Inspector Crosby sighed. “That is quite a story, you have there. Yes you are right: we cannot bring you to trial for the other murders, but we can still try you for the murder, where your victim’s neck was broken. We have the fingerprints and the witness’ testimony.”
Shadow sat up. “I highly doubt you’ll be able to get the witness to testify in person.”
Gideon smiled. “They could, because I was that witness.”
Shadow’s eyes widened, but then he swiftly relaxed. “I wonder how strong you really are. Could you send your two children to prison?” Shadow asked, looking Gideon straight in the eye.
“I don’t know, Shadow. He left your sister out to die.” Sarah nervously, inputted.
“That was a long time ago. I wonder if he has softened up, since then.”
“I’m stronger than you think. I will testify against you. It’s for your own good anyway; some people will have a few scores to settle with you.”
“Very well then, a trial shall be scheduled soon.” Inspector Crosby stood up hesitantly and walked out of the room, followed by Sergeant Dames. Sarah walked a few steps and stopped.
“Mitch, do you think we did the right thing? It doesn’t seem right, they’re only young and it seems that the attack was self defense.”
“If that’s the way you feel, then maybe you should be their defense lawyer. I know it might seem harsh, but they broke the law and this is what they deserve. Besides they’ll only be in there for a few years.”
* * * *
It was a week after the initial interrogation and Shadow had not had much fun, during that time. His “bed” was nothing more than a lumpy mattress and a sheet that was as rough as sandpaper. The food was not particularly good either. He was sure that he was getting all of his required nutrients, but it tasted horrible. He thought that this would be what life was like in jail. He knew he was going to prison; with a live testimony, he did not stand a chance. In a very peculiar way, he was looking forward to going to prison. For no longer would he have to suffer sleepless nights on the stone cold streets of London. In prison he would have a bed, albeit an uncomfortable one. For no longer, would he go hungry, because there was never enough to eat. In prison he would have regularly served meals, even if they were completely inedible. Shadow really hoped that Gravity and Bliss would be with him, during his incarceration. If they were not, then he would miss them dearly. He also worried about his sister. During her whole life, he had done his best to protect her. Maybe now she would have to learn how to look after herself. The door opened and Inspector Crosby walked in.
“Your trial begins now. The court has managed to arrange a defense lawyer for you.” Mitch said the words, as if he had said them a thousand times before. He stepped to the side and Shadow walked out. Mitch followed him and instructed Shadow to accompany him.
* * * *
A few steps he was relieved to see Gravity, who was with Bliss. He ran to her and embraced her in a crushing hug. Mitch chased after him and quickly broke it up. “We really don’t have time for that.” Shadow and Gravity were walking alongside each other, with Mitch and Sarah behind them. Quickly they came to a wooden paneled door; it was made from the type of wood, you would expect to see in the House of Commons, but not here. Shadow opened the door and stepped into the light of the courtroom.
* * * *
The siblings walked to the front of the room and took a seat. Shadow slowly looked round the room. He saw the jury: a bunch of old, stern and bored looking people and who he thought to be his defense lawyer. He was a young looking man, probably the first time he had being involved in something this big. Then Shadow saw the judge; a very grumpy, old man who looked very excited and certain, as if he could not wait to send two siblings to prison. “The date is now February the twenty second. Would the accused please stand?” The judge said, in a deep bellowing voice. Shadow stood up, and helped his sister get to her feet. “You are being accused for the murder of a young man on February the fifteenth at two thirty in the afternoon. Do you deny this?”
“No.”
“Good. We will now move to the first piece of evidence. A collection of fingerprints, matching the accused were found on the victim’s neck.”
Shadow’s lawyer nervously stood up. “This could have been a physical gesture; it could have simply meant “go away.” It certainly doesn’t prove that Gravity killed this man.”
“That might be very true, but the man was found with a broken neck. Anyway, call the first witness.” Consultant Gideon Jones walked into the room and confidently walked up to the front of the court, avoiding eye contact with his children. “Yes, I can testify against the siblings. I was walking along the road going by my day to day business, when I noticed Gravity’s hand around the victim’s throat. Obviously I stepped forward to intervene, when I heard a cracking noise. I can only assume that she had snapped the man’s neck. Afterwards I saw Shadow go towards her and then the two ran off. I tried chasing after them, but they disappeared very quickly.”
“Does the accused have anything to say?”
Shadow’s lawyer stood up again, more comfortable this time. He seemed to be finding his stride, it was a shame that this trial would not continue for much longer. “The accused would like to speak through me. Gravity says that the victim was stealing her money, money that could have been used to feed her and keep her alive. She says she only acted out of self defense.”
“That’s all very well and good, but in a situation like that, the correct course of action would be to call the police. Then this man would be sitting here, instead of you.”
Shadow shot up. “With all due respect, sir, if you were being mugged, would you stand by and do nothing?”
“Of course I wouldn’t, but I also wouldn’t kill the mugger for it.”
“Even if you were very angry? Even if he took your mobile phone or all of your credit cards? Even if he said he would kill you, if you didn’t comply? In that situation I would kill him first.”
The judge remained quiet for a few minutes, thinking about what Shadow had just said. He shook it off, with a shrug of his shoulders. “That is not relevant. I must remind you that you’re speaking out of turn. We will now move to a verdict.” He turned his head to the jury. The old men and women who looked so bored before had turned animated. Not before long the spokesperson stood up. “We find the defendants guilty as charged.”
“Very well. Shadow I sentence you to two years in Feltham Borstal centre and Gravity you will be sent to the Foster Hall youth detention centre for four years. After two years you will be eligible for appeal. Shadow you sentence starts on March the first and Gravity you sentence will begin on the eighth of March. The police need to clear up as few things, such as writing up forms and sending off paperwork. This is why your sentence starts later than your brother’s.
This court is now adjourned.”
*Author’s Notes*
Once again, fourteen year old me took a lot of creative liberty concerning the courtroom scene. Feel free to correct or criticise me. Have fun.
James Linton Writing 