The Burning of the Palace at Versailles (or, Butterfly) [REWRITING]

Chapter 1 - The Man on the Roof

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

"Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle."

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

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The day Melody was found guilty of her crime, a man jumped off the roof of the courthouse. Melody's roommate had been there and seen the whole thing. She had been a part of the crowd who stood there and watched. They watched as the man contemplated death. It looked like he had been talking to someone. His hands had waved around widely like he was in an argument with an invisible enemy or friend. Police officers had been walking toward him, trying to get him off the roof, and then he did it. He jumped, with his arms outstretched like he was expecting to fly, and then bam. He landed with a bang on a small two-door sedan. The thing was, Melody's roommate said, her eyes wide and tired, he looked happy. A crazed smile was carved into his face as he fell at the speed of gravity to his death.

Melody, who had been inside the courthouse at the time, did not know about this until later. She had not been there, watching this moment of joy and fury. Instead, she was being sentenced to 20 months in prison by a judge with silver hair. Or maybe not prison. It was a place the judge called the Versailles Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

"Versailles," one of the guards chuckled as two of them escorted her out of the courtroom. "Haven't heard about that nuthouse for a hot minute." Outside, the man's body was cooling and people were taking pictures. A paramedic was asking people for some respect as she tried to fight off the crowds. A news truck was rolling up to the scene. They always were desperate to be the first one there. Later, Melody would wonder if some bystander had called a news station before anyone called the police. It would not have surprised her.

She didn't remember the cops arriving at her crime. Of course, she hadn't done the thing they were all accusing her of, so she wasn't looking at the clock waiting for them to show up.

She thought it was funny, when she thought about it later, that the police officers that were telling the man (before he threw himself off the roof) to come down. After all, the man had done exactly that, he had come down hard.

Melody was angry that day. "But Your Honor, I'm innocent! I didn't do this! I didn't go anywhere near that girl!" she pleaded in the courtroom. Melody's mother had been sitting in one of the chairs there. She was wearing her Sunday best, and she was clenching a handkerchief in her hand. Melody wished her father could be there, to hold his wife's hand. But he was dead and had been for a long time, ever since an addict had shot him for pocket money.

Her mother had hugged her for a long time after the sentencing. Melody's lawyer had sat across from them at the table. Her eyes were sad and her hands were folded nicely in front of her. "I'm sorry, Miss Tsushima," the lawyer said. "I know-"

"It's okay," Melody had interrupted, trying to hold off the sobs threatening to come out of her throat. Her mother was crying enough for the two of them, her pale face shiny with salty water. "It's fine."

"But you didn't do anything!" her mother cried, holding Melody close to her. Melody was twenty-four years old and the same height as her mother, but she still felt like she was back to being a small, scared child as her mother clutched her. "You didn't take that baby, I know you didn't! You were framed!"

That's what Melody told herself and everyone around her, anyway. That she was framed. After all, she sure as hell didn't remember taking the baby from her crib in her ex-boyfriend's house and carrying her across the city to her apartment. But at the same time, there was the question of who was framing her. Thomas may have moved on a little too quickly after their breakup, but he wasn't psychotic. The new girl, the baby's mother, had been the one to call the police when the baby had disappeared, and from the hits and punches she gave Melody when she was arrested, it definitely hadn't been her. And Melody didn't really have any enemies, at least ones that she knew would know how to hurt her like that. She had plenty of casual enemies, after all. Being an investigative journalist was a career that made one have many enemies. But if anyone was trying to get back at her for an article that she wrote when she still worked at the Gazette, why go through his hassle? Why not just kill her?