Adam Peaks and the Living City

Chapter 31: ... And A Twist

The next few days passed in a blur of confusion. Adam was taken from Adrian Chopkith's office to a small, dingy cell beneath an LCIT outpost where he was interrogated for several hours by LCIT agents. He told them over and over again what had happened: he and his friends had arrived to stop Adrian from doing something horrible and to confront him over the missing Undying, only to find him dying behind his desk. After the interrogations were finished, he was tased without warning and transported to another LCIT office in the back of an armoured vehicle. LCIT agents had attached a bulky, silver collar to his neck that burned his skin. Beneath his chin the collar contained a metal pouch filled with verbena, wolfsbane, and other herbs meant to subdue Undying. He spent the rest of his time with the LCIT in a constant, dizzying stupor that muddled his senses and removed any sense of time.

Several days later, he glanced down at his watch and sniffed as his eyes filled with stinging tears, "I'm sorry, Michael. I tried to save him ... but I wasn't fast enough, again."

"That's alright Adam," the watch responded cheerily, "you'll pay him and me back when you're rotting in Hell!"

The door to his tiny cell swung open and he looked up, his head spinning. An LCIT agent stepped into the room and nodded, "get up, Mr. Peaks. Your case has been called to trial."

"Trial?" He blinked as the words tried desperately to penetrate the fog of confusion in his mind, "trial for what? Where ... who are you?"

"Come on," the agent grunted, helping him to his feet, "it's time to go."

He was led to a waiting van and ushered inside where he was grabbed roughly by two armed guards. They sat him down on a shaky bench and flanked him on either side, each of them keeping one hand on their cans of verbena spray. Time passed slowly, but soon enough the van came to a screeching halt, and it's doors were flung open. He was pulled through a secluded hallway that smelled horribly of desperation. The fluorescent lights above flickered on and off as if tired of being kept on all day. They came to a set of wooden, double doors that had words in latin etched into their faces. He was shoved through harshly, and stumbled as his shoes came into contact with the linoleum floor beyond.

Adam's eyes burned as they adjusted to the sudden increase in artificial light, and he gasped. He was in a courtroom, surrounded by rows of benches filled with Undying, werewolves, goblins, and all other manner of creatures. Another set of seats had been set off to the side, and he wondered wearily if they were for his jury. Each and every person seated there was an Undying, and they glared down at him as he was marched through the courtroom and pushed past an iron gate. LCIT agents helped him sit at a metal desk and hooked his handcuffs to a chain affixed to the bottom of the desk. He watched them listlessly; any thought of resistance had left him days ago. The LCIT agents unlocked the collar around his neck and pulled it away, leaving quickly through the iron gates separating him from the rest of the people in the courtroom. Adam felt as though he was waking from a dream, and he sucked in the clean air bereft of verbena. His eyelids lost their weight and his mind cleared, as though someone had turned on a light in his brain. He shook his head several times to clear his thoughts and stretched his aching joints. Once the stupor had vanished, the familiar feeling of panic began to set in.

He was in a courtroom, accused of murder!

He gasped and felt sick to his stomach. He was innocent, and yet he was here, surrounded by people who had already judged him to be guilty. Adam gulped and thought of what an Undying prison would be like, and then felt his heart skip a beat; what if the punishment for murder was death?! He would never see his friends again, would never see his mother again ... he was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to stop-