At Dawn, in the Forest

Chapter 22

"Thank you, your Honour," Thomas thanked them again. He smiled at Dawn, which she mirrored with a timid smile. She turned around to her family and friends who were seated on the benches for audience purposes. They all smiled back and held thumbs up, happy they won their first case in their favor.

But now the real battle had to start.

"Alright, let's move to the second case of today. Bring the two suspects in and their representative," The middle man announced.

Dawn took a sharp inhale when she saw the two doctors entering the room. Everything became so much colder and darker. She had to fight with all her willpower to give in to her urges, to rip them apart. In slow motion, she saw them walking to their places at the desk, similar to hers on her right. There were only a couple of feet in between them when they sat down.

Both doctors didn't make eye contact with the young woman until Dr. Willow was about to sit down, he carefully cocked his head to Dawn and displayed a wicked smirk on his lips. Before Dawn could even stand up Thomas had already his hand on her arm. "Don't, he is trying with everything he has to make every word leaving your mouth not credible," He whispered.

"After reviewing this case we stumbled upon a divergence between the two stories, that of the doctors Willow and Klein and of Dawn Carson. This hearing is to offer some clearance on the crime that is committed to ensure a fair verdict. The word is to Mr. Callaway."

The representative of Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein stood up from his chair and buttoned his suit jacket. "Your Honour, we live in times where humanity's biggest threat is their own body. In the last decades, we discovered numerous amount of diseases, viruses, and cancers for which we have yet to find a cure. In this fight to keep humanity healthy, we hit walls, dead ends, and undesirable results, and these negative test results might push one in the wrong direction to get quicker to the finish. Today-"

"Mr. Callaway, may I remind you that we are not in a courtroom, but in a council hall. You have no jury to convince," One of the council members spoke up.

"I thank you for the reminder, you Honour, but I still have to convince you all that the accusations made by this young woman are incorrect." The representative pointed at Dawn.

"Yes, that is right, but here in our way of right and law, we do things more efficiently, less theatrical. I am going to ask you to keep your story to the point, Mr. Callaway."

"Alright then... Today I am going to convince you all that it wasn't Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein who conducted experiments on Dawn Carson but Jack Sullivan."

Silence fell around the people in the council hall. Dawn's heart dropped. Thomas had his suspicions they knew a way to discredit her accusations, but this was not what they expected and Thomas had to switch tactics fast.

"Mr. Baker, what is your response?" The middle man asked.

"We deny it. We will convince everyone that it was indeed Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein who medically tortured my client for over nine years."

"Mr. Callaway, what is the basis of your statement?" The councilwoman on the far right asked.

The arrogant representative walked around the desk picked up a stack of papers and held it high in the air for everybody to see. "These are all the statements made by the prisoners of the lab. In not any of these statements is being said anything regarding my clients and their interactions with Dawn Carson. None of them witnessed the three of them together in a room or even seen them remotely close for more than a minute. Two men did state, however, that Jack Sullivan liked to brag about watching over a young girl and-or woman in the facility. Of course, who this woman or girl is, is an assumption, but I think we can state that Mr. Sullivan was talking about Miss Carson.