Temere Mortis

Chapter Forty-six

"So, Isla, we've all heard about your experience in the simulation after Aleksandra and Henry's deaths, but I'd like to ask you some further questions if you don't mind?"

Isla nodded in response to the defence lawyer, silently telling her to get on with it.

"You have to say it out loud, otherwise it's not on the record," the woman informed her with a guilty expression causing Isla to grit her teeth angrily.

"No, I don't mind," Isla conceded with an air of irritation, "go right ahead." The lawyer inhaled sharply, no doubt smelling victory in the air.

"Can you tell us some more about what happened at the clinic? Were you treated well?"

"Objection!" Isla's lawyer called out loudly, "she's leading the witness."

"Overruled," the judge countered, gesturing for the lawyer in front of Isla to proceed. She cleared her throat.

"Were you treated well, Isla?" she queried, and Isla breathed deeply. She knew that she was about to start a domino chain that she couldn't stop until it raced to its' completion.

"No," Isla replied bluntly, and the room was shrouded in silence. No one coughed, no one breathed. It appeared that they were at a loss for words at Isla's admission. Isla coughed, preparing herself for the big reveal that she had so carefully planned in her head on their walk into the courtroom. "I was drugged, heavily, to the point that I could no longer distinguish my brother from my father."

Isla looked at her brother, seeing the pride that he felt towards her reflected in his eyes. His joy was mirrored in the expression of everyone around him, Alex's triumphant glow outshining that of anyone in their section. Isla wasn't surprised; her best friend had always outshined everyone in her eyes, except maybe Henry and her guardian angel.

Isla met each of their gazes individually, trying with all her might to tell them how sorry she was. She knew in her bones that even though no words were spoken they understood. Isla turned towards her sister last, seeing unshed tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Her twin nodded, an unspoken understanding crossing between them from across the room.

"Thank you," her sister mouthed silently, unknowingly lighting a fire in Isla that spurred her on.

"But that's not even the worst part," Isla continued, addressing the jury directly. "They did this to me, to silence me. I already told you how tortured I was by Alex's death. What I didn't tell you is how I refused to conform to their sick traditions of Regulated Grieving. I didn't attend their precious support groups and they hated it for me. They wanted to punish me and the people who were trying to protect me."

"Who were they protecting you from?" the lawyer probed gently but with purpose. "Was it the society in the simulation?"

Isla laughed harshly. It was dark and brutal as it bounced around the walls.

"No, no one can protect you from that hell," Isla informed her honestly as she surveyed the jury with narrowed, angry eyes. She looked at them as if it was their fault, and theirs alone. Isla knew, however, that the blame rested on everyone's shoulders for allowing the brutality of her everyday existence to continue unobstructed. "They were protecting me from the real murderer of Harriet Able."

This time the crowd was not silent, there were obnoxious outcries of disbelief as people screamed at Isla that she was lying. Henry was the murder they said, the original Henry, it had been proven. Isla continued with her twisted tale as she ignored them completely. Her original lawyer stayed seated, unable to think of a way to stop her.

"That's why they sent my brother and my Henry to protect me. It was because this society let a murder roam free." At this admission, Isla's lawyer finally stood, screaming at the top of his lungs.