My Metaphysical Romance

Part 23

I woke up to Chris gently shaking my shoulder, 'Clairty, wake up.'

'Mmfhtppm,' I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. 'I thought you might want some time to get ready. I got you something.' he said, practically dragging me out of bed. 'Come on,' he said like an excited little kid. He took me to a big looking wardrobe in the spare room, 'There wasn't any space for it in our room so I put it in here,' Chris explained. 'Open it.' I opened the doors of the wardrobe and gasped, it was full of clothes, some of them my old clothes and some of them new. Including some leather fighting clothes. 'For me?' I asked amazed. 'Well why not?' he asked grinning. 'Thank you so much!' I said, hugging him. He just smiled proudly, hugging me back. 'You'd better get ready then, we have a hearing in two hours. I'm gonna guess you know where the bathroom is.' I nodded, and he left me to get ready. I hadn't actually changed out of my dress that Raven got me. I wondered where Raven was now, I bet I'd see her later. I picked out some clothes, black jeggings and a white Batman top, one of my old favourites and headed to the shower. The bathroom was a light blue colour and everything was tiled. It was really nice, above a white sink was a set of glass shelves. The glass was tinted blue to match the rest of the bathroom and there was a bath with a sliding window door so you could have a shower too. There was another shelf inside the bath on the wall with all sorts of shampoos, conditioners and body washes. It was like some fancy hotel. I peeled my bloody dress off which I had somehow managed to fall asleep in and put it in a washing basket, behind the door. I got in the shower and had it on really hot, testing all the different shampoo smells before I actually used one. I settled for a coconut one. I wondered how much shampoo one guy needed. Once I'd done in the shower and got dressed, I left the bathroom to explore. I wasn't really a nosy person, I just wanted a hairdryer. There's a hairdryer in the study drawer. It was Chris. Intrusive, I complained, then added, Thanks. I went to dry my hair and as I rummaged through the drawers found my note crumpled up in one of them. He obviously got my note. I finally found the hairdryer and went into the bedroom to plug it in and dry my hair. It never took long to dry my hair because it was quite fine. I just left it down, as always and went to find Chris. He was in the living room playing on a PS4. 'Cool!' I exclaimed, joining him. I sat down next to him and he put an arm round me while expertly sneaking up to some deformed looking guy and stabbing him in the head. 'Awesome!' I said admiringly. 'You want a go? It's this cool new game that game out recently. It's called The Evil Within.'

'Yeah!' I said. To my surprise, instead of passing me the controller he pulled me on his lap and let me hold the controller. Some zombie guy thing with barbed wire laced through his face came at me, 'Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,' I panicked. Laughing, Chris put his hands over mine helping me kill the thing. 'And now, you burn it so it can't respawn,' he explained. 'I don't get this.' I sulked. For the next hour, we played the game like that until we realized that we had to leave. I was distraught when I found out we had to walk all that way. 'But what about cars!' I complained. Well apparently there weren't many cars here, which sucked, big time. It was a while until we actually arrived at the main hall. It was... different. It looked a bit like a museum with elaborate columns supporting a triangular marble roof. The whole building seemed to glow and it had a fascinating aura but it felt wrong. 'Come on, it's okay.' Chris said, pulling me to the entrance. 'I wasn't expecting a trail until later.' I told Chris. 'The Council arranges things quickly.' I was taken into a large open lobby, it was very fancy. After seeing the bored looking receptionist, Chris took my hand and we went into the main room. I was expecting a normal court so I was in for a shock. The room was dimly lit like a winter's evening and in the middle of the room was a circular desk, it was grey but all sorts of coloured case files and a pink candle brightened it up. Taking up the back wall was a large historical painting showing a group of about six people wearing orange robes. None of them, I noted, were smiling. I shook off the uneasy feeling the painting gave me and made my way to a seat. There was a box with two rows in for people on either side of the room. I took my place next to Christian in the cool leather seat. Just opposite the desk was a steel chair with cuffs on the arms that sent unpleasant shivered down my spine. I jumped slightly as the doors banged open, revealing two men, wearing the same orange robes, dragging Issac in. They shoved him into the chair and the cuffs snapped on his wrists. The two men stood at either side of him, standing like guards protecting us from him. A few more people, including Raven, filed in taking up vacant seats and were whispering nervously among each other. 'You look tense,' Chris said, clearly relaxed. I just looked at him, confused and nervous making him put his arm around me with reassurance. The last people to arrive were a small guy dressed in a funny brown suit and, to my surprise, Chris and Issac's dad. The small guy pulled up a chair next to Issac and took a seat by him, pushing his thick rimmed glasses up his nose and clasping his hands in his lap. The other guy took a seat in the chair at the desk. Clearing his throat, he introduced himself to us as Lucian S. Gray then started to describe the case, mentioning other smaller incidents with humans then getting on to me and Raven. I saw her visibly stiffen in her place across the room, she'd come alone so she was sat on her own with the exception of a few onlookers. He started to talk to his, what, lawyer and then listened to Issac. 'It was you! You did this to me.' He yelled at his Dad. He then started writhing around in the chair, trying to break free then directing a long string of swear words to his father. Without any sympathy, just a dismissive wave of his hand, Lucian instructed the guards to take Issac to the mental institute and to stay there for treatment. I pitied him but it was no more than he deserved, just as he was pulled from the room he hissed some Other language, Latin I think, he said, I malediceret vobis, glaring maliciously at his dad. He looked at me and I could swear I heard the quietest whisper, I'll come back for you... My eyes widened in horror and he grinned evilly. Suddenly I felt very lightheaded and faint. Beside me, Chris rose from his seat and strolled down to the desk, all eyes on him. What the hell was he doing? 'Father.' he said, bowing his head respectfully. Lucian looked down at his files and shuffled through them until he found what he was looking for. He opened it and scanned through the documents. Clearing his throat he looked up to Chris and said in an official voice, 'You are cleared of soul-refigurement and are not guilty all remaining charges have been dropped.' I physically felt a huge weight lift off my chest, he was free! I thought I saw the start of a smile on Chris's face but he simply nodded. 'I think we're done for today,' said Lucian standing up, I wasn't paying much attention before because I was too nervous but now I saw that he had his suit on still. Plain black. Everyone started to file out, Raven was one of the first. I think the whole kidnapping thing really affected her. Chris and I got up to leave and as I left the door I took one glance back at the strange painting to see Lucian looking at me. I looked at him, I didn't understand why he could terrorize me in my dreams and nobody else could. He winked at me and I scowled. He was so slimy. I wondered about him until me and Chris made our way out into the sun and he gave me a huge, excited hug. 'Welcome home!'