Day two of the trial was nowhere near as riveting or successful as day one.
Greene presented my suit as evidence, and Jason was quick to counter that I outfits like that were sold in costume stores all the time (mine was specially made by Aunt Bethany), but thankfully they didn't pick up on that.
There was no real winner that day, and the jury left looking like they weren't sure how this was going to go.
And neither was I.
Day three, a few more witnesses including more cops from my arrest, the janitor at City Hall, and Greene crushed us that day. Jason wasn't on his game.
Then again, Jason seemed very sapped of energy lately and I considered firing him just because sometimes he looked like he was going to pass out. He told me his doctor said it was fine but all of this stress can't be good for his heart.
Day four and day five were spent debating over tapes and I would be lying if I said I didn't doze off during it. Another day of no clear winner.
I'm due in court tomorrow, and I have a feeling it's not going to be my last.
Neither side really had the upper hand in this right now, they're both really incredible lawyers and have so much good evidence, it's really tough to see how this is going to turn out.
But Jason told me he had a plan. He had witnesses that knew about me and that would make up stories to keep me out of jail. He made receipts stamped at the right time, created security footage, he was going above and beyond to get me out, even jeopardizing his own innocence in this whole thing.
I was really going to have to scrape together some cash to pay him, even though I knew he wouldn't take it. The only payment he wants is probably me, just my love. And I do love him, but not in the way he wants, so I was hoping he would settle for that.
Logan hasn't visited at all and it's really starting to worry me. I would've thought that he has gotten over this by now. Thoughts of him being dead on the living room floor flashed into my mind every now and then, but I had to stop and remind myself that I haven't heard anything which means he wasn't dead. Then again, Jason wouldn't tell me so I don't stress even more about the case, so he really could be dead, but I had to hope that he was just still mad at me.
"Logan, I don't know what your problem is," I had said from the jail phone. "But please just come see me. You can come to court again if you want just please, I need to know you're ok."
Hanging up on that call was awful knowing that he wasn't on the other end anyway.
To pass the time over the days, I've been hanging around Viper more. From what she said to me the other day, I've started to trust her, and I'm worried I made a mistake.
For all I know, she could be the cop, and this is exactly what she wants, but of course I was going to be careful around her.
And yes, this time around I am being careful. I'm not taking stupid risks and I'm not over analyzing, I'm just being cautious.
"And breath." The giddy yoga instructor said. "And release. Great job, everyone!"
"I really hate yoga." I moaned, cracking my neck. "Can't we go kickboxing instead?"
"We could," Pixie started, motioning to herself and Red. "You can't. Fight track records have to be clean for at least a month, maybe I should've told you that before you whooped Hound's ass."
I frowned, really regretting ever breaking Hound's arm.
"You should try knitting," Red suggested. "It's good for anger management."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."
"Sharpe." One of the guards called. "Visitor."
My heart skipped a beat. "Me?"
He nodded lazily. "Yeah."
"Princess," Pixie said in a song song voice. "Who's on the other side of that glass getting your panties in a twist?"
I wasn't listening to her because I was already pushing past the guard.
He got ahead of me again and showed me to my partition. I quickly sat down and took the phone.
But when I looked up, I didn't expect to see who I did sitting across from me.
Blake.
My heart pounded and I started to put the phone back when he started talking.
"Come on, Madi, just a few minutes. You can't be that eager to get back to your cell. Don't worry, I don't want to hurt you. If I did, believe me, it would be done by now. I just want to talk." The corner of his mouth twitched up. "How have you been? I see you've already started some trouble here with those nasty bruises. I knew the inmates wouldn't like you much. Or was it a guard? Guards don't seem very fond of vigilantes either."
"What do you want?" I said through gritted teeth, shaking with rage.
All I wanted to do was reach through the glass separating us and wring his neck. I didn't even care if it meant being in this place for the rest of my life, my bones rattled with fury and the urge to kill him.
The fact that he had the nerve to even come here appalled me. Then again, he had the nerve to do a lot of things.
"Just to see how you're doing. City Hall is surprisingly quiet without you there." He had an evil smirk on his face as he continued to speak to me, basking in the glory of me being powerless before him.
I slammed my hand on the table, leaning in close to the glass so my breath made small clouds of steam against the partition. "You won't be there much longer and I won't be here. I'll be putting a bullet between your eyes. I promise you that." I spat.
"You're right, you won't be here much longer, but as for the second part," He made a dramatic sad face. "That might be hard to do from federal prison."
My heart dropped into my stomach, all of my sudden courage gone. "What?"
He smiled again. "As the mayor in a time of crisis, everyone loves me, which means I get an abundance of favors, and one is to the criminal punishment directors. He's helping me transfer you to a federal prison instead of state. Think of it as my gift to you, nobody will know who you are there."
My heart started pounding. He couldn't transfer me. I would rather get beat up every day than move away from Comet. State is one thing, granted I would be a few hours away and a good handful of people would know who I was, but nothing too unmanageable. Federal prison though, one probably very far from here, would mean sparse visits and Comet would remember me for a while until I just disappeared, became too irrelevant for anyone to remember. Forgotten. Like Voltage never existed. Like no one had ever tried to correct the wrongs of this city.
Blake would get rid of all of the vigilantes one way or another, rise to higher powers and start to take everything under his control. Aubrey would end up getting kicked to the curb by Hypothermia and wind up marrying a man that doesn't love her. Jason would continue law, eventually forget about his lost case trying to help me. Logan would probably try for a while, but decide it just wasn't worth it anymore and find a beautiful woman to marry and have kids with her and have an incredible life. All of this while I rot in a prison in a strange part of the country never forgetting what happened while I ceased to exist in everyone's minds, praying that someday I actually get justice that will never come. The thought of ceasing to exist scared the shit out of me.
"Is that it?" I croaked, my throat suddenly dry. "Did you come here just to tell me that you're moving me from one shithole to the next?"
He scoffed. "Of course not. Which reminds me," He reached behind him and pulled out a basket filled with a bunch of crap like shampoo and chocolate. "I brought you some presents."
"My going away gift?" I snapped, motioning for the guard to come back to get me.
"No," He said firmly to the guard. "I'm not done yet."
He had no choice but to walk away again to some lady screaming at her visitor.
"Let's see..." He started looking around the basket, looking excited. "Shaving cream, a sleep mask, some toothpaste, Lindor chocolate, lipstick, some condoms-"
"Why would I need condoms?" I interrupt.
He looked around, his mouth curving up. "The guards can get a little frisky here." He winked at me. "Whatever makes the time pass if you know what I mean, but you should always be safe. Some socks-"
"I don't want this shit." I said quickly, not knowing why I was still sitting here talking to him. "Just get the hell out of here. You've done enough." I started to hang up when he pulled out a small box from the basket, raising an eyebrow.
"I have one last thing to show you." He sighed, opening it, the contents out of my view as he inspected it. "It took some trouble to get, but it's definitely worth it." He turned the box towards me, sliding it closer to the glass.
All of the air was sucked from my lungs like a vacuum cleaner, my throat unwilling to let anymore air in.
I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from sobbing as I looked at the dismembered finger, having a good guess at whose it was.
"For a scrawny kid," He sighed. "he puts up a pretty good fight, I'll give him that."
"Don't touch him!" I said hoarsely, barely being able to hold the phone as tears filled my eyes. "I won't say a word! Please! I-I won't tell anyone just let him go please!" He got me. He knows all of my weaknesses. I was completely powerless now and I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do anymore. All I wanted was to keep him safe and I failed.
He sighed again, an evil glint in his eye. "I don't care if you tell anyone, they won't believe you anyway." His demeanor suddenly changed and he was done being sick and cruel, just demanding and honestly scary. "I want you to plead guilty. To everything. This case has gone on long enough, and if you don't cut it short, I'll cut off a hand next time."
I put a hand over my mouth, my eyes locked on the swollen purple finger, the end where it should be attached to a knuckle grotesque and bloodied. "You're a monster."
"Heard that one before." He leaned forward in his chair. "Now, my dear, it's a plead, or a hand."
"Guard." I croaked, slamming the phone into the holder, done letting him play with me, and flipping him off as I was led back to my cell.
I was so screwed.
What was I supposed to do? I couldn't plead guilty. After all we had been through I couldn't throw it away. But they had Logan, and he had become my weakness and my person and he was the only one I had left. I needed him. All of him. Not parts of him sent in a box.
Then again, I doubt it would matter anyway. The moment I plead guilty, I'm headed to federal prison and never seeing him again, if he's even alive. The moment Blake learns what I choose to do going forward, a bullet is going into Logan's brain.
He's not just a criminal anymore, he's the devil. There was no doubt about it. He didn't have to go to these extremes, but he chose to. He was a psychopath and didn't have any empathy at all. He had money and a vengeance and wasn't going to stop until this city turned into a mutiny.
This city is going to fall into ruin before anything else. Blake doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about the millions of innocent lives that will end because of his hunger for power, his sadistic ideas. He doesn't care, and nobody can see that. Even if they did, he has an army that will kill in a second.
They brought me back to the cafeteria, but Viper, Pixie, and Red weren't there, which was probably good because I needed some time alone, and I didn't want to do it in my cell where my "gifts" would be waiting for me.
I heard some girls gasping and glanced up at the TV playing old news overhead, the headline now "Blake Rockwell plans to run for state Senate in the near future."
My stomach drops as I watch the interview he had.
"As much as I love being mayor of this town," He says with his charming toxic smile. "I think I could do good other places. After my term, I'm going for the Senate, then governor, maybe Congress. My biggest dream-- which has been the same since I was a child-- is to go for the White House, expand the change from this small, wonderful town to the whole nation."
Imagining what would happen if he were president made me shiver. Our country would be under totalitarian rule. He would be the next Hitler, because we all know he isn't going to stop at America. Soon the whole continent will be his, then Europe, Africa, Asia, there were no bounds to what he could do, especially with the support he could get. I hated to say it, but I know that the bad people outnumber the good in this world. The number of followers he had in Comet was astronomical, and a few vigilantes wasn't going to prevent anything.
In a few months, my city would be rubble, a few years, the state. In two decades, the world.
I thought Hypothermia was bad, Blake is so much worse.
There was nothing I could do about any of this, and it was killing me. I just had to sit back and watch the destruction begin, trying to hold onto my life and the ones around me as the world crumbled around us.
I'd like to say that there are two solutions to this problem, but honestly, there is only one.
Kill Blake.
I went back to my cell after that, the curfew bell ringing.
The basket sat on my bed, all bright and tied with a ribbon like a certificate of death wrapped up in pink bows. I carefully moved it to the corner almost out of my site, I couldn't get rid of it tomorrow. I tried to go right asleep, knowing that tomorrow I was due back in court around nine forty five. As expected, I couldn't. Not with the thought of Blake and Logan on my mind. I stared blankly at the ceiling for hours wishing all of this would end and trying to devise a way to get out.
It was probably around eleven, most girls are asleep by then as lights out were an hour before, when I heard the clicking of dress shoes on the ground.
I quickly started to get under the meager blanket to make it look like I was sleeping, avoiding whatever guard was going to scold me.
The shoes stopped at my cell and I froze under the blanket, snapping my eyes shut.
"Madisyn? You awake?" I heard a familiar voice whisper.
I pushed back the blanket and sat up, looking back at Owen in the dim light.
"Why are you here?" I muttered, getting out of bed and walking to my cell door.
"I came to see how you're doing." His cobalt eyes scanned me, still with a hungry glint in his eye despite all we have been through.
"Awful." I probably would've said a lot more to that son of a bitch, but decided against it.
He sighed, sitting down on the floor next to my cell door. "Rough trial."
I nodded, sitting down next to him. "You don't even know."
He pulled something out of his jacket and I heard the quiet ripping of plastic, then he handed me something through the bars. "Chocolate?"
I shrugged, taking it from him. I hadn't eaten chocolate in a while.
"It wasn't me, you know," He started. "I didn't even know, you did a good job at hiding it."
I looked down at my hands, knowing I obviously didn't hide it well enough if I was on this side of the bars.
"I have a strong feeling Helix isn't going to be in the dark for much longer either." He sighed. "I could be sitting in the building next door soon."
I could tell he was waiting for me to say something, but I didn't know what. Was I missing something he was hinting at?
"We all hit a low point whether we like it or not." I said vaguely, motioning for another piece of chocolate.
"It's not easy being who we are." He gave me another one. "Do you ever think that Voltage just isn't worth it sometimes? It just drains you?"
Suddenly, the wheels started turning in my head and I stopped accepting chocolate from him. I glared at him a moment before reaching through the bars and unbuttoning his shirt, his mouth twitching into a grin. "I've never had sex through prison bars before."
I undid the buttons halfway down his hairy chest then stopped, pulling a black wire taped to it off.
The color drained from his face as I took his chin in my hand, our eyes locked.
"If you're trying to get a confession out of me, it isn't going to happen. So whoever put you up to this, whether it was Blake or the police captain, you can tell them to kiss my innocent ass." I shoved him away from me. "I guess it's a good thing I patted you down this time." I said bitterly, returning to my bed.
He swallowed and scrambled to his feet, re buttoning his shirt. Just before he left, he opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and hurried off.
Leaving me alone with my dark thoughts.