The courtroom was an angry circus. The Fifth Branch interrogation had caused a major delay. The stands were filled to the brim with agitated citizens that had been forced to wait without having been given any reason as to why. Things got even worse when Voss was finally dragged out into the courtroom. Police officers had to line up on both sides of the isle to hold back the furious members of the crowd. Voss and Cedric had to be pushed through a narrow corridor of troopers. Voss had to dodge several bottles. Cedric took a big phlegm to the face.

‘Behold, the upstanding citizens of Saltpetersburg’ he thought to himself. The best this city has to offer, acting like pigs. How thin, the veil of polite society. How eager they are for blood.’

He felt surprisingly calm. The citizens’ animosity meant little to him. He was the only human in a room filled with animals. An explorer who’d fallen into the hands of cannibals. Amidst the hatred and animosity, there was also something else. He could taste it. It was in their eyes. Fear. They feared him. All of them. A class four citizen murdered, something unheard of. By a slumdweller no less.

They were angry alright. Their faces screamed revenge. But moreover, they were terrified of him. All these haughty citizens who had never thought of him as being more than a necessary nuisance. They now looked at him and saw a monster with the potential to unleash violence upon them. They were terrified that news of his case would reach the slums. Terrified of what it may unleash if the plebs found out what had happened. Terrified it could give them dangerous ideas. He enjoyed his new position as an omen of doom. It was the only pleasure he had left in his final hours.

He allowed himself a few seconds to daydream about what would happen if news of the murder and his showtrial were to spread through the slums. No more than a few seconds though. He knew they would never allow that to happen. There were no residents at this trial but him. Residents weren’t allowed anywhere near the courts, unless it was to be sentenced harshly.

An officer pushed him forward and forced him to sit inside a glass cage. He wondered if the cage was a standard procedure or if they had placed it there just for him.

‘Order, order!’ The judge shouted. The room fell quiet. The crowd filled with anticipation for what was to come.

‘Magistrate, please introduce the case to us’.

‘Your honor, I present you with case 668818724. The defendant, resident OSPB 4921EL33.VOSS, stands accused of the first degree murder of class four citizen Joaxin Delnif of the Delnif-Bator dynasty. The prosecutor’s proposed sentence is death by torture.’

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The crowd played along with the magistrate. They booed when Voss’ name was mentioned. They pretended to be shocked when the victim’s name and class were summed up. They cheered when the proposed sentence was announced. This case was like a bad play, with him as the unwilling lead actor.

‘Before the prosecutor presents the evidence, I wish to hear how the defendant pleads.’

The defendant wasn’t going to plead anything. Residents weren’t allowed to speak inside citizen courtrooms. They had put a muzzle on him just in case he’d get any ideas. It made him look feral, which Voss doubted was by accident.

Cedric was going to have to do the talking for him. ‘Please don’t do anything stupid, kid. Save yourself.’ He thought to himself.

Cedric, now wearing long black robes, stood up from his bench and spoke. His voice sounded small and reluctant. Another unwilling actor, forced to go along with this kayfabe.

‘Your.. honor. My client has conferred to me that he wishes to plead guilty.’

The crowd went wild. Some tried to climb over the stands to take matters into their own hands. Others were screaming suggestions on how to kill him.

‘BURN HIM ALIVE’ a bald man with a throbbing vein on his forehead screamed.

‘QUARTER HIM’ proclaimed a group of high school students.

‘FEED HIM TO THE PIGS’ a rather corpulent lady squealed.

Voss chuckled at that last suggestion. If only he hadn’t been muzzled, he could have asked her if she intended to eat him herself.

‘ORDER ORDER’. The judge was getting visibly irritated. There was only one man placed in charge of running this sham of a court, and it was him. ‘I hereby judge you, on the count of breaching law one, section eight, the first degree murder of a higher ranking citizen, guilty by your own admission. I hereby sentence you to death by JP5 injection.’

The stands erupted in cheers. People stumbled over each other trying to make it out of the courtroom as quickly as possible. Fights broke out on the stands between impertinent citizens who got stuck in the throng of people rushing towards the only exit. Everyone wanted first row seats for the execution.

The officers wasted no time. Voss was dragged out of the courtroom and into the grand central courtyard. It was already filled to the brim with people who wanted to witness the execution. There must have been thousands of them jam packed all the way up to the arched wall that separated the courtyard from the busy streets of Saltpetersburg. He was lifted upon an elevated platform where they strapped him into a pillory. An IV was placed into his leg and his muzzle was removed. They wanted to hear him scream. See him writhe in agony. He promised himself to stay still throughout the ordeal. He’d do everything within his powers to deny them such pleasures.

Voss took one last look at the crowd. He felt nothing but contempt for them. He knew they’d get what was coming to them though. Sooner or later, the charade of their “civil” society would crumble, and... A burning pain shot into his body before he could finish up his thought. Excruciating agony. Within seconds he was unable to uphold his resolve. His screams filled the courtyard. His whole body was contracting and contorting uncontrollably. An all consuming pain filled him from the tip of his toes all the way into the top of his hairs. It was as if he had been set alight from the inside out.

Then, as soon as it had started, it was over.