Chapter 24: A Child's Tribunal

"Everybody is here, right?" asks Code.

"Yeah, everyone should be here,” says Sky.

"Perfect, let's get started,” says Code, turning to everyone gathered.

Some people are sitting while others are standing. Meanwhile, Falcon and Forest remain off to the side, standing guard next to Ace.

Code reaches down and grabs hold of a pot near his feet. He raises it for everybody to see, "As you are all aware, we all have a slip of paper with our name on it inside this pot. I will now randomly draw seven names; these seven people will be the jury. Delta can not be a jury member nor a judge, as she's the one prosecuting Ace. As you all know, Blue can also not attend due to his health. And lastly, Forest and Falcon won't take part in the drawings due to their roles as well. After the seven jury members have been drawn, two slips of paper will be left inside the pot, and the final drawn name will become the judge. Any objections?"

The sea of people share various responses, all of which inform Code that there is no objection.

Sitting on a stump, Code sets the pot on his lap, "Let's begin."

Reaching his hand inside the pot as he looks away, Code grabs seven individual slips of paper, one after the other. As he does, he transfers each piece of paper to his other hand in full sight of everybody else so they know it’s not rigged.

After showing the seventh slip, Code turns around to read the names he has picked out, "The seven jury members for the trial will be Sky, Cliff, Ember, Hunter, myself, Hazel, and Violet. You can all take your seats. I'll join you in a second."

Reaching his hand back into the pot, Code fiddles around with the last two slips of paper, Faith and I standing nearby.

"And now for the judge…"

Picking out a slip of paper, Code reels his arm back and opens it up.

"The judge… it will be Scar."

Glancing at Faith, I say, "If that's my duty, I'll do it.”

She nods, and I head to another isolated stump across from Ace. As I arrive, a ripped sheet of notebook paper is on the stump. Picking it up, I read off what is written on the paper.

"Everybody in the jury, please remain seated. Faith, since you weren't picked, can you sit across from the jury so we can get started."

Politely nodding, Faith does as she's told while Code paces up to me, "Scar, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Go take your seat so we can get started."

Clicking his tongue, Code bobbles his head as he treks back over to his seat. I then begin to read off the rest of the paper, “Today, we are going to decide if Ace here is guilty or not guilty of killing Grace. Since Delta is the one who claims Ace is a murderer, she'll be talking first. Let me remind you that we are doing a trial because if we wish to establish a rightful society, we need to judge everything as fairly as possible, so keep that in mind."

I say to Delta, "Whenever you're ready."

Clearing her throat, Delta stands as she glances over at Ace, "Just looking at your disgusting face makes me sick, Ace. The way I watched you murder her… how could you do such a thing…"

"Her body was tied up; it was obvious that she was being or had been tortured. I mean, you all saw the body. How battered and bloody it was…" she says to the jury before looking at Ace again. "That dagger you carelessly threw at her chest... did you even stop to realize what you were doing?"

Her head begins to shake as she starts making her way over to Ace, his expression unchanged, "She didn't deserve such a cruel death. I was only there for a few minutes, but I vividly remember every second. You stood over top of Blue, taunting him as you stomped on his stomach and waved the dagger right in front of his face…"

Delta turns back toward the jury as she begins walking across in front of them, her hand gesturing as she speaks, “Ace wanted to make sure that he couldn't be stopped, that his murder was successful… and it appeared that Blue did everything he could to stop Ace from killing Grace."

Directing her attention toward me, she goes on, “And now Blue… is so traumatized and injured that he isn't able to move or even talk. He hasn't communicated with us once since we got back…”

Ace’s eyebrows raise at the info about Blue, which we have refrained from telling him up to this point. Delta then points in Ace’s direction, “And this man is the one who caused all of this! Doing it for his own pleasure or blood lust, who gives a damn why he did it… he killed Grace, almost killed Blue, and he probably would have tried to kill me too if he had the chance!”

It takes all Ace has to not grin, thinking.

She's right about one thing, at least.

His gaze rests on the ground as Ace waits for Delta’s long monologue to end.

Delta resumes her monologue as her voice raises. “He should be tortured to death for all I know! Just as he did to Grace! For everything that he’s done! To Grace! To Blue! And even Flora!”

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Delta walks over and slaps Ace, “Look at me, you coward! Don’t you dare run away from the pain and suffering you’ve caused!!”

Ace sternly glares at Delta, “Get the hell out of my face.”

Falcon and Forest quickly move into action and block Delta off, their swords crossed before Ace. Realizing he was being protected, Ace smirked as Delta’s eye twitched with fury.

Clink!

Striking two pebbles together, I regain everybody's attention.

“That's enough. Delta, back off,” I say.

Walking away from Ace, Delta scoffs, “As you wish.”

Sitting next to Faith, Delta persists, “What's it like? I don't know how you're doing this so easily… it's like you're pretending like none of it ever happened! And then you lie about your actions?!”

Ace says, “I wouldn't know what you mean… I can't say I feel anything but guilt.”

“You son of a bitch, you just admitted it… you admitted that–”

Ace cuts her off, “Guilty for not being strong enough to protect them. I'm guilty of not being strong enough to save them.”

Ignoring Ace’s efforts at trying to be reasonable, Delta resumes speaking, “At first, I didn't think much of it, the fact that you were the first to run off into the woods after Flora. But then I realized something… everybody only saw you leave. And then the next time they saw you, Flora was dead in your arms. Coincidence? No… I don't think that's a coincidence, considering what I saw two days ago. Effective… efficient… and lethal. Two kills in two days, you were really on a roll, but it stops now.”

“What the hell?! Do you think I killed not only Grace but now Flora as well?! I was back at camp with everybody else. Everyone knows that!!”

Delta rises, “You were the first to arrive at the scene, and you said she was alive! But then, moments later, she was dead? That doesn't add up, you killed both of them. You killed them.”

Delta turns to me, “I'd like to ask Violet a question if that's okay with you."

"Good with me.”

Delta walks over and sits beside Violet, “Hi, Violet, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

Violet shies away, clearly uncomfortable. She then looks to Sky, who's sitting next to her. Sky puts a hand on Violet's knee, smiling as she gives a nod of encouragement. Violet smiles in reciprocation before turning back to Delta as she takes a deep breath. Her voice is soft.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“I would like to ask you a question about what you saw on the first day when you went to fill up your canteen at the stream.”

Violet's eyes quiver as her voice begins to shake, “I– I was thirsty, so I went to go find some water. The stream was pretty close by… so I was happy about that. I didn't have to– to go out too far. But then I saw her. I saw them when I was at the stream. Hunter and Flora, I could see them through the trees, they weren't too far away, and…”

Covering her mouth instinctively from trauma, Violet struggles to not cry. Sky grabs her hand and holds it, “Violet, if you can't talk about this–”

Delta interrupts Sky, “No! She needs to say what she saw! I don't care how traumatic it was. This is crucial to the trial!”

Sky defends herself, “Back off! If she can't talk about it, she can't talk about it!”

Composing herself, Violet declares, “No! It's not like that, Sky! Delta's right, I- I need to say this….”

Sky gives Violet a worried look as Violet resumes, “Flora… she saw something. I don't know what it was, but she was looking up at the sky, around her, at the trees… it was like she was checking everything around her all at once. And her eyes, they were brimming with curiosity…”

Listening intently, everybody's eyes set on Violet, mine included, “I didn't think much of it, so I just began to fill up my canteen. Everything after that is all kind of a blur to me, so many things happened so fast but I do remember… one thing.”

With a smug look, Delta asks, “Finally, what did you see?”

Violet gulps and takes another deep breath, “Flora… she came sprinting out of the forest and into the stream, colliding with me. She quickly helped me up and hastily said, 'There's no time, you have to run! You have to get out of here! Or you won't survive! Now go!' And just like that, Flora ran into the trees and didn't look back as I lost sight of her.”

Violet shakes her head as Sky holds her hand firmly, “I don't know what happened after that, I just remember running back to camp. Shortly after… there was a scream, and I remember running toward it. We all were. And then we found Flora… dead.”

Unconvinced, Delta persists, “Is that everything? There was nothing else?”

Tears began to well in Violet's eyes. “She might still be alive if I asked her what was happening or if I followed her. I-”

Hunter interrupts her, “That's enough, Violet. Don't blame yourself, blame me. I was the one that got separated from her, not you.”

Violet then feels a hand softly touch her shoulder and looks back to see her friend, Hazel, “I'm proud of you. Don't force yourself to go through any more now, okay?”

Violet wipes away her tears and nods as she hugs Hazel and then hugs Sky.

Standing back up, Delta hides a look of disgust, and she refocuses back on Ace.

“The death of Flora is a complete mystery, but you're the prime suspect. However, something in that story… intrigued me. What did Flora see that provoked her enough to separate herself from Hunter and warn Violet? What's worse… what caused her to be in such a panicked state?”

Hunter responds, “There's no way she ran away. She was right next to me. Something took her.”

Silence lingers as the embers of the fire crackle.

Clink!

"Okay, Violet, thanks for sharing. Let's regroup here–” I start to say before Ace interrupts me.

"It was a man, a monster."

Delta scoffs and objects, "Such bullshit, we all know-"

"Delta shut your damn mouth! I'm sick and tired of listening to you spread these lies about me! And Scar, can't the accused have a chance to defend himself?!"

Delta glares at Ace as she begins strutting his way, "Why you little-"

Forest and Falcon step forward, and Delta stops in her tracks.

Clink! Silence once more lingers.

"Ace… go ahead. Say what you want to say,” I say.

Delta scoffs and riffles her hand back through her hair in frustration as she walks past Ace to sit down next to Faith again. Ace grins as he watches her walk away.

"Awe, now don't get your hair all messed up, gorgeous,” he teases.

Enraged, Delta swivels back around, ready to throw a punch, but Forest and Falcon get in the way and protect Ace. Delta's fists stop a few inches before connecting with the swords. Delta glares through the crossed swords, only to be more furious when she sees a yawning, completely unbothered Ace. Her face creases with rage as Delta retracts her fist and returns to her seat.

Clink!

"Let's get back on topic. Ace, go ahead. What would you like to say?"