The judge, named Ewan, finished the statements and addressed the two lawyers.“Counsel, are there any current matters you would like to bring up?” There was a pause. “Anyone...? Anyone like Elijah?”
“Oh, yes. That thing he said about prejudiced jury. Can we remove his restraints?”
“Well I tried, Elijah. I tried. Bailiff, remove the shackles. If you can't contain a wily human, I need to know now before we get to someone that would actually be a threat.” He moved some papers around the bench.“In the matter of the deprivation of rights and execution of supernatural entities, how does the defendant plead?”
“Not guilty.” I replied.
“Why would you do that when you killed those people?” asked Elijah.
“I'd also like to request to represent myself.”
“That would be a wise decision in these circumstances. I currently deny that due to the fact that should ultimate judgment go against you, you will require someone to handle your affairs, and Elijah is actually remarkably competent in those matters oddly enough. I will do you a favor though. Elijah,” He addressed the lawyer directly. “If you open your mouth with something foolish again or really say anything at all, I will throw you outside before sunrise again with only 10 minutes to dig your hole.”
Elijah stiffened visibly.
“You're threatening him with death?” I asked.
“Not really,” he replied. “Just fear of death. Locking up a vampire is an exercise in pointlessness. They can go to sleep for decades at a time. By the way, Elijah, can you tell us about your favorite singer?” The judge gave me a knowing look.
“Oh yes, I enjoy Elvis Presley, he is the best musician of this age. His songs are dulcet works of art. I hope he will be writing something new soon.
I looked at Elijah, “You do...” I cut off as I noticed the prosecutor shaking his head mouthing the word “no” behind Elijah. His eyes looked suspiciously fearful. “...have good taste.” I finished. The judge nodded succinctly.
“Okay, the defendant has entered a plea of not guilty. Lucas, do you wish to afford him a mercy offer?”
“Yes. If he rescinds his plea we can offer him a speedy execution with a good last request budget.”
“I'll decline.” I said.
“Method of execution can be death by succubus. You will literally go out with a bang.”
I thought about it for a second or two. Three tops. “Tempting, but I'll pass.”
“Noted.” The judge replied. “We will now enter into discovery.”
Discovery? I was sort of familiar with court systems. I did some preliminary research. It was kind of necessary given that I wandered around wearing women's underwear with flamethrowers and thermite for hunting creatures of the night. I figured if I was picked up by a cop, I need to know the ins and outs of making an insanity defense.
“Objection,” I called out. “I just entered a plea, how can we move into discovery if I haven't even had a chance to consult with my attorney to formulate a defense?”
“If you consult with your attorney for that, I'll lose my good opinion of your judgment,” replied the judge. “Listen, the vampire isn't the only one that lives a lot longer than you. If we go at our normal pace we might get things done in a decade or so. We lose track, so all cases with humans get the fast track especially since the jails we have don't really cater to you. Unless you want to spend time in lock up with the monsters other monsters fear?”
“That sounds unpleasant.”
“Excellent, we have an inquisitorial preliminary session before we move toward an adversarial trial. It will be a bit different then what you are used to in typical American law. I'm going to be the first one to ask questions to impartially verify the facts. Now your name is Archy Spencer, correct?
“Yes, I replied.”
“A graduate robotics student with a BS in chemistry?”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Yes.”
“You first became aware of the supernatural when you were a victim of a werewolf attack in Devil's Lake State Park.”
I felt a jolt of surprise. “You know about that?”
“Yes, it's how we found you. When magical creatures start to go missing we review previous cases where humans had known incidents. You told the cops that you fell from a tree that you were climbing. And you reported you didn't know what happened to the missing hikers nearby because you were in and out of consciousness.”
“Yes, that was what I reported.”
“What actually happened?”
I took a breath thinking. Telling them wasn't admitting to anything. “I had decided to go camping during summer break. While I was there, I met a nice group of friends.” I remembered their faces somewhat. I had only been there a day. Four guys, two of them with girlfriends.
“We all went for a walk to a high point in the mountains to see the stars at night.”
“A late night stroll through dark woods with people you just met?”
“I'm not exactly the life of a party. They were friendly and it was my first time in the outdoors. I figured I might make some good friends.
“We hiked a short way to get to the cliffside. It was a spectacular view.” The memory was only spoiled by what came after.
“The werewolf came from behind, cornering us and cutting off escape. At first the group had thought it was a big animal when it was stalking forward on all fours. Then it stood up and we saw its claws. One of them had a .45. He was actually good with it. He had the gun out and emptied the magazine into its center mass. It just laughed. It tackled him, hamstringing him before moving after another from the group. I jumped on its back with my pocket knife and managed to stab it in the eye.
“He took some offense to that, and shook hard enough to dislodge me from his back.” I remembered hitting the ground scrambling to get up. Scrambling to do something. “Then he picked me up and threw me off the cliff.”
I'd sailed off it at least 25 yards. Flying through the sky, knowing I was going to die. “The trees broke my fall. Had he just pitched me right off the cliff I would have crashed into rocks on the way down. He overdid it because he could and the trees broke my fall in addition to my ribs.”
“Did you remain conscious?” asked the judge.
“I wished I hadn't.” I still heard it in my dreams sometimes. “They were screaming. Begging. Crying. I remembered the excited bark and howl from the creature. It was enjoying hurting them.” I was so angry. I couldn't get up. My chest shifted when I moved. I couldn't push myself up. I had no air. And the pain kept growing. The worst part was when it became silent.
“I couldn't have hoped to do anything even if I could have moved. It was only through luck and his arrogance that I had gotten him in the eye.”
“It was an admirable move, even if not a winning one for a human going against a werewolf.” The judge's tone gave a measure of respect
“He probably regenerated it and didn't give a damn.” I replied
“Actually, eyes take a while for werewolves. Especially when you destroy the eyeball. He would need someone to cut it away from the nerve to get it to grow back right or he would have a malformed eye. Not to mention there would be several people in the community that would notice it was missing or he was wearing an eyepatch. We can update that case file. We can probably track him down easily with this.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Had you said any of this during your questioning we could have done this already.”
“What questioning? The police?”
“Yes, we read their reports.”
“Do you have any interaction with them?”
“No, we can't afford to allow humans to get mixed up in our world. They tend to respond poorly. We monitor them but otherwise leave them in ignorance.”
“So I was supposed to make a report about a fictitious creature that nobody believes exists. Firmly putting me in a crime scene with an unbelievable story, with lazy cops that would likely prosecute me on that basis alone? Are you...nuts?” Leaving out fucking stupid was the diplomatic save of the day.
“I had no idea if there would be some retaliation from outing werewolves or letting the killer know I survived. What do y'all do with people who come into contact with you?” I asked.
“We would typically use a memory spell, but we don't like to. It can backfire when used on traumatic memories. Sometimes it works great, other times it seems to cause psychotic breaks. If there is a chance a person doesn't need it, we don't like to use it. We might need to reevaluate this after your case.
“You might want to re-evaluate more than that.”
“Okay, next we will be bringing in our mental specialist.”
“Your what?”
“We have a rough estimate of when to look and unfortunately for you we have to make certain you didn't leave any more evidence or dead drops that would clue anyone into our existence.”
“Why do you even have a trial?”
“It’s not an exact procedure and it’s fallible. We use it only to check for influence and a few other things”
A pale man with a physique that would be at home on greek statues walked up to me with a sneer on his face. His flawless skin indicated he was probably a doppleganger. I had wondered if they had mind reading abilities. “Don't worry, this won't hurt too much.” He grabbed my head.