The judge banged his gavel. “Alright, the devices are prepared, court is now back in session. Both of those hard drives are encrypted,” said the judge.

“The yellow one is 1stCorinthians4:5. Enter it in,” I said.

A list of videos revealed itself. The judge clicked one. The video played. It started with a name and an address. It then cut to a man circling a lady passed out on the ground. He poked her but she didn't stir. He lifted her up and bit into her neck. She didn't make a sound as she was drained. The camera was able to focus on the man's face. It was digital so it was a clear picture that could be ID'd.

“So you are going to tell us that you only killed night creatures that killed other people? That's your defense?” The judge asked.

“No, if you check on who he is, you'll find out he's still alive. Everyone that is on there is still alive. Some I have ID'd; some I have not. All have killed or fed on humans doing significant harm.”

“Why didn't you kill the ones that you knew were killers?”

“I didn't know if they had to kill to live. Y'all are stronger than I am. Faster. You have powers humans can't even dream of. I couldn't just walk up and ask you, 'Hey do you really need to kill humans to live?' That was a no go. I've been observing night creatures ever since then. You have friends, children, loved ones. You laugh, you cry, you bleed. Or some of you do. As far as I can figure vampires are animated corpses. I couldn't condemn creatures without knowing the circumstances.”

“So you would just let them kill humans?”

“Like I said, I didn't know if it was necessary for your survival. I didn't know you had a court system. It's not like you advertise this. I could gather there were a lot of you but I didn't really know how many. I couldn't ask questions. I didn't know what to do. Besides, there were worse ones.”

“Worse ones?”

“Open up the red device. Deuteronomy32:35.”

More videos popped up. They started similarly. A name, then the attack. The woman screamed. She was ripped apart. Another video, the man. He was stacked. He had to have muscles on top of his muscles. But he sobbed begging as pieces of him were cut away. He punched and kicked with no effect, the woman beside him screamed hysterically. They left him alive as they shifted to her.

The judge paused the video. “You couldn't have conducted all this surveillance yourself. Some of these look like they were filming it themselves. Where did you find all this?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“The same place you find all the sick and twisted shit in the world.”

The judges head tilted, “Facebook?”

I heard Gabby behind me, “Reddit?”

The prosecutor scrunched his eyes. “Tumblr?” Everyone focused on him for a minute. “Don’t judge me.”

“Close,” I said. “The dark web. The videos on the yellow drive came from a particular group that prided itself on pain free hunting. I found the videos on the red drive from a group I found by searching amongst the members of the first. I figured some in the ethical hunting group might escalate depending on their natures.”

“And you took it upon yourself to kill this torture group.”

The jury murmured to itself. Elijah looked at me strangely.

“Even human hunters have rules. You don't cause suffering. You take what you need. You don’t kill the young. They were butchers. Sadists. They were not just creatures of the night. They were monsters.” The muttering in the jury stopped. The muttering in the gallery reached a fever pitch.

“Bullshit.” someone cried from the gallery.

The judge banged the gavel and a wave of I guess energy rushed out. The crowd was muted.

“Magic,” I whispered. “That was so cool.” I said aloud voice gaining in volume.

“Don’t make me silence you too,” The judge replied.

“Can you later, if I’ve been a bad boy.” I couldn’t help myself. That was cool and I was perhaps a bit punch drunk from my mental battle.

The judge scowled at me, but didn’t say more.

The prosecutor was staring at the screen. Thumbing through his notes. “You had to have made a mistake. Not everyone you killed was guilty. It couldn't have been everyone.”

I shook out of my reverie. “I didn't allow for any collateral damage. Everyone of them was guilty and I made sure of it.”

The prosecutor glared at me.

“Which one do you think was innocent?” I asked

“Linda Blanc.”

I winced. “You don't want to watch that one.”

“It's on here?” The judge asked.

“It's under her name.” I replied

He clicked on the file. I heard creaking noises from the gallery as people shifted in their seats. The hex or whatever it was must have worn off. Everyone leaned forward eyes on the screen.

“Let me know, when you're done watching.” I closed my eyes and covered my ears. I'd only ever watched part of it. Enough of it to know she had to die. I counted. Partially because I was curious how far they'd get. The other part was to drown out the audio in the background. Once I counted beyond 60 I knew they'd have worse nightmares than me.