April 11

District Courthouse

12:30 PM

Cotoli Morix

Brennigan Mennon was much the same as he had been during the trial. He was a slender, tall man who seemed to both stick out and blend into the shadows. Everything about him was a strange paradox that I decided was best to not try and understand. I watched him carefully as the officer that had brought him to us began to leave, wondering what he was going to try and do next. Sora began to curl in on herself a little bit more, and Chrysalis glared at the new arrival with much more vitriol than someone of her young age should have possessed. Then again, I supposed that was just par for the course when it came to my younger sister.

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Mennon," Detective Erikson commented as he nodded carefully to the man. I could tell that he was putting up a facade, but I couldn't exactly blame him for such. This man had the possibility to be incredibly dangerous, and as things currently stood, Detective Erikson was looking after both the suspect for the case and a few crucial witnesses, and there was no saying how this conversation was going to end for any of us.

"I heard that you wanted to talk to me," Mr. Mennon said bluntly. He was smiling lightly as he looked out at the four of us, and something about him sent a shiver up my spine. "I heard about what happened... It truly is tragic that someone would pretend to be so heartbroken over the trial only to turn around and hurt those who had done so much in the name of the truth... I'm afraid that I simply don't understand the mindset of you, young girl. You should have just been honest with yourself and the world the whole way through this process. Perhaps then none of this would have happened."

"I know what happened," Sora said, her voice rising a degree of intensity along the way. "You were the one who killed my mother. I saw what happened, and even if the critical piece of evidence is gone, I know that you did it. No amount of evidence will ever change what you did. I saw what you did."

"And yet, I believe that the court found me innocent," Mr. Mennon murmured with a small shake of his head. His smile was still excruciating in ways that threatened to push all the wrong buttons at the same time. "I believe that the judge knew what he was doing when he said that I was innocent. After all, what else could I be? I wasn't the one who did this, and you're so eager to pin it on me regardless... You don't have any proof that I did it regardless of what you saw. You're so young, only a child... Have you ever considered that perhaps you're simply getting desperate to find the truth? That you're doing all of this to compensate for the fact that you don't know what really happened?"

Sora continued to glare at him, not even daring to flinch in response to his words. Detective Erikson ultimately stepped between them, raising one hand in both directions of the parties involved with the argument. "That's enough," he proclaimed carefully. "Mr. Mennon, we were simply wondering what you knew about this case. After all, we have reason to believe that you might know something regarding the attacks on the defense attorney and prosecutor from your recent trial. You were already caught up on the details of the case as you stated previously, so I won't waste any time going over things that you already know."

"I don't know much about the case, truth be told," Mr. Mennon said with a light shrug. "I heard the basic details while I was coming here, but I can say that I didn't do it. How could I have done it? They were stabbed with something sharp, were they not? I doubt that I could have done anything to attack them if I couldn't have snuck anything into the building in the first place. I was in detention up until recently, and that would have made it perfectly impossible for me to do anything of that nature."

I nodded to myself at his words, acknowledging them but still not sure if I wanted to consider them as fact quite yet. "I suppose that you wouldn't have been able to bring a weapon in here," I yielded, but I wasn't willing to go any further and say that he wasn't the culprit. If I was being honest, there were quite a few factors of this case that didn't make all that much sense to me, and I knew that trying to make heads or tails of those was going to be the most important part to this investigation.

"The fact of the matter is that you have no reason to suspect me beyond what a young girl said in court," Mr. Mennon told us with a shake of his head. "She claims that I'm the culprit, and therefore, I must be? I can hardly imagine that things are that easy. She's so young also... Not even an adult yet, if I recall correctly. You can barely trust kids these days, always getting tripped up over the smallest things... Why don't you spare us all the time and energy and go off to do your homework for now, sweetheart? You don't know anything about what's going on, so it would certainly make things easier for everyone."

Sora was taken aback by his words at first before she let out an angry huff and looked away from him. I could see that tears were starting to well up in her eyes, something that I assumed was happening because of how casual he was being on the matter of her mother's death. If he truly was the culprit, the cavalier manner in which he was treating the murder of May Lin was downright disgusting. Then again, it was awful even if he wasn't the one responsible, though as far as I was concerned, the chances of that were slim. I knew that there was no evidence in terms of courtroom proof that he was the one who had done this, but I was just confident that he had done it. Sora's confidence filled in the gaps of everything that I could have wanted to know on the matter.

Detective Erikson cleared his throat and shot Mr. Mennon a small glance that I knew was sharp and irritated, though it was masked as well as the man could stand for it to be. "I would like to know about what happened when you met with the defense attorney and prosecutor behind the case," he said firmly. "We heard that you were dragged off to speak with them in the aftermath of the trial, and it would be for the best if you shared the truth of what happened during this conversation. If you truly are innocent, then it would clear your name if you told us what happened and it wound up being harmless."

I glanced down to Chrysalis, and while the younger girl didn't show it openly, I could tell that she still wasn't sure about believing Mr. Mennon so easily. I had to admit that I wasn't ready to believe him either. There was something about Sora that was just so perfectly genuine, and I knew that she had to be honest about what she saw. Why would she lie about something so important to her as her mother's murder? It simply didn't make any sense, and I wasn't going to put her in a precarious situation where we accused her of lying. It was only a gut instinct that she was telling the truth, but given the minimal evidence surrounding this case, that was just about all that we had.

Mr. Mennon sighed and shook his head. "It was a brief conversation, I'll have you know. I wasn't with them for too particularly long. They were agitated about the way that I was claimed to have been the culprit by the witness girl over there, and they wanted the truth as soon as possible. I told them that I was not the one responsible for the crime, and after that, I walked away. I didn't see much of a reason to remain there any longer. After all, I had been falsely accused of murder. Could you blame me for being a bit agitated and not wanting to stay? This could easily qualify as a traumatizing experience, and all that I wanted to do-and still want to do, as a matter of fact-is return to my home and do what I can to recover from what has taken place."

"And that's all that there was to it?" Detective Erikson questioned, clearly not sure if this was the truth or not. "Was the discussion between you and the victims truly that short and simple? Were they at all acting strange during the conversation?

"They were perhaps a mite agitated, but I suppose that's to be expected. After all, I was being accused of being a murderer, so why would they not be somewhat upset? They had come to believe my testimony even though I had been arrested. Well, the defense attorney believed me... The prosecutor was always agitated, so I suppose that it was nothing out of the ordinary," Mr. Mennon said with a small chuckle. "But I suppose I'm getting off topic. They were just as one would have expected them to be. There was nothing out of the ordinary taking place during that conversation."

"What happened after the conversation ended?" I asked next. "You were talking with them for a brief period of time, yes? Something must have happened when you were finished speaking to them, so where did you go after the fact? Clearly you hadn't yet left the building."

"Oh, I was just thinking for a short while, I suppose," Mr. Mennon commented. "This was a rather grave experience, after all, and I had a lot to consider regarding what happened. Once I was finished, I decided that it was time for me to set out, so I rose to my feet and went off to take care of whatever was set to come next. There was nothing else to it. I was by myself after I left the two of them behind."

"And the one who found you was the officer that brought you to us..." Detective Erikson murmured under his breath. "I sent Officer Hoope and Officer Wills out to look for you, but I suppose that they weren't able to track you down before someone else managed to find you. Did you happen to run into either one of them? I trust that you know who they are. After all, they were pretty heavily involved with your interrogation sessions that have taken place since the day of the murder."

"Oh, yes, I do remember them," Mr. Mennon replied. "But I didn't see them at all. The only one who I did happen to cross paths with was the man who brought me to your side. I didn't see much of a reason to linger any longer than I absolutely had to, so I didn't stay and talk to anybody if I could avoid speaking to them."

"It's funny that you say that," Chrysalis commented as she crossed her arms. "If I recall correctly, you said just a few moments ago that you wound up sticking around here at the courthouse because you were trying to think over everything that happened during the trial. I would personally consider the time that you spent here in excess to be unnecessary, so why did you stick around for so long?"

Mr. Mennon paused at her words before he shook his head. "You're a suspicious one, aren't you?" he questioned softly. "I would have expected you to know better than to get involved with fairs that don't matter to you. After all, you're still just a child, and you should stay in your own business. You're even worse than the girl who tried to claim that I was a murderer. You know nothing about what is happening in this case, so I would advise you to stop pretending to understand."

"That's enough," I cut in, resisting the urge to glare at him. I didn't want to upset him in case he decided to stop offering us information, but I was not happy with his behavior in the slightest. Nobody was allowed to talk to my sister like that and get away with it, but for the time being, I was just going to have to let it roll off my back. Chrysalis glared as well though, knowing that he wasn't going to take her seriously and not bothering to put up a facade of kindness as a result.

"Your conversation with the defense attorney and prosecutor was brief and ultimately did not cover anything important..." Detective Erikson murmured under his breath. "Did anyone of note see you enter the room? Were there any people around you when you were alone with them?"

"I don't know who it was that saw me leave with them, I'm afraid. I'm not exactly acquainted with many of the people who came to the trial. My coworkers were unable to join me for this case, so I didn't know anyone who was in the gallery save for a select few that I had only met in passing," Mr. Mennon replied. "I don't think that there were any people in the area when I was speaking with the two... Ah, actually, that isn't the case at all. Officer Hoope was there, and I believe that Officer Wills appeared not long after the fact."

"Officers Hoope and Wills..." I murmured under my breath. I didn't know why it was that they would be involved with this, but I supposed that I might as well do what I can to learn more. "Do you know how they could possibly be connected with this particular case?"

"If you're referring to the attempted murder, then I have no ideas. After all, it seems like a rather simple operation, and I doubt that either one of them would have had a reason to attack either one of the people who was in the defendant lobby. Why would they suddenly become so violent? That seems to go against their very creed as defenders of the public, wouldn't you say?" Mr. Mennon questioned.

"The fact that they were in the area to begin with is an important thing to keep in mind," Detective Erikson said softly, but there was something pinched about his expression. "How close were they to the defendant lobby at the time of the crime? Did you happen to catch a glimpse of something like that?"

"I'm afraid not. I can say that they were not involved with what happened though... But in a way, I suppose that them being there proves my innocence, does it not?" Mr. Mennon questioned with a light smile. "After all, if they were right outside the defendant lobby, then they would have known if something unsavory was happening inside the room. I somehow doubt that people would refrain from screaming if they were attacked by someone with a knife. Given the fact that no witnesses heard any screams until that girl over there supposedly 'discovered' the scene of the crime, I think it's safe to say that I didn't do it. Nobody heard screams, least of all the officers just outside the lobby when I was in there."

"I understand," Detective Erikson said under his breath with a small sigh. "If you don't mind, you're going to need to stay here at the courthouse for a little while longer. After all, there's quite a bit that has yet to be investigated regarding this case. I would prefer it if you were in the immediate area so that we can call upon you in case such a thing becomes necessary."

Mr. Mennon looked at him for a long moment, something like upset flickering in his eyes, before he let out a small sigh and nodded. "Of course... It's rather tragic that you trust me so little to keep me here longer than necessary, but I suppose that it can't be helped. Your job is to be suspicious, after all, and if I'm not clearly innocent enough for you, then..."

"This isn't about your innocence. This is about an investigation taking place right now, and we need to make sure that all potential witnesses are still in the area in case we just so happen to call upon their testimony," Detective Erikson told him, cutting through Mr. Mennon's attempts at manipulation without hesitation. "If you don't mind, I would like to have a conversation with the three young people right here really fast. We have much to discuss regarding what could be coming next for the case, after all."

Mr. Mennon nodded after a brief beat of silence, and he retreated to start walking away from the scene. I watched him go, seeing him round a corner before deciding to lean against the wall there. If I was being honest, I found it incredibly peculiar that he was so easily able to go free and walk around the world so soon after he had been accused of murder. Hell, Sora's testimony hadn't even been disproven during the trial, and that didn't seem to matter in terms of him being given the chance to roam the world without any issues. It was strange, I had to admit, and I didn't like it at all.

Detective Erikson turned to us in the meantime, his expression hardening into something stoic. "I believe that we have much to discuss regarding what we just heard," he told us simply. "What do you think? Ms. Lin, are you still confident that he was the one who killed your mother?"

Sora nodded without missing a beat. "Of course he was the one who did it. He snuck in through the back door, and he didn't realize that I was there. I was stunned silent behind the couch in the living room, and... He killed her in the kitchen," she murmured. "But he didn't notice that I was there, so he just left without doing anything to me. By the time that I snapped out of it... My mother was already dead on the floor. She had died instantly, I think. It was... It was too much to deal with at once, and... I thought that he was going to wind up prosecuted for the crime."

"But instead, the crucial piece of evidence, the murder weapon, went missing," I finished for her. "Did anyone ever figure out where exactly the weapon disappeared to? I'm willing to assume that the answer is negatory, but..."

Detective Erikson shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We have no ideas who could have taken the weapon, but it must have been someone involved with the police force or the surrounding investigation of the case. It was in Prosecutor Yin's hands up until recently, and when it vanished, it was rather sudden," he explained. "I wish I could tell you what it was that caused the knife to go missing, but I'm afraid that all attempts to learn more on the matter have come up short."

"I can't say that I'm surprised," Chrysalis murmured under her breath. "But I feel like that has to be necessary. There's just too much about this case for any of it to be a coincidence regarding what happened to Sora's mother. Whoever did this has to be involved with that case."

"But it isn't as if we have any other ideas as to who it could be," Sora said quietly. "If he has witness testimony to show that he didn't do it, then that means that... Was he really innocent?"

"I don't know if I would go that far so quickly," I told her with a frown. "Something about him bothers me. Surely you all noticed that he kept on trying to manipulate the situation to his advance during that conversation, yes? Something must be going on behind the scenes, and I'm convinced that he's trying to keep us from finding out something related to this case."

"His tone would always change to be so condescending when he thought that we had struck close to something. What that something is, I'm not sure, but it has to be important somehow," Chrysalis chimed in. "But the first issue with him being the culprit involves the fact that he was supposedly in the room as two officers stood right outside of it. We're going to have to talk to Officers Hoope and Wills if we want to figure out what it was that happened while he was in the room with the two victims. If that was before they were attacked, then we might be getting close to something important... Or maybe we're just getting farther away from it. Who knows?"

"I'll try to find them," Detective Erikson said firmly. "I'll be right back. You three should stay here. I would advise you to stay out of trouble. When I return, we'll do what we can to talk to the two of them."

Detective Erikson was gone a few moments later, rounding the corner and disappearing from view. I watched him go before I turned my attention back to Sora. She was still staring sadly down at the ground, and I sat beside her carefully, placing one hand on the small of her back. "Do you want to talk?" I asked of her in a gentle whisper. "I know that you're under a lot of stress right now, and if there's anything that we can do to help you, all you have to do is say so."

Sora hesitated for a long moment before she nodded. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do," she admitted. "My mother was the only person that I had. I don't have any other relatives that I'm aware of. My mother was an only child, and her parents passed away when I was young. I don't think that there are any other people in my family who would be able to look after me."

"What about your father?" Chrysalis questioned carefully. She glanced over to me, and I wondered just how much she had been able to figure out regarding my cagey behavior over our father. Chrysalis was much sharper than she chose to let most people pick up on; it wouldn't be out of the question for her to say that she had noticed something that i was doing my best to keep from her for the time being.

Sora sighed and shook her head. "After my mother died, the police got into contact with him... He doesn't want anything to do with me," she said quietly. "He was never around when I was growing up. He left soon after my mom got pregnant. That was all that she ever told me. I don't even know if they were ever truly together. The fact of the matter is though that he doesn't want anything to do with me or my mother anymore, so... I'm alone. There isn't anybody that could possibly look out for me."

My heart could have stopped in my chest then and there with how shocked I was. Well, part of me was surprised, but another part saw this coming in a way that I didn't know how to explain to her. I did my best to swallow this back though, not wanting to make any of it too overtly obvious. "I see," I murmured. I didn't say anything for a long moment, and I could tell that both of the girls in the area were watching me intently, waiting for me to say something that would explain my peculiar behavior. Eventually, I let out a sigh and turned in Sora's direction once again. "I do have to ask... What else do you know about your father?"

Sora hesitated before she let out a sigh. "Nothing," she confessed. "I never even heard his name. All that I was told was that he wasn't around anymore... But my mother never said that he was dead even though she knew that I would be able to handle that. My suspicions that he's alive and just left us after I was conceived were proven true by the fact that he told people that he didn't want anything to do with me even after my mother's death."

I glanced over to Chrysalis briefly, and I could tell that the pieces were starting to come together in her mind. She stared at me with wide eyes and shock painted all over her expression, but I didn't let her surprise get the better of her for too long. Instead, I looked to Sora once again after a few beats of quiet. "If you want to... We can help you to search for him," I offered. "I don't know how much you want to do with him after all of this, but if you do decide that you want to try and find him, all you have to do is say so."

"How much could you even do to help me learn more about him?" Sora asked, looking up and down my body with curiosity and confusion. "You're just a teenager like me, aren't you? I don't know what you could possibly do to help me out of a situation like this..."

I didn't know how to answer that without sharing all of my suspicions, and so, I simply decided to not say anything. I looked down at the ground before I shook my head. "Well... I'll just say that I have my ways of finding out things like this," I told her simply. I didn't think that there was any other way for me to explain this that wouldn't completely leave her flabbergasted, and I wasn't even going to bother putting in the effort. Who could say how well something like that would turn out? I didn't want to push my luck and leave Sora in an even more fragile emotional state than she was already in. After all, suddenly hearing that we might be her siblings would have likely been too much for her to take on top of everything else.

Sora stared at me doubtfully for a long moment, and I wondered what exactly she was trying to figure out. Well, I knew what she was trying to find, but I had no idea how she intended to go about doing it as she stared at me so intently, almost as if she was trying to pierce my soul. Eventually, I noticed that she was holding something, and when my gaze dropped down to her hand, I realized that there was a charm no larger than her palm clutched tightly between her fingers. I squinted at it, desperate to figure out what exactly it could have been, but I ultimately came up short.

In the end, I wasn't ever able to fully determine what it was that Sora was trying to do, as Detective Erikson rounded the corner once again soon afterward, Officers Hoope and Wills hot on his trail. Mr. Mennon, who had been waiting nearby this entire time, came into view soon afterwards, and I prayed that he hadn't been listening in on our conversation. It seemed somewhat doubtful that he had bothered with such a thing, truth be told; if he was going to do anything, it would have been best for him to take care of it while he was alone with the three of us, and yet, he had ultimately opted to remain silent.

"Here we are," Detective Erikson proclaimed to the trio of people standing before him. "Mr. Mennon already explained why it is that I've brought the two of you here, but I believe that your testimony could be crucial to figuring out the truth behind what happened at the time of the crime." Oh, that made sense. Detective Erikson had brought Mr. Mennon along with him when he went off to find the two police officers. That way, Mr. Mennon wouldn't be able to get into trouble. Plus, he could catch up the officers-the new witnesses-along the way.

Officer Hoope let out a heavy sigh. "I don't see what the big deal of all this is," she confessed. "So what? He went into the lobby to talk to the victims. There were tons of people that could have talked to the victim in the time after the trial. What exactly makes him more suspicious than the girl that we found standing over their unconscious bodies? I feel like it should be clear as can be who exactly the culprit is meant to be."

"This isn't about suspicion," Detective Erikson cut in, his eyes narrowing in her direction. There was a light note of exasperation to his voice, but he smothered it before his agitation could grow out in the open. "I'm simply having you all come and speak with me here so that we can narrow down what happened at the time of the crime. The more details that we can pull together, the better. If you wish to be given the chance to leave the courthouse sooner rather than later, I would suggest that you cooperate with the investigation. After all, the sooner that we can gather information, the sooner that everything will be taken care of and you can leave."

Officer Hoope glanced over to Officer Wills, and the two let out sighs before nodding. In other words, everyone was in agreement regarding what had to be done. I looked out at all the people in the room before frowning to myself. This was going to be it. I was sure of it. We were going to find the truth once and for all, and it was no doubt located in this very room.

New chapter before I go to class

-Digital