Sam and Danny escaped out of the now loud room, the thunderous blond screaming as he struggled against his captors. It was almost so ironic to watch the male that had kept her in a room for a year as his captive, now being detained. The halfa took her over to a corner in the hallways that held several courtrooms. The raven haired female was shaking, her eyes gleaming with tears as she tried to calm her heart, the organ beating so strongly that the Goth was sure it would pop out of her chest. Danny pulled her into his arms while his parents stood off by the door to the room where Jeremy was being tried. "You okay?" he asked her, his right hand rubbing her back while the free one held her close to him. She wanted to lie, to tell him that she was fine, but there was no way that he would believe her with how strong the tremors coursing thru her body were. She shook her head, unable to say a word. "It's okay. We can wait out here until they call you in if that would help."
"N-No," she managed to stammer out. "I want to look him in the eye when they sentence him, to watch him drown in his own deeds." He didn't want her to have to go back in there, the room stifling with all the emotions from people in the large room. They stood there for thirty minutes before the bailiff called everyone back in, Jeremy no longer in the room since he couldn't seem to remain calm. The pair with Danny's parents behind them, walked back in towards the same seats in the front as the prosecution called another witness. There weren't very many since no one had even been aware that she had been in that house, the blond never letting her out. It seemed that time passed slowly when your emotions failed to stay in check, the raven haired female tense as she leaned against him.
"The court would like to call Samantha Manson to the stand," the prosecution stated, turning to look at her. For a moment it didn't seem that she was going to stand, her body so stiff that Danny was sure a stiff wind would blow her over, the halfa murmuring to her that he would be right by her side once she got up on the stand, that he would never leave her to fend for herself, not when he was there for her. Finally after a few short breaths to relax the Goth stood and walked into the gated area, the sound of the gate shutting making her jump, her eyes wide. Danny got up and heading for the back of the courtroom left the room for only a moment before coming to walk behind her and thru the gate, his hand reaching out to touch her shoulder. She almost jumped until she felt the chill from the halfa. That little chill seemed to calm her, the small female relaxing even as her eyes still held the fear that clung to her like a second skin. "Miss Manson," the older male said, leaning back for a moment as the pictures of where she had been housed appeared on the screen again. "Is this the place where you were kept?"
"Yes, sir," she said softly as she leaned toward the microphone before her.
"Were you allowed out of that house?"
"No, I was kept upstairs." Danny moved to her side, his hand coming to rest on her hands clenching tightly in her lap.
"Is this your room?" He clicked a button to show the space where her bed was, the rest of the room vacant.
"Yes," she said, her eyes burning with the tears that she had managed to corral. "That was my room." He clicked another button to show different views of the same room, the male explaining to the jury about what had been found and not found at the scene before asking her about it. "No, I was not allow-ed to have c-clothing. I was allowed no coverings save for a sheet."
"Was it to make it easy for him to rape you?" Sam shuddered, Danny growling slightly. She nodded, the male raising a brow at her while the judge prompted her to vocalize her answer.
"I don't know what h-his thought process-ss was on that," she stated even as she began to shake, the invisible male at her side leaning over to rub her back as she tried to stay calm. It wasn't an easy task with having to relive the time she had spent in captivity.
"How many times would he come into your room to rape you?" Her eyes closed for a moment when Danny's hand stopped moving. She didn't want to answer, her heart tightening in her chest. "Miss Manson, how many times did he come into your room to rape you?" She could feel the halfa at her side growing tense at the tone of the male, but she knew from her moments with the prosecution that it would be this cold, the male before her an emotionless being in the courtroom while he had been rather worried about her freaking out and had been more understanding.
"I don't know," she murmured. "Several times a day-y."
"Was this an everyday occurrence?"
"Y-Yes, it was an every day... occurrence." She leaned forward, the halfa beside her feeling the unease, the same feelings from that first day when she had told him she felt unclean. She was trying to pull away and now he knew it was because she felt that she was tainting him by even allowing him close. He moved his head closer to hers, his lips just inches from her ear.
"Sam, you aren't the bad person here," he whispered, his voice low enough that the mic didn't pick it up. "You aren't tainted and you can't taint me." She sighed as her heart did a little flip.
"Miss Manson," the prosecution said, another click showing a clip, one like the one that the halfa had seen being played for all to see, her body on clear display, the female near him paling as it showed her torment. "Do you recall this day?" A shudder went up her spine as the sound of her whimpers echoed around in the room. Some of the jury members were looking rather pale themselves. Maybe it was because she could see how sick they felt, a few women in the galley letting out shocked gasps, the Goth found it in her to speak.
"Yes, that was just a few months after he had kidnapped me." Danny began to rub her back again, the woman relaxing against him even as the people in the courtroom could see her unease with seeing the footage that she obviously had not been aware of until that day with Danny.
"You don't appear to be fighting," the male stated, the halfa's eyes narrowing for a moment. "Though we can see it in your face that you are clearly trying to hold it back." He clicked another button, another clip playing. "Were you being blackmailed or coerced into behaving that way?"
"Yes," was all she said. The older male asked her about what he held over her head and that seemed to upset the female, the same anger that had boiled over during the questioning about the people who had aided her. "He was going to kill more people if I fought back and with the track record he had I knew he would do it." Several people began to murmur, the judge slamming his gavel as he called for silence in the room. Another clip came to the screen, another one of the house, the hallway to her room where the broken gate stood.
"What about this?"
"That was the gate that he had installed to keep me upstairs." After a few more questions, some that tested the emotions of the female in the seat before the attorney for her father stepped up, his eyes a cold green that seemed to be looking into her soul. That's when it got harsh, the other male being more tactful... this male was not.
"While the prosecution seems to be under the impression that you were just a victim," he said with a scoff. "You welcomed those advances from the man who wasn't even your biological father." He clicked a button to show the happy child that Sam appeared to be in the pictures taken at an event, one of many that Sam was forced to attend. Sam stayed quiet, waiting for his question. "In fact, there seems to be some inconsistencies in your statements since I was under the impression that you were planning to run away with him as soon as you turned eighteen." Again, Sam said nothing, her body tense as she felt the power coming from the halfa at her side. This male was in the crossfire with his accusations. "Were you not about to inherit several million dollars if you married him and produced heirs?"
"No," she said. "I don't know anything about that, but I was not going to run away with him." Her eyes were shuttered, but it was impossible to keep the anger in a cage, the feeling boiling beneath the surface with the disgust at what he was implying. Another click showed a document, only one signature on it while another space was left clear.
"Then what is this?" It seemed to all watching that the Goth had no idea what he was showing her, the amethyst orbs narrowing slightly to read what it was, but the male that was defending her father clicked the image away before she had a chance to get a good look at it. Nothing was on the screen at that moment, the raven haired teens on the stand wondering as to what the paper had been. "You were a willing partner in deaths of all those employed at the house. You knew what was going on, the people disappearing. You knew about it and yet you didn't come forward."
"I only ever saw him go into a rage once," she said, her temper rising with the baiting by the male before her, the halfa at her side trying to keep himself from kicking the ass of the lawyer even as he tried to keep her calm with softly spoken words.
"You helped him hide the bodies!" the male claimed, another picture filling the screen, the male before her thinking he had her, but when the girl behind the stand visibly paled her face changing to a green tint before she looked around her for a place to empty her bowls, the lawyer realized that he had been played. He had been told by his client that the Goth was his helper in hiding the bodies. The judge seemed to realize himself that the raven haired female needed to empty her stomach and hollering for a trash supplied Sam with a place to vomit. Everyone watched as the teen turned and threw up, the sound echoing in the silent room. When she felt a bit better she seemed to collapse in the seat of the stand. He still had a job to do, but the lawyer was unsure if he should continue with his line of questioning and so he said, "No further questions." The white haired judge turned to the prosecutor, his eyes asking the unspoken question of if he had any more questions.
"I don't have any questions for this witness," the male said, allowing Sam to return to her seat, the halfa walking behind her to keep her steady. As soon as she was in her seat the raven haired male at her side disappeared only to reappear from the doors outside the courtroom. "I do have a clip, a bit of evidence for the jury to see." Moving around his table he grabbed the button from the lawyer, a look in his eyes of disgust before pressing play.
Sam was sitting in an interrogation room, the officer across from her asking about how she had managed to escape the house that had held her for the last year. Beside her sat the wig, her own raven locks shorter than the ones of the wig. She ran her fingers thru her hair, the locks wet with sweat.
"Some robbers came to the house," the raven haired girl said, taking the glass of water that had been offered to her once she had reached the station. Taking a sip she set it back on the table. "and he was gone so when they headed up the stairs they broke the gate... I escaped."
"How were you able to leave the state so quickly when from what was in that room you had no clothing," the male stated, his partner entering with a couple cups of coffee. "There was no female clothing in the house." He hinted at her attire. "And yet you have female clothing on."
"Why does it matter?" she asked. "I know that you want to catch them, but I can't tell you much about them anyway. They wore masks that covered their faces and the house was blacked out." The officer frowned at her tone, the slight hitch of her chin as her eyes flashed angrily.
"We just want to do our job," the partner stated, her green eyes tinted with brown. "They may have been the ones to free you, but they still st-"
"From a murder? A rapist? A pedophile?" Sam was ticked off and it was easy to see. "Hell, I heard that some of your own were in on what happened to me! The people who are supposed to protect people, the child that I was, from such things happening!"
No one said a thing, even the judge seemed appalled at the behavior of the cops and their treatment of the raven haired female. They could see the revulsion at their questions, the fact that they were more concerned with something that had ended up aiding a young female that had been treated appallingly. Danny had come in past this point and while his mother had been just as confused as to what they had said to set her off, he could see now why she was so pissed off.
"Hell, if you had just let me stay with the Fentons I would have not have been taken and..." she faltered, her body stiffening. "I would not have been violated in such a way! How would you like to be forced to walk around naked, if you could walk around, unable to hide your shame. To know that the reason you were forced to be in a state of undress was so that your captive had easy access to what he considered his!?" The pair leaned away from her, her small hands flat on the table as she glared at them. "To be kept in a cold house so you didn't have the power to even try and escape!? Hell, I was lucky if I ate anything in a weeks time!"
"How about knowing that if you didn't do what was commanded of you that the person causing you all that pain held the lives of others in his hand?" Neither said anything. "Yeah, how would it feel to know that what he threatened was no only a threat but nothing for him to baulk at? He had done it already! I thought they were only nightmares, but when he told me he killed my mother..." she faded off with a shake of her head. "I knew they were memories that I had blocked... I saw it happen just once. That was all it took to remind myself never to follow your father's angry words with anyone." She shuddered. "So, when a burglary is more important than a real victim..." She left it at that.
The clip ended, the jury looking rather disgusted with the way the girl had been treated and the fact that it was all spelled out for them, all that had happened in that house. Jeremy's lawyer put his head down, the knowledge that he had been hired to defend someone that had gone far beyond what was considered sick and twisted. The door behind the judge opened to reveal a rather sedated male, his eyes still cold as he moved into the room. He said nothing, though his gaze locked onto his victim, the Goth having closed her eyes as she lay with her head on the halfa's shoulder.