Chapter Forty-Eight

John gave Amelia over to her mother, turning back to the stand to finish his part of the trial. "Thank you for your patents." He settled into his chair, folding his hands over his chest where Amelia's tears had soaked through his shirt, making the thin white fabric nearly see through.

Kemp looked John over, thinking about his next question. "You coached Miss Johnson with her answers, didn't you?"

John shook his head, lifting his chin higher as he stared the man down. "No, Sir. There was no way I could have known what you were going to ask her. The only thing I coached her with, was telling her that the only thing she should tell is the truth."

Kemp sneered at him, starting to fidget with his ring again making John notice the faint tan line beneath the gold band. "Did you inject the meth yourself? Possibly brainwashing the child to think it was someone else?"

John leaned forward, his dark eyes drilling into Kemp like icepicks. "I never chose to have that drug in my body. I do admit, that the high was incredible, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. I knew then that meth will screw you up, I knew then, what I know now." He noticed that Kemp seemed to be gaging his weight and build. "I may have done some hard drugs in my earlier teens, but I knew to stay away from meth. One of my cousins overdosed on that shit, and I had come close to overdosing on other drugs. If it hadn't been for my cousin Dominic always finding me before I could digest the dose of oxy I'd taken in a desperate attempt to stop my pain, I would be dead now."

Claire's eyes widened as she turned to look at Dominic, questioning how he'd managed to stop John from overdosing.

Dominic took two fingers and made a motion like shoving them down his throat, miming how he'd forced John to throw up to stop the drugs from taking his life. He swallowed at the memory of John's limp body in his arms as he'd had to try repeatedly to purge his system. John had almost been dead that night, and Dominic had been forced to dunk him in the icy river to wake him up just enough to make his body react to Dominic shoving his fingers down John's throat.

"How often would you say you tried to overdose?" Kemp asked, pressing to find out just exactly how high John had been.

John shook his head, leaning back in his chair. "I can't say, Sir. My cousin Dominic Bender would be the better one to ask. He's the one who found me and purged my system when he realized what I'd accidentally done."

Kemp nodded, looking to John's family. "Will Dominic please come to the stand?" He let John go back to his seat, noticing how the nearly identical boy from the back came forward.

Dominic placed his hand on the Bible, repeating the words he was told.

Kemp looked away as he got the blunt of Dominic's stare, remembering how unnerving the two boys could be when they worked together. He noticed that Dominic was a similar build to John, but seemed to be a healthier weight, his skin was also a darker tan than John's. "Mister Bender, how many times would you say you found Johnathan in the prosses of an overdose?"

Dominic swallowed at the memory of nearly losing his cousin. "Three." He stated, lifting his hand to show the tooth marks on his fingers. "He took oxycodone on an empty stomach, which made it easier to make him puke." He pointed to the little dent in his fingernail that had never healed. "He wasn't aware of what was happening at those times, and I ended up getting bitten when I shoved my fingers down his throat to force him to live."

"Do you think he tried to overdose on purpose?"

Dominic shook his head, knowing that John had never wanted to kill himself, but wouldn't hesitate if he thought he was dying and wanted to pass in peace. "He's never been suicidal, we made an oath that if one of us was dying of his wounds and took too many pills that we would let them die in peace." He remembered John's side being cut so deep that he could stick his finger into the wound all the way to the last knuckle, and having to burn the wound with his own knife to stop the bleeding. "And I always assessed his wounds before bringing him back to the living world." He looked to his cousin, knowing that he wouldn't remember this last part. "I was lucky enough to have taken a few first aid classes in my freshman year, and I learned how to treat the level of wounds that John often got from his father."

"Did he ever inject himself with any drugs?"

Dominic nodded, remembering his adventure with his parent's heroine. "Like he said he took one hit of heroine when he was fifteen." He remembered having to climb through John's window on the second story of the crooked little house and finding him with his leg bent at an angle that could only mean it was busted clean through. "He never tried that again." He noticed how John rubbed a hand over where the break had been, as if remembering the pain of the break. "His old man busted him up pretty bad that night. I can remember trying to help him set his leg but he was afraid it would hurt worse if I did it, so he set it himself. All I could do was make him bite on a piece of leather from my belt and try to keep him quiet so his dad wouldn't try to kill both of us."

Amelia reached out for John's back, jumping at his quick reaction to her touch. "Did you almost die?" She asked, letting him lift her into his arms and place her in his lap.

He kissed her head, already feeling the strain of the court on his shoulders. "I'm going to live a long, long time." He whispered, holding her close to his chest as she started to play with his tie. "I promise."

Dominic finished his testimony, patting his cousin's shoulder as the judge excused them for lunch. "Johnathan," he started, looking over his glasses at the boy, "since the charge was made against you, I am sorry to tell you that you are not allowed to eat with your family." He nodded to one of the doors at the side of the room. "You must eat with Mister Standish in a private meeting room."

John nodded, standing to walk to the room after Thomas. "Thank you, your Honor." He closed the door, leaning his head against the heavy oak as he listened to his family walk away. "Fuck." He hissed, feeling his stomach try to flip inside of him, but forcing the vomit down.