The judge calls the court into order and states the date, time and location. Ali is sitting at the table on the right, in a large chair. She smoothes her black mini skirt and glances to her left. At the adjacent table sits Keaton, dressed in a hospital issued sweater and joggers. His tentacles are down around his face, instead of pulled back as Ali had always seen him. Ali feels a surge of energy and looks ahead at the judge. Her red eyes gleam with blood lust. She was ready. In the benches behind her were Pearl, Marina and the rest of the members of the opposing team from that day. They hadn't seen what happened, but they were allowed to sit in on the trial, and be called upon as witnesses nonetheless.
Hearing her name called, Kai's lover walks to the front of the room, her heels clicking across the floor. She sits in the seat and looks Keaton in the eyes. His eyes are wide and wild. He holds her gaze, causing her to flare up even more. The judge, an older inkling with grey tentacles shuffles the papers in her hands and asks Ali to relay the events as she recalls them. Ali takes two deep breaths and closes her eyes. Digging her hands into the soft material of the chair she starts, "It was a normal turf war…"
She sits back in the chair, her nose red and her eyes glassed over. She'd shed silent tears as she'd given her testimony. Keaton takes his place up on the stand. The judge asks him for his defense and he looks directly at Ali, "She broke me." The judge looks sharply at the inkling boy, "How did she 'break you'?" Keaton doesn't look away from Ali, "She used me to settle into her new life. She was my first, and I was just another drop in the ink pool for her. She slept with someone else-" "Would this be the victim?" The judge interrupts. Keaton keeps his steady stare, and Ali stares back, "He was collateral damage. I had to hurt him to hurt her." Ali's eyes narrow and she feels rage bubble up inside her stomach. It rises into her chest and threatens to burst out.
"Tell me what happened leading up to the incident." The judge looks down at her papers. Both Ali's and Keaton's written accounts of what happened were laid in front of her. Keaton looks down at his hands and speaks in a low voice, "Ali told me she was going to the battle tower, and that her team was full. I knew... Kai had to be there." He spits out her lover's name as if it were acid. Ali clenches her fists under the table. "I asked if I could play the opposing team and she said yes. The stages for the hour included Moray Towers." He smiles "That's when I knew I could make my move." The judge looks at him, clearly disturbed by the smile. "So what did you do?" Keaton looks at Ali again, this time with a wide smile, "I pushed him over the ledge, and when he was holding on, I stepped on his foot. He fell, then I jumped." He chuckles, "I didn't die, but I'd still call this success. Her perfect boy toy is gone." Ali is deeply unnerved by Keaton's words, and something clicks inside her; he wasn't right in the head.
...
Ali steps out of the courtroom with a guard at her back. Her hands are trembling at her sides, but her face is blank. The winds whirls, sweeping her tentacles from her face. She looks onto the crowd, full of inkling holding signs demanding justice, or asylum for Keaton. One inkling, Ali guesses she's a reporter, calls out to her, "Ali, what was the verdict?" The guard steps forward to silence the reporter but Ali speaks, barely audible above the clamor, "Twenty five years in a mental hospital." The uproar from Keaton's opposition grew and the guard ushered Ali onto a waiting security moped. She wraps her hands around his slender waist as he revs the bike and zips away from the courthouse. Her eyes close and she imagines it's Kai on the bike. She opens them and watches the buildings fly by.
It all feels surreal. He was getting treated for insanity, then faced the possibility of being released. She thinks about the disturbing smile Keaton had sported when the judge had read the verdict. He'd looked at her as if he'd just heard the most hilarious joke, as if he'd won. She'd jumped over the desk and ran towards him, itching to wrap her hands around his throat. The guards had dashed forward, grabbing her and holding her back. She'd cursed at him screamed as he was escorted out of the room. The whole time his face was frozen in a wide smile. She'd gone limp in the guards' arms, and had forced herself to breathe. She'd felt like she was being choked. There was no justice
The security guard halts the moped in front of the apartment and she gets off. She looks in front of her, at the huge screen. Marina and Pearl are just announcing the verdict. Squids and Octopi stare up, enraptured. All at once, they're moving. Some are angrily yelling, some are cheering. If you didn't know better, they'd just announced the winner of a splatfest. The citizens of Inkopolis were divided, just as she was. She knew he was lost, but Kai was gone. Keaton been very clear that he'd fulfilled his intentions, and he was happy. Ali sees two squids fighting across the street, one is screaming about the system being unfair, the other the laughing. Ali knows what they're fighting about. She turns away from them and walks inside, feeling broken.
Sorry for the shorter chapter, classes have kept me occupied! Thank you for reading!