Hey, all! Thank you guys so much for the support, it means the world! Just a warning, this and the last chapter have been time skipped to wear Amanda has recovered from her injuries. So if you see that she's fully mobile now, don't say that I messed up, or I ruined the plot or whatever. I definitely didn't forget her arms broke!
"Officer is that really necesarry?" Amanda growled.
"Yes," The officer responded, "she's been charged with murder, Detective."
"She's a fifteen year old girl!" Amanda practically screamed. "She doesn't need to be handcuffed!"
"We both know, that kids can do the most heinous things." He said at once before leaving, dragging me along with him.
"Mandy!" I yelled. "Mandy, please!"
She ran out of the apartment, tears streaming down her face. "Sweetie it's okay."
But it wasn't. This wasn't okay.
After a painfully long car ride to the police station, I was stuck in a holding cell and no more than five seconds later, Amanda came to me.
"Please get me out of here." I cried.
"Look at me." Her palms cupped my cheeks, "I'm not gonna let you spend the night in a jail cell without me right here. Do you hear me?"
I nodded.
She sighed, looking down at her feet. "I really wish you told me what happened before, Sweets. We could have avoided this."
"I was scared." I wiped away my tears. "I didn't want you to hate me."
"Why would I hate you, baby?" Amanda's voice cracked. "I could never hate you, Annie."
I shrugged.
"Listen to me, this is going to be going to court tomorrow. Let me find out what time." Amanda said.
"Don't leave." I gasped.
"I'm not leaving you, sweetie. I'll be right back." Amanda said, before walking away.
I curled up at the corner of the cell, sobbing into my knees. I was going to jail because I killed my rapist, and I was going to be raped again and again and again because that's exactly what happens there and it wouldn't be right. Oh G-d.
Amanda came back. "Sweets, you're going to court at 9 am sharp tomorrow morning. I'll have Nick run by some nicer clothes for you."
I nodded. "Can you stay here, while I sleep?"
"Not leaving you, baby." She smiled at me.
I curled up at the bottom of the cell to get as close to my sister as possible. She stuck her hand inside of the bars and caressed my hair until I fell asleep.
"What do you plead?" The judge looked at me and my lawyer, also known Rafael Barba.
"Not guilty your honor." He answered for me.
"We ask for remand, your honor." The A.D.A., who was a real ass hole, said.
"Your honor," Rafel Barba rolled his eyes, "she's fifteen years old. She doesn't have a passport, and she lives with two detectives."
"One of whom is her sister, and the other one is her love interest." The A.D.A. scoffed.
The judge sighed, not wanting to be there. Just like me. "I'm letting her go back home with her sister-"
"Your honor, approach?" The D.A. said suddenly.
The judge rolled her eyes, beckoning the two lawyers forward.
Rafel rubbed my arm before walking towards the judge, they chittered and chattered for awhile before finally pulling apart. "Like I said, she's to go back home with her sister. Court adjourned."
I grinned wildly, pulling Amanda into a big hug.
"Rafael, I need to ask." Amanda said, pulling away from our embrace. "What are our chances of winning this?"
"It would have been better if she had come forward as soon as it happened, but his semen was found at the site of where it happened, along with menstrual blood with DNA that matches Annie's." Rafel said, "I think that I'll fight like hell, and it's possible we can do this. It would be even better if we had a witness, but of course, when does like ever become easy? Anyway, I've gotta run. I'll see you in court at five." He said.
"Five!" Amanda's eyes buldged. "What!?"
"The judge has no time this month, and the D.A. is refusing to allow Annie to stay with you for a month without knowing if you'll find a way to smuggle her out of the country." He rolled his eyes, "We have to do this today."
Tears peaked at the edges of my eyes.
"Do you have everything you need to win this, Barba?" Amanda seethed.
"I've had it for a long time." He said, "Olivia came to me with this long before Anastasia was ever arrested, Amanda."
Amanda looked at her feet and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm trusting you Barba."
"Good." He spoke, before leaving.
Me and Amanda shared a look.
That day for lunch we went to a diner. Nick sat next to me.
I didn't eat much, but I did down four cups of coffee. I didn't exactly sleep like night.
"I hope Barba's got this." Nick said.
"He's always got something up his sleeve." Amanda reminded. "Always."
"He said he didn't this time." I mumbled. "That he'd have to fight like hell."
Both said nothing, knowing what I said was the truth.
When it was time to meet back at the court house, the air was heavy. Barba walked over to us, a grin covering his whole face.
"Why are you smirking like a smart ass?" Amanda grumbled.
"Because I just gained a superpower." He said.
The cocky bastard had something up his sleeve. As usual, I guess, though.
"What kind? You're gonna change the mind of the jury?" I said sarcastically.
"No. But she might." He grinned again. "Come on, don't want to be late."
We walked into the court room. The air felt even heavier there. It almost suffocated me every breath I took.
I sat on the chair next to Barba. His cocky grin still stood proudly on his face and I wish I could just slap it right off of him. This was no time to be grinning when I could be thrown in a jail cell the very next hour.
"Listen, I'm doing you a favor, Matthew's." The judge stared straight at the A.D.A. "So let's speed this along. I have children to tend to at home. Who would like to go first?"
"I'd like to call up my first witness, if I may." Barba stood up, buttoning his blazer. "Anastasia Rollins."
"Come up to the stand, Ms. Rollins." The judge said, waving a hand towards the stand next to her.
I got up slowly and walked towards the stand. A lump in my throat grew wider and wider, and it was impossible to get down no matter how many times I tried. I was the sworn in, I sat.
"Ms. Rollins, you understand why we're here today, correct?" Barba said.
"Yes, sir. I'm here because I'm being charged with murder. Of the man who raped me." I said, looking at the jury before looking back at my hands.
"And I," Barba pulled his hands to his chest, "am so sorry that you have to be here right now. But, because we are, I do have to ask you some questions."
"That's fine." I nodded.
"This man, did you know him?" Barba asked.
"No. I didn't know him personally." I replied.
"But, you knew of him?" He raised his eyebrows.
"My..." I bit my bottom lip. "a classmate of mine was his niece."
"Whom was this classmate?" Barba furrowed his eyebrows.
"Eve Katz." I mumbled.
He nodded solemnly. "So, how did it come to be, that you were alone with this individual?"
"Eve and I haven't gotten along in a very long time." I said, my eyes watering. "We...grew apart. She started to bully me, we used to be friends."
He nodded, beckoning me to keep speaking.
"She came to me one day, and apologized for everything. I hung out at her house every day after that, we were starting to become friends again." My voice cracked. "She, told me that her uncle had this little hide out by a creek. That she could take me there because it wouldn't be too far away."
"Okay." He said. "You knew that he would be there?"
"No." I shook my head.
"Okay."
"So, we went, after I asked Amanda. My sister." I looked at her, she smiled lightly at me and I looked back at Barba. "When we got there, the water looked really nice, and cold. It was so hot." I shook my head.
"Eve said we could go swimming, I told her I didn't have my bathing suit but she laughed. She said 'I've known you since I was ten, Anastasia. We used to get dressed in front of each other all the time after gym.' I was confused, so she said, 'Let's go skinny dipping.' I'd never done it before. But I thought it would be something new, exciting. I thought...Maybe it would be fun."
"Of course." He nodded, fully understanding my reasoning.
"So I said yes." I laughed a fake laugh, followed by a grimace. "It was fun. At first, we laughed, splashed each other. But then, when I went under water, I couldn't see her anymore. I looked everywhere, and she wasn't anywhere to be found. I went back to the shore of the creek and she wasn't there either and neither were my clothes. I figured she pulled another prank on me, so I was pissed. More than pissed, I was sad. I cried for five minutes before someone came up behind me."
"Who came up behind you?" Barba asked.
"Randy." Tears fell from my eyes. "I was cold, so he gave me his jacket. He tried not to look at me. He said he was Eve's uncle, that he could help me. But he didn't help me. He...he told me that if I did him a favor, he would drive me back home."
"Did you do him a favor?" Barba asked.
"Yes. He started to...get undressed in front of me. I tried not to look, I covered my eyes. But he took my hand off of them, and..." I almost gagged, completely almost lost my lunch in the court.
"Keep going." Barba said.
"He, pressed it on his penis." I gulped, the lump enlarged in size. "I told him I didn't want to do that, I would do anything else, just not that. He laughed, took the jacket off of me. He made me touch him, down there, again. Then. He started to..."
Amanda looked at me in the eyes, using her looks instead of her voice. 'It's okay, sweets. It's okay.'
"He raped me. He wouldn't stop, it hurt. I told him no, I told him to stop." I started to sob. "But he wouldn't. He wouldn't stop, and, and the only thing I could think of was to hit him in the head with something so that I could get away."
Barba nodded once again.
"So I grabbed a rock, and hit him with it." I wiped my tears away, "The blood wouldn't stop though. It wouldn't stop. I got scared, I ran off. Then, I found my clothes, I figured Eve had left them there when she ran off to let her uncle do whatever he wanted with me. So I put them on and I ran back home."
"I'm so sorry, Anastasia. I'm so sorry." Barba said sincerely.
I rolled my eyes and covered my face. I was humiliated, and that's the only thing he had to say to me? But what else could he do?
He went to sit down, and Matthew's stood up.
"I'm so sorry that you believe this has happened to you." He stated, I glared.
"It did happen to me." I snapped.
"I believe you believe that it did. Can I ask you a question, Anastasia?"
"You're gonna ask me them anyway, and I'm under oath. So I don't have much of a choice, now do I?" I scoffed.
The judge looked at me, a warning in her eyes.
I simmered down with my tone of voice from then on.
"You, willingly, went skinny dipping with Eve. Is that correct?"
I nodded. "Yeah. We both wanted to do it."
"Are you sure that Eve never said anything about her uncle there? Is it possible you just missed it?" He said.
"No...I don't think so."
"Think harder." He pressed. "Think back to that day. Were you doing anything distracting?"
"I was listening to music." I said.
"So, it's possible, that she had possibly mentioned him being there, but you had been disracted?" He said.
I shrugged. "I guess so, yes, it's possible."
"So, when you went to this lake with Eve. She had thought you were okay with her uncle being there, while you weren't dressed."
My jaw tightened. "Yes. She very well could have had that idea."
"So, it's possible, that her uncle had the wrong idea? I mean, maybe Eve even said you wanted to have consensual sex with him."
"Objection, there's no way he could know that." Barba stood up.
"Sustained. Rephrase, Matthew's." The jude raised her eyebrows at the man.
"Okay, so, maybe, this is totally hypothetical. Eve said you wanted to have consensual sex with him?" He said.
I sighed. "It's possible."
"Right, so, Randy came to the creek to have sex with you. Hypothetically of course! But, you had missed that part of the conversation when you and Eve were speaking. Once again, hypothetical." He made a point to look at Barba and back at me. "So, he didn't even know you didn't want it."
"It wouldn't have mattered anyway, that's statutory rape." I pointed out.
"I mean, hypothetically, Eve very well could have lied about your age. I mean, she lied about everything else, didn't she?"
I practically growled at the man. "There's no way I could have known that!"
"But he could have."
"I told him I didn't want it!" I insisted. "I told him to stop!"
"Did you know Randy was partially deaf? Especially close up." Matthews said.
"No. I didn't."
"So, he very well could have not even heard your no's and stop's."
"Yes, it's possible he could not have heard me." I responded, my voice low.
"Just like it's possible you could have even wanted it."
"Objection!" Barba yelled.
"Sustained, Matthews, tread lightly." The judge's voice turned hard.
"No further questions." He looked me in the eyes, a dark look deep iin his pupils.
"You may step down from the stand, Anastasia." The judge said softly.
I balled my hands into fists and walked to my originial seat next to Barba.
"Are there any other witnesses?" The judge asked.
"I'd like to call Eve Katz to the stand." Barba said.
I gasped, loudly. Everyones eyes turned towards me. "Eve?" I whispered, so only Barba could hear me.
He extended his finger to shush me, and there she was. Eve Katz. She strided in the court room. Her arms held close to her chest. She looked scared. Just like I was when she left me stranded, naked, all alone.
She stepped onto the witness stand, taking a deep breath.
Barba stood up. "Good evening, Ms. Katz."
"Good evening." Her voice barely above a whisper.
"Ms. Katz, may I ask you what happened the night of Anastasia's rape?" Barba asked.
"I can tell you everything." She said.
He nodded. "Go ahead."
"I...I've been jealous of Anastasia since she moved here. Well, maybe that's not true. We were friends. Me, Lucas, and Anastasia. We were really good friends, and one day, she invited us to her sisters work. I saw that the whole squad really loved her. Her sister loved her. She had a family." Eve mumbled quietly, her eyes focusing on her knees. "So, I wanted her to feel the way I've been feeling since I was little. Unloved, and ignored."
Barba nodded. "So, did you achieve that goal?"
"Yeah." She replied. "I did. I'm, pretty popular in our school. Whatever I say usually goes, y'know? I have a lot of power. I eventually got everyone to ignore her. To tease her. And I did too. It felt good to know that someone else felt the same as me. I just, didn't want to be alone."
I shook my head. Why, why, why? Why couldn't she have handled this differently? I could have been there for her! Me, Lucas. We both could have helped her.
"Didn't want to be alone in what, Eve?" Barba asked.
"My parents...I'm adopted. They have four biological children that they love very much, and I've always been kind of an outsider. Always. The black sheep of the family, you know? I know they don't love me like they do their own. I've come to terms with that now, after what I did." Eve bit her lip, her voice starting to crack.
"What did you do, Eve?"
"I wanted to prank her." She said, lifting her head to look at the jury. "I really just wanted to mess around with her. I knew of a place where my uncle used to go, where he would just sit and think. He took me there once, so I could sit and think. He's the only one that ever cared about me. We were close. So...I took Anastasia there. I asked her if she wanted to skinny dip, and she agreed. So we did, and when she went under the water I quickly got out, stole her clothes, and hid in the woods. Just to scare her a little. I...I didn't know my uncle would have been there." She started to sob.
"So you didn't know that Randy Walkers was going to be there that day?" Barba said.
"No." She cried. "I didn't know. When I saw him, I kinda got scared. I thought he would get me in trouble with my parents. But then...He started to do things to her. Really bad things. He raped her. She kept saying no, stop it, no. She hit him, tried to get him off of her but he wouldn't budge. She...She grabbed the rock. She hit him over the head. There was so much blood." She paused.
"It's okay, Eve. Take your time." Barba said reassuringly.
"I pulled my clothes on, and I ran all the way home. I was so scared, I didn't know what to do." She started sobbing again, uncontrollable sobs.
I couldn't believe this was coming from her mouth. Eve Katz's mouth. Maybe she was just as scared as I was. Maybe that's why she's been hurting me all this time...Maybe that's why she left me that day.
"I'm sorry." She looked at me. "I'm so sorry, Annie. I know I've really effed up. I know I did. But I really hope you can forgive me. I get it if you can't, that it will take time."
I licked my lips, tears streaming down my face.
"So, from what you saw, Eve. It was in self defense, his murder?" Barba asked.
"Yes. From what I saw, she did it because there was nothing else she could do."
"Thank you, no further questions." Barba said.
"Matthew's?" The judge looked over to the councilor, his hands in his hair, his face red.
"No, your honor." He replied, his voice low and nasty.
"No other witnesses, Barba?" She asked.
"No, your honor." He replied.
"Very well then. We'll let the jury converse, let's take a short recess." She banged her mallet against the wood.
Eve stepped off the stand, her legs shaking uncontrollably.
I ran over to her, and hugged her. Something I thought I would never do again in my life, but I did it. I had to. Something inside of me told me that she needed it more than anyone else right now.
She hugged me back, crying into my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Annie. I didn't want it to happen to you! I didn't! I was so scared when he started hurting you. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help, I did, Annie!"
"It's okay, Eve. It's okay." I mumbled, rubbing her back. "If you had stepped in, he would have hurt you too. You need to understand that it was better that way. Better me, than you."
"No!" She practically yelled. "Not better you than me. I'm such a terrible person. I know that I'm the one that caused you to try to commit suicide. I know I'm the cause of the pain you're feeling. I deserve hell for all I've done to you."
"The only people that deserve hell," I said, pulling away from the hug and looking deep into her eyes. "are rapists and murderers. People that do heinous things. That's not you, Eve. You need love. That's all."
"Can you forgive me?" She whispered.
"I can." I smiled. "I forgive you. I don't know how easy it will be for me to be your friend again right away. But I forgive you wholeheartedly, Eve."
She wrapped her arms around me again, and we stood in the middle of the courtroom gathered in one another's arms.
All of a sudden I felt another pair of arms wrap around us. I looked back. Lucas was smiling at me.
We were in this same position five years ago. All wrapped together in an emotional hug because someone tripped Eve in the hallway. But I never thought that we would be doing this again. Especially in the middle of a court room, awaiting the answer as to whether or not I'll be put in jail for the rest of my childhood.
"Luke, what are you doing here?" I asked.
"Amanda called my mom. We came as soon as we heard. But truth be told, I wasn't expecting this to happen again."
We all laughed.
"I missed this." Eve mumbled. "You guys were always good to me. I've been so awful to you, Annie."
I nodded. "You have. But life goes on, and the page turns. I have a feeling another chapter of our lives is coming up very soon."
We came apart from the hug, and Luke gave me a kiss on the lips. "I love you."
"Really?" My eyes widened.
"Really."
"I love you too." I wrapped my arms around his neck.
Eve smiled. "I always shipped you guys."
I smiled very slightly.
"Hate to break up the reunion," The judge started. "but the jury has a verdict."
We all sat down, the first juror sat up with a piece of paper.
"What's your verdict?" The judge asked.
"For murder in the first degree, we find Anastasia Rollins to be-"
HA. Cliff hanger! Also, isn't that so sweet? Eve and Annie made up. Well, at Annie's trial but still, nonetheless, they made up! Who's excited for the next chapter? I know I am!
Sam
