The FAYZ Trials Chapter 10
"Miss Diana Ladris, do you swear on the Bible to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"
Freddy watched excitedly as Diana swore her oath, let's see how loyal a girlfriend she could be once he piled on the pressure. A quick glance over at Karim told him that he was thinking the same thing, he was sweating, actually sweating Freddy could see beads of perspiration on his forehead. The judge nodded at him and he rose from his seat ready for action.
"Members of the jury," he announced "viewers at home," he added turning to cast lopsided smile at the nearest camera "allow me to introduce you to the FAYZ's very own Lady Macbeth, King Caine's Queen, the mother of the Gaiaphage, and now inpatient at the local asylum: Miss Diana Ladris!" Diana glared down at him "ho-ho! Did I mention Ice Queen?" he added. He spotted Karim shaking his head and continued quickly before he was interrupted.
"Ok Diana, what can you tell the jury about the nature of your relationship with Caine Soren the oh-so powerful?"
"What do you want to know?" she replied coolly
"Ok, how long did it take you to develop your infatuation with him?"
Diana laughed haughtily
"If anybody was infatuated with anyone he was infatuated with me!"
"So you didn't have a crush on him or anything?"
"Well he's pretty cute to look at" she shrugged "and he has a great personality." She added sarcastically.
"Well you can joke around as much as you like Miss Ladris, you must have some sort of feelings for him otherwise you wouldn't be standing here defending him today now would you?" Diana opened her mouth to answer but Freddy cut her off "and you wouldn't have nursed him for months when he was possessed by the Gaiaphage or made love to him and carried his child now would you?" Freddy stood smugly and gave the camera a grin and a wink.
"Made love to him?" Diana mocked "really Mr Wishman is that what you think we did or is that just what you tell all your girls?" There were a few chuckles up in the gallery and Karim smirked into his notes, Freddy saw one of the camera guys point his camera right at his face no doubt for a close up reaction shot. Don't take the bait he mentally noted.
"Alright, you're going to be difficult," Freddy mused loud enough for the whole room to hear "members of the jury what we have here is a clear case of a young girl in love with a boy who quite obviously has some sort of power over her – please, let's cut to the chase Miss Ladris, your relationship with Mr Soren was something of an exclusivity within the FAYZ right?" he watched as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other and nibbled at her top lip. Then, she nodded her head
"Yeah I guess we were pretty special."
Lana watched from her hotel room as Diana made her first TV appearance. Caine's much awaited trail had been outshined by the media frenzy caused by Diana's arrival in court. Every channel was broadcasting the scenes live. Lana was watching with interest as Diana was questioned rigorously, she was surprised by how little Diana had changed since the end of the FAYZ; she was still as cold, cruel and calculating as ever and her sarcastic comments towards Freddy Wishman made for great viewing. Her comment about making love with Caine actually had Lana in stitches. Edilio on the other hand was less amused, he found the whole thing unsettling, why should Diana be allowed out of the asylum just to help Caine? Why was she in the asylum in the first place? Had the FAYZ screwed her up as much as the media made out? Edilio couldn't understand how she'd been allowed to stand in court and he hoped that it wouldn't stop justice from happening.
She was sweating, really, properly sweating. There were beads of sweat on her forehead and the collar of her blouse was stuck to the back of her neck. Diana had never felt such a pressure to remain cool in her life before. Freddy was a first class jerk and he was stressing her out.
"So we've established your relationship with Caine," he was speaking like this was some sort of high school English teacher breaking down the chapters of a classic novel – all calm and controlled and a little condescending. "he was a kind boy wasn't he? Kind and caring does that sum Caine up Miss Ladris?"
Of course it didn't Caine was cruel, cold and manipulative with an ego bigger even than Freddy's. There wasn't the slightest trace of anything that even hinted at kindness in Caine, but did Freddy want her to say this? Did he want her to disagree and paint Caine in the light that he always stood in?
"Miss Ladris?" the judge asked as the room waited for her answer, she noticed Karim looking anxious and Freddy's smile widen a little – so he was pleased that she was hesitant – the idiot.
"Y'know," she replied "Caine was never the nicest person but he was pretty kind." She stole a glance down at Freddy whose smile had disappeared. "I mean, he saved the town from the Bugs and risked his own life to do that, he was kind enough to help Penny when she had her broken legs and he protected me from Drake at the Mineshaft Incident." She said with realisation as she spoke the words.
"Miss Ladris don't try and pull the wool over the eyes of the jury!" Freddy shouted making her jump. "Caine Soren is the boy who got you pregnant then told you he wanted nothing to do with the unborn child, he is the boy who threatened to use his powers against you to get you to sleep with him! How can you possibly call that kindness!?"
"I suppose it depends on what you measure kindness in Mr Wishman," Diana replied coolly "growing up I wasn't used to much kindness, just dirty creeps spying on me in the shower and a drunken mother – to me Caine was and is something of a Mr Darcy."
"Does Mr Darcy have mutant powers?" Freddy asked calmly – what a stupid question
"No." Diana said
"But supposing he did," Freddy continued "do you think he would use them to throw his girlfriend through space whenever she disagreed with him, the way Caine did when you disagreed with him? Let's say for example – oh I don't know – when you disagreed with his plans on the night of the Massacre!?"
Diana felt like she'd dipped her face in bucket of ice – how did he know about that?! There was a ripple of excitement in the room and the judge called for order.
"You knew exactly what Caine was planning that night Miss Ladris and now you have the nerve to come here and swear an oath that he is as innocent as he claims to be!" Freddy said angrily "you're as bad as he is and liar too!"
"No!" Diana objected "no you don't understand, Caine never planned for this to happen – I only tried to stop him taking on Sam! I didn't even care about the coyotes!"
"Oh! Ho-ho! Really?" Freddy guffawed "then you really are as bad as he is because he didn't seem to care much about them either or the children they were devouring!"
"Mister Wishman!" the judge warned
"Forgive me Your Honour but this girl is an useless witness and her testimony is utter rubbish! Why are you defending him Diana?" he addressed her personally which riled Diana "are you scared of him? Worried he might put you through a window or a wall? You're certainly not doing this because you love him because you've never shown him any affection during the whole of the FAYZ: constant put-downs, snide remarks, meaningless sex and abandoning him to go and discuss your pregnancy with his twin brother don't count!"
"You think Caine would ever hurt me on purpose? I have nothing to fear when I'm with him!" Diana shouted angrily causing the cameras to all swivel and pan on her in unison "Caine is innocent and I'm not going to let you paint me as some silly, shallow schoolgirl who doesn't know when her boyfriend is using her or not!"
Freddy grinned at her like a Cheshire cat.
"Okay Diana, maybe I'm wrong, maybe you do love him and maybe he's innocent – or maybe, just maybe, you're as sick and twisted as I suspected you'd be."
Quinn sat horrified as the events unfolded – now he realised what he'd done! He'd supplied Freddy with information to use against Caine and Diana! He felt so used and stupid – how could he have allowed himself to talk to Freddy so openly when the guy had been trying to send him to prison hours before? It wasn't that he cared about Caine and Diana – they deserved everything they were going to get it was the fact that Freddy had manipulated him so easily, it almost made him as bad as them.
The camera was focused on Diana's face and she looked frustrated – like she knew Freddy had gotten his information from an outside source. Quinn shuddered to think about what she and Caine would have done to him had they found out he was the one who'd supplied Freddy with his ammunition and they'd been back in the FAYZ. He pictured himself being hurled through the air and across the block by Caine with Diana lazily egging him on.
He felt sick.
"This was not supposed to happen!"
Karim paced his office as Diana vented her frustration from his chair. She wasn't wrong, Freddy had somehow acquired a whole bunch of information that Diana hadn't even told him let alone Freddy! It was going to be very difficult to question her once the recess ended, he'd have to change his whole structure – and Caine wasn't going to be happy. Diana was supposed to make him look better in court not worse! Frustrated, Karim tugged at his short black hair and sighed wearily.
"Why am I even doing this?" he muttered to himself, Caine is as guilty as they come, why was he defending him?
"Because we're just kids." Diana said solemnly as though reading his mind. Karim stared up at her,
"Come again?"
"You heard me," Diana said popping her feet up onto his desk and leaning back in the chair "we're just kids. I know what you're thinking, you're wondering why you ever bothered signing on to this whole farce in the first place right? Well let me remind you, none of us knew if we were ever going to see our parents again, none of us knew if we'd ever eat a decent meal again or live a regular kids life ever again, jeez, once Bette was killed none of us even knew if we were getting out of the FAYZ alive. But we did, and when we did, we had the whole world staring at us like bugs under a microscope. We had to deal with the fact that our parents, teachers, friends and even strangers were judging us for what had happened in there.
'Put them in jail!' they said, we were lunatics, misfits of society who ought to be locked up or institutionalised. And then it got worse remember? Whispers of locking us all up in some cell off the coast of Guatemala, sterilising us, exterminating us because we were a threat to society!"
"Diana, you know those were the extremes only, most of those people were locked up for saying such things,"
"Okay fine, those were the extremists granted, but what about the everyday folk who still wanted us on medication, in private schools and away from them and their happy little suburban lives? Do you remember what happened when the Government issued the nationwide poll? The one that started these trials in the first place? 92% of the population thought we were guilty of the crimes before us without trial – 92%!"
Karim remembered well, it was all over the news, it was the only thing people talked about for weeks.
"But don't you remember what you did?" Diana asked her voice surprisingly soft "it was people like you who thought that this was unfair, people like you who understood that we had gone through something unimaginable to the regular person, people like you campaigned for us for months so that we could have a fair trial because you actually cared about us and cared about justice. But if you can't see that anymore Karim, then I don't think there's any hope for me, Caine or anyone else."
Caine sat in the detention room with his guard whilst Diana was giving her accounts. He couldn't see or hear her and unlike the rest of the world he didn't have access to a TV, phone or a computer. The suspense was killing him, he had to know what was going on – surely it was his right to know! He shot a glance at his dopey guard who was yawning in the seat next to him and slowly stood up, at once the guy snapped to attention.
"Where d'you think you're going?" he asked standing up and towering over Caine.
"The bathroom," Caine shrugged as innocently as he could. The guard raised an eyebrow and Caine sighed dramatically. "What I can't go to the bathroom? What am I supposed to do, wet myself?"
"You can hold on." The guard said gruffly
"How do you expect me to go and stand in front of all those people if I'm about to burst?" Caine asked waving an arm in the direction of the courtroom "please, I'll be five minutes, you don't have to come with me and hold my hand."
"Fine!" the guard said throwing up his hands in resignation "You've got two minutes and if you're not back by then I call the top security and you'll be back in your cell faster than you can say..." he paused seemingly thinking of a suitable word, Caine waited with a smirk
"Faster than?" he prompted
"Just go!"
"Alright Miss Ladris, as Mister Wishman has established you had a somewhat ...turbulent relationship with Mr Soren but let me ask the jury this: how many teenagers have shaky relationships that are unhealthy today? Too many and they're not living in a world where talking coyotes and boys with tentacles for arms roam the streets. Granted your relationship was far from normal but having said that you were still the person closest to Caine in the whole of the FAYZ correct?" For the first time in his career Karim was unsettled delivering his speech, he couldn't focus, Freddy had messed things up too much this time and Diana's reasoning speech had both inspired him and terrified him at the same time – she was right, he was doing this because he believed in justice – why else would he be a lawyer? And he cared about those kids, he cared about what happened to Sam and Astrid and Quinn and even Caine. It was up to him to save them but Freddy Wishman kept getting in the way.
"T-tell me what Caine was like please Miss Ladris, and what led him to act so rashly on the night in question" He stumbled over his words and noticed Freddy lean forward and take notice as he did so.
"Caine was very power hungry," Diana replied confidently "he had an ego bigger than the dome but he saw Sam as a threat because people took more notice of Sam because he was the local hero. By the time us Coates kids arrived in town Sam had already made an impression on the kids and Caine couldn't take control of the town the way he wanted to."
"So he was jealous of Sam?"
"I guess a little, although I'd say he was more jealous of the respect Sam had." Diana said thoughtfully
"But Caine knew that he and Sam were brothers didn't he?" Karim asked checking his notes and not really processing what Diana was saying
"Uh, yeah he did and he also knew that people poofed on their 15th birthday." Diana replied
"Poofed?" Freddy laughed from his seat "I think that's an understatement." Karim ignored him and continued to press Diana.
"So with this information can you explain to the jury what Caine's intentions were on the night in question?"
"Sure, with the help of Computer Jack - " Diana paused her voice catching suddenly, Karim remembered that Jack the boy she was referring to had died before the barrier lifted but it still seemed odd to see Diana convey any kind of emotion. She steadied herself;
"With the help of Jack we worked out how to beat the poof" her eyes narrowed at Freddy when she said this as though daring him to make a sarcastic comment "and since they were twins Caine knew that Sam would be poofing the same time as he would be. Caine thought that Sam wouldn't know how to beat it and figured that Sam would poof and he would beat the poof and stay behind to take charge with Sam out of the way. Of course being Caine, he wanted the whole of the town to see the showdown, he wanted to gloat in front of Sam and have everyone see."
"So Caine's only crime that night was over-indulgence?" Karim asked and Diana nodded
"Excuse me Your Honour," Freddy said dryly and standing up "but may I interject?" he turned to Karim "How can you possibly even think of trying to tell this very intelligent jury that storming to the town with a band of mad coyotes and a plan to allow one boy to 'poof' knowing that there was a way out of it is nothing but over-indulgence? Have you not seen the pictures issued by the hospital of these 'poof' victims? They look more like road kill than children!" he rummaged through his file and tossed a laminated picture of the girl known as Mary Terafino onto Karim's table, a sickening sight. "This boy wanted his brother his twin brother to end up like this just so he can play Head Boy for a while! I thought you were a better lawyer than this Mr Smith!" Freddy said resulting in a gasp from both the jury and the gallery audience "The boy is clearly a lunatic!"
"Well it takes one to know one," Karim muttered darkly
"Excuse me?!" Freddy's face was bewildered and the judge called for order.
"You heard me," Karim replied "you swan in here with your fancy speeches, dressed to the nines like it's the Academy Awards and expect me to treat you like a fellow lawyer? You're a joke, here for the money and the attention and that's it!"
"Mr Smith this is not the place for such behaviour!" the judge said angrily
"I'm the joke?!" Freddy laughed completely ignoring the judge "I'm not the one defending blatant psychopaths just because they have a sob story!"
"That's all this is to you though isn't it Freddy? A sob story, let's get out the violins huh? These kids, these children were trapped underneath an impenetrable dome for over a year, running out of food, medicine and water and their lives were plagued constantly by the threat of mutant creatures swooping in and destroying them and you call it a sob story! Then you come in here after everything they've been through after all the pain, horror and death that they've witnessed and endured and tear them to pieces for trying to survive!" Karim was shaking with anger now and the whole room had fallen silent, even the judge had given up on maintaining order and peace. "You're a terrible lawyer Freddy and a terrible person for attacking these kids the way you do!"
"Oh come on!" Freddy said and he actually laughed which made Karim even madder "I'm just doing my job, like it or not people like Caine Soren cannot be allowed to live amongst society until they have atoned for what they've done! The boy has killed people in cold blood – it doesn't matter why he did it but at the end of the day he and many others that survived have killed – how would you like it if you were that girl Penny's father? The whole world saw Caine Soren bash her brains out live on camera! Now irrelevant of whatever sick things she did in there she's dead and she can't defend herself but look at who gets to walk free: Caine Soren the killer. You call me a terrible person, you need to have a long hard think about what a terrible person really is – I'm just doing my job, it's not like I'm coming in here and killing kittens or something!"
"Stop trying to make light of everything!" Karim snapped and in a moment of madness shoved Freddy so hard that he toppled over onto his desk sending pens, papers and his glass of water all over onto the floor.
"MR SMITH!" the judge roared "REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THIS BUILDING AT ONCE!"
Karim stared at what he had just done aware of the cameras pointed at him, Freddy was picking up his papers angrily his face so livid that Karim was sure that had the cameras not been there Freddy would have surely given him a black eye.
"Your Honour I'm sorry I-"
"Enough! This session is over for the foreseeable future," the judge nodded over at the guards by Diana and they took her away and as two more guards approached him, Karim knew that it was time he left as well.