Prologue: Condemnation
The large, tall woman looked down at the assembled courtroom of people with an unreadable expression on her face. An imposing woman with vividly red hair and bottle green eyes, she emanated power from top to bottom.
The men and woman gathered in the courtroom were nowhere near as refined and dignified. Each and every one was ruddy red, eyes wet with tears even as their eyes brimmed more.
Judge Aramanth turned her eyes away and looked at the most snivelling, unkempt wretch of them all. A short man in his late thirties, he had wispy brown hair that barely covered his scalp. Sweating profusely, he was dabbing his face with a lace edged handkercheif with an expression of utter terror on his face. He wore a brown tweed suit and a stripy red and black tie.
He sat in the defendant's box, and all witness had been given.
It was almost time to pass sentence.
"Lifter Malexi!" boomed Judge Aramanth, and all eyes were suddenly on her. Unperturbed, she continued. "You have been charged with two counts of murder, of Chloe Heartsong and Marcus Belamy. Throughout this day and in the days in which you were interrogated, you constantly claimed that Ms Heartsong was your fiancee, and that she had cheated upon you with Mr Belamy, driving you to kill them in a fit of insanity
And yet, you must have forgotten that this couple had friends. Friends who dispelled your lies, telling us that your victims had been together for over ten years. What was she, Mr Malexi? A high school crush?"
At this, cruel laughter started up. This wasn't because they found Judge Aramanth's joke funny. Many of the people in the audience were friends and family of the dead couiple, and they wanted to see The murderer not only die, but suffer, be humiliated, be completely destroyed.
When the laughter had died down, Judge Aramanth leaned over her desk, and looked down at Lifter with a barely contained sneer.
"Confronted with such overwhelming, and, quite frankly, crushing evidence, do you retain your plea of- pfft- insanity?"
Lifter shivered in his seat. What could he do? Plead inocent and the evidence would nail his coffin shut. Plead guilty and he would still be Condemned.
This was his only choice.
"I... I do your honour," he stuttered in a voice barely above a whisper.
At that, the atmosphere dramatically changed. The mocking laughter changed to enraged shouts as the spectators stood up, roaring their fury.
"How dare you?!" screamed a woman. "Don't lie!"
"You know you killed my son!" roared a man with tears in his eyes.
As the uproar threatened to grow out of control, Aramanth banged her judge's malllet with all the force she could muster.
"There will be silence in my court!" she bellowed, and, slowly but steadily, the uproar died down.
"We will take a brief break while the jury confer," said Judge Aramanth coldly. Court will resume in one hour."
She stepped down from her podium as Lifter stood up, looking over at his lawyer, Rachel Cross.
She was young, blond and tall, with a pale, slender face and body. A clipboard clutched to her chest and a pen neatly tucked into her ear, she was the image of organisation. Rumour had it she had never lost a case, wither on defence or prosecution.
Although judging by the look on her face at the moment, she was about to lose out for the first time.
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Outside the courtroom, Lifter and Rachel talked in lowered voices.
"I'm sorry Lifter, I can't save you. The evidence is... too great," sighed Rachel, shaking her head.
"B-but you're my lawyer Rachel," smiled Lifter, slightly hysterically. "You can save me. I don't have to be-"
"Yes you do, Lifter!" snapped Rachel, shocking him into silence. "You will be chewed up, spat out and Condemned!" And there is nothing I or anyone else can do to change that!"
With that, she strode towards the huge brass double doors, guarded by two thickset, heavy men.
The doors were opened for her, and one guard said. "Goodbye, Ma'am," before shutting it with a large metallic clang that resounded down the hallway.
As Lirfter tried to follow, a large, meaty hand blocked his way.
"I don't think so, murderer," said the large, dark skinned guard, dressed in navy blue. "You ain't goin' nowhere."
"No!" yelled Lifter. "I have to... talk to her, please!"
The hand pushed forward and sent lifter sprawling to the ground. Laughter was now the sound that echoed down the halls as Lifter picked himself up, and, with what little dignityw as left to him, picked himself up and walked away, the mocking guffaws his only farewell.
____________________________________________
"Guilty!" declared Judge Aramanth with relish. "Lifter Malexi, I sentence you to an eternity in the Dungeon of Agony!"
Lifter slumped in his seat as the spectators erupted in cheers. Two thickset guards grabbed him under the arms and led him through the door, unresisting.
____________________________________________
Lifter spent a cold night in the cells, with a threadbare bed, grimy, wet walls and floor and the squeaking of various rodents his only company. He was dressed in the raincloud grey of a prisoner, his pale face panic stricken.
The next morning, he was awoken to a loud rattling that pounded in his aching head.
It was a woman with a metal bar, banging on his cell door as she unlocked it, and, before he could resist, wrenched him up with surprising strength.
Scarlet hair reached her shoulders, and she was dressed in a black shirt and skin-tight black trousers, along with shiny black boots that gleamed in the pale sunlight streaming through his tiny window.
She led him through what seemed like miles of white marbe floor. They passed many other people, all dressed exactly the same as the first woman who now led him.
After a time, the pair reached a square of empty white marbled, and the woman stopped him, yanking at his collar.
She pulled out something from her pocket. It was a silver key.
Kneeling down on the ground, she put the key down and began muttering inaudible words.
The key glowed flame red and emited heat that made the hairs on Lifter's arms stand on end.
An orange, firey light spread in a circle around the small space of floor, sparks leaping out of the shine and disintegrating in the air.
The light slowly faded, sucked back into the key like a vacuum.
And where the key had been, was a trapdoor, made of simple darkened wood.A golden handle was there to open it.
The woman bent down to open it and pulled at it. The large door swung open with an oily creak.
A set of steel stairs led downwards into the blind darkness and the woman pointed silently at them indicating that he was to descend.
Shivering with fear, he put one foot in front of the other and walked down until his bare feet touched cold stone.
With a slam, the trapdoor shut, the sound reverberating around the great chamber as though it would never end.
Hugging his chest, he walked forward hesitantly, and almost jumped out of his skin as he heard voices.
"Another one? He's the twelth today. Humans reaslly like to execute their own, don't they?"
This voice was female and radiated subtle power. It made Lifter want to come out from his hiding place and look the woman in the eye.
"Tch. What do I care? Gods I'm tired from all this running," murmured a male voice. This vpoice radiated another power, one that made Lifter want to run and hide.
"Well?" continued the male voice. "Will you take him, or will I?"
"I'll get him. You rest your weary head," said the woman teasingly.
That cinched it. Lifter stood up and ran, heart thumping painfully againsst his chest, breath ctaching pianfully in his throat.
The woman sighed. "They always run." Then she was pursuing him, her... high heels clicking against the stone floor.
Adrenaline lent Lifter speed, but it wasn't long before he was tiring. Not the most physically fit of individuals, he was soon slowing down as running drained his limited supplies of energy
But the woman pursuing him... she seemed to have limitless endurance. Her breath rythmic, she was gaining on him, the footsteps getting louder.
A sudden, burning pain assaulted Lifter's legs, as though he were being set on fire, all the skin being peeled away from his legs. He opened his mouth to scream-
And the pain disappeared, leaving his legs numb. He toppled like a brick, landing hard on the floor with a force that knocked all the breath from his lungs.
He gasped desperately for more as a pair of sparkly red high heels emerged from the darkness.
He heard the woman chuckle, and then his chest erupted in a fountain of agony, and this time he did scream. A long, high pitched scream of boundless pain and terror, until his voice failed him and he fell silent.
His chest burning, his eyes watering, Lifter lay upon the ground, struggling to breathe. His vision was blurry and ringed with red.
Another set of footsteps joined the womans'.
"Is it done?" the male voice asked.
"Yeah. He'll be dead in a few minutes.
There were twin flashes of red and blue light, and all was silent again in the dungeon of agony, as the Condemned Lifter closed his eyes for the last time.]
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