Still she struggled gamely. "You're lucky you've got body guards. I can promise the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky," she exclaimed wildly, just before a tall guard with ginger hair plunged his tazer into Candy's side, sending a legal amount of voltage through her body, stopping only when he noticed that the young woman was unconscious.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DAY THREE AT THE COURTHOUSE WITH SOME UNEXPECTED EXPERTS
"You gotta realize Candy that you're only fucking things up for yourself. We're trying to win sympathy for you and you go attacking the prosecuting attorney. It's not exactly helping."
Candy sat at the other side of the desk. For the first time since meeting him, Johnson had agreed to meet his client without her wearing any restraints and Candy rubbed her wrists thoughtfully as she answered.
"Okay. I promise to play nice. But you gotta admit it was good publicity for you though, huh?"
"Well, sure. But why the hell would you care what sort of publicity I get. Unless this is all some kind of ego trip. You wanna be famous, is that it? Cause I gotta tell you, you're already front page news, and this kinda news isn't helping."
"Has it occurred to you that I want people to be aware of me? You might not believe a fucking word I say, but I'm telling you it’s the truth and the more eyes that are on me for the time being the less likely I am to meet with some kind of brutal death. You dig?"
"Well, I suppose that has its merits. Anyway, it’s time for court. They're bringing out the experts today. I'll meet you in there in a couple of minutes. Just remember and tell it exactly as we went through it, just like you told me and we'll be fine."
You'll be fucking fine. You'll probably be dining on a nice lobster dinner with champagne by the end of this, with either a whore to fuck or at the very least a good fucking porno to jack off to. Where the fuck will I be? I'll be lucky If I'm not dead.
Candy smiled at Johnson.
Minutes later she was escorted from her cell.
She could tell something was seriously wrong even before the doors opened. The two guards who stood to attention outside the defendants entrance had blood seeping from each eye and their mouths were left wide open in a perpetual grimace, their bodies frozen as if the life in side had been permanently suspended. The guard chained to Candy's hand appeared to notice nothing. Lying down on the floor, a massive creature, obese, dressed in leather with eyes stitched shut waved at Candy. She knew this God. It was Sownd Ka, the devourer of souls.
"Wait. Can’t you see? Can't you fucking see? Look at them. LOOK AT HIM!" Candy's whispered pleas soon took on the louder voice of desperation.
The guard merely smiled at her and pushed open the door.
Inside the courthouse she could see her lawyer shuffling his papers. To him at least nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
From a thick rope Wilson hung from the centre of the court room.
His skin had been removed and his body parts were on show. Across from him Rivvells was sitting in the seat where Wilson once sat. The God had a large half moon curve above an oval for a head, beneath which was a muscular body rippled with scales, each inch of which was completely naked and all of which was the darkest green Candy had ever seen. He looked up at Candy's entrance and smiled; his mouth opening into a sharp gaping circle. It reminded Candy of the garbage disposal unit in her mother’s sink.
In the judges seat sat Mephinie. She had the face and body of a human except it was coloured ultraviolet and her face was littered with open cuts that had been carved into a pattern across her face. Nice tattoo, thought Candy. Mephinie's hair shone neon orange and was tied up in a styled top knot most of Candy's “alternative” friends would have envied. She gave Candy a once over with purple eyes, then returned to gazing at the notes in front of her.
Candy let herself be led to her seat in the dock.
Johnson approached. "This is it, Candy. This is the day that counts. You ready?"
"Are you out of your fucking mind? Can you not see who's sitting beside you?" Johnson gave a glance across to the prosecution table and for an instant Candy could see a look of puzzlement cross his face.
Then he half smiled and turned again to Candy.
"So what? They've got the D.A sitting there. Wilson may be the best the prosecution has to offer but we've got him by the balls."
Rivvells reached below the table and produced a live rabbit, which he began to stroke with a care Candy thought unlikely of him. The whole situation was beginning to get way too surreal.
"Have you seen what the D.A has to offer? I mean have you seen Wilson?"
"Looks worried doesn't he?" Johnson chuckled, "and he should be. He should be."
Rivvells held on as the rabbit tried to scurry from his grasp.
Mephinie picked up the gavel and stared at it with intensity.
"Johnson, are you seriously telling me you don't see the fucking monster sitting beside you?"
"I wouldn't go that far. Wilson's a bit of a brute, but I wouldn't go so far as to call him a-"
"That isn't fucking Wilson, Johnson. I don't know who the fuck it is, but it is not Wilson!"
For the first time since the start of the conversation Johnson looked worried. "Are you alright Candy? What's the problem? Of course that's Wilson."
Johnson waved to the rabbit holding God and Rivvells waved back, his circular mouth set in what Candy supposed was a smile.
Could it be possible? Was there some truth to it all? Had it all just been a delusion and she was now sitting here, hallucinating heavily, in a courtroom, on trial for murder?
Johnson patted her kindly on the arm. "If things seem a little weird then let us know. It could help the case. I mean if you don't see Wilson then what do you see?"
Candy was about to tell Johnson in no uncertain terms exactly what she saw when Mephinie stood up and called – “All rise!”
Candy turned her attention to the gallery where sat slumped a number of decaying corpses. Somehow in her rising panic she managed to count twelve. They did not rise. Johnson did not seem bothered by this in the slightest and giving Candy the thumbs up he made his way to his position behind the bench for the defence.
Mephinie turned her attention to Johnson. “You may start the proceedings. I believe you wish to call upon some witnesses for Miss Steven’s defence.”
"Yes, your honour. If the prosecution has no objection then the defence calls Professor Fulbright, esteemed psychiatrist, our expert in this matter."
Candy turned her head toward the courts entrance where in stalked a figure whose face she recognized instantly. It was the fucking goat. The one from the television. But she hadn't been taking acid back then. A number of possibilities ran throughout her medical mind. Perhaps she was all along possessive of the schizophrenic illness and it had been bubbling below the surface, just waiting for the acid to trigger it off. Now it was in full swing, she was in fact a crazed fucking psychopath and this was all just a living nightmare which either ended in forced death or incarceration in a mental ward. Perhaps she could recover. Then what? Spend her life a hated freak and only if released then living in halfway houses; at best making money from talk shows or a tell all book.
These thoughts were forced away from her by her thought-voice which she had since forgotten existed. (its no delusion its real remember the covenant remember jack remember your empathy now feel the truth this is real this is real this is real this is real this is real this is real) the voice screamed over and over in her head until she could bear it no more and she cried aloud, "ENOUGH!"
Mephinie turned to look at her. “Would you mind as to be quiet in my courtroom? The witness is approaching the bench.”
And it was true. The massive goat faced creature with its sharp teeth stalked across the courtroom, enshrouded in a purple cloak which fell to just above its' hoofed feet, held together by hoof type hands consisting of padded fingers with twelve inch claws. Candy stared into its' pupils and for a moment she was lost in their blackness which seem
ed to swirl like the eyes of some deadly tornadoes.
Without thinking she sent out her empathic sense and withdrew immediately as a feeling of revulsion entered her mind. However she had caught at least the creature’s sex and was surprised to find it female.
Mephinie nodded to the goat who in turn nodded back. “Please state your name”
The goat drew itself up on its hoofs and turned to Johnson and Rivvells. “I am the great Goddess Shub Niggurath”
Johnson winked at Candy, and she wondered what exactly the poor moron was hearing as Mephinie again spoke.
“And what are your qualifications here today?”
The goat seemed caught off guard, its gaze lingering on the rabbit as she answered. “I am ruler of the dimension Dizor and am a folder of the material quantities referred in this world as atoms. I am also a mother to my awful thousand young.”
Mephinie seemed pleased with this answer or at least Candy thought so at least. Mephinie hadn't really stopped smiling since Candy had entered the room.
“Defence, witness is yours to question.”
Johnson stood and approached Shub Niggurath as if he were approaching another human being. Candy watched with amazement as he smiled at the goat before launching into his questioning.
"You are by all means an expert in Psychiatry as the good judge here has just mentioned. Are you off the opinion that on the night in question Candy had in fact taken leave of her senses. That is to say, that Miss Stevens was in fact legally insane?"
“Oh yes. She was morally insane too.”
Blood began to seep from Johnson's nose and left ear. He did not seem to notice however as he continued. "Aha. So she was traumatized by the events. Is that what you are stating to this court?"
“Oh yes. We do love trauma.”
Something in Johnson's face registered for the first time signs of disbelief, yet it was quick and fleeting and he carried on after the briefest of hesitations. "So by your own account, Candy was legally insane and suffered a massive trauma that night and therefore cannot be held responsible for anything thereafter?"
“Bleed for me.”
The blood began to flow from Johnson then, not just his nose and ear, but from his eyes and then his pores. He took a handkerchief from his inside pocket and Candy watched with horrified fascination as he began to dab at his forehead smearing blood across the wetness of his dripping face.
"If your honour will excuse me, I think I need to sit down for a moment."
Mephinie nodded. “As you like. Prosecution approach the witness.”
Rivvells stood with the rabbit in hand and began stalking across the room towards the goat when he paused, appeared to think for a moment before detouring his way towards Mephinie.
Reaching her, he whispered in her ear.
Mephinie smiled and once again her voice resounded across the courtroom. “Rivvells has made a very fine point. Exhibit A. should be treated accordingly for our expert. I am therefore giving him loan of my very fine tool here.”
The Goddess judge handed Rivvells the small hammer like gavel and he once again made his way towards Shub Niggurath.
Johnson was watching proceedings with a look that said he suspected something wasn't exactly right but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. His shirt was now soaked in blood as was, Candy rightly suspected, his trousers. Rivvells held the rabbit up for the goats inspection then laid it struggling under his left hand whilst bringing down the gavel with the other. The resulting blow caved the right side of the skull.
Blood poured from the neck like the contents of a spilled jug out onto the wooden surface and was immediately absorbed by the white fur of the dead animal. Mephinie dipped the pinkie of her left hand into the blood and examined it closely before offering the red dripping tip to Rivvells. He looked at Mephinie with a pair of questioning eyes which seemed to ask if she was genuine in her offer and she gave the slightest of nods. In response Rivvells' mouth opened. Starting from the size of a pinhole it moved as a whole in a circular clockwise fashion, and Candy again thought of the way waste disposal machines opened themselves before the whirring and churning of its razor-sharp internal mechanisms would begin.
Mephinie however did not seem to have any concerns regarding the interior workings of Rivvells, and her pinkie momentarily disappeared from view as it entered the wide gaping oval shaped hole.
To Candy she looked like a woman giving chocolate to a child and she was glad she was not the candy that Rivvells was being fed upon. Not that he looked anything like a child, and nor Candy supposed was Mephinie really a woman. Female perhaps; however, so far as Candy was concerned, women existed only in the realm of human beings.
Then again, evidently so did Mephinie. “An interesting point. I think that we shall adjourn this case in favour of Miss Stevens’ insanity plea. Let us now leave our friend the goat to her meal.”
Candy watched Johnson try to stand and fail as the last of his blood drained from his body, then looked on as the goat Shub Niggurath began to peel away sections of the rabbits skull, exposing brain, onto the judge, Mephinie, who was busy sorting out papers, to the selection of corpses in the viewing gallery and the ones in the jury who didn't seem to realize a decision had been made in their presence and also their absence and back again to the goat who now ate into the brain of the rabbit which still appeared alive, to Rivvells who was advancing towards the jury with his back towards Candy, to the guard at her side who had remained quiet all through the proceedings and she was still handcuffed to and as she turned to face him he was no longer the guard of earlier but a God which she did not recognise. He was entirely cloaked, yet beneath the cloaks hood she caught sight of a face with cruel blue eyes. Rivvells began to peel the skin from the first of the jury members faces as the God known as Blismasatakk spoke to Candy. “Looks like you got the verdict you wanted. Lucky girl. Could have been the chair for you.”
With all her might Candy drew back her head, leaped upon her chair and smashed her forehead against that of Blismasatakk. She was suddenly over come with a whiteness she had never thought possible to exist. She had no idea where she was, only that she felt ecstasy like she had never felt before. Then as quickly as it had seemed to come it disappeared and a blackness stole over whatever visual awareness she had and settled over her memory like a blanket, weighed down by a heaviness she felt best left unknown. Soon she was in a deep dreamless sleep.
She awoke some time later in a padded room. She lay on a bed that brought memories of an operating surface, rubber and squeaky. Her grandfather had been a veterinarian and she had aided him in some operations during childhood – this had partly been her reason for turning to a career in medicine. This bed was like that, only these restraints had been designed for human use.
The room had no window, only a heavy steel door as a way to whatever lay outside. She felt drugged. They had given her something. She could still feel pain enveloping her body, yet it was a numb pain, as if it existed somewhere else, belonged to someone other than herself. The window hatch in the door was swung open, and she caught a glimpse of cruel perverted eyes staring back at her.
Then she heard the locks turning in the door, and the steel frame opened, revealing an elderly woman in antique uniform, escorted by two massive orderlies, one Caucasian, one Black. The woman had a smile on her face, and carried a small receptacle, which reminded Candy of a plastic shot glass, that contained a largish pink pill.
"You’re awake dear. We thought you’d sleep for an age. Rough time you’ve had, but it’s going to be okay. The professor wants to see you but first you should take this. It will help you cope."
The nurse’s tone was soothing, yet Candy could make out the hateful malice in her eyes, sense the enjoyment of the power she felt in her heart, a painful wave of cruelty that took rest in the ego part of this nurse's brain.
"Are they all dead?" asked Candy, surprised at the blurriness of her words.
What had the given her? Help her cope? Candy doubted
it.
She had wanted to be a doctor, had had faith in the medical community and the irony of the situation left a bitter taste in her mouth that had nothing to do with the drug.
"You really want to know?" came the nurse’s supply.
"How many... the Gods were there... and the Goddesses. . . they were there. . . Johnson, is he dead?" Candy repeated, slurring her words.
Her mouth felt dry, like a desert sand in mid afternoon.
"The doctor will tell you all about it. But first take this little tablet here. It’ll help with the anger you’re feeling," the nurse said, again in a sweet sing song voice.
It struck Candy for the first time that the nurse was of Irish descent. She swallowed the pill, and was rewarded with a drink of weak diluting juice that an orderly produced from one of his meaty hands.
"What did I just take?" Candy asked, this time with a fresher voice.
"That was just a wee tranquillizer. Something to help. You’ll feel better very soon. Now we’re going to untie you, but you’ve got to promise to behave. Our friends here will see that you do," the woman indicated the orderlies. "Do we have your word?"
"What about Johnson? Is he dead? I need to know he's okay?"
The nurse turned to the orderlies. "She's been babbling about this Johnson since she arrived. He was her lawyer at the trail, and-" the nurse lowered her face to a whisper here, "apparently he disappeared straight after the trial. No one can even remember him leaving."
The nurse spoke with a smile that looked to Candy like it had been drawn on along with the lipstick she wore.
"I can hear you, you know. What do you mean 'no one knows where he is? He can't just have vanished! For Christ's sake there must have been over a hundred photographers there waiting for the verdict. Someone must have seen him!"
Candy began to struggle with all her might against the restraints.
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