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    Drew Payne
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The World Out There - 9. Nine

They put him into a white-tiled cell in the basement of the building, locking him in. He’d expected that they would take him straight into the court room and had been surprised to be placed in there. They left him in there for a very long time. It seemed as though an age passed him by as he had no idea how long it was. He had no watch and there was no decoration to the walls, certainly not a clock.

Liam sat on the cold, tiled bench and stared at the white tiled wall in front of him. In his mind he could still hear that screaming crowd pushing at the closed metal gates, playing like a video stuck on repeat. They hated him and he didn’t even know one of them. Why did they hate him so much? What did they know? What was it about him that they hated? Their shouts of anger were still loud inside his head. There had been so many of them. Even sat there in that cell, he was still afraid of them: they had wanted to hurt him, to kill him.

He'd felt lost in the courtroom from the moment they had brought him in there. They, the two guards, had led him out of his cell and up a set of narrow stone stairs that took him straight in the Dock, right there in the courtroom. The courtroom was already full of people and as he looked around himself, it felt as though every one of them was looking at him. Everywhere he glanced, there were people openly staring back at him. Why were they staring at him? He didn’t want them staring at him. It was as if he was dragged to the front of a full class and everyone was staring him, except a hundred times worse.

The Dock area was actually small in space, though it was a raised platform for everyone to see him. One of guards made him sit down on the wooden chair there. When he sat down on it, all he could see was the wooden wall that ran all around The Dock was darkly varnished and he could see runs and drips of varnish dried into it. He certainly couldn’t see over it nor could he see the scary courtroom beyond it. Of course, all those people filling the courtroom couldn’t see him either. That was good and he gently smiled to himself: he was safe again.

Someone, in a hushed but forceful voiced called out to the guards now sat behind him. Liam glanced over his shoulder and saw the male guard learning over the side of The Dock and obviously talking to someone else.

The next few moments saw a rush of activity between him from the two guards. After speaking to the unseen person, the male had a hurried and whispered conversation with the female guard who then rushed off back down the stairs and out of The Dock. She returned a minute or so later carrying two old grey cushions. She made him stand up as she put the cushions onto the chair’s seat and made him sit down again. With the cushions on it, Liam found he had to struggle to get back onto it, and when he did, he could see clearly over the edge of The Dock, but the people in the courtroom could see him again.

The courtroom seemed so full of people, so many different people, and when he looked over the edge of The Dock many of those people turned to look back at him, again. So many of their faces carried expressions he couldn’t always read. Everywhere he looked there were people. Down in the centre of the courtroom were people dressed in black gowns and wearing wiry white wigs who were not looking back at him because they all sat with their backs to him. One of them was probably Mrs Stewart-Graham, but he couldn’t recognise her - everyone in those gowns and wigs looked the same.

Then the judge entered the courtroom through a side door, and everyone stood up. The woman guard grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him up onto his feet, hissing at him, “Stand up!”

Copyright © 2021 Drew Payne; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Wow you made Liam's situation feel so real, from the crowd in the courtroom, to how he couldn't even be seen or see out of the Dock himself.

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I wonder that Liam’s lawyer didn’t prepare him for these moments. They’re critical in helping judge and jury form a favorable - or, at least, neutral - opinion. It’s hardly surprising that Liam feels lost here. 

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On 8/16/2021 at 4:15 PM, Parker Owens said:

I wonder that Liam’s lawyer didn’t prepare him for these moments. They’re critical in helping judge and jury form a favorable - or, at least, neutral - opinion. It’s hardly surprising that Liam feels lost here. 

too true

Sad that he wasn't made fully aware of what was going to take place once he arrived at court and what he was supposed to do when the judge walked in. Also surprising is the fact that he was left alone so long before coming to the courtroom.

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1 hour ago, mansexlover said:

too true

Sad that he wasn't made fully aware of what was going to take place once he arrived at court and what he was supposed to do when the judge walked in. Also surprising is the fact that he was left alone so long before coming to the courtroom.

I based Liam's trial on a famous/infamous trial of two British 12 year old boys for murder. They were so pitifully under prepared for their trial. I'm afraid but British barristers don't coach their clients into how to give evidence and what to expect in court.

I wanted Liam to not to know what to do when the judge entered to show how lost and out of place he was in court. Also, him having to sit on a cushion to be able to be seen over the edge of the dock was taken from real life.

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