5.The State Vs. Thomas Light
Thomas Light was picked up three days later in a beggars'
cemetery. Emily Stanton had been buried there an hour earlier.
She had no family. Her few acquaintances from the factory were
busy covering the hole she'd left in their workforce. A few
unmoving passages were read by a disaffected priest as her body
was slowly lowered into the cold ground. No one but the men paid
to cover her pine casket with earth heard his words. Even those
were drowned out by the more urgent ones booming from the large
telescreen. An hour after the ceremony, Light stepped out of the
tree line just beyond the grave. He staggered to the mound of
freshly moved earth and fell to his knees, tears pouring from
his eyes onto her grave. The police, too, had been waiting. He
didn't resist. The trial began within the week. The media circus
was phenomenal. The city saw a demon portrayed on the screen.
Every shred of evidence was dissected and rebuilt to incriminate
him. Constant news, facts, and rumors were forced upon and
absorbed by the masses.
Emily, The crowd has gathered here
But it is not because of you.
Emily, the taste of blood in their mouths,
I can't imagine what they'll do.
But it doesn't matter what they'll do to me.
Emily, have they forgotten you
When they set their sights on me？
They will hang me from the rope tonight
Will you be waiting there for me？
Will our souls remember where we said we'd meet
On the way out of this town？
I'm leaving one way or the other, Emily.
There's nothing left here for me now.
Emily, it's so quiet now.
It's like the calm before a storm.
They will punish me for what he did to you
But either way it's all my fault,
'Cause I made the man who laid his hands on you.
And I would tear him down, but I feel like a dead man
And what can a dead man do？
Turning his attention to the proceedings...
Here comes the blow.
We find the only man who loved her...
We find the only man who'd give his life
To see her once again... We find this man
The judge entered his chambers. The lawyers and jury filed out
of the courtroom, leaving Light, a free man, sitting silently
behind the defendant's table. The sound of the mob outside was
deafening. Even from within the thickly marbled walls of the
courthouse, their rage - their sense of injustice - were
palpable. Throughout the trial, the telescreen had told them
that their judicial system would ultimately fail them, that the
laws of the city were flawed, skewed to shelter monsters like
Light, powerless to protect the people. Impotent. Weak.
Dangerously out of touch with the times. Obviously, the screen
had been telling the truth. Now, it was telling the masses that
they would have to take matters into their own hands if justice
was to be served.
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