Mythos - The Accounts

Ch 1: The Trial

"Please state your name and your occupation for the records, ma’am.”

      A weak and exhausted woman looked up slowly at the blinding lights of the courtroom, then, met the eyes of every judgmental face staring at her. She glanced at the judge who watched her carefully. The Judge was the only one with a face that hadn't already decided she was guilty, but was rather tired and waiting for the trial to come to an end. She looked slowly back forward with her own tired face, eyes that sunk near to the very end of her face and no makeup to cover the disaster of her complexion. After a gentle prod to state her name and occupation for the court from her state appointed attorney for this case with a clearing of his throat, she opened her mouth and raspily spoke, "My name... Is E-Elizabeth Harkins," she took a raspy breath, she was having a bit of trouble breathing from all the crying she had been doing, "And I am... w-was- a mother of one."

"Was?" The Prosecutor questioned.

"W...was." She looked away, "M..My son.. My.. L-little boy, Evans, o...only six years of a..age.. d..di..." She started to choke up again, holding her throat lightly as she struggled to say the word. Soft, traumatized and frazzled tears began to fill her eyes.

"Finish your sentence mam, say the word," The prosecutor demanded, he knew what she was trying to say, he wanted to wrap this case up quickly.

"D-Died-" She finally managed to choke out after gasping in a lungful of air.

"Died!" The prosecutor repeated, turning to the court, "So she admits to her crime! She admits she ki-!"

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" She blurted out with a sob choked yell. The court fell silent for a moment, taken back from the sudden outburst from the once quiet, unwilling to talk, accused.

The prosecutor took a moment to collect his thoughts before slowly turning back to Elizabeth. Then, asking in a much softer, but still accusatory tone, he asked with a squint of his eyes, "If not you, then who did kill your son, Miss Elizabeth?"

"My... My... My..." Elizabeth would have become a broken record if not for the impatient cough the prosecutor had made, "MY h-husband-"

"There is no record of you ever having a husband, Miss Harkins. You're under oath and yet you lie?" The prosecutor narrowed his eyes at her and murmurs filled the court with agreement from both the jury and onlookers.

"W-well we weren't o-o-officially married y-you see... He...Insisted that having a-a wife attached to his name would hinder his work... B-but we were very much in l-love, me and him you s-" She had begun to protest against the accusation that she didn't have a husband and was about to go into a long rant about unnecessary details, but was stopped by the prosecutor once more. 

He was a very articulate and precise man. He didn't want to waste his time or the court's time so he pressed the witness onward, "And what 'work' of your imaginary husband would you have the court to believe he did?"

"Objection! Argumentative." The attorney stood up a bit then sat back down when the Judge sustained his objection.

With the objection sustained the prosecutor cleared his throat and tried a different question, "Miss Harkins, earlier you responded to my question that your partner was the one to have killed your son? Correct?"

"Y...Yes..." she spoke quietly in a slight struggle to speak at all.

"And for what reason would he have killed your son if that is the truth? You seem to be having a hard time believing your own statement," The prosecutor was hoping that the faster she felt like she had explained herself the faster he could shoot down all her claims and prove her guilty. It would be much faster, he thought , than constantly arguing back and forth with her and her insistence on the story she was presenting to the court, "Go on, tell us the story."

"W...Well..." Elizabeth gulped in, "T... To start off with I-I'll answer your earlier question... M-My husband was a child psychologist... W-when we h-had our own son m-my husband was always very keen on monitoring his mental health and making sure it was well... I-it helped both our son and his studies he told me... O-our son was homeschooled for that very r-reason, s-so my husband could a-a-always keep an eye over...." she paused then continued, choking back a sob, "...Over our son." tears swelled her eyes, "I-I had no idea what was h-happening. W-we never a-a-abused our son but he... started to change."

"Who? Your husband or your son?"

"M-My husband... and M-my son both... I..I don't know wh-what happened. N-No clue e...even... M-My son always had an imaginary friend.. H...He called them T...Teller...? I don't remember exactly." she held her heart and looked down, "But.. As he grew up he.. K-kept that imaginary friend and k-kept insisting it was real... I-I thought it was perfectly normal b-but my h...husband..." she looked away, "T-thought otherwise..." She closed her eyes for a moment, gripping her chest before she continued with her story and staring at down at the stand rather than at every judgmental face in the court, "He...He insisted that it was abnormal for o-our son's age and thought something was seriously w-wrong with his mental progressment... So he.. Upped his... Well..." she sighed out, having a hard time saying it, "Treatments... I was worried... A-and I couldn't understand any of it.. But I trusted him... E-even when he started to lose a lot of... s-sleep and claimed he could see our son's imaginary friend as well." She glanced up at the prosecutor with her head still slightly hung, "He called it a demon... B-believed i-it affected o...other children as well a-and become irrational... TiI the point he..." She began to choke on her tears that came on all the sudden like pouring rain in the middle of May, "H-h-he... I.. T-there was so m...much blood and I... Pills everywhere a-and I- there was so much I..." she couldn’t continue and buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

"And that's when you realized your son was dead? Miss Harkins," the prosecutor approached the stand and put his hands down on the edge of it, looking her dead in the face since she hadn't raised her head so he could see her eyes yet, "Don't you think there was a possibility that there was never any 'husband'? That he was merely a figment of your unstable mind, because you couldn't handle the truth that you were your son's killer and potential abuser?"

"N-no!" Her head shot up as soon as she heard that and she began to try and protest against such a claim, "I-!"

"I wasn't considering it before I admit, but ladies and jurors of the court-!" He spun on his heel to face them, "Late in the state of his case I present to you my final evidence of the Witnesses guilt! Before the case was begun Miss Harkins here was psycho evaluated and determined to suffer from frequent delusions!"

"T-they're not delusions! I-I had a husband!" she protested, standing up quickly against her weak knees and sobbed violently.

The prosecutor turned back to her, "But they were, admit it! I hadn't considered it before but now I am now filled with certainty that your guilt has twisted your mind into falsifying a fake husband that could take all the blame for your crimes, I rest my case!"

"That's not true-!" Elizabeth sobbed and fell down to her knees, holding her face and she sobbed louder.

"Order, order in the court!" The judge's gavel went off and everything started to ring in Elizabeth's ears.

When the jurors came back from deciding on a verdict, everyone sat down once more and Elizabeth stared miserably at the table in front of her. 

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" The judge glanced.

"We have, Your Honor." 

There was a pause and Elizabeth gasped for air. She looked up slowly at the jury and was met with a terrifying gaze from a shadowy figure amongst the other, human, jurors. It stood tall, its back ridged and stomach starved. Two antlers protruding from its head and a massive, glowing white grin in the middle of its smooth face.

"We find the defendant not guilty, " The shadow figure tilted its head a bit at Elizabeth. Though it had no eyes, its smile stared right down into Elizabeth's tormented soul, heart, and insecurities. Its grin grew wider as it spoke, "by reason of insanity." 

Elizabeth's eyes widened and she pointed in horror, her silence being replaced by her gasping and panicked breaths as her whole body began to shake to its core, "That's it! t-that's the imaginary friend!" she exclaimed in pure terror that she could now see it to, "T-that's it! that's it!" she screamed in fear, everything ringing once more in her ears except the trembling of her own heartbeat. She was now in hysterics, shouting at the figure no one else saw. Everything started to go black and blurry as she shrieked. The last thing she saw was the police heading for her, and that damned smile that lasted all the way until she finally could see no more and everything went black.

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