Fan Fiction ❯ Rosenberg Academy ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

There was a certain aura in the courtroom that day. Like everyone there was just a puppet, just an actor playing their rolls for the higher ups. Nothing really mattered here since everything had already been decided. By the jury that is, it wasn’t a fixed trial. The trial hadn’t even started, but they already knew how they were going to condemn this man…no, how they were going to condemn this boy. “How can I vote any other way? He must be guilty” they all thought to themselves as they looked him over. He must have been only sixteen, but it was hard to tell his age. Most people had a hard time telling someone’s age when said person was wearing a mask. The mask was there to keep him from biting others. The court had deemed it necessary for the proceeding to be safe. The court had also deemed it necessary for the boy to have a chain attached to his handcuffs and ankle cuffs. “Only a madman” they jury thought to themselves, “Would be chained up like that. He must be guilty” And they were right. He was guilty. He had killed a security guard at the local zoo. He had made a pair of improvised claws from disposable razor blades, cut to fit his nails with a bit of work, and torn a man’s throat out. Later, upon examining the corpse, they found several bite marks next to the main wound, like some animal had gotten a little hungry and decided to get a snack. Maybe the court was justified in putting the anti-bite mask over the boy’s face.

The prosecution hadn’t tried to strike a deal with the boy to try and get him a lessened sentence for pleading guilty. They knew, along with the rest on the people in the room, that the boy had to be guilty, and they were sure of the fact that he would be condemned.

But, it seemed, there was one person in the room that didn’t know the boy was guilty. The boy himself. He stood there, wondering why he was there. His breath coming out like a growl as he subconsciously tried to free himself from the bonds. Minute flexes in his arm noticed only by the most perspective people in the room. He knew he killed the man, he could still taste the coppery blood at the back of his throat, but the man had got in his way. The boy just wanted to free the wolves from their cages. Let them run free, hunt with them, feast with them. But the guard had tried to stop him, called on his black box for back up even as he saw the dull gleam of metal in the moonlight. He didn’t know that what he had done was wrong, or even what was right for that matter. He just wanted to get to where he was going with the least amount of resistance.

“All rise for the honorable Judge Stevens” the bailiff said, repeating his daily mantra as the black cloaked judge walked through the side door and took his seat. The boy rose, but only because he was forced to by the hand of his attorney

“You may be seated” The judge repeated drowsily. He knew the verdict as well, and he was hopping to get this trial over as quick as possible.

The boy however, remained standing. Even with the frantic hand of his attorney trying to pull him down, he staid standing. ”You can sit down now, Hati” the judge said, more than a little irritable as he remembered the boy’s name from his record.

Hati, the boy, didn’t say anything. But the growl, that had been just a trickle, was growing in volume. ‘This is the man that put me in chains’ Hati’s body screamed in his head. ‘This is the man that took away my freedom. The one that is keeping me like this.’ Hati was now struggling against the handcuffs hard enough that his wrist were bleeding. Bright crimson blood was dripping down his fingers and coating the hardwood floor below him. In that moment, he was an animal. His stance, his voice, it was all to primal to be human. “I…I will,” he was cut off by his own scream, the unexpected shock of a tazer coursing through his system.

“Thank you bailiff” the judge said as Hati twitched on the ground, his blood staining his orange prison uniform “Defense, do you think you can control your client, or will the bailiff have to escort him out?”

“I, I can handle it your honor” the layer said as he tried to help Hati into his seat and not get blood on his tailored suit.

“Good, now, how do you pleaded?”
That was when the medicine kicked in, assaulting Hati’s system with a wave of fatigue. Tranquilizers had been injected into him earlier to keep him calm, and now they were finally taking effect.

“Your honor my client pleads guilty on terms of insanity”

Hati, still unconscious from the drugs, didn’t hear any of the proceedings. He didn’t hear how his lawyer valiantly defended him, how the prosecution tore into him, or how the jury voted him guilty with only a few minutes of deliberation. But he was able to wake up in time to hear the judge sentence him to a time at the Rosenberg Academy till he was no longer a threat to himself and others.

But, Hati didn’t really make sense of any of it. His mind was still trapped in the haze of drugs. But still, even in the fog, he was able to give the judge a smile. A smile that reached his eyes enough to show through the mask. It was one of those that was full of fangs and missing compassion. The ones that predators flashed each other to show they meant business. To show that if a fight did happen, they had enough fang to drag the other into death with them.

The judge gulped