Book 2: Chapter 33 (1/2)

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. I remained at home. I decided not to pay too much attention to the news based on advice from Rose. From what I understood, things the media were saying were not particularly nice. My incident with being found out was exposed to the media, and now there were talks about the implications of men dressing as women. There was quite a lot of rage and heated debates on both sides. It wasn’t all WRAs blindly attacking me. There were also fervent defenders, some of them bordering on cult-like in their desperate desires to protect me.

Suffice it to say, the entire city of Amaryllis was boiling, and I was the focal point. Rather than fret over it, I instead focused on my family. I left only once to visit my Mother and let her know how things were going. Our visit didn’t end with a visit to a certain room, but given my reputation in the city, even the guards were giving me complicated looks. You could tell which side every woman was on by how she looked at me. Some held disdain and hatred, while others held pity and concern.

I spent time with my daughters, Madison, and Rose. If things went badly, this might be the last time I had a chance to spend with them for a long time. Lyra managed to send me a single message during that time letting me know that things were getting quite dangerous on campus too. Even Rigor, Trey, and Ashton left the college for a while. Amaryllis Academy had become a no-male zone ruled by WRATH. To my understanding, many of the boys held me in contempt, feeling like if I hadn’t gone to that party, then none of this would be happening to them.

This information came from Ash who was still pretending to be a boy. Mako had informed me that Ash told her mother that she wanted to start therapy. Mako thanked me profusely for that, but other than a couple of letters, after leaving my mansion, she remained at the school. If she had visited my home too often, she would be suspected of being a sympathizer and it wouldn’t do her any favors. Thus, I hadn’t seen her again over that week. The same could be said about Lyra. Rebecca… I didn’t even know if she’d be willing to see me.

“It’s time.” Brooke’s voice broke me out of my pensiveness, and I finished with my tie.

My trial awaits. I stood up, and Brooke pushed open the door, letting in more light from the hallway. After a moment, I followed after her. Brooke and I took a different car from Rose and Madison. Of course, they wanted to come and support me, but I didn’t want them to be pulled into any issues as I arrived at the courthouse.

At the entrance to the mansion, five policewomen met up with Brooke. After a brief moment, they got in their cars and turned on the lights, surrounding our vehicle in a protective barrier as we headed to the courthouse. Whether this was something the courts felt they had to do or something Brooke had arranged, I didn’t know.

I was shaking slightly, but not as much as I would have thought. I had my other memories to fall back on. I wasn’t just some fifteen-year-old child. I had been in court before, albeit that was specifically for my divorce. At the very least, I didn’t think I would choke. I tried to wear a placid and repentant face that wouldn’t provoke any woman to lash out at me. I wanted to look as sympathetic as possible, so on the car ride over, I opened a mirror and practiced my facial expressions. Seeing me making faces at a mirror, Brooke could only roll her eyes and give incredulous looks.

Before I realized it, our hover car was surrounded by people. There were shouting and signs everywhere. My eyes widened as we rolled into a world of complete anarchy. I tried to hide my face, but only a few moments later I heard words that made me go cold.

“It’s Clyburn, he’s in there!”

Several people surged forward, but the police blared their sirens amd gave warnings to keep them at bay. I stared out in surprise. I had known the city was boiling, but hearing about something and seeing it were two completely different things. There were at least a few hundred people outside the courthouse. They were all women. Many had angry looks on their faces, although a couple just looked curious.

They held signs like ‘Down With Men’ and the ever popular ‘Burn Cly-burn’. A few of them tried to throw things, but the cops were quick to step up and force them back. Even then, a few spots looked quite dangerous, with women screaming at the top of their lungs hate and vitriol. For the first time in my entire life, I truly felt what it was like to be despised.

“I never thought I was so hated,” I mumbled.

“It’s not you.” Brooke sighed, glaring out into the public. “It’s what you represent.”

I glanced over at Brooke. “Men? How can the world turn it’s back so thoroughly on an entire sex? We’re necessary for the population to exist. Even if we weren’t, we’re still human beings!”

Brooke’s softened her expression, putting out a hand and gently patting my shoulder. “People… hate what they don’t understand. To many women, men are an anomaly. Few women have had a chance to get to truly know a guy like I have.”

I peeked over at her. “And what do you think of men?”

“Gross. Disgusting. Hairy.” Brooke snorted.

I chuckled. “And what do you think of me?”

Brooke smiled silently, then opened the car door with a click. “We’ve arrived.”

Before I could leave the car, the police detail had to create a perimeter around the car up to the courthouse. Brooke helped with that, working her was to my side of the car and finally opening my door for me. I covered my head with my coat as I finally stepped out into the crowd. The roaring increased several times, but I followed Brooke all the way in. I was glad that no one started throwing things. If I started being pelted by rocks, I might have ended up losing it.

Brooke led the way, so I simply kept my head down and watched her feet as we walked through the marble courthouse. The building was actually quite impressive and showed that Amaryllis was a somewhat large and rich city. It had several pillars as was made of polished white stone. There were various statues lining the walls and the hallways were large and grand.  We made our way to a side room, and I finally sighed, dropping my coat as the door shut behind us. In front of me was a familiar face, Oswald. I had never thought in my entire life that I would actually be happy to see him, but I supposed situations made strange friends.

“Clyburn, you made it one piece, that’s a start.” Oswald said frankly.

I nodded, patting myself clean and straightening my hair so that I looked properly presentable for the trial. “What can we expect?”

Oswald pulled out a folder, but he didn’t look at it as he peered up at me. “The DA will almost certainly demand a quicktrial.”

“What’s a quicktrial?”

“A right the DA holds. They can only request a few of them a year, but basically, in a non-murder trial, they can demand that the trial be truncated to only one day. The judge must reach a decision before the end of the day.”

“Sounds kind of unjust, doesn’t it?” I frowned, not liking the idea of a decision that will last the rest of my life being decided so quickly.

“In the past, a lot of lawyers would use various tactics to stretch out their case. They would bribe people with semen and generally use shotty techniques to delay sentencing until public opinion improved. I would know… I’ve used some of those tactics.”

“What?” I groaned.

“Hey, I stuck within the law. Thus, the law changed.” Oswald un-apologetically shrugged. “It’s not a bad law when arresting someone who has too much money or someone who could potentially be dangerous. However, the prosecutors plan to use it, in this case, to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. They wish to get you sentenced while emotions are at their peak. A prolonged trial will poke too many holes in their arguments. Thus, they want to dump all the guilt on you and not give people enough time to reason things out for themselves.”

“Is the prosecution under the WRA thumb?” I asked.

Oswald made a noise of approval, clearly surprised that I had thought of a question like this, which only bothered me a little. “Not exactly. The WRA has pull on the public. They know how to generate outrage and make the voices of a few sound like the only voices out there. The city has been heavily pressured by public outcries induced by them. That’s the gist of it.”

“Alright, is there anything I can do?”

“Shut up, look innocent.” Oswald shrugged.

I furrowed my brow and added another wrinkle after I realized he was being serious and didn’t intend to say anymore. Brooke remained standing nearby, and I flipped through the folder that consisted of the case files. It looked like gobbledygook to me. Even if I understood the laws of my world, which I didn’t, this world was completely different and didn’t apply the same way. There seemed to be no jury, for starters, depending entirely on a single judge to ensure my innocence. If she was a WRA supporter, wouldn’t I be screwed before I could even think?

There was a knock on the door, and someone stopped by to tell Oswald it was time. He nodded and gestured for me to follow. Brooke stood by me, and I gave her an appreciative nod. At the moment, she was the only reason I hadn’t run for the hills. The rest of this was entirely too much for me to handle. Nervousness couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt at the moment. Even with my memories, I was just some businessman who lived a mundane life. How could I handle being some kind of symbol of the male lifestyle? I was being accused of rape and arson and probably more crimes.

I was stuck in a daze of lights and sounds. I could see pictures flashing and noises of people calling out. As I focused, I found that this courtroom wasn’t that much different than the ones I’d seen before in my previous world. The most notable difference was that the judge wasn’t as high up. The seats kept the judge at the same level as everyone else. Perhaps there was something symbolic about this choice, but I didn’t really care about the reason.

My face landed on someone sitting in the seating. It was Rebecca. She had her head down, her face had a complicated expression on it. Before I could stop myself, I called out to her. She glanced up at me, but when she saw me, her eyes furrowed and her expression turned angry. She looked away again.

I lowered my arm. Right, she was sitting on the prosecutor’s side of the court surrounded by WRAs. Some of them were shouting quite rude things in my direction. As for Rebecca, it wasn’t like we had resolved anything. This wasn’t the kind of situation solved just because we had sex one time. Rebecca was still a lesbian, and a WRA supporter, and probably a male hater to boot.

There was a sound of a gavel being struck and only then did the court finally settle down. I sat in my seat, feeling the gaze of hundreds of people. Many of these people I had never met before, but they all knew me. Behind me were a few people I recognized. Lyra and Mako both sat behind me. There were also a couple of freshman and teachers. Madison was there as well as Rose. There were absolutely no other men besides Oswald though. The decision today would affect all of them, yet not a one had the balls to be here.

Actually, my eyes widened when I saw exactly one man in the audience. He sat alone, with women keeping their distance. Other than me, he drew the most eyes in the room. Of course, he wasn’t a man at all. It was Ashton, still dressed as a man. The only man with the balls to show up to this trial wasn’t a man at all. I’d have laughed at the humor of it if the atmosphere was so stifling.

Despite not even being at the Precipice that night, the WRA shot Ashton just as many glares as they shot me. When our eyes met, she smiled at me. Even though she wasn’t much different than Lyra and Mako, she walked the path of a guy. She had an idea of how it felt to be chased, idolized, and hated by women simply for being able to produce seed. She mouthed the words good luck, and I nodded.

Meanwhile, the judge called the court into session and read off a list of pre-court procedure, including the names of the prosecution and the defendant, as well as the details of the case.

“I am an impartial judge flown in from the other side of the country. Judge Saba at your service.”

“She’s female, how impartial can she be.” I murmured under my breath.

Oswald rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored me. I concentrated on keeping a straight face and looking attentive while mostly not hearing half of what the judge said. It wasn’t that I didn’t think it was important to listen. It was more than my mind was on a hundred things or more and I just couldn’t focus. At the very least, I didn’t want to look inattentive or yawn at my trial, let alone suddenly do something inappropriate. My life continued or ended based on this woman’s inclinations, and to me that was terrifying.

At this point, the lawyer on the prosecutions side lifted a wooden dowel, which seemed to be a sign for the judge to acknowledge her. “Prosecution?”

“Your honor, we would like to request a quicktrial.” She spoke sharply, lowering her dowel.

“Under what grounds?”

“If this man is found guilty of rape, we do not want him to have any further chance to perpetuate his rape over the course of a potentially lengthy trial, especially given the known temperament of his male… lawyer.” The woman put on a disgusted face when she glared at Oswald.