Chapter 226 - Reef – Brittney's Trial Part 2

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Reef

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"All right." A merman, completely in his merform, swam to the front of the room and called out to the room. "The Pacific Dome court is now in session with the honorable judge Halibut Saltwater presiding." The judge swam into the room, an older merman with rusty red scales, brown hair, and flowing gray and brown beard.

"You may be seated." The judge said as he swam behind his bench. 

"Ppfftt." I cannot believe this. That girl actually laughed. Was she fucking stupid as hell? Why in the hell would she laugh? For what reason? "Halibut Saltwater. Please. What a fucking joke." She was whispering but the room was so quiet that it carried to everyone that was present.

"Do you have a problem with my name, girl?" The judge snapped the words at her angrily.

"It's funny. You have to admit that is not a normal name. That's all. I just thought that it was funny, so I laughed." She put on a smile and a sweet voice, obviously trying to take the focus off of herself.

"So, you think you're something special? You, the Siren girl that had been raised on the land with no knowledge of the sea until recently. What was the name again?" The judge rifled through the sheets of paper made out of kelp that was on his desk. "Ah yes that's it. Miss Brittney Cartwright. That is definitely not a normal name for someone that was born from the sea. Are you sure you're a Siren? You don't look like one, though you definitely act like one." I could tell that the judge was putting Brittney in her place right now. And he was doing an amazing job of it so far.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Brittney still didn't seem to understand what was going on around her. "How am I acting like a Siren right now?"

"You think you're better than everyone and that we should all fall to your feet and kiss your toes. You're not the only sea creature that can walk on land, little girl. You're no more special than a sea slug. Now I advise you to check your attitude or you will find yourself in contempt of court and I won't hesitate to finish this trial without you present."

"That's not fair!" She yelled at the man that was presiding over the hearing.

"And yet, I will do it in a heartbeat if you don't sit down and shut up. This is the last warning that I am going to give you right now."

"Hmph." Brittney, the stupid girl that she was, seemed to actually be capable of doing something semi smart at times. Because just then, she pouted but sat down without saying another word at all. However, she was already ruining her chances of getting any sort of leniency.

"Now that this has been settled, let us bring in the jury." Judge Saltwater called to his bailiff. The other merman swam to the door in the corner and disappeared from sight. He wasn't gone long before he came back and was followed by a dozen men and women, all of whom were in their human forms to prevent preconceived notions about who and what they were.

"The jury will now be seated." The bailiff called out to the courtroom.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, esteemed colleagues, witnesses and spectators, I ask that you all only speak when given permission to do so, and to be patient through this process. Law and Order is not a quick process, and we expect that this will not be rushed by anyone. I ask that you all wait calmly through the process and stay with us until the end. Now, I would like to open the floor to the prosecution for opening statements, after which the defense will have their turn."

Theo, the Selkie, rose to his feet and walked to the middle of the room. He was about four feet seven inches tall with tan hair and silver eyes. He was a shifter that became a sea lion when he changed, but that didn't mean that he wasn't as ruthless and vicious as a rabid wolf. He was a smart man that made use of his 'short' comings.

"Thank you, Judge." Theo nodded to the judge before he turned to nod at the jury and then the rest of the room. "We all know why we are here. There was a crime committed and the perpetrator needs to be punished for that crime. As you have all seen already, aside from the jury that is, the defendant is not a nice person."

"Objection." Lisette, Brittney's lawyer, stood and yelled at Theo. "He is tainting the jury's impression of my client."

"Sustained." Even though Judge Saltwater had been at the receiving end of Brittney's attitude, he was still being fair with her. "Theo, let's not badmouth the defendant, if you would please."

"Yes, Judge." Theo nodded at the man before turning back toward the jury to finish his opening statement. "Now, the crime that this young woman has been accused of is not as simple as people might think. What she did, this young Siren girl, was trying to convince someone to kill her ex-boyfriend because he would not take her back. Granted, that young man had mated with and was happy with the merman that he was meant to be with. Not being able to accept that, she wanted the boy killed. And when the attacker failed, she sought out the boy and his mate at the hospital. And yes, this young merboy was hurt so badly, that he needed a hospital. We are just thankful that there was a member of the sea that was working at the hospital and was able to take care of things. When the girl found the boy at the hospital, she sang to him to try and make him disappear from her life. She also tried to get the boy's mate to jump out of the window by singing to him as well. This makes three people, at the very least, that she either attempted to, or successfully, bespell. She is a menace to society, and I will prove that all for you here during this trial. I will show you all what kind of evil monster this Siren girl is, and why she deserves to be punished."

With that, Theo smiled at the jury and went to take his seat at the prosecution's desk. Once he was seated, Lisette rose to her feet, straightened her business suit, and walked over to the same position that Theo had been in. She nodded at the judge, the jury, and the room, just like Theo had done. Now, it was time for her to give her opening statement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry that we had to interrupt your lives for this pointless case." Lisette, who I could tell was taking her job seriously, was looking like a true snake waiting in the bushes. "I am going to prove to you all that my client is innocent. She is simply a young girl that has done nothing wrong at all. She was simply framed because of who and what she is. We all know about the prejudices that a lot of members of the sea have for the Sirens. Yet this girl, who was not raised in the sea and knows nothing about the ways of the Sirens, is being punished for the supposed crimes that the other members of her species have been falsely accused of over the centuries. She is nothing more than a scapegoat for these people. She is just someone to pin it all on. And when I am done, you will all see what I mean about that."

That was all that Lisette had to say. It was nothing more than a long winded way of saying, she didn't do anything. Look at her, she's too pretty to be that evil. I hated that she was trying to get Brittney off on these charges, but I knew that it was her job so I couldn't be that upset about it. Not really anyway.

There was already murmuring and whispering among the jury as they looked at Britney. I don't think they thought she was innocent yet, but I was betting they were curious about Theo's words at the beginning of his statement. They were wondering why Brittney was being labeled as evil and what she had done to prove that to the rest of us already.

That had been a pretty good tactic for the man. He got his foot in the door with the jury already. He was already making them think about all of this. And he was making the jury distrust the defense right from the get go.

I was glad that we had this man on our side. I knew that he had rarely lost a case and that was usually because he got the defendant to confess on the stand. I wonder how he was going to force Brittney to confess everything that she had done. It should definitely be fun when it did happen. 

When I looked over at Analise and Abraham, I saw that they were grinning as well. It was clear that they were thinking along the same lines as I was. They knew that this was definitely going to be an interesting, albeit short trial.

That was the end of my inner debate and monologue for a little while though, it was time for the trial to proceed, and I didn't want to miss any part of it.