Society

Chapter 26

When I next woke up I felt a dull ache enclosing my mind and body. I was back in my bed in the infirmary and once again Neco lay next to me only this time he wasn't asleep. I tried to speak but found my mind to foggy to form words. I lifted my hand nudging his head as gently as I could, in which I didn't succeed as I slapped the back of his head. He stood up, helping me sit up.

"You're up, why do you keep doing things like this?"

I lifted my hand to my head, trying to rub the pain out. My mind cleared a little as I sat up, properly registering my surrounding, I wasn't in my bed as I thought, I was now in a different part of the infirmary which didn't seem particularly promising.

"I don't exactly try it." I put my head forwards trying to get my head to stop pounding, I noticed however that my ribs no longer hurt so much. "Where am I? I know I'm in the infirmary but where?"

Neco sat on the bed next to me, supporting me as I sat upright, squinting at the bright lights.

"You're in the section where they place all the unstable people."

I jolted upright, ready to retort before slouching as my vision whirled before me. I let out a groan before continuing.

"I'm not unstable, why the hell am I here? Oh and was I out for long?"

"First of, stop jumping about, sit still!" I nodded along with his reprimand but neither of us paid it any attention. "Secondly; you've only been out for a couple of hours thankfully, and lastly you're here because you, without provocation, violently attacked a member of staff to such an extent that they had to be rushed to have surgery to save their face."

I jolted upright once again, forgetting about my previous failure which was repeated again. I resigned myself to burying my head into Neco's arm.

"She attacked me first, it wasn't unprovoked it was revenge."

I stopped talking, too tired to explain further.

"Well, the man who sent you here said otherwise, he also changed your nurse, apparently Lucy did nothing to stop you."

I groaned again, my anger battled with the throbbing pain to determine how I would react. The pain won.

"If it's who I think it is, he's also the guy who sent me flying into a wall and knocked me out." I paused, I was surprised at how much effort I had to put in just to talk, "in Lucy's defence, both her and some other guy were trying to pull me away but they couldn't."

I pulled myself upright and sat with my head resting against the wall, Neco looked at me with a sympathetic look. I closed my eyes against the bright lights and listened to him talk.

"Well, they're bringing someone in later to talk to you, but the good news is that if they decide that you're ok in the head you get dismissed from here. Well, if you can justify what happened like you just did then they don't have any reason to prosecute you and they don't trust you in here anymore. You've barely been a member here for a week and you're already in so much trouble."

I let out a weak laugh and opened one eye slightly bracing myself for the blinding lights, I looked at Neco who was sitting next to my bed looking at the lights on the roof. I leaned forward and lay my head on his shoulder. He looked down at me surprised.

"Do you mind if I lie here, the light are too bright and my head hurts like hell."

He laughed a little before resting his head on top of mine.

"Of course it is idiot."

I lay there and felt myself drifting to sleep when Neco nudged me, I sat up opening my eyes to see a strange trio in front of us. There was a thin wiry man in the middle, then on the left of him stood a rather unsettled looking Lucy and on the other side the man who had knocked me out.

The wiry man stepped forward addressing Neco instead of me.

"I'm here about the earlier incident, would you mind leaving us for just now."

Neco inclined his head and gave me a hug before leaving me to accommodate my guests. The trio walked towards me, the three of them all acting very differently. Lucy gave me a sad apologetic look, the wiry man was completely indifferent and the man stood with a look of pure disgust. The wiry man spoke first

"Hello, as you are probably aware we're here about you're assault on Amanda Nealy. We have heard witness statements from both Lucy and Greg here, we just need to hear your side of the story before we make any judgments. Is that ok?"

I knew it wasn't optional but it was very courteous of him to ask.

"Yeah, what do you want to know?"

"Well, I would like you to recount the events that led up to the attack and the attack itself."

I nodded my head thinking where to start.

"Well, Lucy took me to my physio and then left me to Amanda, she was a little too happy to be comfortable around but she seemed fine. She got me to do some tasks, walking a few feet, throwing a knife. I completed these relatively quickly and easily and this seemed to annoy Amanda. She then asked me to perform a specific kick on a sandbag, I felt, in fact I know, that I would have been unable to do this so I refused to do it. She then began to get angry at me for not doing this task, we argued about it before she launched herself at me."

At this point Greg, the man began to retort but the wiry man stopped him so I continued.

"Initially she knocked me over but I managed to dominate the fight until she caught me where I had cracked my rib. She then stood up and stood on my side where my rib had cracked. I screamed and at that point Lucy and another man came in and pulled her off of me. When I was able to stand I walked over to her and she spat at me, calling me a bitch. At that point I lost it, I was still in pain from her attack, and I attacked her. I continued punching her while Lucy and the other person attempted to pull me off her. The, Greg was it, he came in and threw me across the room into a wall causing me to black out."

There was a moment of silence as the wiry man processed my story, he then nodded and returned his attention to me.

"I have a few questions, firstly; what was the move that she had asked you to perform?"

"It was a powerful kick that I learnt from Tanya to take out opponents in one move, it required a lot of power."

He nodded to his self before continuing.

"Secondly; do you freely admit that you at one point viciously assaulted Amanda Nealy?"

"I do yes."

"And my last question; how would you class that attack."

I thought it over before responding.

"It was justified revenge, she had assaulted me who was injured, and I was returning the favour."

"Ok" he turned to face Lucy and addressed her now. "Can you confirm that when you arrived it was, in fact, Amanda who was attacking Aima?"

"Yes, it was."

He nodded before asking more questions of her.

"Also, can you confirm that it was Greg who caused Aima to lose consciousness?"

"Well, she lost consciousness by colliding with the wall but it was because Greg who threw her at the wall."

He turned back to face me.

"I have come to a decision that you can't be held accountable for your actions due to the circumstances and your state of mind at the time. You will be allowed to return to your duties as a member of the society however you will be expected to have a monthly check up here at the infirmary."

He went to leave when, Greg, the other man piped up, "wait, why are you not taking my side of the story?!"

He looked angry and upset but the wiry man just looked at him impassively.

"Her story was confirmed by another party and your side of the story is biased since the victim is your fiancé."

He began to stammer a rebuttal but he was silenced by the man's hand and he walked out shooting me one last dirty look before leaving.