The Knight in Leather Armor

ch.58 That Knight

I don’t remember if I went to sleep. I don’t remember where I went to sleep, if I did indeed rest. Danny told me it was only last night that I had gone to see Harry in prison.

I clutched my gut as if I had been beaten instead of Harry. I wished it had been me. I cursed Harry’s words from the night of that party. I cursed them a thousand times.

***

I’m sitting in the court room, breathing without air, without Harry. My chest feels empty and I remembered what had been stolen from me: my heart. Harry.

It was only this morning that I had seen Harry in that filthy prison. My eyes filled with tears as Harry’s gasps and winces from being beaten and shot last night- filled my ears with poison, making me sure I would go deaf.

It was only last night that Danny had found us out and beaten Harry.

That I had driven to Harry’s house and we had argued before he told me to come to him.

That I had been in Harry’s bed, lying next to him, lying in his warmth, in his embrace, making a Heavenly puzzle with him.

That the police had shot him mercilessly.

It was only one night ago where the darkness of the knight invaded the day and the brightness of the day lightened the knight. Time had me in her strangling grip, taking my heart, then my body, and now my mind.

“All rise” the policeman announced. A petite, dark woman with tufts of curled black hair-strode in.

I stood up blindly.

I looked out into the stands to my left and saw Louis and his friends, along with his father. They were all dressed in blue-black tuxes, the same tuxes they had worn that night. That night. I shuddered.

Danny sat at the end of the bench to my left. He was a world away, his mind trying to control his angrily shaking hands. He wanted to kill Harry. He would have killed him two nights ago had he not cared about mom, had he not cared about me.

Danny glanced at me and there was no emotion in his hard dark brown eyes.

I swallowed.

The two guards from last night dragged Harry into the room, each one clutching his arms tightly.

He glanced up at me and my knees almost gave way as I saw the dark bruises- the color of an eggplant- all over his beautiful face.

Harry looked away, not wanting me to see the damage. I didn’t even want to know how bruised he was under his jumpsuit.

“Louis William Tomlinson to the stand” the judge called.

Louis walked up the stands casually, patting down his perfectly primed suit.

“Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?” the judge asked.

The irony and the hatred mixed a powerfully potent concoction inside me.

“Yes, your honor”

“Mr. Tomlinson, how are you sir?” Louis’ father asked with a grin.

“Fine, thanks” Louis returned his father’s arrogant grin.

“Mr. Tomlinson, you are a very handsome young man, why is it that this lovely young lady, Miss Angela is with the violent criminal instead of with you?” he asked with great interest.

“Mr. Tomlinson, are you going anywhere with this?” the judge interrupted.  

“Yes, your honor” he replied with a smirk.

The judge waved her mallet for them to continue.

Louis watched me and licked his lips slowly.

I looked away in disgust.

“Mr. Tomlinson, how do you know Miss Angela Lorenzo?”

“She came to a party of mine. A birthday party on the 24th of December” Louis replied with just enough detail.

Louis set his gaze on me. “I seem to remember her wearing a red dress. A very nice red dress” he added, with a wink.

The judge took note of that detail.

“Did she give you a gift?” Tomlinson continued.

“Mr. Tom”- the judge complained.

“Actually,” Louis interrupted. “She left before she could give me what I wanted” Louis said as he stared at me, the corner of his lips going up in a cruel, suggestive smirk.

Harry jolted up, but the guards grabbed him and settled him down.

“The defendant took her away” he added- glancing at Harry’s shaking hands, tied down like a monster.

“What a shame. Did you see her again afterwards?” Louis’ father shook his head as if deeply moved by Louis’s words.

“Yes, I saw her in the street later that night. She was being attacked by the defendant. He was trying to rape her” Louis pronounced every vowel and constant those last two words had, knowing he was killing Harry and me for that matter.

I held my face in my hands and felt a fever coming on.  The judge watched me carefully for a moment.

I Iooked down as I heard Danny panting from down the row. He remembered how Harry had brought me home that night and given me his clothes. No. No. I tried to make eye contact with Danny, but he was panting loudly, glaring at Harry as if he could hurt him that way.

My heart beat out of my chest, my pulse thickened until I could hear it ringing in my ears. A flashback of that night came to me and mixed with the dream I had had of Harry that same night. My mind whirred as Louis’ words dictated its own story of that night, one that was beginning to sound truthful.  

“And what did you and your friends do?” Louis’ father urged.

“We tried to help her, of course. But, the defendant’s a maniac; he pulled out his 10-inch switch blade and threatened to kill us if we didn’t leave” Louis shook his head solemnly, in script of his well-rehearsed story.  

“And what did you do?” his father asked him eagerly, as if interviewing the brave and noble Hercules instead of Hades in a tux. 

“We were afraid, but we weren’t cowards; we started to fight him, but he ran off with her” Louis explained, slamming his fist just hard enough on the stand, for emphasis.

I scoffed. Cowards. They were all lying cowards.

“Did you see Miss Angela after that incident?”

“Yes, she used to work at her uncle’s restaurant: Lorenzo’s. She was in the middle of serving me when he started to fight me and my friends” Louis explained, pointing his chin at Harry as if he were a monster.

“Very well, thank you Mr. Tomlinson” he dismissed Louis, a smirk playing on both their arrogant faces.

~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE: THE COMING COURT SCENES ARE NOT 100% ACCURATE BECAUSE I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL AND THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY, THEREFORE CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE PROCEDURE ARE EXAGGERATED FOR LITERARY PURPOSES. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ABOUT THE INACCURACIES BECAUSE IT ONLY MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A PRISSY STICKLER. THANKS. -MariamXx