Henry brought his knees to his chest at the sound of his old familiar's name escaping the lawyer's mouth.

"What is your name?"

"Veronica Rolfe."

"What is your relation to that man in the defendant's chair?"

"I was his familiar for a short while."

"How was it that you came to be in that position?"

Holding her breath, Veronica then let out slowly and with grace, "Well," She gulped, "I had just come back from England, but I came down with a horrible disease. My husband, John at the time, left me for dead on the coast of Virginia, so I had managed to make my way back home to see it burned to the ground by a coven of vampires."

Veronica paused taking a breath as she recounted her entire history. She saw it was so long ago, that it had hardly even happened to her, yet her chapter book memories attested to the story. "I then came across Henry who, at the time was beaten and burned by the sun and turned into a very weak man. He had his old familiar, Lupine, hold me over the cliff's edge and had me choose between an immortal life, or death."

"I think it should be noted," The judge turned to jury, "That back then there wasn't a choice to reverse an immortality such as Veronica's state due to the lack of a court we see here today and the abilities the angels have bestowed upon us."

"That being said," Veronica looked up to meet Henry's gaze. "I was still given a choice."

"That will be all for this question, your honor. Now, Mrs. Rolfe, can tell us about the time Henry has ever hurt you, physically or otherwise manipulated you in an adverse way?"

"Well, I can recount several occasions," Her voice was sullen and mellow now, seeing how the lawyer tore Henry's name to shreds.

"I would like to discuss one occasion that hence forth shall be known as 'The Dickinson's Poem Episode.' Would you like to go into further detail on what Henry did to you upon finding you spilling a cup of blood he was to drink on a poem of Emily Dickinson?"

"Well," Veronica started as she had done before, "I would like to mention that it was his favorite poem that he had personally discussed with Ms. Dickinson prior in 1880 something, but his likings to the poem had something to do with his condition and discussing how she had come to know death.

Finding out about his visit to her in Massachusetts, I realized that Henry was very fond of this idea of death and life, trying to find meaning in his intermittent state. I---I certainly am not the only one who can applaud what they must have talked about in conversation, and a memento of that was in his rights to cherish."

"Mrs. Rolfe, do get on with what Henry did during this episode."

"Right, so he found me when I accidentally spilled a glass of wine---I---I mean blood on his cherished poem and, and he got real angry as one should but."

"But? Go on, Mrs. Rolfe." Veronica couldn't keep her eyes off of Henry, watching her words eat his sanity and belief in himself.

"He grabbed me and pressed me against his bookcase. I--I was thoroughly shaken."

"As one should," Mr. Hall noted. "But it should be noted that you were thrown against the bookshelf and then pressed into literary works, being slapped and other times hit repeatedly.

At the interruption, Veronica pressed, "May I go on? I think it would be best to know that he meant for me to feel the literature that he held in his library of his, and it was until recently, after hearing that his entire collection was given to the museum or otherwise burned, anyone would be outraged to hear of such literary masterpieces, HISTORY, for chrissake to be removed entirely from the world. It's just simply not right."

"As you told me, albeit in confidence, but I see an importance to what you told me to tell the court that this episode of violence was the tipping point of all other instances that Henry had treated you poorly."

"I suppose, yes, this was the worst instance of violence minus the verbal violence."

"I would like to make clear this was not the only instance, but just that, an instance."

"Yes, you would be correct in saying so." Veronica said weakly.

"No further questions, your honor."

Back and forth it had gone on, listening to the terrible things he had committed. Henry shrunk deeper and deeper into his chair in despair and hoped to God someone would see the love he held for Edward still.

"No further questions, your honor." Mr. Hall turned triumphant and sat down. Edward was on his way out of his chair when Henry called out:

"I'd like the chance to cross-examine, your honor."

Edward sat back down with a slowness that came with his stupor. He was at first worried about what Henry was going to say to him, but then relaxed as his lawyer nodded at him, easing his anxiety away. There wasn't much to ask of Edward: They made their argument clear and sound! With leisure, Henry strolled over with both of his hands in his pocket, and when he reached the stand, he leaned across the railing until he was inches from Edward's face. His eyes were low and uncaring, staring into the distance of the back of his mind with an obvious 'lost-in-thought' expression.

"Do you love me?" His voice was raspy with emotion, and Henry tried to keep it from breaking.

"No. I don't." Edward harshly enunciated. He had his hands gripping the edge of his chair, uneasy about his closeness to Henry and sat as far back into his chair as possible.

"Did you ever love me?"

"You, Henry, are like bad glue on a get-well card. You're impossible to love."

"Did you ever love Veronica? Did you love Lucy when you were together?" Henry's eyes began to water.

"Of course I did. I'm severely messed up if you couldn't tell by the way I had go to and fuck everything under the sun."

Henry mumbled through his tears. "Who?"

"Objection, your honor, what does any of this have to do with Edward's state of being?" Mr. Hall jumped out of his seat.

"Sustained." The judge lifted his hand and called Henry to his podium. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I--I thought it pertains to the topic of harassment as I was so clearly labeled as condemning onto other people."

"Yes but, asking who isn't going to prove anything other than the gravity of his promiscuity."

"That's exactly my point, your honor."

The judge leaned back into his seat and slammed his gavel. "Fair enough," Wham, "Overruled, Mr. Hall."

"Who did you bite, Edward?"

"Let me see, there's a whole laundry list: Angela, Greg, some random women I picked up at clubs, actually roughly seven to ten of those women I bit, some poor unsuspecting housewife who had come home late from work, her husband for a couple of nights, I had a little bit of your other neighbor's little bunny rabbit, and most importantly of all, I had several times the pleasure to bite and suck the delicious blood from none other than Miss Cherry Blossom herself."

Petrified, Henry found himself back to his seat. He stared at the figure of what he thought he used to know, but saw it quickly diminish into a horrible and disfigured monster.

"I'd like to redirect, your honor," Mr. Hall got up from his chair which he was previously writing and taking notes like a madman. The judge beckoned him. "Tell me, Edward, any of these people you bit, did they give verbal consent?"

"Course they did. It was always consensual." Edward laughed like it was the silliest thing he ever heard.

"The women at the clubs? Weren't they ever drunk?"

"No, in fact, they were on something else, but not before they had agreed to coming back to my place or sometimes, they even invited me to theirs."

"What about the man and his wife?"

"The wife invited me over and even tried seducing me before I could even say a word to her, and as for the husband, he was on his hands and knees begging me to bite him. I mean he would call me several times during the day even."

"Could you identify the man and wife?"

"Jessica Rampart and her husband Jeremy were at a luncheon one time held by the GSA group I am a part of. I took Henry there one time, but he never met them."

"And I am assuming affairs with your colleagues is as normal as what your nine to five looks like."

"No, that was only once on a specific occasion. Angela wanted me, and she was the one who pushed me into the closet. Greg was not me, but Angela that she sunk her nonexistent fangs into, but as for me, I was asked by Greg when Angela told him what happened to me and wanted to grow fangs and become a vampire just like myself. I proved a point by biting him but making sure to not release any venom into him. I never transformed anyone."

"What about this Miss Cherry Blossom?"

"She and I were having an affair, but of course I was never with her when she didn't want to be together."

"No further questions, your honor."

"Mr. Dogwood, any witness you like to call to the stand?"

"No, your honor---"

"---I'd like to call Aristotle to the stand."

The ancient Greek philosopher was astounded by the vampire's court and stood upright as possible in his chair.

"Tell me, Aristotle, what is the meaning of life?"

"to nha zeis simenei oti yparchei katie allo ektos apo the zoi. aux thanatos, gia paradigm. anne den yparchei thanatos, tote den yparchei zoi kai ta somata mas den mporoun nha epistrephun sti physics catastasis pou proorizotan nha einai to myalo mas."

"No further questions, your honor. I would like to make my closing statement if the plaintiff has no witnesses to call to the stand or a cross examination he wishes to execute."

"Mr. Dogwood?"

Henry waved Mr. Hall on.

"I understand that everyone here has the ability to know every language, so I'll refrain from translating, but Aristotle is right! By denying this man his right to death we are denying his right to live! Am I not the only one who sees this? Surely, we've all romanticized death! How easy it would be to redefine our lives back to the way they should be when we were still young and innocent lovers of nature. We've stripped this man of his right to decide on how to live his life the way he wants to. No harm is being put onto others if he becomes human again! In fact, as we have seen what vampirism can do to those that abuse its power, it can total the society we've so precariously built to live symbiotically with the rest of the human race!

To give this power of creation to a vampire like Henry but not the power of destruction to Edward is a crime against the sole purpose of what we've defined recently as the power of being above humanity! We are seen as better than brutal homo sapiens, so why go and side with the man who's worse than the pigs we feed off of?" Mr. Hall fixed himself. "Thank you."

"Mr. Dogwood, I take that you refrain from giving a closing statement?"

Henry only nodded solemnly.

"Right then, this court is adjourned." With the whack of his gavel, the judge ended the session and sent the jury to the back room to discuss the case.

Chapter 25

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