#CHAPTERS 97: Exposure

Sarah POV “They purposely design this space to be intimidating,” I grumbled. “Of course they do,” Whitfield said. “Try to imagine it without the wood paneling.” I looked around the courtroom, but it was like the paneling had soaked into everything, from the large Seal of Justice to the brown checkered carpet. The judge’s bench was made of two raised platforms, and the jury box was sectioned off in a way that reminded me most unpleasantly of the stage on which the humans had held up those items to be auctioned. After I’ve split you open, but before I put your cold corpse in Chloe and Grace’s bed, Captain Martiveck gets to eat your heart. I shuddered. That memory would just pop out at me sometimes, and all that fear and anger would come rushing back. I’d woken up in the middle of the night more than once, and I hadn’t mentioned to the CPS worker that sometimes I had the girls sleep in my bed because I couldn’t face the thought of sleeping alone. Sitting beside me at the defen