How Do You Plead?

• Manon Mason, Grade 8, Helena College - Senior School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

Benji’s weary eyes scanned his room for the source of the sound that woke him. Dilated from sleep, his pupils suddenly contracted at the sight of the open door and he gasped; a sound that seemed out of place in the silence of the sleeping house.

A chill trickled up his spine and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end; heavy breathing behind him and Benji let out a holler that was cut short by an icy, bony hand arm around his neck. A musty old smell filled his nose and he recoiled. Clawing and scratching at the arm was useless, as Benji unfortunately discovered.

“Lemme go!” He gasped, his breath hard to catch whilst being taxed for oxygen.

“You have been caught on surveillance footage committing an armed robbery. How do you plead?” an old voice whispered in Benji’s ear. Emotionless, controlled and psychotic were three words Benji would’ve used to describe it.

Benji didn’t know how to answer and instead continued to struggle against his oppressor, but was stopped by a firm, bony hand on the side of his head. Benji’s breath caught in his throat and came out as a whimper and he went completely limp. He knew that with one little push his neck would snap in two and it would be lights out.

“I will ask you again, how do you plead?” one slender finger lightly tapped Benji’s temple in a rhythmic pattern, as if impatient for a reply. Tap, tap, tap.

Benji struggled for the meaning of this question but came up defeated. “I don’t know…”

“Benjamin Phillip Waters, you have been found guilty.”

The hand pushed and with one swift motion, Benji's brain stopped thinking, his ears stopped hearing and his eyes stopped seeing.

Benjamin Phillip Waters was dead.