Story: Criminal District Court Proceedings

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"Your Honor, the State is ready to proceeds with motions."

Direct Examination

Ms. Smith: Could you please state your name for the Record?

Alan King: Mayor Alan King.

Ms. Smith: Do you see McKenzie King in court today?

Alan King: Yes.

Ms. Smith: Mr. Mayor, could you tell the Court what happened the night of February 2, 2015?

Alan King: Me and my wife were sleeping in the upstairs guest room at my mother's home. My sister and two brothers were also visiting and were staying in the downstairs guest room. It was 11 PM, and both of us have work early. I was woken by a noise in the living room, so I went to investigate.

Ms. Smith: What did the noise sound like?

Alan King: It was the sound of the door opening. It is old so it always creaked, every since we were little kids.

Ms. Smith: What did you do next?

Alan King: I went to the front door to see who had left. The porch light was on, so I could see who was leaving the yard.

Ms. Smith: And who was the person you saw?

Alan King: It was my sister, McKenzie King.

Ms. Smith: And when you saw it was your sister, what was your next action?

Alan King: I followed her but brought no attention to myself. You have to understand that I've always been a little...scared of my sister. When she was born, she acted like a normal child, but then sometimes in the middle of the night, she would sneak out of the window and go places and then come back before everyone had woken up. I saw it happen several times.

Ms. Smith: Is there any other reason you suspected your sister was different?

Alan King: People kept dying. They would find remains every morning of a child, a mother, a shopkeeper, random people from town. Always found in the morning. You must remember what it was like twenty years ago. They never caught the person responsible, but I always wondered if it was McKenzie.

Ms. Smith: So, on the night of February second, you followed your sister. Where did she go?

Alan King: She walked over to the home of our family friend, Tom Pultz.  I stayed outside, too scared to enter. I thought maybe she was having an affair with Tom. I was wrong.

Ms. Smith: And did she emerge from the house?

Alan King: Yes. I don't know why, but I waited outside. I thought of confronting her after about her affair. When she finally emerged, her nightgown was covered in blood. She quickly took it off and buried it in Tom's front yard. When she had gone back home, I dug it up.

Ms. Smith: I want to show you this document that's marked Exhibit Number 1. Is this the gown she wore that night?

Alan King: Yes, that is the exact one I saw her burying and later I dug up.

Ms. Smith: Your Honor, I would like to offer Exhibit 1 into evidence.

The Court: Exhibit 1 is received in evidence.

Ms. Smith: Mr. Mayor, what did you do after digging up the gown?

Alan King: I returned home and put it in one of my empty bedside drawers until I could go to the police department the next morning.

Ms. Smith: And what happened the next morning?

Alan King: Before I went to work in the next town over where I'm mayor, I passed by Tom's house just to see him and talk. There was police tape around his front door and a swarm of officers. I found out he was killed.

Ms. Smith: And who did they suspect?

Alan King: They thought it was perhaps an animal, since the scene was so gruesome. I knew it was my sister who had done it. McKenzie, you can sit over there and smile all you'd like, but I know you're guilty. You've always had an emptiness in your eyes that makes me shiver, and if the Jury were to look into your eyes they would see it too.

Ms. Smith: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have no further questions.


A/N

I based this story on one I read in The Flowering Tree called "Demon sister." It is about a baby who, when born, looks very unusual but acts like a regular child. Until nighttime, that is. At bedtime, the child sneaks out and one by one eats the people in the town. One night, her brother sees her transform from a baby into a demon, but says nothing. Scared for his life, he leaves the town and marries a girl in a neighboring town. All this time, he is preparing to kill his sister so that she can no longer hurt anyone in the town. He finally goes back to visit, and his hometown has become a ghost town. He ends up killing his sister with a trained lion.

I changed the plot of the story so that it could be in a court transcript style. I wanted to offer a snippet of the court hearing that would go on if the demon sister was accused of murder. I know that the story isn't that exciting, but I wanted to explore a new writing style this week.

 Bibliography: A.K. Ramanujan. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India. Link to reading.