DAWN:

      Victor and I glare at each as the cops move toward him, neither of us willing to back down, as the judge continues to pound on the bench with his gavel, until the handle finally snaps and the head goes flying off behind him. His upper lip curls into a familiar sneer as he leans forward across the table and snaps, "I said, BE SILENT! I am your father, and more importantly, I am the Master's mortal representative, and I demand respect!"

      "Too bad, because you're not getting it from me. You've never been anything that remotely resembled a 'father', so don't even try to go there!" I inform him. "And I can't imagine why you're so proud of your ridiculous 'Master', when it should be obvious even to you that if it actually exists outside of your wild stories, it isn't nearly as powerful as you want everyone to believe. Because if it is, then why are you sitting here chained up like an animal, and going back to a cage every night? Either it doesn't exist, or it's nowhere near as all-powerful as you claim. Or, here's another thought... maybe it just doesn't give a shit what happens to you. There's something for you to think about when you're trying to sleep tonight, Victor: maybe you're not as important as you like to believe you are. Oh, who am I kidding? There's no 'maybe' about it, you're not just nothing, you're less than nothing, and if you vanished off the face of the earth right now, I'd throw the biggest fucking party you've ever seen!" 

      Before he can say anything else, a loud whistle cuts through the babble of the crowd. I turn my head and see that the judge is now standing up behind the bench with two fingers stuck in his mouth. When he sees that he has everybody's attention, he removes them and in a very loud, clear voice says, "Everyone be quiet! We will have order!"

      He turns to look at me, and in a slightly calmer voice, says, "Mrs. Monroe, I understand your frustration, but I will not tolerate this behavior in my courtroom. If the jury reaches a guilty verdict, you will have a chance to offer a statement prior to sentencing, but if there are any further outbursts beforehand, I will have no choice but to hold you in contempt. Is that clear?"

      "Yes, sir, perfectly clear."

      He turns his attention to Victor and his lawyer, and practically barks, "Mr. Geary, if you have any actual questions for the witness, then ask them in a professional manner. I will not tolerate any more of your grandstanding, or your propensity for badgering the witnesses, and if it happens again, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"

      Geary's face looks like someone has asked him to swallow a slug or something, but he mutters, "Yes, Your Honor." before he sits back down in his seat, seemingly ignoring the pair of RCMP officers standing behind Victor, trying to get him back into his chair. He locks his knees so they can't force him down, and stares defiantly at the judge.

      "You have no authority over me," he declares. "I answer to no one but the Master, so I will say and do as I please."

      "Mr. Berridge, if you don't sit down and be quiet, I will have you removed from the courtroom. And if I have to do that, then you will spend the remainder of this trial viewing the proceedings via closed-circuit cameras in one of the holding cells in the basement. This is a court of law, not a carnival sideshow, and I won't have it treated as such. From now..."

      "You most certainly will not!" Victor interrupts. "You cannot keep me from speaking my mind, and revealing the will of the Master. I will say and do as I please!"

      "You're absolutely right, Mr. Berridge. I can't prevent you from speaking your mind," the judge agrees. "However, I can, and will, prevent you from disrupting these proceedings with your continuous interruptions. Officers, if you would be so kind as to escort the defendant to the holding area for the rest of the session."

      They uncuff him from the table and start marching him out of the room as he tries to pull free and shouts profanities at the judge, and I see that several of the jurors are looking at him rather skeptically as he goes. So maybe this wasn't entirely a bad thing, since the worse he makes himself look, the easier it'll be for them to find him guilty. And as I look toward the others, I have to force myself not to laugh as I see Jinxx lean over to Ash and say, "Didja hear that? And he was complaining about Andy being vulgar! Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black."

      After everyone settles back down, Geary decides that he doesn't really want to question me after all, so I get dismissed and go to take a seat next to Ash. As I sit down, he reaches over to squeeze my knee, and says, "You did good up there, darlin'. I'm glad that you didn't let him intimidate you."

      "Oh, don't worry, I don't plan to ever let that happen again," I tell him. "He has no significance in my life anymore, so why should I allow him any sort of control over it?"

      Then  Tiff leans forward and says, "Way to go, pointing out how insignificant he really is. I bet that's really gonna stick in his craw, since he seems to think that he's so all-fucking-powerful."

      "Like I said up there, I was just getting warmed up. I had a few other things in mind that I didn't quite get around to. Oh, well, maybe later."

      We all stay in our seats and listen when they call Chief Whitworth to testify about all of the incidents that happened around the house after the guys arrived, starting with the break-in where Ash was hurt and all the way up to when they stormed the old textile mill and found me in that hospital bed. And surprisingly, when it's his turn, Geary is actually pretty cautious about how he questions the Chief, and only gets objected to once during the whole process.

      "Well, whaddya know!" CC whispers to the rest of us. "Looks like maybe he's learning."

      "More likely he's just trying to avoid pissing them off," Andy responds. "Remember, he does have to drive home after court, he probably doesn't wanna have to worry about getting stopped every couple of miles on his way home."

      After he finishes, they bring in Melissa, and Ash makes a point of holding my hand the entire time she's on the stand. This earns us several dirty looks, which he finds very amusing. She's apparently cut a deal for herself and sings like Lacey Sturm, filling in a lot of details about how things ran while they were in hiding, and confirming that Victor either ordered or actively participated in a lot of the incidents, like killing Terry and the other guy when he thought that they might be identified after attacking Ash. And since she's cooperating, she actually gets a chance be out of prison before she's a little old lady.

      But the thing that must have really pissed him off was the fact that his little fuck-buddy Jane actually testified against him in exchange for having the death penalty pulled off the table in her murder trial back in the states. I didn't get to see that one, since I hadn't been called yet, but other people who were here have said that she gave some very precise details about how, when they figured out that I still had a little bit of a pulse he decided that they'd keep me alive to carry out his plans to have Wade get me pregnant when they got ahold of the medallion again. I also find out that my well-being didn't mean a thing to him, because he had told her that "As long as the babe arrives safely, everything else is insignificant. She's merely an incubator, and once she's served her purpose, she'll live or die according to the will of the Master." Now, I've always basically known on some level that he really didn't give a shit about anybody except himself, but hearing that he's actually come out and said it just pisses me off, and makes me glad that I actually went through with my idea for how to get just a tiny measure of payback on him, and prove to everyone what a worthless, cowardly bully he really is. Now I just have to hope I get the chance to actually do it

      After Melissa has been on the stand for about a hour, the judge calls a recess for lunch, so we go grab some food at a restaurant across the street and hang out there for about an hour, until we have to go back. We hear the rest of Melissa's testimony, and then the Child Services worker who took the kids after the shooting testified to the things that they had said once they were away from the house, which pisses me off even more, because they had apparently been escalating the levels of mistreatment on everybody during the three or four months before they actually decided to lure us out there to kill Sawyer, and anybody else who might be there, and drag me back.

      Finally, he dismisses everyone for the day, and we file back out into the hall, heading for the elevator so we can hopefully get to the parking garage without too much trouble. But just before we get there, something further down the hall catches my eye, and I realize that this may be my only shot at exposing him to the world, so I let go of Ashley's arm and, with my hand in my shoulder bag, I basically power-walk down to the crowd of reporters who are jostling each other trying to get a statement from Victor as the guards try to lead him away so they can take him back to the jail. There are also a few members of the group here who are still stupid enough to support him, and they're pretty much haranguing the reporters over their "biased and inaccurate" stories about "milord", and being a general nuisance.

      Everybody goes quiet when I walk up and say, "You're all pathetic, and the saddest thing is that you're too brainwashed to realize exactly how pathetic you are. You stand here and talk about how strong and powerful this walking colostomy bag is, and how nothing can stop him, but you don't know what the hell you're talking about, and I can prove it."

      The reporters are leaning in to hear every word, practically holding their breath as they wait for something they can use as a headline. So, as Ash and the others hurry down the hall to catch up to me, I turn to Victor and give him my best imitation of his own ugly, sneering smile, then say, "I think we've already been in this position once before, but it's worth repeating, since I think it's way past time for everyone to see that you're not invincible. Remember, I know your secret, and now everyone else will too, because I've brought you a little something to remember me by."

      And just as Ash comes up beside me and reaches for my arm, I pull my hand out of my purse and fling the contents directly into Victor's face. This causes him to give out a quavering, high-pitched scream and jerk away from the guards, flinging himself to the floor, where he rolls around and shrieks, "Get them off of me! Get them off!" as he slaps at the half-dozen rubber snakes that are scattered around him.

      "Take a good look, folks," I tell the crowd as the guards attempt to get him back on his feet, and not slip in the puddle that's spreading on the marble floor from underneath him. "Look at that. That's your guru, right there. That's your 'messiah', rolling around in his own piss because he's scared to death of a few rubber toys. If this is what you want leading you around for the rest of your lives, I fear for us as a species. But count me out, folks, I want no part of it."

      And as they pull him upright, I look him in the eye and tell him, "It never would have happened anyway, whether I'd gone off with Sawyer or not. Donald was a slimy creep, and Wade was nothing but a bully, and I would have slit my own throat before I would have ever allowed either of them to touch me. So you did it all for nothing." 

      Ash puts his arm around me ant tries to lead me away, but I stop after a couple of steps, turn to look at him again, and say, "Oh yeah, there's one more thing. I'm actually glad that they don't have the death penalty here, because I want you to spend years and years in prison knowing that you're not in control of anything, and you never will be again. And I hope that while you're there, the other inmates do to you what you were going to let Wade do to me. Repeatedly."

      I turn away, and tell Ash, 'Okay, I'm done now. Lets go, so I can at least get a shower and change my clothes. 'Cause I have a feeling they may be coming to have a word with me later. But it was totally worth it."