Making Friends
Ric didn’t expect anything short of life in prison when he was put on trial for his murder. He didn’t remember any of it, but there was video evidence of him killing a random person, and the insanity plea wouldn’t have worked anyways. He knew that he was going to be in jail, so soon after his discovery of his power, too. The past few months had been a blur to him, and the last thing he clearly remembered was being put into the police car. He could have sworn that he was fighting a man in a black shirt and a strange baseball hat, but it was very obvious from the video shown in court that it was just a stranger. A stranger who did not attack him first. He couldn’t imagine being a hero now, after everyone knew him as a murderer. He especially would never feel accepted by the public now that they all knew him as a killer of strangers. Who would trust their lives in his hands? He knew he had betrayed himself and his city, but not even his journalist friend Scott would have predicted what happened next.
He was in his trial, getting his final hearing. This was where he knew they would pronounce him guilty and lock him away. His mind already was filled with ideas of what his family might think, or how they would stop talking to him. He would miss his mom’s sweet potato casserole. His attention shifted slowly from the judge and the crew of hangman jury to the table in front of him, and he saw a piece of paper that wasn’t there anymore, hastily scribbled in blue ink. He tried to read it casually, not drawing attention to himself, as the words of the judge suddenly became unimportant to him.