“So when did this all begin Jen?” I asked her, seeing her bruised marks around her body. They looked very new, oozing with a purple color like a violet just in bloom. I felt bad for her, living in New Jersey is a bad life for an 18-year-old now by herself.

She opened her mouth and started speaking with the most frightened voice I’ve ever heard, it sounded too scared. Almost nervous to say anything. Her lips pierced open very slowly. “It all started on November 16, 2015.  I was on tinder trying to find a big man to take care of me. See your honor, I’ve been living on my own since my mother and father died in a car accident back in 2012.”

“So, you've been homeless since you were-’” I said, again to her.

She interrupted hastily to recover her name like a secret was holding her back. Almost as if she didn't want to tell the world what was going on in her life. She took a deep breath, then sighed, it was faint and pierce.  Then she spoke. “No, I was a foster Kid. Living in a shack run by this awful lady. It was like Annie your Honor, straight out of hell.”

“Language, Jen!” exclaimed the Judge, staring deep into the Jens soul with this scorn face that could make someone die if they glanced at it. It pierced into Jens cold dead eyes that struck her face.

She muttered back, “Sorry, your honor, ok back to the OG question Ron. So I went to school in this run down shack and I hated it, never felt welcome or appreciated by anyone, I felt alone.  But, on that day, I was sitting at lunch by myself, not talking, not speaking to no-one, until my phone buzzed in my pocket.”

“It was from Tinder. I got a match from this man called “Money-Maker125”, his picture was so amazing sir. He looked like Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johansson had a baby. He was perfect, everything was so perfect.”

“So when did it go wrong, Jen,” I asked writing down more notes.

Her head started to get bright red, like a cherry just picked from the farm, ripe as it could get. She then blasted out “Let me get to that RON, jeezum-crow. So what I was going to say was after I saw that we were a match I started to talk to him. We started with “Hey.” Then we just went on from there asking how our days were and got to know more about each other.” However, it got weird, we started to get flirtatious and then decided that we should date, he told me he lived in New Jersey at the time”

“I lived in Cali at the time, but we decided to make it work long distance, that is my mistake came with Ron I never should've started this dating fiasco. Then I wouldn't be here today.”

“So how did this become bad, Jen, was it your fault?” I asked her just to clarify who started the whole mess of why were are here now.

“No Ron it was him, the guy sitting right there!” She pointed with her middle finger right to the man all in black, fitting in with the dark gloomy area around him like the devil showed upon him. His face was blank and dark, not showing any sign of life inside him.

She spoke out again “He started this mess, this mess I could never forgive. So back to the story, one day I came home from school and saw my phone flustered from messages from him. He asked if I was ignoring him or was done. Then it got BAD.”

“I got to the end of these texts to see these words and I quote: “ I'm going to kill myself." I called him for hours trying to get hold of him till a response, it was about 3 hours later until I got another message, “ Never leave me unnoticed again”.”

“I should’ve stopped right there, blocked his number done anything to stop it but my mind was already in a spot, I couldn't get out of it, it  was like I trapped in a bear trap, no way to get out and if I did it would hurt me too much to go on with my life. He took over my life. If I was home, I  should be on my phone texting him and at that time sending.”

She gulped, her face sank like her dignity was ripped out of her body and left forever.

“Nudes, it was constant, I couldn't get out.”

I stopped her for a moment, letting her breath and calm down.  She started to calm down and took a moment to breathe in. Then I sparked another question.  Jen, how the hell are you here today, how did this become what it is?

She leaned back into the chair, her dead eyes looked down into her lap and never looked back up. “He asked me to come down here to New Jersey, but I declined. However, he tricked me, he said: “YOU NEED TO OUR I’LL KILL MYSELF”. “I had to and it was the only way to keep myself safe. My orphan lady didn't know about this man, I couldn't tell anyone. My brain was so locked on him that I couldn't do anything else at the time. So he got me a plane ticket to New Jersey on December 5th, 2016. I wrote my orphan girls and the main lady a letter saying I'm going to a friend's party I met at so locked a couple weeks down in New Jersey, where her parents lived,   see you soon. Then I left uncertainty, with a pound in my chest, knowing this was wrong.I tried to get out of it, but my brain was memorized to him and I didn't want to be the victim of someone's death, so I got on the plane and shivering out of my mind. I got off the plane, scared out of my mind to see this man, and then I did. My name was written on a tiny board that a man was holding. He was round, like a basketball that was blown up to the max. Also, smaller in height than me, like gnome but uglier, he wore all leather and smelled like beef teriyaki and fireball, lots of fireballs. I got in the car and he asked me “ You ready for some fun.” My head turned down to my legs, which were crossed and said “sure, however, you're not what you looked like in your picture”. He replied in a sharp tone and said: “DOES IT MATTER?”

“I quickly returned the question by trying to calm him down.” “Babe, I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that, you're beautiful like a sun, blooming out on the beach, its warm, soft light coming in to keep me warm.” He started to calm down from that fiasco and started driving faster to his place.  We got to his house, it was rickety and closed off from other parts of the town, the grass wasn’t cut and looked like it wasn't for a long time. We stepped out of the car and went through the doors. We got inside, it was messy as hell, the doors were covered with beer cans that had mice scurrying out of it. I almost threw up right then and there. The door closed behind and when I looked he was there standing right over me. His eyes looked right into mine and he said: “Now we get it on.”

Then right away, he pinned right to the door. He started to kiss me and touching me in places I thought nobody would, it felt good a minute. I thought for a second that it wouldn't be bad if I stayed with him. He Would get me everything I want, love. This was the first time someone has actually loved me before Ron and I know you haven't felt that. You've been so privileged to have this wife and kids and I thought, well if I stayed with this guy I would have a life. But then he said, “You going to be mine forever, never to leave my sight”. My brain after that popped back into gear like a car starting its engine to compete in a big race. I pushed away from him and yelled: “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, NO I WON’T, YOUR CRAZY... IM GONE.”

I stared at her with shock, she never told me this I thought it was just they kissed and she ran. Then  She leaned over the box, staring at the jury, she pulled up her black dress which flowed against her slender body which could blow away in a drafty wind storm. Her dress got caught on her long white socks, which seemed to have a bump in them like she had bruises, oozing from the left side of her leg.  She opened up her mouth and spoke in an angered tone.

“If you leave now, you will get NOTHING!” That's what he said to me. I flung around to him, my eyes piercing into his soul like a knife cutting into a slick apple.” “I need you if you leave I don't know what I would do with myself,” he said yelling at me as I got closer and closer to his pale blank face which fluttered with the ugliest eyes. Then I ran, I ran out the door, my legs flung into action like a cheetah galloping across the pride lands.  I just heard him screaming bloody murder behind me, and then heard a crack of a gun. I stopped in my almost halfway out the yard of long damaged grass. Then he said yelling at me “ You f'ing bitch, you just think I'm going to let you go that fast, ha you must be so dumb. Your stay here with me where I can just have you forever-.’’” I didn't care what he said next I bolted to the back of the house and jumped over the damaged fence. That's when I heard  gunshots barreling towards me.” “Your honor he was going to kill me.”

The jury and everyone in the room was shocked with fear, then looked over to the man in the black. His face was angered at Jen, turning bright red like a cherry. He stood up from his desk where the defendant was sitting and screamed at the top of lungs piercing the jury room: “You're f'ing dead.”

He took out a magnum 25 and clocked it back, the sound frightened the courtroom, everyone hid under the tables, screaming and crying at the top of their lungs like everyone was at a top of a roller coaster drastic waiting for the big drop which they knew now was going to happen. The police tried to stop it, but it was too late, even before they took out their guns they got shot right between the eyes. After seeing that horrific scene, I hid under the desk into duck and cover which we learned in preschool. I really thought it was over for me, my life was done. I started to remember my family, my two daughters, and my wife. The two girls playing their first soccer game and me, cheering for them on the sidelines and thinking that those are my kids, what stars they are. Then my wife,   to remember our life together from high school being the rambunctious parts of our days, smoking behind the school, kissing in between classes. The two now us together happily living in an apartment complex, which smelled like we lived in a beach house, hearing the cars drive by envisioned us to be like waves across the sea crashing into the sandbank.

I uncovered my ears to hear if anything important was going on, I then heard from a dark voice “Thank god I  brought this along with me Jen, I've been waiting 5 months to do this and it's finally come to-”.

BANG. I heard a bullet hit a body, the sound of flesh made everyone hiding scream in panic. I started slowly getting up from under the desk with my hands behind my head. I turned to the defendant side to see a man on the floor, oozing blood from his head. A hole was between his eyes like someone tried to drill him down. I looked closer to it and saw, It was the Money-Maker. I turned up to Jen and saw her standing there, shaking with a gun between her hand and now no more bump on her leg.  

“What did you do Jen?!”