[:::: Authors Note ::::]
Welcome to Part II of 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent', If you are yet to read Part I, I recommend that you spend the time as it outlines a number of important points for this second part of Mike and Victoria's tale.
As opposed to my usual Loving Wives tale, I have written this as a Romance. Just a warning, for those of you who aren't just cold-hearted, emotionless automatons, you might need a couple of tissues for the first section of part II. I had a few tears throughout various parts of this story.
Also, a few readers have complained about my dream sequences in my previous stories, there are a few throughout this tale as I feel they really add to the overall narration from our characters points of vie.
Huge thanks to Mike and GeneralBigE this story has become so much more with your assistance. Mike in particular gave me lots of great ideas! I did kind of rush this last edit through myself and I am sure there are a few mistakes, but they are on me for making last minute changes.
Lastly, it is with a sad and heavy heart that I let you all know that one of the original editors I worked with, Kite, has left this mortal plane having lost his battle with cancer. He helped me a lot with my first few stories and I was recently contacted by his daughter. Please tip your hats and have a drink for a fallen member of the team.
Now with a smile, I invite you to enjoy Part II.
[:::: Guilty Until Proven Innocent - End of Part I ::::]
Mary reached across the lounge and put a hand on my arm, "How are you?" she asked.
It was a simple question, earnestly asked, but it caused me to sit back like I had been slammed back into my chair by one of my tormentors in prison.
"I'm good," I said, using the universal reply when you didn't want to get into things. But then I looked into Mary's eyes. She knew I was lying. I sighed.
"No that's not true," I said, confessing. "I do have good days, truth be told. But most nights the faces of your daughters haunt me. The beatings I took, the humiliation that my family heaped on me. Honestly, I am a long way from good."
I watched as their faces fell, if I looked behind me I would have seen the sombre expressions on both Terrance and Victoria as well.
"But with that said, I have hope. And for right now, that's enough." I said.
The small smile that Mary gave me told me she understood. I mean she had lost both her daughters. I took a breath. It was time to be brave.
"Would you mind if I told you a story of the time I got to meet your girls?" I asked, already feeling my emotions rise...
[:::: Guilty Until Proven Innocent - Part II ::::]
[:::: Mike ::::]
As I came to, I felt that only a few moments had passed. A small stick was poking me uncomfortably in the ribs, I could also feel leaves in my hair and something on my face. I tried to focus but it was almost pitch black in the evening gloom, I knew my eyes might adjust, but it would take a few minutes. Bringing my hand to my face, I brushed, what turned out to be a muddy leaf stuck on my cheek away and then felt the back of my neck. I winched as I touched it knowing I would have a huge lump to deal with.
I paused suddenly wondering if my attackers were still around, focusing I could hear deep male voices running through the scrub away from me. I was worried, because, even at my best, I wouldn't be able to take on most people. I was a smaller unassuming man with a bad haircut and a worse moustache left over from a high-school joke that I never shaved. I again heard deep voices laughing, then car doors slammed before the car, assuming it was the one I pulled up behind. They drove off.
I coughed and winced; it had been a very strong blow to the back of my neck. That's when I heard them. I froze. They were sobbing.
It sound liked two girls.
Despite the ache in my neck, I rose unsteadily and stumbled a dozen feet into the small clearing, the place stank of decay and death and the smell like iron was heavy in the air. Even in the weak moonlight filtering through the trees, and as my eyes adjusted, I could tell that neither girl was faring well. The larger girl, I learnt her name was Tina, was wheezing badly. One of her eyes was swollen shut, and her shirt was ripped with a large red bloom staining the remaining clothing. I won't talk further about it, as it's too disturbing. Maisy, her younger sister, was in a similar state but a little more alert, even though I could see multiple locations where the dark red shadow was spreading.
"Hello there ladies," I whispered to the obviously young girls and trying not to scare them. I was scared that my own voice would betray my panic at finding them in such a poor state. They hardly moved as they sense my presence. "You're going to be all right, okay? I've already called for help. They'll be here soon."
Tina coughed and looked at me weekly through her unswollen eye. We both knew that help in time would be unlikely.
I collapsed between them, more towards Maisy now they knew I wasn't a threat. I was fighting emotion and an ache in the back of my neck along with a range of vertigo, most likely from the blow to the back of the head.
"I'm Mike," I told them, already my feelings swirling within my chest as I looked Tina over, my sense of hopelessness rising, on second glance, I could see she had multiple wounds like her younger sister. I could see the one on her abdomen that was major trouble. Without thinking, I tore my shirt and tried to put pressure on the wound.
"It's okay, Mr Mike," Tina said weekly, "It doesn't hurt as much anymore. How's Maisy?"
"It hurts a lot Tina," the little girl sobbed before I could say anything. She coughed, and my heart ached. I tore more of my shit, using the cloth, trying to put pressure on both girls' wounds at the same time.
For a few minutes, I tried to assess their wounds and place pressure on the places that would help the most. I know I was crying, helplessness falling off me in waves. I tried to comfort them, we spoke briefly about ourselves, the briefest on introductions, but we connected in a way that only victims of a trauma could.
"Hey," I said suddenly, trying to be upbeat even as I tried to stem our tears. "Would you like to hear a story? My kids love it when I give them a story."
Tina was lying on my lap, and I now had my arm around Maisy as she leaned into me.
"That sounds great Mr Mike." Tina replied, she sounded very tired and closed her eyes.
"Hey," I said, trying to jostle Tina a little, "I need you to stay awake for me." I knew next to nothing about injuries like this, but in the movies, they always said to stay awake.
I heard Maisy sigh and cough again. "Tina's always a sleepyhead. Mum says it happens when you become a teenager. But a story sounds nice Mr Mike."
I spent the next little while fighting tears and sorrow, telling them stories about princesses and princes. In my stories, the prince always rescues the princess from the bad guys, and they always live happily ever after. I caught them smiling as I spoke, but heartbeat after a heartbeat, my emotions rose, pain and grief mounting. Mourning these little ones that I had only just met. Yet while the three of us could not say it, we knew I would be the one to see them pass from this mortal plane.
I still couldn't hear any sirens and I finished, "And they all lived happily ever after".
I stroked Tina's hair and tried to peer at her wound. She cringed as I did from the movement.
"It's okay Mr Mike. You've done your best. We're happy you could be here for us." She said, wise beyond her years, and I caught the glint of tears in her now open eyes as she tried to focus on me but was struggling.
I nodded, and I felt Maisy squeeze my arm.
"It's going to be hard Mr Mike. It's going to be harder than any man can endure." The little girl said to me in a voice that, like her sister a moment before, sounded much older than she looked. I held her tightly like I would my own daughter when she was younger.
"I know sweetie," I said, replying.
"No," Tina said, responding suddenly to her sister's statement. "She means what comes next. Mr Mike, I know you will never forget us or this moment. Maisy is trying to say, please always remember you're a kind and loving man. Never forget that."
At the time, I had no idea what they meant, "I will do my best girls," I promised them. Until this retelling, I had never told anyone about my time talking with the sisters.
I had managed to get the three of us into a position where I could help the girls hold hands. The three of us cried, both happy and sad tears, sad at the circumstance, happy that they were together in this moment as I bore witness to their statements of love and affection for each other.
"Mr Mike?" Tina said a few minutes later, Maisy had now fallen asleep, and I couldn't rouse her again. I started to panic but then understood Tina had spoken to me. I looked down at the fading girl lying in my lap.
"When it's time, can you tell our Mum and Dad that we love them? Tell them, So long pussy cats." She tried to laugh at some family joke but coughed blood. "I'm sorry Mr Mike, I am...."
With that, Tina faded out saying how much she loved her sister and then liked her sister she never woke again and I howled in agony and pain that was nothing to do with the lump on the back of my neck.
When the first responders and a couple of Police officers found me, I was clutching both girls and moaning in emotional anguish. As I was covered in their blood from trying to hold pressure on their wounds, my shirt was torn, and the injuries to the girls could easily be seen in the torchlight. I was immediately thrown to the ground and handcuffed. I don't remember much of the next few days until the reading of the charges against me.
[:::: Victoria ::::]
As Mike finished his story, everyone was distraught. Even Terrance, Mike's hard-as-nails lawyer, had rivers of water running down his face. Unlike most people, he knew more than most people about what Mike had been through, but to hear how he comforted those two girls as they passed away in his arms was too much for even a battle-hardened lawyer like him.
I couldn't help it. The man I loved was in anguish having just relived one of the worst moments in his life. His shoulders were rocking backwards and forward, and he was groaning like a mortally wounded animal in agony. As he broke down, I ran to the couch and pulled him into my arms. I had heard Mike talk of certain parts of his time with the Bustoff girls, But to have to bear witness to that gruesome scene. To be there emotionally for the sisters as they passed on and then have the entire world turn its back on you and blame you when your only crime was compassion would be more than any sane person could take.
I closed my eyes and just rocked him, my tears pooling on their run down my face adding to his. His hand latched onto mine, and we rocked back and forward as each one of us in the room sobbed from what we had just heard. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and looked at Mary and Garlin. They two were holding onto each other as if the world was about to end, Mary's head was buried in Garlin's chest, but even through her tears, her eyes were locked on Mike. At some point, Mary noticed me looking at her and gave me a mournful smile and a nod.
