"That's what I've been telling you for the past six fucking years you fucking god damn pissant!" Max -- or Maximillian his given name -- spat as he lunged at the state prosecutor that had tried him six years ago for a crime he didn't commit. The guards had to restrain him as his anger burned in his veins. For six years he's been sitting on death row for a murder he didn't and wouldn't have at the time ever commit. Having been tried as an adult at the age of seventeen. It was only thanks to the Innocence Project that he even had this chance to be a free man. Without them he would have been executed without his name being cleared. The woman in her mid-thirties was clearly taken aback by his hostility towards her. "You took six years! Six years of my life, you ruined it! And now you fucking believe me! Fuck you!" Max screamed his face red with rage.
"Calm down or we'll have to use force," Brad -- the guard that had watched over him during his stay in the maximum security prison -- said his arms straining to hold Max back. "Don't do something that requires you to be stuck in here longer than necessary," he warned.
"I understand your anger..."
"You understand! You understand! My parents disowned me because of your lies! My own sister won't talk to me because of your shitty investigation! So don't tell me you understand!"
"Very well, this is the form for your immediate release," the female DA said, laying the paper on the table. "Whether you believe me or not I am sorry," she said, closing up her briefcase.
"Not yet, you aren't," Max warned. "But you will be, I didn't survive in here for six years and not learn a thing or two."
"I would advise you not to threaten a DA, Mr. Daysome. Any crimes will be met with a swift response."
"Oh, I didn't know suing the city, the state, your office and everyone else was a crime, who knew!" Max snarled at the woman.
"Then I wish you the best of luck," she said, knowing how bad she had smeared him during the trail and out of it, she definitely was going to take a hit.
"Max I know you're upset," his lawyer from the trial popped into the room, the same lawyer that had represented him when they finally tested the DNA they had discovered that the police and the DA had withheld for six years. "But this isn't going to make your case."
"Like you fucking care, once you lost you left me here to rot, you're just as bad has she is," Max growled his legs kicked out causing the chair to be flung across the room.
"Last warning Max, I will tase you," Brad warned.
"Alright, alright man, chill, I hear ya," Max said, simmering down, and not fighting their hold. "The only thing you can do is get me a fucking car! Now!"
******
"
Mr. and Mrs. Daysome in light of the new evidence that proves that your son did not kill Kelly Watts. What do you have to say to your son whom you very publicly condemned on live TV
..."
"
What
?!"
"
Where you not informed
?" the off screen reporter asked.
Max huffed as he read the closed caption as he stood outside the electronic store. Looking at his reflection in the glass, seeing the hardness of his eyes staring back at him. Knowing the boy that went into prison was not the man that had exited it. Tattoos lined his arm, muscles housed his once thin frame, scars dotted his body from the attempts on his life while inside. Turning away, he didn't care what his parents had to say. They didn't hear his words; he didn't want to hear theirs. The check the state wrote for the years they kept him on death row burned in his pocket. That wasn't all he was going to take from them, it was only a start. He'll burn everything to make them feel just an ounce of the fear they made him endure. Yet first, he needed a place to stay, peering across the street at his old bank. He wondered if his old account was still open.
He felt their eyes on him as he walked into the bank. His demeanor practically screamed felon, and for the past six years he'd had to sleep in close proximity to some of the most horrendous of them.
"I need to know if my account is still open," Max said, as he stepped up to the teller counter.
"I-I'll see what I can do," the pretty young black woman said, praying that she wasn't going to get robbed. "Do you happen to know the account number?" Her fingers moved along the keyboard as Max rattled it off. "There seems to be a hold on it, it appears to have been inactive for a while..."
"Happens when you were on death row," Max said, bitterly. "As you can see I'm out. Can you undo that hold thing?"
"I'll need a transaction for that, a deposit I mean," she said, smiling nervously.
"Here," slamming the check on the counter causing the woman to jump, "that should be enough of a deposit, yes?" Max asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Y-yes, that should be," the woman nodded weakly. "Please don't hurt me," she whispered.
"Hurt you?" Max asked confused, tilting his head. "Why would I do that? I simply want my check deposited and some money so I can eat."
"This big of a check will take some time to clear... and the available balance was forty-two dollars and sixty-seven cents..."
"Then give me twenty and I'll be out of your hair," Max said, peeking over his shoulder taking in his surroundings.
"Certainly, sir..."
"How long will it take to clear?" Max asked, wondering where he could stay during the duration.
"A check this big... normally a week," the woman said, the twenty dollar bill trembled in her hand.
"I see. I'll be back then," Max said, taking the bill from the woman. Not seeing how the woman sighed as he left the building.
Max tossed the fast food bag into the trash after he had scarfed down a Big Mac. Walking into the park wondering if he could sleep there for the night since it was warm out. Heading into the woods that sat in the center of the park. His head shot up as he was deep within the heart of those trees.
"Help! Someone help! Please!" Came a frantic female cry.
"Shut up!" Max's sinews became taut as he heard the woman's cry of pain.
"
Fuck! God damn it
!" Max grumbled in his mind. He just simply wanted to find a place to sleep and forget about the world just like it forgot about him. Yet it would seem even death row couldn't kill off the last good thing that made up his core. His nostrils flared, his lungs burned, his legs flew along the ground as he raced towards the woman's voice. "Get. Off. Of. Her!" Max roared as he flung the late twenties man into the tree.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" the man growled. "Do you have any..." The man's words were cut off as Max drove his fist into the man's gut. He was never a fighter that was until he went to prison. Then he had to learn hard and fast on how to defend himself. Being stabbed twelve times and slashed another eleven, and almost gangraped twice in the showers will do that to you. It was only when he ripped off the sack of one of them that they decided he was more trouble than he was worth. He was already on death row; it wasn't like they could tack onto his sentence.
"I know a piece of shit when I see one," Max spat down at the unconscious man. Turning his attention to the woman he had been attacking. Her pantyhose were torn, so was the front of her floral dress. Her lip was bloody, her eye was starting to swell. He started to move only to see the look of fear as she tried to scurry away as her left hand darted about looking for something. Turning his head looking for what it was that she so desperately tried to find. Arching an eyebrow when he noted the folding cane. Walking over picking it up where the man had probably thrown it. How he wanted to stomp his skull in. Then he knew he would be back in that cell.
"Please... I don't..."
"Relax, I'm only trying to help," Max said, softly. Watching how the woman turned her head as if she was hearing where he was. Noting how she flinched as he softly touched her hand. "Is this what you were trying to find?" he asked, as he laid her hand on her cane. Seeing the relief flooding her face.
"T-thank you," the woman spoke softly.
"Can you stand?"
"I think so," she muttered trembling as she used his arm to lift herself up.
"There's a bench a few feet from your right," Max said, gently leading her to it. Seeing how her hand darted out looking for the seat before lowering herself onto it. Looking around wondering if the police, as much as he loathed them, patrolled this path. "I'm going to have to go and see..." Arching an eyebrow as the woman's hand darted out taking hold of his pants leg.
"Please don't... I'm scared," she said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Listen I don't have a phone..."
"My bag..." Her hand darted around the bench looking for it. Noting how her left hand covered her right breast where the man had torn at her dress.
"I think I see it," Max said, the little black clutch was covered in a layer of leaves. It was only because of the gold buckle that he even noticed it as it glinted in the light. "Here you are," he stated, placing her right hand on it as he laid it on her lap. Watching how she almost broke down as she called 911. Max stood off to the side to give her space. Honestly, he wanted to be as far away as possible before they showed up. She did, however, bawl her eyes out when she called her sister.
"Will you stay w-with me, please?" she asked, looking straight ahead.
His hand ran down his face, this was not how he wanted to spend his first day out. Sighing when he knew he couldn't leave her. No telling when or if that man would come to.
"Thank you," she whispered, her hands clenched tightly to her cane and purse.
"Not a problem," Max muttered.
"Can I ask, what's your name?"
"Max Daysome."
"Kate Moss." Holding up her right hand, Max silently sat there studying her face. Wondering if she was truly blind.
"Nice to meet you," Max said, shaking her hand gently.
"There's strength in your hands, and something else," Kate said, turning her head to look at him knowing now which side he sat on.
"You got that from a handshake?"
"Mmmhmm," Kate nodded. "You learn to cope when you're blind. Mostly."
"So... not to be rude or anything, seeing how you just went through that. But does that always happen?" Max asked, gesturing at the man even though she couldn't see.
"No," shaking her head, "most men think they can grope me whenever they want thinking it's okay since I'm blind."
"Oh. On behalf of the male gender not everyone of us is like that," Max said, gently laying his hand over hers.
"I know," Kate said, with a weak smile. "Some of them are really nice. Some even beat the shit out of that thing." Max had to admit the woman had a beautiful smile even if her lip was spilt.
"Trust me, I'm not that nice."
