Free Take One With You by Oak Anderson

obvious to those who knew him: Judge Wetherbee wanted to hurt only two people, the accused and himself, and that was his way of ensuring it.”
    There were no other weapons or ammunition found anywhere in the judge’s chambers, his home, or his car.
    When we return, video of the event itself, up until the moment he pulled the trigger.
    [Commercial break]
    What you’re about to see is the extraordinary footage from the first day of the trial of school shooter Nathan Jackson, Judge Spencer Wetherbee presiding. We won’t show the actual shooting, but please be advised the content may be disturbing to some viewers.
    [Video]
    As you can see, the judge has ordered the armed bailiffs to stand to each side of the bench, facing out towards the courtroom. This was unusual, but most onlookers probably assumed, after his next direction, that it was for his own protection.
    They assumed wrong.
    .
    Judge Wetherbee: Before we bring in the jury, I’d like to say a few things. Mr. Dalworth, would you instruct your client to stand and approach the bench, please?
    .
    As you can see, the defense attorney brings Nathan Jackson forward, but then the judge surprises everyone for the second time.
    .
    Judge Wetherbee: You can sit down, Counsel.
    Mr. Dalworth: Your honor?
    Judge Wetherbee: Please take a seat. Thank you. Mr. Jackson, you have been incarcerated for some time, now. Your meals, your protection, and your care are all paid for by Cook County. You were brought here under armed guard wearing a bulletproof vest, walking amongst men who are trained to step in the way of an assassin in order to protect your life, all so that you may be tried in a court of law by a jury of your peers. Your trial, and many others like it, along with the probable appeals, will inevitably take many months, if not years, to conclude. It is, in my view, a colossal waste of the State’s resources.
    Mr. Dalworth: Your honor –
    Judge Wetherbee: Sit down, Mr. Dalworth. You’ll have your chance to speak in a moment. My point, Mr. Jackson, is that an awful lot of time and money will be spent on you, and the media will endlessly blather on and on and your name will become commonly known and possibly even glorified, and it will be like many other trials I’ve witnessed in my thirty years on this bench. A lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing but pain for your victims, this community, and society at large.
    Mr. Dalworth: Your honor!
    Judge Wetherbee: Sit down, Mr. Dalworth! Do you know what I mean, Mr. Jackson? That’s from Macbeth, act five, by the way. The full quote is, “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Mr. Jackson, I am that idiot. As well as my peers, and society in general. For continuously allowing our judicial system to be perverted by the likes of you. Stay in your seat, Mr. Dalworth, and you can ask for a mistrial. Mr. Jackson, I’ve decided to stop being an idiot. I find you guilty as hell!
    We’ve frozen the tape there, but at that point, Judge Wetherbee drew his weapon from beneath his robe, stood up, and before a shocked courtroom, shot Nathan Jackson between the eyes. He then turned the weapon on himself. Both men died instantly.
    We may never know what motivated Judge Wetherbee, after a life devoted to serving the law as a judge, to appoint himself jury and executioner, as well. But we do know this: There are an awful lot of so-called Towys out there who had vowed to do exactly the same thing to Nathan Jackson if ever they got the opportunity.
    Judge Wetherbee, because he’d had enough, denied them that chance.

Chapter Seven
 
    “I could cut your throat like a chicken and nobody would give a fuck.”
    The larger of the two men in the alley silently appraised his adversary through slitted, almost feral eyes, breathing heavily. Both men knew the words reflected a hard truth in an even harder city, the kind of truth that wasn’t so much conscious knowledge as it was something deeper, almost like a gene