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THE JUDGES were sitting at a long grey marble table, a silver plate with each judge's name engraved in the middle and placed before every chair.
"Welcome, Florine Baker," boomed the first judge. "This is your trial to decide the fate of your afterlife. We will bring up circumstantial evidence from three of the most important events of your life and decisively so we will examine them in order to determine how good or bad of a person you were. Then we will vote on where we will send you." He hit a button, making a singular chair rise out of the gravel. It resembled the plain stiff chairs at interrogation tables in police stations, only there weren't handcuffs tied to a table. "Sit down."
Florine sat down, and ropes wrapped tightly around her body, making her very uncomfortable. She squirmed in her seat for a few minutes before snapping at the judges (which probably wasn't a very good choice on her behalf), "Do you tie up every person that comes in here for their trial? This isn't even necessary! I demand that you take these off of me this instant!"
Chuckling dryly, the judge sitting next to the one who had welcomed Florine, shook his head. "You'll find that they are quite necessary. If you protest any further, we will have a delayed trial and therefore less evidence— good or bad. We're working within a timeframe here. So I highly suggest you shut your mouth and let us start your trial."
Florine shut her mouth.
A screen appeared behind the judges, projected off the wall behind Florine. "Haven't updated this since 1986. Hades isn't giving us enough of a tech budget, so excuse us if it stops working or malfunctions at random times," explained one of the judges with a sigh, pulling out a tape recorder and setting it on the table. Staring directly at Florine, she flipped the recorder on and started talking. "Now let us begin the trial of Florine Maxine Baker. Born on October 27, 1995 at 11:54 pm. Died on September 6, 2007, at 8:31 am. Cause of death— hold on, is this right? Um, technical difficulty? Can y'all check this out?" The judge handed the file around the table, and each judge took turns reading through it with a baffled expression surging on their faces.
"This is certainly unusual," agreed a judge from the other side of the table, passing the papers to the next one. "I don't know what to make of it. This is important information being left out. Should we proceed or—"
"What information?" interrupted Florine with a frown. "What are you guys talking about?"
"This file is missing your cause of death," said the judges. "We can't hold a fair trial without this information."
"But what else is there to do but hold a trial with the remainder of information that we do have?" another judge asked. "Where would we even put this soul? We don't exactly have a waiting room in the Underworld for cases like these. We might have to take this up to Hades."
Someone gasped. "Hades? We can't tell him about this. Do you realize what he'll do if he discovers the key information in this case was missing? He's going to assume someone lost it and then he'll think one of us is incompetent and I can't afford to lose this job—"
"Chill, Betty," another judge said. "I really think we all need to take a breather and maybe put this aside and move on, you know? Maybe we can revisit this thing later. Dude, look at them, they're getting bored." He nodded at Florine, who was watching this entire exchange with a blank stare, as if she couldn't believe the trial was put on hold because some fool lost the damn file.
"We can't do that. We'll just continue this trial the best we can," said the first judge. "We can revisit this trial again when we find that information but for now we have to place this soul somewhere. Now, let's try this again. From the top. Event Number One. . . Let's open the movie, Genevieve!"
The projector blared the light out in a straight line, and Florine had to duck suddenly when it started in surprise. The movie started projecting on the wall, the words MARCH 5, 2002 appearing in big letters.
"Dad. You're back." Florine fought the urge to slam the door on his face, but rather plastered on a large fake smile. "What do you want? Come to ask for more money for drugs again? Or maybe your new fiancée discovered who you really are and threw you out of the house. Which one is it?"
The man on the doorstep was a staggering, balding middle aged man with a limp in his left leg from the time he had served in the military. He wore square glasses on the bridge of his nose, and a thick odor smelling of vaguely vodka and cigarettes was billowing off of him in sulfurous waves. It made Florine want to bleach their nose. He wore corduroy shorts and a pink golfing tee, and a big leather bag was set on the steps leading towards the door. "None of that, just please let me in," he begged. "This is really important, I promise—"
"No," cut in Florine. " No. You better leave before I call the cops."
"Just hear me out—"
Florine shut the door, breathing heavily as they slid down the wall, bringing their knees to their chest. Silent tears trickled down their cheeks, dripping off the curves of their face and hitting the floor.
"You know, your dad wasn't always like this. He wasn't always such a pathetic mess," their mother said from the living room. Florine turned around to see none other than Hera herself, standing in all her peacock glory.
"Hera," Florine whispered. They stood up shakily, but managed to put on a tough face. "What are you doing here?"
Hera's lips twisted into a crooked smile. "Why, I'm here to offer you an opportunity, Florine. You know Zeus isn't happy about your existence." She pursed her mouth disdainfully. "You nearly broke the barriers of possibilities, my dear."
"So what do you want?" Florine snapped.
"A mere favor, my child. Hear me out."
"No promises," Florine grumbled, but sat down on the couch.
Hera snapped her fingers, making a tray of cookies appear on the table in a mist of glitter. "Have a cookie, Florine. We have a lot to talk about."
That day, Florine learned of the truth that tunneled ahead in their life.
They would be doomed to carry a burden no one else could carry for them.
That day, when Florine was heading out of the house for the day, they packed their bags. Leaving nothing but a note to their stepfather telling him of their situation. Florine couldn't stay here; monsters would target their family. They couldn't let that happen.
Florine grabbed their bags and bolted out the door, Hera watching them from the doorway.
One foot forward, another one, another one. . . It was just that easy to step out of everything you've ever known.
"This was the day that set the gears spinning," said one of the judges. "Without this, much of your life would've been different. I think this is a positive action. Florine sacrificed themselves for their family. That's worthy of at least the Fields of Asphodel, is it not? I choose yellow for this." She hit the yellow buzzer.
"This is starting to feel a lot like American Idol," muttered Florine. "Except my life— or afterlife, I guess, is threatened if I get the wrong buzzer."
"I disagree," put in another judge. "Wait for the next video."
Florine squirmed in her chair, leg twitching on the seat.
She awaited for the decision that would make or break her afterlife.
a/n: aaaand thats chapter two people!! what do you think so far ? you kinda get a small glimpse into florine and what their life was like!!
