When You're Broken On The Ground

Chapter 25

Trigger Warnings: talk of murder, court cases, talk of compulsive lying, mentioned abusive parents, mentioned self harm

Word Count: 1127

Dee opens the door after watching the Sanders Sides video they did weeks ago. He takes in the scene in front of him, his brother in a hug pile with Remy and Thomas while Roman holds a sleeping Virgil in his arms. "It's done," he says softly, trying to not wake up Virgil.

"Are they still questioning you Dee?" Thomas asks, getting up.

"Yeah, but Logan should be able to cross examine me soon." Thomas nods and gives Patton and Remy a hand up. Dee looks to Roman, but he's already up and holding Virgil. "Roman you don't have to go back in if Virgil's sleeping."

" 'm not sleeping," Virgil slurs, " 'm just tired."

Dee and Roman share a laugh then they follow the others back into the room. He hugs Patton tightly, then walks back to the stand and stares at Linel. 

"And it was after Mr. Sanders' accident that you relapsed?"

"If that's your way of pointing out that I self harmed in the past, yes I did. I haven't relapsed in years though." Thanks to his family and Remus, that is. He almost relapsed thousands of times but they always got to him or he reached out to them before he could.

"So naturally you wanted revenge."

"Am I supposed to respond to that?"

"If you have something to say."

"It wasn't a question you asked and I thought this was a questioning so I had to ask."

Linel grits his teeth and Dee allows himself a smirk. "Did you wish for revenge?"

"For Thomas, and everything that happened because of that? Of course. It's part of a stage of grief, after all. The second one, I believe my therapist said. Anger. I've made my peace with the event over the years though."

"But had you made your peace with it by the time of the murder?"

"That was a year after, correct?" Logan nods, and he continues. "I was still talking with my therapist, I didn't stop until we got to the five year mark for other reasons-"

"What reasons?"

"I have baggage," Dee states. "I've been through a lot of shit. Abuse haunts you forever, and it took me a long time to stop self harming. Plus the accident and then it's butterfly effect, there's a lot to go through and deal with."

"Continue then."

Play nice, he reminds himself. "I had passed the second stage a while ago. Depression... well I already had that so I honestly can't tell you were I was emotionally that day. I wasn't angry, though."

"And what were you doing that day?"

"It was nine years ago so I can't tell you detail for detail, but I can say I spent the morning with everyone-"

"Define 'everyone'."

He takes a deep breath and reminds himself that not everyone knows his family is his family. "Everyone being Thomas, Patton, Logan, Remy, Emile, Roman, Virgil, Remus, and Thomas' mom, but she left for work so I only saw her for a bit."

"And what did you do?"

"I think we had a movie marathon."

"Why, on the anniversary of Mr. Sanders' accident?"

"It was Logan's idea," Dee says, not remembering the entire reason. "Something about distracting ourselves?" 

"If I may," Logan says, "it's called refocusing or redirecting, in a case where someone or many people can not take an action against a problem, temporarily redirecting the nervous energy to watching something can help with a mindset."

"That's it, that's what you said when we all looked at you weird for actually wanting to watch Roman's rigged Disney movies. By the way," He turns to Roman, "I'm still not over the fact that you stole my hat."

"That was nine years ago! Let it go man!"

"Never."

Linel coughs, bringing the attention back to himself. "Continuing with my questioning, what happened after that?"

"After lunch Remus and I left in my car to the woods."

"What time?"

"Around 1 o'clock in the afternoon according to my testimony nine years ago."

"And what do you say now?"

"I can't tell you because it was nine years ago and I don't remember."

"Fine. What we were you two doing?"

"We hiked through the woods for a while, had a picnic for dinner, and stargazed once it was dark enough."

"And when did you leave the woods?"

"I don't remember, around 10 probably, Ms. Sanders preferred to have everyone home by 11 and we were tired."

"And when did you get to the Sanders household?"

"Probably around 10:15 to 10:30, I don't remember how long of a drive it is."

"Did you have shoelaces and a knife with you at the time?"

"What?! I mean shoelaces yes, we were wearing boots-"

"Punk!" Virgil calls out.

"Emo!- as I was saying yes we had shoelaces but everyone has shoelaces. A knife however I have no idea, maybe a Swiss Army knife in the first aid kit?"

"Why would you have a knife or first aid kit?"

"Remus tends to be reckless and you never know what could be out in the woods. I don't know if there was a knife in the kit but I know we had a kit in my backpack."

"No more questions."

He sighs gratefully, ready for Logan to do his thing.

"Dee, were these pictures," pictures of Remus, himself, and them together along with signs, maps, and trees with the date and time they were taken appear on the screen, "taken in the woods?"

"Yes."

"And as everyone can see, the last two pictures are dated at 9:03 pm and then at 9:57 pm." Dee smiles a little at the memories. The first one is of Remus staring up at the sky in wonder, it's dark but you can see Remus' eyes and the stars reflected in them, which is what Dee was hoping for. The other one is of himself in his car's headlights, checking his legs for burs or ticks. Remus must have taken it. "The murder happened at around 9 o'clock that night. How can this first picture exist at 9:03 if they were the murderers? It can't, because the real murderer or murderers were deflating the lungs and dumping the body, not Devin and Remus."

Me sticking to my schedule? Me updating on time?? YES!!

I know it's hard to believe but here I am! I am trying to stick to a schedule, even through writer's block. What helps is me using my family's laptop, but since it's the family's, I don't always get it. But I'm trying to keep a schedule for all my works and it seems to be working.