It was the last day of the hearing. Joseph had spent over 8 years in prison and was tense. He was almost sure he would be sentenced to death for all his horrible crimes, and couldn’t wait for it to get over with. As he had anticipated, all the proof was pointing towards him being guilty and the judge scheduled his death sentence for the Friday of next week. This broke his heart because Joseph knew that his little baby girl was having her 14th birthday on that day, but he had to accept the repercussions of his misdeeds.
Fast forward to the morning of his execution, just as he was being taken to the execution room a person burst into the hallway claiming to have solid proof proving Joseph’s innocence.
There were only 2 problems with this statement. The first was that he knew that he had committed those crimes and the second was that he had absolutely no idea who this man was. As the people saw the incoming turn of events they ushered everyone into the courtroom to listen to the fascinating story. On hearing this strange man everyone stood there flabbergasted but they wanted to know what he had in store for them. As the man began his story everyone just stood there, speechless and silent stricken.
The man went by the name of Ivan and said that he along with Joseph and 3 other people were abducted about 10-12 years back. This group of people were taken to an old, rundown factory and were experimented with. The people who abducted them were a group of 3 serial killers who wanted to turn this group into slaves to work for them. Every day they would mix substances into their meals to make them groggy and sluggish, then every person would be made to sit in containment rooms in which they were chained to chairs. Once everything was ready these serial killers would pass electric waves of a certain frequency through their brains.
These waves would affect the cerebellum completely killing off the decision-making abilities of the person, therefore making the serial killers the masters of their brains. This was very smart, as the killers would be able to make the people believe that all the crimes had been committed by their own will. Everyone heard the story but were finding it truly unrealistic to believe, and they also thought that since he didn’t have any proof, apart from his word , he could have been one of Joseph’s men trying to save him from the given sentence. As these thoughts passed their minds, Ivan continued.
He said that out of the group of 5, he was the only one whose brain wasn’t affected by the electric waves due to a neurological disease, but to make the killers believe they had turned him too, he did some of the crimes till he was able to collect enough footage and proof for the judicial authorities to actually take some action. Ivan caught many disapproving glances, but he persisted. He then said that he had been trying to get the court to believe his story for the last 7 years but no one believed him as somehow all his proof had been destroyed. When he finally was able to get it back he heard that Joseph was going to be executed for something he hadn’t done by will or intention. Upon hearing the fact that an innocent was going to be hanged he could not wait any longer or let this injustice happen. As everyone heard the story unfold they wanted to believe it but this man hadn’t put forth any substantial evidence yet.
Ivan knew exactly what was going on and immediately showed everyone in the room, days of torturous footage. Everything, right from the containment rooms to how the orders were given was clearly portrayed in the CCTV footage on which he had recently laid hands on. The authorities weren’t aware of the real reason as to why Ivan was so interested in Joseph’s case. The reality was that Joseph was kind and considerate towards Ivan during their hostage days and Ivan knew that Joseph was not capable of committing such heinous crimes. This gesture of kindness was the boost that Ivan required to finally muster up the courage after 8 years to help the innocent and save a life that was never supposed to be spent.
You could feel the tension drop in the room. You could see that everyone was relieved that an innocent person was not going to get hanged for what he thought were his misdeeds but in reality were not. In light of the new evidence provided by Ivan, Joseph was released by the judicial court of all his crimes and declared him a free man with full honours.
As Joseph walked out of the court as a free citizen, he noticed 3 people masked in black who were handcuffed and were being brought to the court for a trial. This scene brought back the painful and torturous memories of his containment which played in a movie like order in his head. As he shut his eyes, he thought that if he had not shown kindness to that man he would have, in fact, been dead by now.
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