That damn Lucy got away. Slowly the adrenalin left my body and I could no longer chase after him. I walked back to the house, but everyone was back to their business. Ace and Remi were still outside, Remi holding a handkerchief on Ace's nose and leaning him back.

"Remi go get the car, you're taking us to the ER and then home." I told her glaring down at Ace.

I noticed there was so much blood on her hands and shirt. I was pissed.

"No, Francy..." He started complaining but I grabbed his shoulder and pressed the handkerchief on his nose.

"And once we get home. I'm calling the Family Court!" I told him.

Remi and Ace froze in place.

"The family court?" Remi asked frozen.

"The family court?" Ace caught my hand. "Francy don't you think you are overreacting..."

"The family court!" I said and forced him to get up.

We'll see to this at home.

***

The light in the attic was dimmed. Chairs were positioned on both sides of the room. The judge's seat was behind the orator pedestal.. Candles light up the rest of the room, especially where the judge resided. The heater was on low making it colder in the room. Rain could be heard pouring outside.

It was rarely summoned. It required the most drastic of situations to be summoned, where one of the subjects was an accuser and the other was the defendant. The last time it had been held was two years ago, when Rehan had stolen Ace's new joystick and had shredded it to pieces playing with what was inside out of curiosity. Mind you that the joystick was very expensive as Ace had gathered money for months to purchase it.

It was a long trial and it ended with severe punishment for Rehan.

The thing about the Family Court is that it's final. If you're judged innocent no one can complain. If you're guilty. You pay a hefty price.

The family court was born out of a heavy mistake of letting our parents solve our fights. They would make us hug and forgive each other and talk kind words to each other until we were no longer fighting, not pointing out who was wrong or right. But that only made us brew in anger and we decided JUSTICE MUST PREVAIL.

So the Family Court was formed with the sole intention of solving these problems.

There was one judge. And one lawyer representing the guilty.

Sometimes there would be a witness or an expert to join these trials. Usually was Remi or Fin. But not always.

In the history of the Family Court, we have had only one judge. It was the one who was never involved in an incident, never chose a side and had always respected the rules.

Kai.

and also none of us wanted him on the opposite side of the court cause he was merciless.

He also handed out very severe punishments which is why the family court tended to be summoned on rare occasions.

We walked into our black and red robes. They were decided as part of this, very early on thinking it was cool (seven year old picture of what's cool), but we had kept on wearing them because- TRADITION.

Ace sat down on the accused table accompanied by his lawyer Rehan. I sat on the opposite side while Remi had sat on a temporary chair as a trial witness.

Kai sat on his judge's pedestal. There was something so chilling when Kai entered the room. It's like the little heat we had was dying out. He turned into a completely different person. He didn't even seem to mind Remi.There he was sitting there waiting for the trial to start.

After we were seated he cleared his throat.

"I assume everyone here has been briefed about the case. If there are no other side notes, let's begin. You can present your case."

I stood up dragging my robe behind me.

"I called on this court to require a hefty penalty for the accused. He broke the sacred rules of the family laws which I will now present to the court."

I reached down at the briefcase next to my chair. I pulled out a printed copy of my evidence.

"He is charged for breaching Law 1, Secrets and the policy of keeping them, Section 2 "siblings must tell other siblings when they are in dangerous situations"; Law 1, Section 5 "Siblings must have a very good reason to keep secrets from each other." Law 5 Rules instituted by the siblings individually, Section 4 "Siblings must always be safe." As the court can see, he broke all of these rules when he kept his dangerous activities a secret from his siblings."

Ace whispered something to Rehan and he got up.

"We would like the Law 5, Section 4 be withdrawn from the accusation, since in Law 5, -Rules established by the siblings, Section 1 states that The siblings must not ever go to the Devil's den and since the accuser broke that rule it should revoke Section 4. If she was never there, this trial wouldn't have happened."

I gasped. "I see no repentance. This trial should end here.."

"Why were you even there!" Ace yelled.

"Have you seen your nose in the mirror! You were lucky I was there. You can't even drive in that state." I yelled back.

"Order!" Kai banged his hand on the pedestal. "Defendant, you'll get your turn to speak." He gestured to me to come closer and asked for my evidence. He then urged me to continue.

"I called the Family Court because these kinds of dangerous activities need to stop. To make sure the accused understands what he's done, he needs to pay the consequences."

"I object." Rehan stood up. "These are just assumptions. Have you ever seen the accused come home in this kind of state before? This was the first time."

"I agree. Let's not jump to conclusions. I want to hear the accused now." Kai gestured to me to sit down.

I sat down impatiently.

Ace remained seated. "I was there as always. We were having fun. Then these guys come out of nowhere, demand they see Lucy so we told them to leave. Next thing I know he took a swing at me so I hit back. That's what I assume the accuser saw." He sent me a glance.

Kai tapped his fingers on the pedestal. "Since it has come to this, you have to share anything you know if you want to plead not guilty. Why did they want Lucy?"

Ace kept quiet.

"You must understand that silence doesn't make you innocent. If he presents danger .."

"Geez." Ace leaned forward. "They always look for trouble. The last thing anyone wants in the Devil's den is trouble. But where the devil is trouble follows. You understand at least that much right?" He sighed. "Don't you think if he were that dangerous I wouldn't have gone there not spend my free afternoons!"

There was silence.

Kai turned towards me. "Do you have anything to add to this?"

I stood up. "I want to present my trial witness."

Remi moved the chair to the center so everyone could see her.

"Tell us what happened." I gestured for her to speak.

Remi cleared her throat. "It started out so innocent. We were there to go shopping. We were just walking around taking pictures." She reached in her pocket and pulled out of the memory card. "This is my dash cam. You can check. We were parked so far away. We had no intention of going near the Devil's den."

I smirked. That's my Remi.

She covered her mouth. "We were just walking around and then we saw this crowd. We were tempted to see what was happening so we came closer and saw the fight."

"Who did you see?" I asked her.

"Ace." She pointed at him.

"And what was he doing?" I asked louder.

"He hit a guy!" She answered louder.

"He hit a guy?" I yelled.

"He hit a guy. Bam boom. The guy was unconscious and then blood. Blood everywhere." Remi stood up. "I was soaked in blood."

"Blood?" I yelled.

"Soo much blood."

Rehan slammed his hands on the table. "They are clearly making it more dramatic for the court. The witness is a fraud."

"Order." Kai yelled. "Don't insult the witness."

"Unbelievable!" Ace stood up and pointed a finger at me. "You brought Remi into this on purpose."

I smirked.

"I knew it you little.." He shouted. "You play dirty."

"Order!" Kai yelled and we all calmed down. Suddenly our phones beeped.

"It's mom. Says it's dinner time." Rehan was the first one to read the group message.

"We will end the trial here. I will give this some thought, check the evidence and let you know how we continue from here forward. On another matter of the Family law and order, what do we say about Ace's injury to mom?

"The nurse asked me if a basketball hit me so I went along with it." said Ace.

"Alright. We can work with that,"Kai said. "Since Remi and Francy were with him you will be witnesses. Tell mom you were watching his game and saw it when it happened."

I wanted to complain, but the Family law was final.

"Understood." Me and Remi answered and the family court was wrapped up.