2100
New York City, Law Street
7:05 pm
Koral, a 24 year old wanted prisoner, escaped from jail this night. New York City had a warning out about his escape, as escapes happened so rarely. The first time a prisoner had escaped, they caught him and executed him the next day. Koral now needed a trusted place to hide, and the first person he thought of was his family’s friend. He remembered it as the one place that brought him back to his childhood, where he would play and have a great time with the old man. When he got there, it wasn’t the same as in his memory. Yet he knocked on the door of the building that now looked abandoned, hoping to see the old man.
“Koral?”
“You’re still here!” Koral felt relieved. “I need help, I didn’t kill my father.”
“Come inside.”
“Thank you,” said Koral. “It’s not only me, there are hundreds of innocent people in jail in need of help as well. I know where the judge is.”
“This is for you, Koral,” said the old man, while handing a small box to him.
“What is this?”
“Don’t ask a lot. Just make the judge wear it.”
Three years ago, Koral was living with both of his parents in a poor family. Every night, loud voices were heard from their house. A drunk father yelling out at a poor mother, a boy defending his mother, and the mother crying. Koral’s father abused his wife by taking her small, daily amount of cash, which she gained by cleaning a huge factory. One day, Koral’s mother got sick. At midnight Koral’s father came back home as usual, and he saw the mother suffering in the bed with Koral in front of her. Yet, he didn’t have an ounce of a conscience.
“Hi you, woman, get up and bring me the money you got this day. Quickly, at least we are benefiting from this money, as you’re doing nothing in your life,” said Koral’s father.
Koral looked so angrily at his father and said no words, except telling his mom to not care. Five seconds later, Koral’s father repeated his word again with a loud voice.
“Hi, you, useless woman, bring me your money I said,” cried the father.
“Don’t you see that she is sick, how can she go to work like this?” cried Koral.
“She didn’t go outside the house today? What? Am I hearing that right?” said the father. He went to the mother and grabbed her from her clothes, and started shaking her while Koral was trying to push him away from his mother.
“How come you didn’t bring no money today, what do you want me to do to you now? Give me your mother’s gold ring!”
“No, no please not my mother’s ring, it’s the only thing I have left from her to remember her, please no, not the ring please,” pleaded Koral’s mother while so many tears ran down her check. The father used violence against the mother, and tried to take off the ring from her finger.
“Leave her, don’t touch her or I will kill you. Stop!” cried Koral while trying to defend his mom.
The neighbors were all watching from their house windows and listening.
Suddenly, a gunshot was heard from Koral’s house. The father was shot in his back and fell down to the ground. Koral looked surprisedly at his father, then in the direction where the shot came from, and he saw somebody go out the door quickly and run. As Koral saw his mother on the ground, he couldn't focus on the somebody, and he tried to make his mother answer him by calling her name loudly. But it was time for her to leave him. After, the police came and arrested Koral with no evidence, only based on what the neighbors said to the police, that Koral had been the killer of his father.
2100
New York City, Law Street
5:30 am
Koral sneaks down the back entryway of the court house into the poorly lit hallways where the cleaning workers were arriving. He is wearing a black cap with a hoodie pulled over it, trying to hide his face, but not out of fear. His hazel eyes are locked on the door of the judge’s floor ahead of him, but just as he was about to take a step down the hall, he heard a custodian coming down the other hallway with his cart. Koral hides before the worker can see him, then comes up behind him and holds his mouth shut.
“Shuu, I will not hurt you, I just need you to comply with what I am going to ask you to do.” whispered Koral. The worker looked so confused and nodded. Koral tied him up, took his clothes and his ID to disguise himself, and walked toward the door. Two seconds later, he came back and promised the custodian, “Sorry brother, I’ll make sure you will get your clothes back.”
Koral entered the judge's floor, and he was alert of everything around him while moving without suspicion. As he walked, he watched a guy approach a security guard and asked him about where a specific judge was. The guard looked him up and down and called the other guards over. and without letting the guy speak, they dragged him to a special room.
“0925, 0936, 0942— found it,” whispered Koral. He entered the room without anyone noticing, and he was now standing in front of the judge
“It’s not time for the cleaning yet, you’re probably new. Get out,” said the judge while focusing on his work.
“Not before you listen to me!” said koral while he quickly reached the judge. He took out a knife from his belt and put it near the judge’s neck, while holding him from the back. Koral had never hurt someone, and he will never hurt anyone, but he did it just to scare the judge.
“Who are you? Wait, what are you doing?” cried the judge.
“I will not hurt you, just listen to me. I am not criminal as you think, so you need to listen to me,” whispered Koral. The judge knew that he was Koral from his voice, as he was the only wanted person in New York City. Without Koral noticing, the judge reached a small button under his desk and pressed it, which sent an emergency alert to the security that something was wrong.
During the next twenty seconds the judge tried to calm down Koral, until the security came up to the judge’s room, and caught Koral. Koral was yelling to let him go and listen to him, but the judge didn’t respond, and ordered security to call the police and take him to jail.
New York City, Police Station.
7:00pm
Koral sat in the jail cell, so weak and hopeless, thinking about his execution that next day. The second door of the cell opened. A young captain entered the room. Her long black eyelashes were as beautiful over those golden brown eyes as honey, her smile was sweet like an innocent baby. Koral’s pupils dilated and shone as the stars in the sky when he saw her, and for a moment he forget all his pain and what had happened to him.
“It’s you Angela!” said Koral with excitement.
“Yes, it’s me. I am here for you. When I heard you were here, I couldn’t leave you alone. How are you?” said Angela.
“I failed Angela. That’s it, I can’t do anything now, even though I have strong evidence that I am innocent. I didn’t want this to happen, I thought I could help our people at least with a little thing,” said Koral.
“What was the strong evidence you had that you were innocent?” said Angela
“A technology that the old man I talked to you about gave to me while I was in jail. An invisible contact lens that when the judge wears it, it will show if the person was innocent or not. Whatever, I don’t want you to think about it now, it’s too late now,” said Koral.
“No, don’t say that Koral. The Koral that I know never gave up, he always stayed as strong as he could, even if something was impossible, he would always try his best. Koral, you’re not alone. I will do something I never thought I would do in my life.”
“Wait, what? Angela are you going to bre…” said Koral.
“Yes, break the law. I can’t see you and other people suffer from this injustice and do nothing. As long as I know I will be doing it for the right, I am okay with it. Now tell me, where can I find the lens?” said Angela
“It should be in my bag that they took when they brought me here. It’s a black bag that has the letter K on it at the bottom, and inside it, you will find a small blue box that has the invisible lens,” said Koral. Angela walked to the door to leave, and Koral called out, “Angela, thank you,” and then Angela smiled and left. Next, she went to the room where they put the arrested people’s stuff, and waited far away until the policeman went to the restroom. This is it, it’s Angela chance, she had only three minutes to enter the room, find the bag and take the lens without anyone noticing or catching her. Angela entered the room and got it, and suddenly when she was going outside, the policeman came.
“Can I help you, Capital?” said the police officer.
“Aa..aa, I am good, just got confused between the rooms. You know I don’t really came around here too much.”
“Okay, just make sure next time to not enter rooms you have no business in.”
“Aa haha no don’t worry,” said Angela with fake smile and stress. Angela left the police office as quickly as she could. She took a deep breath and located the small box. Then left, with a huge speed.
New York City, Law Street
10 pm
Angela parkes outside in front of the court, waiting for the judge to leave. The judge gets out the building, enters his car and leaves. Angela quickly turns on her car and starts following him without him noticing her. When they enter a road where there is no one there, Angela speeds up her car and suddenly turns the car to block the judge’s way. The judge stops his car and gets out.
“Are you crazy? We almost died in an accident! Who are you? Get out of your car and face me!” cried the judge. Angela got out her car and showed her face, the judge surprised.
“Yes, it’s me Capital Angela B. I know the consequences of what I did, but listen to me first.”
“What’s wrong with these crazy people coming to me today and saying ‘listen to me?’ Did you risk your life for that? Why you didn’t just come to me in my office?”
“The thing you’re about to hear from me may change both of our lives for the better or worse, based on you.”
“Wait, what?”
“I am here for the arrested Koral Para.”
“Wait wait, stop there Angela, you will ruin your life for that criminal? You're under arrest for putting the judge’s life at risk.”
“Okay, I am okay with that, as long as I know that I did it for a good reason, to be an upstander for what’s right. At least I never did something that ruined a lot of innocent people’s lives like you did. How can you put your head on the pillow and sleep comfortably while you killed so many people’s dreams, future, and life?”
“What are you talking about? Our government is doing right for us all to have a perfect society without criminals around us.”
“How can you be that blind from seeing the truth? Arresting people without even any evidence is the right for you? Having children in jail because of their weak grades is fair for you? Just to be a perfect society! Imagine your child gets a low grade on their final test one year, would you accept him going to jail and ruining his life?”
“I know Angela, but this is how it works, we can’t do anything as long as there is no strong evidence to change the way it is.”
“No, there is. That’s why I am here today. Koral is innocent. He got arrested just because people think he was the one who killed his father, with no evidence.”
“But he escaped and tried to hurt me this morning?”
“Believe me, he wasn’t going to hurt you, he has never hurt anybody. He escaped because he had no other choice to save our society. He did that just to show you the technology he had which will help us all survive, and end the injustice that is happening. And here is the technology, please give us a chance and try it,” pleaded Angela.
Angela gave him the small box. The judge opened it and wondered what it was. He agreed to go back with her to the court in the morning at 5 pm.
The next day, the judge ordered for Koral to come to the court and try the invisible lens. Angela also wanted to show all the people that Koral was innocent, so she asked the judge to call the news stations to send reporters to the court and have them record what happened. Koral arrived to the courtroom, and he looked at Angela. She closed her eyes to make him feel a little bit comfortable. Then, the judge entered the room and everyone in the court stood up.
“We are here today, to take a look again of the file of the prisoner Koral Para, who was arrested for killing his father. However, we had strong evidence to help us do the right thing and find out the truth. With this advanced technology called the invisible lens, I will be able to see if a person is really innocent or a criminal. As I wear it, it’s supposed to show me all the prisoner records since he was born. So without losing any time, let’s get started. Prisoner Koral Para?”
“Yes judge, it’s me.”
“Stand up and look at me straight in my eyes without blinking,” said the judge. He wore the invisible lens and looked at Koral. After a second, a blue circle with small dots circled around Koral’s face, his ID showed up, and with capital letters it said INNOCENT. Then the judge held the contact lens to the court’s huge camera, and showed the people what the lens showed.
“I want all the people to know that Koral Para is innocent, and for the five years he was in jail, we will honor him by giving him a spot in the government. As Koral’s dream job is being a soldier, he will get training for that,” said the judge.
Everyone started clapping, and Koral eyes smiled and filled with tears. The old man came up to him and hugged him as if he were his own son.
“Now, at least my conscience can rest a little from the pain I caused you to go through.”
The End.