The Nightmare Box

‘I still can’t believe we’re sitting here. There’s absolutely nothing to support these charges. I only hope the jury sees that.’ Mortis Kevork, along with his twin brother, Mikey, were anxiously waiting for the verdict that would decide their fates. Every attempt to quash the Crown Prosecution Service’s case was denied, even though the evidence was extremely flimsy. ‘Does the Magistrate have it out for anyone accused of this crime? It doesn’t make any sense.’ Looking behind him, Mortis saw his family and friends sitting at the back of the court, and received smiles of encouragement. He noticed that some of their expressions seemed forced, and that worried him. The twins were glad some people believed in their innocence as the majority of the population thought they were guilty. As the defendants waited, Mortis thought back to how this whole thing started.

“Great gig tonight, Roger. You guys’ll have an album deal in no time.” Mikey said, finishing his beer. “Just don’t let the eventual fame go to your head.”

The bassist laughed and pulled his girlfriend closer to him. “Don’t worry ‘bout that, Mike. Terry’s gonna make sure I stay planted.”

“And you will as long as I have something to say about it.” The redhead giggled as Roger kissed her cheek. “Damn! Is it that late already? I’ve gotta get some sleep if I’m gonna open with Jewel and Ange tomorrow.”

“Let’s get back to the flat then.” Roger nodded to the Kevork twins, along with Julie and Lara. “Evening to you guys. Be safe getting home.”

“Aye. Evening Terry, Roger.” The couple exited the Echo Club, leaving their four friends to linger a bit longer. “Well,” Mortis stretched, “best be getting home. Haven’t slept for the last two days.”

“You’ve been overdoing it again.” Lara admonished. “You’ve got the day off tomorrow, right?” Her boyfriend nodded. “Good. Sleep in. You need it.” Her tone left no room for argument.

“Alright, love. If it’ll make you happy. I’ll still phone you when I wake up.”

“You don’t and I’ll be knocking on your door.” She winked a blue eye and he smiled. “Shall we head home?”

Julie yawned. “Aye. I need some sleep. Been studying too much lately.”

“You chose the field of study, babe.” Mikey laughed, dodging a half-hearted punch. “Got no one to complain to but yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just get me home so I can pass out.”

“We’re outta here.” The four went out to the car park and climbed into a green Mini Cooper. “You sure you’re cool to drive, bro?” Mikey asked.

“I got this. Ain’t even buzzed.” Mort started the auto and pulled onto the main road. He dropped Julie off first then Lara, and went back the way he came to head to the flat he shared with his brother. He drove through several roundabouts and turned right onto a mostly deserted street. “See? Told you I’d get us back in one piece.”

“We’re not there yet. Still got another four-whoa! Stop!” Mortis slammed on the brakes, causing the vehicle to buck. Luckily, no one had been behind them. “Back it up some.”

“What the bloody hell did you have me…?” Mort never finished his sentence as his brother opened his door and carefully walked to the side of the street. Putting his auto in park, the other twin joined him and saw something he never thought he’d encounter.

Lying half in, half out of the street lamp light was a woman. She looked no older than thirty-five and well dressed from what the twins could see but something was wrong. Her eyelids were fluttering and she let out a small noise of pain every few seconds. Eyes tracking outside the light, Mortis gasped at what he saw. The woman’s legs were bent as if broken, her skirt was torn to pieces, and what looked like blood was drying underneath her.

“Mort?” Mortis looked at his brother. “Call the constable. Now.” He didn’t hesitate and within moments, the familiar London siren wailed, then police and paramedics swarmed into the quiet neighborhood.

“Step aside, boys. We’ll take it from here.” An officer gently took them aside as the medics checked the woman over.

Snippets of conversation reached their ears. “Drugged for certain… toxicology report will verify… looks like rape… two or more.” Suspicious eyes turned toward the twins for a few seconds then went back to their work.

“Are we suspects?” Mikey asked the officer who was taking out his notepad.

“Not at the present time but I do need to know how you two got here.”

“Fair enough. We were at the Echo Club until half past midnight, took my brother’s girlfriend home first then mine, and we were heading to our flat when he spotted her.” Mortis pointed towards the woman carefully being put on a stretcher.

“I’ll need their names and addresses.” Mortis supplied the information. “Who was playing at the club tonight?”

“We went there to see the Silver Coffin Sound set. Our friend’s boyfriend is the bassist. Stayed on for a while afterwards to have a drink.” The constable raised an eyebrow. “We’ll take a test to prove we’re under the limit, sir.”

“No need, son. I can’t even smell it on you, so you’re clear on that. What I want to know is…”

“Them! It was them! They did this to me!” A shriek from the back of the ambulance caused everyone to stop and look. “They raped me! It was them!”

The twins looked horrified as the officials gave them hard stares “Whoa. Wait a second. We only found her. We didn’t do this. Why would we hang around and call you?” Mikey asked the obvious questions over the hysterical screams and sobs that only quieted down when the distressed woman was put into the ambulance and taken to hospital.

“You two better come with us to Scotland Yard. Might wanna call your attorneys too as it sounds like you’re gonna need ‘em.”

“Can we go in my auto? Or if we can’t, can we at least drive it home first?” Mortis asked, unable to believe what was happening.

“Follow us to the station. You can make your calls from there.” Reluctantly, Mortis and Mikey got into the Mini Cooper and did as they were told. As he parked at the station and got out, Mortis slowly realised that the nightmare had only begun.

The following months were a blur of interrogations, attorney meetings, denial of their guilt by their parents and friends, and accusations by the public at large. As it turned out, the woman who’d been ravaged was a high-ranking executive at one of London’s many brokerage firms, and she was looking to see that her rapists got the same treatment. A toxicology report proved beyond a doubt that she’d been drugged before the deed had been done but she was absolutely insistent that the twins had done it. Having endless funds at her disposal, she’d had a team of attorneys who could pile the circumstantial evidence so high, it’d taken the defense months to sift through it all.

Unfortunately, the case ended up going to trial, despite all the attempts to quash the indictments on the grounds that there was no evidence pointing to the Kevork twins. The day their trial was to begin, Mortis and Mikey woke up early and got ready. Thankfully, even though the case was a severe one, they were released on their own recognizance until today.

“I still can’t believe this is happening to us. The whole country thinks we did it, too.” Mortis agonized as he put on his jacket. “We didn’t do anything wrong but the damn prosecution refuses to look at the obvious facts.”

“Justice isn’t blind anymore, brother.” Mikey said, straightening his tie. “Seems all that matters is how much money you got and how many lawyers you can hire.” He combed his hair back. “Our only hope now is the jury.”

“Why does that make me feel worse about this?”

“Because the only people who believe we’re innocent are our family and friends, although I’ve caught Julie giving me strange looks lately. I’m worried she’s starting to believe the press.”

“Lara’s been acting strange too. She did promise she’d be in court for the duration.”

“So did everyone else we know. Does this thing look straight?”

Mortis fixed his brother’s tie. “Cheers. Let’s get going. Don’t wanna be late.”

“That’d definitely make us look worse.”

‘Worse was an understatement. Who would’ve thought it'd go this far?’ Mortis forced his mind back to the present as the jury filed back into the court. Not a one of them looked in the direction of the defendants and all their faces were blank. ‘Can’t tell one way or the other.’ He barely heard the Magistrate telling them to stand as the verdict was about to be read. Their attorneys stood with them, looking unsure themselves as to which way the result would go.

“As to the defendants Mortis and Michael Kevork, in the charge of aggravated rape in the first degree, how does the jury find?”

The collective breath in the room seemed to be in suspension as the forewoman stood, and said without hesitation. “We, the jury, find the defendants, Mortis and Michael Kevork, guilty of the charge.” The back of the court erupted with the press firing questions and the gallery shouting everything from ‘not guilty’ to ‘hang them.’ The court officers went to cuff the brothers, who tried to make a mad dash for the exit. In the scuffle, Mikey and Mortis were shoved to the floor and blacked out when they were hit with tasers…

“I said we’re innocent! Innocent…” Mortis’s scream died on his lips as he woke up in his own bed. “What the hell…? How did I… Was that all…”

“What’s the matter, bro?” Mikey poked his head into his brother’s room. “Heard you screaming all the way down the hall.”

“Mikey?”

“Yeah. Who’d you expect? Father Christmas? What were you screaming about?”

“I had a nightmare. You and I were…”

“Sorry to cut you off, bro, but you’ll have to tell me later. Hurry up and get dressed or we’ll be late.” Mortis noticed his twin was getting dressed up.

“Late for what?”

Mikey rolled his eyes and tossed him a paper. “For this.” Mortis caught the paper and read the headline, ‘Twins' Rape Trial Begins Today.’

“What? What?! This is actually happening? It wasn’t a dream! The nightmare is real!” He started to sob until Mikey’s voice interjected.

“Will you mellow out? Read the rest of it.” Mort quickly scanned the page to see the defendants weren’t him and his brother but another pair of twins who’d been arrested on DNA evidence.

“Bloody hell. That makes me feel relieved, but what are we going for?”

“We discovered the lady who was raped, so we were asked to be present just in case.”

“Oh. Okay.” He moved to quickly get dressed. “The nightmare was so real, I thought we were the ones on trial for that.”

Mikey shook his head and laughed. “Dude, you’ve gotta stop dropping LSD before you go to bed.”