Page 1 of Madness

Chapter One

Utterly mad...

Delusional...

Bonkers...

Silly, silly words leave the judge's mouth, and his wide grin reveals rows of sharp, pointy teeth, each perfectly aligned.

The courtroom feels like a twisted dream, with the judge's words echoing in my mind, amplifying the madness. His voice is cold and detached, yet it cuts through the air like a knife.

"He's a Cheshire cat,"the masculine voice inside my head whispers, adding to the cacophony of mythoughts.

I shake my head from side to side, trying to dislodge the hallucination, but it’s no use.

There is only one Chesh, isn’t there?

"Mad... I’m utterly mad," I repeat to myself inside of my head, the realisation that I’m about to be punished for my sins settling in like a heavy fog.

Shaking my head again, I hope to dispel the delusion, but it does not move.

The judge speaks, but it sounds like he’s underwater, and I remain silent, refusing to answer him, clinging to the last threads of my sanity in this bizarre, nightmarish reality.

Mad... I’m utterly mad.

Shaking my head again in an attempt to make my delusions disappear, my lawyer touches my arm, coaxing me to answer the judge, but I don’t answer him either.

I haven’t spoken at all the entire trial—too scared that the madness will get me into more trouble.

Each word feels like a potential trigger, a key to unlock a door I desperately want to keep shut. The silence is both a shield and a prison.

My mind races, filled with fragmented thoughts and images that refuse to make sense.

Only they do,don’t they?

They are the fragments of memories from my time with Alice, her stories, her madness infecting my bloodstream and making me tumble down the rabbit hole with her.

Although I don’t know if I could get into much more trouble after killing Alice.

“Off with her head!”the voice in my mind shouts. This one is more feminine, her voice shrill and high-pitched,“Off, off, off!”

The courtroom has to understand that I had to.

Alice was mad... utterly mad that it consumed her entire life and inevitably became a part of mine.

I’m now plagued with the same madness that she had.

A curse of being her son.

“A legacy.”

I want to tell the masculine voice to hush that this madness is no legacy and that if it were not for it, I would have never done what I did, even when I felt I had no choice.

“It’s clear to me that you need help, young man, and putting you into the prison system will do you no use...” he bangs his wooden gavel against the sound block, the noise causing a quiet hush to come over the courtroom.

I force myself to keep eye contact, suppressing the urge to glance away from his face.

The judge’s eyes transform into thin slits, his mouth turning into a wide grin with rows and rows of pointy teeth, and no matter how much Ishake my head, the delusion doesn’t go away this time.

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