When the inside of the church was transformed into an inferno, Adam and his friends were forced to flee outside. They were all choking on the smoke and were immediately taken captive by the horde of demons. Bryce Poole’s demon, Sorehead, supervised their capture. He seemed pleased with himself for recapturing them and had them bound at the ankles and wrists with steel cuffs. He said they were now going to be taken before the Gatekeepers and judged. Adam thought that would be better than being eaten alive, but after listening to Sorehead for a few minutes he wondered.
“You’ll be brought before a judge,” Sorehead explained as he led them through the horrible night of the Dark Corner. Demons surrounded them and kept trying to grab them. Adam and the others soon got tired of fending them off. Sorehead continued, “There will be a prosecutor and you will be defended by a lawyer. There is also a jury.”
“Which of these is a Gatekeeper?” Adam asked.
“They’re all Gatekeepers,” Sorehead said. “They change jobs. It gives them a little variety. Next week your lawyer might be a judge.”
“You mean, our lawyer is a demon?” Adam asked.
“Sure,” Sorehead said.
“And the jury?” Sally asked.
“All demons,” Sorehead said. “You’re in the Dark Corner, after all. What do you expect?”
“But how can we be judged fairly if everyone’s a demon?” Adam asked.
Sorehead chuckled. “What is this concern with fairness? We’re demons. We’re not supposed to be fair.” He paused and rubbed his head. “Whose idea was it to give me that cold red lemonade?”
“It was your counterpart in our world, Bryce Poole,” Watch said.
“Where is he now?” Sorehead demanded.
“He escaped through the portal,” Adam said. “He used your palm to open it.”
Sorehead appeared momentarily angry, but then he laughed. “He escaped and left you behind! You’ve got to hand it to him, he’s got a lot of me in him.”
“We wouldn’t disagree with that,” Watch said, throwing Sally a look. But Sally looked too miserable to defend Bryce anymore.
After a mile of walking they went into one of the huge red fissures that had opened in the ground. After traveling through a cinder-filled underground tunnel, they eventually came to a huge cavern. The space was surrounded by a volcanic pool. The glowing lava provided the chamber with its red glow, and also made it uncomfortably hot. The sweat that dripped off Adam’s forehead was from fear as well as from the heat.
In the center of the chamber sat the judge, the prosecutor, and the twelve demon members of the jury. They were resting on seats carved of black volcanic stone. The judge’s seat was the highest of all, and the judge himself was a big fat demon with brilliant red hair and purple eyes. He was larger than most human adults. He sneered at them as they entered, and Adam received the distinct impression that he wasn’t on their side. On the table in front of him sat a large black book.
Close to these demons was a massive silver-colored balance scale. It was old-fashioned in design, basically just two metal plates with a weight in the center to balance the two plates. Beside the far plate stood a tall thin demon. He oversaw a huge bag of thick gold coins. Adam had no idea what the scale was for, but figured he would learn soon enough. Sorehead ushered them before the judge and jury. There he smacked them each on the head.
“Bow your heads to the judge and act respectful,” Sorehead said. “Remember, you’re in a court of law.”
Just before they did bow, they each glanced over at their lawyer. He was short and chubby and had a big cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. His eyes were blood red and his hair was like straw that had been dipped in crude oil. He was a real sleaze.
“Can’t we hire our own lawyer?” Sally muttered as she lowered her head.
“You can’t afford one,” Sorehead replied. “You should be grateful one has been appointed for you by the court. This guy’s name is Foulstew, and he’s not bad.”
“We should at least be given a human lawyer,” Watch grumbled, his head also down.
Sorehead snorted. “He wouldn’t try too hard to defend you.”
“Why not?” Adam asked, his eyes focused on the floor in front of him.
“Because we would just eat him if he won,” Sorehead explained. “We would tell him that ahead of time.”
“Silence in my courtroom!” the judge boomed, clearing his throat. “The prisoners may approach the bench.”
Sorehead kicked each of them in the butt and they trudged forward. They were forced to raise their heads to see the judge reading from a large piece of burnt paper.
“This trial concerns the case of the fine demons of the Dark Corner versus the wicked and ill-mannered humans of Spooksville, namely, Adam Freeman, Sara Wilcox, and Watch.” The judge paused, raising a dirty eyebrow. “What happened to your last name, Watch?”
Watch shrugged. “I use it so seldom, I forget it.”
The judge turned to the thin demon next to the scale. “A token against the accused, Scalekeeper!” he snapped.
The Scalekeeper took a gold token out of his bag and placed it on one plate of the scale. Immediately that side lowered. Watch spoke to Sorehead.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
Sorehead was amused. “It means you’ve just thrown away a valuable point. If I were you, I’d watch my mouth.”
The judge pounded his gavel, which was a human skull. “Order in the court! The charges against the accused are as follows. Being human. Eating our hot dogs without paying. Escaping from the torture poles. Tricking one of our outstanding citizens with fake blood. And burning down our chapel.” The judge set the paper aside. “How do you plead?”
“We didn’t burn down the chapel,” Sally said. “You burned down the chapel.”
“But you disgusting humans forced us to burn it down,” the prosecutor said, stepping forward. He was perhaps the strangest-looking demon of all. He was extremely short and compact. The top of his head was flat, in fact. It looked as if a huge weight had landed on him, and crunched him into a compact parcel. His eyes were particularly wicked—more like a lizard’s than a cat’s. Worst of all, he wore a cheap wrinkled three-piece brown suit. The prosecutor continued, “My name is Bloodbutton and it is my job to see that each of you burns for your sins.”
Their own chubby attorney with the bad-smelling cigar stepped forward. “And my name is Foulstew and I’m here to have a good time!” He laughed. “And maybe to get you off, if you deserve it, which I doubt.”
“And I’m the judge here and all of you shut your mouths so we can get this trial going,” the judge said. “How do you three plead? Innocent or guilty?”
Adam turned to Foulstew. “How should we plead?” he asked.
Foulstew rubbed his oiled hair and took a puff on his cigar. “If you plead guilty, you will be taken from here immediately and tortured for the rest of your lives.”
“What if we plead innocent?” Sally asked.
“You will easily be proven guilty and tortured for the rest for your lives,” Foulstew said. “I mean, at the very least, you’re human, which is a serious crime in the Dark Corner. It alone carries a penalty of forty years of having your nails slowly pulled out of your hands while your toes are being tickled.”
Adam frowned. “Isn’t there a third way for us to plead?”
“Objection!” Bloodbutton shouted. “The defendant is trying to take unfair advantage of this court.”
The judge pounded his skull. “Overruled! You may answer your clients’ question, Foulstew, but please don’t tell everything.”
Foulstew bowed in the direction of the judge and then spoke to Adam and his friends. “It is possible for you to enter a plea of what we call Virtues versus Vices.”
“What does that mean?” Adam asked.
Foulstew nodded to the scale. “We seat you on one end of that scale, and if you outweigh your vices—when we are through reviewing your life—then you get to go free. For each vice we find in you, the Scalekeeper will add one of those heavy gold coins onto the other side of the scale. Obviously, if there are too many gold coins, you will be outweighed and you will lose.”
“But what about our virtues?” Adam asked. “For each one of those do you take a gold coin off the other side?”
Foulstew glanced at the judge. “I ask Your Honor’s permission to respond?”
The judge frowned. “Counsel may respond. But let this court warn counsel that the jury would like at least one of these humans for dinner tonight.”
Foulstew glanced uneasily at the jury before answering Adam’s question. “That is correct. For each virtue or noble deed you are able to demonstrate in this court, one gold coin is removed from the scale. In other words, if you are a good enough person, the charges against you will be dismissed and you will be allowed to go free.”
Adam turned to Sally and Watch. “We have led pretty good lives, for the most part. We should be able to win this way.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Sally said. “Remember what Bryce said. You practically have to be a saint to avoid being condemned.”
“Do we have a choice?” Watch asked. “I say we go this way.”
“Me too,” Adam said.
Sally shrugged. “I’ve been as good as you guys, maybe better. I’ll go for it, too.”
Adam turned to Foulstew. “We want to enter a plea of Virtues versus Vices.”
Foulstew looked disappointed. “I would advise against it.”
“Why?” Watch said. “You just said the other ways we’re sure to be found guilty and be tortured for the remainder of our lives.”
“Yes,” Foulstew said, glancing at the jury of twelve demons. “But you probably will be found guilty this way, too. Only this way you might get me in trouble. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?”
“We don’t care if you get in trouble,” Sally snapped.
“What she means is we won’t say anything that implicates you in our crimes,” Adam said quickly, not wishing to lose the good will of their defense
“What crimes are those?” Watch grumbled.
“Your first crime is that of being human!” the judge interrupted. “Watch! Climb onto the side of the scale closest to you and sit down without moving. And keep your mouth shut.”
Watch did as he was told. Naturally, since there was only one gold coin on the other side, the scale immediately sunk down on Watch’s side. That was good. If he could stay heavier than the other side, he would go free. But then the Scalekeeper raised his bag of gold coins and poured on so many that Watch bobbed up in the air. Adam and Sally were outraged.
“You can’t do that!” Adam shouted. “You haven’t proven he has any vices!”
“I just said he was human!” the judge shouted back. “That is an immediate vice, and the penalty is one’s weight in gold. Add to that the coin Watch received for insulting me, and you can see why the scale is tipped against him.”
Adam turned to Foulstew. “You didn’t tell us that we would have our whole weight against us before we started.”
Foulstew spread his hands. “You didn’t ask, Adam. Honestly, I am doing my best to defend you, and I am one of the best lawyers in all of the Dark Corner.”
“How many humans have you successfully defended?” Sally asked.
“None,” Foulstew admitted. “But I keep getting closer with each case.”
The judge pounded his skull on his table. “Order in the court! It is time to weigh Watch’s virtues and vices. Bloodbutton, Foulstew—prepare to present your evidence! And may the powers of darkness guide your words!”
Sally sighed and leaned over to whisper in Adam’s ear. “We’re never going to get out of here.”