Monroe sat in a wooden chair, his hands in his lap, with his head down and his eyes closed. The blind lady’s scales would be balanced today.

The speaker off to his right and above him was talking to another man further off to his right. The words were perfectly coherent, but Monroe Tanner couldn’t focus on them. His own head was so full of sounds, images, and wildly varying thoughts that the introduction of more stimuli seemed insane. Monroe was blocking out the world around him and living inside his own memories.

The speaker was finished talking and the second man was now speaking. Monroe heard nothing of this. He heard only screams and gunshots.

The man next to Monroe helped him to his feet and pointed for him to face the first speaker. Tanner saw only a dead mafioso laying next to two little girls with gaping wounds.

“..guilty of the murders of Luigi Moretti, Sarah Moretti, and Charlotte Moretti. The sentence is death. May God have mercy on your soul.”

The blind lady’s scales hung in equilibrium.