Conviction of a sane mind

Many years ago Henry was driving along the M1, when he was flagged down by a policeman. He was taken aback because he was unaware of having broken any rules. As the policeman approached him he jumped out of the car feeling anxious. A million thoughts ran through his mind. A villager standing by limped up to them curious to be part of the whole situation. 1

Henry began to think if he had missed a stop sign? Or had he crossed the speed limit? He couldn’t have. If one had known Henry Joseph Leonski, he would know that Henry wouldn’t go past 50km\hr even if his wife were in labour. 2

As the cop walked towards Henry, he began to fret. He looked at his wristwatch, 10:35pm. He began to sweat but soon wiped it before the cop could notice his anxiety. 3

“Is there a problem officer?” he asked with an obvious panic in his voice. 4

“Sir, place your hands behind you head and turn around.” He instructed Henry.5

The cop searched Henry and then turned his attention to his car. All this while Henry stood there clueless. He tried to calm himself. May be it was a routine checkup.6

He looked around; the road was empty. Except for the villager who was now standing ten feet from him. The villager had wrapped a shawl around himself. Henry wondered why, it wasn’t that cold today. He looked back at the cop who looked like he was done checking the car. 7

“Sir. Please walk back to my wagon.” The cop had a stern look on his face.8

Henry was confused. “Why? Is something wrong?” he fumbled as he spoke. 9

“You have a right to keep quite, anything said will be taken against you” saying so he pushed Henry towards the wagon. 10

Henry tried to resist the policeman. “ But sir…officer.. What’s this about?” he kept questioning the cop. he was more nervous then curious. The cop tried to jostle him into the wagon but he wouldn’t move. Henry was timid but he was a huge man. His 6ft 1inch frame stood there firm. And then there was a sudden tug and a bang on his head. Henry fell into the wagon; his last image before he passed out was of the villager with a metal rod. 11

Tick tick tick. Henry could hear the ticking of a clock. His eyes flickered and then he shut them again. A bright neon bulb stood inches from his face. He tried to look around but he was too weak to look past the light. Tick tick tick. He concentrated on the sound of the clock. He noticed an odd odor in the room. It had a sickening smell. Where am I, he thought? Morphine! Tick tick tick. He passed out again. 12

Tick tick tick, the sound played in Henry’s head. But this time it was loud, more like a band bang bang. Henry woke up with inscrutable pain in his body. It felt like some one was banging a nail right through him. He couldn’t tell what part of him hurt the most. He yelled and twisted around but to no avail. The room was empty and Henry lay there in the center of the room strapped to a metal board like a lab experiment. It didn’t take Henry much time to notice the clutches that held his hands and legs. A sudden rush of intense fear gripped him. What have I got myself into? 13

Henry looked around for help and from the corner of his eye noticed a table. His stomach began to churn as he saw the tools kept on it. He struggled with the clutches, this time trying harder to break free but it only scarred him. The scene looked like it was from a horror movie. Now all Henry could do was to wait for Dr X. 14

The pain he felt was taking over his mind. He began to tremble with fear as he tried to concentrate on the ticking. What had only been a little more then an hour seemed like a day.15

The clocks’ ticking was now mixed with a creaking sound. Henry could see an open door at a far end. A silhouette of a man stood near the door. He started walking towards Henry. Then as he came closer to the metal board Henry saw him. His face was covered with a mouth cloth. But Henry could see his eyes. He gasped, they were the same eyes that had knocked him down; the Villager! 16

“Hello Henry, you remember me don’t you?” he grinned. 17

What have you done to me? Who are you? 18

“Poor poor Henry. So innocent, so ignorant.” He walked towards the table and picked up a container. Henry let out a low squeal. He looked at the man who now brought the container close to Henry’s face. 19

“I have plans for you Henry,” he smiled and continued, “Forgive me for intruding your body without your permission.” and with another smirk he undid the lid of the container and pulled out an eerie looking object from it. Henry cringed; his first thought was ‘a kidney theft!’ He looked closely at the object; it was pinkish, a little white too. No, it couldn’t be a kidney. And then it struck him. My tongue? It couldn’t be! He widened his mouth to feel his tongue but couldn’t find anything. He lay still and looked at it and then at the man. The villager held Henry’s mutilated tongue in his hand like it was some souvenir. It was spotted with dark brown drops of dried blood. Henry woke up from his brief moment of shock. His eyes widened and he tried to scream but all that came out were low moans and shrieks. 20

Henry was in too much pain all this while to notice that he couldn’t hear his own screams. Henry began to cry, he mourned for the part that was dead in him. The morphine! The tools! What sort of madhouse was this? He looked at the villager with fear and repugnance at the same time. The villager laughed, his voice drowning Henry’s thoughts; and then walked out the room. Henry could still hear his laughter; it made him sick. He was left alone in that room crying, grieving; he was too terrified to think what the man was up to. 21

Henry’s next memory was waking up in a brightly lit up room. He looked around and noticed the clinical equipments. Am I in a hospital? He wasn’t very sure though. Sunlight came through the window behind him. He took a deep breath of fresh air and remembered the nauseating morphine. Was it a nightmare? But no he was wrong. His mouth felt empty; all of it was real. A nurse walked into the room. As soon as she noticed Henry was awake, she went out and came back with three policemen. All of them looked at Henry with disgust. Their mouths twisted as they whispered something to each other. May be they rescued me, Henry rejoiced at the thought of him being freed from that maniac. He smiled at them. He was so excited that he tried to get up and hug them for saving him. But the cops held him back and pulled out their pistols. 22

“Do not move or we will shoot you,” yelled one of the cops. 23

At the same time two doctors rushed in and injected him. Henry felt dizzy. His sight began to blur. His eyes were closed but he heard the doctors talking to the policemen. 24

“A man like him can’t be kept loose in a hospital. We shall discharge him in two days. Then you can give him what he deserves.” What! What did I deserve? A man like this! What were they talking about? Didn’t they rescue me? Henrys mind was filled with doubt and confusion as he passed out that day. 25

Henry spent two days in the hospital. No one really interacted with him while he was at the hospital. And if they ever looked at him it was always a look of disgust or anger.26

He had no idea what was going on but he once overheard the nurse and learnt that he had been there for a week. 27

The day Henry was discharged; he was wheeled down the hospital right into a police van. Once during the two-hour journey in the van Henry tried to interact with a policeman but was shocked when he pointed out his gun to Henry at the slightest movement he made. Henry didn’t dare to move after that. 28

He noticed how everyone didn’t move their eyes of him. It only made him more nervous so he tried to focus on his ride. The High Court of Justice, Henry gasped as the van drove close to ‘The Strand’. What are they up to? At this point his anxiety had almost reached its limit. As soon as the doors opened ten armed men surrounded him. There were thousands of people gathered outside the court that day. The policemen dragged Henry to the court. Many reporters pushed their way to get a glimpse of him. There was a lot of noise but to Henry everything was blurring. By the time Henry got a hold on his thoughts he was in the courtroom. 29

He was weary with all the commotion. He looked at the judge, the lawyers and then at the jury; everyone had the same look on their face. Disgust! Henry was now curious about why he was brought to court. He waited impatiently for the session to begin. 30

“Henry Joseph Leonski trial number 557902, accused for brutally murdering 6 victims.”31

Henry’s eyes widened; he couldn’t believe what he just heard. Murderer! No! I was the victim here. He stood and tried to oppose what was just said but he couldn’t speak. He got up to deny it but was soon held by three cops who handcuffed him. For a man like Henry this kind of strength was something that he’d never had shown before. A sudden rush of defense had got in to him. In his own way he tried to speak up for himself. But every one around him watched him with antipathy and ruled out his action. 32

The trial continued for two hours with a fifteen-minute break. Henry had been through the most horrifying two hours of his life. The loss of his voice was the least of his problems. He was being accused for murdering six women. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona. He repeated the names over and over. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona! Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona!33

None of them sounded familiar. How could they accuse me without proof? 34

He saw pictures of them. Pictures of their beautiful face then pictures of their mutilated face. Henry looked at them and cringed, they were horrid. As the trial proceeded he heard how the killer had murdered each of them in a similar way. He first cut out their tongues and them beat them up till they bleed to death. Wait! Someone please hear me. He cut my tongue too. But nobody allowed him to defend his case. It made him pale every time they referred to him as the killer. They had already made up their minds. Henry Joseph Leonski was to be convicted. He was a savage serial killer. 35

The lawyer had proof against Henry. They DNA samples matched. They also found weapons and details about his victims in his car. The lawyer had dug deep. He presented a clear case of a troubled teen gone wild. Henry didn’t have a family, which made it easier to trap him. By this time Henry had given up on the screaming. He could see right through all of it. They had framed him.36

Tears fell out his eyes but yet his lips smiled. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona! He repeated their names. The bogus car check, his abduction and his mutilation all of it was a ploy to trick him. 37

“Proved guilty! Sentenced to 10-years imprisonment,” was the last thing he heard. A rush of emotions struck him; anger, confusion, sorrow all at the same time. 38

The policemen escorted him to his cell. It had one single window at the top. A small bed and a toilet in the other end awaited him. He walked in to the dark cell as his mind kept reminding him of the deceit.39

The darkness and the loneliness in the cell reminded him of the morphine-infested room he had been in. And when he tried to talk to the prisoners from the other cells they mocked him and called him ‘Jack the Ripper’. They told him that he would burn in hell and die the worst kind of death. 40

Henry could never sleep; he was musophobic and in his cell the squeaking never stopped. Life was so still in the cell that some times he did nothing but sat there for hours thinking. He didn’t even notice when the roaches were all over him. Sometimes Henry would imagine what it meant to be in hell. He felt the flames engulfing him, his body tearing into pieces and his remains being eaten by rats. He often wondered was it worse then living in a room filled with your own poop. 41

Months passed and Henry couldn’t stop thinking. He couldn’t sleep or do anything else. His mind never stopped. He kept reminding himself of what had happened and what was happening to him. It was funny how he narrated his feelings to himself like someone in his mind was listening to him. It was the story of his life and it played in his psyche repeatedly. 42

During Henry’s fourth year in prison, he began to think of all those girls murdered. Viola! He remembered how she looked. He thought about all the cruel things done to her. He thought of her running away from the killer. Run Viola run! He yelled. Someone’s going to catch you, he smiled and he imagined her disfigured face. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona! He remembered all of them everyday. As each day passed he imagined their beautiful faces then and their tongues being cut. He felt intense pleasure as he visualized them being thrashed to death. He could almost hear them moan. 43

Then came the day he began to imagine them running before him. He could feel them tremble in front of him. But his favorite part was when he imagined him beating them up till they could breath no more. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona! He grinned as he took their names. 44

Every night he pictured them dying. He saw him standing above their corpse wiping off the blood from his tools. Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona! He whispered every night before he got lost in his sick play. The roaches, the rats, the darkness and the loneliness didn’t bother him anymore. Nothing could have made him happier.45

Ten years later Henry was let out. He walked out of prison into a new world. He smiled as he looked at his watch, 10.35pm. It’s time to have some real fun, he said as he remembered his blissful dreams. 46

Viola, Bridget, Elisabeth, Audrey, Michelle and Fiona!!47