It was a relatively good run in late 2023 when my Mother, an attorney, was tasked to go up against a rather menacing looking gangster.
Really, it did not seem anything out of the ordinary, considering my Mother has gone up against murderers, assailtants, fanatics, etc. - a gangster really did not see like something heavy, nor did my Mother find him intimidating. My Mother really does not discuss her cases with me, but when she looks stressed I usually ask her if anything is wrong and how the cases are going.
I believe it was at the end of October, I was eating my pizza when I walked past my Mother’s study. A cozy little place where she likes to be on her own while going over her case file. Why was this night important? Well, my mother has looked stressed before, but this time, she looked genuinely worried. She had her face in her hand palms. I’ve never seen her in such a state. I knocked on the open door and asked her: “Maman, how’s the case going?”. She proceeded to explain to me that the evidence was insufficient but the little evidence present, all pointed to the gangster. When I asked her what was the real problem, she said that, while going over his file, she found multiple complaints of stalking, Conspiracy to commit violence, attempted assault & breaking/entering against the ruffian, all by people who had reportedly “wronged” this man in some way or another.
Now, my Mother really is tough. Being a prosecutor for almost 30 years, she has seen her fair share of deranged people, so when she is truly scared, you know you need to worry. Even if it was not my business, I read through some complaints and a lot of them gave us shivers as I read them out loud. Birds with slit throats showing up on porches, windows & cars being damaged, and even dath & rpe threats, were all present. My Mother said that, because he is a gangster, he obviously is not alone and she doubts they’re any less sadistic than he is. I told her that, she truly had nothing to worry about, and we watched our favourite show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to ease the tension.
Around December time, my Mother had won the case and she felt truly relieved but exhausted after knowing that, that… Freak of a man was going to be put away. I was somewhat relieved too, both for my Mother and myself, as I had two tests left for school and I could go knowing that I was safe… That was rather foolish of me to think.
While I have no conformation, the secondary final test I took was absolutely awful. Not because of the subject, but fo what happened before the test. I was sitting on a tree stump and talking to my friends as we had an hour before we write our test. Around half an hour before the test, I asked my friend to come with me to the bathroom, because we always go together. While walking to the bathroom, somebody quickly hid behind one of our corridor arches and we were immediately startled. We just laughed and giggled and even made fun of whatever happened, and successfully reached the bathroom. After we were both done, we washed our hands when the bathroom door slammed shut and the lights turned off.
We screamed. Loudly, because we are easy-to-scare individuals. We opened the door and put the lights back on. At first we thought it was the wind and a power outage, but the lights worked and the wind present was not strong enough to shut a barn-like door. We were truly startled, and walked with caution to the classroom where we were writing our test. On our way there, I don’t know if she felt it, but I really felt like I was being watched. I thought it was just nerves from the test, and shrugged it off.
After the test, me and my friend parted our ways so I could wait for my Mother at the front entrance, when I had yet again see a shadowy figure moving fast through the corridor. I thought at the point it was someone playing a prank, so I decided to confront this dumb*ss. I went to the arch where the figure had speed walked to, essentially, and when I got there, there was nobody… Except a bullet. I took this bullet to the Dean and my Mother was informed. The car ride home was dead silent, which was unusual because we always discuss my test after writing it.
When I got home, my Mother asked me very specific questions in a serious tone. Stuff like: “Was someone following you?”, “Are there ruffians in your school?”, “Was that a well-done prank?”, etc. She looked truly worried again, and I was starting to worry too. That night, we went to sleep with heavy heads, but we decided to sleep in our 2nd spare room to ease the nerves. In the early morning hours, around 03h30, I kid you not a freaking rock was thrown through our window and we were so startled, we woke up screaming. We were now DONE and decided to go to my Mother’s office. On the way there, my Mother was on the phone with the police, and a friend on her defence team.
Once we reached her office, my Mother proceeded to explain to me, and jogged my memory, of that gangster’s threats. Broken windows were a check, but the bullet? Nobody in our school could’ve been part of his gang, they’re sophisticated individuals, such as myself. I told her about the figure walking towards the arch where I found the bullet, and me and my Mother fought over me leaving out information. My mother’s office as gigantic windows that take up most of the wall, and while waiting for my Mother to stop speaking to her friend, I saw someone outside the office, looking at our window.
Oh, at that moment I panicked. I told me Mother and her friend immediately, and my Mother looked outside the window. That man was still there, standing there like a f*cking mannequin. My Mother told me to go sit at her desk, and the next moment I knew what was going on. A “She Wants Revenge, She Got It” - type of situation where that gang was trying to harm us. Luckily, that man was apprehended as soon as the police had arrived. I felt so relieved, but also cried my eyes out.
My Mother told me everything was okay, and just yesterday, I found out that, that man gave up the whole gang in exchange for turning his 30 year sentence into a 10 year one.
That is my story on how my life was briefly put in danger, because my Mother is a bad*ss prosecutor. It is not as scary as other stories here, heck it is more inticing than truly terrifying but I wanted to share it here because that was me at my most horrific moments.