EXTRACT FOR
Enslave Me! - A Dark Fantasy
(Nicola Diaz)

	I stood in the cold, dim court-room, certain that I would find a way out of the mess that I had found myself in.  I had always been able to find my way out of troublesome situations, and I assumed that this time would be no different.  I watched patiently as my attorney shuffled through his paper-work, preparing for his final statement in the case.  I hoped that he would come up with the right words to express my innocence in the case.



	Bruce stood on the opposite side of the court-room, and I bristled very time I saw him turn and speak to his attorney.  I wanted to know what they were plotting against me, but it was impossible to hear what was being said.  I took a deep breath and decided that if my attorney did the best job he could, then there was nothing else that I could do.  I had to simply let the chips fall where they would, and accept whatever verdict that was given.  



	The judge slammed his gavel down in one final demanding order.  He had made up his mind, and for the crime of stealing Bruce's business idea, I would be dealt out a severe punishment.  It came as sort of a surprise.  I knew that Bruce was a wealthy business-man, and I knew that he had sold a lot of his business ideas to other clients for a hefty price.  Yet I wasn't expecting him to turn so severely on me for my wrongdoings.  Victorian England was not the place for punishments.  I had heard of people accepting harsh punishments, and I didn't want to be one of them.



My jaw dropped when I heard the judge's order.  Surely he wasn't serious.  I stood back, my hands folded in front of me, and hung down my head.  The order called for slavery.  It wasn't unusual for such an order to be created as a means for paying off student loan debt, or even for paying a fine.  Yet for stealing a business idea?  And one that wasn't even that unique, anyway?  I was both shocked and appalled.  My cunning and stealthy ways failed me this time, and I wasn't exactly sure how to react.  



The judge declared that in one hour, I would either have to scrape up enough money to pay back the expense of stealing Bruce's idea threefold, or I would be enslaved under Bruce's specific precepts.  They must have known that this would put me in an immovable situation.  I had nowhere near the amount of financial assets that they required, and I had nobody to procure them from, either.  I felt at once hopeless and frightened.