A CLOSING STATEMENT IN DEFENSE OF THE NIGHTMARE
Your honor and members of the jury,
No victim willingly defends the crime. The perpetrator? Maybe. Ourselves? Often. But rarely the crime. Not when the crime is a direct violation of our autonomy.
Yet, this changes when the lines between the perpetrator and victim are blurred. When we take on all roles, the crime cannot exist without our active involvement in each aspect of the transgression. Therefore, if the defendant’s and victim’s perspectives can understand the special circumstances we’ve found ourselves in today, I plead with the prosecution to hear my case and try its best to do the same.
Take the action of descending into the darkest parts of our unconsciousness as my primary piece of evidence. My client’s fall into oblivion was nothing more than a consequence of fatigue, a common and harmless action. And their unexpected arrival in the eerie, unexplored corner of their subconscious was not deliberate. While we couldn’t map out the route they took during their hours in this cave, nor could we pinpoint the exact time of the crime, my client will be the first to admit that the odyssey was a disagreeable one.
Still, it was lonely.
During their lost time, they may have believed to have crossed familiar people and places, yet today, they have admitted to having been alone. My client fell in and was able to escape this world without involving any external actors. The information and explanations they found were not foreign but a piece of their own archive. Therefore, how can we prosecute my client who has not harmed, stolen, or trespassed?
While they may not have any recollection of the exact violation that took place, we can confirm that while my client was the only victim in this crime, they were also the sole culprit. A role that they take full responsibility for.
Yet, can we necessarily refer to this case as a crime?
The moments of harm my client faced were not intentional but merely the collateral damage necessary to uncover hidden truths. What the court would consider to be numerous offenses were simply returns to archeological sites and rare texts. The impacts of the crime ranged from abrupt awakenings to introspection.
While you may consider my evidence to be misleading, one could argue that no evidence exhibited in this case could be considered concrete. Not when the specifics of the crime have nearly escaped our minds.
So, I ask the court to consider what possible outcome could we expect if we applied notions of integrity and injustice to a case that defies logic?
Ingara Maidou, 18, Canada/Cote d’Ivoire ✯ IG: @ingara.m