A crutch planted in front of the court, an arm covered with scars leaning against the desk, a mouth partially paralyzed at the microphone.
At the trial of the November 13 attacks, the “broken faces” of the Bataclan told this Thursday their “war” wounds.
"Do you want a chair to sit on?" », Asks the president of the special assize court. "I will take it if necessary but I want to testify standing," replied Amandine, who swings slightly on her crutch. “Everyone said it”, that evening in the concert hall, “the atmosphere was joyful”. Until the "firecrackers", begins the young woman of 38 years, long brown hair and floral dress.
"I saw people fall like dominoes."
She finds herself on the ground.
"I thought I had tripped but I had just been mown down in my turn by a burst of Kalashnikovs, without having felt anything."
His tibia is "exploded", a "gaping wound", his arm "in the same condition".
The light is brilliant.
Lying in the middle of the bodies "entangled over a meter high", Amandine tries to highlight her injuries.
So that those who "finish people off with a certain relish" believe her dead, she explains.
" It's not serious "
In the Bataclan pit with his partner, for only “two months”, Pierre-Sylvain has found military service reflexes.
The 54-year-old man immediately identified the "acrid" smell of the gunpowder, recognized the sound of the Kalashnikov, spotted the positioning of the shooters.
"We're screwed," he deduces.
It counts “one shot per second”.
Suddenly a spray of blood on her friend's head, then a second bullet.
“I thought my head was split open”.
He looks at his companion, the "horror".
"His whole nose had been torn off, his right eye had exploded."
“I told him 'it's okay'”.
Himself seriously injured in the eye, he managed to carry her out of the "mass grave".
They have both been operated on several times.
She "found a face".
The rest is "a long tunnel".
"She won't testify?"
», Inquires the court.
"She doesn't want to show off too much ... but she's here," he said, turning to the audience to give her a big smile, without anyone knowing where she is.
"All broken"
Gaëlle is 40 years old, she was operated on in August for the “40th” time.
“I hope I don't do the same count for my 60s,” she said.
Brunette, straight, she is elegant in her black pants and light top.
Her mouth seems to be partly anesthetized, her voice betraying her a little.
She asks the court to project "a photo of Mathieu".
A holiday memory, a radiant face appears on the screen.
His companion “had just celebrated his 37th birthday.
He was a separated dad, like me, ”she said, her voice shaking.
On the giant plan projected behind the courtyard, she shows where she was. “Mathieu grabbed me in his arms. We fell to the ground ”. "I saw an armed man, I understood". Gaëlle tells the rest without sparing anything. “My cheek was hanging down my neck. I swallowed the jagged teeth in my mouth because it made me cough and I was afraid of attracting the attention of the terrorists ”. The bone in his arm is "perpendicular" to the rest. Beside her, she thinks that "Mathieu plays the dead" like the others. She does the same. He will be one of the 90 deceased victims.
Gaëlle sees the “unreal scene” which then unfolds only intermittently. "I am draining of my blood, I feel myself leaving". The police officer of the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) who took her out of there told her much later that her face "had haunted her nights for several months". In the corridors of the hospital, the "oh my God" punctuate the passage of his stretcher. The next day, her surgeon takes a picture of her. "I wondered if it was necessary to project it here but the terrorists would have appreciated too much".
Years that follow, she lists the medical vocabulary learned by heart, evokes her son who "annoys insistent glances" on the "broken head" of his mother, his "pirate arm" covered with scars, the operations " every two to three months ”to give it back“ human face ”.
"It's endless".
“I have simple dreams,” she said in a broken voice.
“Biting into an apple, drinking my coffee without half dripping, kissing without being afraid of disgusting”.
"You are what we call a broken mouth," he had been told at the hospital.
"I am a victim of war between Bastille and République".
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