Chapter 179: The Cold Hard Truth (1/2)
Kurt grumbled cracking his knuckles, pushing the doors to the main computer room open. ”Alright, this better is worth it, I'm a man of very few free moments.”
An employee turned to him, looking slightly paranoid. ”Boss, you need to check this out.”
Kurt slouched down in his seat as the employees pulled up an archived stream that instantly gained his attention. ”The hell is this… The death of Alton Brantley.” Watching the exact title play out, Kurt stood up, shaking his head. ”This shit real?”
”Very likely. Do you want us to take the stream down?”
”How many times has it been viewed?” Kurt questioned lost in thought over the events playing out.
The employee shook his head spinning in his chair, facing Kurt. ”Almost one million in just a few hours. Thoughts?”
Kurt leaned forward, tapping his hand serval times on the desk. ”Leave it for now. Villains' Wrath, what do we have on them?”
”They are a fairly new group of streamers helm by their leader Crypto. That's all we really have, though. They were assigned to the prisoner to move a few days ago.”
”Who put through the request?!”
”Huh? Umm, this doesn't make any sense. It was Alton, sir.”
”Alton put a joint-stream request in for the group who would kill him? What was his goal here?”
”Should I ban the streamers?”
”What? No, no. Not yet, I want to see what's Villain's Wrath next move is and more importantly, just how will Team Rhapsody respond to the murder of their leader. Keep monitoring the feed and give me any updates as they come in.”
”Yes, sir.”
Kurt stepped outside into the corridor. His anger built up as he slammed the wall leaving a deep mark. ”Out of all the times, you kick the fucking bucket Brantley why now… You were our frontline for the Garden… If they were to appear tomorrow, could we win without you?”
****
Alice returned home withstanding the worst walk home she could possibly feel. She was now supposed empty and tired, unsure if anything she had just witnessed was real. Throwing her shoes off, she let out a baseless sigh which got Iris' attention. ”Afternoon sleepy head. How was the stream? I was meant to tune in but overslept again… I made coffee.”
”Alton's dead.”
Iris dropped the two mugs off coffee, smashing it over the floor. ”What?”
”Alton… He was killed by some streamers.” Iris looked down at the floor, unable to fully process everything that went through. Alice had blurted it, and with little emotion behind those words, even she didn't know how to respond. Taking her phone out, she wanted to see herself. ”Don't… You don't want to see.”
Iris ignored her sister's warning watching the execution as she stumbled back in shock, leaning against the wall. Tears began to form as she collapsed to the floor sobbing. Wiping her eyes, she looked up at her sister sniffing. ”Who are they?”
”The Alice doesn't know… A group of streamers known as Villain's Wrath.”
Iris shook her head. ”No, it's clearly fake—a lie for views. Alton isn't dead. He can't be.”
”Iris…”
Throwing her phone across the room, she yelled out sulking. ”Why didn't you save him? You could have… If I joined maybe… No.”
”The Alice is sorry.”
”Are you? You seem very calm by the whole situation Alice. Don't you care at all?”
”The Alice…” She stopped midsentence, looking down at her hand which hadn't stopped shaking since the sight. ”Doesn't feel anything? Does that make me… Am I a bad person for that? Do you hate the Alice for that?”
Iris stood up, bawling her eyes out, hugging her sister tightly. ”I don't hate you. I can never hate you no matter what Alice and you certainly not a bad person! People… People take grief differently, but that doesn't make you a bad person.”