Chapter 227: Rise of a Hero Part 6 (1/2)
The pawnshop had fully collapsed, bringing in a small crowd. Alton dragged Hannah from the wreckage carrying her on his back panting. Looking at the mess, he caused he groaned, wincing in pain. ”Shit, maybe I went a little overboard there?” As Alton was relaying the information to himself, Hannah began waking. ”Easy, easy. Take your time.”
Hannah glanced around, confused, still dazed. ”What? Where am I? I'm not dead?”
”Not yet, anyway? Can you stand it?”
”What?”
”I said, can you stand?” Alton said, slightly louder.
Hannah rubbed her eyes, coughing. ”Yeah, yeah, I think so.”
”Good.” He replied, putting her down. ”This has all gone to shit, hasn't it?”
Alton began walking through the crowd as Hannah cleared her throat, confused. ”You didn't kill me? Why?”
”Truth be told, I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. You remind me too much of that damn girl; it frustrates me. I would give you up to the Blight Father, but even that couldn't change my mind. I wanted to save you, so I stabbed him in the back and killed him.”
Hannah blinked serval times before pulling a face of disgust. ”Eh?! You just killed him? Just like that?! Poof dead? Seriously… Damn it, I tried killing that bastard twice and failed and here you are doing it on your first attempt. Hey, wait, I thought heroes don't kill.”
Alton scratched his neck, shrugging his shoulders. ”Yeah, well, I'm still working the whole hero business here… The question is now what? I took down the evil dictator and saved the girl; what more does Acceptance want from me.”
Standing in the crowd, the chatter all went silent for a short moment. Alton didn't even notice this until he saw serval of them staring at him. He didn't even know how to respond as a payphone rang, and each of the watching crowd simply pointed to the phone, not saying a word. Feeling a chill run down his spine, Alton approached the phone, staring wearily at it before answering. ”Did you honestly think you killed me, Alton?”
Alton's face went pale as his whole world shattered. ”That's not possible… I killed you.”
”Yes, you did.” The Blight Father replied with a playful tone. ”You really don't understand the situation you're in now, do you? I said I intended for my reach to be everywhere; I didn't mean ruling; I literally meant I am everywhere. Don't you see Alton, you've messed up big time now. You cannot run nor hide. We are everywhere; we are the bartender who served you that drink last night; we are your teachers and law enforcers. We are in your homes, your schools. We are Mortem, and we are the incarnation of death.”
The phone hung up as Alton dropped in, staring on with a blank look. Hannah walked, overlooking troubled. ”Who was that?”
”Are you well enough to walk? Run perhaps?”
”What's going on, Kurt?”
”Answer the damn question!”
Hannah jumped at this, nodding. ”I can.”
”Good. I want you to go back to the apartment… No, that's not safe anymore. Just get out of here. Skip town, anything you need to get out of here. I've fucked up big time now.”
One random civilian in the crowd latched onto Alton's shoulder, staring at him with a cold dead look with matching yellow eyes. ”You most certainly have Alton Brantley.”
Throwing them over his shoulder, more people from nowhere began attacking Alton, who quickly put down anyone else who ambushed him. Holding his waist in pain, he was pinned to the floor by serval people. Bashed and bulged, Alton phased through his attacks, blasting them all with a smoke bomb stumbling around before falling to his knees vomiting. Still seeing Hannah staring horrified, Alton waved his hand, gagging. ”What did I just say?! Run!”
”Why are you doing this for me? I'm just a villain.”
”You don't have to be…” Alton whispers, shaking at the legs. ”I know what you will become. So, you must go now!”