Chapter 119: His Name Was Jack Larison
Alice Ward tapped her finger on the button that controlled her car door's lock, turning it on and off over again.
"Could you not do that?" Her husband asked, letting out a soft huff.
"Sorry." She didn't stop, giving a cheeky smirk that only seemed to irritate her husband more, his eye twitching with frustration.
Matthew Ward was a heavier fellow. He had given up on trying to stand out and instead became happy with his high-ranking position at the office where he worked. He was a higher-up in the Cleanup Squad, sending them out on various missions. He was even higher up than Mr. Moore, who most people agreed had the best Squad in any city. His hair was neatly combed, and he was clean-shaven, dressed in his finest suit.
By contrast, his wife was different. Alice was the kind of woman who wasn't satisfied with the position she held in the news industry. Nobody liked giving bad news. In a world like theirs, bad things happen all the time. Most people wanted to talk about the newest heroic event someone like the Victorian did. She had been the one to pull the short straw and get stuck with telling the world about every event that occurred. Good and bad.
She didn't have to worry about that tonight, though. There was nothing to report on at the moment. She could just be herself. She had ensured her skin was flawless, and her black hair had been up to fall down her back just the right way. Lastly, she wore her most expensive dress suit. All of this was done in some vague attempt to prove she and her husband were happy for Matthew's brother.
"Was Dean even at the event?" Alice sighed, brushing a strand of her hair back behind her ear.
Matthew's knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel, and his teeth began to grind together. "You didn't see him either, huh? How dare he not even show himself to his own family? I'm his older brother, for God's sake!"
"Calm down." She reached out, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "I'm sure he's just under a lot of stress. He did just become the head of Lillian's Hero Branch, after all." That's what the event they had gotten dressed up for had been. A party celebrating Lillian's new leader. One in which the person it was created for didn't bother to show up.
Dean Ward... He was Matthew's younger brother and the reason Matthew had pretty much given up. Dean was the kind of person who seemed destined for a stressed lifestyle. He had finished schooling five years earlier than he should have and started at the bottom of the Hero Branch, working all the way to a head position. The man wasn't satisfied, though. He wouldn't stop until he was at the very top of the food chain. A position that stood even above the Enforcers, one that could order even the mighty Victorian around and use her as some sort of puppet.
A world for humans created by humans.