Chapter 148 Scandal
Arya walked into the hospital and bowed a bit to Erica, to which she responded with a slight nod. Hance and her however just stared at each other and Richard bowed to Hance too.s5 The entire hierarchy of the two kingdoms was explained with those small gestures.
"I am sorry we barged in,"Arya said. "We just got a call from our council members and they would want us to be with them as they do not trust you to protect us and neither do they trust your allegiance,"she said.
"Allegiance? Trust? What is going on?" Melissa asked.
She could sense that with the way she was speaking, she was trying to speak as officially as she could while screaming for help underneath. Their emotional disposition allowed her to understand that something was wrong. They generated insane fear from within them even though they decided to hide it on their face.
"I think you need to see this," Arya said, handing her phone to Erica.
Richard snatched it midway, glancing at both Hance and Arya with caution. He stepped away from Melissa then clicked the phone. He relaxed when he discovered it was indeed just a video. What if it had been something else? Melissa thought but just moved on as he handed her the video to watch.
Melissa glanced and she could see herself speaking to the camera, she furrowed her brows as she remembered the scene. It was the moment she'd caught a bullet on camera. The next video showed her using her Aura ability for the first time when fighting Hades. Then it flipped to the current happenings within the palace, when she had done the same thing.
After all these, a muffled voice then started to deliver a message. "Good evening, loyal wolves of the Dunham pack," it started. "What you have seen earlier are a series of videos captured by different cameras of the Luna of Dunham. You might have been familiar with the first tape, when she caught a bullet laced with wolfsbane, from an I-SQ 91 sniper with her bare hands." The person chuckled. "To the ordinary person, you might think it is normal, but I think not. The bullet released from an I-SQ 91 moves at supersonic speed. No wolf is that fast, except for the Luna," the video placed her on the front screen.
Melissa exhaled, she could sense the slander coming from a mile away. "You might not understand my purpose for making this video, and I apologize that I must remain anonymous for my own safety but the Luna of Dunham is not a werewolf. She is a witch!" The voice paused then several videos of her, from her past life played. There was one where she tripped from the stairs and at the time, Melissa had been embarrassed by the event.
Series of clips played, showing her fragile nature then the recorder spoke again. "Now! Let me ask you all one question. How does a girl, so fragile, so soft, turn into a monster overnight. A monster that exhibits two extremely different innate gifts?" He asked, then chuckled. "Simple, by making a deal with the Eclipse demon, a deal that made her a witch and we know the nature of witches. We know what they are, what they can do! I say purge the witch and let us be rid…" the video stopped.
Melissa glanced up. "What happened?" She asked.
"That seems to be where the palace's intelligence took over from the hacker," Hance said with a grumpy voice.
"Hacker?" Melissa Asked.
"As it would seem, the terrorist attack that had caused a lockdown caused a system reboot in your servers, at least, that was what your Beta told us, we don't understand it very much ourselves," she said.
Melissa frowned her face before she exhaled. She glanced up at Nathaniel and Rad. "Both of you…" she started but trailed off before turning to Arya. "Three of you, try to get this man back alive. I am on the premise that he has something vital to tell us," she said.
Melissa exhaled then gestured to Richard and Hance to follow her. She had too many things on her plate already, adding a public slander to it was just bad. She was still thinking on how to deal with the two prisoners currently resting in their dungeons underground. Bradshire and one other Oracle member. She also had the Vance pack council members and their vampires that had escaped during the whole thing.
She wanted to kick something as she could sense the incoming stress and she didn't like it at all. She turned to Richard. "What do you think?" She asked.
"Let's meet Magaret and Beatrice first, I am sure they'll have something,," he said. For the first time, Melissa could sense fatigue in his voice. He was tired and that was when he remembered he hadn't slept or rested throughout the entire night. He'd stood guard all through while she slept like a baby.
Coupled with that, she's been using his abilities like a taxi all day. She turned around and felt guilt chugging at her. "Okay," she forced herself to say as she started to walk briskly.
"Are you okay though?"Richard asked her.
"Definitely," she nodded, trying to clear her face but he kept staring at her, she smiled for a while before giving up. "I am just a bit guilty," she said.
Richard looked at her and nodded. "We will talk about it later. For now, I need you focused, " he smiled.
They got out of the hospital wing straight to Beatrice's room. She knocked once and the door opened from the inside. Beatrice and Margaret were waiting for her with a smile. "My lady," Beatrice smiled.
"Little girl," Margaret giggled.
They exchanged pleasantries for a while before Melissa brought the issue on ground. "Have you seen this video?" She asked and they both nodded.
"It has been the talk of the town," Margaret added.
"Well, what do we do, this is highly detrimental to us, we can't have mobs thinking I am a witch while protecting Hance, taking on his council and Oracle at the same time,"she said.
"Oh, it will actually work in our favor, "Margaret replied. "We figured out how to turn the tide of this with your greatest weapon."
"And what weapon is that?" Hance asked, unamused.
"The People's Love!' Beatrice grinned.