A Mere Glitch?

It was a beautiful sunset scene as Brad walked into the Devitton Bar section of the club where he had one shot of his favourite drink- MacAnthony's Gin and Tonic.

He sighed right after and dropped the cup silently as he got up to head to the top of the building; the night club's dancefloor.

Brad was a real life 20 year old loser who couldn't leave the safety of his own house. He owed all the fun and sexual action in his life to this virtual reality that had become his reality.

Brad owned the latest of all gadgets. How else could he have been satisfied with being Google's VR Pixel's Innovative Director?

Brad had too many flaws, but his biggest of all was his indifference towards anything and everything that was outside of what he knew to be reality.

"Buzz!Buzz!!" Brad's Hologram device that was placed at the right end of his table buzzed repeatedly.

"What now?" Brad said with disgust and slight vexation as he paused his virtual reality game or life as it had come to be for him and stretched forth his hand to drop the Internet-connected luminous gloves which were synced to the VR system.

"Lexila, call Sheila back". Brad said in a much calmer tone as he rested his back on chair he sat in.

Sheila was Brad's mum and he was her only child. This wasn't uncommon. What was uncommon was that Sheila was still married to Byron, Brad's dad.

The divorce rate has scaled to 89 percent by 2099 and somehow, Brad's parents escaped that and made the 11 percent cut. Brad didn't seem to like this much as he and Byron never really got along before he left Massachusetts for Switzerland.

Byron was a billionaire and one of the few the world had to boast about. He owned Byron VR and AI, the company that was home to Lexila.

Brad was never keen on creating a connection with his dad, either biologically or in the technology interest they both shared and that explained his 'suck it' move to Switzerland to work with Google, Byron's arch rival.

"Hey, son. I missed you. How are you?" Sheila asked softly with love resonating in her pitch as she appeared on the mid-air Hologram.

"Mum, am I ever different? I'm always just here, breathing and doing what I do best, which is actually all I know how to do." Brad replied with noticeable contempt.

"You're doing just fine. Your dad, on the other hand isn't" Sheila continued.

"Mum, you didn't just call me for the fucktooth time to tell me to talk to him, did you?" Brad replied with an inflection in his husky angry voice.

"He has Alzheimer's..." Sheila barely finished as she broke into tears right after.

"I'm sorry, mum. I didn't know that. How bad is it?" Brad asked with compassion in his every words.

"He's losing us and it's really quick. Yesterday, he called me a stranger and nearly asked Lexila to put one through my head" Sheila said as she sniffled and wore what looked like a smile.

"Typical of dad. I'm sorry, mum. So, what do you want me to do?" Brad replied.

"I'd like for you to come home and spend a few days with us. I'd love that" Sheila said in a motherly tone.

"Okay. I'll leave Zurich first thing tomorrow morning." Brad replied with ease and this made Sheila smile.

A door behind Sheila opened and Sheila turned her head to look behind her.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" A deep elderly voice said in anger and shock.

Brad recognised that voice. That was Byron's, his dad's.

The Hologram in Sheila's room turned towards the scene of the room with Byron and Sheila in view.

"It's me, Byron. It's okay. It's Sheila, your wife." Sheila said gently as she got up to move closer to her husband who was wearing a face of beaming anger and flaming shock.

"Don't move any closer. Don't!" Byron shouted as she attempted to come closer to him.

"Byron, calm down. You're okay." Sheila said with a tear forming in her left eye and pity borne of love in her voice as she stood about 5 feet away from him.

Byron wasn't in any way pacified or finding this funny as he breathed hard and deep.

"Lexila, shoot this intruder, now!" Byron yelled to the Hologram fixed at the angled wall of this room.

"Byron, that's Sheila. Instruction declined" Lexila replied.

"Lexila, shoot this intruder.." Byron shouted again and this made Sheila to shiver, not in fear of being shot, but the person that her husband had become.

"Byron..." Lexila began talking before Byron angrily interrupted.

"Activate article 105 of the Self Defence protocol" Byron audaciously rushed the words with his eyes flaming with rage.

Lexila's compass had been overridden and she turned towards the fast-breathing Sheila and after what sounded like a gun being corked, a shot was fired.

Brad had been speaking over the Hologram all the while but this heated conversation didn't make it seem so.

Sheila dropped to the floor, with a snap to her neck as her head fell backwards with blood finding its way out alongside her body.

Byron didn't change his countenance as anger was still very much alive in him. His Alzheimer's had gotten the better of him.

"No. No! No!" Brad screamed over the Hologram and this grabbed Byron's attention who walked closer to the Hologram to see the crying voice that sounded familiar.

Byron was stuck and shocked to his spine as he saw his son whom he recognised. Byron wondered why Brad was crying profusely and yelling loudly, so he turned away to the floor in the midst of that thought and saw his wife's body lying dead on the floor.

"Oh! no. What have I done?" Byron said as he rushed to the ground to see his dead wife.

"Dad? Dad?" Brad said over the Hologram as the Hologram twitched and glitched for a moment.

Brad looked helpless and this face was the last he wore before the Hologram and all VR and energy powered systems in his house powered down.

This was a blackout and his backups weren't making that any different. There was a deafening silence of dread and grief and Brad held his breath as thoughts raced through his head.