Inside of a typical American home, a young blonde girl clocked thirteen. The house was packed with children and adults as they sang a happy birthday song to her. She was overwhelmed with emotions as tears was dripping from her eyes.
"Now blow your candle Angel", the man in his thirties said with a smile as he held a small camera and recorded the event. The girl blew the candles on the cake, and there was cheering and clapping, which delighted her greatly.
The man approached the young girl and smiled fondly. "My angel, I cannot believe you have finally clocked thirteen, time flies fast. Just yesterday, I carried you as a baby, and now you are here celebrating your thirteen birthday.
"I made a gift to commemorate this occasion", the man said and handed her a small rectangular box. The girl took the gift and unwrapped it with expectancy. When she saw the content, she opened her eyes wide as she screamed in delight.
Angelica threw herself to her dad and hugged him tightly, causing the well-wishers to clap softly at such a beautiful scene. "Now you can flaunt with your friends about your latest iPhone 14", the man said with laughter. "I love you dad", the girl said, looking at her dad in admiration. "I love you too, angel. Now go enjoy yourself", the man said and watched her run to her friends with a smile.
"That's beautiful to watch, I wish I had a kid of my own", a voice said behind the man. The man, on hearing those words, suddenly changed his expression.
"I told you not to come to my house. Do you want me to kill you?" The man said in fury as soon as he was on the porch with the man. "Well, you would have saved yourself the trouble of seeing me if you had done your part well", the short man with receding hairline said robotically.
"Didn't I tell you I had this under control?" The man asked with the same flat tone. "Do you? The last time I checked, there were four dead bodies next to where you were, and the woman was gone. Tell me, is that how you want to tell others that that was under control?" The man glanced at the man, before looking at the flowers.
The man sighed and didn't continue the bantering. "Is there any update?" The man asked. The short man re-adjusted his glasses and opened a folder, which he then took out a paper and handed to the man.
"According to the autopsy, the bullet that killed those hired thugs were a military-grade bullet. The bullet had no identification, which was strange, but the experts said it was identified as a bullet made for a Semi-Automatic Desert Eagle gun. I have no idea as to how the shooter was able to kill these men at such a distance", the short man explained.
The middle-aged man looked at the paper that contained two pictures of a bloody bullet with some information regarding the corpses. "So you're telling me there is another party that we didn't know of that knows about the key?"
"Not necessarily. As much as you are right, it was also possible that the party was protecting the target. This is the footage of the cafe's security camera. It appeared it was this young man that was responsible for the murder", the short man said and handed the middle-aged man another paper.
The man looked at it for a moment, before handing the papers back to the short man. "So what's the plan?" The man asked. "No plan, just stick to the arrangement made by all of us. Fix this by finding and taking out the person obstructing this plan, please", the short man said and left the porch, leaving the middle-aged man standing, pondering.
Just then, Angelica approached him and held his hands. "Daddy, what are you doing here? I left a cake for you, you should try it", the girl said cheekily. The middle-aged man's hard face softened as he smiled. "Alright angel". The girl dragged him by his hands to the sitting room, where the party was going on.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
After what seemed like forever, Laura finally pulled over to a small ranch. She turned off the engine and hurried to the house next to the ranch before she realized she had company. She turned around to call Alec whom she thought was still inside the car but saw that he was already standing next to her, almost causing her a heart attack.
"What the hell Alex? Do you want to give me a heart attack?" Laura hollered angrily. Alex was the fake name he gave to Laura because it was similar to his real name. He was terrible at making up names, so he thought Alex would be the best name in this situation.
He didn't know why he made a fake name for himself when he knew these people wouldn't follow him back to reality, but caution was the key to everything though.
"Sorry. Where's your son?" Alec asked directly. "He's not here", Laura said while walking to the old house. "Why did you stop here then?" Alec wondered. "Because I need to say goodbye to my father, before leaving the country. I couldn't just go without his knowledge", Laura said.
What Laura said made him think. If Laura had a family in-game, does it mean that the system had given Alec a background too? In the last game, the only family member he knew of was Diego. He didn't have the time to ask the rest of the family because he was still getting used to this game at that time.
It was funny how those events seemed so distant in his mind.
"Where are we going?" Alec asked, but Laura stayed silent. It was obvious she didn't fully trust Alex, which was understandable. An old man wearing a cowboy hat and holding a long-ranged rifle came out of the entrance, and seeing Laura, he smiled and hugged her.
Then he saw Alec and immediately pointed his rifle at her. "No dad, drop the gun please", Laura begged frantically. "Why, was he giving you any trouble?" The old man asked with a texas accent while pointing the rifle to Alec.
"No, he's not. Please I can handle this, just drop the gun", Laura begged as she looke at Alec, who casually stood there without flinching. The old man slowly dropped his gun and looked at Laura. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going out of the country", Laura said. After going back and forth between father and daughter, they hugged again, and Laura headed to a small plane in the field.
"This is what we are using to fly out of the country?" Alec asked surprised. "Yeah. you know I can't use a commercial plane because these people can easily get the information and know where I am. For now, this is the safest way to travel", the woman said as she entered the plane.
"Do you know how to ride this thing?" Alec asked, before wishing he could take it back. The woman looked at Alec like he was stupid. Alec hopped into the passenger seat and wore the sound blocking headsets. Then the engine groaned to life, soon the propellers started to spin and the plane moved at top speed before it finally took off into the air and out of the ranch.