The streets of Arguan City of Philis were packed with people going on and about their busy day. Arguan was the metropolitan city of Philis, one of the largest and most powerful countries in the world.
Although one of the busiest and most crowded, Arguan had stayed as one of the most visited cities in the world due to its multitudinous number of tourist spots.
Juliette Ervings' eyes gleamed with excitement when she managed to drag her dad, John Ervings, one of the most famous and wealthiest businessmen in Maharlica, to go on a date with her.
The Ervings Enterprise was based in Gracia City of the Maharlican Kingdom, a ten-hour air trip from Arguan.
They were out on a business trip together but she somehow tricked her dad into a casual day out. As an only child, Juliette was already the apple of her parents’ eyes before she was even born. When her mother passed away, John Ervings doubled on the doting. So, Juliette grew up as a spoiled brat who always knew how to get her way.
There was nothing her dad wouldn’t give her, especially if she asked for it.
"Dad, you said you're going to give me a car if I come with you in Philis," she reminded.
"Darling, you have lots of cars. You don’t even use them anymore. What's the use of another new car?"
"But there's this sports car I really like. It's a new model and I wanna get my hands on it."
"Honey, it's really impractical and uneconomical to buy lots of things you don’t even use."
Her dad's statement made Juliette frown.
"It's not like I ask you for things all the time. Besides, I bought those things with my money." She sounded rude just as how she intended it to be.
She knew if she fretted over it, her dad would give in.
When John saw the frown on his daughter's face, he immediately tried to make it up to her.
"Alright, which car did you mean?"
When his dad bore defeat, Juliette giddily linked her arm with her dad's, who just smiled at her lovingly. She had been going on business trips with him as he's trying to make her learn their business to prep her when the time comes for her to take over their enterprise.
Before taking the stairs up to the skyway, Juliette turned to her dad. "We gotta take a picture here. This skyway is famous here."
Up in the skyway, when she looked down, she could see the speeding cars below and the sight blew Juliette's mind away. She’s above those cars. She’s standing above everyone who passed by.
She liked the empowerment it gave her.
The wind. The blinding sunlight. The scorching heat. The echoes of speeding cars. The sound of hustled paces of people. And the distinct smell of a busy city.
Most especially, her dad by her side.
It was perfect.
Juliette couldn't quite understand the uneasiness she felt deep down. The moment was perfect. But why did she feel uneasy?
'Maybe I'm just hungry,' she thought to herself.
John Ervings, on the other hand, stared at her daughter with a mysterious look, almost melancholic.
"What?" Juliette asked.
Her dad shook his head and took her hand. "I just find it fascinating how you resemble your mom so much."
"Do I?" She grinned and playfully looked at him. "If that's the case, you're such a lucky man, Mr. Ervings. You have such a beautiful wife."
John Ervings found her daughter's cockiness adorable. To him, everything she did was adorable. Even when she talked back at him.
"I definitely am," he replied while chuckling.
After taking lots of pictures together — with Juliette as the star and her father as the cameraman — they decided to go down the skyway.
"You never told me yet. Who is this business associate we are going to meet here?"
John was a bit flustered by his daughter's sudden question. Not because he didn't wanna tell her, but because he didn’t know if he could...
As they walked on the busy street sidewalk, Juliette noticed a man rapidly approaching them with a black bull cap that's been pulled down as if to purposely cover the man's face.
The man quickened his pace until he walked past them. Juliette tried to drag her father to her side to avoid the man, but she was too late. The hurrying stranger hit Mr. Ervings on his shoulder.
"Uh!" Mr. Ervings groaned due to the impact.
This irritated Juliette. "Hey!" She called the man.
When the man did not stop, she took off one of her heels and threw it at his head, and it hit the man right where she intended to hit him.
"I'm talking to you, bastard!"
The man, annoyed at her, turned around to face her. The man’s face looked harsh and dangerous.
"You hit my dad, you moron. Apologize this instant!"
Instead of apologizing, the man pulled his cap even lower to hide his face. This movement appeared dubious to Juliette. She took a step forward to get closer to the stranger.
But then…
Juliette's attention averted from the stranger when she heard a loud screeching sound of a car from the other side of the street. It was a black van. She saw the window go down a bit and something peeked from inside.
She wasn't sure what it was. She couldn't tell because it was from a distance.
Then she heard a loud bang.
People on the street immediately went into panic mode, screaming, yelling, trying to run away from the place. Cars started honking like crazy, speeding away from there.
It was chaotic. The sound of screams was dizzying. People started crossing the streets recklessly out of fright, stumbling and hitting each other unapologetically.
A gun was just shot.
The whole scene was confusing to Juliette.
'What just happened?' she asked inside her head.
She looked around to find the stranger who hit her dad. But he was no longer around.
Then she felt something wet touch her shoulder. She looked down at where it felt wet and it took her by surprise when she saw red paint on her shoulder.
"Dad, what is— dad!" She screamed when she saw blood gushing out from her dad's chest. Slowly, her dad lost balance and she managed to catch him and laid him on the ground.
"What is happening?" she muttered out of confusion. "Daddy!"
She pressed his wound to minimize the blood gushing out.
It became clear to her. The target was her dad.
"Who would do this to you?"
John tried to open his mouth to speak. But not a single word came out.
His suit shirt, white originally, became bloody red in color.
While one of her hands pressed the bullet wound, the other cupped her pockets to look for her phone to call for help. She didn’t have the luxury to cry or fret or panic. What her dad needed was medical help, not her tears.
Before she could dial help, her dad yanked her down to whisper into her ear.
Before completely losing consciousness, he managed to utter a single word.
"R-Run."
Juliette looked again on the other side of the street. The black van was still there. As if it was déjà vu, something peeked again from its window.
She could identify it now. The mouth of a sniper gun.
And her assumption was only solidified when a red laser landed on her arms. Then it traveled to her chest. She knew then that they're not just after her dad, but her life as well.
Juliette looked down on her unconscious father.
For now, she had to run.
At the exact moment the sniper went off, she rolled on the ground to dodge the bullet. Thanks to the laser of the gun, she could tell where the killer was pointing and might actually survive.
Although she managed to stay unscathed, the sniper didn't stop at one shot.
Adrenaline pumping, and survival instinct taking over, she stood up and sprinted. As she ran, the van chased her while aiming continuous gunshots at her.
She sprinted as fast as she could. However, her human legs couldn't compete with the vehicle wheels.
Due to the numbness her feet felt, she stumbled on the ground while running. This made her even more susceptible to the gunman.
She grazed her knees and palms. But at that moment, those wounds were trivial.
The bigger problem was to avoid the bullets from the gunman.
She crawled on the ground. She had to keep moving or else she would be an easy target.
Another loud bang.
The bullet flew right beside her ear. It was close enough that she felt the wind brought by the bullet's velocity fan her ear. If she moved even a bit, it would've grazed her skin. She got paralyzed facing the reality that her end was very near.
She knew right then that there's no way she could dodge the bullet if the sniper pulled the trigger again.
Juliette heard a loud bang again. And she waited for the bullet to pierce her body... But that didn't happen.
Amidst the chaos in the street, a large car blocked her from the sniper's view.
She didn't have the time to feel relieved or grateful because the car's door opened, and someone from inside was so quick to get out and yank her inside.
Juliette had no idea what's happening. All she knew was that she was now in a car with three suspicious yet handsome men.