Bang, bang. 

That was what most people thought how gunshots were suppose to sound like.

Unfortunately, real life and the ones you hear on TV are two relatively different things. 

The first time Julia heard a gunshot was when she was dragging her mother away from potential harm and it never sounded like a 'bang, bang.' It was more like firecrackers. 

Like her, they didn't see it coming. They saw over the news that the President had died but... They didn't expect a blown up war. 

She saw soldiers with their weapons and armour, she saw police men and women trying to citizens to safety, she saw fighter jets flying over head. But that was all she remembered before her mother tugged her away from the crowd. 

Julia was running for her life together with millions of people searching for safety. While some took refuge in shop lots, most of them were running, stumbling, pushing and tugging their way into the already pack streets of Seoul. 

The city as she knew it from then on was in utter chaos. 

She remembered her mother telling her to keep up and she was trying. She was scared and she remembered sniffing as she tried to calm her nerves. People all around her was screaming and pointing someone or something behind them. From the corner of her eye, she saw people were falling, screaming in agony and in terror.

Bang, bang. 

She always wondered why cartoon characters always said that gunshots go off with a 'bang.' There was nothing gong like loud about a gun shot. Even an explosion from a grenade didn't go off with a 'bang'. It was more off a 'boom.'

Somwhere along the line of running, she was thrown forward and she let gof off her mother's hand. She could sense the panic from her mother and the frantic calls to her brother but to no avail. 

Inevitably and frantically, she turned around to get her mother who could have been trampled to death by the stampede of people. 

She remembered calling her, she remembered pushing her away frightened and angry people. She was too busy searching for her mother that she didn't heed the warning from her fellow country men. Julia missed the panic striken and the blood on their faces, the dead piling up beneath her feet as she pushed her way through.

She missed it all and she was sure, she saw Death right in the eye on that day. 

Julia found her mother on the ground and a few feet away was this silver monster, flashing its fangs that was stained with fresh, dripping blood. It was hunched and its muscles were flexed, ready to pounce on her mother who was incapble of moinvg. 

She remembred shouting at her mother to get up and then she saw that her mother was trapped in between a few bodies. She remembered asking her mother to push her way out but she realized her mother was petrified with fear and she wasn't sure what to do first: to scream or to get out. 

Bang, bang. 

Shouting, screaming, asking for help that day was beyond pointless. It was every man for him or herself. No one would want to help you if they know you're going to endanger their lives anyway. They wouldn't want to take that risk. She tried to run as fast as she could to her mother but with the sea of people, it was becoming difficult and she was being swallowed and pushed backwards.

Bang, bang.

Julia was sure that time stood still or she was stuck in time for that brief moment.

It was fast. The Creature that was the devil incarnate itself raised its taloons and struck her mother with one swift movement. 

All Julia saw was red after that. She didn't even remember grabbing the pistol, she didn't even remember firing at it and when it finally collapse in front of her, she too dropped the empty metal casing and stumbled backwards. Her breathing was laboured and all the adrenaline rush from firing the gun had left her. 

She turned around to find her mother all covered in blood, her eyes showed no signs of life and it made Julia's heart clenched. She feebily walked back to her dead mother's body and hugged her, spilling words of forgiveness and 'I love yous' as if she could still hear her.

---

She swore she heard the gun shot.

She swore she would be hit first and Myungsoo would finish her brother off.

But, the bullet didn't penetrate her flesh. She didn't feel the pain that came along with it. 

Maybe she imagined it. 

Maybe due to the fear and excitement of finding her brother, she had imagined Myungsoo firing at them. 

Maybe...

Julia opened her eyes, expecting to meet Myungsoo's gaze but instead, she was greeted by a blinding white light. She blinked a few times, her eyes trying to adjust to the sudden flash of light and when she did, Myungsoo was gone and so was her brother. 

Instead, she was surrounded by a room of mirrors. 

"No, no." she said, her head turning to find a way out of the room. "Where's Myungie? Where's Hoya?" she asked, her fingers raking her head. None of it was