Prologue - How The Hell Did He End Up Here?

Ragna's brow furrowed from suspicion. The person was dressed in a casual clothing consisting of a red cotton hoodie with a black shirt underneath, dark blue denim pants, and plain white rubber shoes. Despite her generic appearance, the man still felt doubts that he was being deceived. No way in hell would he believe in her unbelievable speech. "Are you sure you're not telling some bad jokes to get something from me?"

The stranger flashed a wide grin as she proudly took out an item from her chest pocket. "No worries, Ragna The Bloodedge, certain to know your companion's location... with the help of this device!"

The grandfather clock was the only sound on the library room. Inside of the room was two people that were busy browsing a collection of dusty abandoned books. The man, with spiky white hair and a gruff outlook, was giving a boost to a young woman with long, blond hair tied in twin pigtails. The said woman happened to have an idea about reading an old book that may give them some entertainment they need, because there was no other options for them to do. The man lacked interests in reading a book, but if it would somehow lighten up the mood, he obliged. And here they were, finding a rare book to read. Ragna wanted to complain about how his shoulders ache right now, but he rather endure it than do so. Rachel was one scary bitch. One severe insult directed toward her, you might not be able to meet the day tomorrow.

His pain would be finally over soon as Rachel lightly tapped his right shoulder using her right foot. "Ragna, I'm able to find a rather odd book for us to read. You can now help me get down and rest your shoulders."

Ah, thank heavens! He honestly thought his shoulders would break if he indeed endured longer. "Okay, just," Tch. The complicated step of bringing her down. How he wished she would not pull his hair hard again. "Just please don't mess my hair again!"

Carefully grabbing a fistful of white hair as a way to balance herself, she slowly crouched down while holding the book, as Ragna did the same, but rather more slowly. After a few moments, the woman was finally on the ground, with the man swinging his arms to lessen the pain. She was aware that the dust could get in her dress, but she didn't mind for today. Valkenhayn would rid of it as he do his washing duties tomorrow. Wiping the front cover of the book using her hand, she saw no sign of title on it. Strange. It was a plain black book. There was no text written on it.

"What did you find?" Ragna took a look at the book, raising his suspicion at the cover. "Why the hell is there nothing on it?"

All Rachel could reply was a reluctant shake of her head. She honestly had no knowledge about this book, and the way it was set up with a simple black leather cover oozed mystery. She stared at Ragna, determined to open the book with him. "Well then, shall we find out?"

The man nodded firmly. "Of course. No point in staring at it all day long."

The woman flipped the cover open to see an empty, decaying page. Ragna heaved out a heavy sigh. He had a feeling this was supposed to be a journal of some sort, but the owner was unable to write something. Rachel continued to flipped one page to another until she saw something on it. The man scanned the sketch of the book. The drawing depicted a blueprints of an area, or something. There were many texts containing details about a certain part of the sketch, but it was unreadable due to the fading ink. By the way it was made, he assumed it was some sort of a report for something.

"Must be something important. It looks like a report of a certain area." Peering at this one really tested his wits.

"I see you're not as dumb as I thought you would be." A mischievous smirk curved on her lips as she gazed directly at the man. She earned an annoyed growl and a leer as a prize. She could feel his smoldering anger toward her, but she paid no mind as she flipped another page on the book. The back of the page was blank. The owner must be very strict on writing, or was an artist of some kind. The adjacent page was filled with paragraphs that were close to be unreadable. Rachel tried her hardest to analyze every single word written on it, managing to read the sentence on the center.

"Behind... every corner... Around... every... door..." Rachel rapidly blinked her eyelids to refocus her sight. "Deep... in... every window... Te... rror waits...?"

Ragna rose his eyebrow. "What the hell does that even mean?"

The woman shook her head. "I cannot even answer your question." She traced her finger on the words as she recited the sentence again. "Behind every corner. Around every door. Deep in every window. Terror waits."

"Tch, must be a shitty written poem." Ragna crossed his arms as he watched Rachel scanned the rest of the pages. They were either blank, unreadable or hard-to-identify sketches. He felt like this was a waste of time. "Hey rabbit, maybe we should call it a day? Nothing beats sleep when you had nothing good to do."

"It would be a wise decision to do right now." Rachel closed the book and handed it to Ragna. "You will hold onto this book for now, as I will call Valkenhayn to prepare dinner for us."

Ragna opened his eyes to see himself not on the guest room. Where the hell was he? His head was throbbing like a boiling shit inside a plastic pot. The area he was currently in was dimmed that he could barely made out anything. And it smelled so bad he wondered how the hell he could survived it while unconscious. Ah, whatever. Was he standing up already? Now it was not making sense now. He recalled lying down on the bed with the book on the nightstand, as Rachel was still on the bathroom. Eh, no point in reminiscing in this shit hole, he needed to get a move on.

He trudged forward, unsure whether to turn in either direction or only forward. He chose to do the latter, as the area was becoming more brighter each few steps he took. Few more steps forward, he stopped his tracks as a figure was coming to his direction. Ragna could not see the figure's face due his hood blocking his face. He stopped to face the man, revealing that he was a woman.

Ragna let out a grim scowl. "Who the hell are you?"

The woman removed her hood, her long, chestnut brown hair was neatly tied in a ponytail. Her rich brown eyes gazed directly at his red and green eyes, as she let out a small smirk. "Name's Ace Thompson. Nice to meet you, Ragna The Bloodedge."

His heart skipped a beat upon hearing his name. How the hell did this woman knew his name? Was she a member of the NOL? Or Sector Seven? He leered toward her. He was having a hunch that this woman was dangerous.

Being able to read a person's expression, Ace raised her hands in a defensive manner. "No need to be alarmed. Look, you must listen to me."

"And why should I do it?"

The woman placed both of her hands on her hips, her smirk resurfaced on her lips. "I know where Rachel Alucard is right now."

A/N: This is going to be my bizarre story that I'd ever written. Beware of insane events as this story progresses. Hope you all stay tuned.

Update as of 30/11/15: Little tweaks on the sentences from here and there. As of the new title, this is Volume I of this gimmicky series. It means that there will be more than two volumes, that I don't feel like making a sequel, because I have to rework the title of this one again and that is a chore to do. Instead, I'll make a volume series on this story alone so I can continue what I originally planned as I add more plot twists on the things I was planning to do before I ended up on a Hiatus.

Update as of 17/03/18: Look who's about to keep the ball rolling. As I'm getting back in here to add some miscellaneous information, Twist of Plate is being updated. Stay tuned!

The quote "Behind every corner... Around every door... Deep in every window... Terror waits..." is a quote coming from the the game Resident Evil: Outbreak series.