Prologue: Prometheus

Another day, another opportunity. Prometheus takes each day as new progress towards his goal, to find and identify his father whom his own mother won't even tell him about. It's been years, with each passing year, he forgets his father's features even more. The appearance of the man that once raised him in his early childhood has been replaced by an unrecognizable figure. Regardless of the amount of reminiscing and recalling Prometheus attempts, nothing seems to trigger anything in his buried memories.

But that all changes today, and hopefully his old man won't mind all the misplaced and disarranged documents of the old office hidden from his then-wife and son. Prometheus found himself intrigued by markings on the floor of their basement. It looked as if a door once existed where the markings lie. He let his curiosity get the best of him and pushed the shelf out of the way, revealing exactly what he suspected, a door. Ruined by the passing of time and bugs, the door falls off its hinges and onto the floor, The bang was loud enough to alert his mother, Romina, who was currently preparing dinner for the both of them.

"Theo?? What was that? What are you doing down there?" asks his concerned mother. He had to think fast as to not worry her any further. He knows he would get a scolding if she ever came down to the basement and saw the discovered room.

"Nothing mom! I just accidentally caused something to fall! I'll clean it up, don't worry!" Prometheus nearly stumbled over his words, having to lie to his own mother for his own benefit. It had to be done. If she finds out about the room that could have been his father's, she would have it locked away in an instant and have Prometheus banned from ever going down to the basement ever again.

After convincing his mother with his white lie, he began to investigate the decrepit office. The wallpaper has peeled off or is about to separate itself from the wall, furniture looks unstable possibly from being eaten by termites, and each step he takes is accompanied by the loose floorboards. Wanting to leave the pungent room as quickly as possible, Prometheus searches through all the cabinets and drawers for anything of note. Some were filled with wet and ruined papers, others were completely empty. He was about to give up and leave before he stepped on a book. It looked to be a journal, maybe his father's. Without any time to spare, he grabbed the book and ran out of the room, returning it to its original state with the shelf covering the entrance.

Prometheus hasn't said anything about the room to his mother that day. He also began reading that old journal he found. It contained entries, logs, and pictures of numerous people with some having X marks on them. These all belonged to someone who goes by 'Peter'. Could this be his father? The name doesn't ring a bell. Maybe it isn't him. But this was found in his own house, so it must have some sort of connection to his father. The journal didn't seem to interest Prometheus as much because he could not understand what it all meant, but one thing did catch his eye. There was one picture, a picture of a woman with medium length black hair, crimson red eyes, and a red off-shoulder dress. It had not been marked with an X but it had something written on the back.

"Rose Thorne, Ciel de Sanguine" is written neatly on the back of the picture. If he could find this woman, he might be able to learn more about this 'Peter' guy. And so, he began his search. He had to look into the woman's profile deeper because he couldn't find much about her just on the surface level of the ice berg. No results appeared for 'Rose Thorne' on the national citizenship registry. Maybe the name was just an alias, so he did a reverse image search. Unfortunately, not even a single match. Prometheus almost lost hope from looking through a bunch of red herrings until he remembered about one more clue, Ciel de Sanguine. With one more search and a push of a button, he was greeted with... nothing.

Prometheus was frustrated, thinking he did all that for nothing. He hated getting stuck at a road block. He could not bear to accept that things just end without any opportunity to change. Had he not known any better, he would've gone into a blind rage. But thankfully, he only decided to slam his table with his fist. For some reason, that was the key to gaining an answer. A notification appeared on his monitor right after he slammed the table. It looked strange, suspicious even. It looked out of place, like it could be a virus. In days like these, getting random pop ups caused by a cyber attack weren't so uncommon, yet something about this one rubbed Prometheus off in the wrong way. He let curiosity get the best of him and examined the seemingly pulsating window in the middle of his screen. It had an icon of an envelope, indicating a message or letter. When opened, the window expanded to the size that fits the whole letter addressed to Prometheus himself.

It reads:

"To Prometheus,

You seem to be having trouble on your search for this woman. Allow me to aid you on your journey, you need not to repay me, for time will tell. Time will tell when our fated meeting will commence.

Signed, The Prophet."

Attached to the letter was the address of Ciel de Sanguine, which was a bar hidden somewhere in the red light district of the city, and a schedule of the woman's appearance in the establishment. Prometheus couldn't comprehend what had just happened, was he being stalked? Why was it so convenient that he had been given answers when he couldn't get them himself? And just who was this "Prophet" guy and how did he know his name? From the looks of it, they weren't hostile in their words and actions, and he didn't really have the luxury of time to be pondering more over on the identity of a new character. He got what he searched for, it's time for preparation. He marked a three-day deadline for him to get himself ready. Hopefully it will all be worth the trouble.

The days have passed, and it's finally time to head out. Everything was carefully planned from leaving the house without letting his mother know to preparing a will in case he won't make it back. The will may have been exaggerated but he felt a bad feeling in his gut. It never hurt to be too prepared right?

The clock struck at the eleventh hour in the night, the household completely dead silent, his mother deep in sleep in her bedroom. Prometheus quickly got up from his bed, put on his disguise and grabbed his stuff, ready to leave out through the window. He couldn't walk out through the front door without passing by his mother's bedroom which was located by the stairs, so the window was his next best option. He jumped out quietly and closed the window behind him. It felt wrong for him to be sneaking out, as he has never done so before and yet he seems to be a natural at it. After reaching the bus stop and waiting for a bus to take him to the city, he carefully took his time to follow the directions of his GPS to locate the bar. The bar was residing under another building which was vacant except for the top floor room.

Prometheus took a deep breath and entered the bar's entrance. Surprised to see that it hardly had security out by the entrance, his bad gut feeling started affecting him and his confidence again, but he couldn't back down now. The bar stank of the aroma of numerous strong wines and alcohols, which was honestly making him very dizzy, forcing him to hold in his breath. Accompanying the stench was the loud and unhinged chatter from the bar's patrons, most composed of middle aged men in suits, while some were young adults with their lovers. Skillfully avoiding the customers without bringing much attention to himself, he managed to reach the counter where he meets with a peculiar bartender.

The man he saw had no face, tall, black hair, and a neat uniform. On his vest was a name pin which read "Rosario Caedis, Head Bartender." Must be his lucky day to be meeting with the HEAD bartender of the bar, yet he still seems to fear him as the uncanny man with no face. He attempts to get over his fear and begins to ask,

"Uh- Excuse me, sir, but do you know where I can find Miss Thorne?" Prometheus trembles a little as the bartender stares at him this whole time. The man did not reply, and continued to stare as he cleans his tall glasses. Hesitant, he asks again, this time a little louder. Except he gets interrupted by a knife pointed to his chin from his left side which gives him a shock. He slowly turns his head to see a black fashionable sun hat covering the whole head of the short woman who wore a black suit and coat. She slowly looked up at him, revealing her pale face and crimson red eyes. She had long black hair, which just completed the look of being dressed as a shadow in the night. She was carefully examining his terrified face before deeming him harmless and putting her knife away.

"Who are you?" She asked so casually after bluntly pointing a knife at his face. "I implore you to answer quickly before I interpret your sudden visit to be something else."

"My name is Prometheus, and I'm on a mission to meet with a woman named Rose Thorne."

"Hmph... A bold one, you are. You don't look like you could put up a fight. Follow me, I'll take you to her."

How odd, he thought to himself. He was completely convinced that it wouldn't be this easy to get to the woman he was looking for. They both walk down the silent hallway past the bustling lobby of the bar. This area seems to be private meeting areas reserved by some big names considering how soundproof the walls are. Continuing down the hall, the woman opened a door showing a flight of stairs heading up to the building above. It took two flights to reach the top floor, which led to a floor that looked abandoned though it was only horribly preserved by the resident that lived here. They entered the room on the left, upon entering the room everything seemed to go darker as the door slowly closed behind them. Before Prometheus could say anything about it, he was suddenly attacked from behind, an arm hugging around him and restraining his arms in place and a hand roughly placed firmly over his mouth. He began to struggle as much as he could, but couldn't even move an inch. The lights were finally turned on, revealing numerous people in the room holding blunt weapons like pipes and bats. Fear consumed Prometheus and all his sense of resistance disappeared. He felt like he could die, and he probably will. His eyes quickly went searching for the woman that he followed, only to find her slumped over a man's shoulder, unconscious. The men started conversing with one another, talking about ransom. This can't be happening right now. Prometheus didn't know what to do, he couldn't think well under pressure. They were all getting ready to move out until the lights started flickering and gave out for a few seconds. Prometheus could feel the grip around him weaken, and suddenly he's free from his captor's grasp. The lights came back on, nothing seemed to change. He turned to look at the man who was holding him captive only to see nothing there. From the corner of his eye, he could see something on the floor. He looks down and just sees a pool of blood and a cleanly dismembered body. This shocked him to the point where he fell over, legs weak and trembling. He hears the sound of dropped items from behind him, the rest of the intruders have also been dismembered, soaked in the mixed blood pool. He couldn't understand what had just happened because it all just happened so quickly. After regaining the strength to get up, he can hear footsteps coming towards him.

"You're a lot braver than I thought. I was expecting you to scream and that I'd have to kill you as well," the woman had giggled despite being covered in a few blood stains and pieces of skin. "Sorry if I scared you. I don't have control over what *it* wants to do while I'm unconscious."

"W-What is that supposed to mean?" He tried not to stutter but ultimately failed.

"You don't want to know." She says this sternly. She also brings her hand out forward for a handshake, "Name's Rose. Rose Thorne. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

"You're Rose?"

"Is it that hard to believe?"

"Not at all, I just... You looked different from your picture..."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing! Forget what I said.."

After getting to know each other in the most gruesome way possible, Prometheus may finally officially begin his search for his father. But based on what he experienced tonight, would it really be that easy?