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Prologue

There was a trail of blood smeared across the dark, dank alleyway trailing from the torn tissue of Mello's arm. Cursing profusely, his tone thick with anger and violence, the injured blonde raised his good hand to his shoulder, wincing as he applied pressure in an attempt to stop the bleeding. His hot, ruby blood--the only proof of his life--oozed through his pale fingers, dripping on his singed leather vest and splattering onto the tar that was spinning beneath him. Well, California was known for earthquakes, he reasoned to himself, justifying the sudden trembling in his vision. He was not fainting, absolutely not, he thought as the ground mysteriously grew closer and closer. No, he wasn't fainting. . . Nope. . . Not at all. . . Impossible. . . He wasn't fainting. . . He was not--

There was only darkness and silence.