It was a shinning, beautiful day at TOVN when Raf skipped through the gym, meeting up with his best friends, Ritchie, Ian, Todd, Tod- Adam punched Raf in the stomach, who in turn kicked Chris in the skull, who in turn slapped Rob into the floor, who in turn flicked Jenica's forehead, who in turn jabbed Leah in the lungs, who in turn screamed loudly and hurt Hanna's ears, who accidentally elbowed Katie in the leg, causing her to fall onto Brendan, who threw down his lunch and walked away angrily.

Adam smiled as he patted Raf on the head and stared getting back up, "Good noon, Raf."

"Why do we have to do this during every lunch period again?" asked Raf as he pushed Adam back to the ground

"It's because you're always late, dummy!" remarked Hanna as she opened her lunch

"We need to all stop fighting so much!" complained Katie, "its not healthy for the group's wellbeing…or for our actual physical wellbeing."

Chris shook some yogurt out of his hair and onto Leah, causing her to palm strike his arm in annoyance. He stared blankly at the floor before speaking.

"So is this supposed to be some kind of shitty prequel or something? I really don't want to do this. And where's Pete?"

A secluded laboratory somewhere in Europe…

Pete turned his attention from his new project and looked out at the ocean, longing to return to America and wreak havoc. He shrugged and continued working on the blueprints for his newest and greatest invention: the inter-dimensional portal device. He grinned as he looked at the seventeen million dollar check from the customer that requested the creation of the device. In the background, his Koala assassin assistant walked in, holding a very long sheet of paper that dragged on the floor behind him.

"Pete-sama?" asked Steve the Koala as he glanced up from the paper, "Do you want to add 'Laser proof' to the list of security measures that will be emplaced on your research facility in Raccoon City?"

Pete cocked his head in thought, "How much will it cost?"

"I'm figuring around seventy-thousand."

"Nah. Why would we even need something like that?" He turned back to his work before pondering to himself, "I feel that I'm going to regret that…"

Back at TOVN

"Well I'm sorry that we couldn't come to your…what did you call it?" Katie stopped to try and remember the place Chris had requested they hang out at, "Stone Brook?"

"River Rock." Corrected Chris, "Can you guys at least make it this weekend?"

"Me and Chris might have a certain visit to make to a certain person at a certain place at a certain time." Said Adam slowly, as if the words were foreign to him

"A date?" questioned Leah curiously, "I didn't think that anyone would ever go for either of you! And at the same time too?"

"Thanks…but it's not really a date." Adam said quickly, "We just need to harvest some more parts."

"W-what do you mean…parts?" she asked, eyes huge and watery

"He means human organs and/or limbs." Said Chris, "It's for our joint effort to end global warming. I swear."

Raf laughed heartily as Brendan sat back down, "You really seem to be in a bad mood, man."

Brendan shook his head and glared at Raf, "If you had any idea what I've had to go through over the past week you'd… well, you'd be dead!"

Raf laughed again, "I like how you always seem angry or upset about something, Brendan, it really makes you stand out in a group!"

Brendan threw his hands around Raf's neck, "I'm a gigantic footballer who could crush a steam engine with his pinky! I already stand out enough!"

Jenica spoke up suddenly, "I can come to River Rock on Saturday, Chris."

"Yeah," agreed Brendan, "I can clear my schedule for Saturday, what about you Raf?"

"GGGWWAAHHHHHH!"

"He can make it."

Adam threw his apple across the gym, just missing a garbage can, "I'm free on Saturday too, but Sunday…"

"We get it; you're dissecting some poor girl with a rusty carving knife." Said Rob, making his first line in the story, "I can make it too, I never do anything much on Saturdays anyway."

"I'm good."

"Me too!"

"Hell yeah!"

Everyone, for once, was free to hang out. Chris clapped his hands together and smiled horribly, "Perfect…yes…perfect…"

Hanna stopped eating and looked at Chris questioningly, "Are you…plotting something?"

Chris's smiled faded quickly and he shoved a Twix bar into his maw.

Hanna tugged Chris's hair, "What are you doing?"

"Chewing it over with Twix." Explained Chris as he gnawed on the candy

One day later…

Rob and Raf sprinted through the dark forest, the branches twisting out at them like cruel knives. They panted, glancing behind them to check if it was still chasing them. Raf tripped on a root and Rob kept on running for a few moments, not noticing that Raf was gone. He stopped and looked at Raf, who was clutching his knee like a child who fell from his bike.

"Ow!" he yelled in agony, "That's my KNEE!"

"Get over it!" yelled Rob as he helped Raf to his feet and they both started running again

Behind them, shuffling, erratic footsteps followed, gaining speed every second. Raf looked over his shoulder to check on how far away the Gatherer was. It flicked his head as he turned around before letting out a horrible cry and backhanding Raf into a tree. His back smashed into the tree, sending broken bark out behind him and sticking gooey sap onto his jacket. Raf immediately clutched at his knee.

"Damn it! That's my knee man!" he cried out as the Gatherer shuffled past him, knowing that this time Raf's knee really was shattered. It suddenly stopped, searching for Rob, who had seemingly disappeared among the slowly falling pine needles. The Gatherer started pacing around, seeing to its search mode, randomly exploring the area for its missing prey. The Gatherer sensed something hard collide with its head, but there was no pain. It turned around, intent on fulfilling its purpose of capturing both its targets. Then the second rock smashed through its already useless lower jaw, sending rotten teeth and a large flap of atrophied muscle to the forest floor. The Gatherer was pushed back, and fell over a tree branch that Raf quickly shoved under its legs.

"You saved me!" said Raf with an eerily childlike laugh, "Thank y-"

"Get up, you idiot!" said Rob hurriedly, "It's getting back up!"

The Gatherer had already gotten back up to its knees, and was pushing itself back up to continue the hunt. Its orders were to capture the prey and return, no matter the cost. A clear liquid dripped from the torn stitches on its Frankenstein-esque chest, it reached one of its soggy hands down and held the tear closed while staggering towards Raf and Rob.

"That's its weakness." Said Raf as he pointed at the tear, "If we can get at that tear, its guts'll spill out!"

"Gross." Remarked Rob, "But it may be our only option – Find a sturdy branch!"

Raf turned to his left and spied a convenient pile of sticks. He leapt into it as if he were diving into a pool. Then he almost teleported out of the pile and stood next to it, picking up each stick and running its length through his hand, closely inspecting each one for imperfections.

"That the hell're you doing?" remarked Rob as the Gatherer behind him flopped onto the grassy ground and rolled about in coughing laughter

"Looking for a professional stick." Explained Raf, "Why do you ask?"

This is really not the time to be an idiot, Raf!" yelled Rob as he tried to kick the Gatherer off of his leg

Finally Raf found a stick that he thought 'professional' and jammed it into the Gatherer with surprising strength. With a twist and a jerk, the Gatherer's gut spilt out onto grass. It convulsed for a moment before it settled and died with a relaxed belch that slipped out of its bleeding maw.

"Gee, that was close!" said Raf as he sat down onto the dead Gatherer, "What is this thing anyway?"

Rob landed on the grass with a crunch of dead leaves. He looked up solemnly at Raf.

"It was a Gatherer." He explained, "A servant of Alexander, Lord of castle Brennenburg. He uses them to collect people to be tortured and killed, in order to extract something from us known as Vitae. Alexander himself is not of our world, rather, an alien being with strange, arcane powers. It seems that River Rock connected us somehow to the Amnesia world. Or, perhaps, it was already a part of our world and we just didn't know it. Either way, we need to find the others quickly, or we condemn them to a long and painful death. You follow all this, Raf?"

Raf looked up from the Gatherer's corpse, "So you're saying that we need to take up the legendary whip, the Vampire Killer, and travel throughout the land to the towns of Jova, Veros, Aljiba, Aldora, Oldon, Fetra, and Ghulash to liberate the people and seek help from them as we search for Count Dracula's body parts which have been hidden in five different dark manors throughout the land?"

Rob's jaw dropped and he face palmed, "Castlevania II: Simon's quest."

"What?"

"You just explained the story of the second Castlevania game."

"Weird, I thought I was explaining the plot of Lost."

"You know, you probably did that too."