Hey guys, welcome to another new fic. Tyler is joining me again for this one and came up with the concept. It might be a little confusing at first, but it'll slowly get clearer as we go. That's the plan anyway. So yeah, let's see how this goes.

Prologue: Scratching the Surface

Blackwell Academy's campus grounds were empty, save for a few rebellious students daring enough to skip class. Inside, the hallways were deathly silent, like the ghost town of Arcadia Bay itself. That eerie peace wouldn't last too much longer now. It was nearing the end of the day, students restlessly watching the seconds tick by in their respective classrooms, getting ever closer to their freedom. Such a student was Rachel Amber. Her last class of the day was photography with Mark Jefferson. She had never come across someone who liked the sound of their own voice as much as he did, nor someone so cringey. His whole 'down with the kids' act could get pretty embarrassing at times.

Most had switched off by now, too close to the end of class to care. Others had been asleep soon after the class started. There were a few eager students such as Stella, Kate and Victoria… although she was probably paying attention for all the wrong reasons. To suck up. Bored of Mr. Jefferson's droning lecture, Rachel sighed softly and turned her attentions elsewhere. Outside. Lost in thought, she stared out over the campus grounds, letting her mind wander as she often did.

Over the past couple of weeks in particular, she had started to notice some… very subtle yet strange things. Things that just felt like they shouldn't be there. Or maybe that they should be there, but didn't fit for some reason or another. It was difficult to explain why, but she couldn't shake the feeling. The strangest of all being that nobody else seemed to pick up on them… or if they did, they were subconsciously ignoring their existence. Even when she had pointed them out to people like Chloe, she hadn't given a helpful insight nor did she seem keen to discuss them, passing them off as insignificant anomalies. All the more reason to find them intriguing.

Arcadia Bay had always been mysterious, moreso now than ever. The sleepy, secluded town clouded in mystic culture and tales, or maybe drowning in them was more apt. If you looked hard enough, there even seemed to be some thin thread of connectivity. Then again, anything could interconnect if you tried hard enough. Still, coincidence could only carry you so far.

Maybe she was overthinking it, but she didn't think so.

Soon enough, the bell rang to signal the end of class. All of them began packing up, eager to escape school for the day. That didn't seem to stop Mr. Jefferson from talking over the noise right up until the very end, though. As expected, Victoria stuck to him like glue the second she could. She always did. Better than her starting a fight at least. Eager to get the hell out before she had the chance, Rachel shoved her belongings in her bag, slung it over her shoulder and made a beeline for the door.

"Ah, Rachel… mind if I have a word?" Mr. Jefferson asked as she passed, earning her a glare from Victoria for unintentionally interrupting their conversation just by being there. Another notch of ever growing hatred.

Something deep down inside screamed at her to keep her distance from him. Never be on her own while around him. It had been like it for a while now and she had no clue why it was happening. That feeling of unease was so overwhelmingly strong that she couldn't go against it.

"Sorry, I'm really busy now. Maybe another time," she replied sounding as apologetic as possible. It wasn't a lie really. She would be busy hanging around with Chloe no doubt.

"Right, of course." He seemed both dejected and a little frustrated about the decline, but didn't pursue it.

Not giving it another thought, Rachel headed out into the hallway, weaving her way through the mass of people. The sooner she could get out, the better. Along the way, other students caught her eye, trying to get her attention in one way or another. Vortex Club members either smiling and waving or giving her a contempt filled look if they were in Victoria's little faction. Jocks flexed their muscles, leering and wolf whistling as she passed. Other didn't look at her directly, side eyeing her shyly or if they did catch her eye by mistake, smiled awkwardly. One or two gave her the cold shoulder, probably jealous of her near celebrity status at Blackwell. She responded to all of them with the appropriate smile or look, playing the field as usual to keep up appearance. Everybody knew who she was and they all had their own opinions of Rachel Amber. None of them really accurate.

Finally, she made it outside and took a deep breath of fresh air. Almost immediately, she heard the sound of wheels on concrete. Out near the front were a group of skaters, blaring music and showing off their skills. Rolling her shoulders, she approached the small group. She caught their attention almost immediately, all of them waving for her to hurry up and come over there. Out of all the people she hung out with, the skaters were probably the most chilled out. One of them stood out more than the others, a tall girl with chin length blue hair and a very punk style. She was more of an honorary member since she didn't actually go to Blackwell herself.

Once Rachel was close enough, she rolled to a stop just in front of her. "Goddamn it, Rach. Way to go taking all the attention away from my kickass skater skills."

Rachel just shrugged. "Not my fault I'm so eye catching, Chloe."

Chloe rolled her eyes, stifling a very slight smile at her confidence. "Trust you to turn that into some ego boosting compliment…"

"You'd have probably only fallen flat on your ass anyway. I did you a favor," Rachel pointed out smugly. As much as Chloe hated to admit it, she wasn't as good at skateboarding as she liked to think. Mostly because she didn't want to put the practice in.

"I am so going to hit you right now." Her eyes narrowed at the suggestion that she might not actually be a pro skater, true or not.

Swiftly, Rachel diverted her attention to something else. With Chloe, sometimes she was never quite sure if she was joking or not. Best to avoid finding out. "That can wait. We have plans, remember?"

Nodding excitedly, Chloe said her goodbyes to the other skaters and set off towards the parking lot with Rachel following close behind. "Right. To the Batcave it is."

"I wish. Can you imagine how fun that would be? Beats a musty, abandoned junkyard building any day." Between them, they would cause immeasurable chaos. That much was for certain.

"Damn right! It'd be awesome…" the bluenette's excitement dropped when she came down from her fantasy world back to reality, "but we have to make do for now." A flicker of mischief glinted in her blue eyes. "Until we rob a bank for major cash, that it."

"I'm down for a bank heist." Above all, Rachel was a thrill seeker through and through. Anything for a kick.

Chloe smirked at the predictable approval. "I thought you might be. Partners in crime think alike."

They made it to Chloe's extremely beat up truck and piled inside, which was as usual parked across the handicap space, ready to head out to the junkyard. While it might not look like it, the junkyard provided them with a sanctuary. Very few people ever ventured out that way and if they did, they didn't stay long. Best of all, David never went there. When they got there, they immediately made a beeline for the unassuming graybrick shack sat near the railway tracks. Over the years, they'd collected all kinds of trinkets and it'd become a second home. Once settled on the makeshift seats, the pair began to smoke just as they always did. Here, they would be undisturbed.

As Rachel blew out a mouthful of smoke, her hazel eyes focused in on the opposite wall at some graffiti she and Chloe had added to commemorate finding this place and claiming it. Something was… odd about it. On closer inspection, she figured out why. There was something there that hadn't been before. She was sure of it. Underneath her own addition were the words 'Max was here'. Surely, Chloe must have noticed, so why wasn't she saying anything? That seemed like the kind of thing she would get pissed about, someone invading in on their secluded world here.

Unable to ignore it, Rachel decided to just say it directly. "Don't think that was here before."

"What?" Rachel pointed at the wall, showing what she found strange. Chloe looked at it for a second, then shrugged. "Probably always been here and you were too high to notice."

Rachel shook her head, standing up and going over to get a better look. "I think I would notice it, high or not."

"I dunno, maybe someone came in when we were away and decided to be an asshole. Who cares, it's just graffiti," Chloe replied, sounding a little defensive.

That didn't seem likely either. It looked too… old. Like it had been there for at least a couple weeks. If not longer. They came here pretty much every day, so that couldn't be it. She ran her fingers over it, wondering how it had gotten here and who had done it. Presumably someone named Max, but that wasn't much to go on. For now, she decided to drop it.

"Maybe you're right." Rachel didn't really think that, but she didn't want to start an argument over something so stupid.

Chloe let out a small sigh of relief. "Glad you've seen some sense. Now, let's just chill and not worry about anything."

"Sounds good to me." Despite agreeing, Rachel couldn't quite take her mind off the weird graffiti addition. This was exactly the kind of oddly placed thing she had been noticing recently. Something that just seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere or seem to be referencing something nobody knew about. That both belonged and didn't all at the same time. Maybe she really was going crazy… and maybe, just maybe, she was onto something.

Just what is going on? Stay tuned to find out. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed the prologue. There's more to come.