Author's note:

Ho'boy, here we go again. This is my third and most likely last attempt at writing something that was on my mind for the longest time. Something I wanted to abandon after my previous two times turned out to be a failure. Yet I was convinced by a few people to give it another go, but this time try and build things from the ground up, instead of trying to fix the previous story. Which I did. If you know what I'm talking about and you read the previous attempts, rest assured that the story will differ greatly. If you think I'll just scrap it after a few chapters like the previous ones? I can't blame you. I messed up, but I hope to fix my mistakes. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this prologue.

The wind rustled through the crowns of the surrounding trees, trying to shake off the remaining leaves that were too stubborn to fall. As the cold bit into her skin, she instinctively reached up to pull the hood a tiny bit more to protect herself from the element. The cold painfully reminded her that the summer weather was long gone. Sadly, like with a lot of things in her life, she had a very stubborn attitude. One that could not let go of the summer's warmth. It was like this each and every year. She refused to let go of the warm season and she had an equally difficult time adapting to the idea that winter was giving up. Pausing her steps, she looked around. This small forest was already naked enough for her to be able to see the naked sky, as well as the surrounding area. As she kept looking around, she found a glimpse of the city, left behind her. The lights of civilization that never died.

It was dark, the night already spread all around, the only respite from it was the full moon and the dancing stars that seemed to be gleefully sparkling on the dark background. Even if she was used to her night shifts, she would never get tired of the sight. There was something... Mesmerizing about this sight. It wasn't just the sight, but everything that accompanied it. This moment, let's call it that.

Which would be more fun if not for the large suitcase she carried with her. Dark brown and heavy, with an intricate lock on top. While the lock seemed far sturdier than the container itself, she knew that it was simply made to look plain. If anyone tried to force themselves into it, they would need a lot of resources to do so if they didn't know how to get the lock open. Which she did, to some degree.

As the wind continued its song, she reached out for one of the falling leaves. Already darkened, dead. Sadly not yet crumbly enough to really enjoy it. That was something she enjoyed doing when she was younger. Annoy people as she jumped into piles of crunchy leaves. Well, she didn't necessarily enjoy annoying people, although running away from consequences was part of the fun. It was one of those odd little things you did before you grew out from it. Grew out and learn that some dogs... Well, they... It wasn't very sanitary to continue doing it. It was also quite gross.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself forward. Just like the city behind her, those moments were also in the past. Right now she was here for a specific reason. She was here to find something, part of that civilization actually. A manor that was built in the shallowest part of the forest. How spooky yet familiar to her. She knew rich people could afford their eccentricity. Speaking of affording things, she couldn't afford any more time idling around. She had work to do. With that in mind, she hastened her steps.

oooOOOooo

Looking at herself in the mirror. The blue and white dress looked perfect on her. Made on request and personally by... Well, someone, Weiss should have known. Even before, as her father likes to call it, her rebellious phase, she was overwhelmed with all the individuals that were supposedly well known for their crafts. Of course just because she didn't know this person's name, it didn't mean she refused to acknowledge their skill. She was sure her father paid quite the sum for them to visit, with the only purpose being for them to plan out this lovely dress. All for her to just wear it once and for this specific occasion.

She groaned in annoyance, she hated "these specific occasions" because they meant one thing, her father would invite someone over, a business partner no-less as it was the only type of friends he had. A very efficient way of dealing with social life. That was sarcasm, as Weiss reminded herself that, even if it all remained in her head. With each passing day, she feared she was falling down the abyss of becoming her father's perfect, crowning jewel that rested on top of the company. Awful.

Those dinner parties, as it would end up being, were endurable when Winter was still around, if only because she kept a firm attitude towards any type of... Annoyances that occurred. And as bad as it was to admit to, the guests' attention was more focused on the older daughter. Now? Now all those pigs eyed her with lust in their eyes, which was worse with each passing drink, leaving her in a weird game of cat and mouse, with no help from her worth for nothing mother and under a stern eye of her father, who would punish her if she did something out of line.

"Will Klein be part of the staff tonight?" She looked to her side, where one of the housemaids waited patiently to assist her in any way possible. She was a young girl with a round face and hazel eyes. She kept her dark hair short. Outside of that, she looked very... Mundane, which Weiss found charming. When you're surrounded by beauty all the time, you appreciate the simpler things in your life. Not to say the girly was ugly, she simply had a very plain type of beauty.

"N-No, miss. Mister Sieben was... Asked to take a day off tonight." The young maid paused. "And tomorrow."

Weiss gritted her teeth. Klein was perhaps the last means to lessen the burden of her... "Responsibilities" on nights like these. Of course, her father knew that. While he was vile, he wasn't stupid. Quite the opposite, hence the reason he was so efficient with everything around him. Everything and everyone. Although she doubted if her father even saw the difference between objects and people. Tools at his disposal, that's what they were. "Great." She commented after a while.

"I apologize miss, I know mister Sieben is far more experienced in helping you prepare." The maid bowed her head as she misunderstood. The sole fact that she was so terrified of failing made Weiss feel awful. She knew very well the contracts those people signed, on the margin of what's even legal.

"No, you're fine, it's just..." She stopped herself. She also very well knew that she couldn't trust too many people. She learned not long ago that there were unofficial bonuses if they brought information to her father. Spying on his own family, how... Unsurprising. "...I dislike these types of events, that's all. Mind bringing me the jewelry box?"

"Right away." As Weiss observed the young girl, it was almost sad to watch as the maid almost ran towards the box, as if it mattered if she took a few seconds more or less to get what she asked for. Yet she learned years ago that telling those people to relax was counterproductive. Hence why she hated whenever Klein wasn't around. "Here it is." The young maid approached her and extended her arms with the box. Weiss reached out and opened it, glancing briefly over the pieces of valuable metals and gemstones. The worth of all these items that the maid held right now, was probably an amount of money the girl would never be able to see in her life.

With a sigh, she picked a silver necklace with a pale blue stone in it. She disliked too much jewelry, even her earrings she enjoyed subtle and tasteful, yet once more her father requested she looked her best, which in his world meant as expensive as possible. Tonight she wasn't his daughter, no. She was a prized doll to be shown around. "Put the box back and tell my father I'm ready." The sooner she got there, the sooner she could get it done with. Not like it would speed the time up, but waiting for the inevitable was known to make it feel as if the time went slower, which if anything, she wanted to avoid.

oooOOOooo

There was a sound among the darkness of the woods. Not the mundane sound of the wind that swayed the trees nor was it some kind of animal. No, it was steady, uncaring, slow, and heavy. This was it. The silence before the storm. She reached towards the earpiece secured around her ear and started to fiddle with it. There was a microphone rolled around it to keep it as hidden as possible. Right now though, she needed it, all she had to do was to remain calm and not let her nerves take control. Once the piece was untangled and closer to her mouth, she pressed the earpiece itself. It made a soft sound that told her she could speak.

"Requesting full permission, hostiles inbound." She whispered although she knew the sensitive device could pick up her voice without an issue.

"Do you have visuals?" Came a reply, booming against her ear, or perhaps it just felt that way, considering how quiet it became around.

"No, but..." She started and was interrupted.

"Denied. Confirm visual first." Just like that, she heard the soft sound inside her earpiece, which meant this conversation was concluded. She cursed under her breath.

Was it luck or the opposite, she wasn't sure, but as soon as her exchange ended, there was a loud growl to her side, as the creature had to locate her and was currently charging at her. She dodged or rather stepped away from his path. The creature stumbled as it tried to stop its movement, once succeeded, it turned around to face her.

She grimaced in disgust but if they wouldn't allow her to use the proper tools, she had to improvise. She started to run at the creature, placing the massive suitcase in front of her horizontally as she sped up to an incredible degree. It took her a second before she made contact, the suitcase would crash into the creature's ribs as she continued with her momentum. It all had to be confusing for it, as she managed to make the whole trip without issues. The trip ended once she felt a force greater than her own speed, that stopped her. A tree which they hit and considering the speed and the shape of the suitcase, she nearly cut the creature in half with this little maneuver. As she stepped back, she saw the creature slide to the ground. It wasn't dead nor did it seem to mind its current situation... If it even was aware of it. But she stopped it from moving too much, as its spine was shattered and in this stage, it relied too much on the same rules for when it was alive.

"I have visuals! Do you want a picture?!" Touching her earpiece, she tried her best to not yell into the microphone.

"Identify the hostiles" This made her blink as she glanced down at the creature. It was a man... Well, the keyword "was" as it had to be dead for a few hours. There were some chunks of flesh missing from his legs and arms, seemingly at random, which meant he wasn't attacked by the same type of creature he had become. His outfit was that of a servant, a butler perhaps? Which meant one thing...

...This was far beyond what she expected to see here.

"Undead, type one." She answered, the thud had to make enough ruckus, as she heard the same sounds from before, but this time incoming from multiple sides. They started to surround her, which meant one of two things. One was that it was enough time for them to shamble their way around the forest, and now they were lured by the sound. The second thing meant that there was something greater at work here, something that gave these creatures a certain level of intelligence or at least instinct to form a simple tactic.

Both of those ideas were bad. It either meant they would need to close the area and hunt those things down or that... Well, this wouldn't be an easy shift for her.

"Permission granted." The voice announced unceremonially and she heard the suitcase open up. To this, she grinned as she quickly crouched and opened the suitcase. Inside was an odd-looking weapon, a gun or rather a quite sizable rifle, at least in its current state. Ruby didn't mind its size. She undid the seals that held the weapon immobile inside the suitcase and as she grabbed it with one hand, she allowed the fingers of her free hand to move against the smooth metal. She smiled, as this calmed her down. Reaching down into the suitcase, she extracted another object out of it, a small vial that she inserted into the weapon. She wasn't prepared for much, but this should be enough.

Ruby grinned at that as she stood up. The monsters were getting closer, and she looked through the optics on top of it. She didn't need it to see, she was merely testing if it was functional, which she knew it would be. Sadly, as much as she loved her weapon, she knew that the shots fired through it would bring too much attention. No, she had to be more subtle... Or at least quieter. While still holding the weapon, she moved her arm to the side, as massive as the weapon was, she had no difficulties holding it within her grasp. Soon the mechanism of the weapon would transform it into the desired object. A giant scythe.

She took a deep breath. While this could prove to be time-consuming, her weapon should at least speed things up.

oooOOOooo

Walking through the halls of the enormous mansion, Weiss wondered why couldn't they have small cars or something to get around. Or was that part of the deal? It's big and as such, you had to enjoy it more by walking around it for longer. It was time-consuming and inefficient. Her thoughts were interrupted as she started to notice something. No, it wasn't that. If anything, she noticed a lack of something.

It was... quiet. Well, not necessarily quiet, but too quiet for what was about to happen. Where were all the guests? And why was the number of servants so... Meek. The ones she saw were busy doing... Things. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of things. Not that she was so ignorant as to not understand the basic chores just... She wasn't really able to focus on them. She shook her head as she paused her steps. This whole thing, it was getting into her head, she knew it. Too much stress, she was making a big deal out of nothing.

It was most likely a very important guest, just one, and her father decided to not pay for the whole staff as they weren't necessary. As for her ability or lack of it to concentrate? Well...

... Whatever it was, she would deal with it as it comes. Even with this refreshed resolution, things still were too much off. Like the smell. There was a sickly sweet smell filling the halls of the mansion. Was this to cover something up? Does that mean both of those smells mixed up and hence why it felt so... Sickly? It wasn't even a smell as much as a stench.

With all this going on, she would rather not have her father take it out on her. Not her fault he hired incompetent people... Or perhaps that wasn't even the case and they were understaffed with people who were already underpaid. Hence the quality was lower than expected. With all the money the corporation made, she would hope her father would leap from simple money greed and get into the power type. While both were awful, at least the latter meant he wouldn't care for wealth or rather not mind spending it to show off... Perhaps then those people would get paid enough. And there would be more of them.

At this point, she wanted to be at the damn dinner party if only to get her mind off of all those odd feelings that were lingering inside her mind. Walking as quickly as possible through the halls, she glanced to the side. Each and every time she saw one of the servants they seemed to ignore her, which was uncanny. Not that she minded, but they usually offered a fake smile, depending on the acting skill of each of them individually, and tried to look as friendly as possible. Those people seemed... Off. Not angry or annoyed, no, just... Emotionless? Like dolls. It didn't matter who she looked at, a maid or a butler. Each and every one of them was like that.

No, this... No. This was fine, she had to control herself. Her mind was playing with her and it was pretty obvious. Perhaps if she did a good job tonight, she could ask her father for a break somewhere for mental recuperation or something. She clearly needed it.

Approaching the main dining hall, the man next to the door opened it for her. Inside she was greeted with a mostly empty room. Giant room, with a giant table in the center next to which were countless giant chairs. Everything about this was giant, big, enormous. Unnecessary if anyone asked her. Properly entering the room, she offered a curtsy. Looking at the table her whole family already gathered there... Minus the guests. And Winter. So what remained of her family, which meant her mother, younger brother, and of course at the far end, the current head of the Schnee family. "Father, I apologize for being late." Even if she could swear when she left the room it was way early, it seemed they all gathered already and were waiting for her... Or the guests. Most likely both.

"You finally decided to join us. Weiss, I hope you know that your position doesn't allow you to be fashionably late." He stated although Weiss decided it was a mild reprimand from him. He had to be in a pleasant mood or simply excited for something. "Now sit." He said... No, commended, as if she was a dog.

Without a word, she moved to sit at her place. She knew very well where to sit. The food was already being brought in, although it wasn't looking very appetizing. Not that she was a glutton nor was she a picky eater, but it just looked so... Fake? So perfect yet as if it wasn't real. Was her father ordering wax food only for the show? Hopefully, she wasn't expected to bite into the wax and pretend it was delicious? That was some clown level that even her father couldn't expect of her.

She noticed that it was starting to get difficult to focus on her own thoughts. Things happened in the room, but they seemed to blend in. She was aware of them, but for the love of it, she couldn't focus on anything that was going on in the background. Looking around, she had enough willpower to notice that she wasn't the only one, as her mother and younger brother seemed to have a similarly difficult time. Her mother didn't even try to be social, which was odd, as quiet as she liked to be and her younger brother didn't quip at her with any kind of snarky comment, even a short one.

"What a lovely family you got, Jaq." There was a voice, one that Weiss didn't recognize. Her eyes moved around the room, she tried really hard to focus, which proved to be far more difficult than one would imagine. Yet she succeeded, she noticed a man standing next to her Father. Average in height, a bit on the lean side. He had dark short hair and a mustache in the same color, obviously. Weiss wasn't sure, but she thought she noticed him wearing a maroon suit under a gray coat. Maybe, that... That wasn't clear. She was already losing her focus. If anything, she was shocked she could gather this much detail.

"Can we skip those empty pleasantries, Arthur? We gathered here for a reason." Her father responded, he seemed impatient. Impatient and excited. Weiss still wasn't sure how the man even entered the room. He had to use the door, right? Did he blend with the background like everything else? She felt so light-headed right now. She wanted to excuse herself and go lay down, but she couldn't muster the will to do it. She could simply sit there and exist.

"I hope you learn to enjoy your time a bit more once we're done here, Jaq. Otherwise, I'd think this entire endeavor be for nothing." This man, this... Arthur responded, after offering a small disappointed sigh.

Weiss' father slammed his fist, both of them, against the armrests of his chair. "You promised me immortality and each moment we waste on talking is another possibility of it all getting postponed further." He was angry... No, furious like Weiss never saw him before... Or did she? No, she had to. Right?

The guest they were supposed to host didn't mind nor care about the outburst. "Yes, yes, you paid your price and you'll be an asset we can't afford losing. Now, this next part is attached to the whole process, so I hope you can muster at least some patience as we go through it." The man known as Arthur raised a hand, in which he held a... a chalice. Not a big one, but made out of gold. "Let's raise a toast to commemorate this special occasion." Weiss blinked, immortality? Did they talk about immortality? What... What did that even mean? She wasn't sure, but as her eyes wandered aimlessly, she noticed the same chalice in front of her. Plain, golden. It was filled with something. Red wine? Even before knowing what she was doing, her hand reached out for it.

"Cheers." Her father called, although without much emotion behind it. Weiss noticed that all her family members moved their chalices towards their lips, and looking down she saw that she was about to do the same. But she didn't. No, this... This wasn't right. This was wrong. Something was wrong. Not just wrong, something was horrible. As this revelation hit her, she pushed the chair she was sitting at back and stood up, the chalice would drop from her hand. It wasn't wine...

...It was blood. There was blood in the chalice. The thing hit the ground with a loud clang, its content spilled on the floor, covering it in red. She looked up, noticing her mother and younger brother already done with their drinks, the red smudges of red would drop down their lips and onto their chin, as their empty stares continued.

"Quite strong-willed, that one." Arthur seemed to be amused by this.

"You impertinent child! You don't understand the significance of what is about to happen today! Sit down and behave!" Her father yelled at her as he stood up. He too was done with his drink as she saw the red on his lips and mustache. Unlike the rest of the family, he managed to drink it properly though.

"No..." She said, she looked around at everything. Her eyes grew wide at the sight. There was blood everywhere, on the walls and at the floors. She also noticed dark figures standing in various places around the room, silently observing as their red gazes pierced through the veil of darkness, their glowing crimson eyes. It didn't get better, as she noticed the source of the blood. People she recently thought to be servants were... Dead, some of them. Some of them laid dead, as the other leaned over them, biting into their dead flesh.

She backed into the chair, which fell behind. As all of this registered in her brain she did the only thing she could do. She screamed and ran towards the door.

oooOOOooo

Ruby panted as she finally managed to get to the gate of the mansion. Things weren't looking good. Killing corpses wasn't anything difficult, not for someone like her. Even without a weapon, it was quite easy to outmaneuver them, and with one? It was a cakewalk. No, the issue was that this wasn't supposed to be happening. It was supposed to be some rich family doing some dark ritual in their stupidity. Not... This. Whatever this was. Was the ritual done? Was she too late? But this wasn't what she was told.

Looking around made her wince. Even from this distance, she noticed that there were corpses in the courtyard, some moving while the other laid dead as they were supposed to. As she walked closer towards the gate, she noticed another dead guy in the small booth in which was the button to open the gate. The manor was also looking trashed, as she saw quite a few broken windows. She could only assume that once everything started some of the people inside that giant house tried to jump out of the window to escape whatever was inside.

This meant there were stronger forces at work and she wasn't prepared to deal with them. She shook her head and reached up to touch the earpiece. Waiting for the familiar soft sound, she started talking. "It's too late, the entire place was compromised. Requesting a clean-up group."

"Request granted, move to the evac point immediately." Came the same voice from before.

"Ro-" Ruby began but was cut off as she heard a scream coming from the mansion. Perhaps any normal human wouldn't catch that, but luckily for whoever it was, she could. Also, it had to be a hell of a loud scream if she could hear it all the way here. "There might be survivors, I'm going in."

"Denied, move to the-" Ruby didn't wait and simply tore the earpiece away from her ear and threw it onto the ground.

"I wasn't asking for permission." She blurted out before she raised her scythe to cut the gate open. Once that done, she transformed the scythe back to its gun mode, as she assumed it would be far handier inside the building and it was too late to act subtly. Running as fast as she could, she didn't summon her powers, as she wasn't sure about the layout of the building. She wanted to memorize as much as possible while she ran and with her super speed that could be a difficult task. Ignoring the shambling corpses, she ran towards the entrance doors. She assumed those had to be the main door, as they were quite huge... And lined up with the gate.

Kicking the door in, she rushed in, aiming in every direction she thought any kind of hostile could be found. Well, anything besides the confused undead humans. Now the issue was that she had no idea where this girl, as she assumed it was a girl from the sound she made, could be. Was she even still alive? No, she was. She had to be. She didn't sign up for this to let people die. Not without making everything in her power to prevent it, at least.

Shaking her head she began her wild search.

oooOOOooo

Weiss burst through the doors of the dining room and into the corridor. There the situation wasn't really that much better. There was blood everywhere, the curtains covering the giant windows were torn and the windows themselves were broken. As if something big was thrown out. Something, or someone. The serving staff... No, their bodies were laid all across the corridor. Some of the furniture was laying on the ground, some were clearly moved around, it's like there was some kind of fight here... Yet she wasn't aware of when and how it occurred.

This just terrified her even more, she wasn't sure what was going on. Was this a dream? It had to be right? Regardless, she had to do something. She had to get upstairs, it was where she knew a phone would be. An old-fashioned one, but she knew it worked. With a plan in mind, she started to run, faster and faster as if something was chasing her. She wasn't sure if it even was. Or what would chase her? Her father? Those monsters? Perhaps this guest?

As her mind focused on those thoughts, she didn't notice that she began to run a bit too fast for her current attire. Her high heels. She soon lost balance and fell to the ground. While painful, this helped, even if a little bit. For one, she didn't seem to have any kind of injury, nothing to do with her ankles at least, two she had a chance to look behind her and she couldn't see anyone pursuing her, and three, her annoyance and anger at her damn shoes cleared her mind, even if by a little bit.

Without a second thought, she quickly took off the shoes and threw them against the wall. She might have to run outside, and those things would be even less helpful if she had to run through the woods or something like that. Before she could get up she froze as she heard a sound. A horrible sound, of bones and joints grinding against each other, with a wet reverb. Her mind was completely blank as she felt her neck slowly turn. She landed next to one of the bodies. Which in itself was gross but... The body started to move. Turning its head in her direction.

This made Weiss jump up like a spring, without even thinking she began to run once more, this time far more efficient than before, without the heels getting in the way. It didn't take her long before she reached the massive, curving stairs that lead to the first floor of the mansion. At that point, her mind was completely focused on the task at hand. Not just the overall goal, but at the most mundane things, like her legs moving, as if shielding her from anything that could hinder her attempts at saving herself. She heard ringing in her ears from all the pressure that started to build behind her ears. Her heart felt like it was about to burst through her chest.

Once she got there, she immediately rushed towards the phone. It was made out of some sturdy wood, but of course, like most things in this house, had various gold trims to its design. Otherwise, it looked very old-fashioned. Weiss always liked to think that this was how the first phones had to look like... Well, minus the golden trims. But that wasn't important right now, what mattered was that this phone did in fact work. She knew it, she used it before. Picking up the receiver, she placed it against her ear with one hand, while the other was already in the process of dialing the emergency number...

... Only to stop before she could finish. There was no point in finishing, even something as short as three numbers. There was no signal. Nothing, just silence. Of course, this... This wasn't normal. Why would the phone work? Such a simple solution. Too simple.

As the receiver dropped from her hand, she looked around. Her phone, her own phone. She had to get to her room. Unless they outright stole it, they couldn't have done anything with her phone to prevent her from calling for help in one way or another. With new hope, she began to rush towards her room. She ignored everything she saw on her way there. She knew what it would be and she didn't want to think about it, she didn't want to focus her eyes on it.

Sadly she couldn't stop her other senses from working, she couldn't just turn them off. Which made her notice that the previously overly sweet scent was gone and in its place was a stench of... Of rotting meat. Perhaps it was there all this time and she didn't notice? That was a possibility. How the hell would she not notice anything before? Was she drugged before it all started? What other explanation could there be? On the other hand, there were plenty of things to make her question her own theory, yet at this moment she didn't care. Maybe once she's in safety she'll wonder about what has occurred here.

As she got to her room, she locked the door behind her. She wanted to move something heavy in front of it, but decided against it, at least for now. She needed her phone, which she quickly found on the nightstand next to her bed. She ran up to it and grabbed it, with how shaky her hands were she almost dropped it. She had to calm herself. Take a deep breath. Once she could at least hold the phone correctly, she was filled with joy to learn that it was in fact working, as it lit up. She didn't waste any time and typed in the emergency number.

Two things at that moment froze the blood in her veins. For one, her phone was out of reach. Why? She wasn't sure. It always worked. There was also no internet, no nothing. As if she was in the middle of nowhere. Yet the more troubling thing was what came after that realization.

Sound of footsteps. Loud footsteps, that systematically got closer. She knew very well that it was coming her way. She was cornered, her eyes briefly glanced at the window, but what would she do? Jump out and break her legs? And that at best. Should she give up and... And what? What kind of fate awaited her?

No, she could defend herself. She wasn't sure if they had guns, but if she surprised her attacker she could do something. Her sword! Her rapier she used for fencing classes! If her phone was here, it also had to remain as it was before she left, in the chest next to her bed.

It had to be because it was the last thing she had that could be of any help.

oooOOOooo

As Ruby was walking through the corridors of the mansion, she had to cover her nose, even if for a moment to escape the foul stench that filled this mansion. The dead bodies were already rotting, the process was greatly accelerated by the same reason they were able to walk around in their fake life. The same reason that gave them this second life, was feeding off of their bio-matter. This just made them rot on the spot. Awful. She never really got an answer if people could still remember, think or feel when they were like this. She liked to think that no, once you die, you can't get back but... She heard and saw too many weird things to really have any solid arguments aside from wanting to believe that it was true.

It was five, maybe ten minutes since she ran into the building. It took her this long to search through one of the wings of the building, where she thought the scream came from. Around the same time, the odd foul aura that filled this place seemed to disappear suddenly, which made her feel uneasy. It just happened too suddenly and only then did she grow aware that it was there in the first place. That meant she had to miss whoever did this. She just hoped that whoever screamed was still hiding somewhere. Although she was starting to lose hope.

As she considered starting to call out after this person, she got her answer even before she could do so. She heard a sound. At first, she couldn't identify it, but it was a constant sound. Not one made by the weird zombie creatures. With that being the last string of hope, she decided to follow it. Soon she could identify it as... Crying. Crying! That meant this had to be the girl, right? It sounded like a girl crying. Which meant she was fine, she had to be fine. You don't cry when you're about to die... Well, not this loud at least.

With this newly found glimmer of hope, she rushed towards the sound. It was a room, a quite big room with a giant bed under one of the walls, which seemed to be the central point of this room. So a bedroom. There was a nightstand, a chest, one although giant window and a huge dresser... That was perhaps the normal layout of this room. The unusual part was far more important right now. In a corner was a girl, curled up in a blue and white dress. Not far from her was a... Man, it looked like a man, with a sword sticking out from his body. As some of the light reflected off of the blade, it occurred to her that it was made from silver. Or something that resembled silver.

Ruby had to clear her throat before calling out, as she felt it growing dry all of a sudden. "H-Hey." Not sure what else to say, at least not for now, she decided to just let the other girl know that she was in the room. Which was odd considering she ran here in her heavy boots.

This seemed to be the case, the white-haired girl not knowing previously that she was inside, as she looked up at her, spooked. She was pale, although how much of that was due to the events that occurred in this place? She was sure. A pair of pale blue eyes looked at her, as the fire of her self-preservation instinct was slowly running low on fuel. She simply stared like a deer caught in the headlights.

"D-Don't worry, I'm here to help." Ruby smiled, or she tried to smile. As the white-haired girl simply stared at her, she decided that she should examine the dead body. Unlike the bodies of all the servants she saw before, this was different. It wasn't rotting at an accelerated pace. The blood was also very bright and considering that the thing that killed him was most likely made out of silver? She needed a simple check to confirm her suspicion. Crouching next to it, she raised the upper lip. It was a vampire. What a lucky girl to have a silver weapon at her disposal... Or at least something covered in silver. With that, she reached towards the weapon. "Ouch, Sharp..." She mumbled to herself as the side of her hand got cut. It wasn't something to merely show off. This blade had to be in use even before today, why keep it keen otherwise? Was there an epic sword fight that occurred before she came here?

"I'm Ruby, everything will be alright." She said and very slowly approached the girl. For better or worse, the white-haired girl started to shake, as some ounce of life came back to her.

"I-I didn't mean to... They were just dead, everyone. Then he came and he wanted to take me a-and he tried to kiss my neck and... I didn't mean to kill him. I swear it was an accident." The girl stuttered over her own words before hiding her face in her own arms, her sobs coming back. Ruby assumed that there were no more tears in there, considering that the girl had to cry for a good moment now. If anything she cursed herself for picking the wrong wing of this big dumb house.

"Shh, hey, hey, it's all right. He was a bad man, you just tried to defend yourself." Ruby said and placed a hand on top of the other girl's arm. "What's your name?"

"W-Weiss. Weiss Schnee." The girl introduced herself without even moving her face from the pillow that was her arms.

"Weiss, nice to meet you. Like I said earlier, I'm Ruby." As ludicrous as it was, she tried to make this a bit more casual, which of course failed. "Look, I'll take you out of here and into safety, alright? Then you can tell us ... Err, me what happened here, sound good?"

The sobs would stop, which Ruby took for a good sign. The idea of safety had to calm the girl down. "You're... Bleeding." Weiss noted with a calm tone of voice.

"Huh?" Ruby glanced and moved her hand back, she forgot about the cut she got from the sword. She smiled as she glanced at her hand. "Sorry about it, but don't worry, it wasn't when I fought those things, I actually cut myself on your..." Then it all clicked inside Ruby's head. Sadly it was too late, as she raised her head to look at Weiss, the last thing she saw was a pair of red eyes and fangs lunging at her.

Author's note 2:

So yeah, I decided to switch things up a bit. I also thought that since this is a world I made, even if it's based on various things, our own world included, I can do whatever I want with it ... As long as it makes sense, right? At least to some degree. So I did just that. Maybe.

I'm well aware some people might consider this "one of these stories" but ... I'm aware. I really am, I always wanted to write one of those, and apparently, the desire is strong enough that I'm trying over and over.

Anyway, I hope you good people enjoyed it.