Author's note- The prologue always comes first! Hello everyone! This is Sinnera welcoming you. This is the first chapter for Demento/Haunting Ground, a novel for Capcom's awesome game!

Characters belong to Capcom of course! Enjoy!

Prologue

It was still only evening, but everything was already getting dark, and cold. The forest was quiet; the only noise was the silent chirping of common crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.

The shadowed man felt a great force of success upon him as he stared out into the evening night. Yes, this is it, I can feel him. He's close. He sat in his car, fingertips drumming the steering wheel thoughtfully. He was waiting for someone, someone with a precious gift.

A gift that should have been his.

He'd arranged a meeting with this person; him and his family would be heading to one of the towns around this area for what they thought was a quiet, afternoon tea.

A pity they wouldn't make it there.

He waited for them to drive by, wanting to give them the element of surprise...they'd never expect it.

It'd been far too long. That someone had abandoned him and the others, left them to rot in the god forsaken old castle, taking the precious gift with them. Damn him! He felt anger boil up inside him, and then a small voice in his head told him to calm down. It was way too early to get mad yet. Feeling a little better, he glanced into his rear view mirror.

He could sense them, drawing closer... There! A small red car speeding along the dark highway. He started up his car, letting them pass before following them at a steady pace. Yes, he could feel the gift very clearly now.

This was it.

He drove his car alongside theirs, before heavily ramming into them, hearing the passengers shriek out in shock, seeing their car spin wildly out of control, heading straight for a wall. He drove out of view, but could hear the loud crash, the shattering of glass loud in his ears. He stopped his car, and got out, curious to see the damage.

The small red car was totaled, unfixable. The shadowed man walked over to it calmly, pulling the smashed door open roughly, the driver's body lurched backwards from the steering wheel, his eyes rolling to focus on him, wide, in disbelief. The woman that sat in the passenger seat was already dead, her neck broken and hanging out of the smashed front window, her face frozen in a mask of horror. The shadowed man paid her no attention, looking directly into the driver's eyes.

"You left us" he said quietly "Now you'll pay for it"

He stared at him for a little while, just thinking to himself, before unsheathing a long scarlet-coloured sword, with twin blades whirling, forming together, uniting as one. With a simple quick movement, the sword plunged into the driver's stomach, the shadowed man pushing it further and further into his weak body, watching the driver's expression, his eyes widening even mouth, his mouth dropping open. The man was too weak to scream, only a bloody gurgle erupting from his lips.

Then it was over. The Shadowed man roughly pulled the sword away, the driver's body limp, yet still bleeding out. Finished with what he had to do, he lightly brushed the dead man's head, longing to take it from him-

-but he didn't have it. The shadowed man sniffed. Yes it was strong here...but where?

Then, there was a groan. Surprised, he looked down into the back seat...there was a young woman there. He stared at her, wondering if he should finish her off too. But no...She was the one radiating it, the thing he needed most.

She groaned again, her unfocused eyes resting on him for a briefest second before she fell unconscious. So he'd had a daughter with that wretch. This changed things. The shadowed man began to laugh, his laughter increasing hysterically, even as he pulled the girl's limp body from the crash, taking her away with him.

It was time to go home.

This is just a little of the start. It's short, but I promise you the next few chapters are longer. Please review! I am working very hard to make sure this is finished since I don't think anyone has completed a HG novelization yet! (Actually, I've already written most of it! Pray that I finish it!)

Thanks! See you all next time.