Haunting Ground Prologue

An ear-piercing scream stirred Fiona Belli from a deep, deep sleep. She had been dreaming about an accident. Pictures of a terrible car crash filled her head. Or was it not a dream, but her last memory before losing consciousness…? She had been in a car with… No, trying to remember was impossible. Everything was a blur. But where was she now? In a cage? Why? How…? Was she still having nightmares? No, this felt real. She was awake and had been placed in a small cage, like an animal, completely naked except for a thin, white sheet covering her trembling white body.

With her hands around the bars Fiona examined her new surroundings, not liking at all what she saw. She found herself in a dark, moist and eerie room, loaded with disturbing elements and strange equipment. In the middle was a wooden table with butcher's knives and a cut-up carcass. Fresh blood was dripping from the surface down on the stone-covert floor. On the opposite side was a beam with cadavers hanging from it. That explained the rotten stench. There seemed to be something else along the walls… steel chains? The room was far to dark for Fiona to make it out for sure. The only source of light was a few small windows right beneath the ceiling, so she was probably in an old basement of some sort. But what she had already seen was more than enough. She desperately wanted to get out of this place.

The cage door was shut with a bolt which had a padlock attached. Though the padlock seemed not to be locked, thank God! Fiona tried to remove it with the intention of getting out of this cold and horrible place - as fast as possible, but with trembling fingers it was easier said than done. She sensed that someone had just been in here, someone who had dashed out screaming. When that someone came back she would not be here.

Stepping out of the rusty cage, clenching the sheet tight around her Fiona was shivering from horror. The stench of mold and rotten meat, the sight of bits and pieces of what was once animals and the fresh blood dripping from the bench made Fiona's hair rise. Her heart pounding, she slowly moved for the stairs on the opposite side of the cellar.

When she passed the horrifying table she froze. A noise… from under the bench… While holding the sheet so hard her knuckles went white she instinctively turned toward the alarming sound. Ice cold fear paralyzed her. Something was under the bloody bench, with eyes shimmering in the darkness. Scared stiff and unable to move, with her heart pounding so hard her ribs were acing, Fiona realized this thing was now racing in her direction.

As it lounged towards her she knew her time had come. She would die, alone and petrified, in this nightmare of a place, ripped to pieces by some unknown beast. She fell on her back and screamed, but knowing no one would come for her, it was all over.

Just when she expected to feel the pain she was so sure would come she got the glimpse of something white fleeing over her, leaping towards the stairs, obviously longing for freedom and fresh air as much as her. Once on her feet again, Fiona was still shaky but also somewhat calmer. She was OK, she was still alive. This nightmare was not going to get the best of her. Feeling her heart slowing down a notch she stood up on her feet, more than ready to leave this place for good and get home.

Then her clear blue eyes were automatically drawn to a shiny item on the floor. What was that? Something useful? She picked it up for a closer look. What had once been a dog's collar was now ripped apart. The name tag read "Hewie". The name of that strange creature which had just spurted past her? To agitated to think more about it she left the destroyed collar behind and started slowly climbing up the dark and steep stairs. Not knowing what, or who, might be expecting her. Not knowing that for the next couple of hours she would have to fight for her life again and again…