Intro set to "In the Middle of the Night" by Within Temptation
Late at night, in a small American town after the clock had struck eleven times and most sensible people had gone to bed for the evening, a lone car turned onto a deserted main street that was dimly lit by fading lampposts. It stopped in front of a dilapidated boarded up building, the door opened and out walked a woman wearing dark red robes. As she closed the car door, it echoed across the streets and a cat could be heard wailing in response.
The woman walked up to the building's door. Old and wooden, it had been covered by its fair share of spray paint over the years by members of several different gangs who had attempted to take the area as part of their turf. She knocked and a slat opened, revealing hardened eyes that looked her up and down. It closed just as quickly and the door cracked, inviting her inside. She walked in, meeting another in similar red robes. An older man who locked the door behind her and motioned for her to walk down the hallway in front of them while he stayed at his post, cigarette in hand.
Making her way down the narrow corridor, passing numerous shut doors on either side of her. A scream emanated from one of them, blood oozed out another, and the sounds of scratching came from a third, but she maintained her course toward the end of the hallway and an open door.
The woman crossed the threshold and found a large circle made up of people all wearing the same dark red robes, engaged in a ritual with a lone, young man standing before them in front of a lectern bearing a giant book. She joined and began performing the ritual herself.
After several minutes, the ritual ended, and the young man spoke an invitation which the woman took along with several other young women in the group. They lined up in front of the rest of the gathering and he walked through them, looking them up and down, humming approvals and disapprovals. Some he sent back to the gathering. The woman who had arrived late was allowed to stay.
After walking through them all, the man nodded, held out his hands and spoke an incantation. A twisted knife appeared in front of him. He took it and held it in front of him, walking toward the women who remained. It led him to one. He stabbed her in the stomach. It led him to another, he slit her throat and then the knife disappeared. Some of the people in the group dragged the dead women away.
The man turned around one more time and clasped his hands, staring at them. He spoke and the three women who were left disrobed, all revealing shapely bodies. He motioned to two of them to put their robes back on and walked up to the final woman: the one who was late. The man took her hand and shouted to the gathering who raised their hands and shouted back in praise. He then opened a portal and the two walked through.
The man took the woman down a twisting, dungeon-like hallway before coming to a closed door. He knocked and a muscular man only wearing torn pants held up by a rope answered and the young man threw her in and closed the door. The woman turned to the man who caressed her cheek and kissed her. She traced a finger up and down his chest before he took her to an empty bed.
The next morning, the woman woke up. She was in her tiny, cramped apartment but remembered what had happened the night before. She felt a heaviness in her stomach and smiled.
Over the next nine months, the woman grew more and more visibly pregnant when finally, she could feel the baby coming. She called an ambulance which took her to the hospital and admitted her.
The next two days, she struggled and fought to push the baby out and, in the end, the effort was too much for her to bear. The baby was born, and she gave a weak look at the child before giving her last breath and fading out.
The baby was taken to a bassinette while hospital staff attempted to find a next of kin. But a couple of days later, a young man walked in. He spoke to the staff, produced some paperwork and the baby was given to him. He left the hospital with the baby in his arms, opened a portal and walked through.
