-Prologue-

The room was unnaturally dark and it took Minna a moment to notice that there were no windows here. Light from an adjacent room cast haunting shadows across the floorboards and walls, and the room had an eerie lack of colour.

Minna’s heart was beating hard, and her breath quickened. She took a step forward and the floorboard gave an angry groan beneath her foot. Something moved. Startled, Minna looked around and noticed that the shadows on the walls were slowly moving, creeping lower as if the source of light from the other room was rising, making it even darker than before.

 A sudden lurch beneath her feet made her yelp as she realised what was happening. The lights weren’t moving, the room was. The room started to tilt forwards and Minna began to slip, but seconds later the ground levelled out again, somehow lower than it had been before as if the very earth below was giving away. The fear of becoming trapped was momentarily overwhelming, the feeling of claustrophobia hugged onto Minna, making her nerves tingle in apprehension.

As the room jolted still again Minna fell painfully onto her backside, her hands becoming coated in something cold and wet from the floor. Confused, Minna looked for the source of the wetness on her hands. She gasped as water started seeping into the room, triggered by the unnatural movement that had caused her to fall. It came slowly at first but as floorboards creaked and moved it soon began to gush in, and before long the water was already lapping at Minna’s ankles. It came from below, from the gaps between the boards, and then began flowing in from other rooms. There was a staircase ahead and Minna got to her feet, splashing her way across the room as tears freely poured down her face now. She didn’t know why, but the water terrified her. It was a terror she had never felt before, an incredibly intense fear that gripped her heart with two icy hands, threatening to squeeze it at any moment. Her teeth began to chatter.

 She started to climb the stairs but stopped and turned to watch as the room continued to flood with inky black water. “Stop it!” She yelled to the strangely silent room. “PLEASE STOP IT. STOP THIS NOW. PLEASE. Please.” She gave up as her words were choked by the sobs she couldn’t contain. The water continued to rise.

Even where she was stood on the stairs, the water now reached her knees and soaked the edge of her skirt.  Before she could take another step, the stairs began to moan and creak, and the old wooden step on which she stood gave way, dropping her into the water beneath. Dark frantic waves splashed over her face, sending her down into darkness and taking away her breath. Her muscles and her lungs ached as she writhed, trying to find the way up. She was drowning in that cold darkness and her eyes burned as she looked for an escape, finding none. She could hold on no longer and desperate for air, Minna opened , involuntarily inhaling.

With a deep gasp, trembling and crying, Minna sat up in bed and hugged herself.  Sunlight trickled through her curtains and sent beautiful orange orbs of light around her room. It was so warm, so bright, so unlike the dream from which she surfaced from. So very unlike that nightmare.