HORROR OVERLOAD

PROLOGUE

Even the dead tell stories.....

MARCUS SEDGWICK.

Laura Thompson stood on the dark road, the infrequent street lights no match for the rapidly fading daylights that left her eyes darting from shadow to shadow. Only days of searching hard, a little courage and a stupid, but great offer had brought her to this place, The Stranford Asylum for the Mentally Insane.

The surrounding citizens of her town had whispered of hearing and seeing unearthly beings, more like ghosts; and of cries and howls that filled the nights and troubled the travellers of the town.

The mayor had wanted to destroy the asylum and construct a new hospital for the sick and the unhealthy. So, he had asked for all the official ghost hunting institutes to fix the problems related to the mental asylum and to give a report on whether it was safe to start constructions.

Nobody was brave enough to handle this since it had already taken the lives of many official female ghost hunters.

So naturally it fell upon the unofficial groups along with an irresistible offer of a legal license and a monetary gift for a successful ghost evacuation.

Her team members, also her childhood best friends, had refused to accept the offer saying that it was too dangerous. Like the rebellious girl she was, she had decided to visit the asylum and find answers.

Shaking off her fear and inhaling deeply, she took her first step forward not knowing that her doom lay beyond the tall gates of the haunted asylum.

The worn out stone driveway from the road formed a boundary around the dark building. In the middle of the driveway was a grassy area with a statue in the centre. The statue itself was of a woman, rumoured to be the owner of the building and who then became the first patient of the mental asylum, standing on a pedestal seemingly staring at her.

Laura shivered despite the fact that it was only a statue. Goosebumps danced along her skin.

She moved past the driveway and stood in front of the imposing gates. A large iron gate that had provided a barrier for keeping the inmates inside.

She paused and took in her surrounding before gathering the courage to enter through the gates. She even thought of calling her friends to tell them about her little adventure but thought better of it since she had refused to acknowledge their idiocy in turning down such a dare.

The street leading to the front gate of the asylum was quiet, with a faint trace of fog clinging to the road, slightly wet from the rain earlier in the day. To the north loomed the imposing silhouette of the asylum framed by the rapidly setting sun.

She couldn't have picked a better time to investigate the haunted asylum all alone.

The faint crash of waves against the rocks in the shoreline below the tiny hill on which the building stood filled in the heavy silence yet somehow made the scene even mere foreboding.

She touched the gates and it swung open, all the hinges creaking loudly interrupting the oppressive silence. She walked all the way over to the few steps weathered by the harsh sea wind and stood in front of a huge door with a steel ring used for knocking.

As she touched the ring to open the door, whispers floated around her, daring her to enter their home. Before she could collect herself, the doors opened wide letting a stench of rot and death wash over her.

Laura keeled over blocking her nose from the putrid smell.

That was when she was pushed inside by an invisible force. She tumbled all the way down the large hallway and knocked her head pretty hard on the pedestal of yet another statue of the same woman standing proud in the middle her once grand stairway.

Laura could have left when her instincts told her to run far away from there but she was naive enough to be led inside by her false bravado and her thirst to prove she was more mature than her age.

After all she had turned 16 last week. And she wanted to prove her friends that she could protect herself.

These thoughts flitted around her mind as she lay their bleeding from her temple.

Something clawed at her hands and pulled at her leg and then she was being dragged all the way up the stairs, each step bumping her head roughly. She didn't even have the strength to look at her attacker.

Growls and shaky breaths seemed to suffocate her ears.

She was losing consciousness and she didn't know how long she had to wake up. More hands teared at her clothes, and one even squeezed her neck choking the life out of her.

It was then she started screaming, now knowing there were no humans in this place.

She struggled in vain, when in fact the things clawing at her pushed her into a small room and tied her down to a metal bed using chains.

Darkness surrounded her and her vision blinked in and out.

The last thing she saw was the statue woman. The woman's crazy bloodshot eyes glared at her.

Laura screamed as it lunged at her, her pale face contorted with anger and a primal hunger.

Sharp hands reached for her already bruised neck and squeezed until she couldn't shout anymore.

Her eyes closed in pain, tears leaking from them, and she knew that when she woke up again she wouldn't be the same.

Only guilt at lying to her best friends remained in her now dying heart.

She vowed that she would help and protect them in any way she could.

That was Laura's last wish before her body turned cold and lay limp on the metal bed inside the secret torture room of 'The Stranford Asylum for the Mentally Insane'.