AIDEN MOORE'S FATAL FRAME 3 ENDING
" Don't want to see… anymore"
The last words of the Tattooed Priestess echoed for the last time and Rei lowered her camera before breathing a sigh of relief. It was over, there was only one more thing to do… she had to send Reika's body along with Kaname's across the rift. She had noticed an opening in the back of the Chamber when she first entered it,
Hopefully, the rift is there.
She thought to herself as she ascended the steps to the Chamber Of Thorns for the second,
The second, and hopefully last
Time, the first as Kei… before the curse consumed him. She knelt next to the lifeless bodies of Reika and Kaname and spoke softly, her words echoing all around,
" It's alright, to close your- ugh!" Rei had reached forward to close Reika's eyes, but as she did… the Priestess' hand reached up to grab her own!
" Now you'll know my pain!" she rasped out as Rei's vision went white…
Rei opened her eyes and found herself not in her room as she usually was, but laid out on the floor like she was back in her daydream,
It seems like years since then…
And just like before, she couldn't move, the only difference was that there were no Handmaidens around. Again she felt the all-too familiar feeling of the Holly snaking across her body and up to her neck, where it stopped. Suddenly Rei heard the 'thud' of someone's foot near her, it sounded again and again until a figure stepped into the light,
"Reika!"
Rei suddenly gasped, in Reika's hand was a hammer… and in the other one some stakes. Rei struggled to get up, but the tattoo weighed her down, pinned her to the floor. Slowly, Reika knelt down next to Rei and placed one of the stakes over her hand,
" Sleep forever,"
She raised the hammer and brought it down on the stake, Rei shouted out in pain as it tore through her entire hand, Reika ignored her and held in place another stake, this time over her other hand,
" Impaled into the ground"
Reika raised the hammer again and brought it down on the stake, forcing all the way through and into the ground. Rei screamed loudly, tears formed in her eyes, Reika looked at her with her piercing tattooed eyes,
" I didn't cry, why should you?" she rasped at Rei before turning away from her and placing a stake on her feet, she brought the hammer up a third time and hit the stake. This time the stake only went halfway through, Reika raised her hand again and forced the stake through, there was a crunch from her foot as the bone shattered, Rei was losing consciousness fast,
I have to stay here, if I wake up I'll die
Rei kept telling herself this as Reika prepared the last stake,
Have to stay, can't go, have to stay… have to find Yuu…
The clink of metal on metal was distant now… the pain no more… as everything went black Rei saw Reika standing over her,
" Sleep priestess"
When Rei opened her eyes she found that she was not pinned to the ground but stood up and standing in a garden of some sort with a huge Cherry Tree near a door at the back,
Where am I?
Rei thought to herself, she suddenly heard someone speak,
" Mafuyu…"
Miku! I'm in Miku's dream? How?
Miku walked towards a small hut near the tree and slowly opened the door, shining her torch inside to reveal (Not useless junk, as Rei had assumed) but a large hole sitting in front of a huge altar,
"The Hell Gate, he's at the Hell Gate…" Miku whispered to herself as she approached the hole, there was a ladder attached to the side,
Don't go down there Miku! Don't follow the dead!
Rei screamed this out wondering if Miku would hear her at all, but alas it did not work, so Miku carefully climbed down the age-old ladder and into the darkness below…
Everything was dark; Rei couldn't see a thing,
What is going on! Where am I?
Suddenly, like a window had opened, a scene appeared around Rei… there was a huge hole in front of her with a stone slab in front,
Is this some kind of altar?
"I'm sorry Mayu, please…please forgive me. I'm back now; we can be together again, just like we promised… Mayu…" said a voice,
Mio!? I'm in somebody else's dream again,
Mio dragged herself forward slowly, as if in a trance, Rei wanted to stop Mio, but all she could do was watch, unable to do anything. As Mio grew closer to the Altar, things begun to change around her, first a faint banging or metal on rock growing gradually louder and then ghostly shapes of veiled priests began to appear… first faint, then fully visual. Rei began to hear Mio's thoughts run through her head, so many jumbled thoughts flying at her…
Mayu, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to,
But now you can kill,
And we can be,
Like we promised,
Together,
Forever…
Mayu…
Mio stopped, she had reached the altar,
" You came," said a voice from behind them, Mio turned round slowly to see a young woman who looked almost exactly like her,
" Of course I came, Mayu" Mio said before everything went black again…
Rei woke up sharply, but again not in her room, she was back with Miku. She stood in a damp, dark place with an inset in the wall where a grotesque altar lay,
Thank god, there's nowhere for her to go now!
But she was wrong, so very wrong…
Miku walked up to the altar and placed a small metal object in an inset and a door unlocked behind her,
" I'm coming big brother" Miku said softly to no-one as she stepped through the huge door and into a huge cavern that had one stone path running in the middle which Miku begun to walk down. Just like Mio's dream, Rei heard a noise (Not the banging of a priest's staff)like small rocks shuffling,
Someone's here,
No sooner had she thought this than a crowd of figures leading a young woman to a door at the end of the path appeared,
" It's just a vision of the past, it can't hurt me," Miku muttered to herself walking straight through them and to the stone door beyond. Miku took a deep breathe and heaved open the door just as the woman had screamed out,
" I want to see him one more time!"
Miku froze for a second, but continued into a large pentagonal room with a blood-stained stone altar in the middle,
I've seem THIS place before, it was where Miku found that woman,
Miku paid no attention to the altar, forcing her eyes away from it, until she got to another door, but a she reached out for it…
" The Rope Shrine Maiden must fulfill her duties and never run away,"
Miku's blood turned cold and as she turned around a gray blur flew past her, she turned around again… only to come face to face with a woman of around 17 years old who had 5 ropes attached to her body and wore her black straw-like hair covering her eyes. Miku's mouth dropped open and she stepped back just as the woman was about to grab her,
" Kirie, no!" she screamed as the woman touched her arm, then everything went white…
Rei was back as Mio at the altar, Mayu stood next to Mio now a look of peace upon her face,
" Are you ready Mio?" Mayu asked her, Mio nodded and laid down upon the slab, Mayu crawled on top of her,
Huh? Did she just flash white?
Mio lifted her head up, exposing her neck to Mayu, Mayu started to laugh maniacally before her entire appearance took on the form of a woman in a blood-stained white kimono, everything was quite now except for the sound of the woman's laugh,
" I told you before Yae, until the very end… I'll be waiting," she said with an innocent lilt to her voice, she raised both of her hands and closed them around Mio's neck,
Mio! Stop this! You can stop her!
But Mio didn't, she let the woman's hands close around her neck and start squeezing before she even looked at her!
"S-Sae," Mio gagged out, " Sae, p-please, st-op"
But Sae didn't she kept on squeezing and she started laughing again, that evil, manic laugh… It was the last thing Rei heard as Mio when everything turned red…
Rei was on the ground… or some kind of surface,
God, am I ever gonna be in my own body or am I condemned to watch the people I love die?
Rei was back as Miku yet again, but this time she was laying on the stone altar with 5 ropes attached to her… one round her neck, 1 round each of her wrists and 1 round each of her ankles… Kirie stood at the doorway of the room and watched Miku, standing still as stone,
" We'll always be together, don't ever try to split us apart," she said, her voice smooth with a throaty purr,
" Or you will die as I did," in a flash a huge deformity appeared on Kirie's back (with what looked like faces attached to them) and 5 turnstiles dotted around the altar began to turn, pulling the ropes ever tighter around Miku's body… choking her… cutting into her… trying to tear her apart… Miku's screams of pain were heard by no living or caring person and so the ropes still drew ever tighter until her body gave in and everything went red…
Mio lay dead on the altar, no-one was with her… not even Rei… or Sae. Only a single Crimson butterfly remained with her… it fluttered around near her body and began to emit a dark red glow that, when it faded, revealed Mayu, who rushed over to Mio's body,
" Mio, I'm so sorry, I should've tried to stop her… but she's gone now… gone for good… and we can still be together again," Mayu said softly to her, fighting back tears,
" We can become one, together forever, just like we promised" Mayu's last words echoed around as she changed back into a butterfly. She flew onto Mio's neck and laid there for a second before flying away, leaving her body there on the slab… with a bright, crimson, butterfly-shaped bruise on her neck,
" Didn't we always promise we'd be together Mio? And now we are."
Miku stood next to the altar with her hand over her mouth and looked at the bloody mess her body had become: Viscera and blood were strewn around her 5 body parts (2 arms, a head and 2 legs). She couldn't believe that the mess on the altar was actually her body… she stood there for a while thinking about her choices,
I'm a ghost now, what can I do?
This question buzzed around in her head until the faint echo of her brother's voice snapped her out of it,
" Miku!" she gasped upon hearing this and turned towards the door where the noise had come from, the door that lead her here in the first place,
" Well, your dead now, what does it matter if Kirie's behind there?" she told herself sternly before she walked over and through the door… no Mafuyu, she closed her eyes and tilted her head down,
" Miku! Come closer!" Mafuyu's voice echoed along the long dirt path, Miku's head snapped back up,
Mafuyu!
She started to run again, slow at first but building up to a sprint towards the final door she would have to go through… the door to the Hell Gate. Tears stung her eyes as she ran through the door and into the rocky chamber beyond,
I'm gonna see Mafuyu again, I'm gonna go with him and I won't be alone anymore!
Miku ran further still until she stood in front of the huge stone doors that were the Hell Gate,
"Mafuyu?" she called out, tilting her head in every direction to see if she could catch even a glimpse of his ghostly figure,
"Ma-fu-yu?" she said once more before breaking down into a fit of sobs, collapsing on the ground,
" Miku, I'm here… and I'm sorry," a voice from behind her broke the silence, Miku looked over her shoulder to see the familiar face of her brother. She shot up and ran towards him, her arms open wide to embrace him in a hug,
" You came for me!" she sobbed as she reached him,
" I never left you Miku, I was always watching over you," he said to her, returning her hug, she sobbed harder into his shoulder with tears of joy,
" Are you ready Miku?" he whispered to her, she looked at him and nodded. Within a few seconds the both of them had faded away into the afterlife forever.
Rei slowly opened her eyes, she was in her own body now, she was still impaled to the ground… but there was no Reika, only silence. There wasn't any pain, any blood or ghosts… just her. Rei began to cry, softly and quietly at first before becoming a sad sob that echoed around her,
Have I done anything good since Yuu died?
She thought to herself, all she seemed to have done was wander the Manor of Sleep my night and mope around the house by day,
Is my life even worth living anymore?
Ever since that accident Rei hadn't done much of anything, she barely ate… the only thing she did well was sleep… and even that wasn't peaceful…
"I should have died"
Rei sobbed out, her words echoing back to her, Rei let out a sigh of defeat and closed her eyes,
Well, it looks like I'm sleeping here… forever…
But suddenly Rei heard footsteps, her eyes shot open,
Reika!
As the footsteps grew nearer Rei shut her eyes,
"Rei," Rei gasped upon hearing this voice, she opened her eyes and saw before her… Yuu.
" Yuu!" she said in amazement, for there he was, standing in front of her…Yuu.
"Yuu, you came for me," she said, the happiest she had been ever since he died,
"That's right Rei, I came for you," he said softly to her, he knelt down next to her,
"I came to take you with me," Rei blinked for a second, stunned by what she just heard,
" You mean, this time, I'm going with you?" she whimpered, tears pouring out of her eyes again, he nodded,
"Away from all the pain, all the suffering and sacrifice that you've endured," he whispered to her, stroking her hair, she closed her eyes and stemmed the flow of tears,
" Are you ready?" he said to her, she nodded, she knew what was to come,
He's going to have to take the stakes out of me
Yuu placed his hand on the stake that was embedded in her left hand and yanked hard, Rei winced in pain as the stake rose out of her hand and onto the floor, Yuu repeated this process 3 times over until she was stake free. Rei stood up, now she was face-to-face with Yuu, he opened out his arms and Rei soon found herself embraced in them, she placed her arms around him as well,
" I missed you so much, ever since that night. I'm so sorry, if only I'd been more careful then… then we both might have lived," she told him, he pulled away and held her at arms length,
" Rei, you had to go living, not just for my sake, but for your own as well. But at least now, we can be together," Rei nodded,
"Before we go, there's something we need to do," Yuu told her, gesturing towards the bodies of Reika (who was now truly dead) and Kaname. Together they carried the two lovers' bodies into a boat at the beach behind the chamber, suddenly the haunting sound of the handmaiden's song echoed all around singing out the long forgotten verse,
Go to the other side,
Go to the other side,
Cast the boat,
Take a ride,
Further and Further to the other side,
"It must sail bearing her tattoos," Rei said quietly before placing both hands on the boat and pushing it out into the open water that lay before them, she looked back to Yuu,
" Is it time for us to go now?" he nodded to her and they both began to walk across the water to their afterlife.
The sun shone brightly through the windows at the Kurosawa/Hinasaki residence, but only one lone cat was there to see it. In two rooms of the house there was ash on the beds, and downstairs there was ash on the sofa. The phone began to ring, over and over until the answering machine picked up and a woman's voice began speaking,
" Hello, this is Yoko Yashimura from Harashima Hospital regarding Kei Amakura's niece, Mio. We are very sorry to have to say this, but Mio is dead. There wasn't a body, just a pile of ash on her bed, if you could contact us as soon as possible then we can sort things out right away. I am truly sorry for your loss." With that the answer machine beeped off and the house was silent, save for a meow every so often from a cat that soon left the house forever. A few days later the police came and searched the entire house before declaring that Rei Kurosawa, Miku Hinasaki and Kei Amakura were dead, but really, they had just gone on to be with the ones they loved most.
THE END