Fatal Frame
The Tragic Zodiac
Prologue: The Zodiac
Somewhere in the mountains of Japan, there is a forgotten estate. For
decades, the house and the activities within have been erased from the
minds of the locals. Horrible, vile, gruesome rituals occurred within
it's bloodstained walls. Much like another mansion know as the Himuru
mansion, but that is a story is for another time. It is a story about a
girl and a lost brother. This story, however, is about six friends, each
born under the sign of a forgotten zodiac. Friends who lose their way and
a camera of unknown powers.
The fellowship wandered had been wandering for days. At the head, born
under The Murdered Prince, the tallest of the friends, was a thin boy in
a long black jacket that almost reached the ground he walked on, wearing
black pants, a red shirt, and an orange hat, was called Blinky. Next,
born under The Bloody Warrior, tall boy, with short hair, Dan. Third,
born under The Fallen Samuri, Lawrence, tall, skinny, but still
physically strong. Fourth, the one born under The Widowed Virgin, Miah,
who never left Lawrence's side. Fourth, the shortest one, know as Beaver,
was born under The Blinded Seer. And finally, under The Dire Watcher, the
one known as Commad.
Together, they all made up the Tragic Zodiac. This is their story.
Chapter I: The Encounter
The Murdered Prince:
We had been wandering for days, looking for the mountains. It's kind
of hard to miss big bumps in the earth, but we had somehow, lost our way.
We were supposed to be there in a day. We had arrived at them towards the
end of the third. I knew we shouldn't have listened to Dan. We finally
had an idea of where we were. I could tell everyone was getting a little
worried, but we seem a little less tense now. Even after all this time,
Miah and Lawrence are still all lovey dovey with each other. It makes me
sick sometimes, but hey, at least they've got each other. I'm over it
now. I need to stop ranting like this. Anyway, at least, we all packed
extra provisions just in case. I've got my camcorder, extra film, and
enough battery power to light up my house. Also, I've got this old camera
that some old lady sold me on our way here for like five bucks. She said
I'd need it and she threw in some old film for free so I wasn't arguing.
Hell, she even had two more that I bought. I've really got to learn to
balance our budget. But I figure they'll sell for a whole lot more back
in the states.
"Hey, Blinky!" I turned around. Dan was calling me. "Over here man,
look, I found somewhere we can stay."
"Bullshit Dan. There's nothing out here." I yelled back to him.
"He's serious Blinky," said Beaver who was already looking where Dan
was "It's a big house out here. It looks like it'll rain anyway, let's
just see if anyone's there."
I looked at Beaver, then in the direction he was looking. Sure enough,
there was a mansion way out here and some dark clouds were over head.
Also it was getting dark. I sighed. "That cool with everyone?" I asked
them. Everyone nodded.
"Gotta watch out for Calamity" Commad jested.
"Yeah, and let's not open any boxes or look at a projector screen
through the camera." Said Beaver. We all laughed. Obviously, Fatal Frame
never gets old.
We all headed for the house. It took us about five minutes to get to
the door. I went ahead and knocked on the door. Suddenly, I got this pit
in my stomach. I shrugged it off. We waited a minute. No one answered. I
knocked again, getting the same feeling. Still no one answered.
"Let's go inside" suggested Lawrence. He was smiling as he said it,
but he seemed like he wanted to do it.
"Really, and what's you're appendage say about that?" I asked looking
at Miah.
"Shut up, Blinky." She said. "I don't really care where what we do,
but it is starting to rain."
She was right. "Alright, so everyone's cool with going in?" Everyone
agreed. I opened the door and got an overwhelming feeling of despair. I
looked around and could barely see anything. I pulled out my flashlight I
had brought. I turned it on and shined it around the room. Everyone else
did the same.
The mansion looked old. Real old. It seemed like no one had been in it
for years. Frankly, it creeped me out. Everything was covered in dust.
The room was fairly big. On the floor at our feet, were some shoes that
seemed to have been here for years. They were faded and coated with dust.
The floor had holes in it and one of the support beams had fallen. I
didn't like this place at all. I really didn't want to be here any .ore.
"On second thought, guys, let's just set up our tents next to the main
path."
"Yeah, I'm going with Blinky on this one." Said Lawrence. It was
clear, no one else wanted to be here either. I made my way over to the
door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't open. I ran my shoulder into
it a few times, but it wouldn't budge.
"Oh shit." I said
"Man, you're kidding me. Man, don't mess with us." Dan said.
"Dude, I'm not kidding, it won't open. Dude, make yourself useful and
help me open it." I began to run my shoulder into it again, and Dan
helped. It didn't even budge. Soon Commad, Beaver and Lawrence were
running into it with us. Suddenly I stopped. My heart began to race and I
began to sweat. But not like I had been exerting myself. No, this was
more like scared kind of sweat. I don't know why, but I got really scared
right then.
"Blinky, get back to the door." Said Commad. I didn't answer I just
paused. Just then, I heard Miah babbling.
"B-b-b-blinky. La-lawrence. guys. t-t-t-turn around." I turned around
just in time to see the door on the other side of the room open. Nothing
walked through. My heart began to beat faster.
"Shut up, guys." I said, my voice faltering. I heard the sound of
creaking floorboards and footsteps. "Stop moving, everyone."
"We're not." Said Commad.
The footsteps walked away from the door and sounded like they were
coming toward us. My heart was now racing. We began to hear static in our
ears, like radio static. I shined my flashlight in front of us, and then
dropped it. We all screamed at the sight. Everyone else shined the light
at what we had seen. Walking slowly towards us was the figure of a man.
We could see the wall and furniture straight through him. "Where is he.?"
he groaned. We all pressed against the door. Lawrence, Miah, and Commad
were all cowering on the floor in fear. I was frozen in place, my entire
body shaking with fear. Beaver and Dan were standing too. Both wide eyed
and whimpering. "He must die." moaned the spirit. "The heir must not
live." He was moving very slow. He was only half way across the room and
we could see him more clearly. He was carrying a short length of rope in
both hands stretched out in front of him. His clothes were tattered and
stained with blood. His face had a few scratch marks like that made from
human nails. But to top it off, he had a cut across his neck that
stopped before the other side, like he had been executed. He saw me and
began to walk directly towards me.
"It must stop." he continued to babble. I didn't know what I should
do. Just then, I remembered what the old woman had said when I bought the
cameras. She said I would need them. I put the ancient camera up to my
eye. I focused on the spectre shambling toward us. The view finder began
to slowly light up with runes I couldn't understand. Suddenly, there was
a flash of red and the ghost lunged at me. Instinctively, I snapped the
shutter. There was a bright flash of light as the flashbulb went off and
the ghost stumbled back.
"Why.?" I moaned. I felt the camera begin to surge with power. The
picture fell to the floor, but I didn't look at it. The spirit began to
walk towards me again. Then, it disappeared in wisps of clouds.
"Where is it?!" yelled Dan. My heart was still pounding.
"It's still in here." I said, my voice quavering. I put the camera up
to my eye again. I didn't see anything and began to search the room
through the camera. I felt a certain attraction to the wall next to
Lawrence. I brought the camera away from my eye. Suddenly, he began
choking and began clawing at his neck. Everyone scrambled away from him.
Lawrence began to struggle. I brought the camera back up to my eye and
saw the cause. The ghost was strangling him with it's rope. The camera
flashed red again. I pressed the shutter, and this time it stumbled back
further than before. Lawrence pushed him away, pulled the ghostly rope
off his neck and scrambled away, coughing. The ghost moaned and began to
move towards me. My hands were shaking and the ghost lunged at me again.
I tried to take a shot, but I was too slow. The ghost began to strangle
me with it's own hands. My blood went cold and I couldn't breathe. I
began to struggle, clawing at my throat. I freed myself, picked up the
camera and jumped back. I focused on him again. The ghost began to walk
towards me. Finally, the lense flashed red again. I shot the camera. The
ghost stumbled back. It fell to the floor and then began to fade away.
"Must.find him." it moaned on last time. My heart stopped racing and
returned to normal. I fell to my knees bent over and held my head. A rush
of relief came over me.
"What the fuck was that?" I said.
"Holy shit.we gotta get out of here." Dan said.
"Yeah, no shit, Dan." Beaver said.
"We're not getting out the front door. We've got to find another way
out." I said. I got up. "We should check this room for any keys, or
something like that." I began to search. The others joined in too.
"Blinky, over here!" called Beaver. Beaver was pointing to something.
The group huttled over. They gathered around me as I kneeled over. There
was a scrap from what seemed like a diary. Strangley, it was in English.
It was written with scrawled, shakey, young woman's handwriting, but I
could just make it out.
6/29/99
I don't know why I'm writing this. No one reads English. I don't know.
It's just keeping my sanity, I guess. This place just creeps me out. I've
been trapped here for even just an hour and I've heard things. I could
have sworn I just heard someone walk by the room, but no one was there. I
must be going crazy. I can't believe Mike got us lost. I love him and
all, but sometimes, I just don't feel right about him. I feel like all he
wants is sex. I don't know. He said he'd be right back, but it's been
almost a half hour, and he's not back. I hope he's alright.
-S.T."
"Guys, I think someone was here not too long ago." I said "Someone else came here a few years ago. It seems a couple came by here before us. Forget it, now, look for something to get us out of here." We continued searching. I stumbled across an old book. It was falling apart and written in Japanese. "Beaver, Commad!"
"Hai?" said Commad.
"Read this. What's it mean?" Beaver thumbed through it for a minute. "It's about the Spiritual Plane. Oh, hey, this is good."
"What?" asked Miah
"Well, it tells how to ward spirits from a room for while."
"Well, out with it? How?" I demanded.
"Well, you need incence. Three sticks to be exact. I'm sure we don't have
any in the first place. However, lucky us, there are three old stick in
the book. But do we have to light them with?"
"Gee, I don't know" I said twirling a lighter between my fingers.
"What about that thing we've been lighting fires with the past three
days?"
"Smart ass." He shot back. "Anyway, the ward will only last as long as
the smell is in the room. We'd better find a room with poor ventilation."
"Which means, we'll have to go further into the mansion." I pointed
out. "It's the only thing we can do for now. It seems we're living what
we've been joking about all this time. These cameras are our only saving
grace." I handed a camera to Beaver and Dan. "Never go anywhere without
anyone with a camera."
"Hey, who made you the leader?" said Dan.
I glared at him. "Well, as it stands, I seem to be doing a pretty good
job at it. Also, who drove that ghost? I don't recall Dan joining in?
Also, who's the one who thought of this trip? And under recent events, I
seem the most calm and rational one. So, does that answer your question?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna vote for Blinky" said Commad.
"Yeah, me too." Chimed in Beaver.
"I'm for Blinky too." Agreed Lawrence.
"Yeah, I'm for Blinky leading too." Said Miah.
"You've been overruled Dan. Look, I never even asked to be the leader,
but I'll take up the job." I said. "Right, now let's search the room for
anything else, then find a safe room."
"Right." Everyone agreed.
END OF CHAPTER 1
The Tragic Zodiac
Prologue: The Zodiac
Somewhere in the mountains of Japan, there is a forgotten estate. For
decades, the house and the activities within have been erased from the
minds of the locals. Horrible, vile, gruesome rituals occurred within
it's bloodstained walls. Much like another mansion know as the Himuru
mansion, but that is a story is for another time. It is a story about a
girl and a lost brother. This story, however, is about six friends, each
born under the sign of a forgotten zodiac. Friends who lose their way and
a camera of unknown powers.
The fellowship wandered had been wandering for days. At the head, born
under The Murdered Prince, the tallest of the friends, was a thin boy in
a long black jacket that almost reached the ground he walked on, wearing
black pants, a red shirt, and an orange hat, was called Blinky. Next,
born under The Bloody Warrior, tall boy, with short hair, Dan. Third,
born under The Fallen Samuri, Lawrence, tall, skinny, but still
physically strong. Fourth, the one born under The Widowed Virgin, Miah,
who never left Lawrence's side. Fourth, the shortest one, know as Beaver,
was born under The Blinded Seer. And finally, under The Dire Watcher, the
one known as Commad.
Together, they all made up the Tragic Zodiac. This is their story.
Chapter I: The Encounter
The Murdered Prince:
We had been wandering for days, looking for the mountains. It's kind
of hard to miss big bumps in the earth, but we had somehow, lost our way.
We were supposed to be there in a day. We had arrived at them towards the
end of the third. I knew we shouldn't have listened to Dan. We finally
had an idea of where we were. I could tell everyone was getting a little
worried, but we seem a little less tense now. Even after all this time,
Miah and Lawrence are still all lovey dovey with each other. It makes me
sick sometimes, but hey, at least they've got each other. I'm over it
now. I need to stop ranting like this. Anyway, at least, we all packed
extra provisions just in case. I've got my camcorder, extra film, and
enough battery power to light up my house. Also, I've got this old camera
that some old lady sold me on our way here for like five bucks. She said
I'd need it and she threw in some old film for free so I wasn't arguing.
Hell, she even had two more that I bought. I've really got to learn to
balance our budget. But I figure they'll sell for a whole lot more back
in the states.
"Hey, Blinky!" I turned around. Dan was calling me. "Over here man,
look, I found somewhere we can stay."
"Bullshit Dan. There's nothing out here." I yelled back to him.
"He's serious Blinky," said Beaver who was already looking where Dan
was "It's a big house out here. It looks like it'll rain anyway, let's
just see if anyone's there."
I looked at Beaver, then in the direction he was looking. Sure enough,
there was a mansion way out here and some dark clouds were over head.
Also it was getting dark. I sighed. "That cool with everyone?" I asked
them. Everyone nodded.
"Gotta watch out for Calamity" Commad jested.
"Yeah, and let's not open any boxes or look at a projector screen
through the camera." Said Beaver. We all laughed. Obviously, Fatal Frame
never gets old.
We all headed for the house. It took us about five minutes to get to
the door. I went ahead and knocked on the door. Suddenly, I got this pit
in my stomach. I shrugged it off. We waited a minute. No one answered. I
knocked again, getting the same feeling. Still no one answered.
"Let's go inside" suggested Lawrence. He was smiling as he said it,
but he seemed like he wanted to do it.
"Really, and what's you're appendage say about that?" I asked looking
at Miah.
"Shut up, Blinky." She said. "I don't really care where what we do,
but it is starting to rain."
She was right. "Alright, so everyone's cool with going in?" Everyone
agreed. I opened the door and got an overwhelming feeling of despair. I
looked around and could barely see anything. I pulled out my flashlight I
had brought. I turned it on and shined it around the room. Everyone else
did the same.
The mansion looked old. Real old. It seemed like no one had been in it
for years. Frankly, it creeped me out. Everything was covered in dust.
The room was fairly big. On the floor at our feet, were some shoes that
seemed to have been here for years. They were faded and coated with dust.
The floor had holes in it and one of the support beams had fallen. I
didn't like this place at all. I really didn't want to be here any .ore.
"On second thought, guys, let's just set up our tents next to the main
path."
"Yeah, I'm going with Blinky on this one." Said Lawrence. It was
clear, no one else wanted to be here either. I made my way over to the
door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't open. I ran my shoulder into
it a few times, but it wouldn't budge.
"Oh shit." I said
"Man, you're kidding me. Man, don't mess with us." Dan said.
"Dude, I'm not kidding, it won't open. Dude, make yourself useful and
help me open it." I began to run my shoulder into it again, and Dan
helped. It didn't even budge. Soon Commad, Beaver and Lawrence were
running into it with us. Suddenly I stopped. My heart began to race and I
began to sweat. But not like I had been exerting myself. No, this was
more like scared kind of sweat. I don't know why, but I got really scared
right then.
"Blinky, get back to the door." Said Commad. I didn't answer I just
paused. Just then, I heard Miah babbling.
"B-b-b-blinky. La-lawrence. guys. t-t-t-turn around." I turned around
just in time to see the door on the other side of the room open. Nothing
walked through. My heart began to beat faster.
"Shut up, guys." I said, my voice faltering. I heard the sound of
creaking floorboards and footsteps. "Stop moving, everyone."
"We're not." Said Commad.
The footsteps walked away from the door and sounded like they were
coming toward us. My heart was now racing. We began to hear static in our
ears, like radio static. I shined my flashlight in front of us, and then
dropped it. We all screamed at the sight. Everyone else shined the light
at what we had seen. Walking slowly towards us was the figure of a man.
We could see the wall and furniture straight through him. "Where is he.?"
he groaned. We all pressed against the door. Lawrence, Miah, and Commad
were all cowering on the floor in fear. I was frozen in place, my entire
body shaking with fear. Beaver and Dan were standing too. Both wide eyed
and whimpering. "He must die." moaned the spirit. "The heir must not
live." He was moving very slow. He was only half way across the room and
we could see him more clearly. He was carrying a short length of rope in
both hands stretched out in front of him. His clothes were tattered and
stained with blood. His face had a few scratch marks like that made from
human nails. But to top it off, he had a cut across his neck that
stopped before the other side, like he had been executed. He saw me and
began to walk directly towards me.
"It must stop." he continued to babble. I didn't know what I should
do. Just then, I remembered what the old woman had said when I bought the
cameras. She said I would need them. I put the ancient camera up to my
eye. I focused on the spectre shambling toward us. The view finder began
to slowly light up with runes I couldn't understand. Suddenly, there was
a flash of red and the ghost lunged at me. Instinctively, I snapped the
shutter. There was a bright flash of light as the flashbulb went off and
the ghost stumbled back.
"Why.?" I moaned. I felt the camera begin to surge with power. The
picture fell to the floor, but I didn't look at it. The spirit began to
walk towards me again. Then, it disappeared in wisps of clouds.
"Where is it?!" yelled Dan. My heart was still pounding.
"It's still in here." I said, my voice quavering. I put the camera up
to my eye again. I didn't see anything and began to search the room
through the camera. I felt a certain attraction to the wall next to
Lawrence. I brought the camera away from my eye. Suddenly, he began
choking and began clawing at his neck. Everyone scrambled away from him.
Lawrence began to struggle. I brought the camera back up to my eye and
saw the cause. The ghost was strangling him with it's rope. The camera
flashed red again. I pressed the shutter, and this time it stumbled back
further than before. Lawrence pushed him away, pulled the ghostly rope
off his neck and scrambled away, coughing. The ghost moaned and began to
move towards me. My hands were shaking and the ghost lunged at me again.
I tried to take a shot, but I was too slow. The ghost began to strangle
me with it's own hands. My blood went cold and I couldn't breathe. I
began to struggle, clawing at my throat. I freed myself, picked up the
camera and jumped back. I focused on him again. The ghost began to walk
towards me. Finally, the lense flashed red again. I shot the camera. The
ghost stumbled back. It fell to the floor and then began to fade away.
"Must.find him." it moaned on last time. My heart stopped racing and
returned to normal. I fell to my knees bent over and held my head. A rush
of relief came over me.
"What the fuck was that?" I said.
"Holy shit.we gotta get out of here." Dan said.
"Yeah, no shit, Dan." Beaver said.
"We're not getting out the front door. We've got to find another way
out." I said. I got up. "We should check this room for any keys, or
something like that." I began to search. The others joined in too.
"Blinky, over here!" called Beaver. Beaver was pointing to something.
The group huttled over. They gathered around me as I kneeled over. There
was a scrap from what seemed like a diary. Strangley, it was in English.
It was written with scrawled, shakey, young woman's handwriting, but I
could just make it out.
6/29/99
I don't know why I'm writing this. No one reads English. I don't know.
It's just keeping my sanity, I guess. This place just creeps me out. I've
been trapped here for even just an hour and I've heard things. I could
have sworn I just heard someone walk by the room, but no one was there. I
must be going crazy. I can't believe Mike got us lost. I love him and
all, but sometimes, I just don't feel right about him. I feel like all he
wants is sex. I don't know. He said he'd be right back, but it's been
almost a half hour, and he's not back. I hope he's alright.
-S.T."
"Guys, I think someone was here not too long ago." I said "Someone else came here a few years ago. It seems a couple came by here before us. Forget it, now, look for something to get us out of here." We continued searching. I stumbled across an old book. It was falling apart and written in Japanese. "Beaver, Commad!"
"Hai?" said Commad.
"Read this. What's it mean?" Beaver thumbed through it for a minute. "It's about the Spiritual Plane. Oh, hey, this is good."
"What?" asked Miah
"Well, it tells how to ward spirits from a room for while."
"Well, out with it? How?" I demanded.
"Well, you need incence. Three sticks to be exact. I'm sure we don't have
any in the first place. However, lucky us, there are three old stick in
the book. But do we have to light them with?"
"Gee, I don't know" I said twirling a lighter between my fingers.
"What about that thing we've been lighting fires with the past three
days?"
"Smart ass." He shot back. "Anyway, the ward will only last as long as
the smell is in the room. We'd better find a room with poor ventilation."
"Which means, we'll have to go further into the mansion." I pointed
out. "It's the only thing we can do for now. It seems we're living what
we've been joking about all this time. These cameras are our only saving
grace." I handed a camera to Beaver and Dan. "Never go anywhere without
anyone with a camera."
"Hey, who made you the leader?" said Dan.
I glared at him. "Well, as it stands, I seem to be doing a pretty good
job at it. Also, who drove that ghost? I don't recall Dan joining in?
Also, who's the one who thought of this trip? And under recent events, I
seem the most calm and rational one. So, does that answer your question?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna vote for Blinky" said Commad.
"Yeah, me too." Chimed in Beaver.
"I'm for Blinky too." Agreed Lawrence.
"Yeah, I'm for Blinky leading too." Said Miah.
"You've been overruled Dan. Look, I never even asked to be the leader,
but I'll take up the job." I said. "Right, now let's search the room for
anything else, then find a safe room."
"Right." Everyone agreed.
END OF CHAPTER 1