Hey folks, I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. Don't worry, I'll still be working on what I have in progress, I just went on a horror binge and came up with this little idea. I thought I'd see how this played out.
I'll be basing this heavily on the first Fatal Frame game, and I imagine I'll be heavily influenced by the Silent Hill franchise.
Here we go!
Hey Arnold! Is owned by Nickelodeon/Viacom/Craig Barltett, the Fatal Frame franchise belongs to Tecmo, and Silent Hill is owned by Konami.
X x x x x x x x x x x
I wonder how long it's been... since Arnold and I began to see things... that other people couldn't see...
Helga felt the gravel crunch under the wheels of her car as she drove to the outskirts of the abandoned town. The perpetual fog obscured her vision The sun had just set, casting a dark haze over the town.
Arnold is the sweetest, most gentle person you could ever hope to meet. I've loved him for years, but I've never told him... Over the years, we've shared so much, but I never had the courage to tell him. Now it may be too late...
She shook her head, trying to stifle the thought.
He went after his friends, to this dark place. Gerald went with Phoebe and Sid to this lonely town, specifically the ancient mansion at the edge of town. Some stupid 'right of passage,' spend the night in a haunted house, taking notes and pictures of the experience. Arnold had been sick and had not joined them.
Then a week passed.
Then two.
Then Arnold left to find them.
The mansion loomed before her ominously. The town had been abandoned generations ago, and the years of neglect had taken their toll on the building. Helga took a deep breath and entered the gate surrounding the property, suddenly feeling very unprepared.
X x x x x x x x x x
He was running. Hands grabbed at him, as if through the walls, and the sound of heavy footprints followed him. He tripped over a swollen floorboard, sending the camera in his hands skittering across the floor. The flash startled him, but he quickly returned to his feet and resumed his escape. In trying to pick up his camera, he fell again, this time facing his pursuer.
,
A young woman slowly made her way towards him, a hand outstretched to him. He could see ropes wrapped around both wrists, ankles, and one around her neck, like perverse jewelry. Her flowing hair obscured her face, but he felt something familiar about her, something he could not place.
She was almost upon him now, he raised an arm to his eyes, and everything went black.
X x x x x x x x x
As Helga walked into the building, she knew something was wrong. The only sound for miles was the sound of the floorboards creaking beneath her feet and the wind outside. She should have been alone in the mansion, yet lit candles adorned the sconces on the walls.
Though lit, the foyer was still dim. Her flashlight illuminated the floor, and the dusty footprints left behind by recent entrants.
She wandered through the entrance, trying to mark down a rudimentary map as she progressed. As she opened a door, she saw something move in her peripheral vision. She turned to face it, and nearly dropped her flashlight. Before her, for just a moment, stood Sid.
"The ropes... the ropes..."
As he spoke, he faded away, like a shadow in sunlight. A hallucination...? No... you know better... Something bad happened here...
Helga swallowed and continued through the door. She was in a narrow hallway, ropes hung from the rafters. Could that be what Sid was talking about...? Something glinted in the light of her flashlight. A camera.
"Heh... Arnold, you jerk... you dropped my camera..." Helga smiled to herself, remembering how Arnold came to possess the camera. It was his 17th birthday, and he had recently joined the photography club at school, to impress some girl, no doubt. She wanted to get him something nice, but was strapped for cash. Her mother had a digital camera stored in her bedroom, and it's not like she was going to use it any time soon... Helga couldn't decide who was more excited when he unwrapped it, he or she. Since then, he could not be found without it. She overheard Gerald joking with him, asking if he brought it to bed with him.
Helga absentmindedly flipped through the images. There were pictures of Gerald and Phoebe, places around town, the boarding house, and then several darker ones. Photos of inside the mansion, with ghastly images visible. The visage of a man - screaming in pain, a man covered in burns, and the last image made her blood run cold.
The picture showed Arnold on his hands and knees, his eyes wide in terror, and behind him... a young woman with her face obscured by her hair stalked towards him.
A chime sounded behind her, she spun around and looked up. Laying on the rafters was another ghostly image of Sid, pointing toward the door she had not entered. Instinctively, she raised the camera and took a picture. As he faded away, she heard him whisper "She's coming... she's coming!"
Criminy... this is bad...
She went to the door he pointed at and went through it. The best she could figure, she was in a living room. A shaky staircase connected two floors, and a chandelier barely hung on to the cathedral ceiling. An old fireplace dominated the far wall. An ornate mirror had once adorned the wall above it, but it had shattered. Large pieces were still attached to the frame, but below the floor was littered with silvery shards of glass. Passing the light across the shards, she saw something moving. Quickly looking to the staircase, she saw a familiar figure slowly walking up the steps.
"Arnold! Wait!"
Throwing caution to the wind, Helga ran to the steps to catch him. Seeing nothing, she ran up the stairs to the landing. Again, nothing.
"...Arnold?"
The stairs creaked behind her. She spun around, yet saw nothing. Her heart pounding, she backed up and drew the camera.
There's... there's nothing there... where did he-what was that?
There was a shimmer in the viewfinder, then another, then the horrific face of a burned man appeared, almost on top of her. Startled, she tapped the capture button. The flash knocked the spirit back, and seemed to hurt him. Helga paused, stunned, then took another picture. The spirit was weak now. She brought the camera up again, made sure he was in the direct center of the viewfinder, and took the final shot. He screamed and crumpled to the ground, then slowly dissipated.
This camera... has the power to capture ghosts... What the heck was MIRIAM doing with it?
And... what happened to Phoebe, Gerald, and Sid?
...What happened to Arnold...?
x x x x x x x x x x
End Chapter 1
R&R