Uh…another fanfic of first Fatal Frame. Kind of random really. This is what happens when I don't feel like studying for my finals! Well, overview time.

Michiko Tetsuya visits Himuro mansion with her sister, Reiko, to see if the myths surrounding the mansion are true...and for a project grade. However, when strange marks appear and other unexplainable things occur, the skeptical Michiko finds that the stories are more accurate than she thought...

Chapter 1

Michiko looked around helplessly, flailing in a circle. Trees became a blur and she fell heavily onto the soft earth. She wrapped her arms around her bare legs and stared at the gray sky. A light drop grazed her face and fell down her cheek, splattering onto the ground. Michiko sighed and took her bag off her shoulder. Opening it, she scrounged through the loose papers to find a map of the area. The lines were shaky, obviously it was hand drawn, but it was the best guide that she had since no one in the village would come within fifty feet of the forest. Why were the people so afraid of this place? They didn't really think this place was…haunted, right?

Michiko was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice the soft rustling of leaves and someone stand a few feet away from her. Her sister, Reiko, walked over to Michiko and poked her shoulder. Startled, Michiko jerked and looked up. She scanned the black boots, the black and red plaid skirt and white corset top her sister wore. The many chains on her wrists jangled with any slight movement, as did the ones on her neck which were slightly muffled from the dark blue tie she wore under them. Reiko's black bangs covered her right eye and the rest of her hair fell lightly on her shoulders. Michiko glanced at her school uniform, white blouse, orange and red plaid skirt and identical tie, and knee high socks and black shoes, and thought to herself; 'Why didn't I change?'

Michiko brushed away a loose strand of hair which fell from her tight bun and pushed up her sliding glasses. Her eyes went back to scanning the map for an answer. Sensing her sister's confusion, Reiko decided to talk.

"Are we lost, Michiko?"

"No, just misplaced," Michiko muttered, not looking up.

Reiko sighed and hugged herself as a chill swept by them. She tapped her foot irritably and looked at her surroundings while thinking back to how she got stuck going with her older sister to look for a haunted mansion.

"It'll be fun, Reiko!" Michiko said, walking backwards to cut her sister off. "Besides, you like stuff like this! Haunted houses, ghosts, and all that paranormal stuff."

"Yeah, but you don't. You hate that stuff." Reiko said, trying to step around her.

Michiko stopped and grabbed Reiko's hand. Her other hand was used to point at the direction of their house down a block away from them.

"Mom and Dad said I need someone to go with me. All my friends are doing their reports this weekend, so none of them can go. That leaves only you."

"You're older than me. I think that our parents meant for someone your age to go along with you, not two years younger. What good will me being there do?"

Michiko frowned in thought, then pouted. "Please, Reiko! Without this grade I might fail! It'll only be two days! Please!"

"Why can't you read a book about it?" Reiko snapped.

Michiko looked down at the paved road. "Because...there are no books about the mansion's rituals. If I could go there, I might be able to find some. Get it?"

'I should've let her find someone else. This sucks.' Michiko stood up suddenly, closing her bag and brushing the dirt away from her skirt. She was smiling triumphantly. 'Great, she found it,' Reiko thought, harshly. Michiko led the way, talking to Reiko but Reiko couldn't hear it, she could only hear the angry thoughts that raced through her mind. 'She couldn't have just given up looking for it? People are freaked out about this place…that should be a warning that we shouldn't have come here.'

Michiko looked back to see Reiko trailing behind, her feet dragging and making lines in the brown earth. She frowned again but went on at the same pace. 'We're almost there,' she thought, '…just a few more feet. How could I have missed it?' They walked farther down the path. The farther they went, the colder it seemed to get. Michiko shuddered slightly and glancing back at Reiko, she saw her shudder too.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Michiko's feet changed. Soft thuds were made. She looked at the ground and saw planks of weathered wood. She looked at where they went and she saw the many steps that led to a grand mansion. Michiko couldn't hold back her smile. 'I found it; there'll be hope for my grade now.'

"That's it?" Reiko asked, in a disgusted voice. "Huh, if the inside looks anything like this, I'd be afraid of it collapsing on us. Not of the 'ghosts'."

Michiko shot an angry glance at her sister and went ahead. Reiko shrugged and hesitantly followed her sister.

"You know the stories about this place, right?" Michiko called back to her sister. Reiko muttered 'Kinda,' and Michiko went on. "Well, what do you know?"

"Not much. Just that the last master went insane, killed everyone, a family that lived here many years after vanished, and a research group too a while later. Right?"

"Well, that's the shortened version. You forgot about the Hinasakis though, and the Munakata girl."

"Really?" Reiko said, feigning interest. Although a part of her was truly fascinated with this, the other part of her wanted to be at her house, with nothing to worry about before she started her final tests. 'I miss electricity.'

Michiko turned around as she stood in front of the giant faded doors that led into the house. She leaned against them, arms crossed and watched as her sister stopped just short of her.

"The Munakata girl was found after her parents disappeared, she couldn't remember anything. She was adopted by the Hinasaki family, friends to the Munakatas. Her daughter's the mother of Miku and Mafuyu," Reiko stared blankly at Michiko as she paused. The names weren't familiar to her. Michiko went on. "Mafuyu went in here," she kicked the door with her heel. "…to find the research group who went missing. Junsei Takamine, Tomoe Hirasaka, and Koji Ogata. They all vanished as well, it's supposed that they died in there. When Mafuyu never came back, his sister Miku, went in to find him. She was the only one that came back, and she won't tell anyone what happened in there."

"Wow. That was quite a story." Reiko paused, skeptical about something. "How do you know all the details about this? It was way before our time."

"Hey! It happened a year before I was born, don't say that it was, 'way before our time'. You're saying that you're old too!" Michiko laughed while Reiko smiled. "Anyway, I read it in the library. You'd be surprised how much information they have on this place. They just don't have anything about the rituals. This is what I need for my report…Types of Rituals Japan Participated In."

"I hope I don't have your history class, that topic blows."

Michiko glared again, but decided not to say anything. She turned around and pushed the door open. The small amount of light filtered through the open door, which made it easier to see the entrance hall. Reiko peered around her sister and gasped at the state in which it was in. Rotting wood was piled onto a side of the room. Obviously it had fallen down somehow. Michiko reached in her bag and grabbed a flashlight as Reiko did the same. They entered the mansion and turned on the lights. As soon as Reiko crossed the threshold, the doors slammed shut heavily. The two girls whisked around in surprise. Quickly, Reiko pushed and pulled against the doors.

"It's no use," she gasped, as she stared hopelessly at the door. "It won't budge at all."

Michiko's light ran up and down the door, illuminating it so that deep gashes could be seen. 'We're trapped in here? No, no. That's not right. It's just stuck is all.' Michiko turned to take in the room more. It was definitely falling apart. At the top of the stairs there was a giant gap and half a lattice stood across from the hole. Her flashlight ran around wildly, stopping at a wall to the right. A mask was there. Feeling entranced, she walked up the small steps, brushing a candle as she went by. Reiko turned to watch Michiko, but didn't move. Instead her light went to a lattice next to where they entered; a small bundle caught her eye. She went over to it and kneeled, her hands holding onto the thin wood to support her. 'What is that? A body?'

Michiko touched the mask, it was cold and the reddish paint covered her fingers when she pulled back from it. 'What a weird mask. It's angry. Why would it be here? No one would want to be greeted by that.' She took a small memo pad and pencil from her bag and wrote a description of the mask into the section called, 'Things that don't belong.' She slid the memo back into her bag and looked at the opposite side of the room. A door stood there, it was wearing away too. 'The whole place is falling apart. We shouldn't stay around here too long then.' She walked over to the door and called to Reiko.

"Hey, Reiko! Come on! This room isn't much help, you know?"

Reiko looked away from the body. She stopped in front of the stairs and looked at the candle. It was lit.

"Hey, did you light that?" Reiko asked, pointing to the white candle.

"With what?" Michiko asked looking back at it.

"Candles don't light themselves, Michiko." Reiko muttered as she passed her and slid open the door.

Michiko hesitated before going into the hall. She wrote down notes of the candle and the body. She followed her sister into the hall, closing the door behind them. Michiko took another note of all the ropes in this hall and looked around for Reiko. She was at the end of the hall, in front of a big mirror. Reiko stared at it and watched her sister's reflection come nearer.

"What is it?" Michiko asked.

"I don't know. The mirror creeps me out a bit."

Michiko was confused about how a mirror could creep someone out, but she went with it. The door to the left was boarded so they went through the door to the right. This room was slightly better with only the fireplace in bad damage. Reiko went on upstairs while Michiko went through the gap in the wall to read the books. She tried to pick them up, but they either fell apart at her touch or they wouldn't budge. Michiko turned to the stairs behind her and noticed that they were broken. Reiko walked over to a door and tried to open it. A large padlock prevented her from opening it. She sighed and turned to go back downstairs, but a sound stopped her. She turned back to the door and pressed her ear against it. Soft voices could be heard on the other side, but it was impossible to catch anything.

"Well, those books aren't much help." Michiko said walking back to the fireplace. "Did you find anything? Reiko?" she looked up. "What are you doing?"

Reiko backed away. "Thought I heard something…never mind."

"Don't go crazy on me, alright?" Michiko said as Reiko walked past.

Reiko smiled and sat gently on the dusty floor. She took out an ipod player from her bag and put the earphones in her ears. "We need a key to get up there."

Michiko sighed. "Where's the key then?" Reiko shrugged. "I guess we'll look around for it. You look in here. I'll look in that rope hall and the entrance. Yell if you find it." Reiko saluted her sister, put her ipod back, and stood up. Michiko shook her head at her sister and went through the door.

An hour and a half later, Michiko walked back into the room with the fireplace, slightly sweaty and with dust and dirt stained on her legs from crawling on the ground. She walked disappointedly into the room and sat on the bottom step. After resting for a minute, she opened he mouth. "I couldn't find it in those rooms, I found some blood stains, but no key. What about you, Reiko?" When no one answered her, Michiko looked up and scanned the room. No one was there. Worried, Michiko stood up and called out, "Reiko, hey! Reiko! Where are you?"

"In here!" a muffled voice answered. Michiko went around the stairs and found a door that wasn't there before. The door opened and Reiko came in holding a bronze key in the hand without a flashlight. "You wouldn't believe where I found it, or how!" she paused and looked her sister over. "Whoa, fell in the dirt did you?"

"Haha," Michiko said sarcastically. "Let's get out of this room. It's starting to piss me off." Reiko laughed. 'She's just mad she didn't find it herself.' They grabbed their bags and unlocked the door. This room had to be a type of study. A shade was across from them and an old table in front of that. Michiko put her bag on the table and looked at the watch on her wrist. It was almost 10 o'clock. 'Ten? Time really flies.' She laid down near the brazier. The padded floor was much more comfortable then the wood floors.

"I'm going to sleep. You mind?"

"Nah, I was starting to think the same. 'Night."

"'Night."

Ropes...

Blood...

Mirrors...

People on the ground...

A giant door...

A dark fog...

A woman in a white kimono...

What did it all mean?

Reiko was walking in the rope hall, her chains glimmered in the soft light and clattered against each other. Her head turned each way as if she felt someone was there. She reached the door to the entrance and pulled on it. It didn't move. She struggled harder. She couldn't see the lady in the kimono turn the corner from where the boarded door was. The lady seemed to glide across the floor effortlessly. In a matter of seconds, she was two feet from Reiko.

Reiko stopped and stared at the lady, horrified, but why? She tried to dodge her but the lady was in her way. Could she run through her? She sidestepped the lady as she reached out for Reiko. The dark fog surrounded them both until they were blotted out. A loud scream, bone chilling...pained...

Michiko sat straight up and yelled in pain. She breathed heavily and looked around. Where was Reiko? Michiko hurriedly stood up and checked the door behind her, locked, the door to the fireplace room, locked. She ran around the screen to the other door, it was an observatory. She closed that door and ran back to the other two doors to try again, but they were stuck. There was no way that they'd move. Michiko was hyperventilating. She leaned against the table and her hand fell onto a small piece of paper. She scanned it quickly and realized Reiko's curled writing.

Sis,

I know that you'll hate me for this, but I have to look around. We're trapped. I know you won't admit it but it's obvious we can't get out. Someone doesn't want us to leave. I can feel it somehow. I don't know how. It's not like a sixth sense feeling, maybe some type of intuition? It's hard to explain, but I bet you feel it too. I'll be back soon, so don't get worried if I'm not there when you wake up. I would have woken you up but you were exhausted and that would have been mean. I'll be back! I promise.

Reiko

Michiko reread the note over and over. All she could think of was that weird dream. 'Please don't let Reiko be hurt! God, I don't want anything bad to happen to her! We shouldn't have ever come here...this place is haunted…'

Michiko started to cry. She used the back of her hand to wipe the tears, but it wouldn't help. She lifted her hand again but stopped a couple inches away from her face. With her sleeve pulled back, she could see a slight burn on her wrist. She pulled back the watch on her left hand and saw the mark there as well.

"What's going on? What is this?"

The marks faded but were still lightly visible in the light. Michiko moaned sadly and collapsed onto the floor, her head held down and the tears flowing down onto the floor.

"Why's this happening?" she spluttered. "Reiko…"

Yeah, this chapter, I'm not sure about it. More answers will come in the next chapter. Trust me, they will.