The Fatal Frame Ghost Chronicles
A Collection of Drabbles
A/N: For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the drabble, it's basically a hundred-word or so vignette about some short subject within another subject. Here, the topic is the ghosts of Fatal Frame 1, and if I finish with those, Fatal Frame 2.
--The Bound Man--
A rogue priest, promoting insurrection, was hardly desirable so close to the date of the Strangling Ritual. His lifelong duty breached, he no longer wished to put these innocent maidens to death; instead, he slandered the very concept of the ritual itself.
His crusade never got very far.
Instead, he himself was the one bound and strangled, maligned by his brothers in that faithless faith, condemned to a painful eternity simply for nobly challenging an age-old responsibility that was not truly as harmless as he had thought. As the chafing ropes ripped at his flesh, he gazed up at the lifeless faces of his fellow priests, and realized that the afterlife was better than the cursed existence that Hell bore for them.
(122)
--Child Behind--
Life is easy at the age of eight. Those elder than you are the ones who have to worry about the big stuff: the taxes, putting food on the table and keeping you happy and healthy. In fact, in such a young and carefree time, the only things you have to worry about are...
"She's cute! I wonder if she'll let me talk to her?"
"Maybe she wants to play a game of hide and seek?"
"I'm running out of time! Where can I hide?"
"She won't be able to find me here...Will she?"
"What's that creaking noise I hear above me?"
Having a roof over your head does not always mean that the roof is a stable one. (119)
--Angry Man--
He'd always been told to settle down for just a second. Just a second, his parents, his teachers, his friends had implored him. But his furies, easily invoked and difficultly dismissed, ran rampant and unchecked, unstoppable by any other human. One day this rage had come to a breaking point: his mother disagreed with some trivial thing he'd done and, at the apex of a swiftly escalating conflict, he settled her down once and for all with the business end of a hot poker. Then and there, he realized what a terrible person he had been to those around him, and as the poison slid down his throat, the only person he was angry at was himself.
(117)
--Man at Partition, Koji Ogata--
"What IS this place?" he'd thought to himself, separated from his comrades, unable to leave, lost and confused. His bag was heavy with the Shinto literature that his employer had asked him to attain, and with each second that passed he grew more conscious of the weight slung upon his shoulder. The front room of the mansion was in poor condition; beams had fallen from the ceiling and parts of the floor had been uprooted. He peered around, looking for any sign of Tomoe or Junsei, but to no avail. Finally, he checked behind a tattered partition screen, and gasped in shock at what he found.
Hanging there from the ceiling was a phantom rope. It was merely the first.
(120)
--Man With Long Arms--
His daughter.
His beloved daughter.
Gone.
He flung himself to the ground, screaming at the stone-faced priests, cursing them and their families, begging for his daughter back. Without a word in return, the priests seized him by his uplifted arms, and dragged him to the Moon Well. Were he not in such an anger-induced delirium from the loss of his daughter, he would have been terrified of his fate. The priests strapped the screaming man to the platform and tied the ropes around his extremities. His neck snapped and his legs ripped out of their sockets before his arms could be separated as well. Those outstretched arms were doomed forever to reach in vain for the daughter they died for.
(120)
--Woman In Pain--
The aching in her stomach had been a minor nuisance several weeks ago, but with time it had quickly intensified. Doctors had merely placed the blame on age, and that it would rectify with time. She tried desperately to ignore it, and clipped at the rose bushes with frenetically shaking hands, but it refused to subside. Finally, it reached its cruel climax. She gave out a cry of utmost misery and vomited, a horrible amalgamation of blood and bile. Tears streaming down her face and blood dribbling from her mouth, she collapsed, falling squarely on her clippers, their stainless steel blades no longer assassins of merely rose stems. (108)
--Bro's Shadow, Mafuyu Hinasaki--
Mafuyu was an ambitious boy, but never a particularly lucky one. His pensive nature and sensitivity to unseen forces ostracized him from society, and he found it difficult to make friends or secure jobs. After his mother's death, the latter became an increasing liability. As he became friends with the acclaimed novelist Junsei Takamine, however, he realized that this was his break. He would finally be discovered by someone, and he could help to support himself...and his sister. Takamine promised to tutor him after returning from Himuro Mansion. Mafuyu could not bear to wait that long. Opportunity only knocks once, right? (101)
--Woman in Kimono--
Everyone had told her how beautiful she was. It was only appropriate on her wedding day. Clad in a scarlet kimono, her lips painted rosy red and her face a marvelous pallor, she was the envy of Himuro Mansion. Only one issue remained, however. Her husband never showed up. She held the note in her heartbroken hand and gazed at it with tear-crested eyes. He'd found another. Someone younger? Someone wealthier? Someone more beautiful?
No one was more beautiful than she on this day, and in death her beauty would be sealed. Not even her kimono was stained with the blood the knife drew. (104)
--Hallway Man, Koji Ogata--
The hallway took him deeper into the mansion, and he didn't like it at all. The things he did for the sake of his job surprised him. It was an extremely foreboding hallway, with bloodstained ropes brushing by him like the fingers of Death. "Mr. Takamine? Tomoe?" he called out, but nothing greeted his cries except the chilling darkness. He stepped, stepped, stepped to the end of the hall and faced himself in the mirror. He was a haggard man. Overworked, underpaid and frightened out of his wits, all that he really wanted to do was go home and sleep.
He was not entirely conscious, as he looked at that wraith of himself, that a translucent blue rope had formed around his right arm. (124)
A/N: Those are pretty fun to write. =P Not a whole lot to say here...Expect more within the next few days! Do leave a review. They make me feel happy. 3
A Collection of Drabbles
A/N: For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the drabble, it's basically a hundred-word or so vignette about some short subject within another subject. Here, the topic is the ghosts of Fatal Frame 1, and if I finish with those, Fatal Frame 2.
--The Bound Man--
A rogue priest, promoting insurrection, was hardly desirable so close to the date of the Strangling Ritual. His lifelong duty breached, he no longer wished to put these innocent maidens to death; instead, he slandered the very concept of the ritual itself.
His crusade never got very far.
Instead, he himself was the one bound and strangled, maligned by his brothers in that faithless faith, condemned to a painful eternity simply for nobly challenging an age-old responsibility that was not truly as harmless as he had thought. As the chafing ropes ripped at his flesh, he gazed up at the lifeless faces of his fellow priests, and realized that the afterlife was better than the cursed existence that Hell bore for them.
(122)
--Child Behind--
Life is easy at the age of eight. Those elder than you are the ones who have to worry about the big stuff: the taxes, putting food on the table and keeping you happy and healthy. In fact, in such a young and carefree time, the only things you have to worry about are...
"She's cute! I wonder if she'll let me talk to her?"
"Maybe she wants to play a game of hide and seek?"
"I'm running out of time! Where can I hide?"
"She won't be able to find me here...Will she?"
"What's that creaking noise I hear above me?"
Having a roof over your head does not always mean that the roof is a stable one. (119)
--Angry Man--
He'd always been told to settle down for just a second. Just a second, his parents, his teachers, his friends had implored him. But his furies, easily invoked and difficultly dismissed, ran rampant and unchecked, unstoppable by any other human. One day this rage had come to a breaking point: his mother disagreed with some trivial thing he'd done and, at the apex of a swiftly escalating conflict, he settled her down once and for all with the business end of a hot poker. Then and there, he realized what a terrible person he had been to those around him, and as the poison slid down his throat, the only person he was angry at was himself.
(117)
--Man at Partition, Koji Ogata--
"What IS this place?" he'd thought to himself, separated from his comrades, unable to leave, lost and confused. His bag was heavy with the Shinto literature that his employer had asked him to attain, and with each second that passed he grew more conscious of the weight slung upon his shoulder. The front room of the mansion was in poor condition; beams had fallen from the ceiling and parts of the floor had been uprooted. He peered around, looking for any sign of Tomoe or Junsei, but to no avail. Finally, he checked behind a tattered partition screen, and gasped in shock at what he found.
Hanging there from the ceiling was a phantom rope. It was merely the first.
(120)
--Man With Long Arms--
His daughter.
His beloved daughter.
Gone.
He flung himself to the ground, screaming at the stone-faced priests, cursing them and their families, begging for his daughter back. Without a word in return, the priests seized him by his uplifted arms, and dragged him to the Moon Well. Were he not in such an anger-induced delirium from the loss of his daughter, he would have been terrified of his fate. The priests strapped the screaming man to the platform and tied the ropes around his extremities. His neck snapped and his legs ripped out of their sockets before his arms could be separated as well. Those outstretched arms were doomed forever to reach in vain for the daughter they died for.
(120)
--Woman In Pain--
The aching in her stomach had been a minor nuisance several weeks ago, but with time it had quickly intensified. Doctors had merely placed the blame on age, and that it would rectify with time. She tried desperately to ignore it, and clipped at the rose bushes with frenetically shaking hands, but it refused to subside. Finally, it reached its cruel climax. She gave out a cry of utmost misery and vomited, a horrible amalgamation of blood and bile. Tears streaming down her face and blood dribbling from her mouth, she collapsed, falling squarely on her clippers, their stainless steel blades no longer assassins of merely rose stems. (108)
--Bro's Shadow, Mafuyu Hinasaki--
Mafuyu was an ambitious boy, but never a particularly lucky one. His pensive nature and sensitivity to unseen forces ostracized him from society, and he found it difficult to make friends or secure jobs. After his mother's death, the latter became an increasing liability. As he became friends with the acclaimed novelist Junsei Takamine, however, he realized that this was his break. He would finally be discovered by someone, and he could help to support himself...and his sister. Takamine promised to tutor him after returning from Himuro Mansion. Mafuyu could not bear to wait that long. Opportunity only knocks once, right? (101)
--Woman in Kimono--
Everyone had told her how beautiful she was. It was only appropriate on her wedding day. Clad in a scarlet kimono, her lips painted rosy red and her face a marvelous pallor, she was the envy of Himuro Mansion. Only one issue remained, however. Her husband never showed up. She held the note in her heartbroken hand and gazed at it with tear-crested eyes. He'd found another. Someone younger? Someone wealthier? Someone more beautiful?
No one was more beautiful than she on this day, and in death her beauty would be sealed. Not even her kimono was stained with the blood the knife drew. (104)
--Hallway Man, Koji Ogata--
The hallway took him deeper into the mansion, and he didn't like it at all. The things he did for the sake of his job surprised him. It was an extremely foreboding hallway, with bloodstained ropes brushing by him like the fingers of Death. "Mr. Takamine? Tomoe?" he called out, but nothing greeted his cries except the chilling darkness. He stepped, stepped, stepped to the end of the hall and faced himself in the mirror. He was a haggard man. Overworked, underpaid and frightened out of his wits, all that he really wanted to do was go home and sleep.
He was not entirely conscious, as he looked at that wraith of himself, that a translucent blue rope had formed around his right arm. (124)
A/N: Those are pretty fun to write. =P Not a whole lot to say here...Expect more within the next few days! Do leave a review. They make me feel happy. 3