It was . . . a duty, not a pleasure. Never a pleasure, even though she knew that they were saving everyone else by doing it.
She did it because she had to, like her mother once had, and her mother, and her mother. She tried to tell herself that it only ever happens once for each child, and then only for those born at the right (wrong?) time, but it did nothing to soothe her fears. She could do math, calculate dates, and she knew that nine months and twenty five days would've passed since Kirie's seventh birthday when November the twenty sixth came.
She told herself that no one in her direct family had ever been caught last, none of them chosen as a Rope Shrine Maiden. Her grandmother's sister had been caught first once upon a time, and that was almost as horrible as last, but none of her mother's sisters had been caught first or last, nor her own sisters. She herself had been caught somewhere in the middle, but the memory had faded over the years into a fluid blur of fear and motion and shrieks of "my eyes, my eyes!"
But they were all Himuros, weren't they? She was sure she had relatives who had been Maidens, but she didn't like to think about it. And, as per her responsibility as a family member, she and Kirie set out for Himuro Mansion as soon as autumn began to change into winter, arriving as the first snow began to fall.
As the date drew inevitably closer, she itched to open her mouth, to give some warning, just to say don't get caught first, don't get caught last, please Kirie, but duty stilled her tongue.
And then the game commenced.
She stood in the hall outside, shaking with tension, hearing the surprised screams of the children and the clamor of small feet rushing away from the thing chasing them.
She tried not to think that that thing had been a little girl like them exactly ten years previous, playing the same game. She tried not to think about another girl who was doubtlessly somewhere in the mansion, somehow having to cope with the knowledge of what was to happen to her in a few short days.
She didn't know how anyone could not go mad just thinking about it.
She stood there motionlessly until the screams and pounding footsteps abruptly stopped, dragging her mind out of the morbid thoughts. The door opened after a moment, and a line of ashen children poured out, all with wide, frightened eyes, some shaking uncontrollably.
Kirie wasn't among them.
A slow sinking sensation in her chest, she found herself murmuring denials as she looked around the doorframe and stepped into the room.
"Ah, Kirie's mother, yes, we will need to be speaking to you . . ."
The priest was smiling, standing before her daughter, who looked up at him in confusion and fear.
"Mother," she said, voice trembling, "I thought you said it was just a game . . ."
"You'll be pleased to hear," the priest began, while she silently began to pray to anyone who would listen—
"—that Kirie has been caught last. She is to be the next Rope Shrine Maiden."
She could only watch as her only daughter, so young, so innocent, so happy, was taken away by two more priests, to be put into the ten long years of seclusion she knew was required. She wasn't sure if she cried, or if she even managed a goodbye. She was frozen, standing in the middle of the room, watching numbly as all her fears came to life before her eyes.
And when she finally begins to feel, she screams.
_
_
Author's Note: So, yeah, my first peice of Fatal Frame fanfiction . . . ever. Told from Kirie's Unnamed Mother's POV, as I'm sure you've gathered. I just found myself wondering, what the hell would the parents be thinking during their daughter's participation in a game that could end with her being taken away from them to be sacrificed?
So, yeah. I hope it's all right.
Anna