Note- I was looking up the meaning of the name 'Akemi' out of curiosity. (I don't know the meaning because I almost never pick character names for their meanings. I think it gets Mary-Sueish and cliché if overdone.) Some sites report 'Akemi' being a male name, but others say it's female. I'm just getting this out of the way before the nitpicky start exploding my PM-inbox.

LJ entry- fante. live journal.c om/64325. html

Chapter Five
"Crushed Woman"

With the Twisted Man gone, Akemi decided to move on in her quest to find Noriko. Though she was somewhat comforted she seemed to have some form of weapon, it didn't change the shadows in almost every corner.

Since it was the only way to go forward, Akemi chose to continue moving down the hallway, pausing where the hall split into left and right to examine the large, painted tapestry. It was of a large black lake, its waters perfectly smooth. The full moon shone on it, casting a silver light on the darkness. Age had faded the colors, but Akemi still felt uneasy looking at it. She couldn't help but notice that there were no signs of life on or around the lake, and could only hope that they were simply not painted in.

Tearing herself away from the painting, Akemi decided to try the path to her right. It seemed that the large hallway she had just come down was actually only one of a set of twin hallways, though this one was blocked off. Various jars had fallen and shattered, their dark contents hiding what could be dangerous, sharp shards. Shining her flashlight past the remains, she saw that there was another door at the end of this hallway as well, though she could never get to it.

Only a foot or two past the mouth of the second hall was a door. It didn't budge when Akemi attempted to open it, even when she tried her hardest. Perhaps it was broken?

Without any other options, Akemi went to the left. There was a door here as well and, to her relief, it wasn't locked or stuck. As she opened it, the next room unfolded before her.

It was a fireplace room, with the fireplace itself in the middle. Structurally, it was in good shape, but there were telltale signs of chaos. On the walls of this room were several chests, but some of their drawers had been yanked out, the clothing scattered about. A child's drawing of a butterfly lie nearby, torn in two.

Towards the back of the room and to the right was a simple staircase that led up to a platform. Akemi was too far away to see any particular details, only that there were two doors on the platform and that a rail had been built around the perimeter of the platform, obviously for safety. Towards the far left, part of the rail had failed its task and broken. Akemi shivered at the sight of it.

Akemi had taken only one step into the room when she felt that strange tugging and pulling again, directing her somewhere to the right. Shutting the door behind her, Akemi followed the pulling and found herself standing before an ordinary-looking spot on the wall, not far from one of the broken clothing chests. The camera lying on her chest started to buzz, though not with the same loudness and intensity as it had while fighting Twisted Man.

Curious, Akemi raised the Camera Obscura and pressed the shutter button. There was a flash, though it was not as dazzling as before, and the same whirring sounds an ordinary camera made. Strangely enough, the presence disappeared once Akemi had taken the photograph, and a picture slid out of a slot on the bottom of the camera.

Akemi let the camera settle back to its usual spot as soon as she removed the picture with her left hand. Shining the flashlight on the picture with her other hand, her eyes widened with a mixture of pity, shock, and disgust.

What? How can this be?

The image on the photograph was of the wall, but everything else had changed, almost completely! The angle of the wall had changed, as though Akemi had taken the picture standing several feet away from where she actually was.

Akemi felt her stomach twist as she studied the most prominent feature of the picture.

A young, pretty girl lay slumped on the wall, dressed in a traditional kimono. Her eyes and mouth were wide in pain and shock, and she seemed to be gasping and panting in horrible pain. Though Akemi couldn't see any visible injuries, her upper body was arched in pain, as expected, but her lower body sat horribly limp.

Feeling rather sick, Akemi folded the picture of Crushed to Wall and slid it into her back pocket. In an attempt to distract herself from her newborn nausea, she noticed that among the scattered piles of clothing there were several objects gleaming in the dark. As she hurried to examine each object, she saw that most of them were Herbal Medicines, and she gratefully pocketed them.

As she scurried about the room, Akemi started to feel a heaviness on her back. With each object she took, it grew more and more intense until Akemi was forced to turn around, both fearful and annoyed.

The woman in the photograph had become real.

She lay slumped against the wall just like in the picture, but she was moving her head ever so slightly and making small, weak noises of pain.

When the woman made no attempt to harm Akemi or even to move, Akemi started to creep towards her and to the left. If she was going to attack, it would be harder for her to grab Akemi if she wasn't directly in front of her.

Perhaps too soon, Akemi was standing right next to the woman. If she wanted, she could reach over and touch her... Yet, the woman didn't seem to register Akemi's presence at all, continuing to keep her head bowed and soft noises of pain coming from her throat.

"Are you okay?" Akemi asked quietly, speaking more to herself than the woman. She reached over to brush some of the woman's dark hair away from her face.

Without warning, the ghost looked up and lashed out, grabbing Akemi's wrist with both hands. For a terrible second, Akemi could see that her eyes were terribly white and blank, before her fragile reality fell away to another one.

The fireplace room was mostly empty, and freezing. Only the woman, a mother, and her son of about seven years were in this room. The woman stayed near the right wall, while the mother held her son by her left. The adults exchanged worried glances as their eyes adjusted to this sharp darkness. When the cold came, it also eliminated all sources of light, from candles to the semi-existent ambient light of daytime.

Suddenly, several people rushed out from one of the doors on the platform, shouting in fear. They shoved even the mother and child to the side in a blind panic as they ran past, the angry cries of the women and the cry of pain from the child becoming unheard over their shouts. The woman had only just begun to recover and was about to complain about such rudeness when even more people rushed through, making even more noise and somehow taking up even more space.

And then the woman fell as the stampeding people continued to push and shove. Their feet landed on her over and over, and they ignored her pleas and cries of pain.

Something snapped, and terrible pain rushed through the woman's body. Even though her scream could be heard, everyone ignored it in their blind panic.

"I can't feel! I can't... feel!" She cried, tears of pain running down her face as she dragged herself to the wall. Every instinct screamed at her to get away from the stampede as she pulled herself into a sitting position, her legs suddenly useless.

The rush of people continued as the first waves started to realize that they were trapped, and had to find another way. If anything, the stampede only changed direction.

The woman looked up, the pain becoming duller and duller, receding into the distance. Something white was on the platform, impossibly bright and glowing even in the darkness. Though her vision was starting to blur and her mind slowed, the woman realized what it was.

"White... kimono..."

Somewhere off, the child was still screaming. "Mother! Mother!"

"It... must... be..."

She was too weak to cry out even as terrible pain erupted from her back once more, and the darkness rushed to claim her.

Akemi leapt backwards from the spot, clamping her eyes shut and covering her mouth with one hand. Her face was pale and slightly damp with sweat as the vision burned itself into her memory. Unlike the visions she encountered while sleeping, Akemi could feel every single sensation that occurred, from the cold to the sickening pain.

When she had calmed down enough, Akemi opened her eyes and sighed in relief. Crushed Woman had decided to leave her alone for now. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Akemi noticed there were two doors here. One was behind her, though she knew it led to the cut-off hallway and was broken anyway. The other was on the left side of the wall, and she hadn't noticed it before.

I shouldn't just stand around...

She wasn't quite ready to try the doors on the platform yet, so Akemi decided to try the door on the left wall first.

When she attempted to open the door, she started to sigh in exasperation, but stopped. After she'd tried to open the door, a presence similar to the one that showed Crushed to Wall appeared in front of the door. Akemi was very reluctant, but she couldn't think of anything else to do. The camera buzzing lightly under her fingers, Akemi took a photo of this presence as well.

Unlike last time, the presence didn't leave after Akemi pressed the shutter button, though a photograph slid out as normal.

Examining the picture, Akemi was very relieved. Though the image had changed, there was nothing very grotesque or frightening about it.

The photograph had changed to show a small, plain room that Akemi had not seen yet. A small table stood by the right wall, and a fallen, unbroken vase of flowers lie nearby. A blue diary sat near the corner, and a short hallway led out of the room. The hall was nearly cut out of the picture, but Akemi could see that there was a round window at the end of it.

Just as Akemi had finished examining the picture, rapid footsteps and a little girl's laughter echoed from somewhere above. She whipped her head towards the sound, and found herself staring into the darkness above the platform. Shining her flashlight into the blackness, she saw just what she expected by now; nothing.

Folding and pocketing the photo of the room as she went, Akemi crept to the small staircase. When she reached the foot of the stairs, the giggle occurred again, though it was more distant and there were no footsteps accompanying it.

Remembering what Crushed Woman had seen on the platform, Akemi had been reluctant to try the doors on the platform. Now she was even more reluctant, but that place seemed to be the only place to go.

And with that, Akemi started to climb the stairs.