This is my first story that I wrote in English. It's not usually my first language, so please excuse my grammar. The story takes place after the canonical ending, but Mayu is alive. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fatal Frame or its characters.
It was a summer day. A light breeze was blowing, and the sky was cloudless. The bench stood in front of the lake, which seemed to have always been there, and nothing could give away the fact that there had once been a dense forest here.
Two women approached the bench from different ends. Two twins. One leaned on a cane as she walked. The other was hiding a bruise on her neck with bandages. Both injuries were evidence of the tragedy of their past.
"Mayu," the woman with the bandages greeted her relative calmly.
"Mio..." the girl with the cane answered uncertainly.
The silence lasted a few more seconds, after which they sat down at different ends of the bench at a distance from each other. But still no conversation was struck. How long did they sit like that in silence? A minute? Two? Or much longer? Neither of them counted. Only the sounds of crickets broke the silence.
Finally, tired of the tension, Mayu, the older of the twins, tried to start their dialogue.
"We haven't been here in eighteen years, have we?" she said awkwardly. "I guess it's supposed to be nostalgic, but it still feels like we... Whatever."
"I wouldn't come here now, either," Mio said sullenly. The attempt at contact failed. They sat again and looked at the lake in silence, after which Mio sighed.
"Miu has been found. And Miku along with her."
Mayu turned to her sister.
"But how? Where did they find them?" the older twin asked in amazement, to which the younger one waved her hand.
"On Mt. Hikami. No idea what happened. From what Rei's cousin said, there was a problem with another curse or something. Looks like Hinasaki has an even stronger talent for meddling in the otherworldly than you and I do," Mio smiled unhappily, tilting her head a little lower. "I'm glad they're both alive. I really am. But at least Miu could have given us some kind of warning before she disappeared. Yes, it wasn't easy with her, and finding common ground with her was almost impossible, but I liked to think that we weren't strangers to each other after all. Maybe I could get through to her if I let go..."
Mio was abruptly silent, but Mayu already knew what she was talking about. After that, the younger Amakura looked into her sister's brown eyes for the first time.
"How exactly did you come back then? From the Minakami Village?" the younger twin broke their main taboo.
They never discussed exactly how Mayu was found six months after that summer. Found at a time when the dam was not yet operational. Just the week after Mio woke up from her release from the Tattooed Curse. But that shouldn't be possible.
After all, the crimson butterfly around her neck still reminds her of her sister's throat on her fingers. How Mio personally made her pulse stop beating...
Mayu took a deep breath. It didn't bother her that her little sister had brought it up, so much as it frustrated her with the question she decided to ask.
"I don't know... All I remember is just scraps. I still have no idea how I got out of that hole," the older sister covered her face with her hands. "But I saw Sae. And Yae. They were together. And happy. Just like we used to be. It made it hurt so much. I saw you at the manor house. I tried to get through to you, but you wouldn't see me. It was as if a wall had grown between us. And then ltsuki showed up. He showed me the way... He said I could use it to get back to you... That's all I wanted."
"Wanted to come back you say..." Mio whispered, glaring at her twin. After that, the younger Amakura stood up from the bench. "Then why did you have to leave? Why did you even think that if I killed you that we could always be together? When I was already willing to do anything to be with you and make you happy? Were you afraid of being lonely? But you had already tied me to you by jumping off that cliff! Or did you think I didn't understand? Not trying to make sure you don't feel alone anymore? I even killed you just because I believed that's what my sister wanted. And after that, I thought I was okay with you leaving me and breaking our promise! I thought I could let you go. But then you show up alive and tell me now that you wanted to come back because you didn't get what you wanted! HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT I WANT?!"
At the end of her speech, Mio yelled at her sister sitting in front of her. Tears were flowing from both twins' eyes the whole time.
"I understand," Mayu said. Then she grabbed her right leg abruptly in a fit of pain. Mio leaned toward her sister.
"Does it hurt badly?" she asked softly. There was no trace of her former anger.
"Yes, but at times. I think we should thank the priests that they only broke more of the leg that was already crippled," said the older sister, then smiled, "It's okay. I deserved it."
"No one deserves pain," Mio objected, looking at her sister. "Especially us."
After the pain in Mayu's leg disappeared, Mio crouched on the bench again, but now noticeably closer to her sister than before.
"That's why I called you here, to talk about it. I'm tired of us seeing each other mostly on holidays after university. It's not normal. We used to be a family, and I don't want to be mad at any of it. Especially you. Especially since Kei has proofread about how in situations like this it's best to talk things through straight," Mio laughed awkwardly. "Didn't seem to help much really."
"No, it's okay," quietly Mayu replied. "I was afraid to go out with you myself because I thought I'd lost my right to do so after everything that happened back then. But without you, I constantly had the feeling that I had lost an important part of myself back then. I tried to replace it somehow. I started making friends among my colleagues at work. I started dating someone, but it was a different kind of relationship, even though it was just as important.
"Wait... Dating? My sister has a boyfriend I don't know anything about?" For the first time in all this time, a cheerful smile played on Mio's lips.
"He's great," smiled Mayu, "but it's different. Not what we had. I was hoping we could be sisters again. Like we were then before Minakami. So that things between us could be like they used to be..."
The older sister looked at the younger sister pleadingly, but after Mayu's words, Mio turned away from her.
"It won't be like before!" she said coldly. "I'm still afraid that it's really all a dream. That when I wake up, I'll find your body lying there, under the water. That you're still ready to disappear from my life if you think it's for the best!"
Mio turned around with a sad smile.
"But you're just like me in that way, aren't you? You still think I was ready to separate from my sister. That I want that wall between us?" After these words, the younger Amakura stood up from the pew. "I'm sorry, Mayu, but maybe we need a little more time before we're ready to get close to each other again. In the meantime, let's go home."
"Mi...O..." Mayu whispered sadly, then groaned, gripping her sore leg again. She wasn't sure if the pain was real now or if it was another of her selfish attempts to bind her sister to herself, but Mio gave her a sad look at the sight of this suffering.
"You know, I'm just about to have a vacation. I think I can walk you home."
There were two twins sitting in the back seat of the bus.
The older sister's head rested on the younger one's shoulder.
The younger one's arm rested on the older one's body.
Maybe their bond would never be as strong as it had been.
But it was still intact.