Fatal Frame: The Endless Defacement

by Dharknia

1st per POV. FF 1, 2, and 3 A girl must survive the horrors and terrors of a much larger and more dangerous village and its own reason for destruction. New and old spirits make their way into a haunting plot of rituals and deaths. COMPLETE!

7. Daughters

Disclaimer

Please read: I do not rightfully own the Fatal Frame title or its trademarks. This is only a fan fiction story. It is slightly based on the second Fatal Frame, but includes my own characters, locations, and certain items. Any mentioned subjects that are Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly characters, locations, and certain items are owned by TECMO and used for fan fiction purposes only.

Fatal Frame

The Endless Defacement

Chapter Seven

Daughters

"I can hold her in my hands,

I can think that she is harmless,

And I look at her as she stares right back…"

The path comes to an intersection. Straight head leads deeper into the enormous village. The left will take me to another gate that is probably locked like the other one I saw at the entrance. To the right is Gerald vanishing at the door of a strange house. As I stand at the entry to there the Yoshiawa house is behind me. I get a sudden impact like there is a set of eyes upon me. I snap my head around swiftly in hope I will catch the culprit. There is no one there, but there is something pinned on the wall. It looks like a very, very new map! Did someone just place it here? I shrug it off thinking it is Dagan's handy work. It seems beside this part of the village there is another one. I am already exhausted and confused by the first few houses I have seen, now I find there are, like, twenty-thousand more to see! To the right of the Suda house is the Suda Market. Across from that is the Sutuki house. If I am to continue past the market I will face another large gate. If I go back to the intersection and take the straight path I ignored earlier I will see the Ogawa house at my left and the Suda house to my right. After this is the very large Tanaka house. It is on the left and wraps around the path's corner that turns in the right direction. The long and wide Shibata house is on the right. The empty warehouse is straight ahead and continues on as the village's path turns left. Two empty houses line the left-side. Straight from there are the cemetery and a bridge leading to the next part of the village. I decide not to look over that at the moment. I have to find Gerald! I go back to the small Suda house and enter.

It is just an open room with a door to the right that leads to the market. The only other door is at the back and belongs to a small room. The furnishings include curtains on a few filthy windows, dusty and sometimes broken vases on wooden stands (some missing legs), faded blue pillows on the floor near a stubby, wooden table, and worn scrolls hanging on the walls. They are religious and are written in some form of Latin or something like that. Latin scriptures, are they? This is Japan! I make my way across the dim lit house and to the door across from the entrance. I will head to the market after I take a look around here. My flashlight starts to cut out as I touch the handle to the door. It flickers and dies out suddenly. I shake it, but nothing comes of this. I can hear a man's prayer beyond this door. He sputters rude remarks and crude insults about people in this village. He mentions the Okura's, the Aragaki's, and the outsiders. He also speaks of a name that I never heard before: Ohnishi. I did not catch the person's first name. I slightly slide the door open to create a small crack. I use my Camera as I sneak a peek. There does not seem to be anybody in the room. I slide the door the rest of the way. A bed is at my right. The blankets look like someone has just woken up and rolled out of bed. Samurai swords line the walls. Most are inscribed to a 'Yoshinori Suda.' I assume that is the person I just heard speaking. Arrays of various hunting, cooking, and wood carving knives are displayed on a desk to the left. I notice a small, brown diary next to the displays. I read it.

Yoshinori's Diary 1: "Can you believe the Okura family? I understand the death of both their parents put a strain on the children, but that is no reason to defy the laws! Sir Okura was such an honorable man! The Miss was just as darling! What a shame. What a shame. That boy should do something with his life. He never leaves that house. Never! He has friends. Why, just the other day little Alsuo Shibata came looking for him! He does not answer the door, not once. It is not locked, but Master Tanaka says it would be against the laws to barge in. I respect that. What is with little Tomoya Okura? He will starve! 1/5 I have seen the Widow of the Village speaking greatly with Jun Okura. Of course I cannot decipher details from my distance, but I can gather the gist of the conversations. Young Jun wants something of the Widow. How rude! The Widow Shimo has recently lost her husband to an illness. Sir Shimo was the greatest Shrine Priest since the dawn of time. Young Jun defiles this village! I know there is something behind that head of red hair. Perhaps it lies in the friendship with that Ohnishi girl! 2/5 I have witnessed the Aragaki Sacrifice this morning. It was marvelous! I never wrote about Sir Aragaki's behavior because it would go against Master Tanaka's wishes. He told the village not to speak of it until after the Sacrifice. Ah, I am free at last to curse the Aragaki name! Munuta Aragaki spoke with that outside man! The other outsiders left after the first few days, but the single one kept creeping around. I guess we now know why! The Aragaki's were telling him things! It is justice served. 3/5 My eyes deceive me… I never saw this coming. The Okura daughter and the Ohnishi daughter are… close! It is against the laws at the highest degree! Master Tanaka seeks to cleanse the family names and sacrifice them both! Okura and Ohnishi have been Priest families for ages. Who knew they would produce such volatile maidens? What is becoming of our once holy village? Are we all dooming to sin? 4/5 The Aragaki Widow, Madame Suke, has been murdered in her home in her daughter's room. It is shocking! Even I, the watchful man, did not see this coming! Master Tanaka seems hell bent on finding the Aragaki maidens now. I wonder what they could have done. The outside man left two days ago. Mika Aragaki, the youngest of the twins, is wandering in sorrow like a ghost. Has something happened to Miaka? Master Tanaka has not seen Mika wandering at night… I… I will defy the laws and not speak of it… Mika is not the sinful one. Miaka… look what you've done! 5/5"

He is the 'watchful man' of the village? No wonder he knows almost everything about this half of the village. I can hear Gerald calling for me from the main room. I leave this one and head to the sound of his voice. My flashlight has yet to work again. It is so inconvenient. The entire Suda house has darkened to nothing more than a black hole. I cannot see anything in front of me. I extend my arms and wave my hands around to feel for the door that leads to the market. Gerald's voice comes from that direction. I find the door and I open it to see the ghost of Yoshinori. He wears brown slacks that stop just above his knees, black sandals, a loose, white t-shirt and a white apron over it. He has short, black hair and brown eyes. He looks fairly old. I raise the Camera and take a shot. He moves back with his arms over his face. "What have we come to?" Yoshinori dreads what his beloved village has turned into. He appears behind me as the door to the market closes and refuses to open now. I catch a brief moment of light when my flashlight clicks on for a second or two. It clicks off, but it comes back on for a short while. It repeats this process over and over. I run around trying to stay away from Yoshinori, wherever he may be. I stumble over the table and land face up. My flashlight flicks on just in time for me to see Yoshinori standing over me with his arms reaching for my neck. I freeze for a minute. I can… I can feel his pain! He loves this village! He does not want to see it end! Sinners and deifiers have ruined the village! He is a righteous man who only wants a peaceful place to live out the rest of his years quietly. No, he's about to hurt me! I get back to reality and raise my Camera. I take two shots to push him away. The flashlight goes off and I run to safety until it comes back on. I see his spirit coming at me from the corner of the room. I take another picture and he vanishes off. "No…! No, why! Master Tanaka… I was true!" I find a stone where his spirit vanishes. I take it as my flashlight starts working properly again. It's a Faintly Glowing Gem. I try the market door and it opens now. I listen to the stone as I enter the deserted Suda Market.

Faintly Glowing Gem: Man's Voice (stern, deep and low tone, rough vocals, warped echo in background): "I saw the evil in this village. I witnessed the sin with my own two eyes. But when I saw the life hung out of that child… I knew then and there just what was evil and just what sin was… What have we done…? What have we done…?"

The Suda Market is nothing more than a dusty, old waste of space with rotting produce all over shelves (to my right). The counter where villagers would bring their food to purchase is broken in half. Another brown book is on the ground. I take it, but I will read it later. The walls and the floor are splattered with spoiled and aged produce and wheat. The smell is horrifying. My eyes water every time I breathe in. The dust is also thick in the air. The shelves broken on the floor seem like they were destroyed by great force, just like the counter. It is fairly large in size, but it holds not much more than the withering of unsold flowers and the weathered quilts decorated in holes and rips. Why would Dagan want me to wait here of all places? I exit through the front door and find myself standing across from the Sutuki house. It looks about the same size as the Yoshiawa house. Gerald's spirit is no where to be found. I sigh in frustration and take a seat on the ground. I hold Yoshinori's second brown book in my hands. I twirl it around and flip it. I look at it with a blank mind. I don't feel like reading anymore! I don't feel like taking anymore pictures, entering another house, traveling through the foggy village and encountering ghosts! I just want out of here. To tell the truth, I could care less about finding my childhood memory. That is until I see the small girl in the pink kimono again. I remember her from when I found myself trapped in the other village. She had been across the bridge. The color, like my eyes… like her eyes… She appears in front of the Sutuki house and before she enters she glances at me. "You'll never guess who I am!" She giggles and vanishes right into the door. I know Dagan wants me to stay and wait at the Market for him, but I have to see this for myself. I leave the brown book behind and I follow the girl.

The first room I see is huge. All around are floral (now wilted) decorations and pottery that seem hand-crafted. Three rooms line the wall to my right. A lone room is to my left. Ahead are two rooms that connect in the center of the house. A door that leads to a hallway is to the left of that. I cannot tell much else from where I stand. Paper-shaded lamps are covering the floor near the walls. Partition screens are lining around the room. Kimonos of various colors are hanging over them. Occasionally I think I can see the silhouette of the young girl behind a few. Her laughter echoes eerily through the house. I head to the first room on the right. When I enter I can see white walls and… dolls hanging from the ceiling. They are all dressed like me. They look exactly like me! Ropes are tied around their necks and they dangle loosely. I am freaked out. I have no words to describe it. I immediately leave and head to the next room with great haste. In here is very morbid. Everything is black—the walls included, but not the wood floor or the ceiling. A bed has black bedding with a veil draped over it like a gigantic net. Candles are burning throughout the room. They are placed on the headboard of the bed, the ground, on a small stand, a black kimono box (filled with black kimonos and face veils), and at a bedroom altar. A painted portrait of a man with long, silver hair and beady brown eyes is in the center of the altar. Is this man… dead? I leave and try to enter the next room, but the lock on the door is jammed. Scrawled on it are the words, 'Master Bedroom.' It is etched in by a knife or something of that matter. I turn to the two connected rooms. They are tatami rooms. The sliding doors are already open. Things are empty and remain untouched there. I can see faded scrolls on the walls and warped closet doors. It is not until I enter the second tatami room that I notice a closet door sliding open and shut. I snap a photo with my Camera. I don't acquire anything, but the door does stop moving. I approach it and try to open it. It's stuck. I leave it alone and I head back to the entrance to check out the lone room.

"Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong…" The spirit of the pink kimono girl repeats in a whimpering whisper the same two words over and over in front of a family altar. She rocks back and forth nonstop. I ask if she is alright. She pauses and looks at me. "Everything… is wrong…" She touches my arm and I see black and white flashes again. It starts out with the doll room. The hanging dolls are dressed like the pink kimono girl. The man with silver hair hangs them up. He mutters things about a horrible child and a disgraceful family. The dolls often flash to resemble me. They go back to resembling the pink kimono girl for an instant. The scene goes to a first person view of someone running through the village. They start at the cemetery. Shouting Priests and villagers take chase with their torches and ropes. The fleeing female (she is panting) makes haste for the distant gate. It is straight ahead, but is quite a ways away. She makes it to the Okura house when she hears Tomoya's scream for his sister not to kill him. She turns her head. The Priests are able to ring a rope around her neck at this time. They violently jerk and pull her body back to the cemetery. It happens so fast. It takes only seconds for them to drag her. The next scene goes to the pink kimono girl's body sinking in water. The Priests must have thrown her in after her Sacrifice. The water changes color from normal to blood red with screeching flashes. It ends with her body going down stream and falling down a waterfall. When the scene moves to her body falling, underneath her is completely black. Her eyes open and she screams. The image goes white. "It's endless…for the dead…" I come to and I am alone. A diary is in the girl's place.

Blue Rose Book 2: "The Sutuki house has been quiet lately. The poor Widow… At first it was the Shimo family, now the Sutuki family has experienced a loss. Ijima has suffered these past years… … and now their daughter! What is with these daughters nowadays? The family maidens are loosing ground on virtue and respect. Jun Okura and Nanako Ohnishi tried to run away together. Nanako escaped. We caught Jun and persecuted her justly. We have sent people for Nanako. She can't survive in the forest, not with the Red Trail in her way. 1/3 There is another problem. We have reason to believe the Aragaki daughter that lived, Miaka, has run off to safety with the outsider. Yoshinori Suda knew about the affair! Master Tanaka was right. Outsiders should be slaughtered the instant they step foot on our soil. We must take matters into our own hands. The escaped persons shall be caught and hung for others to see. This should keep our village safe from other corrupted people. As for Suda… … we have our plans for him. 2/3 Something is not right. The Red Trail is overflowing with the Red. This can only mean one thing… we failed. We need to prepare for a second coming! We need to resolve the sin before it begins! Grab every young daughter you see! Quickly! 3/3"

I am appalled and sick to my stomach. They killed every girl? Gerald's spirit weeps behind me. I turn around. He must be near the entrance. I head there to see his spirit passing through the hallway door. I catch up and find myself in a black and white hall! This is not an image. This is real time. What is going on here? I can hear Gerald's raspy, sorrowing voice. I don't see him, though. "Gone… Gone… I can't find her anywhere… They took her away from me… Why? Why did you come back? I wanted to protect you from this… … You could have told me…" He sounds like he is in a dream state. I cannot get any doors open along this hallway. The path is straight until it turns to the right. This is where I see Gerald on his knees near a door. The body of a young girl is bleeding in front of him on the ground. Her jet black hair covers her face. She's dressed like the girl in the photo with Gerald. It's his daughter! He gets up from her lifeless body and faces me. "Why did she come back here? I don't understand…She told me it was over…" Gerald's spirit stumbles after me. The Camera has no effect on him! As I run back down the hall the way I came from I try the doors on my right one last time. They still will not open. His voice keeps going. Gerald seems really upset about his daughter coming back to the village. Is she a resident here? Maybe she returned the same time the Priests were slaughtering all of the daughters. Who is she? I exit the hallway and find myself in the main room. Gerald is right on my trail. "Don't go… Don't go…!" I have to choice but to leave the Sutuki house for now. When I catch my breath outside the black and white scenery is gone. Things are back in color. I do not see Yoshinori's book where I left it anymore. I catch the young girl in the pink kimono out of the corner of my eye. She has the book and she runs past the Suda house and takes a right. I do not see Dagan around the Suda Market, so I start to follow her when I start to hear a humming noise behind me. There is a blue distortion on the door of the Sutuki house. I raise my Camera and snap a picture. The ghostly faces appear and form a photo called, 'Village Sorrow,' (a photo of villagers on their knees near the cemetery weeping over the deaths of their daughters.) The Sutuki house's door will not open now. My surroundings return to black and white. I can hear the shouts and screams of parents calling out for their daughters. In houses are the spirits of those who lost a child weeping out windows, through doors, and so on. I take off for the little girl who has Yoshinori's book. I hope I haven't lost track of her.

The little girl is rocking on her heels waiting for me by the Ogawa house. She smiles and takes off once I am close to her. The path goes straight past the Ogawa house and half of the Tanaka house. The other half of the Tanaka house rounded the path as it turns to the right. On my right side is the Shibata house. The warehouse is ahead of me, but there is no door there. It lies ahead after the next turn, which goes to the left. A huge entrance door is there. I ignore it because the pink kimono girl goes past it and the two empty houses on the left. I can see the cemetery ahead. Something is not right about it. A thick, red cloud looms over it. It makes a circular motion. I can see the bodies of the young girls in the village hanging by ropes around their necks from bare trees. There appears to be religious symbols etched on the trees. They are the same kind I had seen in the Yoshiawa house. I come closer to the entrance gate of the cemetery to see the young girl's eyes watering. She places her face in her hands and starts to cry loudly. The entrance gate has the same blue distortion as the Sutuki house. I raise my Camera. The pink kimono girl is gone. The red cloud is gone as well. I move my eyes from the Camera. Is it just my lens? No, it is not that. The scenery is no longer black and white. The girl and the red cloud are gone. The bodies are just skeletons swaying in the wind. The gate, however, still has a distortion. I snap a photo. The ghostly faces appear and morph into a new photo, 'The Sorrow Key' (a photo of the locked basement door in the Yoshiawa house; a faint form of seven roses is in the background.) Yoshinori's book is where the young girl was. I pick it up, but I am interrupted before I can read it. Dagan calls out to me. He screams for me to hurry up and 'get the hell away from that gate!' I look at him and then look at the gate. It is not the same! It is now a black hole with ghosts' arms reaching out and almost grabbing me. The harassing woman, recently identified as Mika Aragaki, walks out of the dark gate swarmed in a red cloud. Dagan pulls me away. I am frozen. That's it! It's in there! My answer, my memory! Her face, I will be able to see it! I shout for Dagan to let go of me. "Come… Come back in, Miaka…We're waiting for you… We're here… You can come back. Come back to me…" My hand is about to touch hers. I will finally know what is going on! Almost, almost! Dagan yanks me away and starts to drag me back to the Suda Market. I scream. I want to know! I need to know who I am! It's me! It is me! Dagan throws me over his shoulder. The Black Pearl spirit stone I received from Jun's jewelry box falls out of my pocket. It glows. I can play it, now! I yell at Dagan. I tell him that I dropped something. He doesn't believe me. He looks back and sees it. He can also see that Mika Aragaki is after us with a red cloud around her. He tells me to forget about it. I need to hear it! We reach the Suda Market and he pushes through the door and closes it. I can see Mika pass by through a small crack in the wall. She touches the door and knocks. Dagan pulls me back as she tells me to open it. I want to let her in. I need to see her! Dagan holds me back and holds the door shut until things quiet down. I am furious at him.

"What are you doing!" I shout.

He glares at me. "I am saving your life! You could have been killed."

"Maybe… I should be dead…" Flashes of the images come back to me. I remember the blood down the cheek, Gerald searching for his daughter, Jun killing her brother, and then the memory I have of first entering the tunnel. I had been dressed like I was ready to go to a fancy ball or something. The villagers were dead and I stepped over them. That's… me? The more I get back to my senses and think about it, the more I realize Dagan is right. "… I'm sorry… … I just can't get over this place…" I grip Yoshinori's book in my hands. "So many died…"

Dagan nods. "I can't find Yumi anywhere. I can't find anyone anywhere! It's just us… and the dead…"

I rest on the ground. "They killed every daughter in this village, Dagan."

"I know… …" He sits next to me. "You never told me your name… or why you're here."

My heart pounds heavily. My head throbs heavily. My breath gasps heavily. My words… are gone. What do I tell him? Do I tell him that I might be who Mika Aragaki thinks I am? Do I let him know that I honestly have no clue? Do I go back out to get the Black Pearl and listen to it first? Do I just ignore everything and read Yoshinori's book? "I… I think…" Dagan eyes scan over me. I am visibly shaking. "I think… Dagan… I think I am one of them… one of the daughters…"

End

Chapter Seven

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Next time: Triangle

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