You Promised…Remember?
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fatal Frame II.
Chapter Three
Changes
It has been ten years since Mio's wedding to Shiro. When they first came back after the honeymoon, I was happy to see her again. She had begged her new husband to stay here so she could be close to me, even though he made more than enough for them to live very well on their own. With Mama having recently passed on and Uncle Kei having long since left, Mio worried about me being all alone. Besides, this was our home-where me and Mio had spent nearly all of our lives.
Many things had changed here since the wedding. Mio had become interested in photography after the incident in the Lost Village and was hired by a popular occult magazine soon after she graduated college. I had become a kindergarten teacher myself. Mio and Shiro have also had five children-two of them twins like us. Mio is paying attention to a lot of other people these days, sometimes even more than she pays me. I'm a little jealous, but it's okay...I can use that promise to keep Mio with me forever…
…or so I had thought.
-
"Mio, I'm home!" I called, setting my keys on the kitchen table-just as I had every day. But today felt different…Normally, Mio came to greet me or, if she couldn't, she would shout out her location so I could go to her. And the house was so quiet today…It was usually filled with the noises of those kids of hers.
The twins were the eldest, at nine years of age. Kasumi was the first born and the most tolerable of them all. Like me, she was quiet and loved her sister very much. And due to her independence, she rarely needed Mio's attention. But her twin, Natsumi, I despised the most. She was loud and selfish, and seemed to have no attachment to her sister at all. Plus, she demanded Mio's attention and seemed to view me as inferior to herself…Such a brat. They did not even dress similar, though both had long black hair that they wore down-Kasumi wearing a headband in hers.
Next in line was eight-year-old Mariko. An athletic tomboy who wore her short black hair up in a ponytail, she was as energetic and outgoing as my dear sister. Even so, her constant sports games causes Mio to be away from home often…
Hikaru was only six with long, often messy hair and was always either crying or screaming about something. She was the loudest and most annoying out of all the kids, but Mio always says she is like that because she is so young. We were never like that at her age…
Sakuya was the youngest-only four. She was very small for her age and always getting hurt. I hated even her for taking Mio away from me all time. After her birth, Mio had even less time to spend with me…
"Mio?" I went into the kitchen and spotted a note on the counter. Recognizing my sister's handwriting on it, I picked the letter up and sat down at the table to read it.
My Dearest Sister,
Please forgive me…I've done something terrible to you! I hate to tell you this in a letter, but I did not have the courage to tell you this to your face. Ever since Sakuya's birth, things have just been too cramped with you. Shiro has secretly been building a new, bigger house for all of us to live in, and now it is finally ready. Our new house is just down the street, so you can come and visit us whenever you want. Please don't be mad at me! After all, it's not the end of the world, right?
Your sister, Mio
Mayu stood up in shock, unable to keep reading the letter in her mind. After all they had been through…even though they had promised…Mio was leaving her again?! Her anger caused her to crush the note into a ball in her fist.
"You are wrong, dearest sister-it is the end of the world…
…for you."