Warnings: violence, gore, adult situations, drug usage
Category: Horror, Suspense, Supernatural, Romance
Author's Note: HAPPY HALLOWEEN, ghouls and boils! To celebrate this sacred day, I have a treat for you all: a new tale of terror. OAO It'll be only 10 chapters, possibly 11 - I'm still working on it but the basic skeleton is done. Prepare yourselves! On a personal side note, I've always wanted to write a FF7 story from an outsider's perspective. I know some ghouls will shriek in horror at the main being an OC. They may even spray holy water on their screen. Don't worry, this isn't a OC x CC story. While there is sexual tension in the air, if you're brave enough to stick around you'll understand why I went in this direction. So please, sit back. Relax. And enjoy this tale. OAO
UNKNOWN VIDEO LOG | Nibelheim Village
Everyone likes a good scary story. That's what I thought when I decided on Nibelheim Village for our next investigation. Our Wonders of the World online channel currently garners a good five thousand brave subscribers. It's composed of geeks, adventurers, skeptics, conspiracy theorists, and fond appreciators of the Old World. They are a dedicated bunch; a lively bunch. Sadly, the numbers really aren't that impressive, especially with the hard work we put in on a weekly basis. We scrape by. In order to compete with the bigger online channels and gain sponsors, we need more oomph. We need to document places no man or woman dared to go. My film crew agreed when I said all these things two months ago. They were on board with my next proposed destination.
Nibelheim, also known as the Shrouded Village, is an abandoned rural town near the mountains with a notorious past. It belongs to the Old World. No unauthorized person has set foot in this place for over two hundred years, not since Meteorfall. Housed in a secluded location, the village is cut off from the world by the World Regenesis Organization. Official reports declare it a biohazard due to a damaged mako reactor. It supposedly exploded and killed the villagers, burning them to a crisp. That reactor sits on top of Mt. Nibel a few miles from the town, withering away from both age and weather conditions.
As I stand below a tall rusted water tower, surrounded by abandoned wooden-made homes with chipped boards and charred rooftops, a dreadful stillness washes over this land. Dark gray clouds above stay constant. Snow falls. No sun. In this village, the snow comes no matter the time of the year while the air reeks of mako and ash. Burnt toast, that's what it smells like most of the time. But while something constantly burns there is no visible smoke or fire. Sometimes I hear the sounds of screaming here and there. I quickly tell myself it's just the shrieking of a bird, only to realize there are no birds. No animals. Nothing. Nibelheim does not belong to the world of the living anymore.
It belongs to him.
I lick my dried, cracked lips. The frozen snot in my nose makes it irritable to breathe the cold air. I focus on the screen of my PHS, hoping for a signal. Still nothing. Damn. A pang of regret hits me. Because we didn't want the competition to catch whiff of our story or get in trouble with the authorities, we told no one of where we went. Not to our friends. Not to our significant others. Not to our families. No one. On our last video update, we mentioned something very big in store and to stay tuned for it. This new project was going to be a major surprise to everyone. We said our goodbyes and that was that. In hindsight, this lack of disclosure was a stupid mistake.
Only now do I admit how difficult the journey to Nibelheim Village really was, how everything fought to stop us from coming here including nature itself. This town never wanted to be found or reached. While the first drops of iced crystals barely fell over Edge City the long rural paths that led to our destination were already covered in inches of snow by the time we arrived.
The wilderness is a cold and brutal place. No one can survive out here, especially at night. The temperatures drop too low. Frostbites and hypothermia become familiar names in this frozen section of the world. Meanwhile, giant chunks of ice regularly break off from steep mountains high above with deadly effects. WRO set up their blockades because of them.
During winter, WRO regularly blows off their massive horns to warn anyone within range of avalanches. Every year at least sixty people die from them. Some are crushed by the falling chunks of ice, others buried alive. Those who manage to escape death find themselves at the mercy of hungry Nibel wolves that prey on the weak and injured. Despite this level of danger, though, my group foolishly went around WRO's blockades many days ago in order to reach Nibelheim Village. For guts. For glory. And for the promise of new online subscribers.
Pathetic.
We can't leave now. Someone or something slashed our van's tires not long ago. Many times we've tried going by foot. A forest composed of dead trees surrounds the village though. It stretches on for miles in all directions. Thick and long tree branches stick out like boney limbs; I can see terrifying figures in them. Any time we enter the forest we somehow end up going in circles. The Nibel wolves also drive us back. Those terrifying beasts… The mako in this area has empowered them with extraordinary strength and size. Driven by their bloodlust, they've already taken one of our own.
Despair… I feel it everywhere in this God forsaken place. It's so suffocating I can barely breathe in the air. I want to call for help but I still can't get a damn signal from my PHS. The entire Nibel area is a dead zone. Beside me, a lean-shaped man in a white hoodie with piercing blue eyes looks my way. He must notice my current state-of-mind because he now places a warm reassuring hand on my shoulder.
"Smile," Wolf tells me.
I can't.
If I could turn back time I would've taken that 'Danger Keep Out' sign a little more seriously. I would've listened to Wolf when he told me the past belonged to the past. I would've told Gizmo to turn the van around when WRO officers first sounded off their avalanche horns before the path home was blocked off by snow. I would've told Frank to go fuck himself when he insisted reality-based death was a good thing for the channel and would increase our ratings. And I would've done my homework by investigating a man who was supposed to be dead over two hundred years ago. But I am a stubborn guy. So dead-set in making Wonders of the World a major online presence I ignored everything, including all the signs that warned us not to come.