*Author’s Note- This is my first Fatal Frame fan fiction, I love the games, and felt I had to write this. It’s just the Normal Ending from Crimson Butterfly, with what I would think Mio would be going through with having to search for and save her sister. I hope you enjoy, and I could be writing more (and not just about Crimson Butterfly, but the first, third, fourth and some of the Deep Crimson Butterfly endings.) And this will be posted on stories.xnxx.com and fanfiction.net, so don’
CLICK.
FLASH.
WHIRL.
I drop to my knees as the Kusabi disappears, moaning and screaming as he goes. My hands are shaking around the Camera Obscura, it feels hot in my hands like it does after facing one of those poor, damned souls, and he was the biggest I’ve done, and the camera feels as if it is burning and blistering my hands. I feel sweat drip down my face, and my clothes are clinging to me and covered in dirt, I ache all over and my eyes are heavy. I just want to curl into a ball and sleep, I’m so tired, I haven’t had rest all night.
‘I wish this night were over with.’
An image of Mayu flashes through my mind. ‘I must save my sister…’ The thought is exhausted; I’ve said it over and over throughout the night, a mantra I wish would leave me alone.
I get shakily to my feet, gripping the Camera as I walk slowly towards the steps leading lower into hell. I look back, seeing this simple room, nothing but candles with a space in the center, I see the Kiryu twins have returned in their eternal sacrifice. I hear their voices drift over.
“Don’t kill…”
“Kill me…”
I feel a tear roll down, but it stops after that, I’ve cried so much already, I don’t think I can anymore now. Another image flashes through, me leaving here without Mayu, going through the tunnel in the Shrine and just leaving and not looking back and I cringe from the thought.
‘I must save her…’
I turn and start going down the steps, and the end of the steps and down the tunnel a couple feet I see a crumpled piece of paper.
Yae,
You came for me after all.
Please hurry.
I’m right below you.
I know you might not make it in time, but I’ll wait for you until the very end.
-Sae
Just a few simple words of a sister believing she was going to be saved, well, at least her definition of saved. Sae wanted to die, to have her twin Yae perform the sacrifice with her.
The damned sacrifice, how cruel is it to make a set of twins go through this, to make the “older” kill the “younger”. I can see why Yae wanted to leave with Sae, no matter what Sae said, that she wanted to, I can see why Yae tried to get them away, but in the end, Sae got caught and hung by the villagers and causing the Repentance, and then Sae and the failed Kusabi slaughtered the village.
‘Mayu also wants to go through with the ritual.’ I shake my head of the thought. “No, she can’t, she doesn’t want to die.”
I continue walking down the tunnel, trying to hurry but also dreading what I might find. I see an ending to the passageway and hurry towards it. I enter into a big, cavernous room. There isn’t much in it, a giant flat topped rock, big enough for a person to comfortably lie on. And behind it is a giant square shaped pit. That is the Abyss.
Overhead is a small circular opening which is streaming in a faint amount of moonlight, which is the only light other than the few torches lining the area.
In front of the Abyss is Mayu.
She’s standing there solemnly. She looks better than I, not covered in dirt or sweat, her light brown thigh length dress looking like it did when she first followed that Butterfly into the village, her big brown eyes staring at me, seeming to actually go through me.
Sae has been leading her around by the nose since we broke the barrier into the All God’s Village. She can’t want to go through with the ritual can she? It has to be Sae’s influence…right?
I start to walk towards her. After a couple steps the scene suddenly changes. Priests surround us, and I can hear the Mourners behind me. The Priests shuffle slightly, they want this sacrifice to happen, want to be rid of the Malice and the Repentance. I can see the whites of their knuckles as the grip their staffs hard. I cannot see but an outline of their faces due to the cover, but I can imagine that their faces are full of hope and apprehension. They want me to kill Mayu, that’s why they have been trying to capture us all along, to bring us here.
“Yae.” Mayu’s mouth moves but I hear Sae’s voice, though faintly, I hear Mayu say “Mio.” I stop, and stare at my sister. She stares at me unblinkingly, and my legs start to tremble in fear. Fear for my sister…and fear for myself.
“We were born together. But we have to live, and die, separately.” The shaking in my legs gets stronger and my mind starts to grow fuzzy. I can see little black and white dots dance before my eyes. I’m scared, more so than I’ve ever been. ‘Why? Why am I here? I must run, leave this place, don’t look back… ’Then I recover slightly when I hear Mayu’s voice.
“I knew this, I knew.” She says softly, looking away from me for the first time since I came to rescue her. I hear sadness in her voice, the slight quiver in her lip as she looks away. This is really Mayu talking to me. I finally find my voice again, the dots receding, and I start walking towards her. I have a slight tremble in my voice as I say, “Mayu, we’ll be together, we will.”
Mayu closes her eyes and breathes in slightly. I see her hands shaking, but, I don’t think it’s with fear. “We can’t be together forever.” She says, her eyes moving back to mine as I step before her.
We are right beside the rock. This is where it happens, this is where they make the twins perform the Crimson Sacrifice.
I hear Mayu’s voice, from earlier in the Doll Room, flicker in the back of my mind. “Two chosen children, shall be carried to Heaven…on the wings of a Butterfly.”
‘Is this how it’s meant to be?’
Mayu grabs my wrist gently but with a firm grip and pulls me with her onto the rock. She lies under me, completely open and at my mercy, as she has me straddle her waist. ‘I don’t…I don’t want to…’
“But with this, we can become one.” She says, as if reading my mind. I want to be with her forever, we will never escape…not unless I…
“So it’s alright.” She reassures me and pulls my hands down onto her neck, wrapping them around her throat. I can feel her pulse, she’s so relaxed, and it’s not racing at all, just a normal steady rhythm.
Beat. I don’t want to do this. Beat. I can’t do this. Beat. I don’t want to deal with this anymore. Beat. I have to. Beat. I have to do it…
Mayu pulls me down, placing her mouth near my ear. I can feel her warm breath tickle my neck. “Kill me.” She whispers.
My mind goes blank at her words, and I start pressing down onto her neck, cutting off any oxygen. The Priests start banging their staffs onto the rocky floor, making a cacophony of sounds. They get what they want., and I can sense their happiness.
‘Damn them, damn all of them…and…’
I’m looking down at Mayu and I see her smile slightly, but it barely registers. My mind doesn’t see it. I see when we were kids.
“Mio! Wait up! Don’t leave me behind! Wait for…Ahhh!!” Her sentence cuts off as she falls down, tumbling down the steep slop and hitting the bottom, forever damaging her leg. The guilt I felt for not listening. It’s my fault, I have to take care of my sister…but…
‘Two chosen Children.’
I’m so tired of it, I’m so tired of having to take care of her all the time, she’s the older sibling, not me, even though by this village’s standards I’m the older, but in modern times she is. She should take care of me, she shouldn’t be making me do this. I don’t want to live with the responsibility anymore. I have to…
Then words hit me, a combination of Sae’s and Mayu’s voices.
‘Why didn’t you kill me back then, to feel your hands wrapped around my neck, so warm and alive. Why, I wanted to become one with you so badly, to be one forever as a Butterfly. Why didn’t you make me into a Butterfly. Why…why…why?’
‘Shall be carried to Heaven.’
My head swims with images, how Sae got caught when her and her sister tried to escape, how she saw Itsuki hang himself, how the Priests and her own father take her down to the Abyss and hang her before throwing her in and then all the hell that erupted because it didn’t appease it.
Sae and the Kusabi killing all the villagers, hearing Sae laugh maniacally and her kimono becomes splattered with the blood of her victims. All the people who have accidentally wondered into this village, with the inhabitants hoping they would be the ones to stop the Repentance, they never had their prayers received. But now…
‘On the Wings of a Butterfly.’
My mind snaps back and I get a full view of Mayu’s face. She’s still, her face faintly puffy and red with purple circles under her eyes and her lips are a whitish blue, yet she seems so peaceful, she still has that small smile on her face. She isn’t breathing, I slowly take my hands away, revealing the glowing red mark on her neck in the form of a butterfly, as the Mourners come on either side and grab onto her wrists and ankles.
‘What have I done?’
I scramble off of Mayu’s body and the Mourners haul her up and position themselves in front of the Abyss. With unseeing eyes, they throw her body into the Abyss.
I can’t focus on anything, nothing. I’m alone, all alone. I start shaking fiercely, my face twisting in pain as I grip my head, trying to force the thoughts out, thoughts of what I’ve just done.
‘I’ve killed her…’
I run over to the Abyss, Itsuki’s voice flashing through my mind telling me not to look in. I reach the edge, and just before I look down a little bright red light comes floating out. It gets closer. It’s a butterfly, a Crimson Butterfly.
“Mayu?”
The Butterfly stops slightly at eye level, and I hear Mayu’s voice. “Thank you.” Then she starts flying up, more Butterflies come pouring out of the Abyss, the Butterflies of the Sacrificed twins, rising out through the opening at the top of the cave. I turn on my heel and run, up the passageway, and through the Kurosawa house, heading to Misono Hill.
I run after Mayu, chasing her Butterfly. I stumble and fall, scraping my knees and hands, but I barely notice the pain. Butterflies are surrounded me, I can see all the spirits gathering in the streets as I run, watching as the Butterflies lift the Repentance from their existence. I see Itsuki, Mutsuki and Chitose on the Heaven Bridge, finally together again. I run through All God’s, and finally getting to Misono Hill.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” I cry after her, even though I can’t which Butterfly she is anymore. “I’m so sorry!”
I’m heading in the direction of the barrier, it should be lifted now. I should be leaving with Mayu, why aren’t I. “So sorry.”
I stop, still calling for her, when a Butterfly turns and flies down to me. “Mayu?” I reach out my hand towards her, and her wings gently brush against my fingertips. Then she turns with the others and leaves. That is the good-bye I get. I’ll never see my sister again.
I fall to my knees and cry like a lost child as the sun comes and breaks through the eternal night of All God’s Village.
***
The water is perfect as I sit silently on the bench staring blankly at the sunset. Its sparkles off the water, looking beautiful as the rays gently dance on the surface. Birds are flying overhead, whistling their gentle tune. The air is warm, and there is a gentle breeze and it blows my hair lazily. People are walking by, jogging, walking their dogs and fishing. A perfect afternoon.
I’m not really seeing any of it though. Mayu, lying cold and still is all I see now, when I eat, when I sleep. Every night I dream of her, every night I see my sins, I see my sister dying by my own hands, what I didn’t realize then but I do now, is that I was smiling throughout the whole time I was killing her.
I lift my hand to my neck, its still sore. My mark can never be hidden, Uncle Kei speculates what it is, but does really know. He will never understand, no one will. I hope he never find out about All God’s through his research.
The mark of the Butterfly is placed on both twins, the sign of the Sacrificed, and the sign of the Remaining, a reminder to all of the Hell they put us through…and the heartbreak.
‘Together…Forever…’
*Thank you all for reading and I plan to write more of these on how I would view what the characters are thinking and all that, I think I will write the Nightmare ending for this next and work with the others. I hope you guys enjoyed, rate & comment please.*