Hand Challenge: Fatal Frame: Fic: Submerged

[kuuderella]

Title: Submerged
Fandom: Fatal Frame
Rating: T
Length: 1795
Content notes: Drowning, Minor Violence, Character Death
Author notes: Mild Spoilers for Crimson Butterfly/Deep Crimson Butterfly.
Summary: It is her sister on the other side of the bridge. She smiles with relief and breaks into a full sprint across the wooden slats, wind whistling through her hair, until something jerks back on her injured leg with alarming force.

"Kaede, you shouldn't be up there. You might fall."

"I'll be okay!" chirps the long-haired girl back at her older sister, walking across a log with her arms extended for balance. "See? I'm doing great!"

The older girl climbs onto the log behind her sister and calls out to her again, "Really, Kaede, come here…" She staggers upright and reaches towards the girl's back. "I mean it! You could – "

With a shriek, the child topples from her balance on the log and falls into the water below. Her lungs seize and shudder against the walls of her ribcage, clawing for air that isn't there. The lake is murky and she can hardly see the sun shining through the water with the thick layer of algae above her. It's like being compressed from all sides, the density of the water squeezing every bit of life from her body. She manages to break the surface of the water with her right hand and waves it around feebly.

"It hurts…It's dark…Cold…"

Something warm catches her by the waist and she's rocketing towards the surface. Air rushes into her all at once as she emerges in the arms of her older sister.

Thirteen years after Kaede's near-death experience, a group of amateur photojournalists and university students disappear in the Minakami region, in the forest not too far from Kaede's childhood home, and ever since then Kaede sees things that no one else seems to. There will be a man cowering in the shadows of the old shrine, a woman wailing on the lake shore at night, and a baby's warped face often materializes in the old well near the forest's entrance.

Is it her sister? Is she sending messages to her? Trying to tell Kaede where to find her?

Kaede's mother doesn't talk about her sister anymore, and her father quickly shuts Kaede up when she's rambling about the 'messages' that her sister is sending her.

"She's probably dead, Kaede. Stop going on about things and upsetting your mother."

She's not crazy. They're really there. Kaede knows.

Her sister is still alive.

Ignoring her father's stern warning to stay indoors during a storm one evening, Kaede sneaks out of the house again in search of her sister's traces around the forest. She does it so often that she's come to memorize different parts of the forest.

Stormy nights are the best to seek out signs from her sister, or 'ghosts' as that haggard shrine maiden called them. Her warnings are heedless and incoherent; what could a dead person, a powerless spirit, possibly do to her if it had no physical form?

"Stay away from that forest. A shadow hangs over it like a shroud of evil. Only Death awaits the fools who go rushing in."

If spirits are so dangerous then why hasn't the cowardly man, the wailing woman, or the distorted child attacked her yet? She's gotten so close to some of them that she could reach out and curl their wispy forms around her fingers and they did nothing but stand idly by. The dead simply linger in this world, not assail the living.

Suddenly, the rain stops and the wind dies down almost instantly. Kaede drops her weathered, torn umbrella and turns her flashlight towards the top of the hill ahead. She tilts her head at a questioning angle and then looks to her map again.

"Where…am I?"

She trudges uphill and through the clearing until she passes beneath a torii gate with chipped, faded paint and rotting slats. Torches burn along the hill and an enormous structure protrudes from the ground like two horns with a stone slab in the center. She's never seen this part of the forest before.

"Is anyone here?" she calls out into the emptiness of the night. "Hello?"

Her flashlight skims along the ground and glints off of something. Upon closer inspection, Kaede gasps and clutches the object to her breast: Kaede's bracelet.

She has one identical to it, a simple bead-and-rope bracelet, and a gift from her sister on her seventh birthday…also the same month that her sister went away to the city for college.

"If you ever need me, just hold it close and call for me with your heart. I'll hear you no matter where I am."

Something whispers through the thin air, "I'll hear you no matter what."

Kaede swallows hard and frantically darts her flashlight about the hill, mistaking every shape and shadow along the ground for her sister's lithe form. She takes a few steps forward and is about to call out once more when the brush behind her rustles.

Is it another sign from her sister? A ghost to lead the way for her?

She turns on her heels too late and a searing pain bolts through her left leg. Crying out, she stumbles backwards into one of the stone 'horns' and struggles to remain standing as she maneuvers her flashlight to illuminate the thicket beyond the hill.

It's impossible.

A sickle lay on the ground a few feet away with her blood on it, and behind it stands a man with a smoky, wispy form and angry eyes set on her.

A ghost?

An intangible thing with no physical substance caused her bodily harm?

Kaede's eyes widen as the scythe rears up again and flies towards her. She drops to her knees and narrowly avoids losing her head entirely, scrambling around on the ground to get away. All of the air rushes out of her lungs when she runs into yet another apparition, bearing a long pole, and straggling behind him are two other men with torches.

"Suzume?" she whimpers and crawls as fast as she can towards another path going downhill. "Suzume, I need…Help me! Help me!" She clutches the bracelet as she drags herself upright again and limps down the path. "Suzume!"

And then, as if hearing Kaede's desperate pleas, another bright, wispy figure appears on the road ahead of her and disappears around the next building. Kaede chases after the woman with every ounce of strength she has left to her, using her own weight to propel her forward on her good leg.

The figure disappears beyond a set of large, wooden doors at the end of an alleyway next. A set of wooden blocks depicting twin deities are already inserted into the locks and the door is slightly ajar. Kaede glances over her shoulder and sees no sign of the angry mob from before, sighing. A gentle breeze calls to her from beyond the gate.

"Kaede."

Smiling with relief, Kaede pushes one of the doors open just enough to squeeze through. "Suzume? Where are you?"

A large lake surrounds the patch of land near the bridge and the adjacent shoreline is connected by an old wooden bridge. Kaede searches the area thoroughly with her flashlight and bites her lower lip, setting her good foot onto the bridge with a slow creak.

"I-I can't…" she murmurs and pulls back. "I just…"

An eerie mist floats over the dark surface of the water and she backs away to the doors again. It's no use.

"You need me…I'll hear…"

Kaede tilts her flashlight up and catches the image of a woman across the bridge. She steps onto the bridge once more and squints into the distance, trying to discern the woman from friend or foe. Her hair is dark like Kaede's, but cut short enough for a man. A short gasp escapes Kaede when she recognizes the outfit that the woman is wearing, a simple blouse and cardigan along with a pair of jeans.

"Suzume?!"

It is her sister across the bridge, beckoning to her with such a sad expression.

Kaede breaks into a full sprint across the wooden slats with the wind whistling through her long hair and her heart thumping against her chest. Her leg aches, but the pain is overwhelmed by the excitement of a reunion with her sister.

"Kaede, shouldn't be up there."

"I'll be okay!" Kaede reassures her with a breathless shout, smiling all the more. "I found you!"

"You could fall."

Something jerks on Kaede's injured leg by the ankle and she slams into the bridge face-first, teeth clacking and lips busting upon impact. The dark scenery around her teeters and swirls as she looks up again, and her sister is walking towards her.

"S-Suzume?" she mouths through the globs of blood. "H-Help…me…!"

An ear-splitting crack echoes throughout the void as Kaede's leg is yanked through some of the bridge's slats and her bone splinters from the sheer force of it. A shrill cry tumbles from her lips and she claws along the wooden surface for traction before glancing behind her.

Countless white hands grip her leg.

"Oh my G-God…" She tries to pull herself up again but they drag her backwards until her foot dips into the frigid water below the bridge. "Suzume, help me! Give me your hand and – "

Suzume towers over her and she's almost transparent against the night sky.

"You shouldn't be up here."

Kaede sobs as her sister grips her left wrist and pries her fingers away from the bridge, holding her arm aloft in the air for a moment.

Suzume grins and it sends a wave of panic through Kaede. "You never listen, do you?"

"No, no! Don't, please!" begs Kaede as Suzume looses her other hand from the bridge and holds her up in the air by both arms. "S-Suzume, I'm sorry! I-I am, please! I'll be good! I'll listen and – "

A loud crashing sound is all that rings throughout the area next as one side of the bridge shatters into little pieces and Kaede is pulled under. She hold her breath and struggles against the arms springing from the muddy surface below her. It's so dark that she barely sees the hole through the bridge just a few feet above her, but she manages to catch the splintered edge with one hand and pull herself towards the surface.

"Let me help you."

Suzume's shining, ghastly hand pushes on her sister's face and keeps her submerged as Kaede pleads, struggles to pull herself out of the water. Her touch burns like frostbite and her raucous laughter stings. Kaede's instincts force her mouth open and the water crowds her throat, her lungs, and she loses her grip on the bridge. The ghostly hands drag her down and down and down until her back hits the lake floor. Her eyes widen and roll back into her head, her limbs stop flailing, and the darkness carries her along the gentle undercurrent beneath the bridge.

When you pass the Whisper Bridge in Minakami Village, you may hear the bubbles rising from the dark depths and Kaede calling out to her sister for help, waiting to be pulled from the icy waters once more.