Title: Just a Bad Dream
Fandom: Fatal Frame V: The Raven-Haired Shrine Maiden
Prompt: Attacked by a Creature
Medium: Fan Fiction
Wordcount: 1026
Rating: T
Warnings: Referenced abuse, group suicide, violence, and graphic descriptions of a corpse. Spoilers for the game.
Summary: Schoolmates and best friends Fuyuhi and Haruka decide to commit group suicide with three other girls at the famous suicide spot, Mikomori Lake. As they enter the lake, though, they are assaulted by ghastly apparitions of the shrine maidens who were slaughtered on the mountain almost a century ago. Their three friends die brutal deaths, and only they survive.

"We'll go together."

Mist rose from the lake and swathed the twisted trees like wraiths. The moon shone over the black surface of the water. Its reflection wavered some, disturbed by five high school girls gathered close to the shoreline.

"Let's do it," whispered one of them, flinging her shoes into the forest behind her. She grasped the hand of the girl beside her and noticed how it trembled. "No chickening out. This was your idea, Momose."

"It's okay, Haruka," cooed another girl standing beside her, taking her friend's hand gingerly. "Everything will be better after this. You don't have to hear your mom and dad screaming at each other anymore…or you."

Momose Haruka glanced nervously at her best friend and smiled a little for her sake. "Y-You're right, Fuyuhi. We'll be okay as long as we're together, right?"

The short-haired girl grinned and nodded. "Exactly. Just hold onto me, 'kay? I won't let you go."

"Ready?" asked a fourth girl, inhaling sharply.

The fifth closed her eyes and took the first step into the lake's frigid water. She flinched upon contact. "M-Maybe this isn't such a good idea? Are you sure we'll – "

"Shut up already!" snapped the eldest girl. "We decided to do this three months in advance and all you could talk about was 'freeing yourself' from that abusive bastard you call an uncle." She quieted when her schoolmate's sobs reached her. "It's like Himino said, we'll be all right as long as we stick together."

Haruka's heart leaped in her throat as water pooled around her neck. Raindrops pitter-pattered off the lake's surface and the mist grew thicker the further in they went. Her breath shuddered to a halt when she felt something brush past her cheek. She looked to her left and saw nothing.

"Fuyuhi…" she murmured and gripped her friend's hand tighter.

Something brushed against her arm this time, and then swept through her hair and alighted on her chest. A horrifying chill crawled up to her neck, not brought on by the cold water of Mikomori Lake.

"Pillar…" a hoarse voice echoed beneath the water's surface.

Screams and shrieks filled the night air as the girls suddenly vanished from the lake's surface. Haruka's eyes bolted wide-open, and what she saw nearly froze her blood in place. A gnarled hand wrapped around her throat, skin eroding and floating away from the bone in ragged tendrils. Haruka tilted her head back some and heaved for air that wasn't there, and that when she met 'gazes' with this creature.

"MY EYES! MY EYES!" wailed another apparition behind Haruka as it stuffed its bony fingers into the eye sockets of her schoolmate, attempting to retrieve what it lost a lifetime ago. The girl writhed beneath the ghost and gripped her skeletal arms, trying to force her away. It was no use; blood spurted from her eyes and danced along the lake's current to the surface.

Haruka felt the hands around her neck tighten and she turned back to her tormentor, a woman with her eyes crushed and bleeding profusely. Her raven hair flowed behind her like a menacing shadow, and the white garb she wore was sodden with dry blood.

"Pillar…" it repeated, loosening its grip suddenly. "Save us…Die for us…"

Gasps broke the surface of the lake and Fuyuhi emerged with Haruka in her arms, swimming for shore as fast as her legs would carry her. Behind them echoed the muffled cries of spirits and their unfortunate schoolmates. Both girls stumbled onshore and ran blindly through Shirazu Forest beyond the lake, holding each other's hands like lifelines. Eerie laughter and whispers followed them down the winding path of dead leaves, but only Haruka seemed to hear them.

After running for what seemed eternity, the girls collapsed just outside of the forest near cable car station. Fuyuhi gasped and took Haruka's head to her breast, holding her close and whispering words of comfort to her.

"T-That woman," began Haruka in a tiny voice, "did you see them? What t-they did to the other girls? I-I…"

Fuyuhi shook her head wildly. "We didn't see anything, Haruka."

"But they…we…" stammered the long-haired girl, wringing her hands and feeling around her neck. It ached where the apparition held her, and Fuyuhi wasn't about to reveal the dark bruise she saw in its wake. "What'll we do, Fuyuhi?"

"Keep it a secret," was her friend's answer. "What? Would you rather tell everyone that we were attacked by ghosts in a famous suicide spot? They'd sooner believe that the others just committed suicide together. We knew nothing of it."

Stunned by her detached attitude, Haruka shivered in her arms. "Yes, but what if…What if someone were to…"

"Calm down, Haru-chan," Fuyuhi chided her gently and kissed the top of her forehead. She ran her thin fingers through Haruka's wet stringy hair. "Let's go, okay? We shouldn't linger…"

Haruka dumbly nodded and allowed Fuyuhi to help her stand. They staggered along the walkway and climbed into the cable car.

"It was just a bad dream," added Fuyuhi, operating the controls at the head of the car. She sat down beside her friend after the car started to move. "Eh? What is it?"

Haruka looked up at her with a rueful, tearful smile. "Would you sing for me, Fuyu? That song we sang at graduation?"

Fuyuhi simply laughed and nodded. "Come here," she said and moved Haruka's head to her lap, making her lie down. She stroked her hair again and sang in a soft voice, "And I will never forget all the wonderful things I learned from you."

As she closed her eyes, all Haruka saw was the ghastly face of the woman from the lake. Her eyes split open and bleeding, her throat cruelly slit from one ear to the other, and her mouth agape. All she heard was Fuyuhi's singing accented by screams and pleading voices.

"MY EYES! MY EYES!" shrieked one of her schoolmates.

Fuyuhi looked behind her, out of the cable car's rear window, and sang the song's last line, "Now is the time to say farewell with an eternally grateful heart."