Author’s note: At first, I wanna say this is a fanfic in another fanfic. I combine my beloved 2hyun in Fatal Frame III’s world with different twists I create. So maybe some people may think – “Oh, this sound familiar!” Yes, it is. However, if you don’t know about FF series, there is no need to look for it because except the main concept, this whole story is mine.

To Firefly and Windy: Well, I don’t know what is in my mind right now, like it was put into a chaotic cloud that empty yet so thick for me to get through my confused status. After reading this, if you guys think it was ugly and too solemn to absorb it, just let me know and I will del it. Anyway, I don’t like it either.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

*Clinking…*

The distant ringing bell hovered subtly over her head when HyunA opened her weary eyes to caught only the black and white surround. She did not know her current whereabout, why all the colours ran out of this world, left only two tedious hues for her to view…

The young woman closed her eyes once again then snapped open, everything was still bathed in black and white, as if the whole place was casted in this chroma from the beginning.

So quiet, why so quiet? Only the fainted “ding… dong…” of wind chime echoed endlessly in the odd silence.

When her eyes was adjusted to the colour scheme, HyunA realized she was standing in front of a long but dark hallway of an old Korean mansion.

“Where am I?” – Her lips unconsciously let the words escape.

She really wanna step further inside but this eerie atmosphere buried her feet deep in the ground, let alone the hallway was too dark to see the other end. There was two opposite opened doors on both side of the hallway, which could be seen due to the dim light not too far from her spot. HyunA hastened her eyes on the right door without any particular reason, it’s just like she could sense something dearly behind it.

Then some footsteps were heard unclearly from the left door and when her eyes redirected from that way, HyunSeung walked out then quickly entered the other.

“HYUNSEUNG!”

panically shouted out while her feet had already pursuit his steps. But there was nothing inside the room, HyunSeung was nothing just a vanished frame when she stood at the door. It was large common room when old people gathered around a table for dinner in the past. Nothing but cold. So cold.

HyunA covered with both hands since the room suddenly dropped its temperature to very low degree.

“Why so cold?” – She whispered for herself while sweeping her eyes around the room. The whole large area was still sunken in a black hole with vague light from outside, which she was not sure it was moonlight or whatever.

*Clinking…*

The gentle chime’s intonation again echoed in the gloomy space but louder from the other side of the room, in the dark abyss. That deep ringing set her on shiver and made her skin prickle. She always loved this sound due to HyunSeung’s special interest for wind bells. Every time he came back from a trip, a beautiful wind chime always appeared in front of her eyes, by glass, seashell, metal, porcelain… At first, she disliked the annoying clinking they made when a breeze unintentionally brushed over but gradually, that sound created a strong bond with her when he was not around. That clinking became his essence without notice.

But right now, the sound indicated something terribly, terribly wrong. HyunA could not help but instantly hide herself behind the paper curtain right next to her.

 

*Clinking…*

*Clinking…*

*Clinking…*

 

HyunA locked her eyes to the opposite side while her heart was throbbing like crazy inside her small … then faintly her back felt so so so cold… Her body stiffened then slowly, she turned back to witness a black shadowy of a woman with long black hair covered half of her pale face. She was half , showed many weird tattoos all over it and her slender hand was reaching to the new person in her place.

HyunA did not know why but was sealed from screaming, the only thing she could do was falling behind and ran back to the hallway. However, that woman insisted to follow her prey with questionable speed, as if she was the shadow under HyunA’s steps.

Hyuna stumbled back to her first place but no matter how hard she tried, the door stood still and when she turned her head back, the twisted face of that woman was inches from her terrified gaze. Frozen breath brushed on her skin when HyunA felt a sharp pain on her shoulder…

“Together… forever…” —

.

..

…

HyunA bolted upright in the sleeping skins, her body convulsing and drenched in sweat despite the cold, her hands clawing the air, her eyes wide open and gazing into blackness.  But she did not have much to recollect the dream because the sharp pain backed again on where that woman in her dream had touch; just this time, the pain spread over her skin like a hundred of needles constantly stabbed her fragile shoulder.

“Ahhhh…” – She groaned painfully while trying to touch it but nothing there.

Exhausted from both the nightmare and that sudden pain, HyunA inhaled heavily right before tears found their way on her tired eyes. She once thought her eyes had been already dried a month ago… she was all wrong. She stopped crying just because she had accepted the fact, not because the anguish agreed to leave her alone.

With only the fainted glimpse of him, everything was coming back to her…

HyunA laid her head down and before sleep claimed her, wondered driftingly… - “Nightmare is fine, as long as he was there.” 

 

~oOo~

 

HyunA woke up in tiredness and found it over 10:00 AM already. GaYoon might be at university right now, that meant she was all alone now. The girl hugged her knees close to her when last night dream invaded her consciousness…

Snow fell on an old abandoned house…

She was all alone and lost, but she can sensed that HyunSeung was inside. If she walked in, she might meet him.

He was calling her. But if she went in, she might not be able to return. But if that’s what he wanted… 

This time around was usually her favourite period in the last since this was the time they sometimes had finished “morning exercise” as HyunSeung called it amusingly. But since then, HyunA was always on those occasions deeply impressed by the stillness and solitude around her. Beside that there was something awful in the being surrounded by familiar faces asleep — the deserted seat, the closed books, the sound of wind bells… were all images of Death. The old time tranquillity of the hour was the tranquillity of Death. The color and the chill had the same association. Even the certain air that familiar household objects took upon them when they first emerged from the shadows of the night into the morning had its counterpart in the subsidence of the worn face of sadness.

HyunA dragged her weary body out of the bed to her bathroom in order to have something refreshing after such a night full of bad dreams. But when her night gown trailed down off her slim body, the young woman saw a weird bruise on her shoulder, where that strange woman had touched her in last night’s dream.

Panically, HyunA turned around for her back getting its reflection on the bathroom’s mirror and after a long moment later, she finally tore her gaze from that unfinished tattoo…

“What the hell…?”

Suddenly, a dizziness claimed her over, the only thing rang in the air before she tumbled in a free fall was his voice… “HyunA...”

.

..

…

*Clinking…*

HyunA again found herself inside that manor right the the place she had left last night. snow was falling down quietly and solemnly outside the window like time and space did not exist here. She could not help but let her mind wander back to the first winter of their freshman year in university. With his very high scores, HyunSeung would easily enter Seoul University; however, he had chosen to study at a smaller but good university far away from home with her, started their private life together when they were still 18.

There was a silent night like this, HyunSeung embraced her tightly in his arms on their bed while reading his notebook and around every 10 or 15 minutes, his lips gently pressed on her bare shoulder for a light kiss, which made her giggle softly. HyunSeung’s hair, just like snow.

HyunA stared over the window but her eyes focused on nothing, wondered it was a moment or a lifetime before a single black thread stained the whole rainbow color fabric.

*Clinking…*

That subtle sound brought her sense back to reality, though she did not figured out what this place really was. The only thing seemed obvious to her? That HyunSeung was here.

“HyunSeung ah… You are not alone ‘cause I am here.”

HyunA turned away from the window to follow the sound they both loved to further inside the old house, which only dim light welcomed her presence… Although she regarded this place with a solemn fear but what could be more frightening than waiting endlessly with him by her side?

The whole dark hallway was fill with a very uneasy feeling but – “as long as you are here…” – she braced herself with that courage, no, it’s not courage at all, it was the longing, the one her heart cried every day and night just for one short moment to be with him again.

HyunA walked slowly along the way, skipped anything that not give her a familiar feeling of her beloved or we could say, she let her exhausted soul drift into the lead of that clinking… no matter where it might be… it was not a problem to her at this moment.

It ended at the old wooden door while the wind bell still rang softly behind it. Took a deep breath, she gently pushed the door open as if she was afraid that the sound would disappear and she would be lost in here again, without him.

… Snow was falling quietly in front of her eyes but they were no longer her attention. HyunSeung was standing there, only two or three steps from her place, watching the falling snow.

She wanted to rush to him, held him tightly and told him how she missed him so much but HyunA scared that with just one touch, he would vanished into thin air, like the falling snow in this place. That’s why she approached slowly, both fascinated and repelled by that terrible thought in her head. An unfamiliar chill ran through her when she called

“HyunSeung.”

He turned back but it was hot him… The woman with full tattoo was looking at her and laughed manically…

“HYUNA. HYUNA!!!”

GaYoon panically shook her friend when the tiny frame of HyunA laid silently on the hard earth. It was good there was no wound. It was good HyunA hadn’t commit suicide. It was good… she still breathed…

“Hmm…” – The soft moan escaped her lips when she tried to focus on the blurring shape was hovering before her – “HyunSeung?” – She said…

GaYoon felt an ache in her when that name penetrated her ears but what could she do for now except telling her the truth – “No, it’s me, GaYoon.”

…

Even when they had finished the pizza and laid on the couch with opposite direction, HyunA’s eyes were still immersing in the world GaYoon could not reach.

“Why do we have to lie dow like this?” – GaYoon asked while rolling her head to look at HyunA’s pale face. HyunA always requested her to lie down with this weird position but this was the first time GaYoon dared to ask. She was very afraid that the answer would carry her friend deeper into her torment but for now, striking back might be a better solution when all other methods proved their useless effects.

“Oh… uhm… HyunSeung love to do this in summer time. He said cuddling was too hot but he still craved for my skin so lying down like this, he could kiss me with with a simple gesture. And we could also have Spiderman’s kissing style, It was thrilling…” – Her tone remained even as if she was not there anymore.

“Ah… I had a dream last night. I was in a old abandoned house and was chasing by a weird woman that I could not outrun, a shadow that was relentless and icy-cold. But I was very happy, Hyunseung was in there… though he didn’t hear my call…”

“It is just a nightmare.”

“I know… but it’s weird and scary…”

“HyunA, it… it… was not your fault.” – GaYoon brought up with the prohibited topic since she was firm with the idea HyunA should confront the fact to stand up again. Her friend, a brilliant girl with great scores in university, an ideal of many guys around her now shinking herself into great anguish emotion after her best friend aka her long time boyfriend’s leaving.

She was well aware how deeply they loved for each other, a pair of best friends came up to best lovers in 16 years since they were only 5 years old. All of HyunA’s friend knew HyunSeung loved her more than his own life ans so did her and of course HyunA could not  snatched out of the chain of her great sadness for what she had not made that choice.

 

“You can not keep going like this…” – She said, reluctantly… then pressed on…

 

“HyunSeung is dead…”

 

“My heat haze, which hangs bewitchingly in the air, 

Simply drowned in the days that will not be granted to me 

You are not here 

I know that 

I know that.”

- Voice by Amano Tsukiko