Night 4: Final Destination

Many moons have passed since my night 3 encounter. The spirits of the ‘apartment of the damned’ haunt me now, wherever I go. 

There is, unseen by most, an underworld. A place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...a DARKSIDE.

Ghost? Or motion-sickness-induced hallucination? Hard to say!

I’ve walked passed the diary everyday without the courage to pick it up. But finally, this night, a streak of self-destruction runs through me and I return to it. The root of all evil, the hell mouth, the necronomicon...the accursed Diary of Faces™. Maya catches me up to speed. The lady in black is Maya’s evil other half and she is trapped in the diary, stealing faces until she is reunited with Maya. (Boy, when you say it like that, it almost sounds stupid!)

All that’s left to do is go into the diary and fight the lady in black. There’s some concern that defeating the lady in black will kill Maya but these are mostly Maya’s concerns. We’ve got a serial face-stealer on our hands...this isn’t time to sweat the details!

Maya's evil twin, the lady in black. Travel-size.

Maya and I head into the diary and, without so much as a cutscene, the lady in black starts launching miasma at us. As I watch Maya screaming and ducking miasma, I have to wonder if Maya’s right about all this. I mean, boo hoo, the poor lady in black wants to be reunited with her other half. Well, here she is, lady. Maybe you want to stop killing her!

The lady in black lunges at me but boy is she sorry. I’ve got the Camera Obscura! I begin the photographic, ghostbusting dance. I snap a shot. Spin to the right. Snap another shot. Cartwheel, but my arm buckles and I crash down on my hip. Oh god, oh god, snapshot. Awkward tumble. I’m dying here but, snapshot. The lady lunges, I dive out of the way and knock over a lamp. This time I don’t get up. I can’t get up.

I focus the camera back in on Maya. I don’t see the lady in black but hear her screaming. Maya tells me that the lady is trapped inside the camera! “Jason, destroy the Camera Obscura to end this!!” Wait, what? Destroy it? I look down at the camera but, as I come to my senses, it’s no longer the fabled Camera Obscura. It’s my frikkin’ 250-dollar 3DS. I’m having what could only be described as a metaphysical crisis. Destroy it? I meeean. Couldn’t I... Couldn’t you... Oh well, I didn’t come this far to back out now... I throw the damn thing against the wall!

All is quiet. I pick myself up off the ground, still aching from the battle (and especially from that missed technical element in my routine). Is it over? The air feels cleaner, fresher, warmer. My mood brightens. I’ve done it! The curse on my apartment has lifted. As the memories of it all start to fade, I brush my teeth, pour myself a sleeptime beverage, and head for bed. My head hits the pillow and I think back to Maya. Maybe I was too hard on her...what an awful thing to have to confront an evil, ghostly twin. At least it's over. I close my eyes. All alone in the last apartment on the left...or am I?

The gentleman in black.

Unwilling to move on

Now, now, no need to cry. Your teddy bear is right here on the table.

Night 3: Dance with Death

Maya is dropping BOMBS on me tonight. All the fragments of this story are falling into place. The first thing I learn is that the musician ghost girl wasn’t Maya’s sister. It was the sister of Kaito, the man who lost his sister in the book during my night one encounter. If you remember, his quest to return her home ended when I, how do I say this, “killed him.” And so the family really achieves closure now that I’ve killed the sister too.

Kaito, in happier times, coming in for a hug

Through the camera, I have some visions of the lady in black. Whoa, she’s a smoking hot babe! White hair and red eyes, nice! Apparently, Maya was meant to be a vessel for a town-saving spirit but Maya had a split personality. The spirit inhabited only half of Maya (now the lady in black) and the other half is the one hanging out with me in my apartment. So the lady in black is like a hot, white-haired version of Maya. The mastermind behind all of this is an old lady with, seems like tree-branches(?) growing out of her body. She’s like a witch or something, but I don’t think GOOD LORD, MAYA, SHE’S BEHIND YOU. 

Get away from my dishwasher, you old hag!

I jump out of the chair and start the photographic dance of the camera obscura, a dance that is both beautiful and grotesque. Snapshot, spin, snapshot, pirouette, snapshot, pants fall down, snapshot and the witch is dead.

Maya decides that the lady in black will never be satisfied until she is reunited with her other half. She wants to be whole again and so the lady in black wants Maya, not me. So, why am I the one fighting the ghosts?! My role in all this diminished, there’s really no reason for me to stay in this haunted apartment. “Maya, you got this! Go Maya...yay!” I toss her the keys to the apartment and run out the front door. I stop, rush back, and tell Maya that Monday is trash day. Then, I run off into the night. Will I return for a night 4? Stay tuned!

No, really, Maya, I'd like to stay and help but...

<BOING> AHHHH!!! NOOO!!! I'M OUTTA HERE!

Paranormal Encounter

Oh, hello, little one. Here to kill me?

Night 2: Family Matters

It takes a real brass pair to get me to open that Diary of Faces again after the intense first session. But I put aside my fears and I, how do you say, ‘get back in there.’ Maya gives me a where-have-you-been face when I start, but she soon warms up to me again.

Here’s Maya. Oh no, she’s sad now.

This time she explains that when she was in the haunted house, she met a mysterious girl who was very familiar to her but she can’t remember exactly why. She thinks it might be one of her family members...but which one? (I’m learning that a lot of Maya’s memory was lost when I yanked her out of that horror house.) The mysterious girl would play music for the lady in black. As Maya tells the story, oh god, I start to hear music. It’s getting louder and louder and I finally interrupt Maya ‘Maya. Maya. Hey, Maya, sorry, but you gotta wrap this story up so we can get out of here...can’t you hear that music?!’ Too late. Maya’s like “oh $#*%, behind you!” I jump out of my chair and damn near jump out of my skin! The musician ghost girl is crawling really fast around my floor like a spider. I charge the camera meter and when she comes in close, I take a clean shot. Maya’s like “Kill her! Kill her!” which seems strange given the story she just told me. Another shot or two and, whew, the spook is banished from my apartment. I sheepishly turn to Maya, “I think I just killed your sister.”

Maya's musical, ghostly...sister?

Here's Maya "helping."

Maya ignores my apologies for murdering her sister and explains that anyone who tries to escape the lady in black has his/her face stolen. She tells me to now look into the diary and I see first a picture of my face and then a picture of my... no-face. Apparently, the lady in black just wants eyes and mouths because my nose looked fairly intact. Don’t worry, Maya, I’m taking this lady’s face before she takes mine! Also, I learn that the lady in black will never settle until she finds one specific person...I have a sinking feeling that I’m that one person. Can I keep my wits about me to survive my inevitable encounter with the lady in black? Stay tuned, readers!

Never forget.

I managed to capture a photo that reveals the spirit that is possessing Alia. Let's stage an exorcism! The power of Christ compels her!

Night 1: "Helping" spirits "rest in peace"

This blog will be a place where I can share my paranormal experiences with Spirit Camera: Cursed Memoir, a 3DS game that uses the camera, motion controls, and augmented reality to bring ghosts into the real world where you battle them by taking photos of them. Sounds stupid? Fighting ghosts with a camera? Well, the game is actually in the Fatal Frame series, a game series that started on Playstation 2 and, even from the beginning, you’ve always used a camera to battle ghosts in haunted houses. So, it’s the perfect game for the 3DS camera. This time, I'M holding the camera and the ghosts are in my apartment! (If you plan on playing the game, beware of minor spoils throughout.)

As soon as darkness falls on the first night of my exorcism, I break out the ‘Diary of Faces’ (a 20 page booklet that comes with the game) and the ‘Camera Obscura’ (the 3DS). Evil is definitely in the air. As I'm setting up, I feel a cold wind against my legs. I think “that was definitely a spook.” What a relief when I realize it's just the central air coming on. The first thing I learn is that words only appear in the diary if I’ve been cursed. This diary has no words so I start feeling pretty good about things. But, wouldn’t you know it, when I look through the camera at the front cover, words appear and I’m transported into a dark hallway. Now, I back off the book and as I walk through this hallway in first person, I can use the camera to look all around me...CUHL! I see a lady in black drifting down the hall. When I transport back to the real world, I realize I brought a girl, Maya, out of that scary house and now she’s standing next to me in my apartment. Wow, it looks really cool when she's standing next to me. Wow, it looks really not cool when she’s standing on my table.

I hear a noise next to me and so I slowly turn with my camera and OH GAWD.

That’s definitely a spook. Maya tells me that a ghost followed us out of that house and he’s now in my apartment. He lost his sister, he went in the book looking for her, the lady in black told him he couldn’t leave or she’d steal his face. It’s a sad story, yes, but this dude is now running around my apartment attacking me so I shoot a few well-framed photos and he dies. I’m only willing to help these spooks "resolve their unfinished business" if they don’t try to kill me in the process.

The next spook is a boy who wants me to play hide and seek with him in the diary. He gives a clue, I turn to the correct page, and he tells me I was right. We do this quite a few times. It starts to wear thin. He must have thought so too, because he jumps out of the diary and starts attacking! I snag some killer shots and he dies too. After this ghost is sufficiently "busted," Maya says that the boy only went into the book because he has no friends and he just wanted to be my friend. Well, Maya, first of all, “now ya tell me!” Second of all, “then please explain why he was trying to kill me!”

My mind is really starting to melt after all this ghost hunting. So I save and quit. I still feel odd so, I go look in the mirror and, sure enough, the damages are obvious just from looking at my face! NOO! WHY?!