All God's Village stands in a forest, deep in the mountains. This forest will soon be lost to a dam. On the eve of a special ritual something went dreadfully wrong, causing the disappearance of its population and leaving the forest wreathed in a thick fog. Many say that if you should happen to get lost in this forest, you will be spirited away to the village. The village where the Crimson Butterflies dance; the village held forever in the grip of a never-ending night. All God's Village was one wrapped in superstition and ancient folklore. Its population felt it necessary to appease spirits in order to ward off evil. By conducting the Ritual of the Crimson Sacrifice, they believed to be safe from catastrophe. Twin sisters were forced to perform this ceremony, a cruel and inhuman sacrifice where one sister kills the other...

The river trickled gently in front of her, the gentle breeze touching her face, encircling her with the smell of the forest about her. The lilies drifted down the river taking with them weeds and moss yet not a fish. Mayu sat quietly, her legs curled underneath her, thinking of all of the memories she had had here.

'Mayu!'� The voice echoed through the forest. Mayu turned around. Her older twin sister came running up to her. "Mayu," she repeated, 'Why are you sitting all alone? We don't have much time here.'�

'I know, Ayumi.'� She replied doubtfully, starring back at the river, 'But I just don't want this place to be turned into a dam.'�

'I know.'� Her sister said, 'Do you remember the times we spent here?'�

'Yeah...'� Mayu stared at the ditch across the river, picturing the time she fell, permanently scarring her leg. Ayumi caught sight of the ditch also.

'Does your leg still hurt?'� There was a small pause until Mayu replied,

'It does a little bit.'� Ayumi left her gaze of her sister and turned to look through the forest. She could make out a hill a little while off through the trees. Wooden steps were built to allow access over it but they were always forbidden to climb. The local villagers said that the hill passed into the mountains where evil lay. The sister, of course, didn't believe in such fairytales and they discarded the warnings. They have still, however, never climbed the hill.

'Hey, Mayu,'� said Ayumi, with some reassurance in her voice, 'Why don't we climb over the hill before we leave. You know, the forbidden one, before it gets dug up.'� Mayu nodded.

'Okay.'�

The hill was not that steep yet the girls were glad that it had steps to walk upon. Both were excited, they were finally advancing up the hill. Mayu, who at last had a smile on her face, stopped for one moment to catch her breath and there she saw it: a bright, crimson butterfly flutter past her, gliding upwards and over the hill. She was enchanted by the beautiful creature and chased after it, past her sister who, after realising what had her sister in such delight, followed her.
The chase of the crimson butterfly led the twins up to the top of the hill, which was actually the slope of a cliff, and no more for the butterfly glided over the edge of the cliff and disappeared into the sky.

'I don't think I've seen a butterfly that colour before.'� said Ayumi, still staring after the butterfly. She turned to her sister who was staring at the bottom of the cliff to the right of them. She seemed terrified. 'Mayu?'� asked Ayumi, 'What's the matter? What are you''� Ayumi stopped and caught sight of what Mayu was staring at.

The village was not far away at all. In fact a view of the entire village could be seen from the cliff face. The twin sisters had never seen this village before in their lives. It was barren, deserted and seemed like a place out of a storybook. The two sisters were about to turn back until:

'Ayumi! Look!'� Mayu pointed at the centre of the village. Butterflies, the same colour as the one they had seen before, were swarming around the village square. Ayumi, although curious, believed that they should not be here.

'Do you think,'� she said, 'that this village was the reason that the hill was sealed off?'� Mayu turned and wandered off down the right hand side of the cliff. Ayumi shouted after her sister. 'Mayu! Don't! Let's go!'� However, her sister just ushered for her twin to follow her and, with much hesitation, she did.

The path led around the cliff face and towards the village. The wind still drifted through the trees and the sun shone brightly. A few steps onward the girls found a small stone-like statue standing in the ground at the side of the pathway. The stopped and stared at it. The markings on the stone seemed to show two girls, seemingly identical and holding hands. Mayu walked over to it and kneeled down.

'What do you think it is?'� She tapped the stone, not realising that it would be the biggest mistake she would ever do. Within a blinding flash of light the sky turned black, the forest was filled with mist and the entire scene around them became dark and forbidding.

'What... what happened?'� Ayumi's voice was filled with terror. Mayu clambered to her feet and took a place by her sister, holding on to her in fright. 'Let's go back at once!'� She two ushered themselves back towards the trees they had come from but, in fright also, out of the darkness came the crimson butterflies. Hundreds and hundreds of the creatures were speeding towards the twins, encircling them. The twins, too frightened to return through the trees, fled towards the village. Making their way out of the swarm of butterflies they raced behind one of the buildings but they were cut short at what they saw next. Images of, seemingly, the past flickered before their eyes. They stared at the square that kept switching from deserted to full of people. The images showed a line of people walking in a circle with the leader holding an easily recognisable wooden sceptre. There was chanting and the circle of people were dressed in red robes holding a flame torch each. Within the centre of their circle were two girls: twins. The circle stopped walking and the action focused on the twins within the circle. They faced eachother and then one raised her hands towards the other's neck and immediately-

'SCREAM!!!!'� Ayumi and Mayu's scream of terror echoed through the village and they closed their eyes. Murmured groans of one of the sisters were heard and then a thud to concrete. The watching sisters opened their eyes in time to see a terrifying thing. Lightning erupted from the clouds and struck the square and, within a flash, the villagers vanished, the fires were gone and what took their place were crimson butterflies drifting into the sky...

The sisters cowered in the corner of the Osaka house, hiding between the mess of dusty books, broken ornaments and fallen over furniture. What was happening? How could they escape? Why was this happening to them? What horrifying secrets did this hidden village hold? Surely there must be some answers around somewhere. The thought had hit Ayumi's mind in almost an instant and, immediately, began to rummage around the dusty books and broken shelves for an explanation as to what was happening. The moon glistened through the dust-streaked windows and it took the role as the girl's torch light as she rummaged through the books, slabs and old pictures of the Osaka house. Then she found it: 'The Book of the Crimson Sacrifice'�. The two sisters looked at the dark, crimson red cover and slowly opened the pages. It was a diary of a cleric who had lived within the village. Maybe this held the answers to the untold secrets. Ayumi, enchanted and frightened by the words on the paper, read out loud.

"All God's Village has been encased with the cruelty of evil and darkness.
The priest has discovered a way to release us all from darkness and free our home.
He calls it The Crimson Sacrifice'�"

"The sacrifice requires two identical twin sisters in order to complete the ceremony.
It is said that if they are surrounded by the fires of hell and flooded with the chants of the Crimson Bible then the ceremony will work. However, a dreadful event must occur to complete the ceremony: one sister must kill the other."

"The whole village was traumatised by the events needed in order to undergo the ceremony but all were willing enough to undergo them if it would free us from evil."

"The ceremony commences tonight. We all pray for the freedom of our lives'�"

'That's where the diary ends.'� said Ayumi, closing the book.

'But'� didn't the ceremony fail?'� asked Mayu with concern, 'I mean'� we saw them, devoured by darkness. We saw the ceremony fail and all of them disappear into the life of a butterfly. If that happened, how come all of this is happening now?'�

Suddenly, wailing could be heard from outside. Moaning and groaning seemed to approach the house.

'Mayu'�'� said Ayumi, completely encased with terror, 'I believe I've just figured out why all of this is happening.

'What? Why?'�

'The ceremony was never completed, meaning that the village was never freed from darkness.'�

'And?'�

'That means, when the villagers vanished, their spirits never disappeared. In other words, they didn't die completely.'� The groans grew louder from outside.

'What are you saying, Ayumi?'� Ayumi hesitated before answering her sister.

'The sacrifice consisted of two identical twin sisters, right?'� The moans crept closer. The sisters' hearts froze with terror. Neither could stop shaking, Ayumi spoke with much fright and terror in her voice, 'I believe they've found their new sacrifice'�'� Mayu gasped in terror, not taking her eyes off the windows of the house, 'Us.'�
Suddenly, a face pressed itself against the window, pure white in colour. A horrifying shriek came from it and its arm smashed through the window.

'RUN!!!!'�

The back door of the house led straight into the forest towards the cliff side. Mayu, running next to her sister, panted heavily and said,

'But'� how'� can running'� help us'�?'� Ayumi answered at once.

'I believe that once we get past that stone monument we'll be free from the village!'�

The two raced onwards with dozens of spirits, representing the vanished villagers, trailing behind them with screams and moans following after.
About fifty meters lay between the sisters and the where the stone monument sat with around ten meters between the spirits and the sisters. The twins ran as fast as they could, Mayu crying in pain from her injured leg. But still she pressed on, determined not to be captured by the monsters behind her.
Within the wailing and screaming the two managed to pass through the mark of the stone monument and collapse in exhaustion. They turned behind them. The spirits shrieked louder than ever, frozen completely. Black Dust and mist grew from the ground, encircling the entire area. The spirits started to disintegrate, disappear completely into dust joining the black clouds. Soon the sister could not see a thing and they held on tight to each other, making sure they would not be separated by the blackness around them.

Soon, the screeching stopped, the dust settled and clouds drifted across the new blue sky as they had done before. The sisters opened their eyes and found that everything had returned to normal. The stood up, Mayu feeling better from the pain in her leg from running, and looked around. They were no longer near the stone monument but back at the small river once again. Looking ahead they no longer saw a hill but a large clearing with no cliff and no village. A lake had taken their place. The sisters stared with relief and disbelief. Even though this was their childhood play area, even though many good memories had been born here they were ever so glad that this forest would be turned into a dam the very next day.
They smiled at each other and, hand in hand, gently walked to the edge of the forest and out of the trees, away from their favourite dream and most horrible nightmare.

Never were they to set eyes on that place again and, with the wind, it glided onto one of the last branches of the forest. Scurrying its legs it rested a little until flying away again: that crimson butterfly'�

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