Fractured scales as white as bone, eyes blacker than the deep sea at night.  Shivering mouth with fangs that seemed to shift in and out of existence.  The entire body seemed to blur just on the edge of focus.  He felt at first the same paranoia one feels when they see a tall black shadow just out of the corner of their eye.  Then came the deepest fear.  The most intimate fear of all.
The fear that one was already dead.
Seeing his own ghost brought his horror back in its fullest form, as it shrieked at him with his own scream of anguish.  His spirit clutched at its head, seeming to go mad from some sort of pain in its skull before charging forwards, arms swung wide open.  James could only turn and run, screaming for his life, the very terror of his own mortality making his heartrate turn violently fast.
His heart was beating in his ears, stifling everything else around him as he ran for the first door he saw, back to the fireplace.  He was desperate to hide, any place he could hide from the monster that was him.  He ducked into a small door just beside the stairs and grandfather clock, finding a dark corner behind a few bookshelves and leapt over them to cower and hide in the darkness.
He struggled not to whimper, covering his mouth and curling up into a foetal position to try and look as small as possible.  Soon he heard the creature approach, claws clacking wispily upon the wooden floor.  He could hear its shuddering breaths, shaking from corpse-like coldness as it murmured to itself, whispering in his voice.

	"W-why...on this date...why...can't...c-cut...c-cut...CUT!  ME!  CUT INSIDE MEEEE!  CUTTING!  GLASS!  MAKE THE CUTTING STOP!  PLEAAAASE!"
The spirit shrieked with agony and collapsed onto the floor, screaming mindless words, begging for some sort of release as it clutched its head.  A madness seemed to take over it powerfully, and James wanted to pity it.  But he knew it would mean death for him to do so.  He kept himself in hiding, waiting for the apparition to move on and give up its search.  Eventually it disappeared, running in pain and frustration at having lost its prey.  When he could hear nothing else but the ambient breeze of the dreaded manor, James slowly climbed out from behind the bookcases, his head still in a panicked disarray as he tried to think.
H-how the fuck is that possible?!  I'm not dead, I'm not dead I can't be!  I need to find one of those Boos, he can tell me if I'm dead or not right?!  But...if I wander around too long that...thing might find me again.  W-what do I do?  Wh-what do I-
	"A-AAGH!"
He suddenly felt a tightening pain in both his hear and mind, feeling something slowly rise within him.  The fear was strengthening.  He struggled to fight against it, shivering, feeling as if he was about to have a heart attack.
	"N-NO!  F-FUCK OFF, G-GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  NOOO!"
He tried fighting back, for the first time he understood what to do against this strange demon he knew was lurking inside him.  He shivered and convulsed, falling onto his knees as he mentally fought forwards, trying to fight his panic.
	"I-I know what to do...g-get the masks...then the room...that's all I have to do.  I'm not lost...I-I'm not...afraid.  I can DO this.  I can do this!  Now get AWAY!"
Finally the demonic force ceased, pulling itself back into whatever dark corrner of FG it had nestled itself within, as the raptor stood up weakly.  His head felt warm, and his heart beat a little fast.  But he had managed to fight it.  He knew his opponent now, one of them at least.  He decided to brave himself and head back towards the kimono room where the first revolving wall was.
	"Hey, Boo guy?"
	"Y-y-yeah?" said a timid Boo from the other side of the wall.  "...I-is that you, um..."
	"James."
	"Y-yeah James."
	"I-i heard a lotta noise near here...you okay?"
	"Yeah, I beat up that lantern guy for ya."
	"Y-you did!?  Cool, th-thanks, did he learn his lesson?!"
	"Heeee kinda ran after a good beating down, I don't think we'll see him for a while hopefully."
	"Lemme just open this up."
The Boo gently turned the wall and smiled bashfully at James.  The scar still remained on him somehow, which saddened James.
	"Uhm, m-my name's Boona by the way."
	"Hehe, alright...um...I need to ask you something."
	"Yeah?"
	"...am I dead?"
Boona looked at the raptor with an expression that can only be described as "failing to comprehend something".

	"...wha?"
	"I know it's stupid but...I saw something...my own ghost."
	"...y-yer own...spirit?  B-but that's not possible!  I mean yer alive, clear as day!"
	"Yeah I thought so too, but I...how is it my own GHOST is out there?!"
	"Well yer definitely not soulless, though you got a bit of dark energy around ya."
	"Yeah don't worry about that, but uh...I AM alive, right?"
	"Course you are!"
	"Right...um...how's yer friend?"
	"He's okay, couple of my other pals took him away somewhere safe, um...u-u-also I told 'em not to prank ya anymore cuz you...saved us.  They promised too."
	"Well that's cool of them.  But...why didn't you go with them?"
The Boo gently rubbed his little flippers together awkwardly, not entirely sure if he should say what he said next.
	"I...I kinda got worried about you, I wanted to stay here in case you came back."
	"Really?  ...well...thanks."
	"Least I could do fer you fighting off that scary lantern guy."
	"Right...you know it's not safe to be on your own right?"
	"R-right..."
	"You wanna come with me?  If we find any of your friends you can go with them, but I don't want you on your own like this."
	"Y-you...can I?"
	"Heh, sure, I'd appreciate the company, this place can get scary."
	"I don't think we're gonna stay here too long," said Boona shyly, "I already heard my pals say we're gonna leave soon cuz this got way outta hand."
	"Yeah I think that's a good idea."
	"What about you?"
	"I was brought here for a reason.  Someone wants me here and I need to find out what.  Didn't your friend Booris mention something about a red ghost who talked about me?"
	"Y-you mean...ohhh him."
	"What?  Who is he?"
	"He didn't tell us his name, he said he'd been here a loooong time, long after all the ritual and cursing stuff went away from the people who lived here.  He said he didn't mind us hanging around an' pranking others, but he said to look out fer you.  Told us to give you a map an' some directions."
	"...what does he want with me?  What's he look like?"
	"He's kinda...just red.  He's like this ancient red wisp, floating in the air...even I could feel how old he was, an' this was my first time out on a real scare trip.  ...I'm not good at scaring yet."
James smirked at the awkward Boona, seeing that he was nothing more than just the young tagalong getting his rite of acceptance from older peers.
I guess kids will be kids even if they're dead, thought FG.
	"So, that was all this guy said?"
	"Y-yeah, just that.  He told us to be careful, avoid the other ghosts an' don't tread on any toes...uh...figuratively speaking."
Boona floated a little higher to emphasise this with a giggle.
	"Heheh, right.  Well, I got something I need to do here, so if you wanna come along..."
	"S-sure!  The least I can do fer helpin' me."
	"Alright, follow me."

With a new ally close at hand, even if only temporary, James felt his confidence turn a little stronger now that he had someone to not feel alone with.  Boona felt the same, thankful for the company in turn and also for seeing the raptor was okay.  The fact that he wasn't sore about being pranked anymore also helped matters.  James guided him towards the mask room, explaining as they reached the hallway before it.
	"Okay so apparently I need to pick up some masks and put them in this one area, so I can get this OTHER mask to pop out and use it to open a door, got it?"
	"Ahh huh."
	"I already know where two are, I just need a third one...you gonna be okay with that scar?"
	"O-oh don't worry about it, it'll heal."
	"Heh, alright."
James took the angry mask off the hall entrance after passing through, finding that when the mask had been taken off the wall would become locked in place.  Noting this, he left the sad mask alone so he could access the mask room later, heading along the previously-unexplored north corridor.  He noted on the map there was another room along this corridor, as he soon saw from quite a terrifying-looking mask of an extremely happy demon.
Boona almost eeped from the sight of it, but James gently pressed on the wall to reveal what was inside.  A small ritualistic room of dark red, candles surrounding the two entirely.  In the very centre of a podium at the back of the room, was a large violet-coloured mask.  James could see it staring at him.  Dark shades of crimson, little multi-coloured points with fierce wide amber eyes staring into his soul.
He also noted a rather odd oval-shaped frame above it, a clearing of dust for something at least 5 foot tall.
	"Wh-wh-what is that?" asked Boona.
	"Something we're not touching," said James.
He gently looked closer, seeing the mask pulsate some kind of energy which unnerved the raptor and made him step back.  Boona did not even dare approach it, already terrified by its very aura.  The raptor wondered if this was the mask he was warned about due to its significant placement.  But he had no reason to use it, and turned away to leave, taking the Boo with him and removing the happy demon mask off the door.
They headed back to the main mask room, collecting the sad mask on the way as James placed all three into the pillar.  Something clicked, and he saw the masks gently light up.  The happy mask slowly began to shift its expression to that of a neutral grey-skinned gaze.  Curious, he took it nevertheless and placed it upon the northern door that was his objective.  The mask however changed its form once again when placed, reverting back to the happy mask which confused James all the more.
	"Huh?  Wh-what's the point of that?"
	"I-i dunno," said his spectral friend, "but is the door open now?"
	"You know you COULD just float through these and jimmy the lock right?"
	"I dunno anything about locks, sorry."
	"Ngh...yeah never mind, let's jus-"
	"WRHAAAA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!"

The unearthly screech that came from nearby startled both of them, making Boona try to hide by turning invisible as he covered his eyes.
	"W-w-w-what was that?!"
	"I-i dunno!"
I've heard that scream before, thought James privately.  I heard that from...that talisman, the images...is that...
He had little time to process his thoughts when he heard a terrible shrieking cackle come from the room ahead of them.  Much as he didn't want to go through now, James barged through and found himself in a small square garden.
Completely surrounded on all sides by low wooden walkways, the garden itself was rather plain and perfectly Japanese, with a little stream and a memorial made of a pile of stones.  A small shrine would have had a blue light, but it was now a glaring red light that welcomed him poorly.  Floating in the middle of the area, was the lantern-wielder.  Boona hid behind FG and shivered at the sound of the lantern-wielder's deepened voice, resonating with an unholy force.
	"Finally...FINALLY I have obtained it!  Now I will show them..."
	"HEY!"
	"Hmm?!"
The spirit turned, revealing its face now covered with the violet spike-laden mask.  Amber eyes plunged their gaze even further into James' soul as he shrunk back slightly.
	"So...you have come to witness my new power?"
	"What the hell's that?!"
	"This?  ...hah...hhhhahahahaAAAAHAHAHHAAAAA!  Ohhhh you are such a stupid reckless boy!"
A piercing stare was all that was needed to knock down FG, taking him to his knees as he felt a violent sting in his mind.
	"A-AAAARGH!"
	"JAMES!"
	"Ohhhh and look who returns, the little COWARD!"
Another violently fierce gaze rendered Boona to thoughtless agony.  His mind screamed both inside and out as he floated down to the floor, losing his focus as tears burst with pain over his scar.  James felt the same way, shivering with the most violent pain he ever felt in his head.
	"Pathetic!  You can't even look at me, like all the worthless reprobates whose lives I shall soon take...but I expected more power from this mask...no matter, I shall learn its full power soon.  Now to leave this place...somehow."
The phantom floated off towards the north, right into the room that James was meant to be heading to.  As soon as his head cleared, he hurried off, despite Boona's protests.
	"W-wait, what are you doing?!"
	"We gotta stop him, he might do something worse!"
	"How can he get WORSE?!"
	"I dunno, but I gotta get to that room, I NEED to know why I'm here!"
	"B-but...I...I can't I'm too scared!"
	"...I won't make you come with me, but you're gonna be alone without me if he decides to come back this way."
	"R-r-really?  ...b-but...I-"
	"Do whatever you want, I'm stopping him, no time!"

With reckless haste, the raptor rushed towards the northern room.  It was a ceremonial room of some sort, where large Buddha statues stood solemnly around him.  Two on each side at least 15 feet high, with a small central totem where an even smaller set of doors were.  It reminded him of the shrine in the forest far out back.  In the very centre, floating above all, was the lantern-wielder.
	"They all thought of me as just a worthless little spirit...a pathetic little Poe they could pawn for money like a toy!  But not anymore..."
	"I dunno what your deal is, but you're not leaving with that mask!"
	"And who is going to stop me?" said the spirit as it turned with its masked appearance.  "You?"
	"Damn right I am."
He readied his scissors and smiled his best arrogant grin to keep his confidence strong.  The Poe merely looked down upon him, insulted.
	"How sad to be ignorant of that which is beyond the veil.  Allow me to educate you, by the might of Majora!"
Remembering last time, James quickly looked away from the terrifying stare and ran blindly towards the ghost, leaping up high to strike with burning blades in his hands.  He missed as his foe swiftly dodged to one side with the speed of lightning, its outline blurring as it shrieked its violent effigy across the room.  The scream made FG stumble from disorientation, feeling scratching pains inside his own head as he shivered in his struggle to focus.
He didn't recover in enough time to dodge the violent spinning flail of the lantern smash straight towards his face, cracking his jaw powerfully and sending him to the floor.  The Poe cackled confidently as FG looked up instinctively.  A mistake he was soon punished for when the violating gaze plunged into his soul.  He screamed and writhed on the floor, the wretched claws of a thousand seeming to tear at his very being.  Whether it was all trickery or a real curse upon him he could not tell.  Despite this, the spirit was not impressed.
	"Is that all!?  I expected more from this artifact!  Is this truly the power of catastrophe?!"
	"G-GAAAAAARRRRRRGH!"
	"Hmph, that only makes you all the more worthless to even succumb to such a small ounce of its power."
Even with his eyes closed he could see the mask in his head, watching him.  Burning his soul with its evil gaze.  He struggled to fight off the effects, grunting as he stood up with a weakening soul.  He could feel something start to creep up his arm, but he ignored it as he charged ahead.  Sidestepping at the last minute to avoid the mask's stare, he blasted out a violent shotgun blast of ice, striking the Poe's side.
Somehow the power of its new mask had strengthened it to be a little stronger against such attacks, flinching somewhat, but barely registering the same pain as it did before.  With lantern high, it struck its light down upon the ground, sending a burning wave across the floors and straight towards FG.  He countered with a furious water shield, a rushing wave he shot out towards the spectre, swiftly turning it into ice just before contact.

The Poe shrieked mutedly in frustration before it decided it had enough, and unleashed one of its stronger powers, crying out once more as it swung darkening flames from its terrible light.  The flames spread across the ground, transforming it, warping it into a terrible twisting world of shadows and nightmares.
James could see the black and purple run together like blood and paint before his very eyes.  The floor felt uneven, his balance ungainly.  But he knew it was a trick, nothing but an illusion no matter how much his mind felt otherwise.  He struggled to try and find, or hear the creature move around him.  But the power of the mask had allowed it to move with such speed that it impossible to detect, as he roared:
	"You can't trick me, come 'ere and fight me like a real man!"
The phantom was smart enough to not respond until it had striked through James' body with its ethereal form, slashing through him as he fell to the floor with a screaming tear in his soul.  Or the closest thing to it.  He felt his body weaken, shivering as his mortality started to flicker and beat with its own resonance.  Suddenly he was aware of his entire self, both body and soul.  And he saw the most horrifying thing as his foe mocked him.
	"Man?!  I am FAR above worthless mortals such as them and especially you, pathetic lizard!  I am beyond my own peers even!  I!  AM!  POEJORA!"
He could see his soul like a flame in the wind, flickering back and forth, with a demonic pair of clawed hands barely revealed in the light.  He saw the hands come closer, whimpering as he huddled up into a foetal position, crying out weakly before his eyes started to weaken.
	"Dead...already?  Perhaps I overestimated even you...useless thing, weaker than the lowliest deku."
	"Ohhh I beg to differ."

The Poe suddenly felt a violent slash come at its side, striking through its very being and making it screech in pain.  The darkness remained throughout the room, but now it had lost sight of the raptor.  Somehow, the scaled creature had managed to cloak himself within the trap.
	"What?!  You're still alive?!"
	"That is debatable," said what was once James, "little James is asleep right now...but I'll gladly play with you."
	"Another spirit?!  ...that...aura..."
	"Oh good, you noticed.  You may call me the Scissoraptor, like all my victims will.  I can make up a moronic portmanteau as well.  And it works much better than yours."
It could feel the darkness emanating from the raptor, trying to lock onto it and sense out its foe with the mask's powers.  It wasn't working too well, when the raptor had managed to reappear behind the Poe and strike twice, both with claws and with scissors.  The weapon was now floating around James, resonating with a dark outline that could even be marked out from the Poe's darkened flames.
As both claws and scissors pierced into the spectre from both ends, it shrieked and teleported away in a swift spin, lantern fading with it as it kept the darkness around the room strong, hoping it would confuse the demonic raptor somewhat.
	"Hide and seek is it?!" said the demon.  "I do love children's games...I used to play one called...tag."
The raptor walked humbly through the evil flames, unaffected by the soul-charring fire as he tried to sense out the Poe.
	"The children would all run from me across the big wonderful mansion I used to live in.  They would all hide in their little places, from closets to stairways.  One child hid in an oven...very foolish of her, hmhmhaha...the first one I considered the winner.  They would die the fastest, and not suffer the agonising fear that would run throughout their little bodies.  The last one...I would make sure stayed afraid for hours...to the point that they think it is all a nightmare, hoping they wake up.  ...how many of them did you think woke up?"
	"Maybe YOU!"

The perfect moment for the spectre to jump the raptor, turning around to strike with the full stare of the most terrible mask.  The fierce orange eyes, vicious and unrelenting with chaotic agony, hexing those unfortunate enough to meet its gaze...did nothing to the raptor.  The black deadened eyes stared straight back into the painted orange gaze, a darkened shine reflecting briefly before it was cracked in two by a violent clawed thrust, fast enough to defy time itself.
The Poe screamed with a furious horror at seeing what had happened, the mask split in two to clatter onto the floor of the Buddha room, harmlessly.  As the darkness disappeared with the floor and walls returning to their true self, the Poe shrieked and screamed with psychotic disbelief.
	"MY MASK!  MY MAAASK!  YOU ARROGANT FOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
	"Broke a cheap copy."
	"WHAT!?!"
	"I may not know what cursed tribe created the genuine one, but a true original would never break."
He emphasised this point by crushing the wood underfoot with a single foot.  The spirit still did not believe it.
	"I had been searching for that mask for YEARS!  You have no idea what you have just undone!"
	"No.  I don't.  And if you're still going to hide in disbelief then I'm not wasting my breath."
The Scissoraptor lunged forwards, grabbing the apparition with demon hands, claws tightly wrapped around the ether of the spirit itself to make sure it would not get away.  To feel something actually be able to hold down a spirit within its very hands terrified the Poe.
	"What do you want?!  Unhand me demon!"
It tried to swing its lantern at him, but the raptor merely grabbed it and crushed it tight within his claws.  The lantern's flames gently pooled out into tiny little fragments, like dull sparks of ember.  Now the ghost was truly terrified.
	"All I want...is to feed."
The Poe was helpless as it shrieked with the first feeling of abject anguish it had felt since it could even remember.  It was feeling itself die a second death, violently mauled and consumed by the possessed raptor as if it were living flesh.  Ragged cloaks became torn strips to the slowly-engulfing maw of the Scissoraptor, the mouth opening inbetween its vicious assaults to devour the spirit.

What once remained of the Poe was no more within a matter of minutes, the Buddha statues staring upon the raptor's feast of the dead.  A wispy flame was soon all that remained, only for the demon to suck into his throat and gurgle with a shiver of pleasure, swallowing the essence into a terrible black eternal abyss within himself.
	"Hhhaaaaaaaaaaaah...I have waited for this taste for so long...such misery and hatred...almost tastes as good as-...what?"
He sensed another within the room.  He quickly stood up and turned all around, snarling at being snuck up on.
	"I know you are here, watcher!  Show yourself coward!  I have plenty more time to gorge myself upon lost souls such as you!"
The observer did not come, wisely so.  But the Scissoraptor noticed something off about the room.  Scanning the area briefly with its heightened senses, it could detect no observer, no other spirit around which he thought most unusual.  Then he noticed.  The mask had disappeared.
	"Hmph...scavengers.  Not even the dead have dignity.  Ohhhh very well, I have already dealt with one loathsome fool...sometimes it's much more fun to see what pathetic creature frightens dear James next..."
With little reason to stay possessing his host, the Scissoraptor coolly slipped back into its lair, deep within the raptor's heart as his body fell, collapsing onto the cool wooden floor.  But out of reach, hiding behind one of the Buddha statues, was a small purple wisp, slowly fading into existence, watching the raptor cautiously.  Making sure all was well, it softly floated down towards the floor, placing the broken mask back down onto the floor.
Inside the casting of the now-useless mask, was a page from a notebook, waiting for James to read when he woke up the next night.