The sun was shining through the thin curtains of Chihiro's bedroom. The sunlight hit her face, and her eyes opened immediately. She'd had the same dream again. The dream about the boy, the dragon, the spirit world. It'd been 5 years since Chihiro had been there, five long years. She had to keep her promise, though. To never look back. She got up, and looked at her calendar.

"One day ..." she mumbled. It'd been a five and a day since she first sat her foot where she'd met a world she had no idea that existed. Her walls, which used to be bright blue, were covered in drawings and paintings. She'd lost count of how many times she'd drawn the beautiful boy with the forest green hair, and the emerald green eyes. To see him again, was the only thing Chihiro wished for. When she turned 11, 12, 13, 14, and even 15, and she blew out the candles on her cake, all she wished for was to see Haku again.

"Chihiro, breakfast!" Her mom called from underneath. Chihiro'd tried to tell her mom and dad about the Spirit world, the Bath house, and about Haku, without succeeding.

"You and that imagination of yours." Chihiro's father had said. "A spirit world? Are you sure you haven't had a bit too much sugar on your Cornflakes lately?"

She walked down the stairs, and stuck her head in the door to the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, I got to go. I'm meeting... Eric in, uh, five minutes." She lied. She had to get out of the house.

"Bring your cell... " her mom called, but Chihiro didn't listen.

She slammed the door behind her, and ran into the forest on the left side of the blue house. She'd already found a path down to the entrance to the spirit world, but never dared to enter. "Don't look back." Haku had said. Was she still not allowed to do that?

The big, red stationhouse crept closer as she walked. It was covered in leaves, and the statue which was guarding the entrance, was covered in moss. She brushed away some of the moss, and the face that looked back at her scared her more than ever.

"Nice to see you, too." She thought sarcastically, and took another two steps closer to the entrance. It was no wind today, to push her inside, but that only made her more eager to enter. She stroke her finger across the red walls of the building, and saw the paint falling off.

One step at a time, she walked in to the tunnel, taking deep breaths whenever she needed to. Nothing had changed too much, except from the amount of dust that was covering the benches. The fountain stood where it had, almost hit by the coloured light from the oval window, still without a single drop of water.

She stepped out of the stationhouse, and in to the green fields. Was the world still there, or had it all been a dream?

Everything was just as she'd remembered. Small houses, statues, and grass. Lots of grass.

It put a smile on her face. Reminded her that Haku had to be real.

She ran towards the small stone steps that took her up to the restaurant aria. The dried out river was still there, and the statue of a frog was still there, welcoming her. She bowed to the statue, and kept on walking. As she walked, the sky which was bright blue down by the station, began to get a strange, purplish colour. She looked down from the sky, and at the restaurants.

It hit her like a lightening bolt. The buildings, the signs, the lamps and the plants were all destroyed. It looked like someone had just stomped on the buildings, and crushed them under its big feet. Everything was destroyed. She ran in the direction of the bath house, passing house after house, all destroyed and crushed. The bath house looked bigger than ever. Nothing was destroyed. It was like someone had drawn a line. On one of the sides, you could destroy everything you saw. On the other side, you weren't allowed to touch anything.

"I wonder ... "she whispered, and stretched out her hand.

"Don't touch it!" Someone shouted.

Chihiro took her hand back, and turned around. It was a boy standing there. Fifteen, maybe sixteen years old. He was looking at her with eyes that she recognized immediately.

It was Haku. Haku the dragon boy.

"H... Haku? " she asked shyly. "Is... Is that you?"

He smiled at her, and he reached out to take her hand away from the invisible something she wasn't allowed to touch.

"Yes, Chihiro. It's me." His voice had become deeper, and he'd grown taller. Taller and more muscular.

"I'm sorry. I know I promised we'd see each other again, but as you see, "He said, pointing at the destroyed city, "I couldn't leave."

"But ... But what happened here?"

He raised his hand, and touched Chihiro's forehead. Pictures started flowing from his head to Chihiro's. Pictures and explanations.

"When you left, I went to speak to Yubaba. I said I had to leave. I said I couldn't, and wouldn't, keep doing her dirty work. Yubaba had changed that day. Something about you changed the way she acted towards me, towards all of us. She apologized, and said she understood. I was about to leave, when I remembered I had nowhere to go. I'm an orphan, you know. So, after speaking to Yubaba, we agreed that I could stay here, without working for her. Another two weeks passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. I spent a huge amount of time down with Kamaiji, and he told me the most amazing stories. We talked for forever, but suddenly, one day, the electricity died. All of the lights went out, and the entire room got filled with smoke. It seemed like it couldn't get out of the chimney.

I flew out, stupid as I was, leaving Kamaiji behind, and saw something huge, black and purple, sitting on the top of our chimney. It was a Kioaro."

A new picture got into Chihiro's head. A picture of the Kioaro. It was huge, with the black body of a spider, and the upper body of a human, sort of. It wasn't quite human either. It had purple shells covering it, and the teeth of a vampire. The eyes were huge, black as the darkest night. As strong as a house, and extremely dangerous. The picture of the Kioaro scared Chihiro, and she pushed Haku's hand away.

"I saw the Kioaro, "Haku continued, and removed his hand from Chihiro's forehead. He understood she didn't want to see this, "and I saw the city. It'd ruined it completely, not leaving a single building standing. Now, it was going to destroy our bath house. I started fighting it, and it nearly killed me. If Yubaba hadn't come, I'd probably be dead by now. Yubaba created an invisible shield around the bath-house, and scared away the Kioaro. It kept coming back though, trying to break through the shield every time. I'd all but forgotten about Kamaiji, and hurried back down to tell him what had happened. I... I was too late. The smoke had filled the entire room, and I found Kamaiji on the floor. He'd tried to escape the room."

The tears pushed its way through Chihiro's eyes, and a single one managed to get through.

"Kamaiji is ... dead?"

Haku nodded and took her hand. He put his other hand against the invisible wall, and muttered the same spell he had muttered to Chihiro 5 years ago.

"In the name of the wind and the water, let us through."