Memories…
"Mom! Dad! Come on!" Chihiro screamed, attempting to get her parents attention and failing.
"Don't worry, honey." Her father said through mouthfuls of food.
"Oh Chihiro! You have to try this!" Her mother tried to persuade her to join them in their feasting.
"No way you guys! Were going to get in trouble, now come on!" Chihiro pleaded. She had an uneasy feeling about this place ever since her and her family absent-mindedly wandered into the fading, red tunnel. Ever since they climbed the stone stairs and smelled the strange scent, the hair on her arms was standing on end. She couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't supposed to be wherever they were.
She finally gave up and left the restaurant and her parents behind. She decided, as long she was stuck here, she might as well look around. She made a mental note of her surroundings before walking down the quiet street.
In the distance, a red lantern at the end of the street caught her eye. It was situated at the top of a flight of stairs.
She climbed the stairs, looking around as she ascended and found herself on a large, crimson-red bridge. Directly in front of the bridge was a massive building the same color as the bridge with a roaring smokestack on its side. It looked like a bathhouse.
"Weird…" she thought to herself.
Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a loud roaring under the bridge. Curious, she ran to the side of the bridge and leaned over the railing.
"Okay, that's really weird," she muttered. There was no water under the bridge, just a deep, dark, cavern with a railroad track running through it.
As she watched the train go by, she was unaware of the sinking sun. Suddenly, a wisp of wind rustled her dark, brown hair, causing her to turn to its source. She gasped.
The silhouette of a boy was standing directly beside her.
"Chihiro," he softly whispered.
"Chihiro…"
"Chihiro! Knock, knock!" A voice interrupted her followed by a tapping on her head.
"Hey! Anybody home?" Her best friend Rumi was trying to get her attention and was the cause of the tapping.
"Huh? What?" Chihiro blinked and focused on Rumi's annoyed face just inches from hers.
"Hey little dreamer, where you been?" Rumi teased her.
"What do you mean?" Chihiro blushed slightly. She was trying to play it dumb, but truthfully, she knew exactly where she had been and what exactly she was daydreaming of.
This wasn't the first time Chihiro Ogino had fallen prey to her constant, consuming daydreams. Though it had been eight years since she had been to the Spirit World, a day never goes by when she doesn't remember her adventure there. The way her parents ate themselves into pigs and how Chihiro had to work at Yubabas' bathhouse to set them free, Kamaji, the old boiler man who helped her when all hope was almost gone, Len, Chihiro's boss and dear friend, No Face, the mysterious man who goes crazy while in the bathhouse but becomes her friend in the end, Yubaba's giant baby, the three Kashira, green, bouncing heads that do Yubaba's will, Yu-Bird, Yubaba's pet, and Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister and 'granny' of Chihiro. But every time she relived her time there, she felt like something was missing. Something or someone had vanished from her memory and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't recall what it was. Countless, sleepless nights has she wasted racking her memory for an answer and every time, she comes up blank.
"Ha, whatever Chihiro. Lets go home," Rumi suggested.
"Okay." Chihiro agreed, still blushing slightly. She had never had the guts to tell Rumi about her time in the Spirit World. She was afraid Rumi might think she was crazy or something.
The girls lived together in a small two-room apartment near a beautiful, rushing river. It was small, but they both loved it.
The river held a special place in Chihiro's heart. Not only was it beautiful, there was something more, something deeper that ran to the very marrow in her bones. She could never quite pin point what the connection was, but she could never bring herself to stay away from the river for long. The longer she was away from it, the more she seemed to be missing inside her heart. One day, she hoped to find the connection.
The walk to their apartment was short and warm during the summer heat. Rumi jabbered on about boys, clothes, and the coming school year. Her conversation demanded little of Chihiro's attention, so she settled herself into reliving her time at the Spirit World yet again.
She glanced down the dangerously steep staircase that ran down the backside of the bathhouse into the boiler room. She held in a shiver and gulped.
Someone had shown her the way to the boiler room and gave her instructions to ask Kamaji, the boiler man, for work. She remembered the touch of a warm hand on her forehead and the visions of the boiler room rushing through her mind, nothing else.
Slowly, she began climbing down the stairs, holding on for dear life and wishing there was a railing to save her from the deep cavern below.
The first few steps went well until suddenly, 'SNAP!' a stair gave way underneath her.
"Ah!" she screamed, running down the stairs, unable to stop.
Finally, after smacking into the side of a wall, she found Kamaji.
They were in their apartment now, debating on what they were to have for dinner.
"What do you think?" Rumi asked her. She was resting her head on her hand and reading the back of a box of rice.
"I think you should stop reading and get working," Chihiro teased her. She rustled Rumi's hair and snatched the box from her. After all, it was Rumi's night to cook.
Finally, after burning the chicken, Rumi sat down to eat with Chihiro.
"Bon appetit," she motioned to the burned chicken and soggy rice. Chihiro had to contain a laugh.
They laughed there way through dinner and desert and were soon in the kitchen cleaning up Rumi's mess.
Rumi blew out a sigh as she sat in a rocking chair on their deck.
"Wow, tough night," she commented.
"Yeah right," Chihiro laughed at her and climbed onto the railing of the deck, resting her back on a large plant.
"I wish you wouldn't do that, you know it scares me," Rumi glared at her through the dark.
Chihiro chuckled and stuck out her tongue. Rumi rolled her eyes and grumbled something unintelligible.
For as conservative as Chihiro was, she always liked sitting on the railing over the river. Deep down, she believed that if she fell, the river would save her. She had a vague memory of her little pink shoe falling in a river when she was young. She tried to retrieve it but fell in. She though she was going to drown but somehow, the river carried her back to shore.
She smiled at the memory.
Rumi yawned loudly and stretched. "Okay, I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow."
"'Kay, 'night," Chihiro smiled.
After Rumi was gone, Chihiro wrapped her arms around her knees and closed her eyes. It was a quiet night with nothing other than the sound of the river flowing so what she heard took her off guard.
A voice was whispering to her. It wasn't Rumi and no one else was around. Usually, she would have screamed in a situation like this, but there was something strangely familiar about this voice that made her listen. It was a male voice, that was for sure. He was telling her something; calling to her.
It started out as just a whisper that she couldn't understand, but soon she began to understand it.
"Open you mouth…"
"Don't be afraid…""Meet me on the bridge…"
The voice was getting louder now, almost yelling.
"You'll be alright…"
A vision rushed through her head of a beautiful silver, white dragon with an emerald main. It was glaring past her and covered in crimson red.
She gasped at the intensity of the vision. It was like she was experiencing a nightmare of someone she loved dying.
"Run!" she screamed.
The dragon tensed and lunged for the door behind her, splattering both her and the room with blood.
"Waite!" she pleaded.
The dragon looked back at her and its silver scales melted away into the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. His face was partially covered in his blowing, dark green hair, but even through his beautiful hair, she could see his face was torn in pain and his green eyes were streaming with tears.
He gazed at her for a moment with his tortured expression and whispered her name through clenched teeth.
"Chihiro," his voice was tortured. She wanted to run to him and wrap him in her arms, to tell him it was all right.
"Chihiro I'm sorry!" he screamed, closing his eyes and disappearing.
"Haku!" she screamed after him.
She woke up screaming his name.
She was lying on the floor of the balcony, shaking and covered in sweat. Her hands were covering her face and she realized she was crying.
"Haku," she whispered through her sobs. Darkness was closing in on her and she slipped into dreams filled with the boy Haku.