DISCLAIMER: The storyline of Spirited Away is not owned by me - it is the property of Hayao Miyazaki and should be respected as such. Equally all characters belong to Miyazaki, unless expressly stated by me at the beginning of the chapter. Enjoy!

"Chihiro...Chihiro...follow me...Chihiro...SEN!"

Chihiro woke up with a jolt, sitting upright in bed, small beads of sweat pollinating the regions of her forehead and upper lip. Her breathing came hard and fast, as she tried desperately to recall whatever it was she had been dreaming of. Her memory of it seemed to be fading fast, as only flashes of images passed before her eyes: Yubaba's face, the bath house shrouded in darkness, Haku's face, the waters of the sea, black in appearence due to the absence of light...

"Another dream about the Spirit World," Chihiro muttered to herself, laying back once more against her pillows. She had had dreams similar to this ever since the day she first left that World, triumphanty bringing her parents home with her. Not once had she ever tried to explain to them why she woke up often in cold sweats; she knew they would never ever believe her, let alone understand.

This was the first dream she'd had however, where an auditory aspect had played a role. Not once, in all the 8 years that had passed since her first visit to the Spirit World and the dreams had first began, had she ever heard anything. "Chihiro...Chihiro...follow me...Chihiro...SEN!" Sen...Sen was the name she was given by Yubaba whilst she worked for her in the bath house all those years ago. She had almost forgotten it, just as she'd almost forgotten her real name of Chihiro during her time in the Spirit World. Why had that name permeated her dreams, when she had not thought of or uttered it for so long?

Chihiro's remaining memories of her time in the bath house were not favourable to her. Despite the mysteries she had seen and the people she had met, the very real fear she had experienced of almost losing her parents forever at the young age of 10 had tainted her view of that World she had left behind. What she did remember was a mixture of gruelling work, little food, and spirits, some good and some bad. Although she did miss Haku, the river spirit who she fell in love with whilst there, she felt content knowing he had got his name back, and therefore was free from Yubaba's power and free to do whatever he pleased, if he should so choose. She was a human, and he was a spirit; she had no doubt in her mind that they would never meet again. Until now. A strange feeling had passed over Chihiro since waking from her latest dream. A deep sense that someone outside of dreamworld was calling her: "follow me..."

Not once had Chihiro ever tried to find that road through the undergrowth that lead to the Spirit World again. Despite her intense curiousity, fear had prevented her from doing so. What if she entered again, and wasn't as lucky as the previous time in terms of leaving again? That had always been the sole factor keeping her from the Spirit World, yet now, after the sensation that her dream had bestowed upon her, her curiousity began to grow to exceptional new heights. She began to wonder what had happened to the bath house: if Kamaji was still the boiler man, if Lin had ever gotten train tickets, if Haku still remained with Yubaba or had taken advantage of his freedom...

Jumping out of bed, Chihiro opened her bedside drawer with trembling hands. Rifling through the mess inside, spilling paper and junk onto the floor as she did so, she found what she had been looking for - a small, deep purple box. She opened the box slowly, half-expecting it to be empty after so long. Chihiro pulled the hairtye from the box gently, letting the container fall to the ground. The hairtye was the one Yubaba's sister Zeniba had made for her with the help of No-face and Boh, the one that was supposed to keep her safe. Chihiro tied up her hair once again using the hairtye, hair which, once short, had grown almost to waist length. Pulling on yesterday's clothes, she made her way down the stairs of her house, carefully so as not to wake her sleeping parents, and slipped silently out of the house.

Chihiro stood, stock-still, staring in front of her in shock. It was still there. After all this time, the road her father had taken, mistaking it for a short-cut to their new house 8 years ago, was still there. The undergrowth had grown considerably, and it was clear that cars were no longer able to drive down it and had not done so for many years, yet Chihiro made her way along the road with considerable ease. She was a slight girl of 18, very tall and very skinny, with a boyish frame. Her hair had grown, and her face matured considerably; somewhere deep in her eyes you could see the remains of burning questions and a troubled past.

Keeping her eyes fixed on her feet (as the night was too dark to enable her to walk safely whilst looking ahead), Chihiro walked silently, for what seemed like an age. Finally, she reached the two-sided stone statue her father had almost crashed in to the last time she had been down this road. Ahead of the statue was the archway of a long, dark tunnel, of which Chihiro could not see the end. Standing at the entrance, Chihiro breathed deeply, and ran full-pelt into the darkness, which enveloped her fully. She ran and ran, until she came across a room with high ceilings, decorated only by numerous wooden benches, covered with a thin layer of dust. Here, she slowed down, knowing that within moments she would once again be within the Spirit World. What on earth had compelled her to come here?! Before tonight, returning to the Spirit World had been the last thing on her mind - it was almost as if she had been compelled against her better judgement. A nagging feeling within her told Chihiro that she would regret her decision to carry on, yet something else within her pushed her onwards.

Chihiro stepped for the second time in her life onto the grassy medows of what she knew to be the gateway to the Spirit World. She walked forwards until she reached the beginning of the rundown fair's shops and stalls, before turning around to survey the scene behind her. It was nighttime when she had entered, so of course, the barrier between her world and this one rose immediately as soon as she had set foot on the fair's designated grounds. A wide, dark sea stretched to the horizon, the water eerily still. Chihiro swore that she remembered the outline of a glittering city on the horizon last time she was here, but now: darkness.

Something was wrong. As Chihiro walked amongst the once colourful and vibrant fair shops, which, by this time she thought, should be filled with steaming food and hungry shadowy figures, she saw precisely nothing. Colour was faded - Chihiro could tell this even in the dim light of night - and there was no sign of a single spirit. Something was definitely wrong, she was sure of it. Upon reaching the bridge, Chihiro stopped once more, looking up at what she remembered as the great bath house of the Spirit World, usually at this time of night lit up from head to toe, steam rising from the windows and chimneys, staff and customers alike spilling in and out continously. What once was bustling with soul, was now, like the vast ocean beneath the bridge, dark. After crossing the bridge, Chihiro saw that windows were cracked, some boarded and some missing completely. Debris had built up in front of the main doors of the bath house, and dust had its hold on absolutely everything. Fear and uncertainty rose inside Chihiro, yet she knew she could not leave. Picking a dusty berry from a nearby tree, she popped it in her mouth to keep from disappearing - she knew the rules.

Aside from the abandoned nature of her surroudings, what unsettled Chihiro the most was the silence. It beat down upon her head in angry waves, compressing her temple to temple, screaming at her that something was more than wrong - something terrible had happened.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by a small, feeble voice coming from within the shadowy bath house. At first, Chihiro couldn't make out what the speaker was saying, but then they said it again, a little louder this time, but still only a hoarse whisper: "Chihiro...Chihiro...follow me...Chihiro...SEN!"