Welcome to Vanish. This is an attempt to get back into writing. So forgive me that this first prologue is short. I will try to post at least with some consistency. Thank you so much!
Twenty seven years, that was how long she had lived. It wasn't like the movies or novels she had read. Her life didn't flash before her eyes. Instead there was this odd emptiness. She tried, yes she struggled to get out of the restraint, even as blood slicked the buckle and steering wheel. Now emptiness approached.
It was over.
Which didn't explain when she opened her eyes why she was on a train platform.
She stood with many others, though they did not look quite like her. Shades, shadows, almost human but not quite. She looked at her hand, it too was shaded by the darkness. She had a ticket in her hand. And she felt drawn to a specific track, following the masses. Her vision was hazy, she followed the instinct to go toward the blinding light that illuminated the train.
Not that way!
She paused, waiting.
A feeling swept through her, of loss, of exhilaration. She turned back. Towards the other platform. Water rushed around it, turquoise, green, and the color of blue almost black. And it called, no it sang to her. She stepped forward into the sea, which in turn led to the sky.
Haku felt it, the snap of the loss, and the cold emptiness it left behind, "Chihiro?" He whispered, trying to feel in that emptiness what had happened.
A crash sounded from below, and he sat upright from his bed. Looking toward his door he felt the emotions swirling around the bathhouse. He couldn't place it. Something was wrong. The door slammed open and there stood the twins. Zeniba crying and Yubaba looking solemn.
His serpentine eyes narrowed.
"Haku," Zeniba sniffed.
"Chihiro is dead." Yubaba's face revealed no emotion, but her eyes glittered.
Death meant nothing to spirits, but to a human it meant the shedding of a skin and boarding the train to rebirth for the cycle to start again. His heart ached, he had missed his chance to keep his promise. But in her next life, "In her next life -"
"No, Haku," Yubaba shook her head, "That's what Zeniba told me. The spirit of Chihiro Ogino is gone, it never made it to the train."
He stood, his yukata matched his green eyes swirling like a storm. "What does that mean?"
"It means its over, Haku," Zeniba blubbered, "My granddaughter is gone for good."
A white dragon soared out the shoji, passed the balcony leaving the two old women to grieve.
Rain fell on the bathhouse.