CHAPTER 1

"Come on, Jess. Just a peek," she promised. My mother and father stood just before an old tunnel entrance, me close behind them. I sat on an oddly-shaped stone pillar and refused to go in.

"I've seen this before, mom," I said and shook my head. "This is exactly what happened in Spirited Away."

"We're not getting turned into pigs, Jess," my father sighed. "Grow up already."

When my family suggested we vacation in rural Japan I had jumped at the chance; maybe we could swing by Tokyo, or even just spend time alone in the countryside. But, as fate would have it, my overly organized parents had already planned out everything we would do down to the last minute before the flight home. And one of those planned things just so happened to be a guided tour of an abandoned theme park.

"The group is leaving us, sweetie," my mother groaned. "Let's get going before we get left behind." I ground my teeth and closed my eyes, then got up to follow them through the tunnel.

"That's the spirit," my father said and clapped me on the back. I almost made a pun about spirits, but thought better of family was extremely rational. When we emerged on the other side of the tunnel the tour group was waiting for us. The guide was, from what little Japanese I could understand, explaining the history of the old theme park as we stood in the middle of an entrance, benches lining either side of several pillars. Then the guide motioned for us to come outside into the meadow; as I walked to the entryway I noticed a birdbath illuminated by light shining through a multicolored window. I gulped.

The meadow was beautiful. Several random boulders were scattered throughout tall, waving grass, and a few small buildings graced the hilltops. In the distance was a small outcropping of trees; beyond that, a small outcropping of buildings. All my breath left me as I watched little rings of smoke curl up from a building's chimney.

"Jess!" My mother stood atop one of the knolls and waved her arm wildly to call me over to her. "We're gonna go to that little village to see what's going on!"

I rapidly shook my head. "Absolutely not," I said. "This is way too familiar. Let's just leave."

"Jess," my father warned. "What have we told you about your little fantasies?"

"'They have no place in real life, so they have no place with you.'" I recited it from memory.

"Darrel, let the girl dream," my mother said, laying a hand on my father's chest. "She needs an imagination. Think of all the things we couldn't do because we lacked one." He huffed and turned away, beginning the trek to the buildings and leaving my mother and me alone.

"Come on," my mother said gently as she took my hand. She guided me up to the rest of the group, which was just cresting the top of the first hill.

"It looks like they were going to put a river here." My father referred to the great snake of stones that wound its way through the meadow and across our path. I was careful not to slip and get my foot caught in between the boulders as one of the tourists in front of me had done. "They must have never gotten around to it."

As we approached the buildings I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There was a tingling in the air, like the crackling of lightning before it strikes. The buildings themselves were intriguing. All plaster stones with crumbling facades, all painted bright colors, all with lights strung from wall to wall, all restaurants. The tour guide led us to a place where mounds of meat and vegetables and other things I couldn't identify overflowed from heaping platters. The guide instructed us to dig in, the food was on her today. The tourists, including my parents, happily rushed to the delicious-smelling food and began to pile plates tall with foreign foods. I rushed to my mother.

"Mom, don't." I placed my hand over her plate before she could place another dumpling on it.

"Jess, it's okay," she assured me with a smile. "It's just a movie."

"Can't you feel it?" She didn't seem to understand. "The electricity in the air? Something's not right here."

"Don't tell me you're starting up on your fantasies again," my father snorted. I clenched my fists.

"I'm not necessarily talking about fantasies," I said slowly. "I'm just saying that I have a bad feeling about this place. I want to go back to the hotel."

"And miss out on a Japanese buffet? No way in hell, little girl," he laughed. I wanted to punch him.

My parents sat on stools alongside the other people on the tour and broke apart their chopsticks before tucking into the food they had dished onto their plates. Even though the food smelled wonderful, I felt sick. The tingle in the air had only gotten stronger as the afternoon was beginning to slip into evening. I had a horrible feeling about what was to come.

But maybe they're right, I thought. It is only a movie. It's not like it's based on true events.

I looked back to where my parents were stuffing their faces. I decided to leave them to it while I explored other areas of the village.

As I wound deeper into the village I noticed that every building was a restaurant, and every storefront was decorated with the same huge spreads of food. The sun slipped lower and lower behind the distant hills, and I tried to feel at peace. It was sundown, my favorite time of day, between light and dark, with the sun's rays still thrusting orange and pink spikes into the sky but dimming by the second. I really should have felt peaceful, as there wasn't a soul around besides myself, but that electric tingle wouldn't let up, and my stomach muscles were so clenched I thought they might fuse with my spine.

Eventually I reached a wide staircase that led to what appeared to be a large paper lantern stretched across a red base. I didn't recognize the character printed across the paper, but the hairs on my arms stood up nonetheless. Climbing up the steps I looked out to the horizon; I was terrified as to what I would see if I looked straight in front of me. If I saw nothing but a river, or more hills, or even more endless rows of restaurants I would be fine. But something told me I was not going to see a river, or hills, or restaurants. I turned my head.

I faced a bathhouse.

I almost threw up right there. I was about to pass out when a noise roused me. A small intake of breath had sounded behind me.

"You shouldn't be here," a boy's voice said. I whipped around.

"Oh, fuck."

"You need to get out of here, now!" He wore traditional Japanese garments, with green eyes and dark black-green hair complimenting his pale skin.

"There are others," I managed to choke out. His eyes widened.

"There are more of you?" I nodded dumbly.

"Fourteen others. Eating the food."

"Oh, gods," he said quietly. Then his face hardened and he resumed his commanding tone. "Run. Run as fast as you can and as far towards the tunnel as you can," he commanded me. "Hurry, before it gets dark."

"Absolutely."

I took off down the road, not stopping for anything, not even when I began to notice the blobby black figures beginning to fade in in the restaurants, not even when I almost ran straight through one of them. When I reached the restaurant my parents were at, I screeched around the corner, nearly falling as I did so, to try and drag them back. Everyone had turned to a pig. Everyone but my parents. My parents seemed to be in the middle of turning into them, but I didn't care. I raced to them and yanked them from their seats and began to drag them through the street with a strength I didn't know I possessed.

"Maybe if they just stop eating," I thought. "Maybe if they would just stop eating they'll change back." I hoped for it with everything I had, but, somehow, I knew that wouldn't be the case.

They dug ruts into the ground where I pulled them through the dirt. I looked over my shoulder to check on them only to see that their faces were now completely pig-like and their hair had disappeared. My mother – if I could still call her that – still wore her earrings through her pig ears, a fact I would've found humorous were I not freaking the fuck out.

Another reason to freak out was that, as I had anticipated, the meadow had flooded. My parents scrabbled against my grasp and finally broke free of me as I became see-through, turning to pigs completely and running off back into the row of restaurants, presumably to find more food to rummage through.

I knelt down before the water and tried to make ripples. I couldn't.

I raced with inhuman speed to the back of an old building when I saw the ship dock at the edge of the former meadow. The paper-headed spirits began to file from the doors of the boat and off via a ramp that had been laid out across the grass and onto the cobblestoned street. I thought I saw one of them look my way, and I quickly ducked lower into my hiding place.

I was becoming more and more transparent as the seconds ticked past. I knew from the film that I needed to eat something from this world in order to stay alive, but Chihiro had gotten that berry from Haku. The boy, if he was Haku, would be busy with the fourteen pigs racing through the streets of the Spirit World and going on a food-crazed rampage. If I wanted to stay solid I was going to have to get some food for myself. I silently crept to the edge of the street, using the edge of the building to cover me as I debated my next moves. Then, dashing like a tornado to the other side of the street I snagged part of a chicken and tore down the cobblestoned path. I heard several voices screaming about a human and the heavy footsteps of spirits pursuing me around every corner I turned. I yelled over my shoulder.

"I don't want me to be here either!"

I broke off into a full-blown gallop. As I ran I choked down part of the chicken and threw the rest away, resisting the urge to gorge myself on the rest. I knew that was the quickest way to becoming an animal in any world, most especially this one. As I darted down the street like a screaming bullet I felt someone else's presence beside me. Looking to the left I saw the boy, his chin-length hair flying wildly behind him as he ran at my side.

"You eat anything?" he asked over the roar of the wind and of the crowd.

"Yeah."

"Good. You'll dis-"

"-Disappear without food from this world. I got it." He looked at me with thinly-veiled astonishment.

"How did you know?"

"Other than I could see through myself?" I asked shortly. He led me around a corner and down another staircase. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Not now! I'm a little busy running for my-"

I was stopped short by something heavy slamming into my gut.