Chapter One
Chihiro sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. She sat at large desk with piles of books precariously stacked up higher than her. She crossed her arms over the little desk space she had and laid her head down.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS!" came the voice of a young man walking into the office. She shrunk further down into her arms as she heard the not so very welcome sentiment. He immediately back-tracked as soon as he saw his employer.
"Umm...Boss?" he asked questioningly, although the only sound that came from the said boss was a very un-ladylike grunt coming from behind the books.
"Happy Birthday?" He said a little uncertainly. Checking the calendar behind the desk for reassurance.
"I heard you the first time Ryou." Chihiro sighed as she lifter her head a little to see what she could of the man in between the piled up books.
"So whats up with you cranky?" he asked sarcastically breaking away from their boss-employee relationship. Chihiro smiled within her arms her mind wandering to when they first met. He was a Photography major. She was a English major, doubling in Photography and Mythology.
"I'm one year older." She said with a sigh, she could mentally see Ryou shrug his shouldars and roll his eyes.
"Your finally entering your golden years and your sighing? Being twenty isn't bad at all! See, now people usually worry when they're thirty! You've got a good ten years before that!" He said happily.
Chihiro snapped her head up from the desk as if ready to bite his head off.
"You don't understand..." She said softly. Her mind already wandering to childhood memories. The only ones she could remember. She was twenty already. Ten years had passed since that event she so wished she could remember clearly. The one thing that stuck with her was the promise that one boy made. The one that was never settled. Everything else was a blur.
There was no way he could understand. She wasn't even really sure what was so wrong with her now. She was already one year older. She was no longer a child. A year more she had endured of the unfulfilled promise. Chihiro sighed thinking her own promise she made to herself. She had promised herself as soon as she turned twenty, she would stop waiting. She would stop waiting for the boy who never came.
"Looks like I'm just going to have to accept it." She said to herself softly. Haku was never going to come. She tugged on the purple hair band that tied back her hair. This was the only thing she had to remember her entire time there. It was the thing that kept her going, it was the thing that kept her sane, it was the thing that made her realize it was all real. And it was the thing that she now silently put in her bottom desk drawer. And she instantly felt relieved.
"What I understand is that your only about the most successful writer at the age of twenty, official as of today, and even though your a college drop out, you've become successful enough to retire now and still support five kids throughout college." He said as if talking to someone who didn't know two plus two equals four.
Chihiro said nothing, she sat back in her chair and looked out the window right behind her desk, turning away from the young man, who was really the same age she was.
"Come on Sen, you know if somethings bothering you can tell me."
Sen. That was her name back then too. He was the only one who knew about her nickname, even if he had no idea where it had came from. They had known each other since freshmen year of college and she took him a long for the ride when she dropped out.
She and Ryou spent every hour of the day after they dropped out writing and illustrating Chihiro's books. Chihiro's books were the Harry Potter of their time. To say they were successful would be an understatement. The books in the series were about a girl and her parents who get stranded in the spirit world. Chihiro smiled thinking about her inspiration for the story, the one no one would believe.
"I've lost my inspiration Ryou." Chihiro said still looking through the window showing the sleepy town she now lived in. She then turned around to look at him. Her inspiration was gone. She wasn't even sure if it was real anymore. She had no proof. There was nothing besides the hair band to prove to her that it was even real, and even then her memory was foggy.
"Then go back and find it." He said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing she could do. She looked up at him questioningly.
"Okay okay, go back to where you thought it all up!" he said.
'I didn't think it all up! It's real!' was what one part of her wanted to say. Although, now she wasn't so sure.
"I have to go back to my parents house, they're throwing some kind of party today." She said in defeat and slouched back down in her seat.
"Yeah, they called me up this morning. They want me to escort you over." He said with chuckle. My eyebrow raised. For years her parents had been trying to get them together, and her definite refusals fell on their deaf ears. It's not like they weren't friends, its just that they weren't like that.
Chihiro sighed for one last time before getting out of her chair and fishing around in her pocket for her keys, "Come on. We might as well get going. Bring your camera, there are some nice places to take pictures for our next book around my house."
Two Hours Later
Chihiro watched the scenery fly by her from the passenger seat of Ryou's car. They were on their way to Chihiro's house for the party. The whole way they Chihiro fidgeted and became more anxious the closer they came to the place where it all happened. She could feel Ryou's eyes look at her worriedly.
"You can sleep if you want to. I'll wake you up when we get there." He said reassuringly.
"Yeah..." She said wanting nothing more than to be relieved of her anxiety.
"Boss?" She felt someone shaking her slightly.
"Boss wake up." She opened her eyes slowly getting up and stretching her arms. It wasn't until she had completely finished yawning that she realized her surrounding. This was not her house.
"Ummm...I think we're lost." Chihiro gave him an incredulous look. Lost? How could they be lost? Surely he knows the way.
"What do you mean we're lost?" She said still not comprehending what he meant. They've lived in the same town throughout high school and college.
"Fine, we're not lost, We're in an area which I have not known existed in our town until today, and area in which my car decided to run out of gas." He said sarcastically and pointing to the now lit up E indicating no feul.
"Well I guess it can't be helped." Chihiro said getting out of the car. She knew she was in some sort of forest. But it wasn't until she saw a headstone that made her tense and stopped her movement. It was a rounded headstone that had some sort of face on the front of it. Ryou caught her view and started looking at it too.
"Odd looking thing isn't it." He said, bending down closer to examine it, then taking the camera from around his neck and snapping a picture of it. The light from the camera which made Chihiro realize her foolishness. So what? It was just a headstone.
"Yeah, Ryou, Lets head a little down this way, I think I know this place." Chihiro said, the blood coursing throughout her entire body, she restrained herself from running. Of course she knew this place. This is where it all began. This place was the inspiration for her stories. This place was her a part of her.
"Boss?" He said trailing after her down the path. They came upon more head stones, until they reached the one that ended the way, but started the tunnel.
"Whoa! Who knew something like this could be here!" Ryou said clearly amazed, although Chihiro just felt a sort of dread. This was the place. Stepping through this tunnel would help her find out whether everything had just been a dream. Her parents considered it a dream. They never spoke of the time of when they first came to this town. They chose to be ignorant of what had happened to them.
"Come on, let's go!" Ryou said clearly excited, already starting to head through the tunnel.
"Ryou, wait. Come on, lets start walking to a gas station." She said taking a couple steps back, hoping he would follow. He just kept on walking deeper and deeper into the tunnel.
"Come on Boss! Come on!" She heard his voice echo from the tunnel, he was already too far into it to see him clearly.
"Ryou! Lets go back!" Chihiro shouted down the tunnel hoping her voice would carry.
"Oh my god. Boss! You won't believe whats over here!" She heard him shout from the end.
"Dammit Ryou!" She shouted, taking a step forward into the tunnel, but not no more. She felt the wind slightly pull her in. 'Just like last time.' she thought to herself. She didn't want to go. She knew things would only end badly. She knew what was on the other side of this tunnel. Or she used to know at least.
Chihiro sighed to herself. She was already twenty years old and holding on to such a stupid dream. There was no spirit world. Those were only the stories she wrote to entertain her own imagination. Or at least thats what her shrink would say.
For years she had pictured this day, waiting to come back to this place. Waiting to be welcomed back into loving arms. She was so tired of dreaming.
Chihiro walked down the rest of the tunnel looking for Ryou who was probably snapping away at his camera at the scenery.
"Ryou?" She called out stepping onto the platform. He was no where to be seen. She shrugged and walked down farther until she reached the breezy glade. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining bright making the place look almost heavenly.
"Ryou!" She called out hearing her own voice echo throughout the plain. She took in everything, trying to spot her stupid best friend and employee.
"Chihiro! This way!" she heard him shout all the way from the cluster of restaurants across the plain. It was a long walk over the field. 'How did he get there that fast?' Chihiro thought to herself. She saw him from afar turn away from her and keep walking.
"Ryou wait!" She tried shouting out to him, but he appeared not to have heard her. She started running towards him across the field until she crossed the stones that marked the beginning of the steps.
When she got up the steps Ryou was no where to be found. "Ryou! This isn't funny. We're going to be so late!" She shouted to her surroundings, hearing nothing reply to her. She walked farther down. Her mind going crazy. Remembering things she had wanted to forget altogether this morning. But just because the place was real, doesn't mean the people were. Chihiro felt stupid for almost believing in her stories. She gave her head a good shake then resumed walking.
"Boss! It's a bathhouse! Look how big it is! I bet it's amazing inside!" She heard saw Ryou standing before the doors of the bathhouse. She ran to catch up with him, her body exhausted from chasing after him. She crouched down to give her legs a rest and take a deep breath.
"You better have a good reason for dragging us all the way here." She growled out, trying to get her annoyance visible on her face through her out-of-breathness.
"Boss! It's just like your stories! This whole entire place! Even down to the headstones out front!" He said getting carried away with himself.
"Oh, so you've noticed..." she said slowly.
Ryou pushed open the large double doors leading into the bathhouse. Something felt off though. Those doors were larger than them by twice their height, yet he was able to just push them open with ease. But then again, its not like this was the first time something like this happened around Ryou. He was just one of those people who you might consider...freaky? Well something like that. He was just never a normal boy. Which was probably why we got a long so well.
She knew what it was like to not be accepted. Back when she was ten and just entering her new school. She wasn't popular with the other kids there. She used to tell everyone about her time spent in the spirit world, which probably why she didn't fit in. Then she met Ryou. He was the only other person besides herself who actually believed her and listened to her stories.
"Ryou. Come on. Lets just go." She said finally getting up, but it was too he, already slipped through the door without her realizing it.
"Ryou. YOU ARE SO FIRED." She shouted to the door, She knew he could hear her. Her voice echoed off every wall in the building.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, she walked into the building. It was dead quiet, almost eerie in a way. The building was extravagant and abandoned. Though it didn't look abandoned. Everything looked polished as if brand new or just recently cleaned. The floors look shiny clean and the walls paint looked as if it wasn't any older than a year.
Ryou was still no where in site.
She walked down toward the stairs that lead up to the foreman's stand. She remembered when none of the departments would let her in because of her smell.
She walked along the hall looking over the balcony to the baths below. It made her remember when her and someone, Someone she can't remember so surely, cleaned the largest one.
She remembered a man with six arms and shriveled up legs.
She remembered puffs of soot coming to life.
She remembered an over-sized child.
She remembered her parents turning into pigs.
And most of all she remembered a dragon.
Being here made her remember all those things which people called her crazy for even thinking. It made her remember all the kids from school calling her crazy. It made her remember thing that her parents made her go to a shrink for believing. Chihiro balled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palm.
"This isn't real." She whispered to herself. She said. She was standing on the balcony bridge suspended in the center of the bathhouse.
"This isn't real." She said louder to herself. Her head was being flooded with images she wasn't even sure was real. People that she knew couldn't be real! Things that could never happen in real life exploded in her mind.
She felt like people were watching her. She hastily turned around to look behind her. No one was anywhere. This place was completely deserted. Except for Ryou who was probably wandering around somewhere.
She could hear voices. So many voices all speaking at once, although no one was there. She could hear her heart pounding as if running a marathon. The voices grew louder and she could hear her name being called out in various places.
"Sen!" She heard from behind her. She whipped around. Nothing but air was there.
"Sen!" She heard coming from the baths below. No one was there.
"Sen!" She heard coming from her right.
She pulled her hands tight over her ears, drowning out the voices with her own screaming. She didn't know how long she was screaming, but when she finally ran out of air all was quiet again.
"RYOU!" She screamed for, but he was nowhere to be found.
She heard whispers all around her. It was almost worse than the voices.
"Someone get Master Haku!" She heard from all around her along with more hushed whispers.
"Sen!" She heard all over again.
She dropped to the floor and squeezed her knees to her chest and hid her face in them once again covering her ears. She could still hear them muffled. She started screaming again.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD." She screamed to herself, clutching at her head.
"Chihiro! Chihiro!" Only then did she notice that Ryou was shaking her with worried eyes.
"Ryou. Please. We have to leave. WE HAVE TO LEAVE." She shouted at him. Her eyes searched the entire place for the people who were calling to her. She looked like a terrified animal. Her eyes gone wild. Ryou bent down to get face level with her. He held her close to his chest while patting her head down.
"But...didn't you want to come here? Wasn't this your inspiration?" He questioned softly. She said nothing but wretched out of his reach.
"None of it's real. It took me ten years to figure it out. But I finally understand. NONE OF THIS WAS EVER REAL." She shouted while getting back up to her feet.
"All those years. ALL THOSE YEARS. ALL THE TIME I WAS HOPING FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. RYOU! LOOK AT THIS PLACE! NO ONES HERE." She shouted with all her might. Her voice echoing off the walls. He looked at her with that look. He looked at her with that look of pity. The look she had grown so accustomed to when she was younger and people thought she was mentally unstable.
"Sen..." Ryou whispered.
"NO. JUST NO. DON'T CALL ME THAT. I JUST MADE THAT UP. I MADE ALL THIS UP." She shouted again using her whole body to shout with.
"HAKU WAS NEVER REAL." She had finally said it. She felt the last bit of what she was holding on to leave her. She felt her body heaving after all the shouting and screaming. She leaned back on the balcony rail to rest.
Then it broke.
"SEN!" She heard Ryou shout from above her. She felt the wind making her hair fly into her face. She felt the rush of adrenaline before her certain death course through her body.
"Haku..." she whispered closing her eyes waiting for the impact of her fall.
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