*Disclaimer: I don't own Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, but it would be really cool! I DO own this stories concepts and words, so please be kind and don't do anything without my permission, tank you!

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AN:

Okay...*Cracks knuckles* It's 2:08AM and I'm feeling fine. Well...actually I feel pretty sick, my throat is bothering me a lot and I think...hmm, that is...hunger? And I don't know if I want to go to my cabin later or not. Oya oya! Darn spell checker putting red under all of my Japanese! *Cracks neck* Uh, yeah, well...here goes.

Why am I doing this anyway?

Because.

Oh yeah, that was it, I forgot.

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Takes Place: 3 years after Chihiro meets Haku.

Yeah...that's it.

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Cement River~~~~~~~~~~~flows to the sea

"Freedom is something you'd expect from love, but no: true love comes at a heavy price."

Something caught the attention of the corner of her eye: a face among the blue transparency of the river. But when the girl tried to look it face on it slid away like it was never there. Soft ripples glazed the surface of the calm river, reflecting her sorrowed face against the noon sky. Her long, brown hair was tied up and away from the small, lapping waves and her brown eyes reflected a deep hurt from three years past.

Chihiro sat there, at the edge of the river Kohaku, praying a silent prayer that she knew would never come true: she had already been waiting too long. And as she reached her hand below the waves, a tear fell past her hand and landed with a quiet "drop" on the cement.

There is no Kohaku river, it was dead before she met him: was why she met him.

As the tear spread, making the cement a darker shade in its wake, she saw the cement for what it was, and morbidly stood, facing to the east which her love had become.

The buildings that stood around reflected abuse of the ages. And as she looked round she read their meaning in that moment: they were what did this, and they liked seeing her gray face each day. "Moan," the word that came to her mind as her shadow danced with the wavering sun.

She took the bus to here, and as she walked back to the station Chihiro thought of her mothers words still ringing in her mind. Well, every time it was the same and it almost seemed as if her mother had given up on her, at the young age of 13. Always questioning her, why are you always going there? A big pile of cement, that's all it is, and yet you are spending everyday for hours there! And finally just making plain statements, You're too weird, Chihiro. I don't know what to do with you anymore, her mother would say sighing. It used to hurt.

They used to hurt more, Chihiro knew. But repeated over and over again, these words no longer had an effect on her, because nothing mattered anymore. She had found true love...

And lost it.

And lost her childhood, never to look back on the world she once knew.

It faded like from black to gray. A silent silver tear slid down her cheek and past her throat at the remembrance of all she had lost. The freedom of a child was gone, one of the harsh realities of spending time in the spirit world. Sure she still had the spirit of a child-in fact brighter than ever, but that central core of Chihiro's being was lost on the banks of that dead river which she crossed with her parents twice. It had been eating at her so long she had become deaf to it's cries, but not to the cries of the love she never was able to realize: she was trapped.

Her love was so pure and true--so meant to be, but it was forced to sit and eat her from within, like a black hole that consumed everything she was. It clouded her vision until she could not see any truth or reality, and her mind was always in a far off place where he might be waiting. Chihiro's love sat fermenting in her being like a sour wine, ready and ripe, but with no one to drink it. How can you feel love on your own? Or better yet, how can you survive being in love alone? Three years is too long.

It was killing her: the sword to her throat with every breath.

Chihiro noticed she passed the bus station, but didn't stop. The sea was on her vision's horizon, and she walked steadily towards the shoreline. The girl did not see the carp kite to her left the child to her write or the woman holding its hand. She did not see the discarded papers or the graffiti on the far wall. She only saw where she was going, and that was the sea.

The sea: the blessed sea of white foam and curls of blue, the sea that meet with the sun each morn only to be given to the night at dusk. The sea like the one she fell with her love over, after she called out his true name, and they cried as one and touched their faces together. Chihiro winced at this memory, a pain in her side, but slowly regained her control. She was only ten at the time, but age didn't matter, it never will. Her amber eyes reflected that of happiness at seeing her end, the great blue that stretched beyond the horizon.

It still hurt a bit, but she didn't care: she would leave it behind.

Along with him...

Who didn't keep his promise.

And she plunged into the cold water, first her ankles, and "Maybe. Maybe," she thought, "part of him will be here in the sea he flowed to." Then her thighs, the water slowly lapping at her shorts. At her waist she stopped at a sigh, hugging herself from the cold or what she knew was to come. "I hope...he's here." She whispered, letting go of herself and facing the charging white boldly once again.

She had not forgotten.

Perhaps she didn't want to.

And as the water took her chest and then her neck, she fought against the current while she could see her future: It was dark.

With one final breath Chihiro loosened her hair from its tie, and she let herself fall into the depths of the water she loved. Bubbles escaping from her open mouth she said one final word: Haku, and then faded into the dark.

And as her body disappeared from the light, her enchanted band rose up touching the surface, and then slid down to join her catching glints of light from the silky patterns formed, before falling into the darkness.

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Few! BED!

Don't worry, there's more! I wouldn't end it like that, I mean I would but that's not the point!

Please review if you like where I am going! (Although, how would you know?)

~Chiu^^

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