Chirhiro POV

I had waited forever to see him again. At least it felt like forever… I hadn't seen Haku in over six years and was wondering if I would ever meet him again. In reality, I kind of assumed the answer would be "never again" because of the barrier that lay between us; the spirit world vs. the human world.

I was thinking about the little spirit boy when my best friend, Lea, said "Chirhiro! Listen to me; you've been zoned out for like, the past ten minutes!" Lea had been describing her fruitless attempts to grab the attention of her crush, the boy she sat next to in physics class.

"Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind." I really did, I couldn't forget those emerald green eyes staring at me with as much passion as a, what I'm assuming, 14 year old teenaged spirit god can. "I think I'm gonna leave, I have a lot of work to do."

"Have fun doing homework instead of drinking smoothies with me!" Lea was mildly angry now because I had promised her we would go to the smoothie shop, but I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by emotions.

It's not that I was in love with him. That was almost impossible because the last time I had laid eyes on him was when I was ten. How could a child fall in love with another? I did though have feelings for him, it was just hard to describe. Longing? Melancholy? Hope?

Instead of heading home to do work like I had said, I drove over to my beautiful hideout in the woods. Often times when I needed to get away, I frequented a meadow that had flowers, shrubs, a small river that led off to bigger expanses and soft grass that was perfect to lie down on and read a book.

I walked over to the edge of the water and dipped my feet in, after taking my ballet flats off. The H20 was cold with a bit of silt swirling along the bottom. I pulled out my favorite book, Little Women and started reading about a time long ago.

Before I knew it I was dozing with the book in my lap and my head lolling to the side.

I awoke to the slight rustles of foot falls tramping through the undergrowth. The sound startled me so much that I dropped the precious pages of the classic into the small river. The current swept it away, out of sight.

I looked towards the sounds, and beheld three men and one female. The men looked to be in their 30s and the women had to be around her late 50s. The woman was commanding orders to the men, saying "Walk ahead and scout out to see if we can camp here for the night." "Stop making so much noise! Someone might hear us." "Would you stop talking, you're giving me a headache."

They appeared to be vagabonds, carrying packs with bulging supplies sticking out the tops. The men were well muscled, but seemed to head the words their elder was saying. They came into the clearing, finally noticing me. "Look what we have here, a sweet little girl in our new home." The woman's voice was rough as if she had smoked too many cigarettes.

One man set his bags down and waddled over to me. He stank of cheap beer and smoke. I hurried to cross the river, only making it halfway across the expanse of water before he grabbed hold of my sweater.

My jeans and bare feet were sloshing through the water, desperately trying to get away from the beefy man. The other men walked over and grabbed me by the arms, pushing me down under the water to silence my screams.

Thinking to myself, why hadn't I left before they saw me? I guess I wanted to see what they were going to do. My lapse in judgment had cost me, because now the first man to reach me was unbuttoning my soggy sweater and threw it into the river. The pink fabric of my favorite sweater was torn and had mud on it.

I didn't want this to happen, but still they unzipped my jeans and yanked them off of me, tossing them into the brambles not far from the river. Still in the cold rush of river water, my bra was being unclasped and heaved to the side.

I heard the woman laughing at my expense, thinking it was all a joke. One of the men asked "Ma, can we have some fun with her?" So they were a family.

"Sure, when you're done drag her off by the rode and silence her." The mother of the three men started to walk away and unpack their belongings, bringing out a small, portable stove and heavy pan.

I struggled against the arms pinning me down. I bit down on someone's finger and was rewarded with a punch across the cheek bone. The water was being sloshed around and the silt was coming to the surface of the river. Since I was pinned almost underneath the water, the dirt swirling around my eyes was making it hard to see.

They were touching me all over, bruising and inflicting tiny wounds with their sharp, uncut nails. Into the river I was crying, my tears becoming one with the H20.

My panties were pulled to my ankles and the first man thrust inside of me, eliciting more terrified screams out of me. I could do nothing to bar myself against these rough men, only to endure it.

The floor of the river began to quake and the water churned. The men slowed their pace and started looking around, calling "Who's there?" "What's going on?"

Out of the dirt in the river rose a man dressed in light shades of blue and cream, the water forming rivulets down his back, for he was faced away from us. He started to turn around, but before I could glimpse his face one of the men backed up onto me. The force of him tripping and falling made me disoriented so much that I my vision was shaky and I was gasping for breath.

Through muted vision, I saw the mysterious man pummel the other three and throw their bodies carelessly into the river, but far away from me. I heard the women yelling and trying to get away, but the man caught up to her and used the pan to bash the life from her skinny figure.

The next thing I knew I was being lifted and caressed, but I never did get to see whom my savior was because I blacked out, hearing a deep masculine voice call my name "Chihiro."