Forever Mine
By: My final Death
AN: This is a revision of a story I tried to write along time ago. Why go through the trouble? Let's just say that I was lacking in any type of creative writing skill back then. XD
After finishing the movie Spirited Away the first time I was most severely disappointed. I guess my main reason was because a.) there just wasn't enough romance and b.) I wanted Haku to behave more… well, more evil I guess. So then I decided that instead of moping around about it I'd just recreate the story in my own way. Consider this your forewarning: this is the alternative universe version of Spirited Away.
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Chapter 1
Into the Rabbit Hole
Chihiro gripped a black rubber band in between her lips as she fought the mess of brown hair to conform into the shape of a pony tail. Even though the style was a medium-length cut, the early summer heat made the thought of leaving it down and hanging on her neck unbearable. Unfortunately, her hair disagreed most stubbornly with her and simply did not want to be contained.
In a way, her hair's stubbornness reflected a lot of who Chihiro actually was as a person. Having just turned the age of sixteen, her body was at that point where it had a full figured shape like a woman and all the hormones left of a teenager. She was an obnoxious, lazy and generally a very bratty sort of person to be around, and everyone who knew her had a tendency to agree with each other that she just wasn't a very ambitious girl.
In fact, to further the point, on this particular day she should have already been at school and in class studying reviewing for her finals. But poor Chihiro couldn't be bothered which such nonsense, and despite the fact that she was in actuality a very bright child she just couldn't bring herself to study. It bored her to tears. Even if she were in a class room she'd simply scribble cute cartoons in the corner of her notes (which contained nothing at all). And so, deciding that this was a day not to be wasted on such frivolous things, she had made plans to go visit the new theme park from which she had heard so much about.
She grinned at her reflection in the vanity mirror and blew herself a kiss after she finally won the battle over her hair. She felt particularly giddy today, and although she would not have normally put forth the effort to enhance her features, she decided that today was a special occasion. Not only would she be playing hooky from school to visit the new theme park, but a boy that she had a crush on for a very long time now would also be accompanying her. She began to apply a pale shade of pink lip sticks to her lips.
She had even gone so far as to plan out an outfit to wear, since it'd be much too hot to wear pink sweater and faded jeans that she usually adorned when not in a school outfit. She picked out a yellow summer dress decorated in tiny orange flowers that was made of a very flimsy yet light and clingy material. It was basically an elongated tube top that died up around her neck by two strings, and released into a skirt as soon as it got past the curve of her hips. Her friends before had commented that it complimented her shapely legs, and she had hoped that Amatsu, the boy she was going with, would notice them as well.
Upon hearing the door bell ring (which miraculously happened after Chihiro applied the rest of her make up), she quickly slipped on a pair of bright orange heels and floated down the stairs to open the door. Amatsu, who appeared to be a few years older, grinned roguishly and opened his arms out in a welcoming gesture. "Well, well, well, I see you dressed for the occasion! How very unlike you, I half expected that you'd still be in your pajamas."
Chihiro smiled back nervously. "Yeah well, it'd too be hot then so I had to put on something else!"
Amatsu nodded. He himself opted to dress in khaki shorts and a white muscle shirt. "Well, shall we go? I hope you remembered to put on sun block or you'll turn into a human lobster. Then I just might have to eat you."
"Yeah, right!" Chihiro gave Amatsu a playful slug and ran to his car and hopped in the front seat without waiting for him to show gentlemanly manners.
The drive in all honesty hadn't been that long, but it had been a rather silent one. It seemed like neither one of them had much to say, but in truth, Chihiro had lots of things she wanted to talk about and was simply too shy to do so. She spent at least seventy percent of the time staring wistfully out the window, and Amatsu spent his entire time looking at the road.
"So ah… I've heard that this place has become easily the best park in town," he said a bit dully, obviously trying to fill the silence (the radio was broken).
"So have I. Apparently they even opened up a bath house right in the middle where people can even stay the night." In honesty that in itself didn't interest Chihiro, but the night-time festival did.
"It's too bad we wouldn't get to spend the night there! I'd love a good massage given by a beautiful- err, well, I 'd like one from whoever it came from." He blushed as he felt Chihiro glare at him.
"Oh please, by all means, go on with what you were ORIGINALLY going to say…" She began to fold her arms stubbornly across her chest.
"Oh look! We're here!" Amatsu pointed out the window in a very excited manner to try to get his friend of the war path. "Huh… strange, I wonder where all the cars are, or even the parking lot for that matter."
The place to where they had driven to looked quite abandoned and entangled with the forest. The road more or came to a dead end and straight ahead of them was a tunnel that lead straight through a rock formation and overgrown in vines. Forgetting about what Amatsu had said earlier, Chihiro made a wide sweep of the area with her eyes and looked back at her friend with a funny expression.
"Um, Amatsu, I don't think this is it…" her voice trailed off and she sat back in her seat with a rather disappointed sigh.
Amatsu looked positively offended. "Nonsense. This is where the directions took me!"
"Well, your sense of direction obviously sucks then." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Naaah, let's just park the car and look around first." Amatsu placed the car in park and pocketed the keys before opening the door and stepping out.
Chihiro sighed and exited the car as well, although she didn't step one foot further in any direction. Amatsu on the other hand, like a child attracted to shiny objects, walked straight towards the tunnel and peered inside. "Chi! You should take a look at this; there isn't even a light at the end!"
"This is boooring," she whined and leaned against the passenger side of the car. "Let's go, you've had your look around."
"Don't be like that," he said disapprovingly. "C'mon, let's just take a look inside. I've never seen an actual cave before!"
"No, it's hot, and I want the AC back!" She stared at him defiantly.
He sighed, and shrugged. "Oh well that's just too bad. I'm going to go in," he grinned mischievously, "and you can just stay out here and melt in the sun."
"You're bluffing."
Apparently he wasn't. He gave another shrug and started to walk into the cave and became completely engulfed by the darkness. Chihiro bit the bottom of her lip, and called out shakily, "Amatsu?"
No answer.
…
"Amatsu??"
No answer again.
"Ugh! Fine!!" Chihiro peeled herself off of the car and grudgingly began to walk towards the cave. As she reached the very entrance, she hesitated before setting a foot inside. It looked rather unpleasant to her, really. After all… she was wearing heels. If she couldn't see where she stepped, then she'd more than likely slip, fall, and tear her dress.
"Amatsu I can't see anything!"
No reply. She cursed. 'Damn him, he's purposely not answering me!' she thought bitterly to herself. With a sigh of resolution she placed one hand on the interior wall of the cave and slowly began place the heel of her left foot down inside. "I'm coming, so wait up for me!"
As soon as her body was completely in the cave, the strangest sensation came over her as if she were no longer in the same place anymore. It made her a bit dizzy so she had to place both hands on the wall of the cave for support, but she kept pressing forward until she saw a light at the very end. Breathing a sigh of relief, Chihiro began to pick up her pace and before she knew it she was in the bright sun of the other side.
It was peculiar.
Even though it was the same sun and the same clouds in the sky, the temperature of the dry summer breeze had changed drastically. No longer was it hot and intolerable, but rather it was cool and inviting. However, this wasn't even what caught Chihiro's attention. The thing that made her realize that something was fishy was that the field before her was vastly spread out in all directions and couldn't have possibly been there without some type of interruption.
And Amatsu was no where to be seen.
Chihiro turned back to see if maybe he was still stuck in the cave somewhere, but to her dismay the entrance of the cave simply wasn't there. In fact, the cave wasn't even there. It was all just the same endless field.
"Oh, I get it! It's an optical illusion!" She said to herself, and with determination, she through herself back the direction from whence she came. She was of course more than disappointed when she discovered that her surroundings had in fact been authentic, and she came to this realization after she landed smack dab on her side. And then finally, the inevitable fear of uncertainty took a hold of her. "AMATSU!"
She screamed his name several more times, be when she received no answer, she fell back onto her bottom and stared down at her knees.
To be Continued
So, please let me know what you think I hope it is most definitely an improvement. During the next chapter we'll get to meet Haku, yay!