A small girl opened her eyes and squinted

A small girl opened her eyes and squinted. The sun bore down on her pupils and she quickly rubbed her eyes with distaste for the sudden wake up call. The girl pulled the covers above her head, aching for one last ounce of sleep, but to no avail. Under her pink covers she quivered with nervousness.

"Honey get up, its time for school." Said a voice from a door, the girl didn't move, wallowing in her own fear. She could see a faint figure past the blanket, a dark mass that was awaiting her arrival into levelheadedness. The figure moved closer and reached an arm out to the girl, "Honey, its time to wake up, your father needs to go to work early and you've already missed the bus.

"Why do I have to go to school anyways? I just want to be with Haku in the spirit world." Snarled the girl to her mother, to which her mother's usual response was shot back.

"Chihiro, you know that I have no clue who Haku even is and we've told you that there's no spirit world, so get up, its time for school, no day dreaming."

Chihiro got out of her bed solemnly, her downtrodden hair hung past her shoulders, her bangs too far into her eyes.

"And you also need a haircut too; I'll schedule an appointment--"Her mom walked away, still in thought of Chihiro.

Chihiro walked over to her closet, hoping to find her washed clothes neatly in a pile, but no clothes were in her closet.

"Mom! I need my clothes!" Chihiro yelled to her mother.

"Just one second sweetie!" Her mother said to Chihiro, and soon a basket of clean clothing arrived at her doorway. Chihiro picked a nice outfit and looked one last time at her room, then out the window. She looked down the grassy hill to the tree with small huts splayed under it.

"If only I could go back, I just want to go back." Chihiro whispered to herself.

"What honey?" Her father said to her, adjusting his tie at her doorway, "Time to go! Pack up your stuff and we're out of here."

Chihiro didn't respond to him, but instead she picked up her comforter and placed it on the bed and walked out of the room. Her father followed suit and soon they were driving to her school. She looked in the backseat and found her wilted bouquet's card and she placed it in her pocket, the memories associated with the card were too much for her to lose. When they arrived at the school, her father kissed her on the head and told her to have a nice day, she nodded and said goodbye, still shaking with anticipation of the school day.

The preceding day at school was nothing out of the ordinary, she present her project and got a high scoring mark on it, however, its what happened after school that is ultimately interesting. After speaking to her teacher, Chihiro made her way to the loading dock, only to see her bus driving away, exhaust fumes abound. Her heart sank, another day that she missed the bus and was forced to walk. She proceeded to walk home with a determined air about her. She took a right on the main road to her house and kept walking. Soon the road turned into dirt, and the tree with spirits' homes beneath it was in front of Chihiro.

The breeze was slight, her hair rustled nonetheless. The grass moved like a verdant ocean, endlessly waving at Chihiro. The blue house on the end was present as well, the prison that kept Chihiro away from her friend in the spirit world for a year. She looked at the small houses. Dirty and disheveled, she sensed that something was wrong. The dreams that she'd been having were different than her basic ones, they were darker, scarier, nightmares. She was sure this was because of the spirit world messing with her mind. The wind picked up speed and played with her hair some more, this time pulling her in to the pathway like the breeze did one year previously, pulling her through the train station. She turned towards the pathway and started making her way through the underbrush that was reminiscent of the underbrush that coated her father's car one year ago.

The path was longer than she thought, or was that because her father drove at such a high speed previously? Nonetheless, she made her way to the train station. The path opened up in a v-fashion and the same small statue with doubled heads greeted her with a mossy grin. Chihiro's legs were somewhat tired, but she trudged on into the tunnel. When she reached the end of the tunnel, she was fatigued. She sat down on one of the many useless benches riddled throughout the loading bay and took a slight rest.

"Just a quick nap…" Chihiro said to herself as her eyes closed and her body flopped onto the wooden bench.

Hours later, she awoke once more, this time not to a lurking sun waiting to wake her up, but instead to the sound of waves, the grassy knoll was filled with water once more. More excited than ever, she quickly got up and ran to the archway leading from the train station to the newly created bay. There was a ferry, just like the year before, there was ornate decorations flirting with her eyes, small paper cut out to look like ornate lace was hung around the railing. It danced with the levels and encompassed the bright ship that looked more fun than ever. Chihiro remembered the creepy spirits that came out of it last time, with paper on their faces and fans in their hands; their eerie presence was not lost about her. But this time, the ship was different, as was the train station: they were both empty.

One would assume that a place full of spirits would be lifeless, but it could not hold up to the overcoming coalescing fear and dread that was racking Chihiro's brain at that moment in time. The train station was supposed to be bustling, as was the ship, but neither were even close.

"Hello? Anyone? Hello!" She yelled out into the dark midst, but to no avail. No creature or spirit responded to her pleas of social salvation as she yelled some more, calling out to anyone who was near, but to no avail.

The ship neared the train station, and as usual it let down its ramp to oncoming passengers. Chihiro, not knowing what to do, quickly boarded the ferry. The red planks clanged as they locked into place, and then the ferry moved once more. She was unaware of what was going to happen, her near future as mysterious as her distant future, her parents, unknowing of the adventure that she was going to embark on – by choice – were at home, worrying for her safety.

Chihiro's eyes became puffy with tears; she bit her bottom lip and gripped the post nearest to her as the ferry took her back to the spirit world, so she could see Haku and Zeniba once more.