Chapter 1

It came in flashes and little glimpses of people, of shadows. So familiar that for a moment it almost feels real, almost like a memory, but not quite. The faces are fuzzy, unfocussed, like when the camera on your phone just won't clear up the image of the picture you are taking. The colors are there fusing together due to the absence of clarity but still distinct. There is a pinkish flesh color, like large bald dogs in shape. A giant grey spider like creature as well that for some unknown reason doesn't scare me like it should. Then there is the blue and gray blob that does scare me except for the few times when it doesn't. Black is there; tall and lean. Fast pink streaks race back and forth on a yellow/tan surface. But most frequently I see green and white. Sometimes the white is long and slithery like a rope and other times it is shrunk to be my height. It is safe when green is near. For a moment it is so close, maybe the vision will clear and I will see. Even if I did see, it wouldn't be remembered in the morning. To bad. It's funny though, during the dream I remember it all and I know that I won't remember when I am awake yet I remember that this time isn't the first time and I know it won't be the last that I visit this unknown place with all its familiarity.

"Agh," Light came streaming in from the curtains I swear I closed before I went to bed last night.

"Good morning Chihiro!" I glare at my roommate but no amount of glaring is going to take away the light that is constricting my pupils and waking me up. Before long it will be the point of no return and I will have to get up. Taking action I pulled the covers up over my head to plunge myself back into the warmth of sleep.

"You do realize that class starts in 5 minutes." My eyes opened wide and in a split second the covers are thrown off.

"Crap!" In a matter of milliseconds I am out of my pajamas and a toothbrush is dangling from my mouth. "Have you seen my skirt?" My roommate Lizzie points to the floor. Sure enough there is the navy blue skirt spread across the floor. The pleats are out of sorts but there isn't time to think about it before I hurriedly shove the thing on, "My socks?" I run to spit my toothbrush out, grabbing my brush with my glittering purple hair tie wrapped around the handle.

"Check your bed," sure enough rolled up at the end of my bed lie the discarded socks which warmed my feet until they got so hot that I rolled them off in the middle of the night, "It amazes me that I know where all your things are yet you don't." The brush is quickly ripped through my hair; the purple tie following in my customary ponytail.

"Amazing or not I am thankful that you do, otherwise I would be in big trouble," I unrolled the socks to pull them thigh high on my legs. Where are my shoes?

"Your shoes are under the bed," I didn't even have to ask out loud. She knows me so well. One shoe on I jump up hopping to the door on one leg. My foot catches on a piece of clothing, causing me to plummet forward crashing in an undignified heap on the ground. Laughter rings out through the room and I glare once again at my roommate who is doubled over.

I dust myself off and stand straight trying to keep whatever imaginary dignity I think I have left. "Yeah, yeah, very funny; now come on or you'll be late." I walk out the door with my head held high.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" I turn around to see Lizzie holding up a white blouse. Heat pools in my cheeks as I look down. I am perfectly dressed from the waist down but unless I want to be suspended I shouldn't walk out in only my bra as a top.

"Thanks," I grunt out, popping my head out of the shirt. "Now let's run," I tuck the shirt in as we speedily make our way to class.

"Wow! You got ready in less than 2 minutes; that's got to be a new record." Lizzie is a little too much of a morning person sometimes but I would die without her. She's my best friend… and my alarm clock.

"Yeah, but it wasn't fast enough," I hold up the paper once again explaining the 2,000 word book report Lizzie and I have to do as punishment for our tardiness. "This is so unfair! Other places in the world don't have to go to school on Saturdays, why are we the only ones with one day a week to rest?"

"Don't look at me. I don't make the rules I just get your lazy butt out of bed so we can follow them." Ever since I met Lizzie I knew I would love her, even with her morning person attitude. She is just too bubbly not to love. I can't remember waking up before her, ever, and I swear she wakes up with perfect hair and makeup. The blonde strands in loose curls all the way down her back, half of it pulled back to reveal a dazzling smile and bright green eyes.

Green….hmmmm….something about green. I feel like I am trying to remember something but it is just beyond my grasp. Not even on the tip of my tongue, but close enough to taste it. BAM! I clutched my head in pain glancing up to see a locker swing closed from the force of my head connecting with the stupid thing. I forgot we were walking down the hall.

"How did you survive this long you clutz?" Lizzie once again is laughing at my clumsiness. It is a wonder that I have made it this long in life. With how many things my head has run into these last 17 years I have been alive, it is surprising that there hasn't been any lasting brain damage… or at least I don't think there has been any brain damage.

"Good question," I answer. I rub the rapidly forming bump on my forehead, willing it to go away.

"You ok?"

"Yeah," I get up slowly and begin walking alongside Lizzie once again.

"So what is the report about?"

I held up the paper and read, "2,000 word paper about a cultural practice or past time in the Edo period in Japan. Due Monday, May 23rd." My jaw dropped after reading the last sentence, "How are we supposed to write 2,000 words in two days?! This is so depressing!"

"Next time wake up on time. You have a working alarm clock on your phone, why don't you use it?"

"I do," I replied sheepishly, "I just turn off the sound."

Lizzie stopped in her tracks and stared at me, "How is a silent alarm supposed to wake you up?" her eyebrow was raised and her mouth twitched up as she tried not to smile at my thought process.

I grabbed the hem of my untucked shirt; looking down at my hands, "It's not." When I looked back up Lizzie was smiling.

"You are like a little kid Chihiro." She's right I should have been able to get myself out of bed by now but sleep calls to me. It is so much more welcoming than being awake. It feels nice, comfortable, better than running into stuff and smacking my head around when I am conscience. "Come on, let's go eat lunch and head back to the room to get a head start on that paper."

I make a big deal about having to go to school on a Saturday but at least it is only for half of the day.

The green and white blur is here again. I am following it, but where are we going? The white extends to be longer like a rope again. I watch as the rope twists around in a beautiful dance, twirling in every direction. Suddenly the green and white rope heads straight for me and I know something is wrong. I open the sliding door that I didn't notice before to let my friend in. How do I know that this green and white thing is my friend? The thought is quickly lost as dive out of the way of the speeding blur. I run to close the door behind it just to be safe but the door won't close all the way.

I turn around to face my friend. Again the word is supplied in my brain but how do I know it is true? Is it really my friend? I guess it is better than calling it "that rope thing." My train of thought comes to a halt as I notice another color that wasn't among the green and white before. Red. He's bleeding. He? So my friend is a he. I have to help him. I run toward my friend as the red spreads across the white surface, but as I run toward him the farther I feel until it feels as though I have been running for hours, but still I have gone nowhere. My friend is still bleeding and I can't reach him. I stop to catch my breath and hear a voice, "Chihiro," It's faint and weak sounding but I know that it is my friend. The voice, I have heard it before. It brings back memories of steam and the smell of herbs.

"I'm coming!" I yell. The red is bleeding into the white but no matter how hard I try I can't reach him.

"Chihiro."

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" With a jerk I lurched out of bed and tumbled onto the floor, my blankets tangled unnaturally around my legs keeping me from sprinting from the awful noise assaulting my sensitive eardrums.

"Come on sleepy head, I want to go for a hike," Lizzie. I should have known.

"What the heck?!" I shouted at my soon to be murdered best friend.

"What?" Lizzie asked innocently, "I just figured that if I am going to be your alarm clock I better do it right."

"By screaming in my ear at 6 o'clock in the morning?!"

She looked at me, a twinkle in one eye and said, "Yes." She was smart enough to duck so she wouldn't be pelted by the shoe that I chucked in her direction. Unluckily for me it was my shoe and it went right out the open window.

"Why the heck is the window open?" I demanded. I always make sure that the curtains and windows are closed before we go to sleep, not just to keep sunlight out but any intruders as well. It isn't very likely that we would get any intruders on the fourth floor but one could never be too careful.

"The room got super hot last night so I opened the window up to cool it off." Lizzie was lacing up her hiking boots. She looked cute in her short shorts and her plaid flannel shirt.

"I am not sacrificing my one day a week where I can sleep in to go hiking." My tone was final but I knew that I wasn't going to win this discussion. If there was one thing about Lizzie I knew it was that when she wanted something she always got it and by the look in her eye she knew it too.

"Think of it as a thank you gift for being your school mom." There was a small pang in my chest at the thought of Mom, but I ignored it.

"You can't use the same reasoning every week," it just wasn't fair, no matter how true it was.

She gave a knowing grin, "Why not when it works so well?"

"We have to finish our paper before tomorrow though."

"It's basically finished. We can do the rest tonight." Her reasoning was pretty sound in my ears and I always did love procrastinating.

"Ugh, alright," I conceded.

After a few minutes I was dressed and ready to go, minus one shoe. We walked down the stairs and retrieved the missing shoe before heading out. "So where are we going?" The curiosity was eating at me; Lizzie never hiked the same trail twice, she finds it too boring.

"I heard of a place nearby, we have to take the bus to reach it though." We would have to take the bus to reach any place that Lizzie hadn't hiked before. Based on previous expeditions we probably wouldn't be back until later in the afternoon.

After a quick glance at my watch I know that it is about 7 a.m. as we board the bus off campus. It was 7:45 by the time we reached our destination and at that point we had to change buses twice.

Getting off the bus I glanced around to get my bearings. It was a little town filled with houses adorning the hill sides. "Is this it?"

"We have to walk a little but we should be there soon," Lizzie was very confident in her sense of direction and so was I….that and I trusted in my nifty phone that had a GPS app just in case we ever got lost. It never hurts to have a backup plan, not that I would ever tell Lizzie.

We began walking down the street and took a left, then a right, then a left again, and finally one last right. There was something itching at the back of my mind as we made our way down the road. A ways down the street we saw that the pavement came to an end and a dirt path continued into the trees. The houses around us fell behind leaving us on the path to nature. The itching sensation in my brain wouldn't go away. There was something familiar about this town, about this path. I glanced at my watch again, 8:27 a.m.

Looking up from my watch I saw it. Up the hill parallel to the path we were walking was a row of houses and at the end was a blue one. My old home. We had moved there when I was ten but not for long. Could I even call it a "home"? What is the length of time you need to spend there that changes a house into a home? I guess I call it home because it is the last place I lived with my family before going to boarding school. I'm not sure who lives there now.

"Aww, how cute," Is the only warning I get before I walk full force into a stopped Lizzie.

"Oof! Ah, I'm so sorry." Somehow Lizzie is still standing yet I am on the ground nursing a newly bruised elbow.

"It's ok, I should have known better," She really should have; she knows how easily distracted I get. I look up to the blonde hiking enthusiast before me and grin. Her blonde hair is pulled back tight in a ponytail like mine is. I get up and check the damage done to my clothes. My jean shorts are fine, in fact they might even need a little more of a thrashed look to them in order to appear more hip. I am glad that I went with short sleeved pink top instead of my stripped green one. I would hate for my favorite shirt to get ruined. Lizzie helpfully pulls a twig out of my hair when I stand up.

"So what's the hold up?" Without saying a word Lizzie looks down at the base of a huge tree where there are tons of little stone houses, "How cute!"

"Aren't they? I wonder why they are here."

"They are shrines. Some people believe little spirits live in them," the answer slips easily off my tongue; an answer that I didn't even know that I knew.

Lizzie is pleasantly surprised at this knowledge, "I love this culture; it is so cool."

"Is that why you came here from America?" I watch as she crouches down to get a better look at the little houses.

"Nope, that's my dad's fault."

The little houses are intriguing and like everything else lately, I feel as though I have seen them before. I probably did, seeing as I lived here before. My friend probably doesn't even know that we are in town I used to call home, but I am not about to enlighten her. She might think I know of more places we could visit but I barely remembered that I lived here let alone where other hiking trails would be.

Suddenly a gust of wind blows toward the direction of the path we had been taking. Looking into the forest I feel…something…like a memory. I have been here before.

"Come on, let's get going or we won't make it back in time to finish our homework." My blonde friend leads the way into the trees. I try not to notice that the moment we start walking again is the moment the wind dies down. It never helps to be superstitious.

The woods are thick but the sunlight comes through in little beams. Walking in the woods with Lizzie has always been fun. It is like being in a fairytale or a place long ago. There is no unnatural sound of car engines or airplanes. No nasty smell of pollution that assaults the lungs and nostrils. The smell is clean and the only sounds are the steps of our feet on the grass or the creeping of the woodland critters.

A comfortable silence settled between us. I may complain about it in the morning but I love going out to hike with Lizzie. I love being around Lizzie. She makes everything fun. I feel like myself around her and can relax. It is nice to be around someone that you know you don't have to keep a conversation with. I am surprised that Lizzie spends so much time with me honestly. I never have really fit into any groups at school. Sure I have friends but there is no one place that I feel I belong. Lizzie on the other hand could fit in anywhere.

We walked and walked and walked some more. Lizzie leading the way and me bringing up the rear. Hours passed, every once in a while we would talk. Mostly she would just ask if I was ok after she heard me crash into something. After dragging me out of the fifth bush that tried to hold me captive we sat down for a break.

"This place is so beautiful, it's almost magical."

"I know what you mean," I agreed. It almost felt wrong to talk in this place, it was so peaceful. The rumble from my stomach was easily heard in the stillness. We both paused to look at each other before laughing.

"Are you hungry?"

"Starved, I forgot to eat breakfast this morning."

"Me too," Lizzie replied swinging her trusty hiking bag over and digging through it. That girl had anything you could possibly need in that bag. "Ah ha, there you are," she yelled aloud. With a triumphant look on her face she threw an energy bar in my direction. It tasted like heaven to my salivating mouth.

After finishing the power bar I looked at Lizzie, "We should probably start heading back."

A pout formed on the blonde's face, "Come on just a little further," She begged.

Who was acting like the mom now, I thought. A quick look at my watch told me that we had been walking for over two and a half hours. We still had to go back, get on the bus, and walk home. "Fine, but half an hour more then we head back.

We were up and moving again without another word. After ten minutes we could see light ahead, as though we were approaching the end of the trees or maybe a meadow. As we got closer we saw a large moss covered rock jutting out of the ground and directly behind it a tunnel.

"Look Chihiro!"

"I see it." As we come into the clearing I see that the tunnel leads into an old abandoned building, overgrown with moss and other plant life. Lizzie goes straight to the tunnel to investigate walking right past the moss covered stone.

Hmmm. I begin to pull the moss off the stone. Eh, gross. The moss is slimy and not easily moved with my bare hands. Looking around I spot a smaller rock next to my foot that I use to scrape off the nasty green mush. The sound of stone scratching against stone causes Lizzie to turn around and see what I am doing, but I am too intent on my project to notice her approach. What looks like a face takes shape as I scrap off more and more of the moss. My little project takes a few minutes but soon enough a two faced statue is revealed.

"It's kind of creepy isn't it?" My heart leaps in my chest at hearing Lizzie right behind me. I had been so transfixed by the stone that I hadn't noticed that she moved. She was right; the statue looked unsettling with its toothless grin and almond shaped eyes. Like an old hag.

"Yeah," my reply was a little breathless. For some reason my heart was beating faster than normal. The tunnel, the statue it was all like déjà vu.

"Where do you think the tunnel leads?" Oh no, I know where this is going.

"I don't know, but we should really head back. I don't want to be caught in the woods in the dark." It was as though I hadn't even said anything. She gave no reaction to my statement, just walked right up to the tunnel entrance and stared into the darkness.

I looked down at the creepy statue and walked up to my friend. We stood at the mouth of the tunnel. Far down the path was a small hint of light. So there is an opening at the end. The flutter of leaves sounded in my ears I glanced at the ground to see leaves being blown into the tunnel. The wind is pulling us in. Another rustling sound reached my ear, this time it was Lizzie digging through her pack. A few moments later and she flicked on her flashlight.

"Let's check it out."

"No, we might get in trouble," the gleam in her eye let me know that there was nothing I could say to change her mind, but I would be darned if I didn't try.

"Come on Chihiro, where is your sense of adventure?" She was goading me, I knew it, but that didn't mean I wouldn't fall for it.

"I'm not going Lizzie," my tone was final, but she knew I was weak.

She smirked, "Fine, just stay here and I will be back in ten minutes tops," without another word she started walking down the tunnel. That was a lie and we both knew it. If I wasn't there she would be gone for hours. I grabbed the hem of my shirt nervously and started tapping my toes. I used to stomp my feet but after being called a weirdo by my classmates I tried to stop.

I could see her getting further and further down the hall, if I didn't go now I would lose her. The wind picked up again pushing me toward the entrance. It wasn't just the creepy statue that freaked me out or the dark tunnel. It was the familiar pull of it all. Like a lost memory.

"Gosh dang it Lizzie," I muttered under my breath, "you will be the death of me," I ran after my friend.