Friday.

Another day at college. Chihiro was a major in Literature, and English. Always writing her own made up stories about what might go on in the Spirit World.

She started with her own story, of when she first arrived.

People were amazed at how the idea came to her.

How when she read it, it sounded like she lived it.

Little did they know she did.

Chihiro was working on another one of her stories. This time being later when she's all grown up like she is now. It starts off with her and her bestfriend Lily walking home, from college.


"Chihiro, I know you're sad and all, but he wasn't worth it." Comforts Lily, with a soothing tone.

"I'm not sad Lily," Chihiro reminded her friend. "You made me do it!" She was angry at her friend, for embarrassing her like that.

"But you have to admit, he was pretty cute." Said Lily, remembering how he looked. "I wonder if he'll give me his number..." She looked behind her, to see if he was still there. She ran off.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Chihiro! And don't spend all your time at that field. I don't get what's so special about it!"

Chihiro turned around to say one more thing to Lily, but she was already gone.

Chihiro wasn't surprised Lily left her for a guy she didn't even know. She often always did this, just like Chihiro always went to the field. Lily didn't get it though. This field is very special to Chihiro. It was the field that substituted the tunnel that lead to the Spirit World.

Chihiro wasn't that far from the road that lead there either, and she didn't mind taking the 20 minute walk to get there.

Approaching the start, she took a deep breath. "Please let the tunnel be there, this time."

It was a little later than when she normally arrived. She walked past the tree, with the little shrines. She looked up to her home.


"Wait did I take the wrong turn? This can't be right." My dad questioned, looking out the window. I peered out as well.

"Look, there's our house. It's the blue one on the end." Said my mom, as we all looked over.

"Oh, you're right. I must have missed the turn-off. This road should get us there."


Chihiro remembered the first time they ever came down this road.

She started to walk down, fastening her pace every second or two.

She was running now.

Why was she running?

She could hear something.

Something morphing.

A sound as if something had appeared, and is now slowly disappearing.

She passed a statue, but not any ordinary one.

A shiver was sent up her spine. The statue had always given her the chills.

Chihiro had slowed down her pace, as she saw it.

Infront of her, was the tunnel she walked down this road thousands of times to arrive to.

Chihiro let out a gasp, and her eyes close as she blinks a few times to make sure it was real. But it didn't look real. It looked a little transparent.

"It's disappearing!" She was shocked. After all this time, she finally found it, but it had faded away.

She was to late, again.

Chihiro walked back to the main road with a huge look of disappointment.

"I can't believe that I finally found the tunnel... But no! what does it do...?" She said to herself, as she started to get angry. "It disappears, and leaves me to die here in the Human Realm!" Chihiro screamed loudly. She stomped her feet on the concrete. She was back in town, and she may have been exaggerating about the death, but it's what it seemed like.

People stared at Chihiro, but she didn't bother to pay any attention.

"Hey!"

Chihiro walked down the sidewalk, with her head down, and hands in her pockets. She never noticed someone running towards her. "If I left for the tunnel at 5:00," She mumbled her thoughts aloud to herself. "And arrived at 5:30... Does that mean it shows up for a half an hour, every hour?" she wondered. She furrowed her eyebrows, and looked up. "Or does it show up before I arrive and disappear when I get there, just to erk me!" She shouted.

"Watch out!"

Before Chihiro she knew it, she was sent back a few spaces, and onto the hard concrete.

"Ow! Please watch where you're going, sir." Chihiro said, as she stood up and rubbed her butt, as it throbbed.

"Me? I kept telling you to move but you just kept walking." The man had said back at her. "Are you okay?"

"Never been better." Chihiro lied.

"That's good to hear." The man smiled, softly. He couldn't hear the aggravation in Chihiro's voice.

Chihiro was standing unaware, with a sad look on her face. Tears streamed her cheeks lightly, as she remembered more of her past, and what made her want to go back to it so much.

"Miss?"

"Hm? Oh... I-I'm sorry." Chihiro apologized to the boy, and walked on her way.

'If what I saw was true, then I should be able to go back tomorrow and, and make it through the tunnel.' Chihiro thought.

"I blame Lily. If she hadn't made me speak to that boy, I would've made it." Chihiro sighed, as she trudged up the hill.

Lily would always tease Chihiro about her and the other sex, and say that she was delusional about her crush on Haku. To other people Lily didn't seem like a very good friend to Chihiro, but to her, she was her best friend.

Chihiro didn't have many friends to begin with; but Lily was special.

After Chihiro moved, and had to make new friends, things didn't go the way she had hoped.

Chihiro and Lily would talk on the phone, so Chihiro didn't feel so lonely.

Once they had graduated from High School, Lily moved away from her home just to be with Chihiro and go to college with her.

Even though Lily teases Chihiro, and tries to make her go out with men she has no interest in, Chihiro still sees Lily as the light of her life.

Her human life.

Chihiro was half way up the hill, when she heard a truck beep by. It was the same guy who knocked her down.

"Hey, would you like a ride up the hill?" He asked.

Chihiro narrowed her eyes. Was he trying to kidnap her? She felt uncomfortable.

"No, thank you." She said, waving him away, while she kept on walking.

"But it's almost dark. You sure you don't want to get in?" The man persisted.

"Dark." Chihiro's mind wandered.


"You shouldn't be here... Get out of here, now!" He walked with a fast pace towards me.

"What?" I stepped off the bridges railing, and looked at him, confused.

"It's almost night. Leave before it gets dark." He cautioned me, and pointed back the way I came.


"I'm sure!" Chihiro ran up the hill, and away from the man.

Remembering things of her past got to her on to much of a spiritual level.

It hurt her.


[ 9 : 3 9 pm ]

Chihiro still lived in the blue house.

She was laying on her bed, reading some comments from her story.

'Haku sounds so dreamy.'

'Chino and Haku have a cute romance... You know, for ten year olds.'

'You should write another story. I want to see if Chino goes back to the spirit world!'

"Once upon a time there was a 22 year old girl in college. She wrote stories about her adventures in a world people believed to be fake. At this very moment, she sits reading reviews to her first story. People think she's compelled with this story, but she claims it to be her life." Chihiro said to herself.

She sighed, and glanced at the clock.

[ 9 : 40 pm ]

"I better get to bed soon..." Chihiro told herself, still staring at the clock. A couple moments passed as Chihiro slowly lay her head down, and her eyes closed.


Chihiro awoken on a bright Saturday afternoon. Having sweet dreams of her prince Haku. In her dreams Chihiro was a spirit, just like Haku; able to become a dragon. They soared after each other.

She wished that was what her life was really like, but she knew it was to good to be true. She'd be lucky if her idea works to get inside the tunnel, and make it back to the world.

She's been trying for 14 years, but to know prevail has she made it through.

Yesterday was what gave her hope to keep trying.

She saw the tunnel.

She heard it.

Checking the clock, it was two in the afternoon.

The sun shines in through the windows, making Chihiro's eyes wince.

Glancing out she sees droplets of water fall from the window pane, realizing it must have rained last night.

'Three hours to make it.' Chihiro noted. 'The trails going to be muddy, so I better be careful.'

Chihiro pushed herself off her bed, grogy, with half closed eyes, and into her kitchen. She made coffee, and watched the local news.

"There is light construction being done on the field downtown. Reports of weird noises has prompt us to believe that a water pipe has broken underground. To keep the town safe we are undergoing construction immediately after supper."

Chihiro almost dropped her mug of coffee. Was she going to be able to get through the road, or even get to the tunnel now that there was going to be people there. Chihiro felt tears prickle in her eyes.

"No!" She shouted at her television. "I'm not going to give up just because of some pointless construction!" Chihiro hasn't lost her courage yet, and she wasn't about to anytime soon.

She downed her coffee, and grabbed a banana from her fridge. Chihiro walked out of her blue home, and down the street. It was three O' clock and Chihiro wasn't going to miss her chance.

'What am I going to do when I get there? Will I be okay, living in the Spirit World... Is it what I really want?' Chihiro was starting to doubt her motives. She's only ever imagined what her life would be like if she actually lived in the Spirit World.

It scared her.

But it also made her heart beat with excitement, and despite the scary things, it made her happy.

Chihiro approached the trail, and checked her clock. It was four now. She still had an hour to kill. She decided to walk slowly.

Each step she took her stomach would wince, and turn into a knot. She was nervous knowing that this time she would finally get to go back. She breathes in long, hard breaths.

She passed the Tree of Shrines.

She visited this place often, and tried speaking to the spirits who may live there.

Leaving them flowers, and straightening up the little houses.

She figured they'd also appreciate a banana peel, so she turned around, and placed it above one of the houses.

"Wish me luck."

Chihiro turned away from the spirit homes, and started down the trail again. She keened her ears to listen for any morphing sounds.

BAM!

Chihiro jumped back at the sudden banging noises. 'I guess construction already started.'

Thought Chihiro, as her heart sunk; and yet she still kept walking.

Woosh!

It was that same morphing sound from before.

Chihiro's heart skipped a beat. She started running down the trail. She pulled out her phone to check the time, but her phone wouldn't pick up service; let alone turn on.

"That's weird..." She said to her phone, as if it could hear her. She slipped it back it back into her pocket, and as her head turned to the front she caught glimpse of a statue.

The morphing sound had faded.

'Is this it? Have I finally made it to the gates of the Spirit World? I'll finally get to see Lin, and Zeniba, and No Face... Haku.' Chihiro thought to herself as tears pooled in her eyes.

'What if they don't remember me? What if they don't recognize me? It has been 14 years since I've been there.'

Chihiro was all grown up now. She didn't look anything like she did when she was ten.

"What if I don't recognize them!?" Chihiro said aloud. She slowed down, as her stomach upset her with her worriness. Before she knew it Chihiro had bumped into something.

Chihiro looked up to realize she had infact bumped into someone. This someone wore a yellow hard hat, and an orange vest. It was one of the workers for the construction, but there was something wrong with them.

They were frozen.

Chihiro gasped stepping back. As she looked around she realized all the workers were frozen. They were all in a circle looking at something between them.

Chihiro got up on her tip-toes to see what they were looking at.

That statue

Chihiros head looked up quickly.

The tunnel was there.

Right infront of her, and the frozen workers.

Chihiro's instincts took over, and she ran to the tunnel's entrance, before it could disappear again. She took one step in, and felt the cool wind come through. A wide smile spread across her face.


I walked closely, next to my mom, holding tightly onto her arm. We walked down the tunnel curious about what we'd see at the end. I just wanted to go back, and get to the house. That, and I was scared. The place made me feel so uneasy.

"Chihiro, don't cling to me like that. You'll make me trip." My mother said, as we stepped down the tunnels.


Chihiro remembered her first time down this tunnel, and laughed. "Why was I so scared before?"

It was ironic, because now she feels a sense of relieve, and it's like she's home.

She could finally go home.

Maybe Chihiro will finally get what she's always dreamed of.