Spirited Again~

CHAPTER 3: True Form

So things really did change since I left....... Chihiro thought, sprawled awkwardly acorss her bare mattress. After bring Chihiro up to speed, the two women left Chihiro to herself for a while. Granny transported herself back home. Lin would be back any moment with some bedding and clothes.
Lin's footsteps came softly down the stairs. She approached the table, nearby Chihiro's bed, and dropped the clothes and sheets on it. Chihiro's eyes flew open.
She screamed, shooting up in bed. "Lin! Why were you creeping around....you scared me..."
Lin put her hands to her hips. "Please forgive me for trying to not wake you, my gosh."
Chihiro's face fell, feelings of dejection mixing with her old feelings of uncertainty and even.... fear. Seeing this, Lin sighed, padding up to the young girl.
She plopped down on a chair beside the bed. "Hey, hey....jeez, don't take me so seriously, kid."
Chihiro stared at Lin. Eventually she spoke. "Is it true?"
Lin made an attempt not to frown, instead, giving off a look of pity and concern. "....yeah. Some mindless cronie told Yubaba about how he was helping you. Gives me the creeps just thinking how he even knew all of it..."
Chihiro briefly looked away, then returned her gaze to Lin. "Does anyone even have a clue as to where he is?"
Now it was Lin's turn to glance away, shaking her head. "I don't know. If anyone does, they're probably scared out of their wits to say so. Yubaba's really taken back her chokehold on the place.... You can't imagine how many innocent workers she's banished.
"I think that's why you're back. I think you've been sent to set this old hag straight, and restore things to order.... or at least, to the less-frenzied mess it was before, when you were still here."
"So you think I'm here for just more than a visit? If that's the case, then what am I here for?"
"I can't say for sure, but I have a hunch..." Lin trailed off. "I think Haku is the one to bring Yubaba back down to reality - at least, to her less insane reality."
Chihiro's feeling of heartbreak resurfaced. Its last appearance was on the day she left this world and returned home....and had to leave Haku behind. Though she was only twelve when she first came to this world, and though she was still a young girl at thirteen, she felt so attached to him.
Chihiro thought she knew the answer, but asked anyway. "But, if it's Haku you need, how do I still fit into all of this?"
Lin groaned in frustration, and leaned towards Chihiro. She stared directly at her, emotionless. "Haku was not only banished from Yubaba's bath house, but he's been cursed. He's to live the rest of his life in his true form, as a dragon."
Chihiro's eyebrows furrowed. "How is that punishment? Didn't Haku want to be freed from Yubaba's curse? Didn't he want to return to his true form? I thought that after the curse broke --"
Chihiro was interrupted as Lin shook her head. "At first, yeah, but.... Jeez, are you clueless? And to think we all figured you liked him...."
"Of course I-- ...like him." Chihiro mumbled, trailing off.
Lin sighed, tilting her head upward and leaning back in her seat before continuing. "Yeah. Haku was happy for the most part, but once you were gone....
"He knew in his heart you'd come back. So he asked Yubaba, pleaded even, for her to place a spell on him that would give him control over his forms, allow him to switch freely between his true form and human form. I think the only reason Yubaba actually did this was because she got an ego boost out of being begged...
"Anyway. So, this way, when you did come back, he could return to human form. To, you know.... talk to you, and crap." Lin had difficulties talking about romance, let alone friendship.
"He's been waiting for so long, Chihiro, for you to return. You helped him remember his real identity, and I can safely say," at this, Lin shuddered, "that....he loves you."
Chihiro didn't seem fazed by this. She seemed to know it all along. At least, in her heart. "I do..... I think I love him, too...."
Something caught her attention.
"Wait...what? He's only been waiting for a year, right Lin? I've been waiting just as long as he has..."
"Chihiro....You remember how when you returned back to your world, it was like you never left? And time didn't even go by?"
"How did you know...?"
"Not important. But.... you were in our world for months. And yet, in your world, not even a minute went by. Now, you've been gone from here for nearly a year. In this world, that translates to..."
Chihiro's face fell as she realized Haku had been awaiting her return for several years. Chihiro then assumed that no one aged here, since Lin still looked exactly the same as Chihiro remembered.
"Okay....but then why did he get turned back into a dragon again?"
"That was his punishment for helping you escape. And Yubaba, as consumed by evil as she is, benefited in one more ways than one with this little arrangement. Even though she started buckling down right after he was revealed, Yubaba had already been planning her total domination. Haku's scandal was the perfect reason to get her plan in motion while remaining unsuspected... for the most part.
"Of course, a handful of us who aren't scare into worshipping her knew she was up to no good. When is she not," Lin mumbled. "We're also the same people who were happy to see you break free from that old bat's wrath.
"But, back on topic. Yubaba, I see right through her. She sees Haku as a threat. Yubaba figured that if he could help a girl escape this world, that he was capable of much more. If Haku was in his dragon form, and permanently, he could do nothing to stop her."
Chihiro realized she was here to help break Yubaba's curse. "But we're dealing with a Yubaba curse. How will I be able to break it?"
Lin smacked her forehead. "Is your brain screwed on right, Chihiro? We've been talking about this subject, or at least dancing around it the whole time!"
"Please don't tell me-- I can't--"
"You love him, don't you?"
Chihiro blushed. "Yeah, I think," she mumbled.
"That's all it takes."
Lin stood up, stretching. "If we're gonna get anything done tomorrow, you have to get some sleep. You're lucky tomorrow's my monthly day off..."
Lin started towards the door, then stopped in her tracks. "Chihiro, just....don't beat yourself up about this. Everything that's happened, it was inevitable." Lin turned to face Chihiro. "And it wasn't anyone's fault." Chihiro nodded, then made up her bed.
Curling up in it, her thoughts recapped the day's events. Before she drifted off into sleep, Chihiro wondered if she would wake up from this, if this was all a dream....
I don't want to wake up from this....