Hooray for tweaking!
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Chihiro woke slowly to the sensation of a cool, smooth hand against her cheek. It felt somehow so very familiar, but she couldn't quite place it...
The dream! she realized, vaulting frantically upwards; her vision blackened at the edges, having sat up far too quickly. The same soothing hand gently turned her aching head sideways, its force on her chin as gentle as it was firm.
"Wha..what hap-" Chihiro's words strangled in her throat, an anxious lump swelling to block her speech. Haku's hard-edged green eyes met hers.
"It's all right, Chihiro." There was a steely quality to his voice, and it seemed to tether Chihiro back to reality. Blinking her surroundings into abrupt focus, Chihiro slowly looked around. Glancing bemusedly around her, the dim sleepiness weighting her eyelids lessened somewhat, and she noted that she had been brought to a garden of some sort while unconscious. She and Haku were hidden behind a large flowering shrub. To her left, Chihiro could see backlit silhouettes scurrying frenetically about inside of the bathhouse wall.
Returning her eyes to Haku, Chihiro felt a jolt of surprise ripple through her; his gaze was more intense than she had yet seen it.
"They know you're here, Chihiro."
His tone leaden, each word carried a somehow menacing weight.
Chihiro swallowed a gasp, and somehow managed to nod. "What should I do?" she asked hoarsely.
Haku glanced at the dim golden wall behind them, obviously gauging how much time he had before…
"Master Haku! Master Haku, where are you?" screeched a shrill female voice from inside the building.
Haku tore his eyes away from the darkened shapes rushing about behind the screened wall.
"Chihiro, you remember what I told you earlier about getting to the boiler room and speaking with Kamaji?"
Chihiro made a valiant attempt to swallow the enormous lump that seemed to be swelling her throat shut. "Yeah, I remember…"
Haku gave her a piercing look, his mouth caught halfway between a smile and a frown. "Do it."
With that, Haku stood. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Calm down," he said loudly. The people inside stopped their frantic running, and the wall slid open with a bang.
"Master Haku, there you are! You're needed inside, come on!" The panicked male voice did not seem familiar to Chihiro, but all the same it sent a thread of ice through her. Haku stepped over to the doorway, looking coldly separate from the scene, and a stout man pulled him inside.
Wait a minute… Chihiro's mouth dropped open as she watched the figure slam the sliding door shut. It wasn't a man. It wasn't human at all. It seemed almost to be an overlarge frog…a thought which Chihiro found privately quite terrifying.
Even so, Chihiro forced herself to focus. Okay…so I have to go along the outside of the bathhouse…stairs… Breathing deeply, she attempted to draw together what shreds of her composure remained.
Glancing back at the bathhouse wall to ensure that she proceeded unnoticed, Chihiro darted out from the shelter of her leafy hiding place. Coming at once to a small wooden gate, she noted with dismay that the hinges were rusty and looked quite old. Rather than chance any more noise than she had to, Chihiro carefully climbed over the low fence flanking the side of the little door.
So far, so good…maybe this won't be so hard after all…
Chihiro broke into a brisk jog, hurrying as best she could until she reached the outer wall of the bathhouse. Glancing left, her eyes fell on the beginnings of the steep, interminably long staircase, and she inhaled so sharply that she nearly choked on her breath. No way…you can't be serious. I hafta go down THOSE stairs?
She inched over to the first wooden step, peering nervously over the side. "Jesus," Chihiro breathed, her fairly average fear of heights kicking into overdrive at the sight of this new danger, her only way out. It seemed the staircase stretched for miles from start to finish, rather ominous watery sounds drifting up through the spaces in the aged wooden framework.
I have to, Chihiro reminded herself, sucking in another deep breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, steeling her resolve. Then, clutching the wobbly handrail with a discouraging sense of impending doom, she eased herself onto the first step.
The stair emitted a pathetic creaking noise, and Chihiro shrieked, quickly bracing herself for the inevitable breaking of the wooden boards. After a fair few minutes of clinging desperately to the surprisingly sturdy railing, no such possibility having even remotely presented itself, Chihiro sighed tremulously and wiped away the sudden slick of moisture that had beaded on her forehead during the brief moment of terror.
Ugh…and I have HOW many more of these to go?