Intermission!

Spa Treatment

"Oh cheer up Chihiro, it will be fun!" Her mother insisted, sighing at her daughter's skeptical gaze in the rearview mirror. "At least pretend to be happy," he mother said, "You don't want to be rude to Akemi and her family do you?"

"No," Chihiro murmured, staring out the window. Her mother was right. She should have been excited about going to Akemi's birthday party, but all she felt was tension at the idea of spending the day with her classmates. She'd had no trouble making new friends at her new school at first. But once she'd been caught spacing out and drawing strange creatures one too many times, rumors had spread and things went downhill fast. Maybe this was her chance to make things better though. If she could make it through today without anything going wrong, things could change for the better. Maybe. The dreams had stayed away ever since they moved, and Chihiro was determined to show her parents she was okay now.

"Look Chihiro, we're here!" Her mother exclaimed, tearing Chihiro from her thoughts. "Wow, this place is really nice... I want you on your best behavior Chihiro Ogino!" She said sternly.

"Okay Mom," she said, staring at the resort. The building was made entirely of flawless white stone, and crystal clear glass that glittered in the sun. It looked brand-new, as if it had just been opened that day. Akemi's cousin was a manager at the resort, and her family had reserved the master suite for the whole day. They were very well-off.

"Do you have the present?" Her mother asked as they pulled into a parking space.

"Yes," she said, unbuckling her seatbelt. They had spent hours searching for the right gift the previous day, before finally settling on sparkly purple scarf and a bottle of matching nail polish.

"Good," she said, as they walked to the entrance together. When they entered the pristine lobby, completed with a skylight in the domed ceiling and three separate fountains, a woman wearing all white and carrying a clipboard approached them.

"Chihiro Ogino?" She asked cheerily.

"That's her," Chihiro's mother smiled.

"I'll take her from here," the woman smiled, "Follow me please," she said walking down the adjoining hallway.

"I'll see you at 5:00 Chihiro!" Her mother called after her.

"Bye," she called back, attempting to smile as she followed the woman down the hall.

...

Hanako, Chou, Katsumi, Miki, Sayuri, and several girls Chihiro didn't know the names of had already arrived when she stepped into the suite.

"Hi Chihiro!" Akemi smiled, coming over to greet her. "Come over here with us! You can put the gift on that table over there," she said, pointing to a table overloaded with presents.

"Ok," Chihiro smiled back, placing the gift besides something that looked suspiciously like bike. Oh…maybe we should have gotten her something…bigger? She thought worriedly to herself. She'd liked what they picked out yesterday, but looking at all the stuff here…she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Come on Chihiro!" Akemi called as another girl walked into the room, "Everyone's here now, let's go!"

Chihiro did her best to smile and appear cheerful, but there was a pit of unease growing in her stomach, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go wrong.

...

"Hey Chihiro, are you okay? You look almost as green as the seaweed!" Miki exclaimed, looking at Chihiro nervously.

The anxious, ill-at-ease feeling Chihiro had experienced earlier wasn't getting any better; in fact, it was getting a lot worse. Something about this place was putting her nerves on edge, she just couldn't figure out what. They'd spent the last two hours having a mani pedi, getting their hair done, 'enjoying' a seaweed wrap, and now they were supposed to soak in an 'herbal formula' for another half hour. Chihiro was hating every minute of it.

They hadn't even eaten anything except for some mints. And all of the people there looked like that was all they ate. I wonder if I pretended to be sick if they'd send me home… She thought to herself before answering Miki.

"Yeah I'm fine," Chihiro lied, "Just hungry."

"I knoooow!" Miki groaned. "But look how beautiful everyone here is! And they barely eat anything! If they can do it, so can I!" She said, as they followed the other girls down the hall.

But why would you want to? Chihiro thought to herself as she trailed behind the other girls. Is making yourself miserable just to weigh a little less or look a little better really worth it? It's not like it will last. No matter what you do, you'll grow old one day… She was pulled from her thoughts by the loud oohs and ahhs of the other girls. She hurried down the hall to catch up. The girls were standing in their bathing suits (swimsuits), staring in amazement at the size of the room.

"Wow!" Katsumi exclaimed, "It's amazing!"

"It's huge!" Sayuri said.

"The decorations are beautiful," Chou added.

They really were, Chihiro agreed. The giant room was dived into multiple smaller 'rooms' by beautiful paper screens and had an arching ceiling. In each room there were tubs that could be filled with steaming water infused with all kinds of herbs and minerals, which were said to have "healing properties" and meant to be "relaxing and refreshing", the woman, whose name Chihiro had already forgotten, said. At the end of the room was a tub the size of a swimming pool, designed to look like a hot spring. It was filled with murky water. The other girls noticed it too.

"Yuck! Why is the water all dirty?" Hanakou asked.

"It's just filled with bath salts," the woman explained, "they're good for your skin. You don't want wrinkles when you get older do you?"

"No!" The other girls chorused. Chihiro remained staring at the water. There was something about this place…She began to edge away from the water.

"What's the matter Chihiro?" One of the girls asked, "Afraid of the water?"

"No, I was just thinking about how they must just use the salts so you can't see all the sludge in the tub," Chihiro answered back.

"Eew!" Several of the girls shrieked, jumping back from the water.

"There's no sludge!" Akemi fumed, looking less and less pleased that she'd invited Chihiro. "Why would you even say something like that? This is a nice place."

"Of course Chihiro would say something weird," a few of the girls giggled.

"Oh don't be mean," Hanakou smirked, "Chihiro's probably just never been somewhere that wasn't filthy."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Chihiro growled.

"Oh really? Well then maybe Sayuri was right. Maybe you're just scared. I heard you almost drowned once.."

"I'm not scared," she hissed. Why were they picking on her? Why had she even come? The lights in here were too bright and she was starting to feel light headed. She closed her eyes and tried to focus.

"What? Are you going to cry? Poor baby," Sayuri mocked.

"Guys…she doesn't look so good…" Miki said, looking uncomfortable.

"Stay out of it Miki," Akemi snapped, despite looking uncertain as well.

"I'm not scared. I'm fine," Chihiro mumbled. She felt like she was going to fall over.

"Then why don't you prove it Chihiro!" Someone said, pushing her into the water.

It didn't shock her awake like cold water would have. Instead, she felt herself sink slowly deeper as a wave of calm came over her. The pool was much deeper than she'd realized. All the stress and anxiety she'd felt earlier was gone, replaced by a gentle voice, urging her to just let go. And she might have, had a second voice not demanded her attention.

"Chihiro!" It called. "Chihiro! Chihiro, answer me please!"

"Go away…" she told the voice. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Yes. Sleep," the first voice said.

"Chihiro! Chihiro!" It continued to call.

Why can't he just leave me alone? She wondered. His voice was so familiar…Maybe if she called him by name he'd go away…hadn't someone once told her names had power?

"Chihiro? Chihiro…" the voice faded.

Finally, she thought. Everything was getting darker…

"It's time to rest," the other voice said. And then it laughed. Something was wrong. The realization flickered across her remaining consciousness. That laugh… it made her shudder. She struggled to open her eyes and felt her lungs burning. She couldn't breathe! She struggled to stand but was met with nothingness. The darkness was coming back, but it was no longer comforting. Panic toke hold of her, and she struggled until she was no longer sure which way was up. She heard someone shouting her name again, but their voice was lost to the darkness.

….

Later, it was said that Chihiro had slipped and fell into the pool, hitting her head on the way down. She switched schools the next year, made friends with a girl in her class named Kiyomi, and no one spoke of it again. Chihiro never mentioned the voices she'd heard, and eventually they were forgotten.

All rights to these characters belong to Hayao Miyazaki.

So THAT'S what happened at the spa!

I apologize for taking so long to update! It has been a hectic past few weeks! On a happy (er) note, I'm taking a writing class! (gonna learn all SORTS of fancy writin' tricks I am...) Now that things have calmed down (sort of) I'll be updating more often. In the meantime, feedback on my other story would be sincerely appreciated! It's currently posted on fictionpress under the same screen name I use here, and is called Zhilan's Story. It's the first multi-chapter story with all oc characters I've written, and I'd really like to know what people think of it! Thank you all for reading my fanfic and leaving such nice comments!