Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Spirited Away, and I'm not making any money from this fic
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"What is it?" Alina demanded, crashing through the trees. "What's wrong? What have you found?"
"Sh!" Marina hissed. She was kneeling over something.
Alina took a few steps forward to see what it was. Then, she gasped. "Marina, get away!"
"It's all right," Marina replied calmly. "He's not dead. He's still breathing."
Lying on the ground was a boy with dark green hair which looked almost black. He was probably only one or two years older than the two girls, and he was dressed in strange looking clothes.
"What are you going to do?" Alina demanded, thinking, It's just my luck that my best friend is totally crazy.
"I'll have to wake him up," Marina answered. "He can't stay here."
"Why not? What if he's really dangerous? Marina, what if he tries to kill you? He could be a homeless tramp!"
Marina looked up at her friend. "Alina, do you trust me?" she asked.
Alina hesitated. Do I really trust her? she asked herself. Truthfully, I'd say yes... But what would she do then? "Yes," Alina admitted eventually, looking down.
"I don't think that he looks like a tramp," Marina told Alina. "Look at his clothes."
"He could have stolen them." Another weak argument. Alina knew it, which was why she didn't try to stop Marina when the girl reached over to gently shake the boy's shoulder.
Immediately, the boy's eyes flew open, and he sat up, then looked around wildly. "Where am I?" he demanded.
Marina had recoiled as soon as the boy wakened, and Alina had jumped. Both were shocked speechless.
The boy looked at them both, and then his eyes narrowed. "This isn't the spirit world."
Spirit world? Alina thought to herself. Oh, no! Trust Marina to find someone who's completely insane! He could be an escaped mental patient.
"Who are you?" the boy demanded.
Marina finally found her voice. "My name's Marina, and this is my friend Alina," she told the boy. "What's your name?"
"Haku," the boy replied shortly.
"Where are you from, Haku?" Alina wanted to know, thinking, Haku's probably not even his real name. Now how am I going to get me and Marina away from him without being too obvious about it?
Haku gave a short laugh. "If I'm right, you won't be able to get me to where I'm from anyway," he said.
Ok... Alina thought. He's obviously completely insane. I just hope that he's not too dangerous. I really need to try and get hold of an adult. But Alina made no move to leave. She wasn't going to leave Marina alone with this psycho.
"What do you mean by that?" Marina asked.
"Never mind," Haku answered. "I can't tell you two anything. You'll just think that I'm mad."
"I won't," Marina protested.
But I will, Alina silently argued with her friend. He might be harmless... But he's still mad.
Marina suddenly felt a pain in her stomach. She doubled over, gasping, as a rush of images filled her mind.
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She was standing outside an extremely old house. There were a few people - teenagers - outside, but Marina could tell that they couldn't see her.
The teenagers were talking. "It's a shame that this house is going to be knocked down," one of them, a boy, said.
"Yeah," one of the girls agreed. "It's a piece of history. It should be left standing."
"But it's being knocked down to make room for newer, modern stuff," one of the others protested. "And that's good
Someone else shuddered. "My gran says that something evil has been sealed away in that house," she confided in a low voice. "She says that if they knock it down, then they will release the evil back into the world."
Everyone laughed. "Your gran's completely wacko," one of the boys said fondly in a tone that clearly showed he was teasing. "She always makes up these old stories."
"But what if there's some truth to this one?" the girl demanded.
Before the teenagers could say anything else, a huge bulldozer was driven up to the house. It prepared to knock the building down with a huge boulder.
"Well, it's too late to do anything about it now," a boy said.
No! Marina wanted to scream. Don't let them knock it down! For she knew that, if they did, then something bad would escape. But she couldn't say anything out loud. She could only watch helplessly as the bulldozer swung the boulder at the house.
And as the walls crumbled, a black mist escaped. Silently, it reached long tendrils to touch each of the teenagers in the middle of their foreheads. As it did so, each got a glassy look in their eyes and took on a zombie-like appearance.
And then a tendril reached out to Marina.
She screamed.
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Marina straightened, and found that both Haku and Alina were watching her.
"What happened?" Haku demanded.
Quickly, Marina filled them in on the details of her vision. As she spoke, the colour slowly drained from Alina's face.
"We have to go to that house," Haku decided instantly. "We'll have to fly."
"How?" Alina sneered. "Got an aeroplane hidden around here somewhere?"
"Actually, no," Haku replied. He looked at Marina. "You're going to have to direct me," he told her.
Marina nodded.
Haku took a deep breath, and concentrated. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Haku's whole body shimmered and seemed to break up into thousands of pieces of glittering light. Then, the light reformed into the shape of a dragon.
Alina gaped. Am I dreaming this? she wondered.
"Come on," Marina said. "We'll have to get on his back."
"But... This isn't possible..." Alina protested.
"Come on!" Marina insisted impatiently. "You can worry about whether this is a dream or not later! Right now, we have to hurry!"
Alina hesitated, then joined Marina in clambering onto the dragon's back.
The dragon shot into the air with the two girls holding on for dear life.
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