Escape

Disclaimer: I don't own spirited away. I wish I did but I don't so there now you can't sue me

A girl stood in a wood before a dark tunnel. She was tallish, with long hair flowing loosely all the way down her back. She seemed to be waiting for something or someone and her brown eyes kept searching the darkness before her.

"Come back to me. You promised you would." The girl whispered to the wind. There was a large rush and she saw the head of a dragon for a moment before the world around her fade, leaving the dragon's words floating in her mind.

"Wait for me. I'm coming."

The brown eyes opened to the bleak white room that surrounded her. Four pure white walls, one white ceiling and a white floor. Even the bed was white. Chihiro sat up on the bed and sighed. She had woken to the same surroundings for five years now. It wasn't her home, it was her prison.

Ever since the day she had returned from her voyage into the spirit world and had told her parents what had happened, they had locked her up, thinking her delusional. After two years of being in minimum security at the mental hospital, Chihiro had stopped trying to persuade people that what she said was true. She was so fed up with the hospital. So she had tried to escape. After the first four failed escape attempts they had moved her to maximum security. After that she gave up hope of ever getting there. Her parents visited her every week and sat there as she tried to persuade them she was sane, but they just sat there nodding there heads and not believing a word of it. Gradually as the next few years passed her parents had stopped visiting and Chihiro had started to despise them and the world she had returned to. She had thought it was a parent's job to believe their children even when it seemed impossible. Her eyes lost the innocence they had once held and grew harder and mistrusting.

Today would be no different to the others that had passed before it. Dreams and memories of Haku and all her other friends from the spirit world filled much of her time. They gave her medication to stop imaginary hallucinations and made her go to lessons and group counselling sessions with other mental patients in a safe environment with many people supervising to make sure they didn't hurt each other or try to escape.. She had made few friends, most of which forgot who she was half the time.

The nurse entered with this morning's medication. She was fairly young, Chihiro would guess around the early twenties.

"How are you this morning Chihiro?" She asked as she handed the medication to her along with a glass of water. Chihiro dutifully swallowed her pills before answering.

"Alright, I guess. I dreamt of the tunnel again." Chihiro said. She had gotten used to the fact that they would ask her about her dreams anyway so why not tell them now. She thought it was interesting how they interpreted her dreams as related to the state of craziness her mind was in. They thought the tunnel was an omen of a dark voyage, or something stupid like that rather than taking it for what it was, a tunnel. The nurse just shook her head and sighed before going out of the room, leaving behind her Chihiro's breakfast.

Chihiro ate the small breakfast without complaint. When she had first arrived, her stomach had growled with hunger as the size of the meals was fairly small compared to what she ate at home. Five years of eating like that had made her stomach adjust to its new diet. Chihiro brushed her hair and wished for the millionth time that she had her purple sparkly hair tie to tie back her hair with. The doctors had confiscated it when she had accidentally told them that Zeniba had made it for her to protect. The doctors had believed that removing anything that was in anyway involved with her daydreams would help her get better.

The nurse came back to collect her for her lessons and Chihiro followed quietly withdrawing into her thoughts of a boy with amazing green eyes. "Where are you Haku?" She thought to herself as she entered the makeshift classroom.

Haku stood in Yubaba's office. He had grown up to be a tall seventeen year old with broad shoulders and a handsome face. The witch turned around in her chair so she faced the fire.

"You still want to go after her, even after all this time. She's probably forgotten you after all this time. Humans are such fickle creatures." The witch said.

"I don't care if she's forgotten me, or if she doesn't want me anywhere near her. I have to see her to find out for myself. Besides I promised her I would." Haku said determinedly. "You also made a promise five years ago. You told me you would let me go after five years. It has been five years today. You have to let me go so I can find her."

"Fine as long as you're sure about what you want and you're happy to accept the consequences." The witch said eyeing the young man carefully. He nodded and she sighed. She would miss her apprentice. She took out his contract and tore it up with the pieces burning to a crisp in the airs as they fell to the floor. "Now off with you."

"Thankyou Yubaba," He said with a bow before running out of the office. It wasn't long before Yubaba saw a white dragon flying away from the bathhouse. She turned away with a slight look of sorrow on her face before it suddenly disappeared and she got back to business.

Haku was soaring over the fields and rivers of the spirit world until he got to the tunnel that was the entrance to the human world. He transformed into his human form and ran down the tunnel towards the other end and through the forest beyond. He saw Chihiro's house and went to see if she was home. He knocked on the door and there was no response. He peered in all the windows and though there was evidence of someone living there he could see no clue that Chihiro had ever lived here.

He walked down towards the town when his senses started to tingle. He could feel Chihiro's presence, faint though it was. He followed his sense down streets and alleys. He had difficulty because of his lack of knowledge about the human world. In the spirit world they didn't have cars, so the first time he came across one while crossing a road he almost got killed. He finally stopped outside a huge white building, with bars on the window.

Haku gulped. "Why would Chihiro be in a place like this" he thought to himself before walking in through the big glass doors. The inside of the building seemed even bleaker than the outside as it was all white with no form of colour. It scared Haku who had spent all of his life surrounded with colour. Then he noticed the sign. THE TOKYO MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL. What could Chihiro possibly be doing in a mental hospital? He noticed a lady sitting at a desk and approached her, though she seemed very busy.

"Hi I was wondering if I could see my friend, Chihiro Onigo." He asked when he had finally got the lady's attention.

"What ward is she in?" The lady asked and Haku just shook his head in confusion. "Hold on I'll just do a search of the database."

Haku stood there waiting rather impatiently, feeling confused. He had no idea how this hospital worked or what the different wards were. Finally the lady looked up. "Chihiro Ogino is in the maximum security ward. You will need to go down this corridor and then follow the signs to the maximum security ward. When you do ask at the desk and the nurse there will be able to tell you how you can see your friend."

The lady obviously thought that that was enough of an explanation and immediately went back to the work she had been doing. Haku figuring he'd get no more information out of her followed her instructions and came to the desk at the maximum security ward. The nurse there looked nicer and less busy than the one at the main desk.

"Hi I was wondering if I'd be able to see my friend Chihiro Onigo." He asked hesitantly.

"First you'll need to fill out this form telling us who you are and then you can meet the doctor so he can explain her problem to you. It will do Chihiro good to get visitors. She hasn't had a visitor in two years and before that only her parents." The nurse said kindly with a smile and handed Haku a form and a pen. Haku looked at the form and started to fill it out though he didn't understand some of the questions, and others he had to think of convincing lies because they'd never believe him if he told them the truth. He finally managed to complete it and handed it back to the nice nurse, who smiled and gave him a badge that said "VISITOR". She then led him down a few more white corridors and stopped before a door. She knocked on the door and entered. At the desk in the room was a short balding man.

"Ah so you're the young man who wants to see Chihiro." He said and Haku just nodded. "Chihiro suffers from delusions and believes that she spent time in the spirit world with a bunch of spirits. We're going to allow you to visit her as she hasn't had a visitor in so long, but I just wanted to warn you that she may say things that are unusual. Try to ignore her and act like you believe her."

Haku nodded and the man seemed content. Now Haku understood. Chihiro had been placed in this prison because she had told the truth about what happened to her. That meant she must have been living in here for five years now. Haku felt a large amount of pity swell up for the girl he loved and anger that they had locked her up for telling the truth. He said nothing though and the nurse soon led him out of the room. Finally she led him to a room with a few chairs and a table in it and told him to wait for her there. He sat in one of the chairs for a minute before getting impatient and began pacing the room. Around five minutes later the door opened again. This time a girl entered. She was around fifteen years old and dressed in a white night gown. Her face was pale and her hair longer than he remembered but he knew her immediately. It was Chihiro the girl who had haunted his dreams for the past five years. She had her eyes to the floor and wasn't about to look up.

"What do you want?" She said not looking up. Chihiro had assumed that the visitors would be her parents who must feel guilty for not visiting her in two years. She was surprised when a familiar but unexpected voice answered her question.

"I wanted to see you. Besides I had a promise to keep." Haku answered with a grin and saw Chihiro's head come up in shock and recognition. She stared at him for a moment, her face slowly slipping into a grin, the first real smile in years.

"Haku!" She said and threw her arms around him. "You're really here. I can't believe it, you're really here. I've missed you so much. Every night I dreamt that you would come for me." She said and then blushed as she realised what she had said. She stumbled back out of his arms and sat down in a nearby chair.

"I missed you too. I had to wait for Yubaba to tear up my contract before I could come and she made me work for another five years even with my real name. I wanted to come every single day." Haku said as he sat down too.

"I've been trapped in here for five years. I tried to escape four times, so I could go back to the spirit world and find you. There's nothing for me in this world anymore. Everyone thinks that I'm crazy; sometimes if I was feeling really down I even started to believe it myself. You're here now though, and now it all seems like one bad dream. Don't leave me again, I want to be with you, always." Chihiro said her emotions flowing out and she suddenly burst into tears. Haku was overwhelmed by the emotion in her voice but walked across to her chair. He knelt beside her and looked into her eyes, knowing then that he had loved her all of these five years and that he always would.

"I won't ever leave you again if you don't want me to. I would never do anything to hurt you; I love you too much to be able to do that." He said looking into her dark eyes.

"Take me with you, please. I can't stand this world or this prison anymore." She said and she got onto her knees too and put her arms around his neck.

"Are you sure that's what you want. You don't want to live with you're parents?" He asked and she shook her head violently. Even the thought of going back to the people who had incarcerated her in this prison made Chihiro recoil in horror. "Alright now all we have to do is get you out of here."

Chihiro's eyes which had been full of hope suddenly looked down the newly awakened hope disappearing from her eyes. She had been here for five years and knew of no one who had successfully escaped. All the windows had bars on them except the ones in the recreation room and that was only because there were so many staff in there supervising and it was on the top floor. The glass in there was really thick though to stop patients committing suicide by breaking them. An idea came to her and she quickly explained it to Haku who nodded.

"If you go now we can escape today because I'll be taken back to the recreation room. Please go now. If you don't go now, I don't think I'll ever be able to let you go." Chihiro said and Haku nodded getting to his feet and helping her up too. He walked towards the door but was stopped for a second by Chihiro grabbing his hand. She spun him around to face her and she kissed him full on the lips for a second before breaking it apart.

"I love you" She whispered and then walked to the far side of the room. Haku went back to the door leaving Chihiro alone until the nurse came to collect her. She still couldn't believe he had come back and found her. She even thought he had said that he loved her but she couldn't be sure. It was amazing to see him after so long and he was more handsome than ever.

The nurse led her to the recreation room as she knew she would. For the first time in all her time there she actually joined in with a group of the other patients who were playing a game. The nurses who were supervising smiled and told each other what good that visit must have been. Chihiro was watching the window though. Then it came. A loud crash as the window smashed into a thousand little pieces from the outside. There were a lot of people screaming. No one had seen what had caused it to go. The nurses had ducked and looked away as it broke and when they looked back there was nothing they could do.

When the window had smashed, Chihiro had leapt to her feet and started to run at the broken window which now had no glass left in it. One of the nurses even attempted to stop her but he was too far away. Chihiro reached the window and leapt. The female nurses all screamed loudly and they all rushed to the window, expecting to see Chihiro's body smashed upon the road below, but there was nothing. She had just disappeared. No one saw the white dragon flying into the sky with a girl laughing on his back.

A/N: Please Review