Woo! Chapter two already! Took me about an hour to write so please forgive any bad grammar and such things. If you were hoping for this chapter to clear up the confusion from the ending of the last one, you are going to be disappointed.

CHAPTER TWO

Risa didn't show much of a reaction to my news. "Are you sure? I mean it was only a dream Chihiro. Here take your pizza." Rather than do so I continued to stare at the boy, and he did the same to me. He was easy to recognize. His hair was straight, cut long, and a deep dark color and his eyes were full of mystery. You could look into them and fall into a trance with no hope of returning to your own world. "Chihiro!" Risa said loudly to get my attention. I jerked and looked up at her and took my coke a pizza. When I looked back, he was gone. I looked around and tried to find him but was unsuccessful.

"Are you positive that it was the guy in your dreams?" Risa asked now, seemingly now with interest. I sipped some of my coke. "I'm positive. It was him I'm sure of it."

"This is really weird you know? You having the same dream for years and then suddenly seeing they guy whom you dream about... You always have been the lucky one." she sighed.

"I wouldn't call this 'lucky' Risa. What does it mean?"

"I don't know. I'm not one of those psycho-freaks who can tell the future and interpret dreams." She stated. "Hey you're not eating your pizza." I looked down at my full slice. I hadn't even taken one bite of it yet.

"I'm sorry but I really don't feel hungry anymore Risa."

She gave an agitated sigh, "Fine then let me have it. I paid for this food and I won't let it go to waste." I laughed and passed her the paper plate with my pizza but I kept my coke, sipping some every now and then while I waited for Risa to finish up.

As we walked out of the food court we notice that the crowd had died down some around the new store but it was still really busy. "I don't think we're going to get in there today Chihiro..." I nodded in agreement. As we left the mall I continued to look around for the boy.

It was odd when I saw him, or rather, when we saw each other. I was just staring at him, something I would never do to a person. It is rude. For some reason though, I was locked in his gaze and it looked like he was too. I was swimming in his eyes and, if Risa hadn't brought me back to reality, I know I would have gone over to him. He was looking at me so strangely. As if he had found something he had been looking for forever. His face was bright when our eyes first met but soon after he saddened, as if he had just realized something terrible. Something that he wished he could prevent, or maybe I was just reading too much into it. Maybe it wasn't even really the guy in my dreams and just a meaningless stranger.

I let Risa lead me around town that day, doing whatever she wanted. My thoughts where elsewhere so I couldn't care less which movie we watched or how annoying it was that the old-fashioned soda shop was closed that day. Eventually we made our way into the city park. It wasn't big but small was not the word for it. There were swings and teeter-totters, a merry-go-round and slides of different heights, and a small sandbox, which was at the moment filled with small children.

We sat on a bench and Risa started to eat the ice cream cone that I had apparently bought her. "Hey Chihiro, are you okay? You have been really spaced out." She asked me.

"I'm fine Risa, just tired I guess. Thanks for asking though." I said monotonously.

"I think I need to get you home. You don't look too good," she put her hand to my forehead, "and I think you may have a fever. Maybe there was something in the pizza..."

"Risa, you ate my pizza." She looked thoughtful for a moment before laughing. "Hah! Well I did didn't I? Nevertheless you need to get home. Come on." She was already standing and helping me up because I didn't feel like I had the strength do to it myself. We started to walk but it was hard, my legs felt like rubber and I stumbled continuously until Risa put my arm over her shoulders and her arm around my waist and helped me walk. "Thanks Risa. You're a good friend."

"Yeah well, just don't cough on me or anything okay? I don't want to get sick." I made a small laugh.

I remember getting to my house and Risa helping me onto the couch and covering me up with one of the throws. "Stay here and try to sleep. Do you want the TV on?" I shook my head. "Okay well I'm your mom and dad aren't home so I'm going to see if I can get your mom on her cell phone but first I need the thermometer."

Five minutes later she was back, thermometer in hand. It was good that we owned one of the kind that you stick in your ear because I wasn't moving for anything; I just lay there with my eyes closed. I must have had a bad temperature because it caused Risa to sigh heavily. She walked away and I heard her on the phone with my mom before passing out.

"Chihiro…" I felt somebody shaking my shoulder, "Chihiro wake up. Please you must wake up." I opened my eyes. The field was all around me and I was in a soft patch of green grass. Slowly I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes with my fists. "Chihiro…" I looked around to find who it was but saw nobody. I stood and started to walk slowly, though I had no clue where I was going. "Chihiro… You must hurry. You must come. You must…" I followed the sound of the voice.

I knew, somehow, whom the voice belonged to but I wasn't thinking about that then. All I wanted to do was find its source. It continuously called out my name as I followed it. After what seemed like an hour I finally started to see the outline of a building ahead of me; the small peaks of tower on the horizon. "Chihiro…" I started to run, slightly at first, but then filled with more need and desire to reach the building. I knew that had to be where the voice was coming from.

The building was closer now and I could make out its red colored walls from the surrounding trees and foliage. The voice still continued to call for me; just now it seemed more demanding, as if I had to make it to the building. It was pushing me on forward. I soon slowed to a walk and finished the short distance.

Then I just stood there, staring at the massive structure I was before. In front of me was a long, dark tunnel. I could see no light coming from it at all and as I looked I suddenly felt the wind blowing strongly against my back, encouraging me to go forward. "Chihiro… Come, quickly, before it's too late and you miss your chance." The voice, to my surprise, was coming from the entrance to the tunnel. "NO!" I yelled, finding my voice for the first time. Suddenly everything went black.

I awoke the next morning covered in sweat at breathing heavily, as if I couldn't catch my breath. For a moment or two I was just quiet. I tried to put my thoughts together. Never had my dreams been like that, and it scared me. What scared me the most though, was that I knew where the red building was. I had been there before, once when I was much younger and I knew how to get there from my house. There was a way there by road and I remember that it was a long and twisted path.

Something about the dream made me want to go there. I wanted to know why the voice wanted me there. What was so important? I folded the covers back and slid out of bed. I remembered falling asleep on the couch downstairs so I figured that my dad had carried me up after he had got home. I grabbed some clean clothes and made my way to the bathroom where I filled the tub with hot water and soap. I still didn't feel too well and baths always made me better it seemed.

I decided then that that evening I would set out for the tunnel and see why it was so important. I wanted and needed to know.