Okay, chapter two is up! Thank you to my three oh-so-kind reviewers, it's thanks to you that I'm updating! And thanks so much for the support! . I have a rule, by the way - you give me three reviews, I give you (the readers) another chapter. Okay? Okay!

Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away, but I do own Sen's character(though not her name...) Read and review please!

CHAPTER TWO – UNINTENDED MISCHIEF

Sen looked out the window of her father's car. The car was pulling up into the driveway of a large and expensive-looking house white house. No, house was an understatement. A mansion. It was incredible!

"This is my place," her father told her, tossing her a key with a smile. "Here's the house key. I have to work today, but I'll come back at lunchtime to visit, and later we'll go out for supper, okay?"

Sen nodded, eager to check out what was inside. She got out of the car and waved as her father drove away and out of sight. Then she ran into the house.

It was amazing. The entrance was at least five times bigger than the one at her mother's house. The floors were covered in sparkling clean tiles, and the walls were a pure white. The entrance had a closet for hanging up coats, and it was the size of a small office. There was a small little table propped against the wall opposite the closet, with a vase of beautiful roses standing on it, and there was a picture frame above it that portrayed a pear and an apple. Next to the table was a fancy-looking chair that was covered with plastic. Sen quickly took off her shoes so she would not dirty the whole place, and put them in the closet. Then she ran past the two glass doors that separated the entrance from the hallway.

The more she looked around, the more she was amazed. On the first floor, she found an enormously large kitchen, a TV room, a dining room, and a living room. The dining room and living room were connected as there was no wall between them, but there was a lovely arch to walk through. The kitchen had an island in the middle of everything, and the fridge and freezer were filled with food, most of which she'd never seen before. The TV room's TV was a large, 64-inch big screen. It was amazing. After conducting a thorough check of the first floor, Sen moved upstairs.

There were five bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an office room on the second floor. Sen made sure she explored all of them. The two bathrooms were both blue in color and were very welcoming – for a bathroom, at least. The office room was painted white, and it wasn't all that large, but there were some bookshelves and a fancy desk there, complete with one of the newest computers that just came out. But as for the bedrooms…they were all four times bigger than her bedroom at her mother's house. There was so much space, Sen figured she could have a sleepover in those rooms without moving any furniture and still leave a lot of empty space. One of the rooms was a nice, light peach color, and the bed had not yet been fixed. Sen assumed that this room belonged to her father. The other rooms were green, navy and yellow, a light lilac, and red. The furniture in each room was slightly different, but suited the colors very well.

Sen's personal favourite was the lilac room, complete with a four-poster bed, a large dresser and mirror, and a nice desk to work at that was placed up against the large window through which the sun streamed. It was a very beautiful room, and the colors were very relaxing. To add to that, the room had so much empty space, yet so much furniture, that it looked like a perfect bedroom. Everything was spotless, so unlike her other home.

Sen undid her hair elastic with the intention of redoing her messy brown ponytail, but noticed that the purple on her elastic was the same color as the purple on the carpet, a darker shade than the paint on the walls. The only difference was that the elastic sparkled in the light.

Sen knew the story of her elastic by heart. It was something her mother had brought back from the world of the spirits, and had passed it on to her daughter. Sen didn't care much for the story anymore, but she kept the elastic because purple was her favourite color and try as she might, she was never able to find another like it in the stores.

" 'It will protect you,' Zeniba told me," her mother would say, quoting the witch's words. " 'It's made from the threads your friends wove together.' "

The first time she had heard the story, the young Sen had asked, "Can they be my friends, too?"

Chihiro had nodded with a gentle smile. "My friends will always be your friends too."

But as time passed, Sen grew to dislike the story, and certainly didn't want to be friends with her mother's friends, especially ones from her fantasies.

Sen spent the rest of the morning exploring and watching TV until her father returned for lunch with a big smile on his face. "How was your morning, sweetie?" he asked.

She gave him a happy nod. "Really good," she told him. "And yours?"

He smiled and nodded. "So, did you choose a room for yourself, Sen?"

Sen answered, "Yes, I have. Can I have the purple room, father?"

"Of course you can. You can have any room you like. So, Sen, what do you like to eat?"

"I normally have sandwiches at lunchtime," she informed him, and so her father got to work on making her a sandwich.

They ate lunch together, but it was a quick one, for her father had to leave to continue working. He left her with a smile and a promise that after work he'd take her out to an expensive restaurant.

Sen couldn't wait for her father to come back. She'd never been out to an expensive restaurant before; her mother couldn't afford it. And she definitely liked this place better than her other home. Her father was way cooler than her mother.

There was manic laughter, the sound of a whiplash, and then terrible screaming…

Sen gave a tremendous jolt. That scream again! Where had it come from? Sen hit herself in the head to make sure she wasn't hearing things. But the scream echoed again, this time coming from outside her open window. Curiously, Sen hurried down the stairs, stepped into her shoes, and went outside, taking the house key with her and locking the doors behind her. There she waited, her ears working furiously to catch that scream again.

The scream echoed again a moment later, coming from the woods behind the house. Cautiously, Sen took a few steps into the bushes, brushing some branches aside. The scream was definitely coming from within the forest. So what if it wasn't a dream? What if there was someone terribly hurt who needed immediate help? This pushed Sen into a sprint, and she dashed through the forest, following the sounds of the scream until –

She stopped suddenly when she saw a large tunnel towering in front of her. The wind blew around her, pushing her in its direction.

That's when Sen's brain put two and two together, and something clicked. Her mother's stories…she had gone through this very tunnel to enter the spirit world. This tunnel was going to lead her into the world of the spirits!

Hold the phone… Sen shook her head, amazed at how gullible she had been. There was no world of the spirits. It never existed. It was just in her mother's fantasies. It was probably just some abandoned theme park or something. And someone was in there, hurt or possibly dying, who needed help. Forgetting all about her mother's stories, Sen charged through the tunnel, saw the grass on the other side, but kept going.

She had been following the sounds of the screams, but now…the screams had just faded away. Sen looked around, seeing if she could find any signs of other human life in the area. That's when her nose caught a whiff of very good-smelling food. She followed the smell, assuming that there'd be a person cooking the food, and found herself in a street filled with restaurants.

"That's strange," she said to herself. "They're all empty…"

But still she continued, following the smell of the food. She finally found the source about a minute later, and was shocked to find that one of the restaurants' counters was loaded with platters of food.

The story of her mother's parents turning into pigs flashed before her mind briefly, but Sen ignored it. There was good food here. Why shouldn't she try some of it?

Sen leaned over and sniffed at one of the dishes. She had no idea what it was, but it sure smelled good. She took a small bite. Delicious! She went on to finish the thing, and moved to take another, but a thought stopped her.

I don't have any money, and father's not here to pay for it! she thought frantically. I shouldn't have done that…oh well. They probably won't notice one missing dumpling, or whatever it is.

Leaving the restaurant, she kept moving ahead past all the others buildings, trying to listen for the sound of screaming again. There was nothing. The sound had completely vanished.

Looking ahead, Sen saw that there was one more place she could check. There was a bridge ahead, and after that, a large bathhouse. What is a bathhouse doing here? she wondered, but shrugged the thought aside. Perhaps there were people in the bathhouse.

She hurried across the bridge and knocked on the bathhouse doors. No one answered. Sen pushed on the doorknob to find that the doors were unlocked. She took a small step inside, and quickly shut the doors behind her. The wooden floors that greeted her were deserted. There was not a sound to be heard.

"Hello?" she called loudly. "Is anybody in here?"

No one answered her calls.

She tried again, louder: "Hello? Where is everybody?"

Still there was no answer.

Sen was about to try again when she heard something. Footsteps! So there was someone here!

She ran towards the sound, and something smacked her leg, hard. Looking down, she saw something small and green against her, moaning. The thing wore human clothes, but as far as she knew, there were no green, miniature humans in the world.

The green thing pushed itself away from her and rubbed its eyes with its webbed hands. Webbed hands? Could that thing be…a frog!

That's when the frog looked up at her, staring and blinking. Sen stared back at it, surprised at what she was seeing.

Then the frog screamed.

"AAAAAHHHH!"