Chapter Two
Mei choked, spitting out the water. She was drenched from head to toe. She stood awkwardly, looking around. Her heart thumped almost painfully in her chest. No. No, she couldn't be here. She was supposed to be with Chihiro, back where her car was getting ready to leave. They were going to have a pleasant, normal day. This wasn't meant to happen!
But despite that, Mei was standing waist deep in an endless ocean full of lights, far away from where she wished she was. It was getting dark already here and she could see boats beginning to dock in a harbour. Suddenly the ground slipped away from her and the water rose up to her neck.
"Oh god!"
She desperately waded towards the stone steps, but the water seemed to want to swallow her up, making her movement slow and useless. The ground got further and further away from her feet, until she had to stand on tiptoe. The only part of her that could be seen now was her face as the waves tried to submerge her beneath them.
"Help-" she gurgled, petrified at a passing ferry. She thought they had not heard her, but they had in fact pointedly ignored her.
"Urghhh! Disgusting! The human is alive still! Stupid human, polluting our world.."
She craned her neck round slightly to find a weird creature peering down at her from a small floating life buoy that it appeared to be using as a boat. She reached out towards the buoy eagerly.
"Go away human! Find your own vessel, this is mine-"
Mei grabbed onto it, hoisting herself up and began to kick her legs to get back to land.
"How dare you! I am just a small spirit and I can swim, but that was unnecessary!"
She gasped with relief as she crawled onto the cobbled road, dragging her limp, soaked body.
"Sorry about the life buoy!" She waved at the spirit weakly. Turning her head, she noticed that the dark figures were beginning to climb out of the ferry eerily in synch.
"Oh dear.." Her head ached with confusion.
This had to be some sort of weird hallucination.. Even so.. She broke in a stumbling, tired jog to get away.
"This is madness." She muttered to herself, ducking to avoid yet again another 'spirit'. "Absolute madness."
She turned another corner and ducked into the darkness. Now.. What was it that Chihiro had told her about the Spirit World? "Oww." Mei paused for a moment to rub her arm. She hurt all over. She was pretty sure that if there were mosquitoes in this world, they had bitten her. "Arrrgghhhh!" A scream forced its way up her throat. Her arm was translucent. In fact, all of her body was translucent. It was like she was turning to mist. She panicked for a moment, hurriedly searching her memory for an answer to her problem.
'When I visited the Spirit World, a kind boy called Haku gave me food to stop me from disappearing. I couldn't eat from the stalls as it would turn me into a pig.'
Food. She looked around desperately. That's what Chihiro told her. Without food, humans vanished. But where could she find some.. Her glance rested on a bush full of green berries. There. Her rational side winced. What if they're poisonous?! She looked at her arm again. It was almost gone entirely.
"No time like the present to find out." She grabbed a handful and rammed it into her mouth, gagging as it went down. "Bleurgggghhhhhhhhhhh!" She coughed. "These aren't exactly tasty!"
A young man appeared behind her. "They aren't meant to be."
His eyes glowed curiously. "Like you are not meant to be here. Tell me, is the portal still open?"
Mei froze for a minute, then raced away, tumbling and tripping in fright. How had she not noticed him walk up to her? She opened the doors of a large house and fled inside, not bothering to check who or what was in there. She couldn't hear anything. She trembled, shocked and gulped back tears. Everything was happening so quickly, it was like a blur. Mei felt slightly sick and dizzy. The real world seemed to be flying away from her, as she lost her grip on reality. Her breaths came out from her ragged and lost.
"What are you doing here?"
Another voice had managed to creep up on her. Great. She turned around, barely acknowledging the blood streaming from her nose. Oh. Oh no. That was a lot more than just one voice. There were thousands of spirits surrounding her. Some were bathing, some cleaning and some serving others, but every single one was silent. She had walked into the bathhouse. More voices began to speak.
"It's a human."
"It stinks of its world."
"Oh the smell!"
"Will they be getting rid of it?"
"Is it Sen? Do you think it knows Sen?"
"Maybe it's Yubaba's latest pet.."
She was shaking violently now, pressing herself flat against the wall. She wanted to run, but her legs were refusing to work. The noise build up around her, overwhelming her.
"Oh look, it's scared."
"Hmm, I've never seen a human before."
"Do you think it is ill? We wouldn't want Bo to worry would we?"
She let out a whimper. Her palms were sweating and her head thudded painfully as it hit the floor. Mei began to blackout as the young man, with the dark hair reached out to her, among the unfamiliar faces.
"Get Yubaba. I think our world if affecting her differently to Sen as she is an adult." His voice was almost drowned out by the rushing of her blood in her ears.
"But Yubaba will make her-"
"Just get her."
Mei felt a rush of disorientation as everything slipped away from her.
"Hold on, ailing human, master Haku doesn't wish for you to die and he'll kill me if you do."
She forced her mouth to move. "Thank..you.."
