DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SPIRITED AWAY

Chapter 3

"Remember!"

To say that the man named Haku that stood before me was shocked would be a massive understatement.

"You…you don't…remember… me?" he tried out the words, as if they were foreign upon his tongue.

I shook my head slowly, still gazing within his eyes, attempting yet again to uncover the truth behind those emerald irises.

He pulled away from me and stared at me in a frightened silence. He looked wild, as if the truth were impossible for him to consider.

Lin hurried to his side and helped him sit down on a chair within the room.

I was timid as I followed them, careful to keep my eyes focused on the ground.

The faint, mumbled questions that Lin kept directing at Haku eventually ceased, replaced by another awkward silence that loomed above the threesome like a mischievous shadow.

Finally, when I raised my eyes to them, the questionable stares were upon me yet again.

I fidgeted beneath those gazes full of sadness and shock. So I immediately averted my gaze to the floor once more, as if the texture of the wood was of more interest to me than the uncomfortable conversation that all of them were about to have.

"Chihiro…" I raised my head ever so slowly towards the sound of Lin's soft voice. I probably wouldn't have heard it had the slightest shuffle across the floor occurred.

Lin looked unnerved and closed her eyes as she took deep breaths. I noticed that her hands were shaking violently; at least I wasn't the only one.

"Do you honestly not remember us at all?" she finally finished.

I studied her closely. Of course I remembered her… slightly; I was still trying to sift through my limited memories in order to fully remember her.

I was as lost and confused as they obviously were. They were like memories from another person; I could faintly recognize them but I didn't know exactly why or where I had seen them before.

"I… I…" I was attempting to unearth the right words from my very soul. I had no remote idea how I was going to frame this sentence without it sounding crazy.

As I attempted to form the right thing to say to them mentally, the two people in front of me watched expectantly.

Finally, giving up trying to sound rational, I decided to just let the words tumble out from my mouth with free reign. I only hoped that they sounded plausible for what they were asking of me.

"I honestly don't know you," I noticed that both of their faces plummeted immediately. "I… I seem to remember little things about you though, but it's as though I'm remembering them from another life- time or from another person. It's… hard to explain." My voice was shaking…they could tell.

There was another long, unbearable silence before Haku finally spoke. His face had been wiped clean of any emotion; he just appeared… blank.

"Very well then," his voice was thick and yet empty at the same time; he was battling his emotions and yet he was still in shock.

"Haku—," Lin started, but he held up a hand to stop her.

Her lips snapped closed instantly but her eyes continued to possess that same worry.

He looked towards me again… but he looked unwilling. He desperately attempted to avoid looking directly into my face.

"Why are you here Chihiro?" he asked.

I closed my eyes and focused intently on what happened before I awoke in this memorable yet bizarre and dark place. I could faintly recall a blinding yellow light.

"I remember… two yellow lights that merged into one…" I tightened my eyes even more, and fisted my hands until my bones screeched in anguish. Sweat beads were beginning to leak down my neck and glide downward across my skin.

"I remember sitting in a… in a red… machine like thing…the ground was slick…." It was as though I was just learning to talk, like that of a young child.

I finally gasped in pain and opened my eyes, lowered myself to the floor and placed my hands firmly before me as I panted, attempting to catch my breath.

As soon as I had made the first sound of pain, I felt two strong hands around my back, supporting me with a soothing, featherlike touch.

My head whipped around, instantly finding two memorizing emerald eyes to lock with. He gave me a small smile of encouragement.

Once I had calmed my aching head, Haku asked me why my episode had happened.

"When I try to remember… it's like something holds me back. I can practically see the memory being taunted in front of my eyes and I want so badly to catch it… but something stops me and when I try to dig deeper and deeper into my memory… it's like something... stabs me in the head; the pain is excruciating."

Haku's eyes flashed dangerously for a second and his lips tightened, but the expression was gone just as quickly as it came. I briefly wondered if I had just imagined it altogether.

He helped me to my feet and then let me go, though I wasn't so dense as to not notice that he let go slowly.

Lin turned to him quickly, dubiously. "What are we going to do?" There was some kind of question that I was missing. Something passed between the two of them, a question from Lin immediately answered by Haku; a question that I had no clue about, since it was not spoken aloud.

Haku stared at me for a long moment before answering. There was an emotion there that I couldn't place, though it was evident within his eyes for a lengthy period of time. It was as though he couldn't look away from me, as if he were meeting me for the first time in a long time.

Finally he turned to Lin and spoke directly and quietly. "For now… we must watch over her. This is a dangerous time for her to journey into the Spirit World."

Suddenly, with a flash, I realized that I didn't journey to the Spirit World. I didn't come here willingly. I died. That's what happened. I had died in a car crash.

I stared at Haku closely for a long time, trying to understand if he realized his mistake. Did he know the truth? Did he know that I didn't really come here to visit, but to stay… permanently?

And, with another shock of discovery, I realized he did know that I died. He did know that I would be here forever; he just didn't want to completely freak me out yet… though that ship had sailed.

I felt a fuzzy feeling deep within the pit of my stomach; it wasn't totally unfamiliar but it wasn't something that I had felt recently… maybe when I salvaged the rest of my memories I would know this feeling.

I recognized this man's kindness and thoughts of others. I ached to remember how I knew him, how I knew this feeling within my stomach.

But I couldn't recall it no matter how hard I tried.