As Chihiro and Hajime walked up the steps and into the building, Chihiro's heart began to pound with vague recognition of this place. She shuddered slightly, and Hajime looked at her with his blue-gray eyes curiously.
They walked into the building, no longer hand in hand.
"I'm fine."
She felt a twinge of hysteria in her, but kept on walking. Passing hallways, and rooms with large tubs in them. The Tatami mats had certainly taken a beating.
They walked for what felt like hours, Chihiro not saying anything.
How funny… I haven't taken a break in a while…
She began to remove her shoes for the tatami mat's sake, but Hajime stopped her. He gestured for her to stay close, but Chihiro began to wonder about their current predicament.
When they had crossed the bridge, or walked through the town for that matter, they had not encountered a single person.
Everything felt foreign and smelled strongly of dust.
After a few silent moments interrupted only by the shuffles of their feet, he stopped her and furrowed her brow.
"Now what?"
He didn't look at her, and she realized he was trembling. She took his hand and tugged gently.
"H-Hey?"
She followed his gaze and saw the door.
They had seen a lot of plain, wooden doors, some that had been split in half, or even on the ground, a few were lucky to be in tact.
None were like this door.
Everything about this door screamed decadent.
Bright, unnaturally red wood, with a golden border, intricate designs carved into it. Beautiful, and one would be unable to stop staring at it for less than 30 seconds. Which is how long it took them to come back to reality.
Hajime squeezed her hand tightly, her knuckles popping.
She let out a small squeak of protest.
"Ow!"
He released and looked at her apologetically.
Chihiro inhaled softly, the door giving her the heebie-jeebies.
"S…should we go in?"
Immediately she felt rude and blushed.
He shook his head at her, and she nodded.
As they quickly walked past it, something pulled at Chihiro.
Sen… Come in…
The door seemed to tremble as the words came from it.
Chihiro reached forward to touch the door, when Hajime slapped her hand out of the air. Hard.
She backed up, cradling her hand.
"What?"
A wild glint in his eye forced her to be careful of what she did next.
He reached out and touched the door.
The moment there was contact, he turned blue.
Chihiro screamed as he fell to the ground; frozen.
The door began to smoke and turn from red and gold to ashy and black.
A large chunk of the upper corner gave way and fell toward Hajime's frozen body.
Chihiro flung herself into him, pushing him hard out of the way, but her foot was not fast enough to avoid getting hit.
She shrieked out in pain, saw stars cloud her vision then nothingness.