She found herself walking through a deserted building, no, it was a tunnel. There was no one in sight, her footfalls echoed in the dark corridor until she finally saw a light. Her footfalls sped up until she raced through the light and into a beautiful meadow. A small stream cut through the middle of the grassy hills. Chihiro walked down one hill, carefully over the rocks, then up the stone steps. Once she cleared the hill, her eyes were filled with the sights of food stands. Smoke rose from the chimneys and the succulent smells assaulted her nostrils. But something in her knew she couldn't eat the food, they belonged to someone else. Her stomach rumbled loudly and her mouth watered when she passed a stand serving an exotic chicken looking dish. She kept walking however, until she spotted the magnificent building at the end of the lane. It was tall, it was red, it was spewing black smoke out of it's chimney, and it was beautiful. She walked to the edge of the bridge and stood, just staring at it, allowing herself to be bombarded with memories.
"Chi! Wake up!" the voice of her roommate and best friend Rina was shaking her. "You're going to make us late for orientation!"
Chihiro groaned and sat up. Her eyes were groggy and itchy with sleep, but she couldn't shake the dream. It was a reoccurring dream. Every night the same, only this time she actually got to the building. A part of her knew what it was, it was the bathhouse. She nodded at Rina and started getting out of bed to start her day.
Linnette was waiting at the foot of the stairs of the town house they shared. "Took you two long enough, come on!"
The three girls set off out the door and to the bus stop to wait for the bus that would take them to the local university. Linnette and Rina were both music majors, and Chihiro decided to take up art, with a minor in mythology. It was to be their first orientation for the incoming freshman.
The day passed by in a blur for Chihiro. She was given packets, papers to sign, flyers, and a tour of the art hall where she would spend most of her time. Chihiro had been carrying her portfolio to show to her art teachers, as per request by the dean of the art program. The first teacher, who was also a teacher for the mythology program studied her drawings
"The curve of the body is right, but the details are wrong." The instructor told her, pointing out small things.
"He's a water spirit." Chihiro found herself saying. "I mean, I looked up ideas, maybe I didn't get something right." she took the portfolio off the desk when the teacher was done with it and tucked it under her arm. She shook the man's hand and turned on her heel to run out of the building.
"Chi!" Linnette's voice reached Chihiro's ears while she fled off campus.
She didn't understand what was the matter with her, well scratch that she did. The drawing the instructor criticized was one of her latest. She couldn't remember how to get the curve of his form right, even though she studied her old artwork, she still couldn't get the details right. She was forgetting it, and forgetting how. Hot tears stung her eyes, how she longed to remember what she knew she had forgotten, but the last time she tried her head felt like it was being seared with a hot poker.
Chihiro ran the two miles back home and locked herself in her room. By the time Linnette and Rina got there, Chihiro had filled up more pages of drawings, and ten times more were lying crumpled on the ground or ripped and thrown all over her room. She was tossed on her bed sobbing. She couldn't do it. She couldn't draw him properly anymore. Eight years of not seeing him, not hearing a word from him had made her forget. How could she have forgotten him so easily.
"Chihiro." Rina put her arms around her friend. Linnette was seated on her other side. "Why don't we take a trip back to your old place. Didn't your parents keep the house when they moved?"
Chihiro could only nod. Her parents had moved into a mobile home when she left home. They wanted to travel the continents, but they kept the house. School wouldn't start for another two weeks, so the girls packed up and made the three hour drive back to Chihiro's childhood home.
Chihiro had offered to drive, since she knew the way easily and she needed something to take her mind off the Spirit World. Just thinking of the name made her head hurt. When she got close to her house off the highway, she took an unusual turn.
"Um, Chi, I don't think this is the way to your old place." Rina said concerned when the roads got bumpy.
Chihiro didn't answer her, just went faster and faster as if she was possessed. She drove passed little huts for the spirits of the forrest and through the forrest ignoring her friend's screams. Suddenly she braked hard just before hitting a statue. She got out of the car and walked to the abandoned building.
"That was not funny Chihiro!" Rina scolded after her and Linnette stepped out of the car, "You could have gotten us all killed."
Chihro wasn't listening. Her brow was furrowed and she took a step towards the building, then another and another. It was like her dream, only instead of her footfalls she heard her friends also echoing in the halls. She took off at a sprint, which caused the girls to run to catch up to her, and almost slam into her when she stopped suddenly.
"No way." Chihiro mumbled to herself. Off in the distance smoke was rising in soft lazy plumes. The smell of cooking food filled the air. "No way." her face was excited as she raced over the river and up the steps again. She stopped only to grab her friends' hands and pull them down the lane towards the house.
"Chi...what is this?" Linnette was the first to find her voice. "That looks like the house from your drawings."
"That is the house of my drawings." Chihiro whispered, then suddenly her head felt dizzy, a white hot pain built up behind her eyes and she felt her body hit the ground painfully before succumbing to the darkness.