AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi everyone! I am sooo sorry it's taken me so long to post something, but I'm in my last 3 semesters of college so I'm busy as heck. I know this chapter is not very long, but it's all I had time for at the moment. Let me know what you think!
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"You will never escape."
Sen frantically pulled at the thick, opaque chains that bound her to the stone floor. This couldn't be it; this couldn't be the end… not after she had just regained all of her memories. It just couldn't end like this.
The voice let out a dark, resounding cackle that seemed to engulf her. It liked to watch her struggle.
"Please," she begged, desperately trying to free her arms. "Please, let me go!"
The voice sighed contentedly, "Ah, Sen. I don't think so."
Tired and sore from struggling, Sen stopped resisting and slumped to her knees, "I don't understand. What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"So, so many things, Sen. So many I don't even know where to begin."
"Just tell me why you're doing this to me," her voice was now cracked and weak. She just wanted to be freed.
There was a furious wind that whipped viciously around her, causing her limp hair to lash and sting her skin. After a few moments of that, the wind died down and it became silent again. Patiently, Sen waited for an answer.
"You're a very strong woman, Sen," the disembodied voice began. "Your willpower is like nothing I have ever come across. Because of this, you are dangerous."
Sen raised her head to stare incredulously into the dark that surrounded her, "Dangerous? You think I'm dangerous?!"
The voice continued, ignoring her, "You overcame an incredibly powerful memory spell over the short span of 13 years. Then, you managed to resist an even more powerful spell meant to cloud your judgment and make you forget once again. You keep thwarting this type of magic, and it is something I cannot allow to continue."
Her heart sank, dread washing over her like a thick blanket, "Are you going to kill me?"
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The voice boomed with laughter. "Kill you? No, no, no! My girl, I have much bigger plans for you than that. You see, I think I have discovered the source of your impressive willpower, and I intend to eliminate it. You are going to help me do that."
"Why would I ever help someone who took me prisoner and wants to make me their slave?"
"My slave? Oh Sen, I don't want you to be my slave. I simply want to ensure that no one will overstep their bounds again. It's time for everyone to learn their place here."
Sen looked down at the maddeningly see-through chains that bound her. They were the only source of light in this place, but the light they emanated didn't give her comfort. It only made her feel sick. "I won't help you. Kill me if you want, but I will never help you. You can go to Hell!"
There was another whirlwind of air that only lasted for a brief moment before everything became still again. In the distance, Sen could hear the click-clack of high heels coming towards her. Even though she knew it was futile to struggle, she did so anyway out of fear. It only took a few seconds for the person wearing the heels to come into view.
Yubaba.
Sen gasped, her head spinning, "You…"
The witch grabbed Sen roughly by the shoulders to make her stand, "Don't seem so surprised, Sen. Did you really think your first trip here would have no consequences?"
"Yubaba, please. I don't understand…"
Yubaba dragged one of her red-lacquered claws down Sen's cheek, "Because of you, Haku quit being my apprentice. I don't think you understand the severity of that action. When I controlled him, he did all my dirty work for me. He spied, stole, and even incriminated innocent spirits if I told him to. It really was the perfect arrangement for me. But then you came and found the one thing that could break my control over him: love. Now, Haku has made me look weak, and initially that was enough for me to want revenge. However, I have discovered an even more disturbing issue. Sen, after you left Haku quit being my apprentice and, while he is still under contract at the Bath House, he still manages to do as he pleases. Do you know why?"
Sen shook her head, not trusting herself enough to speak. Yubaba was clearly furious. She had been prepared to stand up to Yubaba, to fight for her place in the spirit world so she could stay. But that was before the witch had taken her prisoner and chained her to a floor. She had been prepared to stand up to Yubaba in a fair fight, but the witch clearly did not intend for anything to be fair.
"You see, Sen… your love for Haku awakened something inside of him. He has always been powerful, his magical abilities very near to mine, but now he is more powerful than me. Because of you. You understand that I cannot have someone under contract in my Bath House that is more powerful than me, don't you? That is quite a risk, and one I am not prepared to take. That is why I was hoping Haku's memory spell would work on you, permanently. If you had stayed away for just a few more years, Haku's power would have weakened back to it's original state and he would not have been a problem anymore. However, you came back. And when you began to fall in love with him all over again, I tried to use yet another memory spell on you to keep your original love for him locked away inside your mind. After all, your new love for him was not as powerful as the first time, so as long as I could keep your first memories of him out of your reach, I would still have a chance at Haku weakening…" Yubaba scoffed. "But your will to love him is so strong that you completely resisted my spell and at the same time, unlocked your memories of him. Now, Haku's power will never weaken and he will remain a threat to me. That is why you are dangerous, Sen. You are dangerous because you give each other strength and my magic doesn't seem to be powerful enough to keep you away from him. Now you see my… predicament. So, that is where you come in."
Sen was shaking, "What are you going to do?"
The witch cackled, her raspy voice cracking like it always did, "Now, now Sen, let's not spoil all the fun. But I will tell you this: you are under my control now. This time however, there is no memory spell involved. Anything I tell you to do, you will do because you will not be able to resist, no matter how hard you try. Your mind may be able to resist most magic, but your physical body now belongs to me. And as long as you are under my control like this, you will never see your river again. Every time you sleep, you will come here and you will be chained to this spot in the dark. And every time you come here, I will sink my hooks just a little bit deeper into you… until one day you will not even remember who you are. All you will know is that I own you, and that my word is law. You will not be Sen ever again."
Anger replaced the horror she felt, "I'll tell Haku as soon as I wake up that you're doing this. What makes you think he won't kill you the moment he finds you?"
Yubaba smiled widely, wrapping her claw around Sen's slender neck, "As soon as you wake up, you won't remember this place. You won't remember the chains, the dark, or this conversation. You won't have anything to tell him."
Sen could feel the color draining from her face as the gravity of the situation finally sunk in. No one would be able to help her; no one would be able to save her.
Because no one would ever know what Yubaba was doing to her until it was too late.
"What are you going to make me do to him?" She managed between short, rapid breaths. The hysterics inside of her were dangerously close to bubbling over and there was nothing she could do to stop them. "Please Yubaba, don't do this! I'll do anything! Please, just don't make me hurt him!""
Yubaba flashed a devilish grin before disappearing into a cloud of silver smoke.
"Yubaba!" Sen screamed into the dark, thrashing wildly against the chains that shackled her. "Yubaba, you can have me! You can do anything you want with me, just don't hurt him! Please, I'm begging you!" Blood trickled down the chains from where they were gouging into her arms as she struggled. After a few more minutes of useless pleading and fighting her bonds, Sen fell to the stone floor in tears. "I'm begging you, Yubaba. I love him."
The witch's disembodied voice filled the dark emptiness one last time, "Everyone must learn their place and love has no place in the Bath House."
...
"NO!" Sen screamed, jolting upright in her kakebuton. She tried to calm herself by drawing in deep breaths of cool morning air, but her body refused to cooperate. Instead, she kept gasping for air and clutching at her chest where her heart was desperately trying to escape from her ribcage.
Something horrible had happened in her dreams, but she couldn't remember what it was.
Sen fell limply back onto her bedroll, throwing her arm over her eyes. Her skull felt like it was splitting in two. As her heartbeat started to slow, she realized just how terrible her entire body felt. Every part of her hurt.
Even her heart.
"Sen?" Someone called from the hallway. "Sen? Are you there?"
"Yeah," she called back, sitting up again. Just as she pushed the hair out of her eyes, Rin came bursting into their room.
"Oh, good. I'm glad you're awake. I tried to let you sleep a little later since it seemed like you were having bad dreams last night, but Yubaba sent down some orders so I'm afraid it's time to get up."
Sen felt a random shiver run down her spine at the sound of the witch's name, "Sure. What does she want?"
Rin smirked, "Seems Haku is feeling a little under the weather today. Yubaba wants you to wait on him hand and foot until he feels better."
Simultaneously, Sen felt a jolt of excitement and terror. She knew where the excitement came from, but the terror seemingly came from nowhere. Why would she ever be afraid to spend time with him? Her brain knew the thing that attacked her in Haku's room wasn't really him. Could her body still be reacting to that?
She pushed those thoughts aside, certain the fear was only lingering from whatever nightmare she'd been having. Sen quickly stood and rolled up her kakebuton, "Give me a minute to get dressed and then I'll run down to the kitchen to grab his breakfast."
Rin chuckled, "I bet you'll feed him in bed, too."
Sen blushed furiously, lobbing a pillow at her friend's as hard as she could, "Shut up!"
The weasel spirit continued to smiled as she tossed the pillow back at Sen. Rin shouted as she made her way down the stairs, "Hurry up. I'll be the Master is starving."
Sen quickly put her bedroll in the cupboard with everyone else's before frantically searching for her clothes. Still pushing that relentless, nagging fear to the back of her mind, she clasped her bra, tied on her blue apron, and pulled up her pink work pants. She has just finished pulling on her pink shirt when the shoji to the balcony burst open with a great gust of wind that made her jump.
"Stupid doors," Sen muttered as she went to close them. "You would think, with all the money we make her, that Yubaba would be able to afford to replace a few of these. I bet this thing kept sliding open all night and that's why I feel sick today."
She slammed the shojis shut and then quickly wound her purple hair-band around her long, thick ponytail. Her stomach started to do interesting little flips as she thought about spending the entire day with Haku in his room, taking care of him. The fear that threatened to grasp her heart seemed to lessen just a little whenever she thought of him. Not wanting to waste another second, Sen darted out of the room and down the stairs towards the kitchens.
But she didn't go alone.
Unbeknownst to Sen, a small paper bird had come in through the open balcony shoji and silently planted itself underneath her ponytail on the back of her head.
...
Zeniba couldn't see anything but a mass of shimmering brown hair, but she could hear everything and that would be enough. As Sen was running down the stairs, her ponytail bounced, giving Zeniba glances of the Bath House she hadn't seen in so long. It then occurred to her that others might be able to see the paper bird, too.
With a short flick of her thick wrist, Zeniba instructed the paper bird to act as a chameleon and shift from white to mahogany brown.
"Now," the witch said to herself in her scratchy voice, "let's see what my sister is up to."