Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ Courage of the spirit ❯ Home again, home again. ( Chapter 7 )

So many people are reading my story! Wow! Thank you all it’s a big compliment.   Home again, home again.    Linca and Chihiro strolled through the dappled shade of the woodlands. It was so peaceful. It was a balm to Chihiro after talking to her mother. Linca seemed to be enjoying herself too, though for some reason she seemed a little nervous, she kept looking into the trees as if seeing things and then walking on, she also muttered something under her breath. When Chihiro had enquired if she was alright she had just smiled and said “Perfect.” Chihiro walked on a little and started humming to herself. She felt a deep happiness settle in her chest. All of a sudden she was skipping down the track. “Hey!” Shouted Linca as she moved away from her. “What’s got into you?” “I don’t know” she shouted over her shoulder, “maybe it’s just the holidays and…” Chihiro tripped up.             Linca came running around the corner. “Chi what happened?” she bent over her friend and helped her to her knees. Linca tried to pull her the rest of the way, but Chihiro had gone stiff, Linca looked up to see a small squat statue with an ugly face. Chihiro seemed transfixed by it. “Cool statue” she commented and looked around. There was a tunnel just in front of them. “Wow” said Linca “You didn’t say this was here.” Chihiro did not move. Linca looked from Chihiro to the statue. Chihiro’s brown eyes were huge, as if she had never seen a statue before. “Are you two having a moment?” asked Linca “because I can leave.” The joke had no effect. Linca turned again to the arch way. “I’m just going to take a peek in here, I’ll be right back.” With that Linca stepped into the archway. Chihiro’s mind was in turmoil. She had walked this track so many times, telling herself that it was just a pleasant walk and she knew there was nothing down here, but secretly she was always disappointed when the track ended. She had on occasion ploughed into the woods and got hopelessly lost, coming home only hours later. Now she was staring at the same statue she had seen 10 years ago. “Funny,” she whispered, “it seems much smaller now.” Then the dam burst everything that she had bottled up over the years came flooding back, she could not stop it. “She’s my granddaughter.” “You want to loose your nose?” “I want Sen.” “Play with me or I’ll break your arm.” “I want you to call me granny.” “I said scrub it yourself.” “Remember Chihiro I’m your friend.” It was like drowning in her own memories. Chihiro knew if she could not get a hold on herself soon she would really go mad. “Maybe” said the little voice “you should swim.” “Alright!” she shouted “It happened I was here 10 years ago, it’s all true I knew this all along!” Something seemed to click into place and the noise in her head stopped. She took a deep shuddering breath. “Much better isn’t it?” cackled the voice. “Shut up” snapped Chihiro “who asked you?” Then she shook her head and laughed. “I’m talking to myself again I am crazy.” She sighed, noticing the absence of pain in her chest, she felt… well free was the best way to describe it. She had been right, all this time she had wondered if she was insane, but no she had been right.             She touched the mossy statue as if frightened it was all a dream. It was cold and slimy under her fingers. It was then that she burst into tears. “Why wouldn’t they believe me!” all that time she had lied to herself in order to fit into the world around her, perhaps it would have been best never to tell anyone. “They were my parents they were supposed to believe me.” She whispered             ; Then another thought entered her still shocked brain. Linca! She looked around, what was it she had said to her? She could not remember but as she looked at the tunnel she knew what had happened. “Oh no” she moaned and plunged into the tunnel after her friend. She tore out the other side of the clock tower, the building moaned like an alarm and perhaps that’s what it was. “Linca!” she called, she looked around the grassy valley, nothing, the sun was starting to set. “Linca!” She screamed. “Chihiro!” a distant voice reached her ears. Chihiro turned around a small figure was waving to her from across a river that was more stones and boulders than water. “This place is so cool!” shouted Linca, “come on over and look around!” Chihiro started running down the hill but Linca started to walk away. “No Linca!” Chihiro shouted “It’s not safe here we have to leave!” Linca waved again and walked up the steps.             Chihiro ran faster almost slamming into a boulder at the river. She could not see Linca now. She swore and slapped her hands against the rock. “Stupid girl” she hissed “I’m not saving her if she becomes a pig.” She scrambled over the stones scraping her already bleeding knees. “If I had known I’d be doing this today I would have worn jeans” she mumbled hitching up her purple skirt. As she climbed the steps she was surprised by how calm she felt. Here she was, back in the spirit world that she had denied existed, and she was cracking jokes with herself. “Oh well” she thought “so I’ve fallen into my own delusion, may as well enjoy the ride until the drugs that they are pumping into me at hospital take effect.”              She ran up the tattered street zig zaging across it looking into all the food houses to see if Linca had been tempted by the delicious smells. But she was not there. Chihiro was puzzled where had she gone? Why had she not waited for her? And why had she left to investigate the tunnel when she was so obviously distressed? It made no sense it was so unlike her.             Chihiro came to the steps leading up to the bath house. She slowed her pace and swallowed the lump in her throat.  At the top of the steps she could see the bridge and the towering, imposing bathhouse. It was defiantly as big as she remembered it. Just then a light flickered on next to her. She jumped and cursed in a way that would have made her mother disown her. “Linca!” she shouted again, shadows were starting to move in the dark corners. Yubaba had to know they were here by now. She then looked down at herself and swore again. She could see the ground through her feet. She had forgotten about that. She needed a plan and fast.  She racked her brain. There was no Haku to help this time; she would have to do it on her own. Wherever Linca was she knew she would be in the same state.             An idea tentatively formed. She grabbed at it, Kamaji; if she could get to him she knew he would help her. A doubt crept in, would he even remember her? She had no choice she could not feel the pain in her knees anymore.             She dashed across the bridge and slid open the tiny side door and squeezed through. In the court yard she kept low, she could see one or two frogs moving around. Then she saw her. Rin! The woman did not look a day older and was exactly the way she remembered even down to how she tied her hair. She was arguing with a frog. After brow beating him for a minute or two she stalked off. Chihiro remembering her situation went to open the other door out of the court yard. Her hand passed straight through the handle. Chihiro’s heart turned cold, what could she do? Was she trapped here? How long before she vanished? “Calm down” she muttered to herself, "just think, there will be a way out; you were offered a science place for goodness sakes.” She closed her eyes and then opened them again because she could see through them.             Then she had another bright idea. Remembering putting her hand straight through Haku’s face, she did the same to the door. She felt a bit of a tickle but that’s all. She sighed and leapt at the door. She tumbled through it only to find herself teetering on the edge of the wooden platform beyond the door. She gave a squeak and pulled back. “Ok that was weird” she mumbled looking at the solid wooden door. “And I’ve established that I still don’t like heights.” She regarded the treacherously steep plank steps. “I remember you too.” She mumbled she hooked her legs over the platform and put her feet on the first step, it held. “Enough of this timidness” she cried “I don’t have time.” And launched herself down the steps she ran, and saw the wall approaching at the bottom of the stairs. She knew she could do nothing about it. Instead of hitting the wall she ran through it and skidded to a halt in the pitch black of what she thought must be a store room. She looked around and saw nothing.             Panic did set in then. She fumbled about trying to find the opposite wall. “I’m lost” she whispered into the blackness. “I don’t have time to be lost!” but the opposite wall eluded her.