Spirited Away II: Return to the Spirit Realm

Chapter 16

The orange flames of fire burned restlessly in the hearth, sending a rosy, dim glow across the study. Deep black shadows rested mysteriously in the corners, moving their position with every flicker of the fire. The sateen surface of the mahogany desk were covered by abandoned books and scrolls, which scattered the desk somewhat carelessly. The Lady was staring out the window, trying to catch at least a glimpse of the familiar world through the unforgivable sheets of snow. At last, she failed, and turned her back to the window with a strong sense of despair.

A blizzard. A blizzard of all things! The Lady felt her heart throb within her chest at the mere thought of what the Dark Spirit's 'grand find' was, and her chest throbbed even more painfully at the thought of the outcome of it.

At any other time, the Lady would have had the sense to at least try to give an assumption of what the Dark Spirit's find could be. But she was too nervous to think properly. Her hands shook as if she was being electrocuted; her throat went dry and her voice seemed to die out as her eyes welled with bitter tears of despair.

"Think, think, think," the spirit queen chanted to herself, falling into her chair by the desk and covering her face with her hands. "Throwing temper tantrums will get you nowhere! Calm down and think, think, think, think."

A moment of tension followed. The Lady sat there with her shoulders shaking slightly and her face pressed against her palms. "Okay," she finally told herself, bringing her hands from her face. "What would the Dark Spirit want? It couldn't know about anything from the 'basement', nor would it find any worth at any of my belongings."

Her brow wrinkled into a bitter frown, which she directed at the window. A sudden thought struck her mind, and a flash of horror crisscrossed her eyes. Her facial expression turned to one of utter terror and fright.

She put her hand over her mouth. "'Only mortal hands can cut its life'! Oh, dear, Chihiro!" she cried, aghast. And, to top things off, the Lady felt an uncharted presence enter the territory of the Imperial Palace. A trespasser.

"Good heavens! Oh, what I wouldn't do that beast!" the spirit queen stuttered angrily, jumping out of her chair and dashing out the door. She was about to run as fast as she could to her bedroom when a familiar voice stopped her.

"Mother!" Haku cried, gingerly grasping the Lady's trailing sleeve of silk. "I was just about to come and see you. Is everything all right?"

The Lady grimaced at her luck. She turned around to acknowledge her son and explain the potential situation as gently as she could when there was a blood-curling scream, followed by a terrible roar of a monster and crashing noises. Pinpointing the exact sources of the noises would be impossible, but it did come from the direction of the Lady's chamber and undoubtedly that was where it happened.

The Dark Spirit found Chihiro! The thought barely had time to register properly in Haku's mind when he found himself running frantically alongside the Lady at inhuman speed. There was another scream and another roar of irritation before the two got to the Lady's chamber, in less than ten seconds. What they saw tore an aghast shriek from the Lady.

The room looked like as if a tractor rode on top of everything, smashing the furniture and upsetting the order to an incredible degree. Miscellaneous items scattered the floor; furniture - including the Lady's own bed and Chihiro's couch - were lying either on their sides or face down. There was a large, ugly gash in the Lady's bed mattress; speaking of the mattress, it was lying right beside the door. There were several dents in the walls. Paintings hung at either a completely incorrect angle or were lying on the floor.

Chihiro had her back pressed into a corner. Her legs trembled dangerously beneath her lean frame, the skin on her cheeks was unnaturally pale, and her eyes were wide with panic. For there, less than a meter in front of her, was a hideous monster. The monster had a humungous, strange shape covered in black and brown dirty fur. The monster had three, yellow colored eyes without an iris. He stood on two back paws and the two front paws were spread out in a dangerous, sinister way. The monster was so close to Chihiro that you could put a ruler, horizontally, in between them with no room left to spare.