The Other World

Interlude: Train

Interlude: Train

The train parted the shallow sea. The waves collapsed onto the rails as the last car passed and left ever-widening ripples in its wake. Singular trees passed slowly in the distance. Haku looked back, wanting to watch the station platform fade into the distance. He had been waiting alone there since the beginning of time, it seemed to him, and finally, he was on his way.

The station was only a dark line in the water. A figure stood there, watching.

Chihiro? Haku thought. He felt something wake up deep within. What am I doing here? The train disappeared. He was standing on the tracks, looking back at the platform. "Haku," the figure called. Her voice echoed over the expanse of water. The water came up to his knees, but he could not feel it. Am I dreaming? He began to walk, and then run, back toward the station. His legs felt heavy. The water pushed him back. Still, the figure grew quickly until he could see her face and the hand she reached out to him.

He reached for her hand, and then the ground dropped out from beneath his feet. He found himself falling into an infinitely dark pit. He saw Chihiro's face looking at him from over the edge and then he felt her hand gripping his wrist. He looked down. Shadows reached out of the pit, visibly flickering over his white clothes. He hung there for a moment, and then felt her pulling him up out of the pit. He reached up with his other hand and found a fingerhold on solid ground, and looked up at her.

"Chihiro," he said.

"Remember," she said. "I'm your friend."

Her voice echoed as if it came from a long ways away. Her hand was slowly becoming insubstantial in his. She was fading.

"Chihiro, no!" Haku cried as she disappeared, along with her hold on him. He caught the ledge with his other hand and slowly pulled himself up over the edge. She was nowhere to be seen. The world itself was fading into darkness as well, and there was a blinding pain. In the boiler room, beneath the bathhouse, Haku's tail whipped through the air into Kitsune and smashed her into the wall.