Back to the Spirit World

Chapter One

        Chihiro Ogino flipped to the next page in her book.  She sighed and wiped the sweat from her face.  It was the first week of summer vacation and she was spending it inside reading a book.

         It had been six years since Chihiro had crossed over to the Spirit World. Six years since she had met Haku, her first love. Six years since she saved the Spirit World.  Six long years had passed since she let go of Haku's hand and walked back into her own world.

        She hadn’t realized that she loved Haku until it was too late.  She loved a Spirit.  She loved the impossible.

        When Chihiro returned home, she didn’t tell anyone about the Spirit World.  At first, she didn’t want to tell them.  She wanted her life changing experience all to herself.  She didn’t want to share it with anyone else.  But as time went on, she was also losing her memories of her time there.  With every passing day she forgot a little more about the Spirit World.  She would try to remember it but every memory was becoming fuzzy.  She couldn't figure out what was happening or why it was happening.

           Her last memory slipped away one night while she was dreaming. The last glance at Haku's face before turning around and running toward the human world was her last memory.  She woke up with an aching pain in her heart.  She knew there was something forgotten but she couldn't figure it out.  Eventually, she didn't even think about what she had lost.  Everything had disappeared.  She dreamed about the Spirit World often, but didn't realize that she was recalling actual events.

                  Chihiro wrote down the dreams that she remembered in a notebook.  She loved reading her entries and attempting to come up with reasons why these strange creatures were appearing in her dreams.  She even borrowed books from the library that explained odd dreams, but none of them satisfied what she was looking for.  To her they were just a dream.

                  The house that the Ogino’s had bought was boarded up when they arrived.  Confused, they called the agency to get an answer.  The house had been off the market for 35 years.  The owner’s never showed up on move in day and they were forced to resell it.  It was then sold to a family who accidentally started a fire inside.  One of the family members passed away and the house was put off the market.  Chihiro knew at the time why this had happened, and it was amusing to watch her parents try to figure it out.  Her father thought it was the aliens.  Her mother just yelled at the agents telling them that she would sue them for not doing their job. 

                  They found a house closer to the woods and happily moved in.  Chihiro’s father insisted that Chihiro stay inside.  But being the way she was, she constantly snuck out to walk through the woods and visit the statue in front of the Spirit World.  She would sit and talk to him until it was time to go home.  It would just stare blankly at her, but he was the only one that she could talk to about her problems and the adventures that she once had.  She tried to go back in once, but the other side was just the same woods she had come out of.  She figured that it wasn’t time for her to go back yet.  She knew that it would call her back one day. 

                  After Chihiro lost her memories, she listened to her father about staying inside.  She had no reason to leave.

                Chihiro’s parents had also been concerned when her attitude adjusted so abruptly after their short stop at the tunnel.  They noticed she was more calm and polite, and rarely threw tantrums anymore.  They made her see a therapist but Chihiro kept everything to herself.  After her memory loss, she would explain to her therapist about the dreams she was having.  They gave her medication and told her she just had a vivid imagination.  Chihiro’s parent’s did not let her go out with her friends much, so one by one her friends stopped asking to come over and she was left without many people to talk to at all.