A Face Among the Crowd [SPIRITED AWAY FANFIC]

Chapter 1

I picked my head up from the cold, hard desk that was unforgivingly not my pillow. Lately, I've been falling asleep in a lot of my classes. Probably attributed to the nightmares I keep having that cause restless sleep.

My physics teacher kept droning on and on; a never ending stream of unrelenting equations that we were supposed to memorize for tomorrow's quiz. Yeah right, like that was going to happen. Mary Calamité (that's me) hates physics. Like, I hate it with a passion of burning fire and hell's inferno.

I let my eyes droop back down and fell into a light sleep, evoking the power of a dream.

I was sitting ramrod straight in bed, listening to the footsteps on the stairs. The passed my door and kept heading on down the hall, eventually reaching my parent's room.

I heard their door squeak open, and the crash of something heavy hitting the wood floor. My hands began to shake as I slowly stood up from my seated position and edged my way towards my own entrance; terrified of what I might see.

I saw a flickering light come from their bedroom, which I rushed towards in record time. The door was already swinging on its hinges.

There, on the floor lay my father with opened eyes and an outstretched palm reaching for my lifeless mother. Nothing moved in the deathly quiet room except for the breeze coming in through the window.

Hoping to figure out who did this, I stepped over my father's body and ran to the window. Peering out, I noticed a misshapen figure trotting towards the tree line.

It was large, so grotesquely large it reached the second floor of my house. It was oozing brown earth onto the ground. Rocks lay in between its misshapen shoulders and for eyes there were only sunken in wholes.

It vanished into the night air, taking with it the life from my parents.

I awoke to the clanging of the bell, signifying the day's end.

I stretched out and frowned at my misfortune, realizing what had just come to pass in my nightmare had truly happened to my family little over three months ago.

Yes, my parents were slaughtered by "people unknown" in the dead of night just a month before my junior year of high school started.

As I walked away from my not so comfy desk, I waved goodbye to Lea and John the local lovebirds, whispering near the door. I sighed as I recall Lea's best friend leaving school suddenly last month.

I might not have been best friends with Chihiro, but she was always a great person to study with before tests.

I slowed my pace as I made head way to my locker, fighting the oncoming traffic of students pounding to get out of school on a Friday. I sighed as I slipped the rest of my books into my bag, full to the brim with awaiting homework.

I could see my best friend's bright red hair walking (because it stood out in the crowd among brunettes and blondes) towards me but I was in no mood to talk so I just took off down the halls. Lavi was the book warm of the school, constantly reading like his life depended on it. Other than his red hair, he always covered up one of his eyes with something… like his disheveled hair, an eye patch (he's crazy, I know), or glasses.

I continued my path down the walk of school and into the front yard. I had no car because with my parents death most of the money went towards my future and the not the present. So I was stuck with walking.

Instead of just heading home like my initial plan, I stopped at the local smoothie shop. I sat there alone reading a manga titled D. Gray-Man but soon finished my drink and decided to head home where an empty house lay.

I continued down the road, avoiding cracks as I sang the old children's rhyme "If you step on a crack, you break your mother's back. If you step on a line, you break your father's spine." But I had no worry of this ever coming true again.

All of a sudden a car came out of the fog, careening into me since I hadn't paid attention and stepped into the road to avoid another line.

But just before I was swirled into a Mary Smoothie, warm hands enveloped my waist and pulled me to safety.

I gasped as I fell into the man holding me. His arms and chest were just so strong and manly. Oh my gosh, what am I thinking? This guy just saved me!

"Thank you so much!" I whirled around to face my hero. Staring back at me were the darkest, saddest eyes I had ever seen. He had to bend down to peer at me though; he had to be over 6'5 at least.

His black hair covered his forehead and reached the back of his neck, curling slightly at the ends. He was lean and muscular; the perfect body type for a man. But he couldn't be older than 18.

"Just helping out," and with that he turned his back to me and walked away, leaving me at the side of the road.

But before he left I noticed a glimmer in his eyes that wasn't there before. Something like hope.