I do hereby disclaim, disclaim disclaim. Hayao Miyazaki owns everything.

Prologue

Empty Dreams

Chihiro was walking in a daze, this place was all too familiar and yet unknown. The dust stirred beneath her feet as she walked, but somehow she could not feel the ground. The sun was beginning to set and she still couldn't remember how she had gotten here. Where was here? Realizing that she hadn't bothered to pay attention to her surroundings was strange; as though her thoughts were a paper plane floating in a fog, slow and soggy, drifting lower and lower into her consciousness. Ghostly black forms, street venders, would come to take their places behind the food stands on either side of her once the world grew dark. She knew that when the market signs lit, and the place awoke, the shadows would stir, and she would have to run.

"Why do I know that?" she thought. Unsure as to whether she was psychic, or living in a long lost forgotten memory, she continued to walk unheeded to the bridge she knew was up the hill; the pretty red bridge that led…to the bathhouse. Something was off, the bathhouse wasn't churning steam; it looked vacant and cold. The paint had peeled, and even from this distance she could see that many of the paper walls had disintegrated, the windows were broken. The once stately, welcoming bathhouse was left in a mess of disarray and disuse. As Chihiro came upon the bridge her stomach churned. She knew where she was now. In the same nightmare she had had on occasion for the past month since returning home. Even though she knew she was dreaming she couldn't fight it. Her body crossed the bridge anyway.

The white scaled dragon came tearing out of the bathhouse, eyes glowing dangerously, fangs, whiskers, scales and claws tainted with dried blood. "Save us!" it seemed to roar, before collapsing in a heap at her feet. With a jolt, Chihiro careened out of her bed and onto the carpet. Sweat dampened her brow, and her heart thudded in her ears. Already the dream had begun to fade away, and just like all the other times, she couldn't remember why she had woken up on the floor.