Coraline was too late. She was just too late.
The moon had been fully covered, and now she was out of time. She only found two of the eyes of the ghost children, and she had yet to find her parents. The Cat had gone running after one of the rats with the last eye, but even as he brought it back to her he was too late. It was time for Coraline to come to terms with her bet and let the Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes. After all, that was the promise should she fail. Coraline wept slightly at the thought of losing her eyes; it was as if the Other Mother was taking away her life.
"It can't be…" she sobbed, "It's not fair, I found it, it's right there…"
The Cat approached her, with a rat in his mouth; the same rat that had ruined Coraline's chance at freedom. "You know, if you're quick enough you may be able to get past her and go back home."
Coraline sighed furiously, tears coming harder, "There's no use! She'll just catch me again, take me, and do whatever she can to make sure I stay here where she can watch me."
"Right you are, my dear!" hissed a voice that Coraline despised. The Other Mother, now with the appearance of a deformed spider, approached Coraline cunningly with a sickeningly sweet smile from her needle mouth. "Now you're mine, and never again can you escape!" With every word, her tongue hissed with excitement and menace.
"You…" Coraline wept angrily, "You're a monster!" If she were inside, Coraline would have thrown something at the Other Mother. Hopefully, this would have been a distraction so she could have some time to plan a Plan B.
The Other Mother only smiled more, sending a chill down Coraline's spine. She used one of her needlepoint fingers to stroke Coraline's cheek, "We better go inside if we're going to get along, Coraline. I guarantee you, you'll be having a lot more fun once you listen to me…"
With that, the hand made it's way to Coraline's own youthful hand, which glowed with pure innocence. She made a scratch across the palm as she pulled Coraline forcibly towards the house, which was now decaying slightly, much like Coraline's hope. The Cat also followed, in its mouth a small ball with a star, which now meant nothing to Coraline. Once they were in the dark and cold living room, the Other Mother led Coraline to sit down on the couch whilst she sat at the throne of the room, taking the box with the needle and two button eyes with pride.
"Now, Coraline, would you like to show me your little collection before we get to business?" she snarled reluctantly.
Without hesitation, Coraline took out two of the three eyes from her bag. She also took note of the Cat beside her, who put his share on the table. A tear made its way down Coraline's cheek as she saw the three eyes sitting there hopelessly.
I never saved you, she thought.
As she looked at the three balls, the Other Mother grew an invisible smirk as she thought of would she could do. She took the balls straight from the table with no mercy, "My, my, Coraline. It seems that you collected all three eyes." As if rehearsed, the Other Mother sounded as miserable and speechless as she could.
Coraline perked up slightly, "So can I go?"
The Other Mother could only laugh at such a stupid question, "Of course not, my dear! I may be holding all of the eyes I asked you to get, but you were too late, so alas, you lost, my dear!"
Coraline drew back again, "You cheated." She said bluntly, hiding rage to avoid any more pain than she was going to get, "You made sure I didn't win! No matter what you say, I still won!"
"Oh, but we also said that you had to find your parents in order to be set free, and you didn't even do that right, did you?" the Other Mother gleefully added, "You've let everyone down Coraline. First, it was your parents when you had them, then it was Wybie, and now you've let these three innocent souls down, as well as your parents again!"
"You killed Wybie!"
"Yes, but he could never love you as much as I do." The Other Mother carelessly dropped the balls on the floor and made her way slowly to the couch, "I'm the only one you need to love you, Coraline, for I can make your dreams come true."
"Then let me go." From out of nowhere, Coraline felt the strength to fight back, "Let go of my parents, let the ghost children go, and leave us all alone!"
"I'm sorry, Coraline, but that is the one thing I cannot give you." The Other Mother said, as she made her way to the fireplace, and picked up a snowglobe carefully. She then made her way back to her throne, "But I will give you another try. Tell me where your parents are. If you guess right, I will set you free, and if you are wrong, you are mine forever."
Coraline felt her parent's presence in the room. She felt the courage to speak up for herself. She turned to the Cat, whose eyes fixated on the door. She turned to face the door and pondered on whether or not they were there. Could her parents have been set free while she was out finding the eyes? She nodded at her thought and turned to the Other Mother with a smile of bravery.
"They're behind that door." She pointed over to the door.
The Other Mother looked blankly at Coraline for two seconds before cracking a smile, causing Coraline's lips to shrink in fear. She started to choke until she spat out the button key, before proceeding to creep over to the door with the key and the globe and began to unlock it. The door opened to reveal only a dusty and empty tunnel, with no end.
"I'm sorry to say that you're wrong as usual, Coraline." The Other Mother grinned as she crept back to the throne, "You should have thought that one through."
"But I did. I-" Before she could object, Coraline saw a faint glow in the snowglobe, which she realized was fogged up for the first time.
The Other Mother caught notice of Coraline's fresh, moving eyes and held the snowglobe close, "But it's too bad you don't get a third chance, dear." With those words in Coraline's mind, she effortlessly tightened her grip on the snowglobe, effectively shattering it immediately, and killing the glow.
Coraline felt herself shrink back down on the couch, her bones growing tired of the weight pushed upon them. She only had a blank look of shock, "You…" she lifted a finger to point at the deformed spider with fear, "You KILLED them!"
"Oh, Coraline," the Other Mother simply giggled menacingly, "Of course I did. But why should you care? They never cared about you. I saw what they did; they ignored you! I can make you happy. I can give you what you want. That's why I need you to have these buttons sewn on your eyes, my dear; to prove you love your mother." She used her needles to point to herself, sensing that Coraline may question her if she didn't..
"You're not my mother," Coraline stated fearfully as she grabbed the Cat and stroked it; he was equally frightened as she was.
"But I am, Coraline. I'll be your mother for as long as you live." the Other Mother made a grab for the box, and admiringly stared at the needle, "Now come here sweetie, this will only hurt a little…"
Coraline unwillingly approached, staring into the creature's malicious button eyes, "You're lying."
The Other Mother simply shrugged with her short shoulders, "Ah, well. Maybe you should have listened to me sooner. You would have saved your parents' lives if you did."
Soon later, Coraline had her eyes replaced with buttons. They felt strange to her, and the world around her felt different. It felt…happier. The Other Mother must have changed the world now that she had obliged to the one thing she had requested. The one, horrible thing she requested. But despite having the "dream world" back, Coraline could never forgive the beast for what she had done; after all, she had killed all those that meant something to her in order to be loved.
A pure skinned hand came away from Coraline's eyes, "You OK, Coraline?" The Other Mother asked. Coraline looked over her in uncertainty, She looked exactly how she did the first time she met her: exactly like her mother, and perfect at everything… And the world around her; it looked exactly like the world she thought she once knew. The one thing the Other Mother seemed to want from Coraline was the one thing she could not show through acts of kindness: love. But now that she had restored everything, Coraline was put off-track.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She sighed as she frowned at the thought of her button eyes, which she could no longer see in front of her, as they were a part of her, "But please don't come anywhere near me…" she backed away nervously.
"Oh, Coraline, sweetie," The Other Mother kept moving towards her, causing Coraline to keep moving backwards, "Now you're one of us, you can have all the fun you want."
"N-no…" Coraline tried to resist as she backed into a closet, which she didn't recall being in that spot before, "You're gonna kill me... just please, don't come near me…"
But the Other Mother wouldn't move away, "Oh, silly girl! You're going to love it here like you did before."
Coraline was at edge. She needed to talk to someone else, but unfortunately, everything else was killed, except… "Where's the cat?" she asked, her body tensing slightly less, "I want to be with him."
The Other Mother smirked for the first time in a long while, "I'm afraid he's no longer here…"
"What?! N-no…you didn't…"
"Oh, but I did!" the smirk remained on the woman's face, "Want to see it?"
Gently placing her soft hands on Coraline's shoulders, the Other Mother lightly shifted Coraline to the right, in which a plaque was placed on the wall. Coraline didn't remember the plaque being there before, and on that plaque was something black, with hints of red smothered along the board of the plaque. Coraline felt queasy as her body tensed with fear once again.
"You…but why?" Coraline gulped, with a lack of words.
"I don't take cats lightly." The Other Mother walked off into the living room again, "They're just a nuisance. They like to do nothing but annoy people, especially this one." She picked up the empty box and placed it on the fireplace mantel, "Come on, dear, I'll make dinner soon, but in the meantime we can go play in the mud."
Coraline wanted to cry, but with no actual eyes to cry, her face began to dry, causing her to feel weak, as if her life was being sucked out of her.
"No…" Coraline whispered as quietly as her mouth and mind would let her.
"No? No what?"
"I refuse to be with you! I should have never let you sew these...things…into me! I want my real mother back! I want my real father back! I want Wybie back and I want the Cat back!"
"Coraline…" The Other Mother began as her face once again looked vicious, "You can go to your room."
Coraline made no objection, for it was a chance to be away from the woman. She ran up the stairs, her face drying up faster, and sobbed tearlessly into her pillow. She was stuck here, and that was something she was forced to comply with. But she knew, deep down somewhere in her chest, she couldn't live on with the Other Mother.
This is what she wants. She wants me to love her so she can kill me.
But Coraline couldn't do anything; she couldn't object. The Other Mother would clearly see her as a threat, and she didn't want that. She wanted the authority. She wanted to be feared. She ate the fear like a train eats coal; it was her source of eternal power.
There's no way to escape. She finally won.
Coraline then got an idea. It was probably one of the worst ideas she ever had, but it was for the best. It may cost her her own life, but she was ready for anything. As long as she was out of the Other Mother's grasp, she would be happy to do it.
Maybe…I should end my own life.
She shivered in disgust at the words that lingered in her mind. They were here to stay, and they looked glorious. But Coraline continued to contemplate her own thoughts. If she did kill herself, would it be worth it? Was it better for her to kill herself for the sake of saving herself, or should she die for the Other Mother by letting her win? Coraline shook her head at her options.
Let's get this over with.
Immediately pausing her train of thought, Coraline freely got up from her bed and ran downstairs. As soon as she reached the bottom, she carefully sneaked to the living room door and, upon spying though the small gap left open, she could see the Other Mother, looking at the dead cat's body with a gleefully calculating expression.
Now was the golden opportunity.
Coraline snuck into the kitchen as quietly as she could, and saw that everything within was as spectacular as it was when she had first seen the Other Mother. Oh, what a memory. A happy memory. A memory that would lead to eventual deceit.
She scoured through the kitchen, quietly opening the drawers in hopes of finding a knife worthy of the deed. Eventually, she came to finding a butcher's knife just placed by a few neatly stacked bowls. Coraline grasped the knife in her hand intensely, her palms sweating with pure fear.
It only took a short moment of catching her breath for the button-eyed girl to piece through her chest with the knife, where it stayed firmly planted. Blood began to spatter from the child, latching itself to any nearby surface. While it was painful, Coraline did try to use the rest of the lifespan left to keep quiet, just in case the Other Mother came in and prevented her death somehow through magic. Who knew what she was capable of.
But if Coraline's soul managed to escape without the Beldam's interruptions, then she would be unable to bring the child back to life.
Coraline's eyes shut.
The deed was done.
Coraline found herself within a strange realm. It glowed magnificent colors, namely blue and gold, with millions of stars glistening in the far off distance. She felt as if she was walking on air on the almost clear surface at her feet.
She noticed her feet were golden. And so were her legs. In fact, she was entirely golden. Coraline couldn't have been alive, oh no. She still had the vivid image of blood spouting out from her chest.
This couldn't have been one of the Other Mother's tricks, could it?
The environment suddenly started to shift, the colors moving about, and the floor solidifying itself. Coraline still felt no surface beneath her, but her seemingly-restored eyes widened in shock as she recognized the room that had just formed.
My bedroom...
Not the one the Other Mother conjured up for her. Her bedroom. With the white-washed walls and the simple blanket over a mattress.
She was home.
"Coraline!"
That voice was familiar.
Despite her gathering doubts, Coraline flew out of the room to follow the voice. She was amazed at how everything seemed to look just like the old house. Her house.
The one she truly belonged in.
Coming to the kitchen, Coraline opened the door to find a familiar figure – albeit golden – cooking in the kitchen. The girl felt a strong pang of sadness and joy simultaneously hit her deep inside, which inclined her to latch herself to the hips of the woman. The woman she knew as her mother.
"Mom!" she exclaimed, tears slowly going down her cheeks. She realized that she must have been in Heaven, and her parents must have died beforehand, "Oh, Mom, I'm so sorry I…"
While her daughter was blubbering, Mel simply calmed her down by planting a kiss on her head, and rubbing her back slowly, "Oh, Coraline…you did your best, sweetie. That's all we could ever ask of you. Thank you."
Coraline remained in her mother's arms for a while longer. She had forgotten the last time she had hugged her mother – her true mother – like this before.
"There's a surprise for you outside." Mel told her after a minute, "Just outside."
Coraline sniffed and made her way to the front door. Honestly, she had no idea what the surprise was, and was questioning if she truly did deserve a surprise. But when she opened the door, Coraline found three children standing before her, all golden like her. One was a tall girl, another was a boy, and the third was a shorter girl.
The Ghost Children.
"We should thank you for your efforts," the short girl began.
"But why?" Coraline asked, "I didn't…I thought that…"
"Once you took your own life," the tall girl elaborated, "The Other Mother was in a state of crisis. Of course, you figured that she feeds from our souls and youth, but as you lost it yourself through death, you brought it with you to the Heavens you see before you."
"We figure that there was a curse brought upon that world, involving the Beldam," the boy added, "And you broke this curse when you resisted its charm."
"She sewed the buttons in your eyes. She had sealed the deal." The tall girl continued.
"You were officially a part of her world, but your self-sacrifice put the situation in jeopardy, and now the Beldam is no more." The short girl finished, "We also figure that since she has now disappeared for eternity, with no chance of returning to either the world we left behind or the afterlife, we were freed as well."
"So, is she gone?" Coraline asked as she was then met with silent nods. She felt a large wave of relief go through her entire body. While she was no longer living, she still felt rejuvenated and alive.
"Come." The boy beckoned her by extending his hand, a warm smile forming on his face, which was complimented greatly by his eyes, "Let us go play."
Coraline graciously took his hand in hers as the four children went off to play in the sunny field, as a golden cat watched them from atop the roof.