Constant Ghosts

Setting: Twenty years have passed since the events that happened at Coraline's house of her youth. Coraline goes back alone and ponders if it really happened at all. She finds help through a mysterious woman; a crossover character from another Neil Gaiman series, Sandman.

Author's note: This story is based on the book, Coraline, not the movie.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, which are the sole property of Neil Gaiman.

The place looked smaller than she remembered. The real difference was that it was entirely empty. There were no longer any residents there. It had been a lifetime since she last set foot on this same ground. Everything was to be gone by the next week. The house. The even more dilapidated tennis court. The grassy meadows. The old well. Her mother had spoken to her about its demise at her father's funeral several weeks ago.

Her real mother.

Coraline gasped at that. She never referred to her mother as her real mother since–since it happened.

The grown Coraline stood in the same spot she had twenty years ago when her family moved into the house of three flats. It looked run down now. The wood was deteriorating from termites. Windows were broken from rocks thrown at them by local children in the area. It looked used up. Vacant. It was also absent from her life for several years now. She stood in front of it remembering the times she went out and explored. Her days of exploring dwindled over time. She suddenly felt lonely in that same spot where she once stood at the age of nine. Her family became more financially stable thanks to their business, and they eventually moved away into a grand house outside of the city. Though she was raised in that grand house, it was here in this house where she grew up. That was the result of what happened.

The reality of what she did back then was clear to her at the time. It was eerie for her to believe how that clarity had faded over time. The more distance in years that stretched from it, the less she understood what had really taken place here. Was it a dream? Did she imagine her parents being trapped inside of a snow globe? Her parents had never mentioned the experience. Did it really happen?

Coraline suddenly grasped at her leg. She thought she felt something scurrying around it. The clicking filled her ears. And then it was gone. Perhaps it was just a blown twig. Or maybe–it was her other mother trying to catch her leg.

Coraline ignored it and started to walk towards the tennis court, which now looked even less like what it should be. She looked up at the house as she passed it. The Amazing Bobinsky used to live up there. He had passed on years ago, she heard. Coraline looked down at the empty stairs that led to the bottom flat. Ms. Forcible and Ms. Spink moved away not long after Mr. Bobo passed. Coraline had not heard from either of them since. She kept her pace as she neared the tennis court. Several weeds and limbs covered the court now. It was a grey day but not too windy. The natural debris stayed where it was. She reached the meadow of tall grass, which was not as tall as it was in her youth. There were several more trees on the path than she remembered. Soon, Coraline could see it over the hills of the meadow. The old well.

Memories of her special picnic she had with her dolls came flooding back. She reached the well with an almost automatic urge. She had to see it. There were numerous vines and leaves that had fallen on the opening. She started to scatter everything to one side, avoiding the insects and spiders that had made it their home. The planks that she placed over top the well were still there. The ash colored wood was weather beaten now. She began lifting the planks. She remembered them being so heavy when she was nine. The wood had somehow lost its weight over the years and she had no problem lifting it now. The wood creaked so much she felt that it might split in two. It kept its form as it flipped over onto the pile of vines that had recently covered it.

Coraline peered over the edge of the well. She saw into the blackness. It greeted her coldly even after all these years. She placed her hand on the stony edge and some pieces fell into the black. She absently counted, as she had years ago, to tell how far down the water was. On the count of twenty, she heard a faint distant splat. She guessed that there was less water down there now.

Coraline was suddenly horrified. What if she awakened the hand? It could be climbing the stone walls to come after her again. It already had the black key. It had been defeated. It wanted its revenge. She could hear the tiny clicks of the claw scurrying upward. The clicks were getting louder.

And louder.

Coraline stumbled backward in a rush of panic and fell to the ground. She quickly looked up at the top edge of the well. Nothing came out. She picked herself up and dusted her jeans off. She was compelled to go back to the well. After all, it contained the only evidence of what she did was real. She leaned over the edge with her hands on the stone wall again. She leaned over far enough that her head was into the hole.

"Don't jump in!" cried a voice at her.

Coraline was startled to hear any voice out here, and she looked up to see a woman of about her age standing opposite her across the well. She wore black jeans with a black halter top that matched her wild ebony hair. Her skin was as pale as moonlight. She wore a strange medallion around her neck. The woman stood confidently with a smile.

"Hello," greeted Coraline.

"I hope I wasn't interrupting," said the woman. "Unless you were planning to do what it looked like you were about to do, then I'm glad I interrupted."

Coraline explained, "Oh, no. Nothing of the sort. I...I just thought I heard a clicking sound coming from the well." Coraline winced at how ridiculous that had sounded.

The woman just looked inside the hole and simply said, "It seems there's nothing there now. Just ghosts and spiders."

Coraline repeated with hesitance, "Sp..spiders?"

"And ghosts. Constant ghosts. Maybe they're ghosts of spiders?"

"I used to hate spiders when I was a child. Now, I don't mind them so much. Maybe it's the ghost of the beldam."

The woman brightened. "Ah, so you heard the stories, too."

"Stories?"

"Haunted stories about that old house. There once was a beldam who was trapped there. It was said that she collected the souls of children who were unhappy with their lives. Were you unhappy as a child?"

"I thought I was. How do you know this?" questioned Coraline.

"Oh, I know everything. The more interesting question is how do you know this?"

Coraline looked back at her old house. "I used to live there once long ago."

"Ah, so you must really know the stories."

"I'd rather say that I lived the story."

"Oh, so you must be Coraline."

Coraline snapped her head back at the strange, pale woman. "Yes. Do I know you?"

"Everyone knows me eventually."

"Who are you?"

"I'm everything. And nothing. I am an agent of all things that end and begin anew. However, if you must pin a name on one of my many faces, then you can call me Didi."

"Hello, Didi. Do you live around here?"

"Not exactly. I had some business in the area, shall we say, and I came by to answer your call."

"But...I didn't say anything."

Didi put her hand on her hip and said cheerfully, "On the contrary, you could be heard from miles away. I listened and now I'm here."

"All right, then, what is it that you do, Didi?"

"I lead people to another journey."

"Their journey?"

"Their final journey. Well, at least their final one on this level."

Coraline shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You don't have to. Just know that I'm here to help you."

"Do I need help?"

"Doesn't everyone?"

"I don't know. I was just wandering around here. I haven't been back here since I was a little girl."

"And something happened," Didi stated.

"Yes," Coraline answered. "Though, I'm not quite sure it really did happen."

Didi shrugged. "Do you believe it happened?"

Coraline answered truthfully, "It felt like it did."

Didi climbed along the edge of the well and started balancing her walk around it. "If you feel that something is true then you should believe it to be true. Right?"

"I suppose."

"But, you're still afraid."

Coraline sighed. "I'm afraid that if I admit that something did happen, then something else will happen in its place. Does that sound completely mental?"

Didi jumped off the well with a girlish glee to land in front of Coraline. She answered by saying, "Not really. What exactly would you have to admit?"

"Something that sounds foolish."

"Can you see Columbus trying to convince the world that the Earth is round? Imagine how foolish he sounded to the courts of England."

Coraline considered and started to explain. "Inside that house there was a portal. It led to an alternate version of my world. It was great, at first. There was another version of my mother. She fixed me all of my favorite foods. She let me do anything I wanted. It seemed like paradise." Coraline frowned. "But there was a difference. This mother had black buttons for eyes. So did my other father. They wanted me to stay with them forever. In order to do that, I would have to allow her to sew buttons where my real eyes are, like hers." Coraline paused and said, "I refused her. The other mother was so mad at me. She confined me to the inside of a mirror. I saw the other children whom she trapped there. The other mother took their souls and hid them inside marbles. I found out that she also trapped my parents inside of a snow globe." Coraline gave an impatient growl. "See how crazy all of this sounds."

"Nonsense," said Didi. "Did your parents remember their time inside a snow globe?"

"They have no memory of it. Nobody does."

"Except you."

"Apparently."

"How did you get them back?"

Coraline smiled mischievously. "I made a deal with the other mother. If I could find the souls of the children and where my parents were hidden, she would have to let me go. But, if I couldn't find them, I would have to stay with her forever."

"But, you knew your parents were in the snow globe, right?"

"I didn't know that when I made the deal. Eventually, I did find them and the souls of the children. Even after I found them, I knew the other mother was still not going to let me go."

"What did you do?"

Coraline laughed before she gave her answer. "I threw a talking cat at her." She waited for Didi to express some degree of disbelief at that notion.

Instead, Didi simply stated, "That could happen."

Coraline cried, "You mean you believe me? I did say a talking cat."

"Well, cats are mysterious creatures. I've heard some speak in my travels, given the right alternate plane of existence. I always thought I could keep one as a pet myself. I could call it by some outlandish name, like Ebenezer or Algonquin." Didi seemed to reconsider. "Then again, it may make people think I'm a witch or something."

"I thought you already were."

"What?"

"A witch."

Didi laughed. "That's a new one. No, not quite."

"Then I still don't understand how it is you know about this. I haven't told many people about this, and the ones I have told thought I was crazy."

"And how do you suppose it looked like to me when you were leaning over the well so far?"

Coraline thought aloud, "I suppose it did look rather suspicious."

Didi pressed on. "How does this well fit in to what happened?"

Coraline moved to the edge of the well, but didn't look into it. She caressed the cold stone with her fingers as she explained. "Once I threw the cat at her, it clawed her button eyes out. I grabbed the black key to the portal door and opened it. The other mother grabbed at my feet as I shut the door and locked it. Her right hand cut off when the door closed." Coraline chuckled. "She did say that she would swear by her right hand that she would let me go. I freed everyone. The children. My parents. And myself."

"And the talking cat," supplied Didi.

"Yes, him too. Though, he never talked again. The hand of the beldam was still loose, though. I had the black key that opened the portal. It wanted it back. I couldn't let that happen. I had to do something. I went to get a tablecloth from my real mother. I brought my dolls and I placed them at each corner on the tablecloth over top this hole of the well. I placed the key directly in the middle. It eventually came for the key." Coraline closed her eyes. "I can still hear the clicking of its hand coming for it. It jumped and grabbed for the key, but it fell into the well. It took a while to hear the distant splash. I knew it was gone. I covered the well up and no one was the wiser."

"And it's haunted you ever since," Didi stated. "You poor thing."

Coraline wiped away the evidence of a tear forming in her eye. "It wasn't so bad. I knew I won."

"But nobody ever believed you."

Coraline sighed. "I tried to tell doctors later on. They called it a childhood delirium brought on by moving in a new place. So, I had forgotten the events that happened here. Soon, the memory of the reality evolved into a dream." Coraline sighed and looked about the area. "By next week, all of this will be gone. There will be no evidence of anything I did. No acknowledgment. No assurance that it wasn't a dream." A sudden thought hit her and she looked directly at Didi. "But, that's why you're here. Isn't it?"

Didi held up her right hand and said, "Guilty. Like I said, I answered your call for help. You have held onto the knowledge of what you did here without anyone believing you for so long that it started to eat at you from the inside." She sat on the edge of the well and she continued in a cheery voice, "And that is why I'm here, Coraline. To assure you that what you did here did, in fact, happen. See, I couldn't reach the children when they were trapped. The beldam had them hidden. Technically, I couldn't go to her to fetch them. But, you found them and your parents, and escaped from it all on your own. Not many can say that when they up against a powerful creature like that."

"What was she?"

"Oh, a nasty thing that got loose from another realm. My brother tried to contain her, but it found a way to wreak havoc anyway. And you stopped it." She spread out her arms. "Bravo! You took it's greatest strength and turned it back on itself as a weapon. And you defeated it only because you had to. And that was definitely the right thing to do. You are quite the clever one." Didi paused and gently stated, "Your father knew that."

Coraline blinked and asked, "You knew my father?"

"Of course. I led him to his next journey. He was sad to leave you and your mother, as people will be when I greet them. But, he was so proud of you." Didi stood back up on the edge and she was now carrying a black umbrella. She faced the opening of the well but angled her head back at Coraline. "As you should be proud of yourself."

Coraline wondered, "Did you have that umbrella somewhere all this time?"

"It was somewhere. I never go anywhere without it. There is no sunlight in my realm. And being here, even with the gray clouds, is very bright."

Coraline ultimately knew. She had a frightening thought. "Is it my time to go on my next journey?"

"Oh, Heavens no, dear. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I could help. Sometimes people need to be heard and believed. No, you have plenty of time to go on this journey."

"Well, when my time comes, I'll keep a look out for you."

"Don't look too hard. Until next time, Coraline Jones. Toodles!" Didi raised her hand in a frantic wave. Then, she jumped into the well.

Coraline gasped at the sudden move and she ran to the edge. "Didi!" Coraline looked into the blackness again. There was no sign of Didi. There was no distant splash. Yet, there was also no sound of clicking. The darkness no longer bore into her. The ghosts were gone. Coraline stared back at the darkness with a new found determination. It was a defiance that she had always possessed, but lost somewhere along the years.

Coraline walked away smiling. She didn't bother putting the planks back on top of the well. It would all be gone by next week anyway. Nothing could harm her again. Someone believed her. And that was enough.

She muttered as she walked along the grassy meadow for the last time, "Thank you, Didi."

The End