"So lopper, how long will it take for you to run all the way back to your apartment?"
"Or calling for your daddy?"
Coraline Jones rolled her eyes at her friends. It had been awhile now since her dreadful encounter with a button eyed witch in the middle of the winter. She was much more content with life in the pink palace.
Well almost.
Sometimes she could still see the Other Mother's button eyed face looking up at her from the garden.
It was best not to dwell on those fears. She had the visit that her friends promised her when she moved away. They were quite surprised to see her enjoying the old house and her unusual neighbors.
Then again they didn't know what happened.
Back at her home in Michigan, Coraline wasn't as brave as she was now. Her friend Hannah knew only the correct way to scare her at eight years old.
She glanced down at the black cat that sat bellow her feet.
"Oh I'm not going to' run away this time guys." She said.
"Oh really?" Her other friend Chris said.
"Yep," Coraline said, "This time, I'm gonna give you guys a scare."
Hannah laughed, "Ya right, lopper. That's coming from the same girl who ran home when a Scottie dog barked at us back in Michigan? What makes you think you can scare us?"
"Well one, I live with Fink and Forcible, and no way am I afraid of those dogs, not any more at least. And second, my newest story isn't made up. It was all real."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Well, go ahead then."
"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you," Coraline said, "There was once a girl who lived in an old apartment. One that wasn't even that different then the pink palace. Any way she just moved in and wasn't really impressed with life lately. Her parents had no time for her and she was taken away from her closest friends. That's when she discovered a little door…"
The cat perked his head up.
"Now at first, the door led to nothing. But in the middle of the night it opened and she crept inside. She was in another apartment. It was just like the one left behind but every thing was better.
There were little mice that did tricks, and talking toys everywhere. Oh the greatest food you ever tasted! And she even had another mother and father.
Her Other mother was amazing."
"Wait, this story's not scary. You just made up a cute little fairy tale." Hannah said.
"Just be patient," Coraline said, "Now pretty soon the Other mother invited her to stay forever. All she had to do was sew buttons into her eyes."
The cat dashed away and the campfire they had made flickered in the wind.
"D-did she do it?"
"No, of course not. When she openly refused this to the Other mother however she was locked away into a secret chamber. There she found three ghost children-"
Coraline continued the frightening story of a beldam that threatened to sew buttons into an innocent girl's eyes. Her friends got more and more pale and wide-eyed at the description of the rats and candy monsters that attacked her.
They're heart beats became a roller coaster as they found even the hand of the beldam was after this girl in the end.
"Did it get her?" Chris asked frightened.
"No. She smashed it and threw it and the key down a well. Hasn't seen it since."
"That's good," Hannah sighed in relief, "I don't think I would have gotten to sleep for a month if she didn't-"
"But listen to this," Coraline said. The fire barely stayed lit as she got closer and closer to her friends, "I believe, but only believe, that the beldams still out there. Still looking for her next victim. Some how she'll get a kid. One day. One night. Maybe even… Tonight!"
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
The fire roared and the sound of an electric bike engine screeched loudly like thunder.
Out of the bushes popped a skeleton face riding a motorbike, the cat on its shoulder. Not recognizing the figure, Chris and Hannah screamed extremely loud.
As they screamed, Coraline laughed out loud with the figure. The skeleton face flipped up to reveal a boy with frizzed up brown hair and a long smile across his face.
"That was good Wybie," She said, "Look at em'. They're still shaking."
Hannah and Chris's faces were white from horror, unable to speak.
"So, you guys got a scary story to tell us?" Wybie asked slyly.
"N-no," Chris whimpered, "W-w-ere good for tonight."
"Ya, listen lopper were gonna pack up for tonight and we'll see ya tomorrow."
"Okay," Coraline said walking off with Wybie.
"Wybie that was awesome! I seriously didn't know they'd fall for it," Coraline said.
"No problem Jonsey," Wybie said, "I do this kind of stuff all the time. Personally I would have died for some slug action but that was good to."
"Thanks." Coraline said leaning over and gently kissing Wybie on the cheek.
"Ooooo," Said the curious Hannah who had followed them, "Coraline's in love."
"What? No I'm not!" Coraline protested with a red face.
"Coraine and Wybie sitten' in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Chris taunted.
"Shut up!" Coraline barked. Angered she chased after her friends who continued to sing joyfully. Wybie just stood there a little shocked, but amazed. His face was just about as red as Coraline's, only he smiled.
"Best Scary story ever…"