This is my first Coraline fic. I shamelessly admit it was inspired by "Coraline Remake" and "Another Coraline Remake" (ACN now deleted). I am doing my best to not rip off them. At the time I started this I had not read the book, so this is based completely off the movie.
Coraline is 11, almost 12; Katie is 15, almost 16. I made their birthdays close to each other, and the story takes place during an unseasonably warm January. I try and update when I finish a chapter. Just don't expect a regular schedule.
I own Katie and the bits of story that are mine. Everything else belongs to Neil Gaiman, Henry Selick, and all those people. And yes, I left the prologue off. It just felt awkward when I was writing it.
Chapter 1: Teal and Yellow, Black and Blue
A black cat with blue eyes watched from the underbrush as a green moving van pulled away from the pink house that held the "Pink Palace Apartments." The top and lower levels were occupied, but someone had just moved into the ground floor.
He heard a creak and turned. A door at the side of the house had opened. A young girl stepped out and looked around. Her hair was bobbed and an odd shade of blue that somehow fit, and there was a dragonfly-shaped barrette at one side. Her eyes were light brown and she wore a yellow raincoat and yellow boots, and black-and-white striped pants. Several inches of a pink dress stuck out below her coat. A pink-violet messenger bag was slung over her right shoulder. She looked excited to be outside in the misty air, and for a moment it seemed she was about to leap down the stairs.
Then she frowned and looked back into the house.
"Come on, Katie!" she said impatiently.
"Give me a sec, Coraline," another voice said crossly. "I have to tie my shoes, remember? Ah...there!" There was a double thud and an exclamation as someone stood up.
Another girl came out and shut the door behind her. She reached back to her neck and pulled two long black braids out of her teal raincoat, then bent down to slip rubber covers onto her sneakers. She wore jeans instead of pants, and her coat was cut differently than the other girl's, allowing her green sweater to show through a v-neck. Since she was a few years older than her sister, it wasn't surprising to see that she was several inches taller. She smiled down at the younger girl, black eyes sparkling.
"Lead on, O Great Explorer." Even though Katie Jones was the elder, she enjoyed watching her sister's enthusiastic adventurousness and was content to follow her—at least, every so often.
The blue-haired girl led the way down the stairs and to the gate of an oddly shaped garden, rocky and bare. A large bush with red leaves grew next to the gate, and she reached into the center and pulled out a forked branch. She plucked a few extra leaves off and held one end of the fork in each hand, and closed her eyes, waiting for something.
"Well, not so sure I believe in it, but that's one way to find a well," Katie murmured to herself, quietly enough that her sister couldn't hear her. Coraline turned and began to jog through the garden, Katie behind her. The cat slunk out of the bush and silently followed them.
The girls opted not to use the bridge in the center of the stony garden, but instead ran along the wall of the empty pond. They left the garden and went up the twisting path on the steep hill behind. When they were high above the house, the cat looked over a group of rocks on the hillside and dislodged a few small stones. It leaped down out of view.
The noise made by the rocks caught the girls' attention, and they stopped and looked up. They saw only tall pines against the sky and a pile of rocks in the middle of grass that was brown and yellow and green.
"Hello?" Katie said.
No answer.
"Who's there?" Coraline called.
Still no answer. The two girls looked at each other.
"Hm." Katie bent down and picked up one of the small stones that had fallen. She hurled it upwards, and it bounced off a rock before falling down behind it. A angry snarl erupted, and the girls gasped. They took off running farther up the path. As they disappeared beyond a bend, the cat poked its head up and watched them.
The two girls ran down a hill and into an old apple orchard, throwing fearful glances over their shoulders. As they ran past it, an old wagon bounced and a few old apples fell off. They finally slowed down at the top of a little rise, where there were an old stump and a ring of mushrooms. Coraline didn't notice she had stopped inside the ring. They stood there breathing heavily and looking anxiously around.
Something rustled the grass behind them, and both spun with double gasps. Since their backs were to the stump, they didn't see when the cat which had been following them leaped onto it. It meowed loudly.
Katie and Coraline screamed and whipped around, Coraline dropping her rod. They stopped when they saw it was only a house-size cat and not something larger and more dangerous. The cat stretched.
"You scared us to death!" Katie exclaimed crossly.
"You mangy thing," Coraline added, picking her rod back up and taking her bag off. She tossed it several feet forward. "We're just looking for an old well. Know it?"
The cat blinked and bowed its head.
"Not talking, huh?" said Coraline.
The cat was silent. Katie smiled.
Coraline shrugged. "Fine, then." She lifted her rod and closed her eyes, spinning slowly in a circle. "Magic dowser, magic dowser, show me...the well!" she shouted.
A loud air horn blew in the pine stand at the top of the hill behind them. Both girls jumped and spun towards the sound. In the trees a grotesque figure with three glowing green eyes in a skull reared up on a motorbike. Lightning flashed, thunder cracked, and the engine revved. Katie and Coraline gasped and the cat's eyes went wide. The figure zoomed down the irregular dirt hill in a series of zigzags, pedaling quickly. It headed straight for Coraline, pulling a wheelie on the way.
"Aii yi yi!" Katie yelled, jumping back.
"Aaaahhh!" Coraline screamed, holding her dowsing rod up like a baseball bat. The cat leaped off the stump. "Get away from me!"
The figure sped past her, a skeleton hand reaching out and grabbing hold of the rod as Coraline tried to swing at the figure. Her grip held for a moment and she was jerked backwards, stumbling. Then it broke and she fell into the mud, still inside the ring of mushrooms. As the figure passed the stump it leaped up off the bike, which tipped to one side. The figure landed solidly and immediately climbed up on the stump, still holding the rod. There was more thunder and lightning as it turned a crank on the side of its head, causing its eyes to rotate while Coraline fearfully got to her feet. Mud stuck to her raincoat.
The two girls stared up at the figure, trembling in fright as its eyes rotated several times. Then they blinked out and the figure tossed its head up. Coraline and Katie stared as the skull and eyes became a mask with three different length microscope lenses that came down over the face like a visor. The skeleton hands were gloves, and the crank turned the lenses. The figure wore jeans, and a black shin-length fireman's coat with silver stripes at the knees, chest, and mid- and upper-forearms. The collar stuck up in the back. On its feet were what appeared to be old brown lace-up shoes that were too big for the feet. When the mask flew up, instead of a monster they saw a boy of about Coraline's age, with skin the color of hot chocolate with a lot of milk and brown eyes.
He waved the rod around in various different positions of examination and cocked his head at them. "Ooh. Let me guess. You're from Texas or Utah, someplace dried-out and barren, right?" They stared at him, and he continued. "I heard about 'water witching' before, but it doesn't make sense." He shook the rod in one hand. "I mean, it's just an ordinary branch."
"It's a dowsing rod," Coraline snapped, striding forward. She slapped the boy's knee hard.
"Owww!" The mask slipped back down over his face and he let go of the rod, hopping on one foot and rubbing his knee. Coraline leaped into the air and caught it. The boy pulled his mask off and threw it to one side, revealing curly brown hair that stuck out from his head on both sides. It almost made him look like he was wearing a very short, very narrow-brimmed sombrero. The cat leaped up onto the stump.
"And we don't like being stalked, not by psycho nerds, or their cats!" Coraline tilted her head until it was nearly perpendicular to the ground, imitating the cat.
"He's not really my cat," said the boy. "He's kind of feral. You know, wild?" He waved his hands in the air and then went down on one knee to pet the cat. "Of course, I do feed him every night, and sometimes he'll come to my window and bring me little dead things." He smiled as the cat leaped off the stump.
Katie rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Look. We're from Pontiac."
"Huh?" said the boy, looking down at her.
"Michigan?" Katie clarified.
"Yeah," added Coraline. "And if I'm a 'water witch,' then where's the secret well?" She stamped one foot.
"You stomp too hard and you'll fall in it!" He pointed at the mushroom ring.
Coraline looked down. "Oh!" She jumped out of the ring.
The boy leaped down from the stump and scraped away some of the dirt inside the ring. "See?" He knocked on the exposed wood and there was a hollow thudding. "It's supposed to be so deep, if you fell to the bottom and looked up, you'd see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day."
"Cool," said Katie with interest.
The boy placed a stick over a rock and inserted the end of the stick under the cover of the well. He pushed his foot down on it and the cover came up with a creak, causing all the dirt in the ring to slide away. He removed the stick and the cover fell back into place. Katie and Coraline got down to look at it.
"'m surprised she let you move in," the boy commented, looking at the pink house down below. "My grandma? She owns the Pink Palace. Won't rent to people with kids."
Katie looked up. "What do you mean?"
"We—w—well, I'm not supposed to talk about it," the boy stammered. "I'm Wybie. Wybie Lovat." He shook hands with both girls.
"Wybie?" said Coraline.
"Short for Wyborne," said Wybie, shrugging. "Not my idea, of course. What'd you two get saddled with?"
Katie rolled her eyes. "We weren't 'saddled' with anything. I'm Katie."
"And I'm Coraline."
Wybie was chasing the cat around. "Katie and Caroline what?"
"Coraline!" the younger girl said in frustration. She stamped her foot. "Katie and Coraline Jones."
"Hm," said Wybie, as he caught up to the cat and bent down to pet it. "It's not very scientific, but I heard that an ordinary name like Katie or Caroline can lead people to have ordinary expectations about a person."
"Nnnhh."
Katie looked at her sister. "Oh, great, here we go again with the name thing," she muttered.
"Wyborne!"
Katie, Coraline, and the cat all looked up. The voice had come out of the distance.
"I think I heard someone calling you, Wyborne," Katie remarked.
"What? I—I—I didn't hear anything."
"And you say that while you're wringing your hands and looking around nervously?" Coraline pointed out flatly. "Nice try. Oh, I definitely heard someone, Why-Were-You-Born."
"Wyborne!"
Wybie blinked fearfully and swallowed hard. "Grandma!" he whispered. He chuckled uncomfortably and picked up his mask, and set his bicycle upright. "Well, great to meet a Michigan water witch and her sister."
Coraline glared at him, thumping her rod into her hand like it was a weapon she was waiting to use.
Wybie put the mask on and climbed onto his bike. "But...I'd wear gloves next time."
"Why?" asked Katie.
"Cause that dowsing rod of hers?" he said to the older girl, gesturing to Coraline. "It's, ah, poison oak."
"Aaah!" Coraline yelped, dropping the stick like it was on fire and frantically wiping her hands on her raincoat. Katie stifled a giggle.
Wybie pulled his mask down and quickly pedaled off down the hill and out of sight. Coraline looked after him and stuck her tongue out. The cat looked up at her, shook its head, and ran off.
"What a jerk."
"Oh, I don't know," Katie chuckled. "I think you just might end up liking him."
"Eww, Katie!" Coraline jumped at her sister and they both fell into the mud. "That's disgusting!"
"Is not."
"Is too!"
"Is not."
"Is too!"
Katie laughed again as they rolled over, getting mud in each other's hair. "Corrie, you should have seen some of the 'happy couples' at my school. They were totally disgusted by each other at first."
"Shut up, Katie-Kat!"
After a few more tussles, they finally got up and stared at each other. "Oh, man," Coraline groaned. "Mom's gonna be so mad. She'll probably make us wash our own clothes. And our hair. Outside. With the hose and bar soap. Even though it's January."
"But even if she did, you still wouldn't feel sorry about tackling me in the mud, now would you?" Katie said, eyes dancing.
A sly grin crept onto Coraline's face. "No, I wouldn't. And since the clothes are gonna have to get washed anyway..."
"Oh no you don't," Katie said, backing away. "I am quite dirty enough for one day—ahh!" She took off running back to the Pink Palace, Coraline behind her and reaching out to grab her, both girls laughing their heads off.
