"All clear?" Coraline Jones whispered to Wyborne "Wybie" Lovat, as they both peered around a corner hoping not to see Coraline's mother or father.
"Clear." They tiptoed down the hall, backpack clad and tense. Coraline had her cat around her neck, and hoped that it would not meow or jump away. Once outside the front door they fist bumped and got onto Wybie's motorcycle. "Ready?" Wybie asked, handing Coraline a helmet, "Ready." She pulled it on and they rode quickly away.
In a sense they were running away. In another they were adventure seeking, without consult from parents or guardians. Coraline and Wybie had had an adventure before, with Coraline's "other-mother" who had tried to kidnap her and sew buttons on her eyes. Though it was terrifying it had given them a sense of, well, adventure. And they wanted more. So they began to form a plan; Coraline's parents were extremely busy with their work and Wybie's grandmother was getting older and older, so they each told their family that the other had invited them on a month-long trip to a cabin by the sea.
Thankfully they had all believed it.
So that brought them here; riding through the dark on a motor cycle hoping to find some "adventure". After about 12 miles of riding they found a rest stop and stopped,
"So Jonsey, where we headed?" Wybie asked sipping a soda he had bought from a vending machine.
"Well I was thinking..." She paused and unzipped her backpack, pulling out a map, "here."
Wybie leaned over and read the text by the small dot Coraline was pointing at...
"Gravity...Falls."
"Yep! It's apparently home to lots of weird anomalies. Plus we can easily hide there because it's kinda hard to find. Surrounded by woods,"
"Um, hate to burst your bubble Jonsey...but I've heard that most of the 'weird anomalies' were just hoaxes, drummed up by some con artist."
"that's just what they want you to think! I bet there's some crazy conspiracies and all that there!"
Wybie shook his head, "Probably not, but I trust you, so we'll go." Coraline blushed, "Okay."
They traced the map from where they were to Gravity falls, calculating it would take about 2 hours they set off; hoping to reach their destination before sunset.
Just a mile from gravity falls Coraline began to drift off, leaning against Wybie for support. Wybie, who had had two sodas and a hot cocoa at one of the rest stops, was in no danger of falling asleep.
After a few minutes of peaceful slumber, Coraline began to dream, not the kind of frolic-through-the-meadow-look-it's-a-rainbow dream but a nightmare, It started out with her and Wybie and a few other kids searching for something in the woods, they had all split into pairs but she hadn't ended up with Wybie. The girl she had ended up with showed no concern for what was at stake, what was at stake? Coraline wondered, as her dreams self pushed aside a rock. An explosion shook the entire scene, the girl, Coraline's 'partner' screamed something like, "DIPPING, NORMAL!" as they ran.
Coraline was also screaming, names she thought, but she could only make out the words, "WYBIE, RAZ, LILL-" before another explosion threw them forward, the sheer amount of force from the explosion immediately knocked the other girl out.
Coraline woke up, "RUN" she screamed before realizing where she was, "Wybie! Stop!" The brakes screeched as they pulled over and Coraline hopped of hoping to catch her breath.
"What was all that?" Wybie demanded, "We could have crashed."
"I had a nightmare, Wyborne. What's your excuse? That driving was atrocious!" Coraline said pissed at her friend, "and anyway it looked like a vision." Wybie was obviously still annoyed at her but he asked her to tell him about it. Coraline on the other hand was not ready to forgive her friend, "why should I tell you, Wyborne?"
"Because I'm your best and only friend Coraline."
She finally gave in, telling him of the kids and the explosion, "It was weird because it was like I knew them and I was genuinely worried about them, even though I knew it was a dream."
They began to drive again, quiet this time, either contemplating the dream or ticked at each other. Finally Wybie spoke, "Does that look like a Motel to you?" He pointed to a house with a glowing sign that read 'Mystery Hack'.
"A little we'll go in and ask. Damn, I didn't even think of where we were going to sleep tonight."
"Wow, what a surprise." Wybie muttered as they pulled into the parking lot of the 'mystery shack' (they could now see the S that had fallen off the sign)
Inside they were met by a man with a stubbled chin, wearing a fez. "Hullo kids, what can I do 'fer ya?" Coraline and Wybie looked around the shack unsure what they had been expecting, but this definitely wasn't it..."um, is this a motel?" Coraline asked, her eyes never moving from the glass jar of eyeballs on the counter.
"Ah," the man started as his eyes trailed down to Wybie's pocket where a twenty dollar bill was tucked, "Yes! The Mystery Shack Boarding House! Only twenty dollars for a weeks stay, ha!"
Coraline looked at Wybie unsure, only to find he had the same perplexed look on his face. They began to talk far enough away so the man couldn't hear them,
"What do you think?" Coraline asked her eyes flitting around the room
"I think we should get our butts out of here and into an actual hotel!"
"We don't know if there is an actual hotel, how much money do you have?"
They pooled there money to get a hundred and Forty eight dollars and twenty-five sense. "We'll stay for three weeks, and we'll give you the twenty dollars before each week."
Realizing they had more than $20.00 Stanford Pines, the owner of the mystery shack sighed, "you kids didn't ya hear me? I said two hundred dollars not twenty!"
Coraline, though, had had enough of the crap, her whole day had been spent on the back of a motorcycle, she had had vision/nightmares bombard her, and now this man wanted two hundred dollars for A WEEKS STAY IN A CRAPPY MOTEL.
"No way, you said twenty dollars and now your just being a con man so it's ten or we're LEAVING!" She hollered, making Wybie jump.
"Okay, okay, sheesh! Ten dollars, kid. Name's Stan. It's either Mr. Pines or sir. You may hear some people sayin' Grunkle Stan, but that's fer the people I like." Stan said, "Soos," he waved over a fat man in a tee-shirt, "take these kids to the 'luxury suite'"
The man-child was noticeably confused, "dude what?" He asked, taking off his hat to scratch his head. Stan pulled him over to a corner and said something like, "take them to the Staff room."
Soos came back over as Stan put the ten dollar bill in the register, "Kay dudes, come with me."
The fat man lead the two down a dark hallway to an elaborate door, opening it revealed a large couch, a coffee table, and a bunk bed in one corner. "Breakfast will be served in the kitchen, ah, Dining room" at 9am tomorrow," Soos said saluting before closing the door behind him.
Coraline lay awake on the top bunk for quite some time before Wybie spoke, "do you really think this is a Motel?"
Coraline sighed, she had been contemplating for the past hour or what felt like one anyway, "Wybie he said boarding house, that means he just rents out rooms because he doesn't have much money,"
"Ha!" Wybie laughed, "did you see the stacks in the register?! No money..."
"Well on the fact that no one else is staying here I think that this isn't a real boarding house. But I don't think he'll do anything bad to us, he had a picture of some kids on the counter"
"Wait, what do you mean,the only ones here?"
"Well, I've been banging on the wall for the past ten minutes and nobody has come by to complain."
They were silent for a while after that, breathing and listening for screams as if Stan was killing someone in the next room over. After a few minutes they relaxed and began to fall asleep, "good night Why-were-you-born"
"Good night Caroline."
A thud echoed up the attic walls arousing Mabel Pines and her twin brother, Dipper from their sleep. Mabel reluctantly walked over to the window and looked out, she was surprised to actually see someone entering the mystery shack, "Late customers?" She asked dipper even though she knew he didn't know. "Well, let's find out," he said taking the cover off the air vent in the corner. A girl's voice drifted up, " ...ten, or we're leaving!..." Dipper looked at her, probably wondering if it was Candy or Grenda; Mabel's two best friends, but she shrugged, as clueless as him. " okay, okay, sheesh..." Came the familiar voice of their great-uncle Stan.
Something else was said but to soft for the Pines twins to hear, then a chorus of thumps getting quieter and quieter, "The other vent! The other vent!" Mabel shrieked and ran outside of their room into the main-attic-area, prying away a grate in the corner they listened intent to find out what was happening...thumps echoed and there was silence for a while until finally another unknown voice said, "...what do you mean the only ones here?"
Mabel smiled at her brother, braces glinting, "They sound about our age! Do you think they're staying here?"
Dipper shrugged and then shushed her intent on hearing what was said next, though he was only able to make out parts of what the girl said, "...ten minutes... Come by...complain..."
Mabel breathed down his neck, making it even harder for him to concentrate, "MABEL! Shush! They might be able to hear us!"
"Hey, you're the one shouting!" She said, waving her arms around in the pink sweater she was wearing, Dipper had enough time to wonder why she had worn it to bed before the girl's voice floated up again, quickly clamping his hand over Mabel's mouth in order not to miss anything, Dipper leaned closer to the grate: "goodnight why-were-you-born," his eyebrows raised, was that a nickname? The boys voice came with the reply, "goodnight Caroline,"
After waiting a full minute dipper decided that they had gone to sleep, he turned to his twin, "So one of their names is Caroline."
"Mmmhmfffhmnnnngggffffffmmmmnmnmmmmmmz" Mabel tried to reply before licking dippers hand to make him let go, "ew, Mabel!"
"Why does your hand taste like our summerween candy?"
"Because I've been eating it! Now come on we can meet them in the morning, but for now we need to get our sleep!"
"Aw! Let's stay up all night, and tell ghost stories!"
"Mabel, our life is a ghost story! And sleep deprivation can kill you!"
"Fine, but you better not be so grumpy in the morning
It was Five AM when Stan came into their room banging on a metal frying pan, "Get up, knuckle heads. You've gotta help me make breakfast."
"Noooooo" moaned Mabel from under her pillow, "jus'lemme...sleep"
"Grunkle Stan what time is it?" Dipper asked turning on his bedside lamp, it was as dark as night.
"Well it's five inna morning!" Stan said waving the pan dangerously close to Dippers head, "Now you gotta come help me! We got these kids renting out'a room and Soos told em' we would make them breakfast!"
"Alright alright I'm coming. But I don't know anything about cooking..."
"Then wake up yer sister!"
"Ohno-no-no-no-NO! She's worse! She thinks you can put ketchup on pie!"
"Hmm, fair point. But still can't have you doin' all tha work! Wake 'er up, she can, I dunno set the table." Stan trooped back down the stairs with the frying pan slung over his shoulder, leaving Dipper the impossible task of waking his sister.
Dipper tried everything, he really did. But his sister just didn't seam to want to wake up, and he couldn't blame her, it did feel like the middle of the night. Finally he just pulled all the blankets off her, and yelled "get up"
"What the hey-hey bro-bro!" A tired Mabel pines said rubbing her eyes.
"Come on we've got to help Grunkle Stan make breakfast."
"Mm-Kay." She said yawning and grabbed a green sweater off the side in her bead and heading to the bathroom, tucking Journal 3 into his vest dipper went downstairs to find Grunkle Stan frying bacon, "You know Mabel will kill you for cooking one of 'Waddels kind' right?" He asked leaning against the door frame. Stan turned, "Ugh, wish I could eat her pig, then we would have to buy so much food for it!"
"Uh...Mabel just feeds him scraps from the table..."
"What?!" Stan asked pulling a large bag of 'pig food' from the cupboard, "then who keeps eating this?"
Mabel, who had just come down provided that answer, "Soos, and some customers. They were shaped like cookies so I set out a plate in the shack every morning."
Dipper thought of the many people vomiting in the shack's bathroom, "Yeah that makes sense."
"Mabel, set the table, Dipper make the food."
"What are you going to do?" Dipper asked as Mabel balanced plates atop her head wobbling over to the table.
"I'm going to supervise."
"Oh Come on!" Dipper scowled at his Great Uncle, who glared back...Mabel continued to sing a sev'ral Timez song as she carried platters of food, empty glasses, and pitchers of orange juice.
The glaring match continued and Stan's eyes squinched, "okay okay, fine!" Dipper said, giving in, he slid the bacon onto a plate (Mabel eventually threw out all of it) and set to work cooking pancakes.
Wendy and Soos entered the whirlwind of breakfast preparations, "Whoa! What's going on here?" Wendy asked ripping a pancake and swirling it in maple syrup.
"Breakfast!" The twins shouted at the same time, "Jinx!" Mabel yelled and punched dipper in the arm.
After a few minutes of prods and pressure Wendy exited to work in the shack, much to dipper's dismay, while Soos went to wake the two kids who were renting the room out. Finally being done with preparations the twins slumped, exhausted, in their chairs. Dipper pulled out the Journal and flipped to a new page, careful to keep it out of Stan's view. "Look, Mabel." He pointed to a page on 'Psychic Crystals' "Like the one Gideon had!" He whispered.
"No way! That must be where his medallion came from!" She swatted the side of the journal, sending it flying across the room. Dipper scrambled to save it, just as Coraline Jones stepped in front into the doorway, Dipper skid to a stop at her feet, grasping for the journal , "Well, well...what do we have here?" She said picking it up and turning it over...
I don't own ParaNorman, Gravity Falls, Coraline, or Psychonauts.
Hi there! so I actually originally made this into two chapters but i've changed it into just one so HUZZAH! second chapter coming soon. please reveiw!