(A/N): Here's a little bit of background on how I got the idea for this series, period. I know, I know, this SHOULD be at the beginning of Coralied, but I don't care! STOP CRITICIZING ME! AAGH!

Anyway, here's the background of the series.

The series started when I had ideas for two seperate scenes: one was where Coraline was facing off against the OM again and (SPOILER, but you should have read Coralied already) decides to give herself up to save someone else (END SPOILER). Yes, yes, you know where I got that from, shut up.

The second scene was almost the basis for a crossover: a (dead) wolf was talking to a (SPOILER! YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS YET!) dead, escaped-from-the-Other-World protagonist and goes back on a quest (arranged by a god of death - duh XD) to save her and make her 'free' again (END SPOILER).

Originally, the second scene was supposed to be an AU take on Coraline where she lost. But, eventually, I figured out a way to string them together to make it a trilogy. Then it was just a matter of picking out titles. You probably understand my title scheme by now.

So, here is the strung-together final volume (unless if I get extreme demand for a sequel, or an insert this X right here in the timeline kind of story)! Enjoy reading!

PROLOGUE: LIFE SUCKS

Life sucks. Too bad. You can't do much about it while you're in it, and afterwards, you can't do anything at all.

Who am I, you may ask?

Well, I was hoping you knew that. That's just great.

Anyway, if you think your life sucks, think about this: I fell in love, and then died a miserable death - very slowly. Torture. A sea of pain is all I can remember. And then finding the shore.

The Other Shore. The Shore of Death. Just the shoreline, however; it wasn't for years that I ventured inland.

I didn't get to tell him I loved him.

I didn't even get a last word.

If you can tell me with a straight face that your life sucks worse than that, I've heard of you. Not that I know much on the subject, anymore.

Not that I know who I am.

Maybe you do know who I am. Have I not told you enough?

I shall tell my tale.

No, not from the beginning. You may know me soon enough.

I don't know how much time it was, that I was locked in the Empty Spaces. Fifty years, maybe? One hundred?

My memories are easier to remember as... metaphors, now. Similies. Beautiful, distant landscapes that I hope never to visit, for some, and never to find, for others.

So I will never know how long it was. Not that it matters. It's one of the places I hope not to visit. I had many years to think over my mistakes...

I don't want to do that again. I didn't then, either.

But I made more mistakes. Thinking that nothing was worse that what I was in, I gambled part of my soul away in exchange for freedom.

It was the worst mistake I ever made.

But it was made. I cannot change it.

Sure, being free from that is great - but I'm Lost. I'm Lost in a Dark Place that I do not know.

But then he came.

And I saw freedom.

(A/N): A glint of hope at the end? Is this real? HAVE I GONE INSANE?

Don't worry, it will be crushed and completely explained by the end of the story. Mwa ha ha!

Maybe there will be a happy ending for you people.

Maybe.

If I FEEL like it.

And I do, cuz I don't want to and I'm too lazy to re-write half the book. XD