Coraline: Things Are Not As They Seem Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I don't own Coraline or Southern Comfort. I think you all know this. :)
Coraline worked on her story for a bit and then went down for dinner. Her mother was quickly sticking a bottle of clear liquid back into the cupboard. She picked an opaque blue cup and took a gulp.
"Dinner is ready." Her eyes were blood shot.
Her father came in, looking annoyed. Dinner was burn chicken casserole with, horror of horrors, chunks of broccoli. Coraline spent ten minutes dissecting her portion and removing every speck of broccoli from it.
"Can't you just eat what I make and not whine or pick at it!?" her father snapped.
Coraline looked up, a mound of burnt, yet soggy broccoli on one side of her plate.
"You know I hate broccoli," she said. If she actually tried to eat it, it would literally make her nauseated. She had almost puked trying to eat it once.
Her father slammed his fist on the table. "Coraline, I go through the trouble of making dinner every night-you know what? Whatever, do whatever, I don't care."
Her mother gulped more of her drink. "Can you not yell at the table?"
"Can you shut up?"
They started arguing, her mother doing the exact thing she had just asked her father not to do: yell. It seemed to be about money. Coraline kept eyes down and nibbled her food.
She escaped as soon as she could and sat in her room, hearing them argue and yell in the kitchen, amidst the clattering of dishes being washed. Coraline heard name mentioned once, but couldn't distinguish any other words.
Cat tapped on the window. Coraline let him in and he sat next to her and gave her a sympathetic look.
Coraline finally went to the kitchen. "Can you please stop fighting?"
They stopped suddenly and looked at her.
"Mind your own business," said her mother. "We were just having a discussion."
Coraline wasn't aware that discussion involved screaming at one another.
She went back to her room to read book. Cat stayed with her, lounging on the bed, preening its fur for an hour straight.
In school, Coraline worked on her story. The teacher told her to use the dictionary went she wasn't sure how to spell something. They had to have a rough draft today. Coraline finally figured out how to spell "sausage" and it wasn't "sosage".
Basically, her story was about a girl who practiced real hard. She became a famous ballerina, performing all over the world. She became so rich, she decided to use the money and build kitchens for people all over the world so the hungry could come and eat, and never be hungry again. The teacher read the draft, and said it was a little unrealistic, but cute.
Her teammates, of course, ignored her and only talked with each other.
Coraline went home and went to her mother, who was sitting on the couch, typing on her laptop.
"Mum, can you read my story and tell me what you think?" she asked. "It's the first draft."
"Not now, I have to get this turned in." Her mother typed rapidly on an article.
"When will you be done?"
"Coraline, I'm busy!" her mother drank from a cup. She turned to Coraline and sighed. Coraline smelled something weird. "I'm busy, can't you see?"
Coraline slid off the couch and went to sit in the kitchen and finish her homework. Her mother came in, poured herself a glass of Coke, and added a lot liquid from a bottle up in the cupboard. She went back to the living room. Coraline went to the cupboard and opened it. The bottles were on the very top shelf. She climbed onto the counter and pulled them down, one by one, looking at them.
Tequila, vodka, rum, whiskey.
She remembered seeing these at a New Year's party. Everybody had been drinking and gotten a little tipsy. A lot of cabs had been called that night.
But her parents hadn't touched these since, why now?
She replaced the bottles and climbed down.
She went to see her father, who quickly shoved something into a drawer when she entered. He took a gulp of tea from his cup and looked at her.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"I just wanted to see-"
"Go do your homework." He was shaking a bit.
Coraline sighed.
She had the same nightmare again. The end was different, however. She ran after her parents, but the Beldam grabbed her.
"Coraline, wait."
"NO!" shrieked Coraline.
"Coraline, you must listen to me."
The nails tapped the side of her face, impatient. Coraline squirmed and wiggled. "No, stop it!"
Coraline realized she was in. Something moved in the corner. It snaked toward the bed, faster, faster, faster, eyes glinting in the very faint light from the window, it jumped…
Cat came from the corner and jumped on the bed and gave her an annoyed look.
Coraline realized she had been crying. Her face and pillow were wet.
"Sorry I disturbed you," she told her furry friend. Cat licked a paw and then rubbed its face.
Coraline got up. Nobody else was up. She made coffee, a big cup with lots of cream. She felt exhausted.
She was half way through the funnies in the paper when her mother got up, a little earlier than usual and came slouching into the kitchen, her dressing gown on.
"Are you drinking coffee?" her mother snapped.
"I slept really bad," said Coraline.
Her mother snatched the cup angrily, sloshing coffee on the table. "I SAID NO COFFEE!"
"But, I just don't want to fall asleep in class."
"Did I ask for excuses?" her mother yelled. She dumped the coffee down the drain and then made herself a cup with liquid from the top shelf in the cupboard. She drank several mouthfuls straight from the bottle. She left the bottle on the counter and went to the living room to look at the news.
"Make yourself some cereal or something for breakfast," she called.
Coraline ate cold cereal, wondering why her mother and father were more irritable lately. She looked at the bottle on the counter. Whiskey.
She crept to the counter and picked the whiskey up. Southern Comfort, it said. She opened it and sniffed it. It smelled awful. She wondered what it tasted like. Must taste good, since her mother was constantly drinking this.
She poured a little bit into a cup and tasted it.
"Uggh!" It burned like fire going down; liquid fire. How could her mother stand this? She almost heaved into the sink and dumped the rest out of the cup and drank several gulps of water. Her throat still burned a bit.
"CORALINE!"
Her mother stomped in.
"I was just curious-"
SLAP.
Coraline reeled backwards, stunned. Her mother had never slapped her before. Her cheek stung.
"DON'T YOU EVER TOUCH THIS AGAIN!"
She poured more into a cup, added more coffee, and then went back to the living room.
Coraline started to cry and ran into the hallway. She looked at her face in the mirror. Her cheek was red.
She was looking at her reddened cheek when suddenly a bone white hand, with a long, sharp claw appeared, and it seemed to reach for Coraline.
Coraline shrieked and backed up. The Beldam appeared in the mirror.
"Coraaalllinnne."
Coraline screamed and the image vanished.
Her father stumbled from the bedroom.
"What are you screaming for!?"
Coraline realized she better not tell him a monster was in the house.
"Somebody is in the house!"
"Who? Where?"
Coraline pointed at the mirror, and then realized that sounded just as crazy. Nobody would believe a stranger was in the mirror.
Her father glared at her and then pushed her against the wall. Coraline pressed up against it, stunned.
"YOU WOKE ME UP FOR PRETEND-" he said a bad word, one Coraline wasn't supposed to say. He smacked her face, on the opposite side her mother had slapped.
Coraline sobbed and ran to her room. Cat was lounging on the bed. Coraline crawled under the blankets and cried. Cat nudged her face.
She cried and hugged the cat, something it normally didn't allow. Cat knew something was very wrong.
She laid there until her father yelled she better get to school.
She dressed and looked in her hand mirror. Her cheeks were a bit red, but not bruised. Nobody at school would probably say anything.
She was depressed at school. She didn't have any friends. Everybody was already in cliques, from previous grades. She was the new kid and nobody cared to talk to her. It didn't help that her school sweater was embarrassingly huge. She overheard someone in class muttering and giggling about it. Coraline thought she looked like on those bag ladies on the streets, the ones wore oversized clothes, pushed shopping trolleys full of garbage, and muttered to themselves, and occasionally yelled incoherently at innocent passerby.
When she got home, her mother slurred something at her and went to the living room. Coraline found her passed out on the couch later.
She went to her father's study, nervous. "Dad, Mum is passed out on the couch."
"Yeah, I know."
Coraline got close. Her father was drinking from a cup. Coraline smelled alcohol. She thought better of saying anything more and crept out.
Her father sighed and took some pills from a drawer. He needed more. He was almost out. He knew someone who would sell them to him. He got up and put some shoes and a jacket on. He felt okay to drive. He grabbed his wallet and checked to see if he had enough cash. Dinner would wait. Coraline could eat a pizza or whatever was in the freezer. He needed more pills, now.
He left the house.
Coraline heard him leave. She found a TV dinner and ate it, plus some ice cream from the freezer. Coraline went back to her room, afraid to look at the mirror on her way past. She clenched her eyes shut as she walked by and mumbled to herself that the Beldam was gone.
If she had opened her eyes, and had been quiet, she would have seen and heard the long nail scraping lightly inside the mirror.
Her father came back. He had been to the bar after meeting with a "friend". It was a wonder he hadn't been pulled over. Coraline heard him stumble to his study and swear, having banged his elbow or something on the doorframe.
Coraline doodled on a piece of paper and thought. In school, she learned drugs and alcohol were bad. Drugs made you hallucinate. So maybe alcohol did too. She had taken a sip of that horrible whiskey earlier. Maybe that was why she saw, or thought she saw, the Beldam in the mirror. Yes, that was it. The alcohol made her hallucinate.
But if that was true, how come her mother, who had drank a lot more, wasn't hallucinating and seeing Beldam's all over the house? Maybe alcohol affected people differently. Coraline was pretty sure she had read that somewhere. Coraline swore to never touch the stuff again. It tasted dreadful anyway.
She went to bed, and dreamed again.
The Other Father was standing in front of her.
"You ruined me. And now my power over her is done."
Coraline shook with fear. It was on those dreams where you couldn't move fast. Coraline felt like her limbs were filled with lead. She tried to run and it was in slow motion.
"YOU DESTROYED ME! YOU DESTROYED ME! YOU DESTROYED ME! YOU HORRIBLE GIRL!"
He lunged, his face growing pasty and long, his hands grew long nails, much longer than the Other Mother's and he lunged. Coraline shrieked and tried to run faster. She couldn't. The Other Father was growing closer. The claws reached, blood dripped from his teeth which had grown pointy, his button eyes bled blood. Fountains and fountains of it, spurting everywhere, drenching Coraline. She could taste it in her mouth and heaved. A hand grabbed her hair-claws scraped down her back, cutting the flesh. She could feel herself being dragged backward. The pasty, distorted face of the Other Father was in front of her. She could smell his putrid breath. The mouth stretched, teeth gleaming.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MINE! YOUR SOUL IS MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!"
The Other Father chanted the word in her face over and over. He grew more arms. They all grasped Coraline, claws sinking into her flesh, drawing blood. They surrounded her, clutching, scratching, choking…
No! No! No!
She tried to scream but a clawed hand clamped over her mouth. She struggled but the all the limbs tightened their grasp. More blood spurted from the Other Fathers eyes, blinding her. All she could see was red…blood, his, hers, everywhere. She heard a horrible cracking noise and felt teeth sink into her arm-
She heard a snarl and suddenly the limbs lost their grip. They slithered off and Coraline heard something hit the Other Father. Yells, snarls, screams of unbridled rage. Coraline remained collapse, trying to blink blood from her eyes. The red faded to black.
Coraline jerked and sat up. The Other Father attacked her. In the Other World, the Beldam had been controlling him. She'd turned him into a dreadful, pasty lump, and made him attack. Was the Beldam somehow controlling him again. But how could she? She was dead-
Or maybe she wasn't…
Coraline stood up and yanked her nightgown up. She looked at her body, expecting to see cuts and scrapes all over. She expected her limbs to be covered in blood. Nothing. She dropped the hem of her nightgown and felt her face. No cuts, no blood.
She took a deep shuddering breath. What was going on? It must be just a dream. She'd heard about people who lived through traumatizing events and would have nightmares and hallucinations for ages afterwards. She couldn't remember what it was called, but that must be the explanation. Yes, she'd lived through a traumatizing event, and was just suffering the after effects. Nothing could hurt her. She'd be fine.
"I'm okay," she whispered.
She went downstairs for breakfast. Despite telling herself it was nothing but her imagination running away with her, she couldn't look in the mirror, so she didn't seen anything that was it in.
Blood trickled down the inside of it. Coralines reflection was covered in blood.
Her mother was drinking coffee, alternating between the coffee cup, and the bottle. She took several sips and mumbled good morning to Coraline. Coraline really wanted coffee but didn't dare ask.
She ate Lieutenant Crunch, and stared into space.
"Stop chewing with your mouth open." Her father came in and slapped the back of her head. He took a pill bottle from his pocket and popped a few pills in his mouth and swallowed them, grabbing the liquor bottle from the table to wash them down.
Coraline's breath hitched. "Why do you hit me? And what are those pills?"
Her father glared at her, his eyes blood shot. He got close and Coraline smelled his fetid breath. It reminder of the Other Fathers breathe. She wished she hadn't said anything.
"They're Tylenol," he said. Coraline thought he was lying. "I need them because you give me a fricking headache with all your racket and questions!"
He smacked her and then shoved her from the chair. Coraline's head hit the edge.
"We never wanted you!" her father roared. "You were an accident! You're such a pain, always bother us when were working. We have to waste money on you for your stupid uniforms. You never like what I make. You have no appreciation. YOU'RE WORTHLESS!"
Her mother peered at her, seemingly unconcerned that her daughter was being abused by her husband. "I should have aborted you."
Coraline knew what abortion was. Her jaw dropped in horror.
She ran upstairs to cry.
