HAUNTED

Nine

The rest of the group watched as Alvin smashed his fist through the window to let them into Blithe Hollow's Historic Town Hall.

"So much for being stealth ninjas," Coraline said under her breath. At least I'm not paying for the window restoration.

Alvin turned the knob and pulled the door open from the inside. Norman led the way into the building, and Coraline stayed close beside him. Someone shut the door, and they were left in semidarkness; thankfully, some lights were left on in the rooms with the archives beyond.

Coraline reached this door first and pulled it open for everyone, and all at once, she knew it was hopeless.

Books filled shelves several stories tall over capacity. Papers lay scattered all over several scattered desks with old, rusting lamps. Crates filled with countless pages of information sat everywhere.

Over three hundred years of information took massive amounts of time to sort through, and the current state of the abandoned archives wasn't going to make things easier.

She just stared for a moment, before stealing a knowing glance at Wybie. Coraline saw that he was much more on the verge of just running out there to face the zombies than she was.

She walked off to a desk and began sorting through papers, looking for anything - anything - that might help. She kept looking at the dates, for the word 'witch' to appear anywhere on the few papers that were death certificates in the sizable stack.

She hoped.

Coraline couldn't tell how long it had been before people started giving out. Norman's sister was the first to go.

Coraline tried to ignore Courtney's harsh words as long as she possibly could, before she listened and agreed unwillingly. She looked up and saw Mitch nodding absently in a corner; Alvin trying to 'read' some pages and listening.

Wybie was just staring at her, torn.

"Then just GO!" Norman finally shouted. "Just go, all of you."

Wybie was the first to leave; Alvin was almost right behind him, and neither of them spared a glance back at the broken boy. Mitch went next, oblivious to everything except for the fact that people were leaving. Courtney glanced back, barely, before going to the front entrance with the rest of them.

Coraline couldn't bear to see Norman like that, on the verge of tears. She walked over to him and whispered a few words in his ear.

"You know," she whispered with a slight hint of humor, "I've always thought that 'crazies' should stick together."

It was forgiveness. She knew it wasn't enough, but shut the tall doors and helped him keep searching.

That was when the front of the building began to turn to ash from arson, and zombies poured in through the back.

Coraline would have said something to Norman at the moment they realized they were surrounded, but nothing came to mind.

Then Norman began to speak, and whatever doubts she might have had evaporated.

He ran off with the book eventually, and Coraline, trusting his instincts, began to lead the zombies through the burning building to the front entrance.

(A/N): So, anyway, wanted to get this done with. I wanna be nice to my readers, and give you more to read! :D

I really want to write more. I've got everything else sorted out, everyone! It's just a matter now of putting pen on paper. Everything else is arranged like I want it, and it's all going to go a good deal quicker now! Yay!

Anyway, enjoy the little bits of... heh... 'interpretable' Normaline I put in there for you. Prepare for more. Boatloads of it, but just the raw stuff. None of this 'interpretable' stuff.