Chapter 20: The Lost: Part III

Coraline gasped in pain when she was brutally thrown up against the wall, the twisted form of her mother's face right in front of her.

"WHERE IS THE KEY?" she screamed, her voice thundering throughout the room.

Her ward pursed her lips, refusing to say anything. However, they parted as she cried out in pain when the Beldam slammed her hard against the wall again.

"I asked you a question!" the monster bellowed. "Your disgusting vermin friend must have thought he was real clever, stealing the key from me. We'll see just how smug he is when I skin him alive!"

Coraline's arms were in agony as the witch's sticklike fingers tightened around them like a vice. She inadvertently shot a glance toward the three buttons lying on top of the workbench. Unfortunately, the Beldam followed her gaze. Impossibly, her gaze darkened even further.

"Who told you where the ghost eyes were?" she screamed. "WHO TOLD YOU?!"

Coraline stared defiantly back.

"Very well," the Beldam seethed. "If you refuse the answer my questions like a good little girl, then I suppose I will just have to extract the information from you, whether you want to give it up or not."

The girl's eyes widened in horror.

The monster grinned in wicked glee. "It was all for moot, you realise. Even if you know where the ghost eyes are, there will be no escape from my world. Not while I am alive. But if there is a single inhabitant of my dominion who is not loyal to me, then they must be purged immediately."

Without another word, she swept from the room, dragging Coraline along with her. The girl cried out and struggled against her, but the woman only tightened her grip further. They made their way down the stairs, and, without the slightest hesitation, the Beldam hurled the girl at the mirror.

She cried out as she flew through the rippling wall and painfully hit the floor of the cell on the other side, sliding several feet.

"Coraline!" a familiar voice shouted.

She lifted her head from the floor to see her mop-haired companion shackled to the wall. "Wybie! Are you okay?"

Before he could answer, green light filled the room, as, like a nightmare, the spindly limbs of the Beldam emerged from the far wall. She stepped into the mirror cell, her button eyes glaring at the two children.

"I can see now that I have been wasting my time trying to get you two to cooperate," she said, her voice simmering with rage. "Souls are easier to feed upon when they have lost their spirit. But I can see that you two pesky little children aren't going to lose the fight in you. So I will just have to purge it from you myself."

Wybie and Coraline's eyes widened fearfully as they imagined what was coming.

The next chapter of their nightmare was confirmed when a second figure entered the room. Wybie gaped in terror at the horrifying visage of his grandmother. Gone was the kind, elderly woman who had made him peanut-butter snaps only this afternoon. Now, she looked positively ghoulish, sawdust spilling from open wounds as her canvas skin peeled and flaked, and one of her button eyes dangled from her face on loosened thread.

"Take the boy back to his house, and get a needle and thread ready," the Beldam said, her eyes never leaving Coraline's. "My daughter has a strong spirit, but seeing her friend with buttons for eyes will be sure to help in rectifying that."

The zombified Other Grandma nodded silently, and her 'grandson' moaned in fear when she unshackled him from the wall and pulled him toward the shimmering green portal in an iron grip.

The Beldam did not spare him a second glance. "When I come over, Wybie, try not to cry too much. It will be harder to sew buttons into your eyes when they're full of tears. It will only make it more painful for you."

"You can't!" Coraline screamed. "You can't take his soul by force! You'll be breaking the laws of Purgatory!"

"Don't talk to me about breaking rules, you dirty little cheat," the woman hissed venomously, slapping her brutally across the cheek. "I am above the laws of Purgatory now."

The sky dimmed, as, like tiny light-bulbs, the stars blinked out of existence. The darkness grew ever deeper as the huge shadow eclipsed the moon further. The beauty and wonder of the Other World seemed to fade away, only to be replaced by menace and shadow.

"P-Please, Grandma! It's me!" Wybie exclaimed, struggling in vain to pull his arm out of her hold. "Please don't do this!"

"I am not your grandmother, Wyborne," the ghoulish puppet replied in a gravelly tone, as she unceremoniously dragged him toward the copy of his house. "I'm sorry it has to be this way."

She guided him into the house and to the kitchen, pinned his arms to his side and tied him to a chair. The boy struggled against the ropes, but then momentarily forgot everything when the zombie woman placed a box on the kitchen table in front of him. He gulped when he looked inside and saw a needle, thread and two shiny black buttons.

"W-W-Will it hurt?" he murmured.

"…No," the Beldam's servant replied.

However, Wybie knew she was lying. He hung his head as he silently began to cry.

The mirror cell was cast in complete darkness, but that did not stop Coraline from pounding against the wall with her fists and boots with all her might. She knew that it was futile – that the Beldam had left to "refresh herself", that the wall was completely solid again, and there was no way out – but she continued anyway.

Tears of frustration and worry stained her face as she knew that Wybie facing the needle and thread was all her fault. If she had not angered the Beldam, things might have gone differently.

"Evil witch! Let me out!" she screamed. "It's my fault! Let Wybie go! Take me instead!"

It appeared that her calls had been answered when the wall before her suddenly glowed and she stumbled right through it, landing in a heap on the wooden floor of the hallway on the other side. She groaned and lifted her head, expecting to see the nightmarish hag poised above her.

What she saw instead, however, was her button-eyed copy offering a hand to her. She took it and climbed to her feet.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Helping a friend," the Other Coraline said softly.

She smiled as she pressed three buttons into the other girl's hand. Coraline looked down and saw that they were the ghost eyes of Emily and Joshua. She reverently placed them in the pocket of her raincoat, reuniting all four of them.

"I want to help you to stop her," the living doll continued. "Once she's gone, you and Wybie will be safe. And then we can all live happily here forever!"

Coraline's heart went out to this being. The last thing she wanted was to use the puppet girl's humanity against her, but...

"Sure we can," she replied, her voice laced with guilt. "I promise."

The Other Coraline's face lit up, and she her figure practically bubbled with excitement. Suddenly, she tilted her head upward, toward the ceiling. "Mother is changing her shape," she said lowly, her smile fading. She whirled back toward her counterpart. "You have to go save Wybie now! I'll stall her!"

"But you could die!" the blue-haired girl exclaimed in spite of herself.

"I'll be fine," the doll insisted, pushing her compatriot toward the front door. "Hurry!"

As the front door closed behind her, Coraline considered going back to help her. However, a shadow creeping across the ground caused her to look up toward the moon. Only a sliver of it was visible now, while the rest of the sky was an endless black abyss.

...Only, it was not a sea of endless black.

Fine hairline cracks of white could be seen streaking through the sky in the distance.

Upon seeing that, the fiery girl raced down the hill toward her friend's house. There was no time to lose.

The door creaked loudly as it was opened. Coraline peered cautiously down the dark hallway to see light spilling from the kitchen. She slowly crept down the path, her shallow breathing the only sound to be heard.

What if the Other Coraline was wrong, and the Beldam was already here? What if she had already gotten to Wybie...?

Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw her friend. He was facing away from her, sitting tied up in one of the kitchen chairs.

"Wybie!"

Coraline started forward, but then felt a clawed hand around her shoulder. She screamed as she flew backwards through the darkness, away from the warm light of the kitchen and her friend.

"I'm afraid I can't allow a horrible little girl like you to play with my grandson anymore," a voice rasped in her ear. "You're too much of a bad influence on him."

The last thing she saw, before she was thrust back out into the darkened hallway, was the gaunt, ghostly-looking face of a ghoulish old woman, before the sliding door slammed shut, sealing her off from the kitchen.

"No!" Coraline cried, tugging on the door with all of her might. She had no idea how long she tried, but the door was closed fast. Suddenly, she heard footsteps in the hallway behind her, and whirled to see the Other Miranda standing there, a wide grin on her face.

"Gee, lookee here!" the button-eyed girl trilled shrilly. "The girl you thought was your friend... She's actually the faithful servant of the Beldam!"

Abruptly, her expression grew more sinister, and Coraline took an inadvertent step back.

"Golly, I was hoping we could settle things peacefully, but... too bad!" The puppet servant clapped her hands together, before her button eyes narrowed in anger, her smile fading. "Oh, you wanna make things ugly, huh? Well, that's just super. Let's get ugly."

A loud CRACK echoed throughout the hall, startling Coraline. She looked on in horror as four limbs sprouted from the doll girl's back, the long, spindly joints ending in sharp needles, sewn on with deep-blue thread.

However, the terrible mutation did not end there.

The horrific cracking continued, sawdust spilling everywhere, as the doll's legs split open into four spiderlike appendages. Like the claws on her back, the Other Miranda's new legs also ended in terrible needles, gouging deep scratches in the worn wooden floor. The terrified girl imagined those points ripping into her flesh.

The Other Miranda towered over her prey, a horrific grin returning to her face. "So you escaped from the mirror cell, huh? I guess I'll congratulate you… by tearing you into little bits!"

Without warning, she tilted her head skyward and screamed. It was a terrible sound – shrill, grating, and piercing to the core. Picture frames that hung from the wall rattled. Coraline clapped her hands to her ears and fled through the closest doorway and away from the nightmarish figure, running through a large lounge as fast as her legs could carry her.

Where could she hide?

Abruptly, everything went quiet. The dead silence that now hung in the air was even more terrifying than the inhuman scream that once filled the house. However, the sounds that came next were even worse.

The clacking of needles on the floor somewhere nearby.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" the Other Miranda called in a sing-song voice.

Coraline dashed for a nearby door and closed it quietly behind her, leaning up against it as she listened out for the predator. The clacking continued for some time, moving to and fro, but it seemed as though the creature was moving away from the room.

After some time, the sounds ceased entirely, and absolute silence descended once more.

Coraline slowly relaxed, and let out a soft breath in relief.

A huge needle claw smashed through the door, rending wood as a horrible scream split the air.