R is for ragdoll, they look so benign
Secretly watching you all of the time.
---
"It doesn't look safe," remarked the cat, distraught, about the darkness the stairs tumbled into.
The other Wybie nodded. It gives me the creeps, he added wistfully, reminding me when I was made. Made by the super spider witch who ripped out my vocal cords and left me to die when she had no more use of me.
We can stop detailing, the cat thought back dryly.
Coraline's face was oddly blank, as if she didn't really care what the hell happened to her life anymore. She seemed to say, "No, take my insignificant life now, take it and tear my life to pieces, if Wybie's dead then I should die too," an emo-ish kind of thought. What came out of her mouth, however, was simply "Let's go."
"You don't have to if it's too much," replied the cat, but before he'd finished, Coraline was already stepping down into the maw.
She'll probably end up stew, the other Wybie mused sadly.
The cat sniffed. "Haven't you any faith in your friend?" he said, and bounded into the darkness too.
This left the other Wybie alone on the dark stairs as he heard his comrades' steps fading away. Feeling paranoid, he hurried after them.
After a while, he bumped into Coraline, who in return nudged him in the ribs. The other Wybie winced; after a few more minutes of descending what seemed to feel like a spiral staircase, they stopped at a huge old brass door with a rusty knocker shaped in the likeness of a gargoyle.
The other Wybie reached up for it and banged it against the heavy door.
Nothing but the echo of the banging followed. Unnerved, the cat looked at the other Wybie and Coraline, then he backed slowly away.
Then a harsh voice half-commanded them. "Come in, then children, don't be afraid; there are needles to be sought, and dolls to be made." The door swung open. "No dawdling, no loitering, and don't ask questions - until you're inside, where begins your sessions." It was, like the knocker, rusty, but also hoarse and cold and careless; very much like a dead thing, maybe a zombie.
Coraline didn't care much for zombies. She stepped inside. The cat and the other Wybie also did, cautiously; it was much darker than outside, which was, the other Wybie had though, impossible, and in the far right corner of the dark, dark room was a small flicker of light. Huddled next to it was a hunched-over creature wearing all black and seemingly lifeless.
"Did you call to us?" asked Coraline hollowly.
The creature's head jerked up; the other Wybie staggered backwards in horror. It had one button eye, black and evil-looking, and a big "X" of thread where its right eye button should have gone. The thing's hair was, as far as Coraline could tell, dark brown, with two or three rats nestled there. It was very gaunt, emaciated and scrawny, its skin pale and ghastly. Its mouth bore stitches like the other Wybie's, except on the outside, sewn into a permanent frown.
"Hello young ones, I see you've made it here. Don't you worry, there's nothing to fear. Excuse my verse, I am a poet. If you've got a question, do your best to throw it."
"Who are you?" asked Coraline. "Why did you call us here? Where's this? What are you planning?"
The thing's button eye seemed to flash; with great difficulty, it spoke again, furiously. "I'm her other, so you see. I really wasn't meant to be; I called you here to find some help - to help my hand and your poor whelp. This is my mother's workshop, miss, where she makes her dolls in utter bliss; I am a doll is what I am, my purpose is..." At this point, it held up both of its hands - except its left was gone. The other hand seemed to be made out of bone, with joints and sharp edges. "To find my hand," it finished.
"Huh," said Coraline. The thing looked up at her steadily, then stood up. "What do you mean, you're her other? You mean..."
"The little child who came o'er here. She's quite the raffle, I do hear." The thing's mouth corners twitched ever so slightly in amusement.
"I see," replied Coraline, pursing her lips. "And what would you give us in exchange for your hand?"
The doll raised an eyebrow. "What would you like, my assistance? Or Mother's eternal distance? Perhaps a rainbow and unicorns? A bag of treats and jars full of horns?""No," replied Coraline. "I want you to tell me how to beat the other mother."
Even before she'd finished the sentence, the thing shrieked into laughter, doubling over. The cat and the other Wybie exchanged surprised glances. What a wild mood swing. And what a way to laugh, even if your mouth was sewn shut.
"No such way, I do declare." The thing eyed Coraline. "And if you did, that would be a nice scare."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, you see, she means no trouble. But outside this world, trouble goes double!" It cackled again. "Each step you take, all decisions you make, they set an earthquake near the Erie Lake. The things you do, the more you hate, makes troubles two and less to wait."
"So everything we do causes catastrophe in the real world," mused the cat.
"Right, my good feline. And all of this is just a sign!" The thing giggled.
"A sign?" echoed Coraline.
"Of things to come, vile and worn and just begun. Now you'd better find my hand, or Mother will turn you all to sand." The rats in the thing's hair started becoming jittery, and Coraline's group was repulsed by the sight of an eerie, grinning doll-thing accompanied by two large, fat, black, raucous rats.
---
Lyre's paw hung limply over the table. Comfortable on a chair, his owner Markus counted the number of pages a book had (which had no page numbering).
"It wasn't right," he croaked suddenly; he pulled his paw toward himself and under his muzzle.
"All things need to be done." Markus answered in a cold voice brimming with finality. And Lyre understood.
"It was an act. All of that ... fussing over Wybie's death."
"Yes, it was. Some things have to be sacrificed for the sake of scientific research."
"It's not right," Lyre snorted sadly. Markus looked at him briefly. It hurt to see the dog almost lifeless, with his eyes half-closed, looking like a corpse. She looked away.
"It should be all right, anyway," was her muttered final answer.
---
"Here's your hand," murmured Coraline, tossing the bone-hand she'd found stuck in a porcelain vase to the other Markus, who took it and popped it into its wrist, ungratefully. "Now tell us how to defeat the other mother."
The thing smirked and clapped its hands together; the rats in its hair climbed down to settle on its shoulders. "There's almost always never time, and in the dark it's not a crime, to kill and slash and hope for best, and end up in eternal rest."
Coraline, the cat, and the other Wybie stared. "Is that it?" asked the cat.
"But darkness isn't an element to use when you're against a powerful beldam's hues. Love and friendship are, at best, the secret to an omnipotent zest."
I see, thought the other Wybie grimly.
"Can I come with you? It's been ages since I've seen the house in true."
"Don't pull anything on us," growled Coraline, "and we'll let you come."
And this was, truly, how the main battle began. But before they left, and when everybody else wasn't looking, the other Markus quickly took an other mother doll from the shelf, so that she'd know what to expect.
Note: So! Halloween Special comes up next. :D And uh, sorry, but the Fan Character project will be on hiatus for a couple more weeks ... or so. OR SO.
Second Note: I am going to put the other father in a cat costume. And the other sisters as Ophelia and Juliet. And other Wybie as a clown. And other Bobinsky a golem. Pfff Thanks to everyone who reviewed!!