"Don't move a muscle," the Beldam told them. "I'll be right back. There are a few items that we will need."
Coraline and Finley were sitting on the couch in the living room. Their eyes were wide.
Coraline turned to her daughter, "I'm going to try and move the dresser out of the way. The powder didn't work, since—I can't believe I forgot about that. "
She got up and ran to the dresser.
Finley watched as her mother leaned her body against the large, wooden furniture piece. Finley watched as she exerted all the strength she could muster to try and move it. Finley watched the dresser stand still, not budging an inch.
"It's hopeless," she said, not really meaning to say the words out loud.
They heard the Beldam's clattering steps returning.
Still, Coraline tried to move the dresser, calling urgently, "Help me, Finely!"
The Beldam crept back into the room, saying, "The furniture has gained weight since your last visit. Go sit down, Coraline. Now."
Coraline obeyed. Perhaps this had been her fate all along. Perhaps she and the Beldam were destined to be together.
"You've no idea how long I've waited for this day," said the Beldam, who was pacing in front of them.
She held two containers in her claws. One, Finley assumed, held the buttons. The other container, a bag, looked strangely familiar.
"I must tell you, Coraline, your soul is the most precious thing in existence to me right now. Not only are you extremely cunning, courageous, and clever, but you are also very moral. You would rather stay here with me than let your daughter die, wouldn't you?"
"I'd like to try and make it so neither of us end up dead."
"Quite witty, too. The point is, you're an extraordinary human. And to top it all off, you're the granddaughter of a Faerie Assistant."
Coraline and Finley both asked it at the same time, "A Faerie Assistant?"
The Beldam waved her claw in the air dismissively, "Yes, yes. Faeries do exist, just not as most people imagine them. And your grandmother was one of the faeries' most loyal aides. Maybe that's why I selected you for my world. The faeries' are ancient enemies to me and my kind. In fact, they successfully eradicated most of us. The strongest ones, such as myself, have survived."
"Where are the others?"
"Most moved into situations like mine. They picked a house and wove a fantasy world around it. They stay there, underneath, trying to catch children to prevent starvation."
"Why is it they only catch children?" Finley puzzled.
"That's enough questions," the Beldam said. It sat down in the rocking chair, which was pulled up next to the couch.
"Which one of you would like to go first?"
But neither Coraline, nor Finley, answered.
They didn't have to, because at that moment, two people rushed into the room.
"Let them go, you witch!" cried Mr. B, making an attempt to grab the Beldam.
"We're here to save you!" Miss Spink yelled, throwing an ornamental vase in the Beldam's general direction.
Finley leapt to her feet, overjoyed and confused, "But what about Forcible? And the theatre?"
"Overrated," Spink spat out. "Besides, Forcible kept upstaging me."
Coraline wanted to help her two brave old friends fight the Beldam.
Her brain told her body to move.
But she didn't move.
Because in her heart, she knew the battle wouldn't last long.
"You pathetic humans!" the Other Mother hissed.
She tore Mr. B away and tossed him against a wall, "You're weak."
She smiled at Miss Spink, "And that vase didn't even graze me."
"Oh," said Spink, rather dejectedly. "In that case, I challenge you to a duel—a monologue duel!"
"No," replied the Beldam. "Shut up."
She touched her left button eye, "I think there are some friends here to see you."
Miss Spink paused mid-throw. (She was using the chair cushion as a projectile this time.)
"Who?" she asked. "Admirers from the theatre?"
"Not quite," laughed the Beldam, as she stepped out of the way to allow the button-eyed Forcible through the door.
"April, how could you leave me like that?"
"You were hogging the stage," Miss Spink explained crossly.
"Is that all? Come back to the theatre and I'll let you play Romeo and Juliet."
Miss Spink shuffled her feet. She looked at Finley and Coraline, then turned back to Forcible, "And I left to come help my friends. I'm not leaving until they're free."
"Don't be difficult, April," Forcible groaned.
She charged at Spink with uncanny speed.
While the two actresses were tussling, something else came through the doorway.
Mr. B's voice filled with happiness, "My—rats?" His voice changed to horror.
It looked like his old mice circus, except they had grown. And looked more like rats than mice now.
They surrounded him, crawling up his clothes, dragging him down.
"No, please! I trained you. I raised you like my own children!"
They didn't listen.
Finley watched as her two accomplices were beaten into submission.
She watched as the Beldam cruelly smiled through it all.
She watched as the wicked creature sat back in the chair and picked up the box of buttons.
"I'm going to enjoy this. The longer the fight, the sweeter the victory."
It took the lid off the box.
Finley climbed to her knees so she could be tall enough to see what was inside.
Not buttons…
What were those things?
They were moving, and they looked strangely like chocolate.
She turned her head toward her mother.
"They're cocoa beetles," Coraline explained in a whisper. Then her voice went even softer, like she was talking to herself, "One of the few things the Beldam actually eats..."
Finley held her breath.
"What are you going to do with us?" Mr. B asked.
He was tied in a chain of rats on the floor, but his face was free.
Miss Spink's arms were being held from behind by Forcible.
"Oh," said the Other Mother, selecting a cocoa beetle from the box. "Let me think. You've broken into my world, messed with my creations, tried to kidnap my daughter. And now you're here with me, all tied up. I think I'll kill you."
Miss Spink cried out in agony, begging and pleading for release.
Mr. B's face fell, his upper lip trembled.
The Beldam let loose an awful laugh and popped the cocoa beetle into it's mouth.
Coraline was looking down, thinking (or perhaps crying). But she heard a noise which startled her, so she looked up.
The odd sound was coming from the Beldam.
And the Beldam wasn't sitting in the chair anymore, she was writhing on the floor, coughing.
In pain.
"What have you done?" The Other Mother screamed, it's face contorting into the nastiest expression Finley had ever witnessed.
"What's happening?" Spink asked.
The room was quite loud for a moment, with everything descending into chaos.
Then, with one final cough, the Beldam grew still.
Coraline could have sworn it's button eyes were focused on her as they grew dim.
A trickle of black liquid flowed from the corner of the it's mouth.
"What a game," the Beldam sighed in a barely-audible breath.
And it said nothing more.
"Could it be?" Coraline choked out.
"Is it—dead?" Mr. B asked, stopping his struggling.
Finley's heart raced, "Mother," she said. "I have a confession to make."
"Yes?"
"I spilled some of the powder in the box of cocoa beetles. They were laying on the counter."
Finley had never seen her mother's face so happy.
Coraline stood and lifted Finley down from the couch.
"Mr. B—Miss Spink—we are free."
Finley realized it was true.
The rats vanished, evaporating into mid-air. Forcible was slowly melting away.
"April—" the rapidly-decaying figure groaned.
"Yes? What is it, Miriam?"
"Carpe diem…and goodbye." Forcible's voice was difficult to understand, as it was just a puddle on the floor now.
And the floor—it seemed to be shrinking.
"Hurry!" Coraline shouted. "Now that the Beldam is gone, her world is falling apart!"
"Where is the passageway?" Mr. B yelled, trying to be heard over the wind that had sprung up seemingly out of nowhere.
"Behind the—"
But the dresser was gone now.
"C'mon!" Finley called to the grownups. She ran to the door and tried to open it.
"It's unlocked!"
Coraline knelt next to the Other Mother's corpse. It, too, was slowly melting. Or being blown away by the wind.
Before it vanished completely, Coraline tore the necklace away from the Beldam's body and tucked it into her pocket.
The button-shaped key to the door was attached to the necklace.
"Just in case," she whispered.