Wybie stumbled down the path to the pink palace, and collapsed on the porch. He hoped to God the front door was unlocked, though it had no reason to be. What would he do if it wasn't? Would he ring the doorbell? Or would he go through the back door. He was entirely unsure. Wybie didn't know if he even WANTED the adults to know about this yet. What could they even do?

Probably provide medical assistance, but he wasn't thinking clearly enough to consider that factor.

The boy reached for the doorknob and fruitlessly tried to twist it around, but of course it was locked. Why wouldn't you lock the door at night, even if you live far away from basically all the rest of society? At this point, Wybie's vision was starting to grow groggy. He hadn't lost that much blood, but he did fall off the roof and probably definitely broke something, and then dragged himself all the way to the Palace. He didn't notice his hand heading for the doorbell until a few seconds into the motion, and he pulled it back. No… he'd rather go in through the back door… But…. crap…

Wybie slammed his fist weakly against the door, his eyelids growing heavy. The sound created by his knocking was pathetically quiet. No one was gonna hear him, and he was gonna pass out on the porch and no one might find him for the whole night. The Cat might come back for him, or he might go after Coraline too. He needed- he needed…

But his knees met the floor as he tried once again to knock against the door. If he just tried hard enough, if he just prayed hard enough, things would work out.

But! But he hears footsteps behind the door. Were his prayers answered? Come on… get here already. His vision swirled as his head fell against the door—he just needed someone to keep him awake, was that too much to ask?

He felt the door pull away from him, then he felt himself fall into someone's arms, then he heard the frantic panicking of Coraline. Good. Great. GREAT ACTUALLY!

"Oh my god Wybie! What happened?! Holy crap- oh my god why are you bleeding-"

Coraline shook the boy frantically and he trudged out of his dazed state slightly. Wybie blinked up at her, then shook his head slowly and grabbed her arm, using her to stand up. Coraline shifted her weight and guided him to the kitchen after he got to his feet.

"I… it's the Cat."

"Oh of course it is," Coraline muttered. She shot a concerned glance at him before easing him onto a chair next to the table and heading towards the drawers to find some sort of towel or gauze to cover the scratches all over him. "So what… How did he do this?"

"I- I dunno I was just sitting there and… and he just attacked me. And I fell out a window too, that was fun."

Coraline stiffened slightly at that, but also let out a confused laugh. Wybie found himself chuckling back. It was a strange series of events, though perhaps not the strangest ever. Coraline walked back to him and began wiping his cuts with a wet towel and applying bandages.

"So what're we gonna do about it?"

"Huh?"

Coraline's expression hardened. "We're not just gonna let him get away with this. Plus he might come back and try to finish the job."

"Heh. When you say that it sounds like a mobster's after me."

"But we do gotta go after him. Tonight."

Wybie looked away and nodded.

"He's probably back in Her world."

"Yeah. Are you really sure you wanna go back there? Even after everything?"

Coraline paused, then swallowed, but her face remained determined. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine with it. We don't have a choice."

"I'd feel bad if you freaked out cuz of it though…"

"Heh… I've been freaking out about it for a long time. I'll be alright." Coraline finished applying the bandages and backed away. "There! That should do it."

"Thanks… Coraline."

"It's no problem man. Now come on, we don't have all night." Coraline headed to another drawer and produced a basic kitchen knife. It sent a chill of excitement up Wybie's spine. Gosh, his girlfriend was so cool…

"Wait, are we gonna just… stab him?"

"Yeah I guess? You got any better options?"

Wybie shrugged and stood up. "Well, if that's settled, let's get going." Coraline nodded, then walked over and grabbed his hand.

"Whatever happens, we're doing this together."

"Mhm."

The two kids headed into the living room, and slowly peeled open the door. It was a little difficult without the key acting as the knob, but it was still preferable to falling down the well again. Coraline crawled in first, with Wybie close behind. So close that they were practically next to each other. As close as they could be in the tiny tunnel.

Strangely enough, the tunnel was not the brilliant blue and purple glow of the first visits, but it was also not the brown and dusty hole of the later visits. It instead possessed a silvery sheen to it that resembled both metal and the moon. But it was still just as soft to the touch.

Neither children commented on this.

When they arrived in the other world, they were immediately greeted with the Beldam's corpse still laying there. Slightly collapsed, slightly consumed. Wybie hoped that Coraline wouldn't notice that it was slightly smaller than the last time she was there. In the back of his mind, though it was a rather unimportant detail, Wybie thought about how the green glow of the living room was rather sickly and bothersome. He wished it was something a little calmer, so that they could at least relax before the fight. And as he thought that, the fire in the fireplace flickered slightly and transformed from green to light blue. The two kids jerked backwards in surprise.

"Holy crap- What was that?"

"I- uh… I dunno-'' Wybie considered a single odd possibility for a moment, but quickly buried the thought. It was stupid.

"Do you think it was the Cat somehow?"

"Um… I don't…" Wybie shook his head. "Let's just find him."

The two grabbed each other's hand once again and eased themselves through the living room before peeking their heads into the hall. Still no sign of him.

Coraline felt Wybie's grip tighten around her hand. A warmth radiated in her chest and she returned the squeeze. She noticed the slightest sigh escape his lips and a small smile passed over her face. Her joy was short lived however, as she heard a creaking upstairs not even a few seconds later. She turned to look back at Wybie and he nodded. The girl dragged him towards the stairs and began creeping up as quietly as possible. She thought back to her earlier nights of her last visit and tried to remember which steps creaked more than others.

Wybie could feel the sweat dripping down his face and he hoped for nothing more than that the stairs wouldn't make too much noise. To his surprise, they managed to reach the top without any noise at all. Coraline sat down on the third step from the top and began crawling up the rest of the way.

"What're you doing that for?"

"If we start falling it won't be as bad if I'm not standing."

Wybie nodded and was about to follow suit. But then he felt a strange presence, which was interesting because he had never "felt a presence" before. He had always assumed that was a sorta magic mumbo jumbo reserved for fantasy stories and Star Wars, but nope, he definitely felt a presence. There weren't many options so he had to assume it was the Cat.

"Hold on a second. I think he's close by."

"What makes you say that?"

"I dunno I can just feel it…" Wybie tried to get a good look down the hall, but it was just too dark and the walls were positioned in just a way that he couldn't see very far. If only…

Before he could even finish that thought, the lights in the hallway turned on by themselves. The kids startled at that and nearly fell backwards down the stairs before composing themselves.

"Why does that keep happening?" Coraline hissed under her breath mostly to herself.

At this point, Wybie was seriously considering THAT possibility, but he didn't want to verbalize it. Coraline would think he was crazy, or worse, she'd believe him and think he's a monster. Besides, he might just be jumping to conclusions about all this, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep it on the back burner. If worst comes to worst, he could try and do it on purpose and see what happens.

"Wait- quiet I think he's coming-" Coraline whispered to him. Wybie thought that the Cat'd probably be able to hear that but oh well. Indeed, after Coraline held her breath, he could hear the slightest of steps down the hall. Although… they did not seem like animal steps. They sounded human, but only vaguely so. It was rather more like…

As the Cat stepped out from behind the wall and into the duo's line of sight, the two kids froze in place. Coraline had wanted to slam into him as soon as he arrived, catching him off guard and finishing him easily. But the strange sight in front of her made her brain's gears grind to a halt.

He wasn't quite a cat and he wasn't quite a human. He was certainly standing on two feet, but his limbs looked distended and strangely bent. His skin was a strange gray, in the places where they could see it, and his clothes… the fact that he had clothes at all! But they looked extremely antiquated. His stance was awkward and pained, and his face, the look he was shooting at the kids was utterly hateful. His breath came in tight, ragged heaves as he shifted his weight.

The kids suddenly felt as if their feet, their legs, their whole lower body were rooted to the stairs with stone. They couldn't process what was standing right in front of them and they couldn't move their bodies. And they didn't let go of each other's hands. That proved to be unfortunate.

The Cat (or whatever he was now) launched himself at Wybie, sending all three of them toppling down the stairs. Coraline's grip loosened and she watched in horror as Cat slammed Wybie's head against the wall and began to drag him down the lower half of the stairs.

"NO! Get back here you stupid-"

Cat shot a glare at her. "You…" his voice rasped. That gave the girl pause.

"Dr… drop him. Now. Let go of him and… we can just forget this all happened." Somehow, seeing him right there in front of her looking like that—like some strange amalgamation—made part of the fire in her heart die down. Maybe it was because it felt strange to kill something that looked like a human, though she had killed the Beldam before. Maybe it was because he now looked like he could harm them more feasibly, because he looked somewhat like an adult. And a part of her was also bluffing, though what part she wasn't certain. Nevertheless, her statement caused Cat to stumble for a moment.

"Excuse me..?"

"Y- yeah… we can just… go home, right?" Coraline noticed Wybie stirring awake out of the corner of her eye and took a cautious step forward to distract Cat. "I'm sure you don't wanna fight us, right? So why don't you let me give you the chance to uh… give up?"

Cat quirked his eyebrow at her. "You know you are a very strange girl…" He turned to look at Wybie, and just as he did, the boy jerked awake, slid out of the creature's grasp, and swept the legs. He scrambled backwards, away from Cat, and nearly toppled down the stairs before readjusting himself. He glared up at their opponent and Cat returned the look, groaning in irritation. He shot a glance at Coraline and sprang up to meet her at the steps. Grabbing her wrist suddenly and twisting it painfully behind her back, the creature, in one swift motion, grabbed the kitchen knife in her hand and held it to her throat. Wybie didn't even bother taking a step forward, knowing what threats Cat held in his hand.

"That is quite enough from you two," he muttered. Wybie was far too focused on Coraline's distressed expression and her pleading eyes to notice Cat's facial features growing slightly more human, and his limbs twisting into a more natural shape. It seemed that the more blood Wybie lost, the more human the Cat became.

"Perhaps things could have been different…" Cat postulated mostly to himself, "But it also seems there was no other way for this to happen. I didn't hate either of you." For a moment, his expression loosened, a dull glaze forming over his eyes. But Wybie didn't have time to capitalize on that hint of emotion, as Cat's face soon sharpened again and he glared down the stairs at the boy and brought the edge of the blade closer to Coraline's neck. "But it seems I have no choice. You know, Coraline-" he redirected his attention to her- "if you had just let me take his life, I wouldn't have had to harm you as well. But now I'll have both of your blood on my hands. I hope you're happy."

This couldn't be happening. It COULDN'T! Wybie felt like everything was moving in slow motion at this point, and yet he was frozen in place. The panic in Coraline's eyes stabbed him in the chest, and yet he couldn't even reel back. What could he do, what could he do?

The knife edged closer and closer to her neck and- and the smallest drops of blood began to trickle onto it. Wybie couldn't take it anymore; something inside him snapped. He had to try, even if it didn't work or made him look stupid or crazy, he had to try! His mouth opened and his hand reached forward in desperation.

"NOOOOO!"

It happened in a split second. Pieces of wood splintered off from the wall behind the boy and latched themselves around Cat's wrists and ankles, pinning him to the hallway wall in front of the stairs. Coraline dropped to the floor and gasped, frantically clutching at her thankfully intact throat. She shot a look of bewilderment at Wybie but before she could even open her mouth, the steps folded in on themselves, flattening into a bizarre, wooden slide that led straight to the first floor. Coraline shrieked as she tumbled forward, landing on Wybie and sending the duo crashing all the way down the slide to the first floor.

Coraline let out a winded gasp, then realized she had basically crushed Wybie. She hopped off him and started babbling wildly.

"I- oh my god I'm sorry- but but but uh- what was that?! I mean- how did you do that? DID you do that, that was you right?"

"I- uh- OW-'' Wybie winced. The spot on his skull where he'd been smashed against the wall sparked a jolt of pain through his head. Coraline grabbed his hand and helped pull him to his feet.

"Wybie, how did you do that?"

"Well… it's complicated."

"Wait, are you like… part demon or something? Or magic? DID YOU HAVE MAGIC POWERS THIS WHOLE TIME AND NEVER TELL ME?"

"Uh, no."

"Good cuz I would've been pissed that you didn't include me on whatever cool magic bull crap you could've gotten up to."

"Right. Well the truth is… I kinda, how do I put this." Wybie paused and shot a worried glance at Coraline. "I kinda… consumed the Beldam's powers? Yeah let's put it like that."

"Wait, so you… ate Her?" Her voice didn't sound that freaked out, just utterly baffled.

"Ugh, yeah. In my defense I was literally starving to death." Something flashed through his head. "Oh- crap are you okay?" He instinctively found himself wiping a bit of blood off her neck, causing her to laugh slightly.

"Ehehehe- s-stop that tickles! I'm fine, really."

"Are you sure? I mean, you just got hostage-ized."

"I think the correct terminology is damseled. And I really am alright." She turned her head to look up the stairs, or rather, slide. "But we still need to deal with him."

"Yeah. And now he's got a knife."

"Well, we've got a you. Also," she jabbed her finger into his face, "we aren't done talking about that! But we can deal with it later, we've got a killer cat to kill!"

Wybie nodded nervously. "Right!"

Just as the two kids mentally steeled themselves for fighting, they heard the sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor upstairs, and tilted their heads up.

Cat had escaped his wooden shackles, unsurprisingly. Wybie mentally noted that he'd need to be more clever with that sorta thing. But now the man(?) was poised on the banister, glaring daggers down at them. The duo instinctively dropped into fighting stances and shot back their best glared at him. And a tense silence fell over the house.

After a few more moments, Coraline finally opened her mouth. She could be patient and clever, but she also wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, so she had no problem being the goader in this situation. "Hey! You gonna come down here or what, you big fat wuss-puss!"

That was seemingly all it took to send him flying down towards her. Though it was likely the break in silence rather than the insult itself. Wybie caught a split second view of Coraline's face twisting into a panicked 'oh shit' smile, before the man landed on her, sending her crashing straight through the floorboards. The girl let out a shriek of pain and Wybie took no time at all to retaliate.

Thinking quickly, Wybie jerked his head around and looked at where the boiler room would be. The door was shut but he could hazard a guess as to what it looked like inside. Jerking his arm towards the direction of the door and turning back towards Coraline, he shouted "DUCK!" and twisted his hand around. Coraline pressed herself against the floor even more and Cat wasted his time turning to see what was heading towards him. Which was a massive burst of boiling hot steam. It knocked him backwards down the hall and forced a cry of pain out of him before he jerked his head up to glare at Wybie.

"AAAAAURGH! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Cat jerked to his feet far faster than either of them anticipated and launched himself at Wybie. Before the boy could properly defend himself, he was slammed to the ground and a pair of hands was clenched tightly around his neck. He reached to tear Cat's hands from his throat but they were clamped down so tightly that he was already starting to lose oxygen. He felt like vomiting but his esophagus was pressed so tightly that it probably wouldn't make it up anyway. His vision started to blur slightly and his heart rate spiked. No- No! If he could just focus enough- he had to use his magic- figure something out- but-

Coraline stared in horror at the sight of Cat strangling her boyfriend. Then, perhaps a second too late she worried, she snapped out of it and hurtled herself at the creature. She latched onto his back and attempted to pull him away, but he let go intentionally, leaving a few scrapes on Wybie before slamming her into the ground again. He stood up, shook off the aching in his body, and bolted for the kitchen. Coraline figured he was trying to lead them there for whatever reason, but that wasn't the most important thing right now. She forced herself up and walked over to Wybie, feeling like her chest was about to explode.

"Oh my god are you okay?!"

"Y- yeah-" he coughed out. "I'm okay- I'm okay-" He stood up on his own, though his legs shook. It took him a few moments of gasping for air to recuperate as well, but Wybie didn't want to waste too much of their time.

"What do we do? We can't just go in there, it's the most obvious trap ever! And the kitchen is the place where the knives are and he's already got enough knives for my taste."

Wybie pressed a finger to his chin in contemplation. "I… I think I wanna try something."

"Hm? Whatchya got in mind?"

"Well, I think my 'powers' are only in relation to the house. Yeah?"

"Uh-huh?"

"So, I just need to get a little… creative, with it."

"I'm listening."

Wybie turned his head up to look at Coraline. "Do you think it would be a good idea to restrict the fight to one room?"

"Yeah actually. We can have it be an easy, one-on-two, all-or-nothing brawl right? Easy final boss type thing?"

"Yeah, yeah. It'll keep him from escaping at least. Can you head into the living room? I think I know what I'm gonna do."

"Alright." Coraline took a few steps into the living room, taking note of the pleasant, blue flame again. "But how're you gonna get him in here?"

Wybie chuckled to himself and cracked his knuckles.

"Just watch."

The boy stretched out his arms once again, and flexed his fingers. He then closed his eyes, and slowly pulled one arm back towards himself. Coraline heard the sound of scraping wood and metal and hazarded a glance out of the hall.

The sight of the house folding in on itself and flattening rooms into walls caused a gasp to escape her mouth. It was as if the rooms were being slid flat, like a paper dollhouse that you could fold and unfold. And of course, this forced Cat out of the kitchen. The wall practically shoved him into the hall, which itself was beginning to rapidly close in on itself. Coraline eased Wybie backwards into the living room and watched as Cat slipped in as well, staring in awe and horror at the deletion of Her world. Before anything else could happen, the boy folded the Beldam's corpse away under the floor, and let his arms fall to his sides.

Wybie opened his eyes and clutched Coraline's arm which was crossed over in front of his chest protectively. The two stared at Cat, prepared to fight the moment he sprung into action. The man, and he did nearly look entirely like a man at this point, turned to face them. He was grinning. It wasn't a very pleasant grin at all, and he didn't look sadistically happy either. He wore the sort of grin you have when everything is falling apart and you can't help but laugh in distress. He wasn't laughing yet.

He did let out something between a wheeze and a sigh. Though it was a strange thing to notice at the time, Wybie couldn't help but focus on how tall the man was. Especially since his limbs were now entirely human shaped and not bent in 3 different places.

"I don't know what I expected out of you two. However, I don't think it was this."

Coraline smirked, though she couldn't keep the slight waver out of her voice. "I guess your little plan backfired, huh?"

Cat let out a dry laugh. "Yes. I suppose it has." He tilted his head around, raking his gaze across the whole room. "If I were anyone else, I suppose I would give up now."

"But you won't… will you." Wybie's words were less of a question and more of a statement.

"No. I'm afraid not. I can't give up. Not after so long. Not after all I've done. I might as well go the full nine yards, as one might say."

Coraline tightened her protective grip around Wybie as Cat twirled the knife around in his hand. Sure, he had dropped it to throttle Wybie but picked it back up with ease.

Once again, the man opposite to them sighed. "Let's… let's just get this over with."

Coraline nodded. "Gladly."

Cat bared his teeth, the last part of him that resembled a cat, and sprang forward.

Coraline threw Wybie to the side as she flung herself in the opposite direction, spinning around on her heel to avoid collapsing. Wybie formed a semi soft cushion for himself from a magically appearing sofa chair that disappeared as soon as it arrived, and Cat crashed against the floor. This didn't leave much of an impact, as he twisted himself into a flip that sent him flying over the rapidly approaching preteens.

Thankfully, Wybie thought fast and caused the ground Cat landed on to bend and distend, it's texture becoming bouncy and unstable. Cat stumbled and crashed onto his side, cursing under his breath as he tried to gain his footing. Coraline burst forward to wrench the knife out of his hands and the two began wrestling for it. Which is typically not the best thing to do in this sort of situation, but Coraline wasn't too deeply concerned about that.

Wybie was however, since somebody needed to be the logical one. Cat was easily far stronger than her, being a full grown adult, and moved to jab the knife straight into her stomach. Coraline gasped and awkwardly grabbed his wrist, attempting to hold it backwards rather than move it away. She moved to rest her other arm on the floor to gain better leverage, but the ground was still malleable and she slipped over, the wind being knocked out of her lungs from the sudden impact. Cat took the opportunity to jab the knife straight towards her and she let out a cry as she knew she could do nothing but flinch back.

Truthfully, perhaps the narrator gave Wybie too much credit when referring to him as the logical one. If he were being a bit more logical than he would have simply used his powers to deal with the situation. But he was watching his girlfriend about to be murdered so he took the more natural option to him, which was to slam into Cat headfirst. This ended up being rather beneficial for them indeed. Wybie's attack had the unintended effect of slamming Cat sideways, landing his body awkwardly in front of the mantle and, more importantly, landing his head directly in the fireplace.

Wybie had already held the man in place for a few seconds before he realized what he had done. But the smell of burning hair, of burning, melting skin… and the agonized scream that reached his ears a little too late-

Wybie jerked himself backwards and stared in sheer horror as the man forced himself out of the fireplace, screaming his throat raw as flames engulfed his entire head. The image of that melting face burned itself into Wybie's mind, even as he scooted away frantically, even as he slammed his eyes shut and clamped his hands over his ears. But it was so loud and vivid and he knew they were supposed to kill him because he was trying to kill them but he didn't want it to happen like THIS. And his hands weren't doing a good job of blocking out the noise, and he didn't notice how badly he was shaking until he felt Coraline's arms wrapped tightly around him once again. And she was burying her face in his hair, trying to avoid looking at the man whose screams frantically began to die out. And even though it had been so so so loud, the utter silence that followed the body collapsing to the ground for one last time was even louder.

The two kids remained in place for a few minutes. Neither of them wanted to open their eyes because they knew IT would be right in front of them when they did. They could smell IT, how could they not? Wybie was whimpering slightly. Perhaps it was fair. Coraline got to kill someone, right? So he should too. Haha… The thought just made him feel even sicker.

Finally, Coraline peeled open her eyes and quickly forced her gaze away from it. She stood up, and grabbed Wybie's wrist, pulling him up as well.

"It's okay… you don't have to look." She pulled him in for a hug slowly. The boy shivered for a moment, then buried his face in her neck, his arms wrapped tightly around her. He wasn't crying, not quite. But it was something similar.

"Hey… we did it, right? Everything's over now. For real." Coraline turned Wybie away from the corpse before tilting his head up to look at her. His eyes opened and he sent the smallest of smiles at her, though it looked rather defeated despite their victory.

"R- right… We did it. We can go home now, huh?"

"Yeah. We can go home now."

We can go home.