It was a normal day around the Pink Palace; It was gray and dusty. Coraline stretched herself in the muggy weather with fog coiling around her knees. She smiled up at the sun which looked like a pale white ball behind the heavy clouds. When her family had moved here three years ago, she had found this weather incredibly...sluggish. Now she was used to it and the boring routine. But thanks to the 'incident', she never complained.

There was a tiny door she had found when she was twelve, now she was fifteen. There wasn't much to do but talk to her only friend, Wybie. Yet, he didn't really visit that much. His grandmother was still paranoid thinking those two were up to trouble. She was half right- only he was the one. He was a bit creepy: some of his activities were capturing slugs, wearing a mask, using motorcycles, grabbing random carcasses to use in his taxidermy experiments. However, this was nothing compared to what she had seen behind the door.

As she hopped down the steps and onto the muddy ground, she noticed an old friend curled up on a rotting log. He wasn't human. He was a black cat she and Wybie decided to keep as their own. She smiled at the old cat who got up to greet her blinking his electric blue eyes blinking. She scooped him up and rubbed him behind his ears.

"Hello there Cat. How are you this morning?" Of course, he didn't answer. He had never answered back since the 'incident'. Never again would she talk about it, yet nightmares plagued her mind still.

Coraline started on her way through the large dead garden cuddling the cat in her arms. She was currently on winter break, but there was no snow. It hardly ever snowed around here. Just more fog. The blue-haired girl couldn't help but yawn in the balmy weather, wondering what to do. Not much to explore here and her friends back at her old home had forgotten her.

As Coraline approached the old well, Cat jumped out of her arms, seeming suddenly alarmed. Coraline tilted her head as she walked over to where Cat was sniffing in the tall weeds to find...a large hole? It was a lot like the old well, but this one was uncovered. There was green, fresh grass growing around it. Coraline knelt next to this hole and peered down.

"...Well, it's probably just as deep as the old well. But what is it? It wasn't here before, was it Cat?" Cat shook his head in response. "Look, there even is fresh grass, how is it possible?"

Though he couldn't talk to Coraline in this world, she did not doubt that the feline at least understood her. Coraline picked up a nearby pebble and dropped it into the hole. She waited...and waited...and waited...and still heard nothing. Cat twitched his ear and turned away from the hole, urging her to stand back as well. Coraline raised her brow, "What, are you bored already?."

Cat shook his head and trotted away...he seemed...uncomfortable. Coraline got up, thinking that she needed to show this to Wybie. But as she stood, her galoshes slipped in the mud and she flailed her arms out in a desperate attempt to keep her balance. But she tumbled down into the darkness, hearing the yowling of Cat above her. As she fell, Coraline couldn't help but wonder, 'was this what the Other Mother's hand felt like, all those years ago?'

Cat sighed and jumped into the darkness. Silly, clumsy girl. After what happened last time, couldn't she understand?! In this land, the curtains that separate her world from others are paper thin. Never go to unknown places (and certainty not down mysteriously appearing holes)! You never know what's on the other side of these walls or what their intentions to foreigners are. This is no bedtime story, this was real! She should have been careful, now she was in another mess.

Coraline fell with a soft thump, the landing had been much much softer than she'd thought, considering how long she'd been falling. The bluenette thought she'd be nothing but a smudge on the ground by now. "Ooowww, ow, ouch..." She rubbed at her tail bone.

It was a softer landing than she'd thought, but it wasn't TOO gentle. She heard a soft thumping near her and a feline growl.

"How many times must these things happen you clumsy girl?! Never EVER go to unknown places!" Cat scolded in his surprisingly deep voice. Coraline huffed and looked away, "I'm sorry Cat. I was curious and I fell..." Cat sighed in annoyance, 'Such a stubborn child...'

Coraline suddenly stiffened and pointed at Cat, "Hey, you can talk here!"

Cat sniffed and licked his paw, "You forget; I ALWAYS talk. YOU just don't always UNDERSTAND." Coraline stood and looked about. They were...outside? But how?

"Cat...where in the world are we? Do you believe its the otherworld?"

"Hey, brother! Look, an intruder!"

Coraline and Cat turned to see two boys, identical aside from their blue vs. red eyes and uniforms, pointing large axes at Coraline.

Trying not to be intimidated, Coraline cleared her throat, "...Who are you?"

"I'm Tweedle Dee!"

"And I'm Tweedle Dum!"

"We're the guards here! "

"We eliminate trespassers"

Coraline tilted her head at the odd names, but she heard Cat hiss quietly at her feet.

"And don't worry," Dee, said. "Because you're pretty, we'll kill you painlessly!"

"Right! We will even keep your pretty head and put it in our room!"

The other one finished the sentence and they both hefted their axes, taking a menacing step towards Coraline. Her mind spun as she tried to come up with some way out of this. Quietly scolding herself because Cat had warned her. She weighed her options, rocks, or throwing Cat? No...Cat might get angry. But none was necessary, she was saved!

"DEE! DUM! What do you two think you're doing?!" Coraline and the Tweedle twins turned to see an older girl with dirty blonde hair and blue dress running up to the fancy gates (that Coraline had barely noticed were there). Now that she and Cat were able to see her better they noticed her long, blonde hair and clear blue eyes. The twins' menacing demeanor vanished as they tackled the girl, yelling, "Big Sis! Did you come to visit us? We missed you!"

The girl threw the two boys off of her, for they were messing her blue Victorian dress. She seemed furious at what they had done "No, I came to bring back the books I borrowed! And what do I find? You two, terrorizing this poor defenseless girl!" She turned from them, clearly angry, but put on a smile as she approached Coraline. "Hello, my name is Alice Liddell. It is my pleasure to greet you. May I have your name?" She threw a glare at the boys, "I doubt they were considerate enough to ask." They stayed silent but threw a puppy look at her.

"My name is Coraline Jones and this is Cat. Where are we?" Coraline stooped down and picked up Cat as she said this, nervous about the prospect of being caught up in the otherworld.

Alice paused, and then a sunny grin spread on her face, "This is Wonderland- the country of hearts, to be exact. So you...you must be a foreigner!"

Coraline nodded hesitantly, "Yeah...so what's your plan? It sounded like you guys were going to eat me, just plain kill me, but perhaps you are just keeping me here as your slave?"

The twins and Alice all stared at her in surprise and Cat sighed, "Coraline, I think this girl is from your world as well. And I don't think that this 'Wonderland' is like the Otherworld."

Alice and the twins stared at Cat, then back at Coraline, in shock. Coraline however, only looked down at the talking feline, "Maybe you're right Cat, but I don't feel like taking chances when it comes to other worlds. Fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice, shame on me. Plus...I am skeptical of anything Victorian"

Alice stared at Coraline, "What do you mean by that?!"

"Before I explain anything, how do I get out of here?"

Alice sighed, "Check your pockets."

Coraline was confused but did as she was told, and pulled out a black crystal vial with a white mask stopper. Strangely enough, this was just like the key, she shuddered a bit, hoping desperately to find a way home without psychos wanting to eat her. But she was soon interrupted from her musings when Cat pawed her shoulder.

Alice pointed to it, "You need to drink that. It'll help you get back."

Cat hissed, but Coraline had already swallowed the clear contents of the vial before he could say anything. She gagged immediately and coughed, "Ewwww! That stuff tastes worse than Dad's tea!"

The twins and Alice grimaced while Cat glared at the 15-year-old girl, "CORALINE!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to waste the only-!"

"You should know better than to go drinking things from other dimensions that magically appeared in your pocket! This is the second time you've done something out of curiosity! Have you not heard the saying?!"

Coraline sulked with a hurt expression, "Well, the nice lady from OUR world said it was the only way to get home..."

Alice stared at the strange, bickering duo, and sighed, taking Coraline's shoulder, "Well Coraline, I suppose I should explain better. Now that you've taken the potion, you must participate in the game. The game is simply to interact with the Role Holders-or, more specifically, the people with faces. The people who don't have faces are called Staff and aren't important to winning the game. Here, life is not taken seriously because everybody has a clock for a heart, and each time somebody dies, their clock is repaired and they are 'replaced'. Which is pretty much them coming back to life with no memory of who they were. In Wonderland, there are six territories. The Circus and the prison (the most dangerous places in Wonderland, so you'd do well to steer clear), the tower of clover- the only real neutral territory in the three-way power struggle, the Castle of Hearts, the Hatter's Mansion, and the Amusement Park. It's the latter three of those that are fighting. Do you have all that?"

Coraline groaned at her own stupidity, 'How could I be so dense?! now I'm ONCE AGAIN trapped in a game-loving death trap universe full of people who want me dead!' Cat sniffed and gave her an 'I told you so' look.

Coraline ignored Cat's look but slapped her forehead, "Oh, just perfect! Trapped in another game of life or death! I guess I should explain my story, right?"

"Yay! Storytime!" The twins cheered and dragged Alice, much to her displeasure, to sit in a circle around Coraline on the dirt ground in front of the gates. Since when were there giant mushrooms to serve as seats? At this point, Coraline decided not to ask, sitting on one of them and putting Cat in another she took a deep breath.

"Alright, I'll give you all the abridged version. Three years ago, when I was twelve, my parents and I, moved into the Pink Palace. Not as nice as it sounds, as it's not really a palace. It's just a really old, really big Victorian mansion that got divided up into apartment complexes. My family lived in the ground floor apartment. Not far from the apartment was this really deep well. I heard it was built a long time ago, and that it's so deep, that if you fell to the bottom and looked up, you'd see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day. Well, it's either that or a fairy-circle."

"There are fairies over there?" asked Dee in wonder.

"No" answered Cat licking his paw.

"Well, when we first moved into the house, I met the other tenants. A pair of lesbian performers, and a magician who claimed to be able to control rodents. Mr. Bobinsky, who lived in the attic. Oh, and I met Cat here and the grandson of the landlady, Wybie. Then there was a pair of actresses, Mrs. Spink and Mrs. Forcible. And let me tell you, they're crazy. Also, while I was exploring the house, I found the little door. Mom said it was a dumbwaiter" Coraline and Cat both shuddered slightly.

"I wanted to see how it worked, maybe send snacks to my room in that dumb-elevator thingy. So, after a lot of convincing, my mom took out this black key and tore up the wallpaper. But, there was nothing on the other side but bricks. Like…why? That isn't fair!"

"Coraline, it's ok, you don't need a dumbwaiter. That's why we have maids" consoled Alice.

"In her time, her world, there is no such thing but for the rich and superficial," said Cat calmly.

"Yea…" mumbled Coraline slightly ashamed. "Well…anyways…it took seven nights. During which I would have to stay home and talk to myself. Mom never let me out, you see. Until the seventh night. I woke up to see a mouse running in my room. So, supposing it was a dream, I chased it down into the family room and saw that the little door was open. I pulled it all the way open...and there was a tunnel. Not bricks. No elevator. Like…getting into another dimension!"

"Oh my…" whispered Alice.

"Oooohhh! We need one of those!" exclaimed the twins.

"No, you don't," said Cat, slightly suspicious of how exaggerated the reactions of the Tweedle's were. What were they hiding?

"I got curious...so I went through." Coraline took a deep breath, "I don't like to talk about this, so I'll keep it brief. On the other side of the door was a copy of my house, and there was a woman in the kitchen. She...looked a lot like my mother...except..."

The listeners all leaned in, "...Except for what?"

Coraline twisted uncomfortably, feeling that all eyes were set on her back, "...Except she had black buttons for eyes. She called herself my Other Mother. And then she had me fetch this guy who looked like my dad. Called him the Other Father. Then we had dinner. And...it was amazing. The best meal I've ever had. And then they took me up to my 'room' and what I saw…I will never forget. Everything was so alive. Magic in the air! It even smelled like candy! They put me to bed and...I woke up in my real room."

"That sucks," said Dee pouting.

"Indeed!" agreed Dum.

"Do not mind them, please continue!" said Alice shushing the boys.

"And the next night...I went back again. Everything in that world...was perfect. It wasn't boring, or dull, Others all loved me and remembered my name... But then, I met Cat again. You see, he can't talk in my world. Or at least, I don't understand him. But I could understand him in the Otherworld. He tried to warn me that the Other Mother wasn't perfect." Coraline glanced down at the silent feline meaningfully, "I should've listened to you."

"You know you should…" said the Cat calmly.

"It was super cool! Even an imaginary friend from my childhood was brought to life. I remember that day we were playing hide and seek, Flora (my imaginary friend), Other Wybie, and me. That was 'till Other Mother and Other Father took me up to the dining room...and gave me a present." Coraline shivered violently this time, "It was a thread, needle, and two black buttons."

Alice's jaw gaped in dawning horror, yet the twins murmured gleefully. "Oh! cool! we should do that! Now the faceless toys will have eyes."

"No! You will not do such a thing!" scolded the blonde horrified at the idea "Please, continue."

"They tried to convince me, but I said I needed to sleep on it. And I went to bed...but when I woke up, I was still there." Coraline, growing tired of talking about it, tried to finish it up as quickly as possible, "During my stay, I met the ghosts of three other kids that she had lured and trapped in the Otherworld. The Other Mother did, I mean. The kids called her the Beldam. They told me that she had their eyes. And then Other Wybie and Flora came and helped me escape back to my world. They fought hard, I-I saw her dying…my best friend. And then…she yelled at me to go inside. So I did…" She tried not to cry, almost choking on her words. Flora wouldn't like that "When I arrived I found out that witch had taken my parents, so...I went back."

"Why would you do something so stupid?" asked the twins in unison. Genuinely curious as to why she would go somewhere to die.

"I had to!" defended Coraline exasperated.

"It was a trap," said Dum.

"Bet it was" added Dee.

"That's neither nice nor polite!" scolded Alice again.

"They're right, she was waiting for me. When I got to the other side, she took the key and swallowed it. There's only one key, and as long as she had it, I was trapped. I made a deal with her; that I could find my parents and the eyes of the ghost children. And longer story shorter, I found all of the eyes and met her in the Other family room. As one of the ghost kids warned me, she wouldn't have let me go even if I won."

The three listeners noticed how she had stopped talking about her supposed friends. They could only imagine what had happened. Alice felt bad for her, t was one thing to find a stranger's body dissolving to smoke, and another completely different if you knew the person so deeply.

"So, I tricked her. She laughed and coughed up the key, opening the door. I remember what she said...' You're wrong, Coraline. Now, you're going to stay here, FOREVER.' I threw Cat at her and he scratched out her button eyes." Coraline glanced down at Cat, "Again, sorry about that."

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"I grabbed the music box that she really hid my parents in and ran for the door. In the end, I beat her. I knew something was missing, so like in any horror story, I had to get rid of everything! So, in the middle of the night, I ran outside, to the old well to throw in the key, but as I was throwing it in, the Other Mother's severed hand came flying at me! It was alright though. Wybie showed up and together, we won!"

Coraline breathed deep as she finished her tale and the other three stared at her in shock and awe. Alice stood, "Well, it's no wonder you thought we might eat you! If I had experienced something like that, I wouldn't trust any of these psychos!"

"Aww sis, we ain't psychos!"

The argument was interrupted by slow clapping "It is indeed an interesting story young lady. May I ask your name?" All heads spun to see two men.

Coraline's eyebrows raised at the man in the top hat and the one with bunny ears. "Umm...I'm Coraline Jones, this is Cat. Uh, sorry for invading, we fell here."

The man smiled and graciously bowed, "Very well young lady. My name is Blood Dupree. And this is my subordinate Elliot March." The man pointed to his rabbit-like companion as he said the last part.

Coraline shook Blood's offered hand, "It's nice to meet you, sir."

Alice put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder, giving Blood a bit of a smile "So where are you staying Coraline?"

Coraline wrinkled her nose, "I guess with you. I'm not trusting anybody here except you and Cat."

Alice smiled cheerily, "Well then, that's settled! It's getting late, so we should head back to the Clover Tower."

Coraline nodded, deciding to just go with the flow for now, and said goodbye to the Mafiosos as they walked to the tower. Coraline and Alice chatted about random things, and Cat commented about how humans talk so much about such silly things. Behind was left the mafioso family, staring at the retreating girls and cat.

"Certainly interesting, another foreigner," said Blood thoughtfully. "Wonder who shall win this round?"

"What do you mean boss?" asked Elliot.

"Well, as I won the recent game, everyone else will fall for this girl. It will be entertaining"

"When will big sis live with us?" asked the twins curiously.

"Alice will do so after Joker Season, or so she mentioned."