Coraline hadn't seen Beldam since the Thanksgiving before. Nothing had changed regards to her body in this world, but something told her otherwise for the Other World. Truth was...she missed Beldam and desperately wanted to see her but she knew if she stepped through that small door once more, her life would change forever and she would become destined to stay with the house-unless otherwise. She'd have a choice, but what mother would depart from her child forever?
Christmas Eve, after Coraline knew her parents were done laying presents under the Christmas tree, she walked down the stairs, the small blue blanket draped around her shoulders. She opened the door and crawled through, her lungs getting tighter, her belly getting heavy with each step forward her knees took her. Until, until she was no longer able to step up right. Now she was bent a little back with her feet and legs spaced apart. She was tired and a bit nauseous. The couch, she chose to sit on it and wait.
Soon, she smelt her.
"When am I giving birth?"
"Soon, weeks."
Coraline didn't meet Beldam's button eyes.
"You're going to outlive both of us."
Beldam nodded her head simply. "I am."
"Friends?"
"I'll create them."
"Town?"
"I'll create them," Beldam shrugged.
"Lover?"
"I'll create them."
A farce as Coraline expected, but one question hung on Coraline's mind and she was afraid of the answer.
"What will she eat?"
The Beldam was quiet, almost thinking of what she wanted to say to Coraline. When the young lady eventually looked up at the woman, Beldam smiled and shrugged.
Beldam sat next to Coraline and rubbed Coraline's stomach. She smiled and asked what the name would be. Coraline shrugged, had no idea really. Didn't put much thought into naming this soon to be baby girl.
When asked if she were hungry, Coraline was not. She was exhausted and felt like she'd been running miles. Beldam helped her to her bed upstairs, tucking her in. The next morning when she awoke, her stomach was flat, and it was Christmas. It was a fun morning that quickly went from day to evening which Coraline spent with her parents. They drank eggnog, hot coca, had a good dinner with duck and stuffing, and the presents they exchanged were exactly what they desired. Coraline didn't see Beldam that night nor the rest of the week but when she went to see Beldam the end of the following week, she was begging to give birth.
Beldam helped her with her breathing, instructing her to push as she laid with her back hard against the kitchen table surface. Her legs spread and bent up right. Beldam in between her legs, pulling the baby out, biting the umbilical cord with her own teeth.
The baby cried yet it didn't cry, for it had no eyes. The skin was white, pale just like Beldam but it wasn't thin and pointy. It was actually fat and squishy like a normal human baby. It was covered in blood and Beldam cleaned her up, sniffing her, inhaling her, loving her.
Coraline's hair was matted because of the sweat. Her vision blurred and her head went side to side. She was going in and out, and soon she was out.
When she awoke, she was in her room in bed, the covers over her, and Beldam in the chair next to her bed. The baby wrapped in a blanket, being soothed. Coraline saw the dark eyes.
"You gave her eyes," her voice raspy and a bit sore from screaming.
Beldam simply nodded and handed the baby to Coraline. Instinct had her pull down her blanket since she was nude, and pop her nipple in the baby's mouth. She began to suckle.
Coraline would learn the infant would not grow as the same rate as human infants. The infant would grow three years to one year of a human infant. Coraline realized this when the New Year came about and came to an end. Now at seventeen and getting ready for a new Christmas, Coraline had went through the crawl space to give her daughter presents. Presents that were neatly wrapped in colorful and decorative paper, plus a bow on top to seal the deal.
When she stepped out of the crawl space, shaking her hair which was now longer and to her bosoms, she heard humming coming from the kitchen. With a smile on her face, she placed the presents on the table. She greeted the little girl and Beldam both with a kiss to the cheek, and wondered what they were eating.
Coraline was about to take a seat at the end of the table, her usual spot but she saw a plate was already there. A plate that had been eaten off of.
She stood there for a moment and then looked at her daughter's plate. It was empty. Not wanting to, she slowly turned her head to the wall and saw the fifth silhouette.
Her body slammed into the table, and Beldam turned around to see Coraline heaving. Hunched over and gasping for air, Coraline noticed the empty box, two buttons missing from it. She looked at Beldam.
"You forget, Coraline. She's half human and half me. That half needs to eat as I do."
Coraline wasn't able to eat dinner. After she tucked their daughter in, Beldam tried to make love to her in their bedroom. Coraline was dry and it was difficult for Beldam to enter. She eventually had to use more force than desire, especially by the look of pain on Coraline's face. Her thrust were small, nothing powerful, still, Coraline wasn't interested.
"Stop..."
"What?"
"I said stop." Coraline said, almost shouting.
Beldam rolled off of Coraline and laid on her back under the covers.
After some silence with Coraline trying to gather her words, she eventually confronted Beldam.
"You're using her to lure children here so you can eat them."
Beldam sighed and got out of bed. To Coraline's surprised, the woman was still aroused.
"You're wrong, Coraline. I use her to lure children so we can feed off of them."
Coraline didn't say anything, only thought back to the scene in the kitchen. Beldam got back in bed and positioned Coraline's legs apart, and attempted to enter back into the young woman.
"No! I don't want to do that right now!"
Beldam got out of bed once more. She took her clothes and left the room. Coraline did her best to fall asleep and eventually she did. But when she awoke, she was still in the Other World.
She ran down stairs and found Beldam cooking breakfast, their daughter reading a book. Not wanting to cause a scene, Coraline whispered to Beldam.
"Why am I still here?"
Beldam scrunched up her nose, Coraline was ovulating. Coraline's scent was causing both of Beldam's reproductive organs to secret fluid.
The three of them sat around the table and ate breakfast. Coraline and their daughter ate breakfast, that is. Afterwards, Beldam instructed for the toddler to play outside, that a special garden was made just for her.
Once the room was cleared, Coraline and Beldam met each other's eyes.
"You don't want to stay here?"
"I was accepted into college."
"You won't be coming back? You'll leave her?"
Coraline hated to say it. It was too much. It was one thing when it was just her and Beldam. Beldam could go fifty years without eating but the child was different. Coraline couldn't handle more missing children followed by dead children, and she felt tricked into all of this. She didn't want to see Beldam nor their daughter feeding on such souls.
During the nights Coraline came to the Other World, she stayed in bed, depressed. Beldam tended to their daughter, played with her, laughed with her, sent her out to hunt and lure on her own though.
Beldam was annoyed with Coraline. She didn't understand human illnesses like depression or postpartum depression. And the more angry Beldam got, the more she desired Coraline, for it had been weeks, months since they'd been intimate. But Beldam couldn't do that to Coraline...she couldn't nor would she take Coraline by force. She...she actually loved Coraline and hadn't any desire to cause her harm.
On the last night Beldam knew Coraline wouldn't be returning to the Other World and after Coraline said her 'goodbyes' and 'love yous' to their daughter, Beldam attempted to make love one last time. Yet again, Coraline denied Beldam, unable to think but of all the dead children the house would soon be home to.
Coraline thanked Beldam though for the time being, and for allowing her to wake up in her actual world.
She awoke in her bed and she went down stairs. She stood before the small door, never to open it again. Another year had gone by and Coraline was now heading off to college. The time she spent with Beldam and her daughter was beginning to feel but a dream the longer time went on. That maybe none of it really happened. But when her parents called her while she was on campus to tell her about the most recent disappeared and missing child, Coraline knew it wasn't a dream after all but... a true nightmare, that she, herself created.
xxxx
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Disclaimer: I do not own Coraline. And thank you all for reading; it was quite fun doing this story. Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays! It's very rare for me to step outside of Naruto and Sailor Moon when it comes to fan fiction but I'm glad I did.