The Secret Room

Summary: Coraline is at Wybie's house when she notices a secret room she's never seen before and Wybie refuses to take her inside. It's up to Coraline to use her wits and sneakiness to find out what's inside that room – or she'll absolutely go insane. A SpongeBob parody.

A/N: OK, remember when I told you I had a mystery I was fixing up that had to do majorly with Cat and the Other World? Well, I did – but then this idea popped into my head. I was at dance, and in one of our dance rooms there's a closet in it and when you open it up there's some stairs that lead up to the attic of the dance studio, and I've always wondered what's up there ever since I saw those stairs – which gave me the idea for 'The Secret Room' – which is a SpongeBob parody off of 'The Secret Box', which is one of my favorite episodes. This should be SUPER funny – I hope you enjoy it!!

Oh yeah, this isn't a part of my little Coraline series, so Lucy won't be in it. It's just a little add-on one-shot. Ok, I'll stop blabbering now. On with the story!! Remember, read and review!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Coraline or its characters – that belongs to Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick.

~*~

Coraline kind of liked Wybie's house.

In fact, she kind of envied it.

There was nothing particularly special about it – it was a normal, two-story house (not counting the attic) with a living room, kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms – nothing special at all. In fact, it was smaller than Coraline's flat. But the reason she liked it was because it was her favorite color – blue (even though it was a light shade and the dark shade was the one she really liked) with dark forest green it almost looked black shutters. And another reason was because Wybie had it all to himself – and, well, his grandma of course. She had to share hers with Mr. B, Miss Spink and Forcible, and her parents, too.

And another reason, it kind of reminded her of her old house – the same color, the same simplicity.

So that was why Coraline found herself over there almost every day after school, since Coraline's grandma was still a little nervous about letting Wybie over to her house.

It was a Tuesday, and Wybie had invited her over after school to do homework, and after checking with her parents, Coraline accepted. It was a rainy November day, as usual, so she was kind of wet when she stepped into Wybie's kitchen on Wybie's heels.

"Hello, kids," said Mrs. Lovat, sitting at the kitchen table and drinking tea while looking at a Hallmark magazine. "How was school?"

"Good," said Wybie as he hung his jacket on the coat hanger.

"Boring," Coraline said as she followed suit.

"That's nice," Mrs. Lovat commented as she turned the page of the magazine. Wybie rolled his eyes at Coraline and she hid a smirk.

"Well, we're going to go upstairs in my room and do our homework, okay, Gramma?" asked Wybie as he made his way for the door.

"Sure, sure," Mrs. Lovat waved her hand. "Just leave the door open, would you, Wybourne?"

Wybie scowled, blushing furiously. "Mo-o-om!" he whined, making Coraline laugh. The two friends headed up the stairs. As they were passing through the hallway, Coraline stopped and noticed a narrow door almost hidden in the wallpaper. In fact, it was the same pattern of the wallpaper. The only thing that made her think it wasn't the wallpaper was the door-knob sticking out.

"Hey, Wybie," called Coraline.

"Huh?" Wybie whirled around, cocking his head to a side.

Coraline pointed to the door. "Where does this go?" she asked.

Wybie looked surprise and then stammered out, "O-o-oh…w-well, it goes to the a-attic. N-n-nothing special, J-Jonesy."

"No it doesn't," Coraline said impatiently. She didn't like being lied to. "The attic door is up there." She pointed above her head to a trap-door with a rope hanging down to open up and get inside the attic. She turned to observe the door further. "Is it, like, a closet or something?" she reached out to open it.

"No!" shouted Wybie, lunging in front of it. Coraline jumped back, her eyes wide with shock. "I mean…" Wybie stammered, his face turning red and rubbing the back of his neck. "It's…really leaky…up there…don't want…water getting…down here…" he cleared his throat and continued, "Are we going to go to my room or not?"

Coraline stared at the door for a moment, and then turned back to Wybie, her eyebrows furrowed. "I guess." But her voice was full of doubt.

~*~

All through that week, the door bugged Coraline. She couldn't tell her parents – they'd think she was insane. So every time she was at Wybie's house, she made up excuses to get out of his watchful eye and check the door. But then something would occur and either Wybie or his grandmother would stop her, which made her wonder if his grandma was in on the secret too.

Every night, Coraline would ponder about the door a bit before she went to sleep. What was so important that Wybie didn't want her looking at?

That Saturday, Wybie invited her over to spend the night – something they rarely did together, since boys and girls don't usually spend the night with each other. But Coraline's mom said it was fine, as long as they kept the door open at his house and his grandma was near, which made Coraline blush this time.

And once it was all set up, Mrs. Lovat was driving her over to Wybie's. The first thing they did was do homework while talking about how evil Mr. Batford was and how he was always making out with Mrs. Hamlet in the teacher's lounge. Then Mrs. Lovat made them some peanut brittle and they ate that while sipping milk and surfing the web. Then they watched TV for a while – Wybie refused to watch iCarly and Coraline refused to watch Wolverine and the X-Men, so they settled on watching the first two Bourne movies, since Coraline had never seen them and Wybie hadn't seen them in a while.

Then Mrs. Lovat said it was time to go to bed so they set up their sleeping bags in the living room while Wybie's grandma settled in the guest bedroom next door so she could keep an eye on them, which made them both blush. They watched TV for a while, keeping the volume down low, and then looked through one of Coraline's Nickelodeon magazines. After they were done with that, they began to talk – mostly about school. No one brought up the Other World, though, and that was how it usually was. If someone did, the other person would quickly change the subject. The person who brought it up was usually Wybie.

Around 1:30 they started to get tired and their chatting came to a close, and it wasn't long after that when Coraline remembered the door.

"Hey Wybie?" the blue-haired girl asked, causing the boy next to her to jump. "What?" he asked crabbily, as he had just been almost asleep.

"Well…I was just wondering…" her voice trailed off. "You know that door upstairs? In the wallpaper?" Wybie froze but Coraline continued, "What is behind it?"

"I told you," Wybie said after a pause. "It's –"

"It is not the attic, why-were-you-born, now tell me why you keep ly –"

Wybie cut her off by saying, "Want some chocolate milk?"

Coraline looked at him weirdly for a moment before sighing. "I guess," she said, knowing that she couldn't win this battle without waking his grandma up.

Rubbing his neck awkwardly, he quickly scooted out of the room, leaving Coraline to sit and ponder by herself. What was behind that door that Wybie didn't want her finding out about?

What if Wybie's grandma was an axe-murderer and kept the bodies of her victims in there? Or what if she was a kidnapper and had a bunch of little kids in there that had died from hunger and thirst? Or what if Wybie was a jewel thief and he and his grandma kept the jewels in there? Or what if…

Suddenly Coraline gasped and bolted up straight. What if there's another door to the Other World that I never knew about and Wybie does know about it and it's behind that door?

Her heart pounded louder and louder as Wybie walked back in the room with more peanut brittle and two glasses of chocolate milk. He handed a glass to Wybie and she took it with shaky hands. He lifted an eyebrow. "You okay?" he asked, draining the glass in one big gulp.

"Uh…yeah," Coraline lied, sipping her milk and trying to get her hands to stop shaking. She sat on them, which seemed to work but it didn't stop her heart from pounding. "I'm fine, why?"

Wybie shrugged, biting into some peanut brittle. "I dunno, you just look kinda freaked out." He wiped the milk mustache away with his sleeve. He handed her the plate of peanut brittle. "Want some?"

"N-no thanks," Coraline said, trying to stop her voice from sounding so shaky.

Wybie shrugged again, popping more into his mouth. "Okay. More for me."

Coraline sat, sweating pounds. Why was her heart so loud? Why was the clock so loud? Why was Wybie munching so loud? Why was everything so loud? She just couldn't stand it. She had to find out what was behind that door. She jumped up abruptly, upsetting the glass of chocolate milk. Luckily Wybie saved it before it hit the floor. "Uh…I gotta go to the bathroom. Now."

Raising his eyebrows, Wybie said, "Uh…okay?"

Without another word, she spun around and marched up the stairs until she was well out of sight of Wybie, then she made a mad dash down the hallway. There it was. The door. Coraline's hands shook harder as she took a deep breath and set her hand on the cold knob. Taking another deep breath, she yanked open the door, clenching her eyes tight. Finally she opened it.

There were no dead bodies.

No jewels.

No little dead children.

No blue and purple tye-dyed tunnel.

Just stairs.

"Huh?" Coraline whispered aloud, her voice no longer shaky. Why were there stairs? The attic was above her head, and there wasn't another floor.

Maybe there are two ways into the attic, Coraline thought. Or maybe there are two rooms up in the attic. Well, at least I know there's nothing dangerous or anything.

But, she thought, hesitating. Since I've already come so far…it won't hurt if I go inside, now will it?

No, she answered for herself. It won't.

Taking another deep breath, she ascended the stairs. It was almost like a scary movie, she couldn't help but think. Except there was nothing to be scared of because it was just an attic.

When she reached the top, she realized it was a room separate from the attic and almost completely empty except for a small window in the corner that cast the room in an eerie blue glow from the moon.

Simple enough. Nothing weird, nothing scary.

But Coraline's feet wouldn't budge. She wanted to see the entire room.

So she took a step forward –

And gasped.

The light was poor, so it was hard to tell where she was walking and it seemed to her she had brushed into something hanging down from the ceiling. Her first thought was spider web, but it didn't feel like that. More like a stuffed animal or something. Using both hands, she yanked it down and walked cautiously into the glow of the moonlight.

It wasn't a spider web at all.

It was a doll with long blonde hair and a blue hoodie with jeans. She didn't know who it was supposed to look like. Maybe it was just a doll.

But there was something strange about it. It wasn't like an ordinary doll. Sure, it looked ordinary from a distance, but up-front in the light it looked eerie…but Coraline couldn't figure out why.

Then she saw it.

Instead of eyes, it had two big black buttons.

Coraline shrieked and flung it against the wall where it made a loud thump as it bounced off and thudded against the floor. She pressed her hands tight against her lips to keep herself from screaming aloud. It was probably just a coincidence, right? Right?

So Coraline continued to move forward, nearly tripping on the tassled rug on the floor that looked like a giant cushion. Wait a second…if it were black, it would look like…a button. Coraline shivered and stepped around it, reminding herself that all cushions looked like that.

As she kept on walking, she found a table at the far end of the room. On it was a black box with a red satin ribbon with gold lining. And she did what any curious explorer might do – she opened it.

Big mistake.

She lifted the box to reveal a red cushion with two black buttons on top, followed by a spool of thread and a horizontal needle, making it look just like the face from sewing class and just like the face inside the box her Other Mother had given to her.

. .

.

–

But instead of fainting, she did something much more sensible.

She screamed and ran. Ran out of the room, shut the door, ran past Wybie, ran past his grandma's room, and jumped into her sleeping back and zipped it up all around her and huddled into a ball.

Wybie stood in the hallway across from the door, a smug smile on his face. "That's what you get for snooping through my stuff," he said, popping another piece of peanut brittle into his mouth.

FIN

~*~

A/N: The end!! Sorry it was kinda short, but that's how I wanted it – short and sweet and to the point. Review, please!! I'll give you virtual peanut brittle!! ;) Thanks for reading! Review!! Das Vidania!

~ Cora ~