Doorways open up and close, more ways to a punch line
They're all laughing at your clothes, standing in the lunch line
You're the talk of the town cause you're up and you're down
It's a cycle, I've found, it always comes around
But I will still be laughing, yes I will still be laughing
Air raids in the afternoon, the children are playing
Switchblades, colored red balloons, no one hears your praying
And it comes back to you, all the things that you do
We'll come looking for you, we'll come looking for you
But I will still be laughing, yes I will still be laughing
Doorways lead to other rooms, always leave you lying
Face down in a stranger's tomb, didn't know you were dying
And you rise and you fall, and you wait for the call
You're watching the walls, you're watching the walls
But I will still be laughing, I will still be laughing
Yes I will still be laughing, I will still be laughing
-Soul Asylum ("I Will Still Be Laughing")
Chapter 2: Curiosity
Coraline was at a standstill, lost in her mix of shock and horror, she found herself barely was able to utter "Oh… My… Gosh!"
"No…." Wybourne began shaking his head in disbelief, then dropping to his knees to begin outright sobbing.
The Cat was dead. The unfortunate souls had found their deceased pet's corpse impaled by a knitting needle on the Pink Palace sign. It sat on there like wheel on a axel, rocking back and forth gently in the breeze. The two began to weep at the grisly site, unable to even get the moments composer to do the decent thing and take down the animal. Try as he might, Wybourne would find he could not do a single thing but cry.
"That fucking bitch!" He finally had manage to yell at the top of his lungs, shaking his fist at the sky before bringing it back to the earth with a resounding thud. He then repeatedly began slamming his hand down in this motion several times. A fly meanwhile found a nesting site on empty green eye of the corpse.
Coraline nodded with a sniff "You think it was Her?"
"Are you fucking kidding me, Jonesy?!" Wybourne snapped "Open your fucking eyes! Look at the blood on the fucking sign!" The frustrated boy pointed to the sign "The fucking bitch drew a God damn button in the blood! Who else would do that, Jonsey?"
"Look I'm just as upset as you Wybie but-" she kneeled down and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. While she had nothing but the utmost sympathy for him right now, his loud cursing threatened to disturb her neighbors… And the last thing that would help this situation, Coraline realized, would be for anyone to see the dead animal on the sign and possibly calling the police. It would simply complicate a situation that was all ready terrible complicated as it was now.
"Just as upset?" He ripped his shoulder from her comforting grasp "Just as upset?!" He repeated, rising to his feet and turning to his friend, who at this very moment may as well been Other Mother for all he cared. His loving feral cat was dead, and he was ready to unleash the hurt on poor Coraline. "Upset isn't even the God damn word for it, Coraline, this is bullshit! No no, I've been screwed over plenty of times in my life. Everybody screws with me, and no one gives a fucking shit. With the politics of that fucking school. With the fact that I'm half black… And I always let it roll right off my back! I always say "we'll you know, right on!" 'cause that's me! Good old laid back punching bag Wybourne Lovat! Am I suppose to look at my cat up there and say right on to this? NO! Fuck you, This isn't right on at all! Fucking bullshit!" He took a moment to wipe the tears from eyes and take a deep breath. "How am I suppose to just let this go huh? Please, tell me, 'cause I wanna know! Some monster from your past comes back from the dead, and it kills my cat! How is that fair in the least bit?! Why the hell did you have to open that fucking door in the fucking first place you fucking idoit?!"
"She had a vendetta against the cat, you knew that!" Coraline shouted back "It wasn't my fault he's dead! He had been going to Her world on his own for God knows how long, Wybie! Sooner or later Other Mother was bound to catch him eventually!" She leaned back and slapped him "And fuck you for insulting me like that!"
Wybourne rubbed his face, first taken back by the shock, then filled with an explosive Bruce Banner like rage. He punched the girl, hard, in the stomach… And for just a second, was shocked by his own actions.
"You made me do that! That's for all the fucking years of you hitting me! That's for killing my fucking cat!" He defended his actions to both the gasping Coraline as well as his own conscientious. "And you know what else? I'm sick of you Coraline! I'm sick of the way you treat me like I'm invisible when we're in school. You mock me even, because I'm not part of your precious little popular clique. Go ahead and have fun at the end of the year dance, cause you know what they do to new cheerleaders, right? Your gonna be sucking dick of some greasy jock, and he's not gonna give a damn about you while you do it!" He was a furious fury of sadness and rage. "None of them will give a damn about you…. Like… I…." He trailed off, and in his frustration yelled at the sky.
Wybourne relinquish his pet from the sign post and placed it in his coat. He hopped on his bike and drove off with out saying a word, leaving only a trail of tears.
Coraline laid in the dirt for several minutes after, staring at the button drawing on the sign. Her stomach hurt tremendously, as did her head. Yet what she remained shocked the most was Wybourne had found the nerve enough to hit a another human being.
"He used to be such a nice kid…" She muttered to herself. "How many more people will have to be hurt by that witch?"
Coraline stared hard at that button with a deep searing resentment. Other Mother was not only back, she already had succeeded in bullying the two of them… getting their nerves unraveled….
Coraline came to a conclusion: This story had to end, once and for all.
***
To Coraline Jones, the mysterious black cat had been a savior. It had been true hero that day she took on the Other Mother, and certainly she'd owe it entirely to him for aiding in her victory. This was all well and fine, but Wybourne cared little about this, to him it was his pet.
Few things can garner tears from a teenage boy's eye: Death, and women. Everything else gets filed along a vertical line that starts with contentness and goes as low as pure rage. Sadness, for boys, is a complete separate emotion. Sadness is a rage that has no target, so it comes out as tears (Or is suppressed and bottled up until the kid flys off the handle).
Wybourne was still crying, and had no intention of stopping anytime soon. Simply crying wasn't enough, however to vent his sadness, so he turned to destruction. He ripped the posters from his walls, threw various models and risen sculptures of various superheroes against the wall. He took great care not to touch the carcass of his deceased family that laid wrapped in a towel on his bed. Still he wasn't satisfied, so he decided to do what every adult male does when confronted with the same feelings.
He turned to alcohol.
Grandma's red whine. It didn't take much, only a few gulps, and he started to feel it. The swaying and the fuzzyness. Soon the pain of the murder lost it's sting, but nothing in the world could make him happy… Not at this point. Everything he sees slowly falls into stylized black and whiteness. He's calm, finally, no longer crying, he can think. Laying next to his deceased pet on the bed, stroking it's hair, he starts watching Frank Miller's SinCity. When Hartigan said "No need to play it quiet, not anymore." that's when the cat began talking.
"You're drinkkkking Why-Were-Your-Born…" Hacked the dead cat, it doesn't sound like the cool velvet Jonesy describe. It's coarse and sickly, like it was ripped from the same movie. "You know that's not goooooooddddd for you!"
"Shut up. You're dead. I'm imagining this, my minds so shot it's just copying the scene from the movie. So, shut up."
"Tellls you something about your state of mind, doesn't? Ssgot you drinking… Ssgot your nerves shot… You know she'll neverrrrr forgive you for hitting her." The Cat went on "You know, it's true, your just like your dead father. An alcoholic isss and alcoholic when the chips are down, and your chips are down, Wybourne." He weezed threw the hole in his neck.
"Nonsense…" Wybourne responded despond, "And She will… She has too…" He shook his head "And shut up" another sip of whine.
"wwwhhhyyyy should she? How can you expect to protect her if you can't even keep your cool? Just like your old man!" The Cat giggled. "Are you gonna hit Other Mother with another rock?"
Wybourne couldn't even bring himself to tell the Cat to shut up this time. Sure he was dead. Sure he was an asshole. Sure he was just playing out a scene from the movie in his head. That didn't change the fact the Cat was completely right.
He had chosen the movie "Sin City" for a reason. It wasn't for mild comfort, no, that was what the whine was for. This was a personal pep talk for himself, for Wybourne realized quickly that Other Mother wasn't playing around this time. He didn't know if Coraline had realized it yet, but Wybourne was sure that the death of his pet would just be the start. There would be more blood spilt before this was over. He was just a kid, and he felt all the world like fate was asking to much of him. He had to get away and ask himself: would it be worth continuing down this path with Coraline? If push came to shove, could Wybourne sacrifice him self like the character Hartigan? Like Marv?
His cat was dead. Next it could be Grandma… Or worse himself. If he didn't help it could very well end up being… End up being the only girl who'd ever been remotely nice to him… The only girl that remotely gave a damn.
"Ssgot to ask yourself Wybie…" Hack the cat "Is that little blue haired whore worth dying over?"
Pushed him to far, The Cat did. He threw the body back inside his knapsack, it muffled something in audible. Wybourne made a promise to himself then and there, he'd see this to the end with her.
"Worth dying for, worth killing for, worth going to hell for." He echoed Marv's words.
***
It was quick when I killed that filthy thing, Other Mother thought as She slipped from the Real to Her Other World, She was reflecting upon killing Her rival. She sighed to herself and drummed Her finger on Her long lanky folded arms. In the grand list of things that troubled the evil witch-god, a list were 1 threw 5 were dominated by Coraline, the death of The Cat was number 6.
It would be a mistake to say She regretted killing Him per-se. No, that disgusting thing had to die, but it was the way in which she had killed him that she regretted: fast and quick. Though Other Mother was an admitted cheater when the chips were down, so was the Cat. They were two sides of the same coin, in that respect, and out of respect for this shared trait She felt She should of should of taken greater care in his demise.
Instead she merely jumped on instinct, seeing an opening after learning his trip to escape… She grabbed Her knitting needle and stabbed him threw the neck. He was dead before he even had a chance to have it register… And that was that. No long drawn out diatribe, no spectacular theater death. Though She had a dislike for him, he had been a constant source of amusement during Her long period of isolation… Probably The Cat would have been the closest thing She'd ever have to a friend. He deserved a better murder then what he got.
"I won't make the same mistake twice!" She said, quite possibly wiping a tear away from Her eyes…She was empathetic, if in Her own twisted morbid way. She opened up Her sewing kit, the tools with in She would use to create an arena in Her world for Her deadly game with an unsuspecting Coraline. "I'll see to it Coraline suffers enough for you too, lil kitty."
She hummed to herself maniacally as she pulled out the remains of the Other Wybourne.
***
Coraline stood on the porch, she watched as the sun set. I can't believe it, she thought, The Cat is actually dead. She teared up as she recalled the memories of her previous misadventure, where she narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Other Mother. She had owed that little kitty her life, it was that very reason she had insisted despite her mother's near constant complaining that the mangy thing be fed every night.
"If we feed it it'll never leave!" her mother would whine.
"Mom you don't understand, we're lucky me and Wybie have this cat." Coraline would always respond "real lucky" she'd then insist.
But now, there would be no late night feedings. The Cat was dead, and no amount of wishing would change that fact. She wondered for a moment if the Cat's soul would then descend to heaven, but shook her head. Animal's had no souls, or at least that's what her Sunday school class would have led her to believe. No, Coraline reasoned, if there was any purpose to existence at all there would be at least a good place for good people and that Cat would absolutely be there now.
The bruise that Wybourne had left her with twinged, bringing her back from her mourning mindset. She lifted up her shirt, noticing the nice size bruise. It was completely unacceptable for Wybourne to have attacked her completely unprovoked… Still she couldn't find it in herself to be too angry with the boy- He came home from school and now he was burying his pet of the last decade… Coraline shook her head, she didn't want to meet the boy that was rational after dealing with that. Plus knowing her dear friend, he'd eventually come around seeking her forgiveness and she'd give it to him… after he jumped threw a few hoops for her, of course.
While Coraline stood there in thought however, behind her the front door slowly opened and a serpent-like knit scarf slithered across the wood plank floor silently. It's string tassel tongue flickered like it's real world snake counterpart, licking the air and tasting Coraline's perfume… She barely felt it when it wrapped around her leg.
"wha…? AHHH!" Coraline yelled, upon feeling the scarf's squeezing around her inner right thigh, bringing back flash memories of the snap dragons that nearly dragged her into the mouth of the stone wall. She unsuccessfully tried pulling the cloth from her person, and was then attacked by several more scarves that shot out like bullets from the front door.. Each wrapped around an appendage.
Coraline grabbed on to the rail of the porch fence, it was pretty obvious scarves were trying to drag her to the hole in the wall. "No!" Coraline yelled "I won't go! Mom! Dad!" She cried with the calls falling on deaf ears "Where are you? Wybourne! Help!" She shouted.
Her grip slipped, and she was dragged into the cold black darkness of the Other World.
***
It felt like she had been out for hours, but with no perception of time Coraline Jones had absolutely no clue how long she had been knocked out… or were exactly she was. This was not the Other World as she had last saw it. It resembled neither the Pink Palace or the spider web remains of Other Mother's world, nor did it take the appearance of an infinite white void.
No, it was cold, damp, and so dark she could not make out her eyes in front of her face. Frustrated she yelled "Evil Witch! Enough of your bullshit, I'm 16 years old! I'm not afraid of you anymore! Come out and show yourself!" She readied her fist, at first opportunity she'd strike, thankful for the 2 years of Ju Jitsu training she had taken.
"Oh Coraline, 16 years old and still no patience… You really need to savior all the little moments… Especially these last few before we start playing our little game." Laughed the Other Mother, her voiced echoed from everywhere.
"No. " Coraline stomped her feet. "No more games. Just come on out and we'll have at it, I'm tired of your bullshit."
"This is not up for debate young lady!" She snapped "I'm sorry, Coraline, but I'm going to have to administer a little tough love… you see you don't have a choice weather you want to play this game or not… Oh well I suppose that's not true, I could just let you go, but if you do everyone you know and love will be dead with in an instant of your return."
"What? No, you're lying." Coraline said, trying her best to still sound tough.
"No, it's true my pet. I went a ahead and saw to it that each one of your lovely friends…" dolls of Ms. Spink and Forcible, Mr. Bobinsky, her parents, and Wybourne hung from their necks from the ceiling. A single spot light rain down on them dramatically "…had their own custom voodoo doll made, each one with a loose thread on the hinge of their fake little heart. If you don't play my little game, I'll let you go but I'll also pull each and every loose thread… Understand me?" Though as sinister as Her intentions were, She still maintained that deceptively sweet loving voice.
Coraline unclenched her fist and lowered her head "What are we playing?" She mumbled weakly.
"That's the spirit lovely! The name of the game is simple, I'm going to give you 4 tasks for you to do, each one is designed to crush your spirit and break your soul. In the unlikely event you still somehow have a shred of will left to life, which you won't, I'll let you and the dolls go. If I win however, and I will, I will sew the buttons into your eyes and pull all the threads."
The another spotlight turned on, this time revealing a giant pot on a burner filled with boiling water. "And then I will boil you like a lobster, real slow." she laughed.
The lights came up fully, blinding Coraline for a moment before her eyes adjusted… She was surrounded by nothingness once again, nothing around her except a lone red velvet colored door.
As Coraline reluctantly went for the door knob, Other Mother was still laughing.