(A/N): Hello world!
I can't believe I actually finished Chapter Four early!
Yep! I did! It would have been twice as long as this and would have included the contents of the next chapters, had it not been for the fact that I like shorter chapters best, as they're easier to write. Some of the later ones will be longer, but right now we've just gotten onto the Rising Action of the first mini-plot, and so, as action increases, the length of the chapters will do so as well.
In other words, expect mild cliffhangers for a while.
Speaking of cliff-hanging - that's almost a spoiler!
Anyway, read on!
PS: Thanks to Marquis Carabas and candycoloredtwit (for reviewing Chapter Two - What? I was DESPERATE!) for reviewing!
CHAPTER FOUR: OTHER
Coraline wondered who the woman with the black button eyes was, and why she looked so much like her mother, and why she was in this fixed-up version of her house on the other side of the little door.
So many questions, and so few answers, competed for her mouth. Finally, she asked the one that seemed most sensible.
"Who are you?" Coraline asked the strange woman. She looked so much like what she remembered of her mother, but was so different…
Coraline had been only six years old when her mother was murdered in her hometown. She only remembered bits and pieces of her mother; a laugh or a smile; a flash of long, brown hair; beautiful, ice-blue eyes…
"I'm you're Other Mother, dear," the strange woman said. "Why don't you go get your sister and tell her that dinner is ready?"
Coraline was then playfully shooed from the room by her Other Mother. She wondered where she was going to find her sister. Melanie was supposed to be at her night job. Of course, her 'mother' was still alive, so she knew this place was crazy already.
As Coraline turned a corner in the house (which was far bigger than it was on the outside, if you counted the house behind the little door), she heard the sounds of pages turning, and occasional gasps, almost as if someone was reading a suspense novel. Coraline entered the nearest doorway to find the source of the sound.
Inside the room was a giant library. The bookshelves were probably two hundred feet tall, and they were arranged in around fifty rows perpendicular to the doorway. Near the side of one of the shelves, there was a table (around ten feet long, which neatly aligned with the ends of the bookshelf) that someone who looked like her sister was sitting at, where she was giggling at something she was reading in a particularly thick book.
This was quite a rare picture. The only time her sister ever had time to curl up with a good book anymore was when she had time off from both of her current jobs at the same time – something that only happened around once a year. And even then, the selection they had was very limited. When they had to leave, they had to leave – they carried what they had with them and left, for a new city, a new life.
But here Melanie was, curled up with something as thick as the dictionary, laughing her head off.
Well, she wasn't really Melanie, as Coraline soon learned. Coraline, instead of her sister's hazel eyes, saw black buttons in their place. Except for that, the 'Other Melanie' looked exactly like her sister.
"Look at this!" her sister said, and shoved the big book towards her. Coraline opened the cover and was shocked at what she saw.
Coraline
By Neil Gaiman
She flipped to the next page, and after a while, found the beginning of the first chapter.
Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.
It was amazing… Coraline wondered what other stuff was in the book. She wanted to read it.
"Well, the Other Mother says it's dinner time," Coraline told the Other Melanie.
"Great! Let's go eat!" Other Melanie said, before pulling Coraline out the door.
(A/N): A few important things were introduced here. For example, we actually met THREE characters in this chapter: The Other Mother, the Other Melanie, and a third mysterious character who will stay in the shadows for a little while.
Oh! By the way, there was an in-text citation there. Coraline (the book) was written by Neil Gaiman, and there will be more pieces of it to come.
It's awesome. Read it if you want to see how it ends, 'cuz I'm only using a few short passages of it.
The rest of this crap was written by me.
The end.
Three reviews? Or will I have to get desperate again? XD