(A/N): Well, yay for you! The third chapter today.
I'm too lazy to write A/Ns right now. :P
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: FRIEND
The spotlight from the helicopter shone overhead. Coraline hid in an old corroding dumpster that had fallen on its side.
She's been hiding in and around this alley, on the opposite side of the city from the prison, for around three days. She had no idea how to make sure her broken arm healed right, so she wrapped a smelly old blanked around it, one that someone had clearly thrown away long ago.
They had been searching for her for a long time: the police, the Dragon Order in general… Due to her status as 'Insane', they assumed she would turn into a blood-crazed serial killer.
Sure, Coraline wanted payback. But she didn't want to kill anyone like they had killed her old lives. She didn't want to take away anyone else's chances at happiness.
Coraline was suddenly reminded of the ghost children, the poor children who had their hopes and dreams and lives crushed so suddenly…
And then she thought of the kids, the thousands upon thousands of kids, locked up in cells miles away from happiness for eternity, all for something they didn't cause and couldn't prevent…
Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted.
"Hey, kid. Who the hell are you?"
Coraline was startled by the voice. After almost two years alone in complete darkness, she had no idea how to react to the situation.
"Banged up your arm there?" the stranger asked. He was around five and a half feet tall with dark hair and pale blue, almost purple, eyes. He spoke with a strange accent she recognized from somewhere.
"You can speak, can'tc'ya?" the man asked. "Right?"
Coraline paused to try out her mouth, the thing she hadn't used except to scream for so long. "Y-yes," she stuttered.
She finally was able to tell that he was a boy of around her age, possibly a few years older. It had been a long time since she had really gotten a good look at someone.
"Who are you?" she asked, breaking the sudden silence between them.
"A friend," he answered. "Follow me."
Coraline, reluctant to follow the strange boy, walked behind him through various dirty alleys and waterlogged streets.
Eventually she found herself standing on the walk leading up to an old dilapidated apartment building. Old yellow tape on the front door read in bold black letters, CONDEMNED.
The 'friend' led Coraline around the side to a rear door, which, upon turning the knob, opened to a spacious room. She walked into the center and turned around a few times, getting a good look at the place.
And then the one who called himself her friend was standing in front of her.
"Sorry," he said, injecting the needle into her arm.
(A/N): Well, in case if you didn't realize, Coraline is screwed.
What's in the needle the next chapter will reveal. It's already typed up. It will be up shortly. Who the hell the boy is will be touched upon in Chapter 25… or WHAT he is, anyway. Hehehe…