(A/N): Well, I'm addicted to this song right now. I've been looping a YouTube video that has it CONSTANTLY for the past… oh, five days?
It's Her Name Is Alice by Shinedown. The one I was listening to when I wrote the last chapter.
Surprisingly… well, it kinda fits. Kinda. There's a few very vague things that are accurate about it concerning the plot of The Pamphlet.
I wouldn't even bother looking for them, really… it's too vague to find. And you only have, oh, three chapters or so before the end, anyway.
By the way, I just want to state this so that I can state it, because I know that if I get confused about it sometimes, most people have no idea what is going on. Coraline was rounded up by the boy at night and the drugs he gave her wore off at around ten in the morning the next day. Now it's the night after she was rounded up. Just to clear up some confusion that may have been caused by the last chapter.
Oh. By the way, there's also an extremely obscure reference for this whole plot, if you look for it. *coughbooktwocough*
If you're wondering why I'm giving you all of this foreshadowing stuff, it's because the story is almost over, and I want to fuck with somebody's mind before this thing is done. So far… I'm not sure. It will all depend, I suppose, on who is saying "WTFWTFWTFWHEREDIDTHATCOMEFROM!" in reviews on the last chapter.
By the way (another thing, I know…), there are actually TWO epilogues (well, not quite two epilogues I guess… a final chapter and an epilogue is a better way to put it) to this thing that intertwine. I'm combining them in one chapter, but technically they are separate entities. I'll explain more of this later.
For now, read. If I have anything else to say… I'll have a long ending A/N too :P
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: PULL
Coraline was standing around the block from her old 'home' – the prison that had held her for almost two years. They had prepped her during the day about what their plan was, their strategy to get through the building, and what they were going to do in general.
Coraline knew that their strategy was extremely risky and likely to get kids, guards, and the group killed. But did they have a choice?
The group casually walked up to the building and went inside. Their plan was to 'sweet-talk' their way inside, using Coraline's status as an escapee to let them get to the prison floors.
"Are we ready?" Paul asked, his purplish eyes glinting.
"I think so," the redheaded Maria told him. "Anybody else have any issues?"
Coraline and the other two, Charlie and Marissa, shook their heads.
"Let's go, then," Maria whispered. "Get this over wit'."
Walking through the door holding a gun to Coraline's head, Paul called out to the front desk. "Hey, lady! We's got that escapee ya wanted! Th'insane one, right?"
"Why are you kids all loaded up on weapons, by any chance?" the receptionist asked.
"We though' we better pack heavy," said Charlie. "She bit Marissa." Marissa, right on cue, held up a 'bite wound' created by a bit of clay and a lot of makeup. She winced, as if it was extremely painful.
The woman shivered, completely bought by their arguments. "No wonder they only went in there when she was sleeping…" she said. "She seems a bit out of it, though…"
"We sedated 'er a few hours 'go," Maria told the woman. "So that i' would be easier t'get 'er back in th' Box."
"I'll get some guards down here," the receptionist told the group. "Then I can get your reward out of the back room."
"Nah, we can take 'er," Paul manipulated. "We can't risk 'er wakin' up again."
"Okay, then," the woman said. "I'll take you there... that gun is loaded with tranquilizer, I assume?"
"Of course," he bluffed. "We wouldn't want to kill her."
Coraline managed to stay unfocused and distracted-looking while listening to their conversation. Each word they said could mean a new risk.
"Come this way, then," the receptionist told them. "Down the hall to the left - you'll see an elevator... take that up to the eighty-ninth floor. We've got an opening up there - one of the crazies killed themselves with a plastic spoon a few days ago - but you'll have to ask one of the guards to let you in."
The group thanked the woman before setting off down the hall. While still using her 'out-of-focus' guise, Coraline checked for security cameras. There were three in this hallway.
There won't be any in the elevator, though... she thought.
Walking into the elevator, Maria pressed the button for the eighty-fifth floor. When the doors closed, they began to act.
"Okay, Miss Guide," Charlie asked. "Where the hell are we going to go first?"
She thought for a little while. "Let's start where she sent us. We can still keep our guise up that way."
"We stun th' first guard we see an' take 'is keys, how 'bout?" Marissa said. "That'll be effective."
"Sure, sure..." Paul told her. "But make sure he don't scream."
The elevator opened. The group stepped outside, with Coraline once again pretending to be half-asleep.
"You're the group that Lisa sent up?" a guard asked.
Coraline jumped out of the way as Paul aimed for the man's head.
"Take 'is keys, take 'is keys..." Paul repeated as they searched his dead body. "Let's shove i' in tha' closet over there..."
After the body had been disposed of, it was time to act.
"Follow me," Coraline said before running off down a long hallway.
As she ran, she felt a pull... she felt something pulling her up the flights of stairs, a magnetic attraction. She didn't understand it. As she ran, following the tug, she tried to ignore the screams of pain and the constant gunfire that grew as time went on.
Eventually, the tug stopped. Inside a cell in front of her was a face she recognized.
"I'm here to get you out," Coraline said to the man inside it. His black hair, streaked with gray in places, fell over his face in a mess. But she still knew who it was.
It was the one she had wanted to save from the beginning.
Taking an ancient piece of paper out of her pocket, one that had been folded and ripped so many times the writing was barely legible, she passed it through the bars. The man took it from her and stared at his own photograph, taken almost thirty years beforehand.
"I know who you are. I'm a friend," Coraline said.
(A/N): Okay, there were a few references in there. A few.
Okay, more than that, but... what? I love references!
And, for those of you who don't know who was in the cell? I don't know what to say to you. Well, I do, but... whatever. Go back and re-read chapter two, how about?
Oh, by the way... the next chapter is the final one, and then it's the intertwined epilogues. I just KNOW I'm going to mess it up somehow... ugh...
Let's see how shitty of a job I do, then. Get it over with. I'll write it tonight...
Plus, in case if you haven't noticed, this is my longest chapter in quite a while :)