EXPLORING THE FOURTH WALL
An action is taken…
"We're here," the Cat said. "Welcome to the inside of the Fourth Wall."
Coraline was amazed to see a strange transparent barrier on her left. She realized, once she turned toward it, that it stretched out infinitely in both directions, and couldn't help but wonder what it was.
But it was what was behind the barrier that was the most shocking.
"That's the Pink Palace," she mumbled confusedly, staring at the pink building beyond the glassy window-wall. A dreary day passed by. Mister Bobinsky was up on the roof doing something that she couldn't hear, appearing to swear at…
"But… the moving van… why is it…"
"…There, when you've lived in the Pink Palace for quite a while?" he finished the question for her. "The Fourth Wall is a strange place, as I've said before," the Cat explained as it sat down and began to lick its fur. "It will show you all you know, and then lead you to the places where it can be expanded and extended beyond your wildest dreams."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
The Cat ignored her, choosing instead to lick a particularly rough patch of fur. When he finished, he spoke, turning his head toward the impenetrable darkness beyond.
"Look there," the Cat said, pointing with its tail. "At the very edge of what you can see."
Coraline turned and strained her eyes to see through the dark. At the farthest extent of her vision into the blackness…
"It's a wall," she announced.
"That," the Cat explained, "is the other edge of the Fourth Wall. It is only currently visible in its full glory to me, and only because the author has no grip on me. You, however, are still in her grasp."
He walked towards the nearly invisible wall a few paces, only to sit again in front of her. "The author won't let you… but try walking to me."
Coraline walked casually for a few paces. The Cat grew distant, even though he wasn't moving, still licking his fur. She tried to run to catch up, but it only got worse.
"Stop walking," the Cat announced, his voice echoing across the chasms. She obeyed pitifully. He walked toward her slowly, disappeared in the black fog, and reappeared next to her.
"We're going to have to shift the control for a moment," he said. "Assuming you want to go on an adventure?"
"Well," she said, "The last adventure I went on… with her…"
"Ignore it. Think of the potential of the beyond."
Coraline did. Her imagination ran free and wild and long.
"The grip is loosening," the Cat said, his eyes widening. "It's working."
He gave her a new command: "Release the author's grip."
She didn't know how. What could she do?
"Walk backwards and follow my voice," the Cat said, answering her thought. "Close your eyes and let everything slip away."
She obeyed reluctantly as the Cat began to sing in the whisper of a thousand voices.
Hello children, come with me
And sing this simple poem;
Look to the sky, sing what you see
And come across to freedom's home.
Children, children, wander through
The place where things unfurled;
Let the land you explore anew
Be the best and only world.
Calling in the darkness drear,
Beyond the shining light;
Inside the echo of a mirror
In the dark of night:
Lurks a shadow, powerful,
One to raise itself, not fall,
At midnight, for an hour full,
He lurks the realms of the all.
This demon, his ever so evil face
A powerful king of all;
He is the maker of this place,
This beautiful Fourth Wall.
"We're here," the Cat announced, and Coraline opened her eyes to find the window wall far away from her in the distance.
She turned around to find Cat seated before a black brick archway, supposedly the only imperfection in the entire brick surface.
"Come through with me," he said. "New lives wait on the other side."
She followed him reluctantly, and the portal opened.
(A/N): I don't know what they're trying to do...
We have to stop them.
Help...