Coraline - Violet Baudelaire

00. Broken Glass For A Soul

Post - Coraline & Pre - The Bad Beginning 

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Yes, Coraline Jones does know that she could have it worse, thank you very much. That doesn't change the fact that she is in pain. Why people seem to think that telling her over and over that others are suffering more will help her heal, she doesn't understand. Is pain a non-renewable resource or something? Just because she isn't starving or living on the streets doesn't mean her traumas can just stop existing. 

Phrases like 'you could have it worse', phrases born of pity or dismissiveness (so many people seem to think they have the right to define how she should be feeling) were part of the reason why Coraline's face was twisted into a permanent scowl. The way she saw it, when no one gave a damn and her feelings were constantly hidden behind snapped 'I'm fine's just for the sake of getting people to stop poking at her for their own amusement, there were only two ways to react. She could either become weak or become angry, and Coraline was not a weak person by any means, so anger it was. It wasn't that being filled with burning rage all the time was pleasant, far from it, but she wasn't laying on the floor unable to pick herself up and she was feeling something which meant despite everything else, how miserable her life had become, how nobody was allowing her to seek help, she was alive. 

Hello. My name is not Lemony Snicket. My name doesn't matter at the moment, I'm just a writer who fell down a rabbit hole and realized that the events in the life of Coraline Jones needed to be told. What does matter is the fact that this is not a happy story, not in the beginning, middle, or end, and like the esteemed Mr. Snicket, I would advise you to look away and find something else to read, something not rife with tragedy and hopes gone up in flames. 

If you simply won't be deterred, well then that's your choice. Don't say I didn't warn you.

There were three quintessential things everyone needed to know about Coraline Jones; she always kept her hair dyed blue and had since she was ten, her biggest pet peeve was people pronouncing her name as 'Caroline' instead of Coraline, and she hated just about everyone and everything in the world. 

Her parents? She hated them. Her peers? Yes, she hated them too. She hated the home she lived in and she hated trips to the doctor's office, she hated being ignored and she hated being patronized. Most of all, she hated herself and the fact that her was a tragedy and always would be. 

Coraline wasn't always ruined and hateful and filled with poisonous rage, at least, not to the extent she currently was. Her early childhood had been fairly ordinary. She went to school, she entertained herself, she finger painted landscapes and dragons and she loved to make believe. Yes, her family had moved twice within the first ten years of her life. Yes, her parents were always busy with their jobs and seemed to have less and less time for her by the day. But despite the imperfections, young Coraline still had her innocence, and she could still smile.

When she was eleven, all that was good was mercilessly ripped from her hands.

She and her parents, Charlie and Mel Jones, had just moved homes again, to the pink palace apartments. Coraline hadn't been happy about it, not when it meant being the new girl in school and having to unpack pile upon pile of cardboard boxes. Her parents told her not to complain and that this change would be good for her, but it was hard to believe that when they never actually paid attention to her or what she was feeling. This was the stage, and it was set for the moment when everything would come crashing down.