|The Other World| (Coraline Reader Insert)

Chapter Ten

Earlier at the other house; Coraline, dressed in her fancy new clothes steps onto the front porch and burps. She looks around for her other sister but couldn't find her anywhere.

The cat meows and Coraline looks up to see the black cat on the porch roof above her. Coraline raises an eyebrow and studies the cat for a moment

"Hmmm... Wybie’s got a cat like you at  home that my sister loves so much... You must be the Other Cat."

The cat leaps down and lands on the railing by the basement stairs He shakes his head and speaks. "I’m not the other anything. I’m me." He tips his head to one side, opal blue eyes glinting.

Coraline is surprised. "Um... I can see you don’t have button eyes. But if you’re the same cat, how can you talk?"

The cat shrugs from the tip of his tail to his whiskers. "I just can." He leaps smoothly from the railing and onto a large, fallen tree.

"Cats don’t talk at home."

"No? Then how could your sister understand me?"

"Nope. She doesn't... Can she?"

Climbs up the tree's upended roots, head held high and  proud. Dryly he speaks. "Well, you’re clearly the expert on these things. After all, I’m just a big fat wuss puss."

"Come back. Please? I... I’m sorry I called you that, I really am and my sister will be sad if you left me here, unanswered." Coraline forces herself to be polite. "How'd you get here? cat I’ve been coming here for a while."

He disappears behind a one think root that sticks up, the reappears from a large knot hole beside Coraline, startling her.

"It’s a game we play. She..." He indicates house. "...hates cats and tries to keep me out.  But she can’t, of course." He pokes his head down into the knot hole, then pops it out of another hole a feet away.

"I come and go as I please. Just like your sister but of course she doesn't know that yet."

"The Other Mother hates cats? And sis can also enter here? Then why didn't I see her before?"

"Not like any 'mother' I’ve ever known. And yes, she has been watching and trying to stop you from entering this place."

"What do you mean? She’s amazing! And maybe that's why my sister didn't want me to enter back here! She's probably jealous."

Cat climbs the tree's branches onto the roof. "You probably think this world is a dream come true. But you’re wrong that's why your sister have been trying to keep you out of this place and the other Wybie told me so."

"That’s nonsense. He can’t talk."

The cat looks at her, pitying her lack of intelligence. "Perhaps not to you. We cats, however,  have far superior senses than humans and can see and smell, and-" Suddenly, the cat drops into a crouch and freezes,  sensing something.  

"Shhhh! I hear something! Right ...over..."
He scrambles across the roof and disappears around the  corner.

After the theatre show Beldam is now wanting Coraline to stay there forever and still with no other (Name) in sight.

"You could stay here forever... if you  want to."

"Really?"

"Sure...we’ll sing and play games, and  Mother will cook your favorite meals."

Other Mother rests her hand on Coraline’s shoulder. "There’s one tiny little thing we need to  do."

"What’s that?"