Underneath the Button Moon

• Chapter 3: Into the Well •

Coraline woke up the next morning to find Wybie wrapped around her tightly. She blushed and tried to heave him off of her, but he tightened his grip around her even more as she squirmed.

She had nothing left to do. Coraline reached for her backpack that was lying next to her and grabbed a marshmallow. She sneakily blooped one into Wybie's open mouth and a few moments later she found Wybie standing up wide awake with shock on his face as he quickly spit the marshmallow into his hand not knowing what the foreign object was.

Once he realized what it was he glanced at Coraline to see her dying laughing. He smirked and plopped it back into his mouth smiling at her. "Why, thank you Jonsey." They both laughed together and then remembered what they had to do today and frowned, they were going down the well.

~~

A few moments later they began to repack the backpack with things they would need. (It mostly consisted of water bottles, a flashlight, the pocket knife, and some snack crackers.)

Coraline picked up the backpack and put it on her back but Wybie pulled it off of her and flung it onto his back instead with a smile.

"Such a gentleman." Coraline said with a smirk causing Wybie to blush slightly. He bowed and winked at her. "At your service, Jonsey." She half-heartedly laughed and walked out of the tent with Wybie beginning to head towards the well.

They quickly stopped by the garden shed before they were going to their doom and Coraline found a rope that was lying about inside. She grabbed the rope and Wybie and they made their way to the well.

On their way there, the cat happened to join along. "You know, we should name him something instead of calling him cat." Wybie spoke thinking out loud.

Coraline thought for a minute then said, "Charlie."  Wybie gave her a look when she said, "with an ordinary name like that, you can't expect anything special from them."

Wybie eyed Coraline remembering the first time they met he told her that about her name, except he pronounced it as Caroline instead of Coraline. He sighed with a smile slightly rolling his eyes sassily.

"Charlie it is then." The three made their way to the well and Wybie went to open it when he found it already resting open.

"H*ll no-" Coraline protectively put her arm out in front of Wybie but he rested his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Jonsey, let me take a look." She looked at him unsure but allowed him.

Wybie examined it for a moment when out of nowhere a needle hand came and grabbed Coraline dragging her towards the well. Coraline screamed and tried to fling it off but she couldn't no matter how hard she tried. Wybie rushed over and began to hit it until it fell off of her.

Wybie grabbed Coraline and he hauled her away with him from the well as fast as he could. "We need to go down there Wybie!" Coraline yelled  coming to an abrupt stop. "Are you crazy??"

Wybie eyed her like she was insane and she face-palmed and spoke up once more. "I am and I KNOW we need to go. How else are we supposed to defeat her?" Wybie stopped and looked at Coraline in the eyes.

He silently nodded his head. "Come on Wybie, we will figure this out." She grabbed his hand and they made their way back towards the well. The hand had magically repaired itself once again  but this time it crawled down the well not giving them the time of day.

They exchanged a glance as Coraline walked over and tied part of the rope to a large rock. "Don't you find it a bit odd that her hand can just repair itself?" Wybie exclaimed with a shudder.

"Yeah well, nothing the Beldam does really makes any logical sense like trying to kidnap children by enticing them into her layer and then eating their souls."

"That got dark." Wybie shrugged at her as Coraline walked over to the well and threw down the part of the rope that wasn't attached to the rock. They silently watched it as it seemed to barely hit half way down.

"Oh great... now what are we going to do." Cora like exclaimed hinting at the fear in her voice. Wybie glanced around the well and noticed the sides of it had thin vines that a human might be able to climb on... if they are lucky...

"Coraline look." Wybie pointed to the vines. She looked into Wybie's eyes for reassurance and he nodded his head solemnly. She silently nodded her head back at him and they both began to make their way down the rope.

Coraline and Wybie appeared to be half way down now when the rope had just ended. Coraline glanced up to see the sky full of stars and shuddered. Looks like Wybie was right about that...

Wybie began to reach over for the vines on the sides when they both heard a saw-like noise coming from up above. Their heads shot up and they looked to see the needle hand snip the last part of their rope.

Wybie dove for the vines on the wall and yanked Coraline with him. He grasped the vine but let go as fast as he touched it with a scream. The vines had thorns all over them.

Coraline and Wybie began to tumble for the bottom of the well at a fast speed. Just as they touch what looked like water, they were suddenly entered into a weird blue and purple swirling tunnel like the one Coraline went in when she was younger.

They fell down it and the deeper they went, the more the tunnel became rotted and darker with more of a cobweb look to it. They suddenly stopped falling and were both on top of each other. Coraline got off of Wybie and helped him up only for them to both look around and realize something.

"We're here." Coraline said which sent pricks everywhere on them. "Come on Wybie, let's go find her."

~~

Author's note:
Hello again! I know I updated the next part early but hey? Who really cares? Hope you enjoyed and I have a hunch I will be finishing this story this summer.