rhinestone eyes

001

Henrietta, a fairly average, medium-sized town in rural Virginia. In all honesty, the town itself seemed a bit bland to Coraline, but she originally had the same thoughts about Ashland Oregon, and she barely managed to escape there with her life.

Since the tragedy that was Oregon, the now sixteen-year-old Coraline had decided that prejudiced thoughts weren't allowed in her mind just yet. As Coraline stared up at her new home her cat, affectionately called cat, timidly rubbed up against her leg, his back arched tensely.

The brunette girl glanced down at the dingy black feline in response. Her bright blue eyes met his equally blue ones, his head cocking to the side as she mimicked him.

"Fingers crossed there's not a portal into another dimension in our backyard, right?" Coraline spoke as she made her way past her new house and along the large fence that ran along the perimeter of her backyard, the mangy animal following a close distance behind her.

The girl prefers to do her exploring as soon as she arrived somewhere, and it usually lasted for as long as her parents remained preoccupied and neglectful, but due to the fact that the girl had to finish her unpacking before starting her new school tomorrow, today would have to do.

After finally finding a loose board along the fence a mischievous smile emerged on the girl's lips. Coraline shrugged off the small black leather bag that held her stuff and tossed it over the fence before placing both hands onto the loose board, wiggling gently until it was wide enough for her to slip one of her long legs through.

Coraline squeezed the rest of her body through the crack with little resistance. Once on the other side she quickly jumped to her brown platform-clad feet, pulling her bag up with her and slinging it over her shoulder. Behind her, Cat's head morphed through the fence like it was thin air.

"Show off." Coraline huffed, rolling her eyes at her companion's parlor trick. The girl already knew that if they were in the other world right now the feline would have spewed some snarky remark in return, but instead, Coraline was only met by the tilt of his head.

Looking away from Cat and ahead of where she stood, Coraline began to explore her new surroundings as she gently hummed the song that still seemed to haunt her equally as much as it once comforted her. "Oh, my twitchy witchy girl, I think you are so nice. I give you bowls of porridge, and I give you bowls of ice-."

The petite girl silenced as she felt a surge of energy wash over her. She spun around slowly before meeting Cat's unreadable gaze. "You feel that?" Coraline questioned quietly, taking in the aura. "Pretty strange." At times like this, she wished she could still hear the words of the all-knowing cat.

She huffed in defeat, her hand raising to fiddle with the green stone that hung around her neck from a thick black string. The stone was meant to warn her away from negative energies, but she wasn't exactly sure how, or if it would even work.

It wasn't the original one, that one being melted in a fireplace and all, but merely a replica she had bought from a tiny shop in New Orleans that belonged to an old lady who smelled like lilac and butterscotch.

Then, she felt a small tingle rush through her and something compelled her to continue. She zigzagged her way through a heavy forest of pine trees as if she had made the voyage many times before.

There was a buzzing in her chest that got louder with each step she took until finally, the forest thinned into a soft edge of a backyard. Coraline stared at the powder blue house in front of her, which looked much like her own but worn by weather and accompanied by a large beech tree.