The Birth of a Wishing Heart

24. Deal with the Devil

Adiscordia wasn't sure what she was looking at. A stone-like humanoid creature stared down at her. Its bones looked brittle; its rotten skin seemed to hang from rock-like formations that had erupted from inside it. Maybe long ago, this was the witch that she had heard of since childhood, but right now, it was nothing more than a hollow dead shell. The figure looked more like a puppet, dead and incapable of its own thought. Only one thing was holding it together.

Her eyes widened and she gulped.

"Well." The creature spoke. "It's been long enough." It stretched its arms high. This vessel was starting to get too old for my taste."

Adiscordia shivered. She had thought she had met the curse, but as her mouth dried, she realized she was wrong. She didn't know half of it.

"Where are my manners? I was Coraline Hex." It extended its hand.

Adiscordia's cold hand rose up slowly, unable to take her eyes off the living corpse.

Coraline took her hand and shook it. "It isn't nice to stare; you wouldn't want to sin again, would you?" She smirked.

"No-" Adiscordia shook her head quickly and held tightly to her seat. "No, Ma'am! I'm sorry."

Coraline chuckled and placed the tip of her sharp nail on Adiscordia's chin, raising it to stare into her. "Do you know why you're here?"

Her mouth was too dry to speak, she gulped and shook her head again. She realized Coraline spoke in multiple voices all at once. The voice that seemed to follow her thus far only seemed to be a whisper compared to this. She couldn't imagine standing up to it.

"I'm still here." It pointed to itself with a wide grin. "Because I made a deal with your mother."

Adiscordia's eyes grew wide. "Mamma? She was here?"

"Oh, she still is. Would you like to see her?" The curse, or Coraline's cheerful grin seemed pasted on her grim figure.

Adiscordia was scared to answer. She scratched the back of her arms with unease. She couldn't say no, what if her parents needed rescue? Had they made a deal with it? "Yes, please." She croaked.

Coraline smiled and walked further into the darkness. Her spine was deformed with stone and spikes, creating more arcs and angles to the once-human bone structure. From far away her silhouette may have been mistaken for an elderly woman who needed a cane to see. Even its voices seemed to combine to almost sound motherly, but Adiscordia couldn't let her guard down. She knew the truth.

Yet she felt her limbs grow weak as the truth came forth and stared at her in the face. In her left hand Coraline held the head of Katherine, completely detached from her body. In her right hand, she held Nicholas; his head was scarred as a testament to how hard he tried to fight the curse. "They were a pleasure." She hissed. "They only needed to steal once. They could have saved themselves; I would have saved them." Her voice turned into a growl.

Adiscordia could feel her vision grow blurry. Her body grew tense, but she forced her voice forward. "Then why didn't you?"

"Because they were ridiculously pure." She scrunched her nose. "They were stubborn. They would rather save their pure souls for a wish than risk losing control and murdering their precious children. First, your father gave his life for the two of you to always be fed well." Coraline squeezed his face, earning a crack from the skull inside, making Adiscordia flinch. She let the head fall and roll on the ground.

Adiscordia felt her lungs shiver, struggling to breathe smoothly. Her father wished that It didn't make sense. She remembered the stew from the shelter and closed her eyes tightly pressing her lips together. They had been distracted before they even tried to get in line for rations.