Coraline Sequel - Horrors at Night

Other World, Meet Other Coraline

The well was not slimy, or dark or damp as Coraline had expected it to be. She closed her eyes with such a force that it hurt, her legs were pushed up to her chest, and her head tucked into her stomach as her hair flew wildly above her. 

She waited for the shock, the impact that told her not to trust strange cats. Then she would be stuck at the bottom of the well, never able to see the sun again, and locked away with the destroyed hand of the Other Mother...

But Coraline continued to fall. She counted under her breath; 

"one, two, three..." 

And still, she continued to fall through the air, weightless. 

Coraline opened her eyes hesitantly, and was taken away by what she saw.

She was surrounded, not by muddy enclosed walls, but by a bright blue light that seemed to lift her through the well. The light seemed almost blinding, and Coraline was forced to shield her eyes. She stretched out her body, and a feeling of relief spread over her. Cat was not lying. He truly knew what he was doing. 

Ornate objects swam around Coraline; old clocks, dirty ragged blankets and old bears. She tried to turn, but an invisible force prevented her from doing so. 

The blue lights was fading now. It had turned to a dark blue, and more objects began to hurl themselves towards Coraline, who cringed and yelled in pain. 

Several small objects found their way to Coraline. She peered at them, intrigued, and reeled back in horror. 

Buttons of every shape, colour and size twisted and hooked on to her clothing, and tangled themselves in her hair. Coraline shrieked and tore at the buttons, but they would not tear from her body. 

The blue light suddenly turned brown, and then a midnight black, and Coraline was thrown out of the tunnel and onto a hard surface. 

                                                                                                        ******

Alice woke up. It had seemed she had had the most amazing night, an she could still imagine the taste of the chicken in her mouth from her dinner.

Alice did not want to get out of bed. Her other bed was hard and cold, and this one was soft and warm and seemed to fit her body perfectly. 

She never wanted to leave.

As if reading her thoughts, her Other Mother knocked gently on the door.

"Come in," Alice said smiling, stretching herself royally across her bed. 

Her Other Mother came into her room, holding a tray piled with eggs, bacon, pancakes, croissants and maple syrup. In one of her long, spider-like fingers was a glass of orange juice. 

"Hello, Other Mother," Alice whispered tiredly. The woman's red smile faltered a little, and her button eyes gleamed dangerously. 

"There's no need for that silly talk, dar-ling," she purred. Alice drew back under her covers, afraid that she had disappointed her Other Mother.

"What silly talk?" She asked in a tentative voice. The Other Mother sat on her bed softly, her red and black polka-dot skirt fanning out around her knees.

"Why," she pulled on a light strand of Alice's hair.

"This... Other Mother talk. You see, it's not very becoming, is it?" she grinned.

"From now on, pumpkin, call me Mother." She tugged at Alice's hair violently, and when she opened her long fingers, several straw-coloured hairs drifted to the floor. 

Alice shrieked, and her hands flew up to her scalp. A sharp sting pulsed through her elbow; Alice's deep blue eyes widened in horror as the breakfast tray was knocked from the Other Mother's grasp and fell to the floor. The sticky maple syrup spread across the polished wood, the pancakes scattered around the foot of her bed. The glass of orange juice smashed violently, staining the bed covers.

"I- I -" Alice started. The Other Mother pursed her lips, and her wide button eyes shone with malice. 

"LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" She yelled, in an unearthly voice.

"It - it was an accident!" Squealed Alice, who scampered out of the rest of her bed sheets and cowered in the corner of her room. The Other Mother, to her immediate panic, followed earnestly, her long, painted nails curved towards the little girl.

"How dare you, how could you -"

A great flash of light stopped the Other Mother's speech. She turned, dumbfounded, to the window, and Alice blinked in shock before following her glance. 

A lightning-bolt of blue emerged from the white sky. Alice jumped in fright. The Other Mother gasped - for a figure with long mousy-brown hair fell from the opening that had appeared from what seemed like nowhere. 

                                                                                                 ******

Coraline fell, and fell, and then suddenly, it ended.

She ached everywhere; her arms, her stomach... she breathed in the earthly scents of mud and grass beneath her, clutching at her bruised torso. 

Slowly, she glanced up, and with an icy, sickening feeling, remembered the last time that she had set foot in the Other Pink Palace. She had found the ghost children, and she had eluded capture from the spidery demon that called herself Coraline's mother. 

And yet it stood before her; still, plain. Just as it was in the real world. Coraline's stomach twisted in what felt like a thousand knots. She did not want to be here - not again! Escaping the clutches of the Other Mother was hard enough doing once, but a second time... a second time! Surely the Other Mother would have learned from her mistakes. 

Coraline pulled herself to her feet, grimacing in the worry that she may be severely injured. Her right leg jolted a sharp pain up her thigh, and Coraline gasped. An injury like this could make it difficult from saving the little girl that had already caused so much trouble in her life.

Just when Coraline thought that her situation could not become any worse than what it was, the scalding pink door of the Palace swung open with such a force that it crashed into the side wall. Coraline glanced into the doorway, where the slim, spider-like figure of the Other Mother stood, long red nails clicking against the door-frame, matching the twisted blood-like smile that was stretched upon her face.