The Beldam is Back

Chapter 1

"Hi Coraline!" Wybie said, unusually cheerful, but his expression fell once he saw her. "Did you have the nightmare again?"

Wybie looked at Coraline with worry. It had been almost two years since she had escaped the Beldam. Wybie didn't know exactly what she had been through, but he knew that it had been bad.

A few months after Coraline had escaped, she had started to get vivid nightmares about the Beldam, who had introduced herself as the 'Other Mother'. Coraline hadn't been able to sleep properly for weeks on end and Wybie could still remember the tired looks she gave everyone at school.

The nightmares had stopped after a while, but from the look on her face Wybie could tell that she hadn't slept last night.

He asked her again, "Did you have the nightmare again?"

She looked up in a daze, "Yes. I don't understand, I haven't had the nightmare for ages!"

Wybie and Coraline had become best friends after the incident at the witch's well with the Beldam's hand. He could understand the stress she would be going through right now.

"Look at me. Don't worry about it. Look we have school, so come on!"

He clicked his fingers in front of her face to get her attention. She seemed to snap out of it, at least for a while.

Together, the two walked down the pathway of the Pink Palace Apartments, waving to Mr Bobinsky, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. They walked to the bus stop, caught the bus and were driven to school. All the while, Wybie watching Coraline to make sure she wasn't going to fall asleep, or get hurt.

...

"Go to page 129 and copy the key notes on the architecture of Ancient Rome."

The class opened their books and pencil cases and started to copy the key notes.

Wybie glanced over at Coraline and saw that she was half asleep. He shook her awake and pointed to the work.

Coraline sleepily picked up a pen and started to write. Her writing started to get sloppy and her head drifted down to her desk. Wybie kicked her leg to wake her up again. Her head jerked up and the teacher glanced suspiciously at her.

With a new interest, Coraline wrote vigorously. The teacher went back to her own work, when the bell rang.

"Homework! Finish the key notes and write some information on one famous artifact found in Ancient Rome." She tried to yell over the sound of the class packing up and walking out to lunch, but many did not hear her in the rush to leave the classroom.

Wybie and Coraline shoved their books in their bags and walked to their lockers. They swapped their books for the books they would need for the next two classes and grabbed their lunch before walking to the cafeteria. They sat down on a bench and started to eat.

Wybie noticed that Coraline wasn't eating anything and decided to see if her nickname would bring about a change.

"Jonesy, are you going to eat anything, because it seems unlike you to not eat."

She jerked her head up again and smiled, finally moving to eat her sandwich.

"Wybie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for being there for me. You know, on that day and ever since."

Wybie smiled. It was a nice day and he seemed to have his friend back.

...

The rest of the day went peacefully, with Coraline showing some enthusiasm in her work.

Eventually they got to the last lesson of the day. It was five minutes to the bell and the teacher was assigning partners for their English assignment.

"...and last of all, Coraline and Wybie. Now, this assessment is going to be a fun one. You are going to write a fictional story. This story has got to be the size of a short novel, not one or two pages. You will have three weeks, starting from today, to hand it in. Have fun with this and I will see you next week."

The bell rang as soon as she was finished and everyone raced out. Wybie and Coraline grabbed their books and walked to the bus.

...

Later that afternoon, Wybie was at Coraline's part of the house and they were working on the story.

"I have a cool idea." Wybie nervously said. Coraline nodded for him to carry on.

"Well, nobody believes you when you tell them about what happened behind the little door, apart from my grandma. If we wrote your story, the teacher will still believe it is fictional, and this way, you can let out all of the stress that you have had since."

"I love that idea! Let's get started now!"

They quickly got to work, starting off with making notes about what happened and the order events happened in. Eventually, they had about a page of notes, ready to make into a story.

As Coraline's eyes started to droop, Wybie decided they could continue the next day. It was the weekend, after all.

"See you tomorrow!"

"See ya!"