The Beldam is Back

Chapter 5

Coraline was about to leave the house when she saw Mr Bobinsky. Just for the sake of it, she asked him, "Do the jumping mice have a message for me?"

To her surprise, Mr Bobinsky said that the jumping mice DID have a message for her. "The door doesn't work anymore, you are going to need to bring the cat to help you get back."

Coraline thought about it, and she realized the mice were right. The door was locked and the key was gone. She wouldn't be able to climb back out of the well, and the cat knew all the ways to get in and out of the Beldam's world.

So, she made a detour and walked to Wybie's house instead, in hope of finding the cat there. She knew the cat stayed there usually, with Wybie, after all.

Coraline was in luck. The cat was lounging around the banister of the verandah of Wybie's house. Quickly, she grabbed the cat and carefully tucked the cat into her satchel, with the top half of the cat hanging out of the bag.

Coraline, then raced off, before Wybie's grandma could see her. She hadn't told anyone where she was going, so she didn't want her plan spoiled by the grandma.

What she didn't know, however, was that Wybie's grandma, was watching her the entire time. The grandma smiled. It was time to report to the Beldam.

...

Wybie wriggled again. This was really getting uncomfortable.

Wybie watched the Beldam. She was strutting around, looking like she was wondering what to do.

In fact, the Beldam already knew what to do. The boy's grandma had reported to her, saying that Coraline Jones was coming, she was going to come down the well to her and she was bringing the wretched cat with her.

The Beldam was going to make one of those voodoo-witch dolls for the boy. The Beldam had a plan, and she knew that she might have a way to keep the girl with her.

Wybie was worried. He could see now, that the Beldam was walking to a table to make... a doll? The Beldam was starting up a sewing machine and starting to put cloth through it to make another doll. Wybie wondered who the poor soul was that the doll was going to look like. He had no idea that it was him.

"You have a visitor." Wybie nearly fell out of the chair when he heard the Beldam's raspy voice. Wybie couldn't help but feel glad, Coraline was here for him... again, Wybie nearly fell back in surprise when his grandma stepped into the room, towards him. 

His grandma walked up to him and stroked his hair. Wybie was starting to feel a bit freaked out. Was this his real grandma, or a fake one conjured up by the Beldam? The only difference he could see was that the grandma standing in front of him didn't have button eyes.

The Beldam had already tried a few tricks with him, like showing him a Coraline with button eyes, but Wybie knew it wasn't her as he knew that Coraline would never let the Beldam sew the buttons and he could see that she had a poison oak rash on her hand, like when they first met, but she didn't have one now.

But, Wybie could see, this was his real grandma, which scared him even more. The only reason his grandma would be here, was because she was in league with the Beldam, which he could not believe, because the Beldam had taken her sister when they were young.

His grandma leaned into his ear and whispered, "Having fun?" with a smirk.

Wybie wriggled again. This was really unlike his grandma. His grandma was usually quite sweet apart from the constant yelling "Wyborn!!!" at the top of her lungs. This grandma was cold and horrible.

Then his grandma told him a story which he thought might be to make him feel scared or upset, but he couldn't help hanging on to every word.

The story went that the Beldam actually took very good care of the children who decided to get buttons in their eyes. She took care of them like she was their mother. But when Coraline 'freed' them, Coraline actually trapped their souls, so they would walk for all eternity, alone.

Wybie could tell that his grandma actually believed this story and said that she watched her sister and saw that she was being taken care of. But Wybie knew that Coraline never lied, which made him unsure about the 'Beldam' story in the first place, but from what she said, the children's souls themselves, told her to get out, asked her to help them and helped shut the door.

Wybie believed Coraline. The one thing that Wybie couldn't believe, was that after all these years of taking care of him, his grandma betrayed him. Out of everyone, his grandma!?

"Get away from me." Wybie growled to his grandma, "I never want to see you again!"

His grandma stopped stroking and playing with his hair and backed away. Wybie could see the evil in his grandma's eyes and wicked grin. Then she left. Wybie looked around the room. The Beldam was nowhere to be seen, probably having finished her doll.

And Wybie was alone once more.

...

Coraline grabbed some rope from the garage and walked to the well. She tied one end to a tree trunk and pulled the planks off the hole in the ground again. She dangled the other end of the rope down the hole. She carefully lowered herself into the well and grabbed the rope.

She lowered herself gently, making sure she had at least one hand on the rope at all times.

The one thing that helped Coraline to keep going was knowing that Wybie was counting on her. Coraline couldn't let the Beldam do what she did to Other Wybie, to Wybie. It wasn't too late. Yet.

The cat was still half in-half out of her satchel.

She went lower and lower until she finally reached the water again.

She dropped to the water and swam to the gap. She ducked her head into the gap to make sure she could go down, and when she found she could, she swam down to the gap and went through.

Coraline flipped and fell, feet first down a large hole, until she found herself at the side of the Other Well. She knew that the way she had landed had been magic and she would not be able to do the same thing again, especially with Wybie.

She looked at the cat.

"You really shouldn't have come back, even for Wybie." The cat said.

"First of all, nice to see you talking again and second, Wybie is my best and only friend, why wouldn't I come back for him?" Coraline snapped back.

"The Beldam has her mind set on eating you, all she will do is eat Wybie too. You can't get out the same way you did last time."

"All I need to do is grab Wybie and you can show us another way home." Coraline said smugly.

"You don't really think it is that simple do you?" That was what made Coraline feel uncertain. She now began to wonder if this was a good idea after all.

"Look, I will help you, but you need to be smart. The Beldam is smarter then you think and she knows your ways and tricks now."

Coraline beamed. The cat was going to help her! "Thank you cat!"

With the pleasantries over, they started to walk to the house. To Coraline's surprise, the world around her was exactly the same as the normal world. This made Coraline ponder why the Beldam hadn't just kept the entire real world last time, because she could clearly see things that weren't here last time.

Meanwhile, they walked closer and closer to the house, and the Beldam. The bedlam was about to start.