The Divide Between Us | Book Two of The Judgement series

Chapter 9

Cora's Point of View

It took a few minutes for me to process where I was after I woke up. My room in my aunt's house looked a lot different after all. Instead of white, my duvet and pillows were black with teal swirls interlocking. They created the image of vines in my mind, though there was nothing indicating that. I looked around the room. Pictures now adorned the wall. Some of landscapes, some of animals but one really caught my attention. It looked like an underground lake with glowing flowers surrounding the fluorescent blue water. Parts of the cave walls created small pools which overflowed small waterfalls into the larger lake. I hardly noticed that I had gotten up to take a better look at the picture. It felt like I knew this place despite never being there before.

I heard something crash in the other room and I flinched. All of this felt all to familiar. I looked around for something, anything that I could use as a weapon. My adrenaline was spiking, my heart was pounding in my ears and I was scared. I was scared of the past repeating itself. I didn't want my only family to leave me. I didn't want that fate for them. I pulled some flowers out of a glass vase and poured out the water inside. Holding the vase by its neck, I stealthily made my way down the hallway and immediately noticed that the shelves on the wall were knocked down onto the floor.

As I made my way through the house, I noticed more things missing here and there. I could hear bickering downstairs, I think in the basement. I distinctly heard my aunt chastising whoever was arguing. I made my way down the creaky wooden stairs and stopped at the last step.

"We're only going to make the problem worse if we continue repressing that side of her. There's a reason her magick goes awol." Nightmare? Er, dad? Lord, I'll never get used to that.

"We have to! She only knows herself as human and if we don't it'll be easier for the corrupted you to find her. Dove died protecting her! Are we really going to throw that away?" That sounded awfully like Mr. Dream.

"Dream is right." Called it. "Coraline has to drink this. It's for her protection. This will also make things easier for the Creator as well." Aunt Raven was siding with Dream. Didn't she side with him when it came to creating potions?

"We have 60 days from when she wakes up. We can find out another way for her to repress her skeleton side." Nightmare continued to argue.

"And if Nightmare's Gang finds her in that time?" Nightmare's Gang? My father has a gang?

"Well..."

"My sister's death would be in vain. All she ever wanted was to protect that girl. Her daughter and yours. I may be the opposite of my sister but I will do everything in my power to protect Coraline from those who want to harm her." I peeked around the corner to see aunt Raven jabbing her finger into Nightmare's chest. I reached up and held the dragon pendant on my mother's necklace. The pair continued to argue until I couldn't take it anymore. I stepped out of the shadows and glared at the trio. They all stared back at me silently.

"Why can I not take care of myself? Why must you hide things from me?" I signed to them.

"Coraline, there are things we have to keep from you in order to keep you safe." Raven slowly answered, as if choosing her words wisely.

"Bullshit!" I yelled at her. I don't know why but I felt like I missed quite a bit after I fell asleep. "I watched my mother get murdered! I lived the 17 years of my life feeling that I would never fit in anywhere! I know practically nothing about myself because if I did then something is going to come after me. Yesterday I found out that I'm half-monster and that my mom couldn't pursue her love because of me! I'm nothing but a burden to everyone aren't I?"

I felt something unfamiliar in the back of my mind. I felt the urge to reach out to it and I gave into that urge. As soon as my mind touched it, light red flames engulfed my body. It didn't burn, though it looked like it should. It was almost like the purple flames that the dark boned skeleton shot at me yesterday.

"Coraline you must calm down. You don't know how to control that magick." Raven held her hands up in surrender. Dream backed up to the wall and kicked a paint bucket over. The grey paint slowly made its way across the floor and from it a skeleton came out. He had looked like Mr. Ink but he had a large scarf wrapped around his neck and a gigantic paintbrush on his back. I thought he was strange since he wasn't wearing a shirt and his face was flushed rainbow. I ignored the urge to look away and stared at the strange skeleton. He drew his paintbrush as he stared right back at me.

Tension in the room was high as neither one of us made a move. The flames of magick around me crackled with energy.

"Glad to see you're awake, kid, but I need you to calm down. I'm not in the mood to fight and I'm sure you don't want to hurt anyone." The skeleton held up one hand in some type of surrender.

While it was true I didn't want to hurt anyone, the anger I felt was immeasurable. I don't think I could calm down even if I tried. A ripping sound resonated throughout the room and I found my attention elsewhere.

"aH, sO tHiS iS wHeRe ThE bIgGeSt GLITCH oF aLl HiDeS. RiGhT uNdErNeAtH mY nOsE."

I felt myself flinch at the voice. I knew it. That damn voice. It was the voice of a killer. The fucking voice of my mother's killer. My anger rose to new heights and the magick around me turned yellow. I pointed my hand towards the rip in space and time.

"Coraline Ryder Hadley!" My aunt yelled at me.

"I know what I'm doing!" I heard someone run up behind me and my magick flared. I could vaguely see the color of my magick distort and change. Yellow fades to orange, orange fade to red in the palm of my hand.

The next few seconds were slow, almost like a suspencful scene of a movie. A boney hand gripped my shoulder. Blue strings that once held my mother captive shot out of the phalanges of a dark boned skeleton that looked strangely like Coach Error. The warmth of the magick surrounding me left and my vision faded to black.