Twisted Fates

Prologue

Coraline stepped into the house, praying that it would be the last time she would ever lay eyes on it.

"Where are you going, Mistress?"

"Away from here. I can't bear to have you all around me all the time. I. Just. Can't. Stand. It."

She zipped up her suitcase, ready to leave the Pink Palace Apartments for good. She had spent a year here. An entire year. She hated this place, especially because of the traumatising experience she had there a year ago.

Getting kidnapped by an otherworldly being, almost becoming her next meal. She was lucky, possibly the luckiest of her victims, as she had escaped the clutches of the Other Mother. But how was an 11-year-old girl to cope with that?

But, of course, all magic comes with a price. Coraline had begun to develop some . . . gifts. She assumed it was from staying in the Other World for too long before returning to the real world. Her body had somehow absorbed some of the magic, leading to her being able to communicate with the spirits of those who had lived in the Pink Palace, the very victims of the Beldam herself. Not only could she hear them, but she could see them as well. This disturbed her very much. For there was not only the three children, but there was more. Way more, with various different deaths. Stories that would scare little kids out of their skin. That even scared Coraline herself out of her wits. Things were not made any better when she had to pretend that the ghosts weren't there, even as they clung to her almost every hour of every day.

They were freed from the Other World, so excited to be free, only to be trapped in yet another prison. The Pink Palace. The one in the real world. No spirit could leave, and, according to them, none from the outside could enter.

Some appeared to Coraline in the form of angels. As if they were her guardians.

Others appeared as demons, or devils.

Mostly they appeared as ghosts. Turquoise, translucent ghosts.

These gifts also allowed her to speak with Mr Bobinsky's mice from the jumping mouse circus, as well as the Cat, whom she could only talk to whilst she was in the Other World. This overwhelmed her, and it was no wonder that she could barely live with them around anymore. She had to leave. To somewhere quiet. Somewhere that wasn't the Pink Palace. Somewhere where she would be 'normal'.

She exchanged numbers with Wybie, although they still went to the same school together, as the duo had gotten close over the course of that one year. It hurt her heart that she would have to leave the "Stalker", her best and only friend.

She decided to take one last picture before she left for good. Her hand trembled slightly as she angled the camera to capture the entire house, struggling to hold her smile as the ghosts and spirits that haunted the house faded into view within the windows and on the porch. Snap.

She nodded her affirmation. She was finally ready to leave. The Beldam and her victims would haunt her no more. She grabbed her small suitcase and hopped into the car as they finally drove down the hill and off into the distance. Coraline waved at Wybie while she watched as the glowing spirits and the house shrunk and eventually faded away as the fog thickened.

At last. Coraline was free.