The Other Mother smiled at Coraline, her button eyes gleaming under the lights.
Coraline's breathing quickened, and she looked at her 'Mother'.
"Welcome back, darling. We've missed you."
As if on cue, her Other Father, created from a pumpkin, and looking like nothing changed, walked out and slid his hand around his 'wife's' waist. "Hey, kiddo. Hasn't been the same without you around here."
Coraline looked at the Beldam, who bore the all-too-familiar look of her Mother, with the exception of the buttons in place of where real eyes should be.
"We have something to discuss, don't we?"
"I suppose we do," the Beldam gestured for the Other Father to leave the room, before she set down a plate of food before the girl.
"Have a bite, dear."
"Let Norman free. Take me instead."
"Jealous, Coraline? Or are you trying to save your friend's life? Or is he even a friend to you?"
"He isn't; I just don't want anyone else to get dragged into my, our, mess. I was your unfinished business, wasn't I? That's why you lingered. You could move on and leave peacefully, but you chose to get hung up on a victim you were unable to catch. The other victims, they can't move on. The past 'Beldams', they moved on. But you . . . "
"Shut up."
Coraline stopped. The Beldam had yelled at her, coaxed her, but never had she used such a tone, such words, to speak to her 'daughter'.
"Speaking to me in that manner would not convince me to stay, you know. Much less sew buttons in my eyes."
Coraline felt her chest tighten and she grabbed the glass of water, which she hoped wasn't drugged, and gulped it down. She relaxed slightly.
The past was harder to face than she'd initially thought.
"Aren't you scared that I will leave?"
"Why would I be? After all, you fell down the well, which, thanks to you, now I know leads to the real world. My broken hand also came down, crushed by a rock and wrapped with your towel."
Coraline simply nodded. The key didn't come down with it?
She could feel the cool metal-and-plastic key hung around her neck, glad that it was under her shirt.
She knew that the Beldam would eventually bring up the key, so Coraline decided to distract the Other Mother.
"You can't trick me anymore, the ghost eyes are smashed - their souls freed."
"Ah, but is yours?"
The Beldam was good. She knew how to play this game. But her strategies were similar and predictable.
"Who knows? I may have a way to escape your grasp once more."
The Beldam scanned her. At least, that's what Coraline assumed. "The key is with you, isn't it, daughter?"
Coraline knew her heart sped up. Breathing came quick and short. "N-no."
"You forget, I know exactly when you are lying. You also forget that I know that you are scared. Of me. Of this place. Past fears arising again, eh?"
She had to distract the Beldam. Maybe she would play another game.
The Beldam's attention shifted as she 'sniffed' the air. Her mouth curled into a loving yet creepy smile.
"Vermin . . . "
YOU ARE READING
Twisted Fates
FanfictionIt has been a year since the incident with the Beldam, otherwise known as the Other Mother, and Coraline Jones has been living peacefully with her parents. They have chosen to move out of the Pink Palace Apartments and into the countryside as Corali...
