(Y/n) fidgets and turns again but sleep finally wraps her and takes her to oblivion. The room is brightly lit like morning in the real world. As (Y/n) is woken by the light. With a hopeful look, she calls out, and pulls back the covers. "Mom!... Dad!.." Her smile turns to shock, there's a bright, full moon in her window and it's still nighttime in the other world. "Oh God, we're still here?" Coraline asked, looking at her fearfully. The twins race downstairs to the Other Living Room where the little door home must be. But the living room is locked tight. Coraline pulls at the handles, plants a foot and tries with all her might. It's no use. She stops, panting,

they hear a piano note being hit over and over. They open the door and find the Other Father sitting at the piano, his back to them, hitting the note. (Y/n) speaks in her bravest voice. "Hey you! Where's the Other Mother? We want to go home." She said. The Other Father turns around. He looks ill; his hair messed and his glasses askew. He speaks, his voice slowed- down. "All will be swell, soon as mother's refreshed. Her strength is our strength." The white-gloved hands pop out from the piano. One covers his mouth, the other wags a finger.

"Mustn't talk when Mother's not here." He said. "If you won't even talk to us, we're gonna find the Other Wybie. He'll help us." Coraline said. They turn to go. "No point; he pulled a long face... " He pulls down the corners of his mouth impossibly far. "...and Mother didn't like." The piano hands pop out again, aggressively shut his mouth and spin him away from them. Frightened, they run to the door that leads outside, and pull it open. They run out the back porch, towards the Other Garden. They cross the trail, the Other House in the distance. They run down the path. They run past trees that are lush with green leaves and ripe red fruit. They're panting hard, and have to slow to a fast walk. The further they go, the less tree-like the fruit trees become. They hear the cat MEROWWW. Surprised, they look down. "And what do you think you're doing?" The cat trots along by their feet.

"Well, we're gettin' outta here. That's what we're doing.." Coraline said. The sky starts to brighten and the apple trees become wire-thin shapes of trees. "Huh? Something's wrong. Shouldn't the old well be here?" (Y/n) asked. The remnants of the trees and the sky and the ground give way to a pale, empty nothingness. No ground or shadows. "Nothing out here ... it's the empty part of this world. She only made what she knew would impress you." The cat looking at (Y/n). "But why? Why does she want me? Doesn't she want me and sis?" (Y/n) asked. They walk over the horizon. "She wants something to love, I think. Something that isn't her... Or maybe she'd just love something to eat." Coraline got angry and protective at this. "That's ridiculous, mothers don't eat daughters!" She snapped. "I don't know. How do you taste?" The cat chuckles and walks ahead.

A shape rises in front of them in the whiteness and becomes the beautiful Other House. (Y/n), Coraline and the cat slowly walk to the front yard and topiary, the sky, hills, white gravel drive and the poplar trees behind them fill in. "Huh? But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?" (Y/n) asked, looking around. The cat curls its tail into a question mark, and tips its head to one side. "Walk around the world." The cat said. "Small world." Coraline said quietly. "It's a small world after all..." (Y/n) sung quietly, and Coraline groaned and face palmed.

"No! Anything but that song (Y/n)." (Y/n) snickered, and so did the cat, until he suddenly tenses, and focuses on a shrub. "Hang on—" He bounds towards the shrub and chases out a cute kangaroo mouse in uniform with a tiny trumpet. Before they can blink, he's pinned it down. "Stop, he's one of the circus mice!" Coraline scolded. With a swift blow of its paw, the cat knocks the mouse into the air, and catches it in his mouth. He gives a quick bite, the twins gasps, and the mouse transforms into a big dead rat. Coraline and (Y/n) are stunned. He drops the rat on the ground.

"I don't like rats at the best of times, but this one was sounding an alarm." The cat picks the rat up and heads off. Slack-jawed, (Y/n) speaks with admiration. "Gooooood kitty." She and Coraline look to the house with a determined look. On the porch, Coraline takes out a heavy cane from the umbrella stand and hits it into her hand. Coraline, standing in front of the living room doors, tests the cane in her hands, and she and (Y/n) peer down the hall for danger. It's dead quiet, no piano, no sounds of anything. Coraline jams the cane through the doors' handles, and pulls with all her might. One handle and lock break and the door swings open into the pitch black living room. The hall light casts a narrow path directly to the Other Little Door on the far wall, cracked open. They step into the room.

A huge armoire bug suddenly crab-steps in their path, blocking the little door, and all around them things start to glow. The room has been transformed into an amazing bug museum, with all sorts of glowing, living specimens in the place of the old furniture and furnishings. The radiators are now big caterpillars, the Nordic Track a serving bug. The Other Mother speaks out, startling them. "They say even the proudest," The sofa, now a large bug, turns in place to reveal her sitting on it. "Spirit can be broken ... with love." She's all smiles, button eyes shining, one hand held out in a behold my handiwork gesture.

A bug chair scoops up (Y/n) and brings her to the Other Mother. Coraline quickly runs to stand beside the chair. The Other Mother takes a candy dish from the servant bug. "Of course, chocolate never hurts. Like one?" She extends a candy dish filled living chocolate beetles. (Y/n) looks at it in complete disgust. "They're Cocoa Beetles from Zanzibar." The Other Mother takes back the dish and bites off the head of one. It's the first thing she's eaten. Coraline is disgusted. "We want want to be with our real mom and dad. I want you to let us go! And leave my sister alone!"

Coraline shouted, glaring daggers at her. The Other Mother glares, and swallows. She speaks with a frightening steeliness in her voice. "Is that any way to talk to your mother?" Other Mother asked angrily. "You aren't our mother." Coraline glared. The Other Mother straightens. Her button eyes, now dead, stare into Coraline's. "Apologize at once, Coraline!" Coraline stares right back, not blinking. "No!" "I'll give you to the count of three." Coraline stays firm. "One..." Then she stands up, growing taller. "Two..." she grows taller and scarier. "...THREE!" This tall other mother grabs Coraline and (Y/n) by their noses and drags them to the hallway.

"Ow, what are you doing!" "Ow, that hurts!" (Y/n) shouted. She pulls them down the hallway to the mirror at the end. They flail at the Tall Other Mother with their fists as she and (Y/n) are thrown into the other side of the mirror. They hit the ground hard. The Tall Other Mother, head thrust through the mirror, and stares at them angrily. "You may come out when you've learned to be loving daughters!" She pulls her head out and leaves them in darkness. Coraline and (Y/n) pound on the mirror-door, and kick it with their blue boots. A sob wells up in (Y/n)'s throat. And then they hear a soft ghostly moan. They turn, they can just make out a sagging iron bed.

When the voice speaks, there is a faint glow from beneath its stained cover. "Who's there?" Coraline asked. "Hush! And shush! For the Beldam might be listening!" Coraline and (Y/n) step towards the bed, the faint glow from under the covers in sync with the words. "You ... you mean the Other Mother?" (Y/n) gently pulls back the sheets. The dimly glowing ghosts of three children, button eyes, sit up: a sweet girl ghost, Coraline's and (Y/n)'s size; a tall girl ghost, emotional; a young boy ghost. "Who are you?" (Y/n) asked. "Don't remember our names... But I 'member my true mommy..." The boy, dressed like Huck Finn, conjures up ghost flowers. The strange-looking flowers wither and fade. He's so sad that (Y/n) takes his cold hand and squeezes it. "Why are you all here?" Coraline asked.

"The Beldam!" The ghosts move about in a dance macabre, like ghostly fish in water. "She spied on our lives, through the little doll's eyes." The sweet ghost girl said. "And saw that we weren't happy." The boy ghost said. "So she lured us away, with treasures and treats." The tall ghost girl said. "And games to play!" The sweet ghost girl said. "Gave all that we asked." The boy said. "Yet we still wanted more." The sweet girl said. "So we let her sew the buttons." The tall ghost girl went through (Y/n), button eyes showed on her face for a moment before going back to normal, and Coraline hugs her close. "She said that she loved us." The boy said.

"But she locked us here." The tall girl said. And ate up our lives" The ghosts fall back into their bed and sink down. Coraline and (Y/n) are stunned. (Y/n) thinks a little and then speaks, trying to steady her voice. "Well, she can't keep us in the dark forever; not if she wants to win our lives. Beating her is our only chance." The Sweet Girl asks in her sing-song way. "Perhaps, if you do win your escape, you could find our eyes?" She asked. "Has she taken those, too?" Coraline asked. "Yes, miss. And hidden them." The sweet girl said. "Find our eyes, mistresses, and our souls will be freed." The boy said. (Y/n) looks down. "We'll... we'll try." Coraline sits down against the mirror door, bounces her head against it. She's not hopeless. Suddenly, hands reach through the mirror and pull (Y/n) out. (Y/N)!" Coraline shouted worriedly.

(Y/n) tears at the hands that hold her. She grabs one and, flips her masked attacker onto the ground. She pulls off his mask: it's the other Wybie, his mouth stitched into a painful, ear to ear smile. "WYBIE?..." (Y/n) sits him up. "Did she do this to you?" She unstitches his painfully-huge grin. "I hope that feels bet—" he shushes her, and points to the Other Living Room, its door unlocked and open. He grabs her hand and pulls her there. "Wait, but-" what about Coraline? It's dark, the bug furniture asleep. They run to the big armoire bug that guards the little door and shove it out of the way. It crashes to the floor. And from upstairs, a voice calls out.

"(Y/n)? Coraline? Is that you?" "We have to get Coraline!" (Y/) said worriedly, turning to go back. Wybie grabs her arm and pulls her back to the door and opens it. A cold wind blows from the dark passageway, now filled with spider webs and the shoes, coats, and hats of other kids who tried to escape. "Coraline... (Y/n)..." The tunnel moves at the sound of her voice. (Y/n) grabs his arm. "Please! You have to help me save Coraline!" He shakes his head, then pulls off his glove to reveal a hand made of sawdust. He blows his fingers away. High heels click from the stairs. "Coraline? (Y/n)? How dare you disobey your mother!!" Other Wybie shoves (Y/n) into the tunnel and shuts the door. Hunched down, she moves as quickly as she can, tearing through the sticky cobwebs.

"Coraline! (Y/n)!" Strands of web brush her face, stick to her hair; she closes her eyes, hands out until she finally gets to the little door at the other end. She dives, tucks and rolls out onto the real living room floor. (Y/n) slams the door shut and turns the sharp little key, still in the keyhole to lock it. She stands, covered in dust and cobwebs. "I'M HOME!" (Y/n) shouted. She goes quickly through the apartment. "Anybody here? Hello, hello, hello! Real Dad ... Real Mom?" (Y/n) walks into the kitchen "Oh, Mom's groceries!" There are bags of groceries on the table, as if her mother had just gotten in. She pulls open a bag to peek and fruit flies shoot out.

The food is spoiled. "Uhhh. That's disgusting." The door bell rings. (Y/n) runs excitedly to the door and flings it open. "We missed you guys so much-- You'll never—" But it's just Wybie, the real boy. "Oh... the Wybie that talks..." He waves, face down. "Huh? Ha ha ha....yeah... Um, so you know tho-those old dolls I gave you? Um... my Gramma's real mad, says they were her sister's? the one that... disappeared?" He asked. "You stole those dolls, didn't you?" (Y/n) asked suspiciously. "Well, one of them looked just like you. And I figured-" "they both look just like me, Wybie! It used to look like this pioneer girl; then Huck Finn junior; then it was this Little Rascals chick with all these ribbons, and braids, and...." Her voice trails off. (Y/n) studies Wybie,

then, snaps her fingers. "Grandma's missing sister!" He nods, one brow raising up. "I think we just met her. C'mon!" She pulls him inside and drags him down the hall. "Uh, listen, I-I-I'm really not supposed to- whoa!" (Y/n) walks him to the little door in the corner wall and points. Wybie looks around anxiously, fearful and curious to be in his grandmother's old house. "She and sis are in there." Reluctantly, he bends down and reaches for the key in the lock. "C-can you – can you unlock it?" She grabs his hand and stops him. "Not yet! I need some kind of plan first before I go back to save Coraline." (Y/n) said.

Wybie stares at her, nodding his head as if he understands. He changes the subject. "Huhhhhhh... So, uh, I really need to get those dolls?" He asked. "Great! I'd love to get rid of them!" She exhales in a huff. She grabs his sleeve, and leads him from room. The dolls are not on the bed, not on the chairs or moving boxes. "Where are you hiding, you little monsters?!" Wybie nervously watches (Y/n) pull out her dresser drawers, yank cushions off the window seat. "You and Gramma been talking?" Whybie asked. "The dolls are her spies! It's how she watches you, finds out what's wrong with your life!" (Y/n) said.

"The doll...is my Gramma's...spy?" He asked. "NO! The Other Mother! She's got this whole world where everything's better, the food, the garden, the—" she leans in on him. "The neighbors. But it's all a trap!" Wybie cups a hand to his ear by the window. "Yeah... Uh, I think I heard someone calling me, Jonesy." He said. "Don't believe me?... You can ask the cat!" (Y/n) snapped. "The cat...?" He moves around her towards the door, turns to leave. "I-I'll just tell Gramma that you couldn't find the doll-- OW!" A blue boot thrown by (Y/n),

hits his arm. He turns back as she takes off the second one. "You're not LISTENING TO ME!" She shouted. "That's ... cause ... you're CRAZY!" He flees as the second boot flies past. (Y/n) growls, and gives chase. She grabs her boots from the floor, and chases him down the stairs in her socks. The door flies open and Wybie runs down the front steps to his electric bike. (Y/n) races down after him. "You creep!" "Crazy!!" He runs his bike towards the fallen tree, hops on and pedals off. As (Y/n) hurls a boot at him, he guns the motor and escapes down a side path past the driveway.

"Crazy?... You're the jerk-wad that gave me the dolls!" Out of breath, she turns away and notices her parents' car parked to the side. "Mom! Dad! " Excited, she hops over the fallen tree and runs to the car. (Y/n), standing in the rain, excitedly looks through the car's window. But the car is empty. She spots her mom's phone then opens the door to grabs it and speed dial a number. "Pick it up, Dad, pick it up." She said. "Hi!" Charlie said. "Dad! Whe-" "I'm digging in my garden right now, but leave a message and I'll get right back to you." She dejectedly looks at the phone, then snaps it shut. "Where have you gone?"

Miss Spink is knitting a sweater with wings for a worried looking Angus, one of the Scotties, who sits on her lap. (Y/n) sips tea, anxious, the other two dogs beside her. "Uh... don't you only make wings for the ... dead ones?" (Y/n) asked. "Just looking ahead dear... Angus hasn't been feeling very well of late." Miss Spink said. "April? Aren't you getting ready?" Miss Forcible asked. "We've lost our ride, Miriam. (Y/n) says her parents have vanished, quite completely." Miss Forcible tightens her elaborate corset, using pulleys and hooks. "What?! We've waited months for those tickets." One of the corset hooks flies up and pulls off her wig.

She ignores it and comes over to address Spink. "I suppose we could walk." Miss Spink said. "With your gamy legs? It's nearly two miles to the theater!" (Y/n) clears her throat, frustrated. "Oh, oh yes ... your missing parents. We know just what you need. Miriam, get...that's right." Miss Forcible grabs another dish of old stuck-together candy and puts it in front of (Y/n). "How is hundred-year-old candy going to help—" Miss Spink suddenly raises her knitting needles.

(Y/n) yelps, hands up in defense. But it's candies she attacks, sending sticky chips flying, making loud grunts. She pulls a large, three-sided candy with a hole it from the rubble and passes it to (Y/n). "There you go, sweetie." (Y/n) studies the odd candy. "What's it for?" She holds it up, looks through its hole at the ladies. "Well, it might help. They're good for bad things, sometimes." Miss Spink said. "No, they're good for lost things." "It's bad things, Miriam." "Lost things, April." "Bad." "Lost." "Bad things!" "Lost." "Bad" "LOST!" (Y/n) gets up, takes the odd piece of candy and leaves.

(Y/n) dressed for bed with her blanket over her shoulder, walks into her parent's room, the photo of her, her sister and her parents at the Bear Fountain in the foreground. She pulls down the bed covers and builds copies of her parents out of pillows. She fits an extra neck brace on one pillow head and some reading glasses on the other. Then (Y/n) lies down and pulls up the covers. "Good-night, sis, good night Mom. Good-night, Dad." She kisses them and begins to cry. (Y/n)'s asleep. One paw and then two paws bat her nose. She opens her eyes to find opal blue eyes staring at her. It's the black cat, purring loudly. "Hello. How did you get in? Do you know where Mom and Dad are?"

The cat blinks. Then he heads out the door. She follows him, wrapped in her blanket, to the mirror at the end of the hallway. The mirror starts to glow and then an image forms within the glass. It's her parents and twin sister! They cling together, blue with cold, as snow falls. "MOM! DAD!! " They look up and, with a desperate look, Coraline breathes on the inside mirror-glass to fog it. She writes H E L P U S. Her fingertip squeaking on the glass. Frost rises up, hiding the letters and then her twin and parents. (Y/n) strikes at the mirror as hard as she can. Glass shatters and she drops to the ground, shaking. The cat nuzzles her. "How did this happen?" (Y/n) asked. From under the bed, the cat drags out the button-eyed doll, remade into her mother on one side,

and her father on the other. (Y/n) gasps. "She's taken them. Enraged, she throws the doll into the fire. (Y/n) and cat watch until the fire burns out. She takes a breath and looks up at the mantel. (Y/n) cradles one of the snow globes, remembering. "They're not coming back, are they? Mom and Dad. And neither is sis. Not on their own." The cat blinks. (Y/n) looks over at the locked little door in the corner wall. "Only one thing to do." (Y/n) grabs her collecting bag from the closet, her puffy vest, her boots; grabs a candle and garden shears, puts them in the bag. She stands to go, taking her cap off the chair. The odd piece of candy, the triangle green one with the hole, drops to the floor. She hesitates a moment, then sticks it in her bag. (Y/n) unlocks the door. It opens to reveal the cat, and, holding a lit candle. She leaves the key in the lock, like always. She takes a breath and crawls forward.