The candle casts huge, flickering shadows along the wall. The cat, his voice returned, speaks to her. "You know, you're walking right into her trap." "I have to go back. They are my family." She said. "Challenge her. She may not play fair but she won't refuse. She's got a thing for games." (Y/n) thinks about it.

"Hmmm, okay." The door at the end of the tunnel opens, the candle blows out and the cat vanishes in the dark. (Y/n) tenses when a voice calls out. "(Y/n)?" "Mom?" She asked. "(Y/n), you came back for us!" "MOM!" (Y/n) runs forward eagerly and her arms out to hug her Mom. "Darling." Her voice shifts. "Why would you run away from me?" (Y/n) sees her mother's hand grow as it wraps around her. Alarmed, she pushes away and sees the mom grow into the tall Other Mother. The room lights up with the glowing bug furniture and a fireplace fire. (Y/n) tries her best to be brave. "Where is my family?" She demanded.

The Tall Other Mother's button eyes glitter. "Gosh, I have no idea where your "old" parents and twin are. Perhaps they've grown bored of you and run away to France?" She asked. "They weren't bored of me. You stole them!" Other Father, a foot shorter than before, his sagging face a pale pumpkin color, his hair vines, comes up behind (Y/n). "Now, don't be difficult, (Y/n). Have a seat, won't you?" Other Father, gurgling happily, herds (Y/n) onto the walking bug chair. The Tall Other Mother, standing by the little door, turns to it and claps her hands. A moment later,

a huge rat skitters out of the tunnel filled again with spider webs and children's things, carrying the key. The Tall Other Mother takes the key, locks the door, and while the armoire bug assumes guard position, she swallows the key. "Why don't you have your own key?" (Y/n) asked. "Only one key-" The Other Mother pulls a vine growing from his ear, shutting his mouth. "The garden squash needs tending, don't you think, pumpkin She turns him around, her hands under his arms and drags him out.

"Squish squash, pumpkin sauce... " (Y/n) hears the very faint sound of a finger on glass, just like when her twin wrote HELP on the mirror. (Y/n) jumps to her feet, looking around the room for a sign of her them. "Sis, Mom, Dad, where'd she hide you?" A muffled screen door slams and Other Mother calls to her from the kitchen. "Breakfast time!" (Y/n) leaves the room. She pauses in the doorway. 'Be strong, (Y/n).' She sits at the kitchen table in her regular place, her back to the sink. Other Mother, humming happily,

prepares a mushroom omelet and bacon. Fragrant cinnamon buns bake in the oven. At the table's center, (Y/n) sees the box with her button eyes with needle and thread. A bead of sweat rolls down her forehead. "Why don't we play ... a game? I know you like them." The Other Mother's button eyes flash. "Everybody likes games." She replied. (Y/n) nods. "Uh huh." Bacon sizzles on the stove. "What kind of game would it be?" "An exploring game ... a finding things game." (Y/n) said. Other Mother tries to act disinterested, but her fingers drum with excitement. "And what is it you'd be finding, (Y/n)?" She hesitates.

"My twin and real parents." She said. "Too easy." She folds the omelet over in the pan. "And, and the eyes of the ghost children." Other Mother smiles: now it's getting interesting. "Huh." The meal ready, she turns from the stove and takes the food to (Y/n). "What if you don't find them?" She asked. "If I lose, I'll stay here with you forever and let you love me. And I'll let you sew buttons into my eyes." (Y/n) said. "Hmmm... And if you somehow win this game?" Other Mother asked. "Then you let me go. You let everyone go, my twin sister, my real father and mother, the dead children, everyone you've trapped here."

The Other Mother smiles a malicious not in a million years smile. She holds out her hand. (Y/n) doesn't take it. "Not till you give me a clue." Other Mother snorts, her smile sours. She slowly circles (Y/n). "Oh, right... In each of three wonders I've made just for you, a ghost's eye is lost in plain sight." She said. "And for my twin and parents?" (Y/n) asked. Other Mother stands behind her in front of the sink, smiles wickedly and starts tapping her button eye with her finger nail. "Fine, don't tell me." (Y/n) turns away from her and crosses her arms. Then sighs. (Y/n) turns around and puts her hand out. "...it's a deal—" But the Other Mother has disappeared and the tapping now is the faucet dripping in the sink. (Y/n) exhales, walks to the sink, stares at the dripping faucet.

"What does she mean "wonders?" Out the kitchen window, the fantastic garden lights up, answering her question. (Y/n) furrows her brows. "Hmmm." (Y/n) walks through the gates. The bright magic of the garden is darker now, with areas of black against areas of glowing flowers. She passes the pitcher plants, and the one with the frog suddenly swallows the animal. She goes up the steps past the bleeding hearts, which now leak sticky red juice that runs down the wall. At the top, a few snapdragons, feeble now, snap at her. She kicks them down. Behind her, a brick tree ring opens like a monster's mouth and five huge, pale snapdragons sneak towards her. They attack, and knock her to the ground, spilling her bag. "No!" (Y/n) shouts.

they grab (Y/n) at her ankles, knees, hips, waist, and shoulder, and start to roll her up towards the stone mouth. (Y/n) is just able to grab her garden shears. She cuts off one mutant snapdragon's head, then another, until she is free. The headless stems retreat into the rock mouth. (Y/n), winded, goes to gather her spilled things when a trio of hummingbirds/wasp hybrids swoop in. They don't attack her; instead they poke their long beaks into the triangle candy with the hole and lift off. "Stop!!" But they're getting away. As she crosses the little bridge, she takes off her cap and flings it like a frisbee at them.. They fall to the ground, near the eyebrow shrubs, sawdust spilling out. She picks up the triangle candy. "Why steal this?"

With a look of what does she have to lose, she holds it up to her eye and gasps. "Wow." Everything is blurry grey like a pencil drawing, all color gone. She scans the garden, turning slowly. As she turns back to where she started, she sees something, right in front of her: a burning red ember, a ghost's eye! "That must be it." She lowers the stone from her eye, to see that the ghost's eye is the faded stick shift knob from the preying mantis tractor, which stands right in front of her with the Other Father, a squat pumpkin man, at its controls, his own hands imprisoned in the mechanical piano hands. Headlights glare and the tractor roars to life.

The mechanical hands force Other Father to shift gears, and the tractor lurches at (Y/n), its arms slashing. She yells and backs away. "Sorrry, so sorrry, Motherrr making meeee." (Y/n) backs onto the little bridge that spans the fountains as the tractor moves in. "Don't waaaanno hurrrrrt you." Other Father tries to steer the tractor away, but the mechanical hands are stronger. It moves onto the bridge, stupidly smashing through the planks in front of it. Halfway over, it lurches, then starts to fall through the hole it has created. The tractor hangs precariously for a moment. Other Father kicks away one mechanical hand, and with one hand free, manages to pull off the shift knob.

"Taaaake it!!!!!" (Y/n) dives forward and just gets the knob before the tractor and Other Father falls away and sinks. Rippling out from (Y/n) like a gray wave, the entire garden becomes ashen and dead. (Y/n) catches her breath, shaken. The ghost eye/gear knob glows red. "Bless you, miss, you found me! But there's two eyes still lost." "Don't worry, I'm getting the hang of it!" (Y/n) said. She looks past the greyed garden towards the Other House.

A lunar eclipse has begun, the full moon a pale acid green. (Y/n) looks concerned, then resolved, and then heads towards the house. A haunting version of Spink and Forcible's show song starts to play. Lights circle the door at half-speed. The haunting song continues. (Y/n) appears behind the entry curtains. She steps close, pulls the curtain open and the song stops. The theater is quiet and dark except for light coming through entry curtains. She spots a flashlight on the ground.

(Y/n) picks it up, clicks it on, and steps forward. She sweeps the light beam around, apprehensive, then hears something overhead. She aims the flashlight up and startles a nest of bat-dogs, half Scotties/half bats. One bares his teeth and growls. She clicks off the light and shivers. On stage, one spotlight and footlights fade up on a huge, wrapped saltwater taffy. It hangs from ropes and sandbags. She cautiously climbs up onto the stage. A human-sized taffy thing, striped pale pink and green, can just be seen through the wrapper. She holds her triangle candy with the hole to her eye. There is a blue-white glow coming from inside the wrapper.

(Y/n) punches a hole through the paper, steels herself, then reaches inside. She touches something sticky and cold and inhuman. Clenching her teeth, she grabs hold and pulls out two clasped-together cold, taffy hands. Young Spink and Forcible's. Her heart thumps. She pries the taffy hands open like scallop shells until a large pearl-on-a-ring is revealed. "The pearl!" The hands suddenly grab her and she screams. Young Spink and Forcible, twisted together into one taffy monster, thrust their heads from the bag. "Thief!! Give it back!" (Y/n) pulls away, stretching the candy arm out across the stage. The monster thrusts out another paired arm, and starts dragging itself towards (Y/n), ropes swaying on pulleys.

"You thief! Thief! Thief! Thief! Give it back! Thief! Give it back! Give it back! Thief! Stop thief! Thief! Stop!" (Y/n), desperate, gets an idea. She clicks on her flashlight and aims it at the bat-dogs. They growl with annoyance, and open their wings. The monster is getting closer. (Y/n) hurls the flashlight at the bat-dogs and hits them. Angered, they take wing to attack her. Bat-dogs are closing on the left, the monster on the right. She waits to the very last second, then dives out of the way. Bat-dogs and the monster collide.

(Y/n)'s hand is released by the taffy hands, leaving her the pearl. The bat-dogs and taffy monster, tuck together and still as stone, turn to dead, grey ash, as does the stage and theater. The pearl in (Y/n)'s hand pulses blue. "Hurry on, girl. Her web is unwinding!" (Y/n) nods, sticks the pearl in her bag, and looks up towards the ceiling and beyond. Other Mr. B's Russian flag, torn in places, waves in the air. The pale green moon is nearly half-eclipsed now with what is clearly the shadow of a huge, dark, button. (Y/n) climbs the last flight of stairs. She stops with a shudder at the top. The flag has been replaced with the empty coat of Other Wybie- gloves, pants and sneakers pinned on, hanging like old laundry. "Oh, Wybie..." She takes a breath, and leans over the railing. "EVIL WITCH ... I'M NOT SCARED!" The door behind her creaks open.

(Y/n) steps into the apartment and carefully shuts the door. The cannons and ferris wheel are dark and quiet; the circus tent glows dimly. Pale green moonlight shines in patches through holes in the roof. The corners and edges of the room are very dark. Other Bobinsky suddenly crawls by the door behind her. (Y/n) whips around, on guard. He looms up past the cannons on her right, leaning towards her. "Hello, ga-LOO-boo-shka." There are too many joints in his arms and legs.

"I'm (Y/n)." The girl said. His tall, crooked hat is pulled so low, and his collar so high, that his face is completely hidden. He throws out his arm towards her and the circus ball from the mouse circus rolls from his sleeve to his hand. "Is dis vhat you're looking for?" She looks through the hole of the triangle candy and sees an amber glow, the third ghost's eye. "Uh huh." (Y/n) grabs for it, but he's too quick. He back-bends to all fours and scuttles around her towards the back shadows. "You tink vinning game is goot ting? (Y/n) holds up the triangle candy, and scans the room for him. His voice sounds distorted now.

"You'll just go home and be bored and neglected." He twines up a post behind (Y/n), and crawls out on a beam. "...same as alvays." He swings upside-down from his ankles, his head stopping right by (Y'/n)'s. She whips around, alarmed. "Stay here vis us; vee vill listen to you and laugh vis you." He drops to the floor on his head, then slithers into the circus tent. (Y/n) does not want to follow him. But she does. The Other Mr. B is perched on a pile of moldy cheeses in the center of the ring. He moves like all his bones are broken. "If you stay here, you can have vhatever you vant, vsig-DA, alvays." (Y/n) raises the triangle candy to her eye, and sees the amber glow coming from inside his hat.

"You don't get it, do you?" She moves closer. "I don't understand." Small forms move under the back of his coat. "Of course you don't understand. You're just a copy she made of the real Mr. B." (Y/n) said. "Not even that anymore." (Y/n) pulls off his hat. Instead of his head, a huge pale rat sits there, holding the circus ball. It screeches at her then dives down the coat collar. Rats leap from coat sleeves and pant legs, (Y/n) pulls back, horrified, as the clothes collapse, scanning around for the ball. There's a rat screech behind her and she turns. The huge rat balanced on a wheel of cheese, circus ball in paws, taunts her, then runs the cheese out the door. She gives chase.

The other rats race behind the twin rows of cannons, the cheese wheel rat rolls through them, heading towards the door. (Y/n) charges. The cannons, manned by rats, fire cotton candy at her. She's hit in the side, her leg, her ribs; she weaves and stumbles, the shots landing like punches. "Ahhh! No!!" A door, perfectly shaped for the rat on the wheel, appears in the front door as the rat approaches. (Y/n) looks up to see the door open and the cheese wheel rat heading through it to the outside. (Y/n) takes her triangle candy stone and throws it as hard as she can. The whistling candy flies through the pet door towards the rat. The rat ducks, the candy misses, and the cheese-wheel rat escapes down the stairs with the ball. (Y/n) launches forward. "NOOOO!" Two waiting rats, tail tips tied, pull tails tight, and trip her. She crashes through the door and out onto the balcony which tears away from the house with attached stairway.

"Noooo!" The whole rig, with (Y/n) on top, rotates as it collapses, throwing (Y/n) toward the front of the house when it hits the ground. She blacks out a moment. Wheezing for breath, (Y/n) pushes up on hands and knees and scans past the topiaries and poplars and white gravel driveway, looking for the cheese-wheel rat and circus ball. No cheese-wheel rat, no circus ball ghost eye. (Y/n), lit by a narrowing band of pale green light, turns to look at the moon. It's nearly covered now by the dark button shadow. Her hand stings from a scrape. Blood trickles from her knee.

She feels nothing but loss. "Oh God, I've lost the game; I've lost everything, I'm so sorry sis." (Y/n) sobs, hugs knees and face to chest. The band of light that illuminates her is narrowing to near-gone. In the foreground, the head of the cheese-wheel rat, circus ball in its teeth, drops on the ground. Sawdust leaks from its neck. Band of light stops narrowing, the eclipse paused. There's a familiar MEROWWW and (Y/n) looks up. Across from her on the front yard, sits the cat licking his paws, rat's head and circus ball at his feet. "I think I mentioned that I don't like rats at the best of times." (Y/n) smiles, and walks towards him. "I think you might have said something like that." She chuckles.

"It looked like you needed this one, however." He bats the circus ball and it rolls to (Y/n). She picks it up, and sticks it in her bag. Around her, the yard, house, trees, shrubs and driveway turn ashen gray. "Thank you." She looks towards house. "I'm heading inside. I still have to find my twin sister and parents." The stalled eclipse starts again, the last sliver of green moon is fully blacked out. The edges of the button shadow start to flake away. A strange insect thrumming has begun. What appear to be grey paint chips or bits of paper are falling. Confused, (Y/n) looks up to see: the huge button shadow is eaten to nothing and then the sky around it is eaten as well, revealing dirty white light. The destruction travels from the sky to the distant hills, the sound of a million, invisible locusts growing louder. The cat hisses. Deeply alarmed, they look from one direction to another.

The destruction travels up the driveway, pulls apart the poplars, and then unravels the topiary elephant and bird. The cat's tail twitches. They are at the center of a rapidly shrinking island. The ground beneath their feet starts cracking, white light coming through. The cat makes a fearful sound. (Y/n) holds out her arms to the trembling animal. "Come on, quickly! " The cat leaps and she catches him, then carries him up the disintegrating steps to the front door. She gets through just in time, and slams it shut. It's dark and stable, with just some creaks and intermittent vibrations.

A poisonous green light spills from the other living room. (Y/n) goes there, carrying the cat over her shoulder, past wallpaper that peels up as she passes, to the room where she last heard the sound of her twin's finger on glass. A poisonous green fire, like sleepy sea snakes, burns in the fireplace. The bug furniture looks grey now, their lights flickering as if short-circuited; legs and wings twitching uncontrollably. (Y/n) scans the walls, the ceiling, looking for a sign of her parents. She senses the Other Mother behind her,

a creature who is no sort of Mother at all, but a witch, a Beldam. She turns. The Beldam is hunched on the sofa, her face hidden. "So, you're back...." Her voice sounds dry and tired. She turns her face towards (Y/n). "And you brought vermin with you." (Y/n) shudders and steps back. The cat makes a fearful sound and digs his claws into her shoulder. "No, I ... I brought a friend." The Beldam rises up 12 feet tall. She is withered to the bone; with plate-like shoulders and hips; her bustle now an arachnid's tail section. Her true form. She reaches her long, sharp fingers made of needles to (Y'/n)'s face.

"You know I love you." (Y/n) works hard to not show how freaked out she is. "You, you have a very funny way of showing it." The Beldam smiles, turns away, then back, outstretched. "So? Where are they? The ghost eyes?" The beldam asked. (Y/n) pulls out the three spheres and starts to hand them over. But she catches herself and pulls back. "Hold on. We aren't finished yet, are we?" The Beldam looks daggers, then smiles sweetly. "No, I suppose not. After all, you still need to find your twin and old parents, don't you? Too bad you won't have this." She produces the triangle candy that (Y/n) lost and flings it into the green fire.

The Beldam laughs while the magic burns out of the candy with sparks and pops. The third ghost eye pulses with amber light. (Y/n) turns away, so the witch won't see. "Be clever, miss; even if you win she'll never let you go!" (Y/n) looks towards the locked door behind the armoire bug and understands: she's got to get the Beldam to unlock it. She furrows her brow as an idea comes to her then nods. She turns to the witch. "I already know where you've hidden them." The Beldam turns from the fire. "Well... produce them." (Y/n) points to the little door. "They're behind that door." The Beldam leans close, knowing (Y/n) is wrong, and speaks very quietly. "Oh, they are, are they? A smile creeps onto her terrible face. And she starts towards the little door, moving in an odd, laboring way, as if she had four legs instead of two. She signals the armoire bug to stand aside, her back to (Y/n).

(Y/n) hears the soft chirp of her mother's finger on wet glass. She looks around, desperate, where is it coming from? The cat's ears twitch and focus, and then he sees something on the mantel. He whispers to (Y/n). "There!" And jumps to land beside the Detroit Zoo snow-globe, opaque with frost. With a soft-chirp, a section of glass is wiped clear from inside by a tiny forearm, and tiny, cold figures that are (Y/n)'s trapped parents and twin. Her heart races. She purposely stays back from them. "Sis! Mom! Dad!" The beldam coughs up the key into her hand. She turns to (Y/n) expectantly.

"Go on. Open it. They'll be there, all right." The Beldam stoops to push the key into the lock, turns it, leaves the key in place. She grins at (Y/n) and speaks in a low, sing-song voice. "You're wrong, (Y/n)!" She opens the little door, revealing the empty, spider web tunnel. (Y/n) glances from the open door to the cat, obscured on the mantel, and back to the Beldam. "They aren't there." She opens her hands: one holds the box with (Y'/n)'s black button eyes, the other a threaded needle. Triumphant, the Beldam softly gloats. "Now you're going to stay here forever." (Y/n) strikes a warrior's pose, and, summons all the fury she can. "No ... I'm .." She grabs the cat off the mantel and raises him over her head. "NOT!"

(Y/n) hurls the cat at the Beldam. The yowling animal, face shocked with surprise, sails through the air and lands right on the astonished witch's head. Freaked-out, the cat digs in his claws and bites the shrieking Beldam, who staggers to one side of the little door. (Y/n) grabs the snow globe with her parents and twin inside, stows it in her bag, and moves out to approach the door from the other side. The Beldam flails wildly. The cat howls, raises his claws, and, two shiny black buttons hit the floor, the beldam's eyes. The cat is thrown on the armoire bug. Her hands cover her face. "NOOOOOOOOO!" Her hands pull away to show empty, flat sockets and torn thread.

"You horrible cheating girl!" She furiously stomps the floor which flies up in a spiral of floorboards that drive (Y/n) to the room's center. A huge web trap lies beneath the floor. The web trap stretches down into a fifty foot deep pit. There is nothing beyond but pale nothingness. The cat scrambles along the tops of falling furniture straight to the little door and disappears into the tunnel. (Y/n) falls down to the very bottom of the web. Fifty feet above, the Beldam laughs maniacally and leaps down like a huge, flying spider. (Y/n) manages to pull herself to the outside of the trap just as the Beldam lands.

The witch, furious her prey has escaped, spins around, grasping blindly. "Noo!! Where are you? You selfish brat!!" (Y/n) nearing the top, looks up and spots the little door, still in the corner wall. She goes to climb back inside the web, when her bag gets caught on a barb. She pulls and pulls until it breaks free, sending a strong vibration down the spiraling web to the very sensitive hand of the Beldam. "Hahahaha.." The Beldam smiles, she knows where (Y/n) is. (Y/n) makes it to the little door, but the witch is coming up behind her very fast. "YOU ... DARE ..." (Y/n) scrambles through the door, key in hand, and grabs the door's handle. Before she can shut it, the Beldam's head thrusts inside. "... DISOBEY YOUR MOTHER??!!" (Y/n) kicks her in the face, knocking her back. The cat takes off down the tunnel. (Y/n) nearly shuts the door, when needle fingers grab hold through the crack. The door starts to pull open.

"PLEASE...SHUT!!" The ghost children's fluttery, dismembered hands fly out from her bag and grab hold of (Y/n)'s hands that grip the door's handl. The door starts to shut. The Beldam snatches desperately at (Y/n), reaching through the closing gap with one thin claw. There's a final moment of resistance, the Beldam's wire-thin wrist caught in the door, and then SNAP! The door shuts, and the Beldam's hand drops to the ground. She screeches. (Y/n) just manages to lock the door when it is pounded from the other side, green light coming through cracks. (Y/n) takes off down the tunnel, stooped down, as fast as she can. The pounding grows more insistent, green light flashing. "DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T LEAVE ME!!! I'LL DIE WITHOUT YOU!!!!" The tunnel behind (Y/n) starts to grow shorter, like a collapsing accordion and the pounding far door with the blind, one-handed Beldam on the other side starts to catch up.

(Y/n) flings herself through the doorway, shuts and locks the door and braces herself against it. A split- second later, the other world door catches up with a crash. (Y/n) is thrown back. But the real-world door and lock, hold. It's over...(Y/n) lies on her back, as beat-up and tired as she's ever been, gulping in breaths of air till her heart slows a little. The room is brightly lit by sunlight, the first since she moved here, and the sky out the windows is blue with white clouds. She smiles, remembering, and turns to her bag with the ghost eyes and snow globe with her parents and twin sister inside. She opens it up, and searches, shoving aside ghost eyes and garden shears. But the snow globe is gone.

She gets on all fours, and starts searching the floor. Her hand hits a small puddle by the fireplace, with tiny bits of blue snow. A drip plops down, then another. She looks up to the mantel and spots the missing snow globe. She stands up and finds that it's broken open, and neither her parents, twin sister nor the fountain bears are inside. As the last of the snowy liquid drains from the globe, (Y/n)'s face clouds with confusion and fear: What does this mean? And where are her twin and parents? Then her real mother calls to her. "(Y/n)? We're home!"

"Sis? Are you there?" Coralline asked. Her family enters the room from the hallway, a dusting of snow on their shoulders and hair. "Sis! Mom! Dad! I missed you so much!" (Y/n) runs to her twin sister and parents and throws her arms around them. "Missed us?" Coraline asked, as if she had completely forgotten what's happened to her and her twin. "Oh no, you broke my favorite snow globe." Mel said. "I didn't break it. It must have broke when you escaped." (Y/n) said. "(Y/n)! And you cut your knee!" Coraline said in a slight scolding manner, scanning her cut. Charlie crouches low, clutching his briefcase.

"(Y/n), I asked you to count all the windows not put your knee to them." He said. "But-" (Y/n) said. "Well, get yourself cleaned up, we're going out tonight." Mel said. "We gotta lot to celebrate!" Charlie said. "You're talking about... your garden catalog?" (Y/n) asked. "What else?" Coraline asked. The trio turn to leave. "But look at the snow on your clothes...?" But the snow melts without a trace. "What's gotten into you, (Y/n)?" Her parents and twin walk off. (Y/n) looks back to the broken snow globe on the mantel. She cocks her head, deeply puzzled, then leaves the room.

The VW is parked out front, its interior light fading as light in Coraline's bedroom window switches on. Charlie makes a strangled sound. Coraline and (Y/n) sit in bed, pajamas washed, wounds-dressed, hair shining. The key hangs from a string around (Y/n)'s neck. A gibbous moon shines in the clear night sky. Charlie wrestles with a blue stuffed-toy squid like it's an alien face-hugger then falls on the bed. Coraline and (Y/n) laugh. "So, gonna order the tulips?" Coraline asked. He opens one eye, and pretends he's never heard about this. "What's that?" "For the garden party!!" Coraline said. Charlie sits up and kids her, tickling her face with the squid. "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Dad!" Coraline scolds, and (Y/n) giggles and turns to their mom. "So, Mom. Invitations? Don't forget the invitations." She said.

Their mother nods. "Even Bobinsky?" Mel asked. "Mr. B's not drunk, Mom, he's just...eccentric." Coraline said. Charlie laughs. He bends down to kiss her, then (Y/n). "Good night, girls." As he steps away, Mel slips a slim box under the covers next to (Y/n). She gives her a "told you so" look, and she and Charlie leave the room. (Y/n) sits up excitedly and opens the box, it's the green and orange gloves she'd wanted. She pulls one on to admire when the cat appears outside her window. "Oh, hello again." She walks over to the window, opens it. "You still mad?" His expression says yes. "I'm really sorry I threw you at her, the Other Mother? It was all I could think of."

The cat's angry expression softens. He rests his head on her hand, licking her fingers and purrs. "What other mother? What are you talking about?" Coraline asked, and (Y/n) sighs as she approaches their bed. "It's a long story." Coraline looks confused, but nods. (Y/n) grabs her collecting bag and takes out the large pearl, the circus ball, and the grey stick shift knob. Coraline looks at them. "Whoa." (Y/n) holds them out to the cat. "I think it's time, don't you? To set them free?" The cat nods. She puts the ghost eyes under her pillow and gently lays down, the cat lying beside her.

The three of them close their eyes, and in no time at all, they doze off to sleep. (Y/n) wakes up and her eyes adjust to the brightness to see the three ghost children, now transformed into golden angels; eyes restored, small fluttering wings on their backs. "It's a fine, fine thing you did for us, miss." The sweet ghost girl said. "Well, I'm glad it's finally over!" A shadow crosses the faces of the three children. They gather around (Y/n) and bow their heads. "It is over and done with ... for us." The sweet girl said. "What about...me?" The tall girl ghost shifts uncomfortably. "You're in terrible danger, girl!" (Y/n) is stunned. "But how? I locked the door!?" She said.

"It's the key, miss, there's only one and the Beldam will find it." The key on the string around (Y/n)'s neck floats out in front of her. She grabs it. The three children all embrace (Y/n) tenderly. "Tain't all bad, miss. Thou art alive ... thou art still ... living..." They begin to swirl around her, spinning faster and faster. (Y/n) starts to turn and then she rolls herself awake in her own bed. Her twin is still fast asleep. (Y/n) pulls back above her to find covers thrown off and the cat awake by her side. She lifts up her pillow and gasps, the ghost eyes are in pieces. She takes out the key on its string and explains to the cat, her voice panicked. "I -- I've gotta hide this somewhere, s- somewhere she can never-" The cat doesn't like the sound of this. (Y/n) grabs her blanket and heads to her door. But the cat leaps down and blocks her way. "Outta my way!" She sidesteps the cat and leaves her room. The cat looks after her worriedly.

(Y/n) trots down the stairs and heads down the hall. She passes the living room. At the little door, shadows and light start to move. The baseboard is pushed aside. Through the narrow gap at the door's bottom, the dismembered hand of the beldam crawls out. It scrambles out of frame in the direction of (Y/n). (Y/n) moves briskly, the house below, gripping the key that's tied round her neck. Dark, ropey clouds reach like fingers across the gibbous moon. (Y/n) sings her father's song, her voice hardly trembling. "Oh.... my twitchy witchy girls, I think you are so nice..." she moves down past the old fruit trees, now covered with bright spring blossoms that fall gently like snow. "I give you bowls of porridge And I give you bowls of ice cream."

The Beldam's hand crawls after (Y/n). "I give you lots of kisses. And I give you lots of hugs." (Y/n) jams the same dead branch Wybie used under the well's cover, lining it up over the same fulcrum rock. "But I never give you sandwiches with grease and worms and mung beans." Circling around behind the big stump, the hand scampers behind one rock to a bush to a tree, coming closer. (Y/n) manages to lever the well's cover off to one side, leaving the whole well open. Huffing and sweating,

she wipes her brow, then takes the key string around her neck. The hand, seeing what is about to happen, races towards her. (Y/n) lifts the string and key, not quite over her head. The hand jumps onto the big stump and springs through the air to grab the key and pull (Y/n) to the ground. She makes a choked scream, her fingers caught between the key string and her neck. the hand wants to drag her back to the house and the little locked door that is breathing with anticipation. A blinding headlight hits the hand and (Y/n); an air horn sounds; and Wybie Lovat, hollering a battle cry, comes speeding down on his whining electric bike.

"YAHHHHH!!!! " Wybie guns the throttle, and, leaning out, grabs the confused hand with his slug tongs. He circles around and heads toward the well, readying to throw the hand in. But the hand gets free, and grabs his handlebars. Out of control, Wybie's bike hits a rock, and Wybie and the hand are thrown right down the well. Hollering, he just manages to hang on with one hand. The Beldam's hand, caught on Wybie's coattail, scrambles up his body and face and onto the well's edge where it stabs at his fingers to make him fall. (Y/n) choking, rises to her feet. She grabs her blanket and in the still-blazing headlight of the crashed bike, she runs up and throws it over the hand. It fights like crazy as (Y/n) wrestles to control it. The hand stabs through the blanket and shakes it off. It crouches to attack her.

And then a big rock hurls down on the leaping hand, and it breaks into twenty lifeless needles. Wybie struggles to catch his breath. (Y/n) breathing hard, removes the key and string from around her sore neck. She pulls up the corners of her blanket, with the needles on it, around the rock, and ties it all together with the string. The key is left attached. The two friends carry the heavy package to the well and drop it down the hole. By the light of a stray moonbeam, they watch and listen until it makes a muffled splash in the dark water. They slide the well cover in place. Still catching his breath, Wybie stands,

holding his injured hand, its glove ripped by the Beldam's claw. He looks at (Y/n) as the scene brightens a little with moonlight. "I-I'm really sorry I didn't believe you about all this... evil stuff, (Y/n)." (Y/n)'s shoulders rise as she catches her breath, she stands and smiles: "Why did you change your mind?" He walks over, and takes out an old photo from his jacket. "W-well, Gramma showed me this picture, after I called you crazy?" He hands it to her. Two light-skinned black girls, dressed in old-fashioned clothing, stand in front of the Pink Palace, before it was divided into apartments.

One looks just like the sweet ghost girl, and holds the one of the dolls with button eyes, which looks just like her. "It's her and her sister, before she disappeared." Behind them, blossoms fall like snow in the orchard. "The sweet ghost girl." Wybie's grandmother, loud and worried, calls from the distance. "Oh, man...what am I going to tell her?" (Y/n) looks up from the photo and smiles. "Just bring her by the house tomorrow. We can tell her together." She said. "We...we can??" Whybie asked. "You know, I'm glad you decided to stalk me." (Y/n) gives Wybie a playful punch on the arm and laughs. "Wasn't my idea." The cat jumps up on the tree stump and MEROWWS, and (Y/n) smiles at him.

Time Skip

One white balloon floats against a blue sky with puffy, white clouds. There's a table of refreshments, set up by the front gates. (Y/n) picks up a tray of drinks and heads out to her hard-working guests, all wearing garden gloves and showing signs of having helped plant about two hundred red tulips. Spink and Forcible, along with their dogs, are set up at a table below the steps. Empty plant cartons are stacked nearby along with some garden tools and empty bags of peat moss. "Thanks for helping me, Miss Spink, Miss Forcible." (Y/n) holds out the tray. "Oh, look April, Pink Ladies!" Miss Forcible said. "Actually, it's just lemonade." (Y/n) hands them the beverages, then nods towards the grey dog digging in the flowers. "How's Angus doing?" Miss Spink sighs. "Oh, much better, dear...

But he can't duck his wings forever!" (Y/n) heads up the steps to find her parents and twin sister dumping a heavy bag of peat moss around the dead-looking tree in the stone circle. "Here comes a burp." Charlie burps. "Charlie!" Mel scolded. "Ew gross!" Coraline waves her hand. "Oh, excu-say-moi, but that pizza was delicious." Mel sighs. "Cold drinks?" (Y/n) offered. "I'll take one!" Coraline grabs one from the tray along with her parents. "Oh yeah, great!" Charlie said. "You two were right, (Y/n). I really hate dirt, but the tulips look nice." Mel said. "Thanks, mom." Coraline said. (Y/n) smiles, and comes upon Bobinsky in the bottom of the drained fish pond. He's stealthily pulling just-planted tulips from the dirt there, and putting beets in their place.

"Ooo, dret nican...neit, neit...da, da, dat iz possible." (Y/n) clears her throat to get his attention. Surprised and looking very guilty, he tries to cover up his activities. (Y/n) smiles and hands him a drink. "How are the meeshkas, Mr. B?" (Y/n) asked. "Dey tell me that you are saviour, (Y/n). And soon as dey are ready, dey vish to give special tenks-you performance." He drains his glass of lemonade. A familiar voice is heard approaching. Coraline and (Y/n) turn and smile. "Wyborne, I know where I'm going." Wybie and his grandmother walk through the garden gates. "I grew up here." Coraline sees them and waves. "Welcome, Ms. Lovat!" (Y/n) said. The old lady looks up and smiles. "Oh, hello." "I'm (Y/n) Jones, I've got so much to tell you!" "Here." Mel said. "Thanks." "Ooo, do you want to pop a little gin in it dear?" The black cat is on the sign for the pink palace apartments. He blinks, then walks behind the thin post that holds the sign and disappears.