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The Trade	By : sandyl666 Category: +1 through F > Coraline Views: 11934 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: Coraline book-verse is owned by Neil Gaiman and part of movie-verse is owned by Henry Selick, I own nothing. I make nothing whatsoever by writing and posting this on.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Disclaimer: Coraline and whatever is to do with it belongs to Neil Gaiman/Henry Selick.
A/N: We've gotten to that point in the story where there will be no sex scenes for a while...
From here on in, I'm going to refer to the Beldam as Bel. I think it's okay to incorporate his nickname now, and the Beldam is just plain annoying to type.
Chapter 14: Refresh

Bolting awake from her sleep, Coraline shook her head, trying to shake off the hazy, groggy feeling that was wrapped about her mind, constricting it. She vaguely remembered having a dream, one that she really liked. She tried with great difficulty to recall what it was.
Was I dreaming about going home again? She wondered. Now that she was pregnant, she knew she only had nine months, maybe less to go before she would be free to return home.
Home. The thought of her original home made her sigh longingly. The exotic smells of her father's cooking, the wide, genuine smiles of Wybie and Kate, the cracks and flaws in the walls of the original Pink Palace, Cat sneaking into her window to spend the night with her.
The urge overpowered her reasonable, intelligent side. The side which protested loudly in her head over such a reckless, unplanned action. The side which tried to remind her that she was carrying his child.
She ignored it, for the first time entertaining the idea of an abortion... that is, if she succeeded in escaping. She slipped down the stairs carefully, avoiding the noisy, tell-tale boards and found herself standing before the wooden doors of the living room. She took a deep breath before trying the handle. In her other hand she held a fireplace poker, in case she had to force her way through.
She frowned in surprise when she found it open. She was instantly suspicious. She looked to the fireplace poker, contemplating. If she left it in the hall, Bel would be less likely to suspect her of trying to break out of this place. On the other hand, to lose it would mean going weapon-less. She thought over it carefully and decided to leave it beside the door. What would a thin metal stick be able to do against Bel anyway?
Taking a deep, quiet breath, she opened the door and entered. It was dark, but that didn't quell her suspicion. It was dark when she entered while the Other Mother was getting 'refreshed'.
Her strength is our strength.
Coraline tried to ignore the sound of the Other Father's voice in her head as old memories were dredged up from that single memory. Her palms were cold and sweaty. She placed one bare foot before the other, moving quickly to where she knew the little door was. She was halfway there when she felt eyes on her back.
She spun, quickly, as a bug-shaped chair tackled into her from the back, forcing her to sit, while the door slammed shut behind her. The chair moved shakily, causing Coraline to sway side to side in her seat before stopping abruptly.
"Coraline, Coraline," Bel's voice tsked in the dark. Coraline inhaled deeply, knowing she was caught. "Would you mind telling me why you were heading for that little door? Trying to break our deal while I'm incapacitated, perhaps?"
"I-" Coraline paused, just registering what he said. "Incapacitated?"
He didn't answer.
"Bel?" she prompted. "Why's it so dark in here?"
A dim light appeared before her, in the shape of a coffee table. It glowed brighter, reflecting off the metallic form of Bel's spider form. She jumped, unused to seeing her sole companion in this place as a cold metallic being.
He got up slowly, almost weakly, and grabbed her by the arm roughly, lowering his face to hers and his eyebrows pointing downwards towards his nose in a glare. His button eyes glistened in the growing light of the bug-shaped coffee table.
"Were you trying to escape, my dear?" he asked.
Despite the bone-chilling fear she felt deep within her, she met his intimidating gaze. It was amazing what emotions buttons could express. Coraline decided to ignore his questions until he answered hers. She had little to lose at this point. "Why are you incapacitated? Are you getting recharged or something?"
The eyebrows lifted slightly. "How do you know that?"
"The Other Father told me... The last time I was here,"
"...Lousy pumpkin..." Bel muttered.
"I liked him,"
"Yes. Of course you would,"
Things were silent for a while as the Bel stared straight into the fireplace, seemingly ignoring the girl fidgeting in the bug-chair.
"I miss home," she told him quietly. His eyes flickered to her face briefly, before he once again fixed his gaze on the faux fire. "I miss my family, and my friends... And Cat," She saw him twitch in annoyance, but otherwise there was no other physical reaction. He remained still, unmoving. "It's tiring you out, isn't it? It's exhausting you to maintain the house and keep me here,"
"Nothing a small meal wouldn't help," He shrugged.
"If you eat another child's soul I'll slice off those buttons," she said sharply, glaring at the spider-like creature. He flashed her a slight smile.
"Will you now?" he grinned, the dim light of the room making his features seem more villainous, more sinister.
"Yes," she said, enunciating the single syllable carefully.
"Hmm,"
The room fell silent, and she found herself nervously wringing her hands in her lap.
"Bel?"
"Yes?"
"Let's make another trade,"
The eyebrows above the buttons rose. "What kind of trade?"
"I'll go home. And I won't tell anyone what happened. I'll carry your child and when it's born, I'll take him or her to you. In that way, you won't have to do this, and I still keep up my end of the deal,"
"Hmm... I don't know, Coraline, what's stopping you from backing out of our deal?"
"You'll have the key," she pointed out. "You'll still be able to hurt my parents and friends if I break our deal."
"That's true," he conceded, but said nothing more.
"Bel... Let me go. You're killing me here. I can't... I can't live like this. Like a bird in a cage, bored out of my mind..."
"Perhaps. But you're forgetting something... I'll die without you,"
She blinked. "Wait, what?"
He simply smiled in reply. "Stop trying to escape, sweetheart. I'll forgive you this time because of how well-behaved you have been lately. But next time - you might not be so lucky."
She groaned. Why the heck did he have so many secrets? Was there anything she could talk to him about without him changing the subject? Apparently not. She leaned back, arms crossed, just managing to prevent herself from pouting.
"Why are you so tired anyway? It's not like you do all that much..."
"The garden took more effort than I expected," he shrugged.
Her bad mood vanished almost instantly, replaced with something akin to guilt. Though it wasn't directly her fault, she knew that he had spruced up the garden to cheer her up - there was no other reason for him to have gone to such lengths.
"Oh," she replied.
Silence once again fell between the two and she twiddled her thumbs restlessly.
"May I leav-"
"No,"
"...Fine," she sighed in boredom and spread herself over the armchair, trying to get comfortable. She hung one leg over the right side of the armchair and leaned back, before deciding it wasn't the position for her. She hung her head over the side. Nope. It didn't work either.
Maybe if I just put my feet over the top of the-
"Coraline,"
"What," She frowned at the chair, as she continued to wiggle on it.
"Settle down, will you love?"
"I don't like this chair," she said childishly.
He sighed, suddenly feeling ten times more tired than he had been. He left her to continue squirming as he concentrated on regaining some of his strength.
Coraline, meanwhile, had given up on finding a comfortable position on the chair. Apparently, there were none. She let out a large puff of air, trying to blow a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, but to no avail. After many tries, and failures, she gave up and just left it there. She looked around the room. Aside from all the insect furniture it was relatively normal. Finishing her scan, her eyes fell on the owner of this peculiar realm. Bel seemed to really be focusing on something. Still feeling a strange sense of guilt over his weakened state, she spoke up.
"Can I... help at all?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Stay here," he said.
"...Isn't that what I'm doing right now?"
"Yes, and it's helping,"
She nodded, before sighing. Helping was boring. She got up and walked around the room. A wardrobe quickly moved before the small door, forbidding her access to it. She barely noticed, too busy looking out the window of the room. She could see parts of the garden, with colourful insects flying around it.
She moved on, brushing her fingers against the wall. They were cool to the touch and seemed to pulse beneath her fingers. She contemplated withdrawing her fingers, but her curiosity outweighed her fear. She pressed her palm into the wall. It seemed to reach out and caress her skin. She smiled, stroking it further.
Bel sighed suddenly and that's when she suddenly stopped her motions. She quickly moved on, doing her best not to acknowledge the fact that he had somehow felt her strokes. She bent down to look at the green fire burning merrily at the fireplace. Red soot flitted around the space above the fire. She wondered how that worked. It hurt her head too much to think of it and in the end wrote it down to magic.
She straightened up again and tilted her head to one side, regarding the snow globes curiously. The one that had broken years ago was still missing, though the rest was still there. She lifted one to shake it.
"Coraline,"
The sudden noise made her jump and she nearly dropped the snow globe, only managing to catch it by falling to the ground on one elbow.
"Ow..." she muttered, checking herself for any injuries. Aside from a forming bruise on her elbow she was fine. She got back up and placed the globe back onto its rightful place.
"Sweetheart, come here," Bel said. She sighed and moved to sit down next to him.
She placed a hand on her stomach, wondering if the fall had affected her baby at all, before wondering why she even cared. Her head hurt from the continuous conflict, the maternal instinct she possessed and the hatred she felt for any of his spawn, not to mention caution of the hurt she would endure after getting separated from her child. She couldn't get too attached to it, she knew that, but it was getting hard... Even if it had been little over a week since she became aware of its existence.
She tried to distract herself, brushing away some strands of her hair, before focusing her thoughts on something else. Something of close proximity... Her eyes instantly fell on her lover, his cold metallic form still reflecting the dull light. She remembered little of the feel of those metal limbs, having been injured or panicking when that happened. Suddenly curious beyond belief, she reached out a hand to touch him, before he spun around to glare at the hand hanging in the air. She pulled it back slightly, before giving him a puppy look.
Bel was starting to regret asking her to stay. He rolled his eyes. "Fine," he muttered quietly, just loud enough for her to hear. She beamed, and touched him without holding back. She ran her fingers across his long limbs, traced zig-zag lines over them, retracted her steps when she reached the end of his metallic appendages.
"You're really warm," she noted aloud. It wasn't hot to the point of hurting her, but he wasn't freezing like she expected. In fact, the texture of his surfaces was lovely to touch and brush her fingers against. It wasn't cold nor hot, yet it was smooth, blemish-free. She was starting to get addicted to the feel of it.
As was Bel. Her touches were soothing and cool, it made the added stress from his problems as of late seem to fade away. He let out a particularly heavy gust of breath and she paused, before taking her hand away hesitantly. He glared at her.
"Keep going."
Her eyes widened before a grin broke out on her face and she continued to stroke him as he ordered, enjoying the intimate touches almost as much as he did.
"Wybie... You look horrid. Have you slept at all?" Kate asked worriedly.
"No... I have to think of a way to save Coraline. None of the letters have reached her. The Beldam knows we're trying to get her out, so we have no element of surprise..." Wybie mumbled to himself, pacing up and down. Kate watched him, at a loss for what to do.
"Well... There's only one key, right?" Kate said. "Which we don't have... If we did, we could open that door and get her," Kate sighed. She wasn't really helping, she knew. But there was nothing more she could do... Was there?
Wybie suddenly straightened up - no easy feat for a hunchback - and stared at his girlfriend with wide eyes.
"W-what?" she stuttered, her heart racing from his, and consequently her jolt of surprise.
"That's it! Thanks, Kate!" he hollered, before running out of the room.
She stared after him for a second before removing two strips of paper of her pocket and regarding them with a sigh. "I guess now would be a bad time for a date..." she sighed again, before slipping the movie tickets into her bag and leaving him to put whatever plan he had to use.
- 13
- 14
- 15
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The Trade