Adult-FanFiction.org : Cartoons

The Trade	By : sandyl666 Category: +1 through F > Coraline Views: 11933 -:- 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
- 26
- 27
- 28
Disclaimer: I hate disclaimers. But I don't own Coraline's plot or characters – they belong to Neil Gaiman/Henry Selick.
Chapter 27: Revelation

Time passed, and despite what Coraline had expected, she was not adjusting to her life in that world.
"Jones, come up here and do this question,"
Coraline jumped at having her name called by the teacher. She hesitated before rising and approaching the blackboard, as the teacher placed a piece of chalk in her hand. She stood before it blankly, racking her brains for the answer. She found none.
"Sir?"
"What is it, Jones?" the teacher asked.
"I don't know how to do this," The rest of class erupted into laughter, for reasons she didn't understand. Maybe it was just to humiliate her, who used to be the top of the year? Who used to be able to answer any question in class? Who used to be the one stretching her hand out to be picked to go the board?
"It's not funny!" Wybie growled at his fellow classmates, before moving to stand beside Coraline, taking the chalk from her and scribbling down the answer.
Coraline looked to him somewhat gratefully, though all the wolf whistles throughout the class just made her feel more mortified than ever.
Nobody noticed Kate's tightly clenched fist.
"Don't worry, Jones, you'll get it," Wybie assured Coraline as they walked home together. Kate lived in a different direction, so, like always, they had split up two streets after the school exit.
"Yeah... maybe," Coraline replied with less conviction. She was so far behind. As soon as she finally grasped a topic, several other topics had piled up, awaiting her attention. Wybie tutored her every other day, but it was no use. Coraline was so far behind, she had contemplated asking the teachers to keep her a year back. But Wybie, being Wybie, assured her she'd be fine.
It didn't help that felt so weary lately. She didn't know what was wrong with her. But she just felt so tired of everything. She spent all the free time she had in bed, slipping into a slumber she was sometimes afraid she'd never wake up from. And then there were the dreams. The vivid, cruel dreams that taunted her with images of Bel and Dre...
She started to feel light-headed just thinking about it.
"Coraline, you okay?" Wybie asked worriedly.
"Yeah, why?"
"You're at your front door," Wybie pointed out. Coraline stared at her front door with wide eyes, before laughing awkwardly. She reached out to grasp the handle, only to miss it. She didn't even get to wonder how she could miss it before her vision went black.
She woke up to Wybie calling her name frantically.
"...Wybie?" she asked as her sight started to clear.
"You're okay," he heaved a sigh of relief.
"What happened?"
"You passed out for a few seconds. Don't you remember?"
"Not really, no," Coraline said. She still felt kind of woozy and her knees were shaking. She held onto Wybie as she steadied herself, taking deep breaths.
"Should we take you to a doctor?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine. I just have to take a nap, probably,"
"Are you sure?"
"About the nap? Completely," she smiled reassuringly at her best friend. He pursed his lips doubtfully, and insisted he at least see her up the stairs and into her bed in case she fainted on the way there. After much pointless arguing, she conceded.
Coraline's eyes snapped open, and she stared at her ceiling, panting slightly. Her dream was so real, she almost thought she was actually in it. She shook her head, trying not to think of the screaming Dre her mind insisted on reminding her of every time she closed her eyes.
She tilted her head to the side and saw the sun high up in the sky, partially obscured by a cloud. She'd missed another day, missed more classwork she should be doing to catch up on her studies.
Her eyes filled with tears. She knew. She knew. Even before she had fainted the day before, and vomited her guts up into the toilet bowl, some part of her knew.
She was pregnant again.
"Hey Jones, you missed a whole section in calculus today. I brought my notes for you, though," Wybie said, not seeming to notice that she had jumped, not having heard him come in. He stared at her tear streaked face and instantly knew something was wrong. "What is it?"
"Wybie... I..." Coraline gulped down something that seemed stuck in her throat. "I think I'm pregnant," she whispered, unable to keep the dread out of her voice.
The books Wybie held in his arms fell to the floor. He didn't seem to notice.
"How-" he started, but was unable to finish. Coraline couldn't look him in the eye. Hot tears squeezed out of her tear ducts and ran down her face. She didn't notice Wybie closing the distance between them until he was upon her, pulling her into his arms. "It's okay," he assured his distraught friend. "It's okay, we'll take care of it together,"
Coraline sobbed into his arms, so glad for his comfort, as both inwardly debated what the hell they were going to do.
When Coraline's sobs had finally receded, they decided the best thing to do was to inform her parents. Wybie volunteered to be with her when she did, but she declined.
"It's better I do it alone," she told him. He was worried about her doing it alone, but agreed reluctantly it was for the best for her to do it by herself.
After dinner, she approached her parents, who exchanged looks of unconcern, not unlike the ones between Kate and Wybie, when they saw her serious expression.
"Mum, Dad. I have to tell you something."
Mel was furious. She was furious in that quiet, frustrated way of hers. She gnashed her teeth together and her arms were rigid, folded against her chest. Her knuckles were turning white as she held her hand in fists.
Charlie, on the other hand, was motionless with shock. His baby girl. His only daughter. His precious child was now impregnated with a child of her own by someone who had kidnapped her.
Neither knew that this was not the first child she'd had.
"He... raped you, Coraline?" Her mother's voice was dangerously low, and her face black and thunderous.
It would have been so easy to say yes. He had, after all, raped her and that had resulted in their first child, the grandchild which she would never tell her parents they'd had. But the child in her womb wasn't created through such non-consensual circumstances. It had been conceived through mutual love and desperate lovemaking. And she knew the Beldam deserved better, even if he would probably never know what she told her mother. Help me, Bel. Coraline gathered her strength to answer her mother.
"No." she answered. "No, he didn't," she said.
Her mother's face screwed up. Coraline couldn't tell if she was disgusted or concerned about Coraline's confession. The older woman looked to her husband and they shared a worried look.
"I loved him," Coraline went on quietly. "I really did," she said, and her breath hitched in her throat. God, she missed him so much. Even if he was totally diabolical, and not even truly male nor human. She loved him. And she still did. Loved wasn't the right word to use. Love was.
God she missed Bel so much.
"Go to your room," Mel squeezed out between gritted teeth.
Coraline bit her lip, but remained where she was. "Mu-"
"GO TO YOUR ROOM!" she screamed. Charlie jumped, finally awakening from the stupor he had been in since Coraline had made her announcement.
Coraline scrambled to her room fearfully, and closed the door tightly behind her. She leaned against it, panting, tears flowing freely down her face. She wiped them away hastily with her sleeve. What was wrong with her lately? Why did she keep crying? Oh right, because I'm pregnant. She laughed once bitterly, before dissolving into large, shuddering sobs.
Later on after she had run out of tears to cry, Cat tapped on the window, begging for entrance. Coraline hesitated. She didn't want to get up. She just wanted to stay at her spot behind the door, and feel miserable. But Cat's tapping got more desperate. He didn't meow though, and she noticed it was because he was holding something in his mouth. She got up, sighing, motivated partly by curiosity at what he was bringing her, and partly because she needed him by her side at a time like this.
As she neared the window, she noticed the doll in Cat's mouth. She inhaled sharply, suddenly. Cat watched her silently as she picked the doll from his mouth. She held it up before her, scrutinising it in the moonlight. It was a perfect replica of her. The now seventeen year old her. The long blue hair, the dragonfly clip, the freckles, the pale skin and the nightdress and dressing gown she was wearing when she first arrived in his world. The only deviation was, of course, the buttons it had for eyes. It watched her carefully, but not in a sneaky way like the dolls before. It watched her with a sort of love. A concerned sense of caring.
"Bel," she mumbled through her wails of anguish. "Bel..." she repeated his name over and over again, trying to convey her loneliness and emptiness at the lack of his presence through her mantra.
Back in the Other World, the Beldam closed his eyes and watched his beloved cry and call out his name. He thought this would have been a good idea. A way for him to show her how much he still loved her. He wanted her to know that even though she'd locked away the only connection they had, the door that held their worlds connected, he would still watch over her, protect her. Everything the button-eyes saw, he saw.
Her miserable form, the way she clutched the doll to her chest and moaned his name made his heart clench. Why was she so sad? And furthermore - why wasn't she here so he could comfort her? How he wanted to reach out a hand and brush away her tears. Then hold her close to his chest, allowing her to dampen his clothing with her tears. To let him share her burden, the overflowing sea of misery spilling from her being. Instead he was here, locked in an alternate universe away from her. The only comfort he had was the obvious presence of his daughter as she emitted little snores, sleeping in the room that was her mother's, tears still drying on her cheeks as she cried herself to sleep. His daughter was suffering from the sadness that came with the lack of a mother's love.
Come back, Coraline. Can't you see it's making everyone miserable to have you gone?
He sighed. That thought wouldn't reach her. She couldn't see or hear him as he could her.
"Bel," he heard her say one final time. "Bel, I need to tell you something," she said. Her eyes glistened with tears and he found himself mesmerised by her saddened state. How could someone be beautiful even while mourning?
He forced himself to focus as Coraline breathed in deeply, as she always did before doing something nerve-wracking.
"Bel, I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant again..." her voice cracked and trailed off at the end and she hiccuped as another bout of tears overcame her. "I'm pregnant with your second child," she whispered to the doll.
At her news, he bolted from his chair and ran to the little door in the wall. He pounded it angrily, tugging at it. He tried using his magic on it, destroying it, forcing open the only obstacle he had in his path to the woman he loved. But it was no use. There was only one key.
He kicked it and roared his rage. He should have never let her go.
Coraline's tears tapered off slowly, and she lay in her bed, still sniffling and occasional sobs making her body jolt uncontrollably.
The doll remained close to her head and she buried the side of her head in it. She could smell him on it. This comforted her even more and she fell into a deep slumber.
- 26
- 27
- 28
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Trade