Chapter 17

They went to the other living room, Coraline was carrying the cat over her shoulder and the fox plush in her bag and held Merita's hand. They walked inside the other living room, Merita kept her head lowered in fear of the Beldam.

A poisonous green fire burns in the fireplace. The bug furniture was gray now, their lights flickering as if short-circuited; legs and wings twitching uncontrollably. Merita saw that the Beldam was hunched on the sofa, her face hidden, looking more like her true appearance than the appearance of Coraline's mother.

Beldam: ( to Coraline: ) So, you're back...

The Beldam turns to Coraline, revealing what she really looks like to Coraline.

( A/n: It may surprise some of you but.... The Beldam didn't scare me when I saw what she really looked like as a little kid, then again I was a weird kid. )

Beldam: ( to Coraline, pointing to the cat, fox plush, and Merita: ) ...and you brought vermin with you.

Merita makes a scared whine, and she felt Coraline hold her hand a bit tighter.

Coraline: ( to the Beldam, protectively and sternly: ) No, I brought friends and girlfriend.

Merita face turned red at what Coraline said. The Beldam mentally scoffs at what Coraline called the kitsune, before she reached her long, sharp fingers made of needles to Coraline's face.

Beldam: ( to Coraline, flatly: ) You know I love you.

Coraline backs away, trying hard to not show how freaked out she was.

Coraline: ( to the Beldam: ) You have a very funny way of showing it.

The Beldam smiles, turns away, then back, her hand outstretched.

Beldam: So? Where are they, the ghost eyes?

Coraline pulls out the ghost eyes from her bag and starts to hand them over, but she catches herself and pulls back.

Coraline: Hold on. We aren't finished yet, are we?

The Beldam looks daggers, then smiles sweetly at Coraline.

Beldam: ( to Coraline: ) No, I suppose not. After all, you still need to find your old parents, don't you?

The third ghost eye then pulses with amber light in Coraline's hand. Coraline turns away so the Beldam couldn't see.

Sweet Ghost Girl: Be clever, miss; even if you win she'll never let you or the kitsune go!

Coraline then looks towards the locked little door behind the armoire bug, and then an idea popped into her head. Merita looked nervous and scared, as she knew that the Beldam wasn't going to let either of them go even if Coraline won the game. Coraline then turns to the Beldam.

Coraline: ( to the Beldam: ) I already know where you've hidden them.

Merita looked at Coraline with worry.

Beldam: ( to Coraline: ) Well...produce them.

Coraline: ( points to the little door ) They're behind that door.

Beldam: Oh, they are, are they?

A smile creeps onto the Beldam's face. And she starts going towards the little door, and had the armoire bug stand aside.

The girls then heard a soft chirp sound of someone's finger on wet glass. They looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. The cat's ears twitched and focused, and then he saw something on the mantel.

Cat: ( whispers, to Coraline and Merita: ) There!

The cat then jumps to land beside a snow globe, and the girl sees Coraline's parents trapped in the snow globe, cold and shivering.

Coraline: ( whispers: ) Mom. Dad!

They then heard the Beldam then coughs up the key into her hand. The Beldam turns to the girls, expectantly.

Coraline: ( to the Beldam: ) Go on. Open it. They'll be there, all right.

The Beldam then unlocks the little door and opens it, and Merita realizes that Coraline had tricked the Beldam and given them a way to escape.

Beldam: You're wrong, Coraline! They aren't there.

The Beldam then holds out the box with the black button eyes and a threaded needle, with a triumphant smile.

Beldam: ( to Coraline: ) Now you're going to stay here forever.

Coraline: No... I'm...

Coraline then grabs the cat off the mantel and raises him over her head.

Coraline: Not!

Coraline hurls the cat at the Beldam. The yowling animal, face shocked with surprise, sails through the air and lands right on the Beldam's head.

Coraline: ( whispers, to Merita: ) Go! While you still have the chance!

Merita: But-

Coraline: Go! Take the plush with you!

Merita then decided to agree with Coraline, and took the fox plush out of Coraline's bag, before she took her chance to escape and went into the little door as the cat clawed the Beldam's eyes out.

Merita then went back to the real world, and looked through the tunnel with a worried expression as she was praying that Coraline would make it out alive. She then saw the cat run through the tunnel into the real world, and he ran past her and the fox plush, running as far away from the little door as possible. Merita then hears pounding and yelling coming from the tunnel. Then a few minutes later, Coraline flung out of the little doorway, shuts and locks the door, and holds it until the sounds coming from the other side stopped.

Coraline then lets out a sigh of relief, before she hugged Merita, the ginger slowly hugged her back, taking in the fact that she was now free from the Beldam's grasps and Merita begins to tear up a little. They then opened Coraline's bag, Coraline seemed to be looking for something. Merita then looked up at the mantel, and Coraline looked to see what the ginger was looking at, to find the snow globe, broken open, dripping onto the floor. Merita then froze when she heard the voice of Coraline's mother, and before Coraline's parents went in the room and before Coraline could even notice what she was doing, Merita took Other Wybie's button eye from Coraline's bag and sneaked out of the living room to outside by opening a window and crawling through it in a matter of seconds, as she didn't want to be seen. Merita then realized that the nightmare of the Beldam wasn't over until the Beldam was good as dead.

Merita: ( glanced at the button eye ) ( silently: ) Tonight, this will all end. For now, I must regain as much strength as possible. ( Sighs, and looks at the house ) Sorry, firecracker, but this is my fight.

Merita then turned into a fox and took off away from the Pink Palace in the direction of the hidden well. Without knowing that a bigger, fluffier, and older fox with a stitched scar over one eye that looked exactly like her was watching her from behind a tree, his eyes filled with joy and sorrow as he watched her take off.

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That's it for this chapter, I hope you like it

Are you excited for the next chapter?

Who do you think the mystery fox is?

Till next time my agents of mischief 😜