curiously_cora | Coraline struggled to wake herself up.

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Coraline struggled to wake herself up.

Her room was empty. The bed unmade, a wooden horse resting next to her pillows and a film reel left beside it for another little girl. It looked like she had disappeared. However there were still things of Coraline's left; her wellington boots from home, her catbag filled with her school supplies, her clothes. It looked like she had disappeared at first glance but if you knew her, if you knew the little girl well enough then you would realise that she hadn't disappeared. She had been taken.

Alone in the dark, somewhere on the Island Coraline struggled to wake herself up. Curled up in the corner of the dark room, she wiped her eyes and tried to think of something happy.
She had counted the bricks on the left wall (82).
Things that were black or dark (Lots).
Dead children (None yet).

She had been right to be worried. The Other Mother had gotten her whilst she slept and now she was alone, alone in the dark with no way out. Imprisoned in walls of brick and glass.

Somewhere outside the door, lost amongst the dense grass- a key glistened.

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Frantic was not the word. Adam was too well trained, too damn good at his job to be frantic. When he'd gone to find Coraline, to keep their plans and go for a swim, for one sick moment, he thought that she was gone. Actually gone. And then he'd considered the fact that maybe she'd wandered off, even though she usually left a note.

And then he saw her cat bag, and he knew. He'd never known her to go anywhere without it. The pieces of Fiona's brooch had dug into his hand.

Wyatt Cain hadn't been hard to find. Coraline had done a good job of describing him. They'd split up, to cover more ground, both of them grim, both of them silent, looping in a wide circle through a swathe of jungle. If he stood still and listened, Adam could hear the other man coming towards him through the trees.

If any harm had come to Coraline, any harm at all, Adam wasn't going to be responsible for his actions.

He'd made the little girl a promise.
He'd sworn that he'd always come and get her out of the dark.

Cain hadn't had time for his hat, nor his long coat and he was wandering the Island in a state of diminished capacity. The gunshot wound was better, but apparently like Glitch said, he was an idiot and stubborn Tin Man, but he was out there. He'd found nothing on his trip through the jungle -- no Coraline, no Zero, nothing else. He'd even checked the Iron Suit, just in case the kids thought it'd be funny to play around in there.

But nothing. Cain wasn't moving slower than usual, which he'd likely pay for that night, but he didn't care at the moment. He could see Adam in the distance and he gave the man a brusque nod. "Nothing that way," he said flatly.

"Nothing the way I came either," said Adam, rubbing the back of his neck as he fell into step beside Cain. There was nothing of Adam's day to day expression in his face, no lightness in his tone. It was amazing how easier it was to fall back into old ways.

You could take the Spook off the grid...

"Did you hear about the baby that got taken?" he said, shifting Coraline's cat bag on his shoulder as they continued, briskly, in the direction of Adam's hut. "They found her."

"Don't think I've been here long enough to hear," Cain admitted, seeing as he wasn't a social man by rights and had been happy to exist in his own little bubble. He just kept walking, taking deep breaths to alleviate the pain until he could get a new bandage slapped on. The heat wasn't helping, causing sweat to trickle into the wound. "I heard though, the stuff just vanishes," Cain said, eyes specifically on that bag on Adam's shoulder.

They both knew that, already. "You know when she vanished?" he asked. "Seeing as I've had a bit of personal experience being one place, then getting to another in the middle of the night. My stuff didn't vanish either."

But he'd checked the Suit already, so she couldn't possibly be there.

"I saw her yesterday," said Adam, glancing across at Cain. The man was obviously in pain, but Adam knew better than to make a thing of it, knew better than to mention it at all. People dealt with what they had to. Cain obviously cared about Coraline, and nothing Adam could say would make him go back now.

"It's possible she's not here at all," said Adam, his jaw tight, "But I can't take that chance. I promised her."

"Went to sleep in a bed," Cain said, the words stressed because this wasn't a particular memory he enjoyed re-living. "Far as I know, nobody came and dragged me, seeing as no one turned up shot or beaten. But between falling asleep and waking up, I'd gone from bed to a prison," he said flatly. "That Iron Suit by the prison, that's where I was. But I checked and she's not in there, so it's not just kids playing around."

But that sort of thing happened, whether they liked it or not. "She say much to you about this Other Mother person?"

The biggest fear Cain had at the moment was that out of nowhere, the woman had turned up. Cain was bearing a wound that said just what happened when the person you least wanted to see wound up near on your doorstep.

"She's terrified of that woman," said Adam, grimly, and the bullet scar in his shoulder twinged. There were some people it was right to be afraid of.

"I'll kill her," he said, his face utterly blank. "If she's hurt her..."

Cain might have offered his gun, but he only had five bullets left and he wanted every one of them to push into Zero, even if he couldn't do that, not after what he'd told Jeb. Gods damn it. "Any chance that woman turned up? Took her somewhere? Coraline sound scared last you talked to her?"

Adam shook his head.

"Coraline was worried about me last time I spoke to her. I got...a nasty surprise of my own from home." He was holding on to the brooch so hard that it was drawing blood from the palm of his hand again.

"She wasn't frightened. I'd have known. But the woman could have turned up during the night."

Unconciously, he sped up a little. He didn't know what he was looking for.

Please.

Cain kept up the pace without saying another word. He didn't like talking when words were extraneous. And he just prayed to the gods this wasn't his fault, that Zero hadn't gotten wind of how much he cared about Coraline. "Listen, this'll sound odd, but I should ask. You haven't seen a man in a leather coat hanging around her, lately, have you?"

His head snapped up and Adam raised an eyebrow.

"If I ever see a man in a leather coat hanging around her, you can rest assured that I'll be asking some questions."

Cain exhaled in relief, even if he didn't realize he was doing it and nodded his hat, the sun beating down on him and causing a bit of sweat. "Good," he exhaled, eyes scanning the area around them. He didn't extrapolate, he hadn't done anything was all he cared.

They walked in silence for a moment, and Adam was constantly scanning the greenery and shoving down on the panic rising in his stomach.

What if she was gone? What if she'd been hurt?
If somebody had hurt her, he wouldn't wait, he knew that. He'd tear them limb from limb with his own bloody hands.

Cain didn't much know the man beside him and wasn't sure yet if he trusted him. It had been months since he'd turned up, but old habits died hard and he still wasn't sure of the soldiers and they had lived with him for some time now.

So he just kept his eyes open and didn't say anything that wasn't necessary.

A Spook noticed things. That was what they did. They observed. They spied. It wasn't as easy as knowing the jungle like the back of his hand, nothing like that, but Adam knew what he expected to see, what didn't fit, and he couldn't imagine what was catching the light.

He stopped and tilted his head. He didn't entirely trust his own brain.

"Do you see that?"

Cain just stopped in his tracks, looking where Adam was looking. "See what?" he asked carefully, trying to scan the area. The first two times, nothing really clicked, and then, just out of the corner of his eye, there might have been something. "A flash of light?" he asked, giving a confused look.

It was there, and Adam started moving towards it. There was something there that hadn't been there before, that shouldn't be there at all, and Coraline was missing. Occum's razor. Sometimes the most simple explanation was the right one.

Adam broke into a run.

"Coraline? Cora? Sweetheart, are you here?"

Coraline wiped her eyes, as she faintly heard the voice outside. The other mother, coming to see if she had learned her lesson.

"I'll be good, I've learned my lesson. Please, please let me out." Coraline whispered, touching the mirrored door with her fingertips. "I'll be a good daughter."

Coraline burst into tears. No one was coming for her. The other mother had her and she wouldn't let go.

Cain could barely hear a hush of something, but he couldn't make out any words and had started to run his fingers over the door, fingers running over a groove that was meant for a key he didn't have.

He could definitely use DG right about now. He turned to Adam and shook his head, moving his palm to reveal the lock. "You got a way in? I can shoot it loose if we have no other option."

Adam pressed his ear to the door, both palms and listened, tried to make out whole words.

"Coraline, sweetheart, it's Adam. Just be calm, okay? Just be calm for me, sweetheart."

He turned and looked at Cain, one palm still pressed against the glass, heart pounding.

"We're through the looking glass here, mate. There's a lock. Look for a key."

"Please let me out, please." Coraline sobbed, wrapping her arms around her knees and pulling them tightly to her chest. She thought she could hear Adam outside- he'd promised not to leave her in the dark and she had to hope, hope it was him and not a trick. "There's two hundred and sixty eight bricks. One Coraline, one daughter. One good daughter."

Cain just sighed, jaw tensing at the notion of searching for a key when he could hear something like suffering, pressed up against the barrier and his gaze turned dark.

Jeb had fought back, had been hurt for it. By Zero's hand, even. Cain made a mental note to at least kidnap Zero for a little while if he could while shoving the gun back in its holster and he began to look for a key under rocks and leaves and anywhere he could.

He shot Adam a look that said he was clearly not pleased with the delay.

Adam caught the look and raised an eyebrow.

"She's already scared," he said, voice not pitched to carry on his knees in the grass. "Listen to her. And you want to start firing a gun?"

He glanced back at the mirrored door, saw a sickly reflection of his own face.

"Can you hear me, Cora?" He was almost yelling, looking for the key in the long grass. "We're here, sweetheart. We're right here."

There was someone outside the room. Moving around, it almost sounded like scuttling and Coraline pressed herself tightly into the corner. She didn't want to be brave anymore, she just wanted to go home. Coraline wiped her eyes. No one called her Cora, always Caroline- never Coraline, never Cora. Not unless it was them.

"Adam?" Coraline said weakly, leaning forwards until she was touching the door and pounding her fists on it.

He heard the banging, and he hit the door with his curled fist, shock jarring through his bones.

"Baby, I'm here. We're going to get you out. Me and Cain, okay? I just need you to be brave and hold on."

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