Dream A Dream

[curiously_cora]

Coraline dreamed a dream.

She was at the picnic, again, under the old oak tree, in a green meadow. She had, had this dream once before and it had been a good one. She had been greeted by the souls of the three children she had saved; the boy, the girl and the fairy girl. They'd eaten their different food together at the picnic, then played for what felt like hours before the children had given her a finaly warning and gone on to whatever lay beyond for dead children.

Coraline saw the white-linen cloth laid on the grass and ran towards it. Coraline was sat on one side of the tablecloth, waiting for the three children to join her. Coraline sat alone for what felt an awful long time, Coraline picked at the food and looked around her. Waiting. Had they forgotten her?

The wind rustled the leaves in the tree above her and Coraline looked up. The wind picked, sending the bowls and the food flying away from Coraline. Coraline chased after the bowl, the white cloth whipping into the air. Coraline chased them down the hill towards the stream. The cloth and food settled back onto the other side of the strem, rearranging themselves as the three children moved to take a seat.

"Hello Coraline, do you want to come and play with us?" The boy asked in a whispery voice. Coraline nodded and went to step on the bridge. Coraline looked up and took a step back. The children sat their staring at her hungrily, each with eager button eyes.

"I saved you, I got you out." Coraline said, taking another step back and into the cruel arms of the other mother. "I saved them!"

"Of course you didn't, you're just a child. You never got out of my clutches," The other mother told her, pulling Coraline's arm towards her.

"I did! Let me go!" Coraline said, trying to get away from her. She musn't cross the bridge, she musn't. The other mother hit her hard, sending her sprawling into the dirt.

"I don't like disobediant children Coraline." The other mother said and smiled bending down. "I'll just have to get rid of you."

She wrapped her claw like fingers around her neck and squeezed tightly.


Coraline woke, half choking on the key that had tangled and knotted around her neck tightly. Coraline pulled the necklace off and threw it across the room.

Comments

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

Coraline stared at where the key had fallen. Looking up at the sound of her name being called, Coraline picked up Jeremiah and her torchlight. Pulling the covers back Coraline padded over to Adam's bed.

"Can I sleep with you?" Coraline asked, quietly trying to contain the large sob that wanted to force itself out of her. She could still feel her fingers tight around her throat. "Please?"

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the first time that this had happened, and Adam shifted over in the bed without another word, lifting the blanket so that she had room to get in. He did her the honour of not fussing over here, just yet. Coraline was a lot older than other kids her age.

"In you get."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Thank you Adam," Coraline said quietly, as she climbed into the bed. Putting the light down on the floor and tucking Jeremiah close to her. Coraline hugged Jeremiah close. It wasn't quite the same as her hugs her mother gave her but it would have to do.

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

After a moment's hesitation, Adam wrapped his arms around Coraline's shoulders, gathering her close against his chest the same way as he did with Wes after Fiona died.

"This bed more comfy than yours?" he teased gently, murmuring against her hair, and giving her room to talk to him or not.

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"No, if it was I would have made you sleep in mine and I would've taken this one." Coraline replied back quietly, pressing her face against Adam's chest. Coraline wiped away a stray tear furiously. "I had a nightmare."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

Adam smoothed his hand over the back of her head, combing blond hair out against the pillow.

"What do we know about nightmares, Cora?"

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"They're not real," Coraline said quietly, relaxing slowly. She would have batted his hand away from her hair but it didn't matter about her hair so much when she was sleeping. It was only when he made it fluffy and messy in the daytime that she really cared. "It felt real. Like the one I had with the children, when they went to where dead children go. Except it was wrong, twisted like her and she was-she was strangling me."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"But she isn't here. I am. And she won't hurt you while I'm here."

He kissed the top of her head again.

"I have nightmares too. Sometimes."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"I know," Coraline said simply, looking up at him curiously. "You? But you're a Grown-up, I didn't think they could have nightmares. What are your nightmares like?"

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"Grown-ups can have nightmares just the same as kids can," he said, quietly. "I...dream that I'm on one side of a bridge and Fi's on the other."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that doesn't sound very scary. That sounds very sad," Coraline said, wiping her eyes. She wished she could give Adam all the love in the world to make him happy but she knew when you lost something very important that it could never be replaced. Not with anything. Coraline still gave him a tight hug. "This bridge, it wasn't in a place that you like was it?"

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

Adam shook his head.

"Nowhere I've ever been, sweetheart." He closed his eyes. "I'm not sure that it was a real place. Just...somewhere that I was missing her."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Do you miss her a lot?" Coraline asked quietly, she thought about her parents who although were alive weren't here with her. It was the longest she'd ever been away from her parents. Though Adam did a very good job. "I miss my parents a lot. And Miss Spink and Miss Forcible even Mister Bobo and his mouse circus."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"Less than I used to, right afterwards, but still all the time."

His arm tightened around her. What could you say to a child without parents? There wasn't a lot. You just did the best you could.

"Mouse circus?"

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"Yes, Mister Bobo has a mouse circus. And they play tumpty umpty and toodle oodle. They're very clever little mice but I have to wait until they're ready to watch them perform." Coraline said, she think she knew what Adam meant. She didn't stop missing her parents even when she was happy. They weren't dead though, they just weren't here. "Mister Bobo lived upstairs in the attic."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"That sounds fantastic," said Adam, and meant it, completely. Mouse circuses. Sometimes, life as an adult was just hard, hard and bloody. He missed being a child, sometimes. He missed being able to believe in impossible things.

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"It is-it was, I liked our new house. Mister Bobo lived upstairs, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived below us and it was nice. There were lots of places to explore," Coraline said, thinking about her home. It made her sad but sad was sometimes better than being scared and Adam wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. "I tried to teach some mice tricks that I found in the grass but I don't think they're the same sort of mice. Maybe there is a special Circus Mouse."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"Definately," he murmured. "Not every mouse could be a circus mouse, otherwise it wouldn't be special, would it? It wouldn't be magic anymore."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"I guess so, I never thought about it like that. I was always a little scared of Mister Bobo until afterwards, he's very nice and not at all scary." Coraline said, interrupting herself as she yawned widely. Snuggling against Adam's chest. "Do you think I'll see them all again?"

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

Adam smoothed his hand against the back of her head, cosing his eyes and resting his chin against soft, pale hair.

"Maybe one day," he said. "Maybe one day we'll all wake up at home, and we'll have to find each other there instead."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"That'd be easy, I'd just go to London and look for the man with the really ugly trainers." Coraline said with a small smile.

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

Lifting his leg, Adam nudged her with a bare foot.

"My trainers are not ugly."

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"They're ugly and they're not as nice as my wellies," Coraline half heartedly argued back, pressing her much colder feet against his calves. "Or I'd go the museum with a big sign saying Adam & Wes."

[beentodamascus.livejournal.com]

"Lies," said Adam with no real conviction, though anything else he was about to say was lost in a groan at just how cold her toes were.

[curiously-cora.livejournal.com]

"That's what you get for insulting the wellies," Coraline said yawning widely. Coraline reached for Jeremiah, almost hitting Adam in the head with him as she tucked him close to her. Wooden horses were rather uncomfortable but she wouldn't be parted from the little thing.