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"Marnie? Are you okay?" Someone called to her. She sat alone everyday at school. Her black jacket unzipped, showing her usual bright coloured shirts underneath, hood up, and pants. Her shoes weren't anything new, black tennis shoes with dark blue laces. Many people knew her at school, most of them she didn't even know they existed.
Looking up, she smiled and shook her head yes, whispering, "Uhhuh, I'm fine thanks. Are you okay?" She always included an answer in her responce to get the attention off of herself. The person looked at her quizically and shook their head, walking away from where she was sitting on the sidewalk. She watched them walk away, then put her head back down and shut her eyes, then focused back on her thoughts.
Her mind went from one subject to the next, not able to be comepletely focused on one subject before switching to another. Most of the time she thought of schoolwork, then she thought of colours. On certain occasions, she would think of him. He was a very nice boy, athletic and friendly and smart and gentle all at the same time. She enjoyed seeing his smile, and liked his laugh too. They sat near each other in class sometimes. She especially liked having small talks with him when the class was drawn out and seemed to go slower than usual. They talked about class, future careers, weekends, clothes, and weather among other things. Sometimes he would sneak up behind her and tickle her sides, and she squirmed and laughed and screeched and ran away form him. He would follow and do it again anyway. She liked his company, and soon it became all she could think about. Just spending time with him.
That was two years ago.
HEARTLESS II
"Hey Coraline, how are you coping today?" another one asked. "Oh, hey Cadence, I'm doing fine today thank you. How are you this fine morning?" she asked. "Fine, thanks. Hey, want to meet me later at the airport? I'm going to meet some of the new ones and show thm around a bit, I'd love it if you can come." Cadence offered. Coraline thought about this for a minute then shook her head yes. "That sounds great, I'll meet you there. Cadence smiled and immediately glistened. "Oh that's wonderful! You're finally coming out of this old rut you've been in! I'll meet you later Coraline! See ya!" Cadence ran off before Coraline could say anything.
Cadence had been Coraline's friend she got here. The place was called Heartless, thought it should have been called Souless. It was a place where all the lost souls went away to once they were lost. As you find out when you arrive off of the plane at Heartless, you haven't died, you've just been lost. Your person is still back on Earth, living life day to day. They become emotionless, and most people don't notice them anymore. As for the souls, they choose to act how they want. Some souls are so used to Heartless, they are always happy, like Cadence. Other souls are sad, or bitter and mean, or hurt and in pain. Some souls, however, are emotionless, like Coraline. They don't want to adapt to Heartless, because they believe that maybe one day the person will finally realize they've lost their soul and earn it back.
This was not the case. On very rare occasion did a soul ever go back. And even then, they always come back. Some people have come and gone a few times since Coraline has been there, and she's even been friends with them. Unfortunately, some of them don't remember being located in Heartless, and she always had to show them back around and start their friendship all over.
Coraline thought about going to the airport to meet Cadence and greet the new arrivals form the plane. They would all be lost, confused, and various ages. Her mind wandered from seeing the new souls, to checking up on Marnie. She made her way over to one of the observation towers and put a few coins in the slot of the binoculars. She looked into them, and there she was. Coraline's person. Marnie was sitting in her usual spot on the sidewalk, withdrawn from the crowd. Her hood was up and pulled as far as it could go, covering her eyes. She was engrossed into a book, a thick one with a blank red cover. Marnie wasn't too far into the book, Coraline thought it looked like she was at about chapter two. She scanned the nearby areas around Marnie, and found nobody in sight other than a few kids heading to the library, classrooms, or the cafateria.
Marnie looked up form her book and off to her left. Her straight face turned into a frown and she looked back down and read her book again. Coraline looked over and noticed what it was Marnie saw. Keegan. A wave of hate came over Coraline. She hated Keegan. It was his fault she came here. It was his faulr Coraline's person was tortured. It was all his fault. He blamed every ounce of wrong on Marnie. And Marnie beat herself up for it everyday. It showed.
Coraline had been watching Marnie for 2 years since she arrived. She enjoyed to watch Marnie and see her occasional smile when she was tickled. She hated to watch Marnie cry, and Marnie cried almost every night. Coraline felt pain everytime something happened to Marnie, and felt a warm feeling when Marnie smiled. Even when Coraline wasn't watching Marnie, she could still feel the pain and warmth. Sometimes the feelings would stay so long they kept Coraline awake.
But nothing hurt hr as much as her own hate for Keegan. She met his soul for a breif time in the first year. His name was Darren. She met him in the observation tower across town, staring intently through the binoculars. They really hit it off the first few times they met. But then Coraline found out Darren was Keegan's soul. After that, she stopped talking to him, and completely erased him from everything she did in her daily life at Heartless. Darren eventually left, and she hasn't seen him since. She knows he's back on Earth, she spent time watching Keegan and recording his daily activities, swearing to herself that the day she gets to go back to her person, she'd tell darren how much she hated him and Keegan.
The binoculars clicked shut and Coraline pulled away and got up form the stool she was sitting on. She climbed back down from the observation tower, and continued to walk back down to the main road. Deciding at the last minute to go to the diner and hang around for a while before meeting Cadence, she hung a left and stopped at a post office. Sometimes souls received mail from their person, once their person realized their soul was lost, or if they needed help or watching over. Coraline only got on once, Marnie asked for help when she became very ill. She asked for help from anything above for help to make her better. And of course, Coraline spent the last of her coins in the observation decks 24/7 watching over Marnie, praying she'd heal soon. Marnie recovered the week after this, and Coraline worked odd jobs until she had enough coins to watch Marnie again. She mostly just checked in once or twice every two weeks, but sometimes she'd feel homesick and watch Marnie a few extra times to help her feel better.
The mail box was empty as always, so Coraline sighed and left, heading for the airport.
 nangal · Thu Jan 15, 2009 @ 12:40am · 0 Comments |
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