(no subject)

[everyone_takes]

It wasn't like she was an expert yet, but between the talk with the psychologist and the stuff she and Danny were doing lately, she'd gotten used to the gun at least. Even so, she kept the damn thing locked up in the box, just like she'd promised Harley she would, and it would stay there until Danny told her she was allowed to carry it or until she was actually licensed or however it worked on the island. Generally, Kate was all about breaking rules, but not when it came to something like this. Something that could get people killed.

So the gun was still in her closet, locked in the box as she lounged out in front of her hut. She was going over the applications for her new roommate, papers spread out around her. Chang was lying nearby in the shade and although she was occasionally asking him for his opinion, he didn't seem to be all that concerned or interested in who she picked.

"If you're going to be like that, I'm just gonna pick the person who likes dogs the least," she threatened.

Chang didn't seem to care.

Comments

[curiously_cora]

There were six dark bruised patches covering her head and her face and her ribs as if she had been struck by something. There was one long red scrape against her cheek as if bark had been resting against it. There was one terrible thought of a dark haired little girl standing over her body dropping something on her. And there was one teenage girl unsure what to do.

Coraline Jones did not trust the police. She loved Danny and liked a lot of the police but she did not in fact trust them. When you went to the police they didn't do anything, they thought you were lying and just a kid and maybe a little jealous. They never believed you. And she needed someone to believe her. But the thing was she didn't know who to tell.

She could tell Bill but what if she hurt him, Bill was all the family she had left and she couldn't lose him. She could tell Johnny but he'd probably ask if she was um, sure and Coraline wasn't. She could tell Percy but things were really weird with him and she couldn't face him at the moment. She could tell Danny, she should tell Danny but he wouldn't believe her and she couldn't find him anyway. She didn't know what to do.

Head ducked down in thought, Coraline looked up spotting Kate and wincing at the tug at her ribs as she lifted her hand in a soft wave. Maybe she could tell Kate.

[everyone_takes]

"Hey," Kate said at the sight of Coraline coming through the trees. Chang got up, his tail wagging furiously, then walked over to her and promptly began to whine. He sniffed around Coraline's feet and although his tail was still wagging, he continued to whine, looking back at Kate as if he wanted her to do something.

"What?" she asked the dog as she pushed to her feet. "What's your... holy shit, what the hell happened to your face?" It looked like Coraline had been hit with something and it looked like it fucking hurt. "Are you okay? Do we have to take you to the doctor? I mean... what happened?"

[curiously_cora]

"Hey Mister Chang," Coraline said, her voice sounding soft and weak. She didn't like that, she didn't want to cry and she wouldn't. She was braver than that, she was almost a Gryffindor and Gryffindor's totally didn't cry. She tried to bend to scratch his head but her breath caught and then she really wanted to cry because it hurt. But she wasn't going to. "I- I'm okay. I don't need to see one."

Coraline sniffed stubbornly, making sure she didn't cry and wincing when her hand touched her grazed, swollen and bruised cheek. She looked and sounded terrible but she didn't- she couldn't tell the police. Not when they would tell her to stop making things up again.

"It was an accident... no, I don't think it was but-but you won't believe me if I tell."

[everyone_takes]

"What the fuck? What happened?" Kate asked again. She looked at Chang briefly, wishing that the damn dog was like Lassie and could go fetch a doctor or whatever the hell it was Lassie did. That wasn't going to happen and unless she took Coraline to the Compound herself, then no one was even going to know she was hurt.

"Look, my life was and continues to be fucking nuts, okay? I'll believe all sorts of crazy shit, so just tell me what happened and then we'll go find Danny and we'll figure all this shit out."

[curiously_cora]

"Esther... I think Esther did something bad to me." Coraline said quietly. And there was that dark, horrid feeling again. Had she imagined it? Maybe she had, maybe she just didn't like her because she wanted Danny all to herself. But she didn't think that was right, she wanted Danny to be happy and Esther- Esther had hurt her. "She was burning something and I kept asking her about it and she wouldn't say. And when I left her, something heavy fell on me. A branch but it fell on me twice. And she was there."

Coraline didn't know if she was making any sense at all. She couldn't make sense of it, if it was her or if it really was Esther. If what she remembered was true and the implication of what the other girl had done to her. "And then she left me, I think she left me..."

On purpose. To die. Coraline wasn't sure.

[everyone_takes]

"That creepy kid Danny's looking after?" Kate asked, nose wrinkling as she thought about it. She was just a kid, but she was pretty damn creepy and ever since she'd shown up, Kate had been seeing a lot less of Danny. It was like Esther wanted Danny all to herself and, whatever, she was a kid and Kate was pretty much an adult so she'd just backed off. That was how that sort of shit worked.

Except now maybe she'd hurt Coraline.

"Do you know where she is now?" she asked. "I could go talk to her." Or she could go find Danny and see what was going on. Maybe he wouldn't believe her, but she had to at least try.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline nodded, the little tight piece of her easing in her chest as Kate called her creepy. Maybe it wasn't just her but it felt like it was. She felt like she was jealous, jealous and terrible and mean for thinking things like that but she thought- Esther had hurt her. Or done something. She didn't trust her anymore, she didn't trust her at all.

"Please, please don't. What if she hurts you?" Coraline said worried and then her face worsened at where Esther was. "She's with Danny, I think they went camping."

[everyone_takes]

Kate wanted to point out that Esther was just a kid, but that hadn't stopped her from hurting Coraline. "Okay," she said, thinking about it. This was the shit she wasn't prepared for, but something she had to do anyway. This was the stuff she was training for and she wanted to make the right decision.

She just wasn't sure what the right decision was.

"So she hit you with a branch, then she just left you and went off camping with Danny," she said. "That sounds... like it could be bad." Like Danny might be in danger next.

[curiously_cora]

"Yes, I mean... I think she dropped it on me and then dropped it on me again to make sure I was..." Coraline's voice trailed off. Coraline didn't know what she had done to Esther, maybe she knew how she felt all dark and twisted and jealous about her. Coraline didn't know why she had done it though, it didn't make any sense. "She wouldn't hurt Danny, would she? She can't hurt him, she can't!"

[everyone_takes]

"I don't know. I've pretty much been avoiding her. She's creepy as fuck," Kate said honestly. "Tell me straight up, though. Do you think she'd hurt Danny?"

Even now, Kate was planning on going after her. Even if she wouldn't hurt Danny, she'd hurt Coraline and it was sort of Kate's job to take care of stuff like that now. She couldn't just let her get away with it.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline wasn't sure, she didn't think she would hurt her but she had so maybe Danny wasn't safe. What had the Other Mother done when she wanted Coraline? She had isolated her, she had taken away everyone she loved and then she made herself into the perfect thing for her... oh, oh no.

"I- yes, I think she would. I mean, that's what the Other Mother did to me. She's doing the same thing," Coraline said worried. "She's going to hurt him but she can't, she just can't."

[everyone_takes]

"Okay," Kate said, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully. This was the sort of thing that required her to think fast and she ran through all the possibilities and kept arriving at the same conclusion. Danny could be hurt.

"You go to the Compound, okay?" she asked. "See a doctor and make sure you're okay. I'm going to go find Danny, that's all. If Esther's with him, she won't hurt either of us if we're together. It'll be okay."