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Chapter 3

Coraline eventually woke up due to the constant droplets of the water that kept plopping on her face. She now knew why she was freezing.

She stood up from her bed and looked up at the old broken ceiling which wickedly continued to drip on her. Little droplets of water drenched her hair, skin, and clothes.

She jerked her head to the sharp noise coming from the window. The rain hammering on the window like the relentless drumming of nails, followed by a sudden bright flash of light. Moments after that, the sound of the angry thunder surround the house.

Coraline was not afraid but in fact felt happy. In fact, the perfect weather to go outside.

She ran outside of her room with the rush of wonderful ideas created in her mind within seconds and checked from rooms to rooms for her parents.

Her parents were not there hence she went to search the entire house but still failed to find them.

"Urghh. Now what? My plans are ruined!!" She stomped her foot on the ground.

However, not far from the dining table, she could vividly see a note with the house keys.

"Coraline dearie. We are going out to work. Be a good girl. I will be back in few hours. Do not leave the house! Here's a spare key. Keep it with you all the time.
-Love Mom"

"Wouldn't hurt to lie once," Coraline mumbled as her face lit up.

She went into her parents room to dig up for her yellow raincoat and went back down to the kitchen, grabbing the house keys into her pocket and tiptoed to unlocked the house door.

The smell of rain was heavenly. She loved the rain. Mother would never allow her to play in the rain. She locked the house door again and her feet set off.

The sense of freedom for her age was almost impossible and finally she was able to do so. She aimlessly walked away from the house, through the forest. It was still raining and flooding streets and places. By the time she reached a tree, her raincoat was soaked in water. At this rate, she might get sick anytime soon.

The unnatural darkness of the afternoon and rain beating down flamboyant trees never bothered her even the sligthest.

She walked in puddles of water and in the same time pressing her foot against the mud to create a footprint.

Eventually,her foot lands on a hard surface. It was not like the muddy ground. Being a naive child she was, she bend down and used her fingers to wipe away the mud from the hard ground.

After few seconds of doing so, she realised that she was standing on a underground well-like tunnel. Except that it was nailed with a wooden plank. A normal reaction of a human would be to move away because they might fall into it.

Coraline however was curious than scared and looked through the holes of the deep tunnel to see if she could caught an sign of animal trapped.

The sound of the rain drizzled down to the tunnel with a loud echo. Coraline was still not giving in, hence took a brown stick which were weirdly coloured close to her and throw into the tunnel while laying on it.

She was disappointed when nothing came up, just the sound of stick being splashed. She got up and took another similar stick with her to trace her directions as she walked deeper into the forest.