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CORALINE didn't sleep that night.
After the perimeter alert finally shut off, they didn't hear from Ms. Venable for the rest of the day. Coraline tried to convince herself that her suspicions weren't true, that she shouldn't believe coincidences so quickly, but it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't anymore. She stayed in her room the whole day, refusing to attend dinner. She didn't know what she would face downstairs. Starving herself was better than knowing the truth. She wasn't missing much anyways. The gelatin cubes tasted the same as ever.
When night came along, Coraline tossed and turned in her bed. She kicked off the sheets several times, only to curl them back around her. It felt like her pajamas were constricting her, or maybe it was just her chest. Some people liked to count sheep to fall asleep, but she thought – somehow – staring at her bedside candle long enough would help. (It didn't.) She could still hear "Hungry Heart" through the radio downstairs, reverberating through her floor. Coraline bit her lip so hard she almost popped a blood vessel.
She eventually drew a bath. Coraline didn't know what time it was, but she guessed it was sometime in the early morning. No doubt she would have bags under her eyes the next day. For some reason, she felt like someone was watching her as she slipped herself into the tub. The water was so hot that it was steaming, and it burned against her skin. She liked it though. It was always so cold in the Outpost.
Bruce Springsteen's voice was consistent through the floorboards. She dragged a hand down her face, trying to focus on something else. Coraline felt like she was going insane. She thought she left that part of her when she graduated high school, but Crazy Coraline was still alive and well.
The water hadn't even gotten cold before Coraline determined that it wasn't helping. She just needed to get in her bed again. Maybe she'd be able to sleep now that she felt clean. Dragging a towel down her bare body, Coraline felt a breeze whisk by her. She straightened her back, tying the red towel around herself. Droplets of water fell to the floor and wet hair laid across her back in clumps. Coraline chewed on the inside of her cheek and scanned the bathroom. Nothing moved but the flames atop of her candles.
Coraline rolled her eyes and turned around to her mirror. Taking her brush in one hand, she used the other to wipe the fog off the reflective glass. As she began to brush out the tangles in her hair, Coraline finally looked at herself in the mirror, but she didn't just see herself.
Two black eyes. White face.
Coraline gasped, spinning around on her heel with the hairbrush in front of her, as if it were a weapon. Her towel started to slip off her body, but she managed to hold it there as she looked around the barren bathroom. She breathed heavily through her nostrils. Everything was the same. No black eyes. No white face. Coraline licked her lips and tried to compose herself, but couldn't help the tremble that crawled up her spine, tickling her fear.
