The other mother smiled, showing a full set of teeth, and each of the teeth was a tiny bit too long. The lights in the hallway made her black-button eyes glitter and gleam. ‘You don’t frighten me,’ said Coraline, although they did frighten her, very much. ‘I want my parents back.’
The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges. ‘Whatever would I have done with your old parents? If they have left you, Coraline, it must be because they became bored with you, and I will never abandon you. You will always be safe here with me.’ The other mother’s wet-looking black hair drifted around her head, like the tentacles of a creature in the deep ocean.
