Children waiting for the day they feel good

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It's not often that Max is quiet. He has his moments when he's sad, or he's thinking or when he's absolutely so happy he can't stand it but those times are few and far between.

But then Jason crawled out of his grave and Max pretty much shut up.  He still doesn't really understand. Why he was in there and why that gravestone says he was dead. All he

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[curiously_cora]

Coraline almost doesn't recognise him without the suit on. He looks naked without it. It's him though, it's Max. She recognises the defiant mouth, the look in his eyes that's so like hers and the way he just is. And he's angry or hurt or both and Coraline doesn't like that. She doesn't want any kid, let alone Max to feel like that.

"Hey! Hey Max, quit it." Coraline said walking towards him. Coraline dropped down to Max's height and looked at him curiously. "What's the matter?"

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"Nothing," he mumbles, turning to lob another rock. He doesn't want to cry in front of Coraline. Even though she's nice to him. For some reason he especially doesn't want her to see him cry.

[curiously_cora]

"Okay," Coraline said as she pressed her lips together and stared at him seriously. Coraline placed her hand over his as he went to throw another rock. "You don't have to tell me but if you want to tell me you can. You know that right? You can tell me anything."

Coraline smiled at him and let go of his hand so he could throw his rock.

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"Yeah, I know," he says, squirming uncomfortably. He wants to tell her. But he doesn't want her to see him as a scared little baby. "I don't like this place," he offers up, tossing the rock. "It's mean."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline nodded, wondering what it had done to Max to make him feel like this. Coraline just wanted to hug him and make him feel better but she knew sometimes what it was like to feel so angry and alone and wanting a hug and yet at the same time not wanting to be touched at all.

"Sometimes I really, really hate this place." Coraline said, taking a dirt clod and throwing it at the tree. It made a much more satisfying explosion of dirt and dust than the rock did. "It took my family, it took my friends, it locked me up in a really bad place and did a whole bunch of other bad stuff. But sometimes, sometimes it's really, really good. And when I have a bad day, I think about the good days. Like flying on a dragon or exploring a temple or meeting a really cool King called Max and then it doesn't seem quite so bad."

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"I'm not a king, anymore," he points out. "And all that stuff is really bad. It's too much bad stuff."

He kicks at a clump of dirt, eyes fixed on the ground. "Did you know some people here are dead?"

[curiously_cora]

"You're my King, you'll always be my King Max." Coraline replied smiling at him and nudging him in the arm lightly. Coraline listened to the question, her smile faltering a little. "Yeah, I did. Does that bother you? Some of my best friends at home were dead. They were... ghosts. And then they were gone."

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"Yes," he cries, voice strained and choked. "It's horrible and they're dead and if they go away they're just dead again. And it kills you all over again."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline looked at Max curiously when his voice choked up. Heart in her throat, Coraline threw her arms around Max and tugged him close so she could hug him. Sometimes even the bravest of Kings needed to be hugged.

"No, they're not just dead Max. They're not!" Coraline insisted pressing her hand down his back like her mum did to her, like her dad did when she was upset. "They're alive here, so that means wherever they go they go back alive. We have to believe that, okay? We just- we have to."

Coraline wiped her own eyes, sniffing as she pulled back to look at Max seriously. "And if, if they are dead then you have to know Max the next place? It's nice, it's really nice."

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"But it's all wrong," he sniffs, trying so hard not to cry all over again. "Jason died and it killed him all over again. And he's really dead like a zombie or something."

[curiously_cora]

"Jason? Jason's dead? Do you mean on the island or off the island?" Coraline asked looking at Max confused. No one had told her Jason was dead so she hoped he meant off the island because Coraline- Coraline didn't know if she could handle losing another friend right now but even if he was then she had to be strong for Max. She could be brave for him. "Okay, start from the beginning. What do you mean he's dead like a zombie? Is he eating people's brains?"

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"There's a gravestone and it says he died," Max squeaks out, a few traitorous tears leaking down his face. "And he was in the grave under the ground and then he crawled out and I tried to help but I couldn't."

[curiously_cora]

"Here? On the island, oh god that's... He was in the ground?" Coraline asked, reaching out to touch Max's cheek. Coraline brushed the tears away with her fingertips, not commenting on them. Coraline remembered the cold and the dark of the Mirror Room, she remembered how she was trapped and how scared she was and she knew that whatever she felt it must have been ten times as awful for Jason and just as awful for Max. "Because you were scared?"

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"It was really hard to dig," he explains, voice hitching. "And then he grabbed me and he looked like a monster and I let him go and then he got out and needed help but I didn't want to touch him cause I thought he was dead."

[curiously_cora]

"Max, Max it's okay to be scared. I'm scared, that's how you know you're brave. Being scared but doing something anyway that's what being brave really means." Coraline said seriously. "You helped him, you helped dig him out even if it was only a little bit. You helped."

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"But then I hurt his feelings," he protests. "I made it worse. And now he probably hates me and...he shouldn't have been dead. It's not fair."