CHAPTER 11
2017 BONNIE AND CLYDE

CORALINE almost didn't believe Michael when he told her that Miriam always left the front door unlocked. "Who's gonna break into a Satanist's house, anyways?" He asked, shrugging lazily.

They approached the door carefully. Coraline noticed the paint was cracking off of it. Michael's arm was hanging around her shoulders as she dragged him along. He was walking like he was ... drained, somehow. She had to help him up the front steps of his house, even though she didn't have the muscles to lift the tall boy. Twisting the gold knob, she was still surprised when the door opened for her.

Everything was dark. She could hardly see anything as they walked in, and Michael closed the door behind them. Coraline shook her phone, causing the flashlight to turn on for her. She was sure that Michael was fine, that he could definitely get into the house on his own. However, something inside of her filled with worry. Judging by the way he killed someone to protect them tonight, she knew he was some powerful, almighty, fuckin' "Chosen One" guy, who certainly didn't need the help of a small girl with weird visions of the future. But even the mightiest needed help getting up their own staircase sometimes.

They walked up the stairs at their own pace. Once they reached the top, Coraline tugged on his shirt, a signal for them to start tip-toeing. His room was just off the stairs and a few feet away was Miriam's. Her door was sealed shut. "She locks it so I can't disturb her sleep," Michael whispered. "I tend to bother her a lot when I have bad dreams."

Coraline quickly tip-toed over to his bedroom and locked the door once he was inside. A wave of heat hit her suddenly. Her nose felt oily upon impact. She wiped the sweat off her hands, watching Michael rub at his eyes sleepily. "Okay, you're good, right?" She asked. "I can just slip out the front door and no one will find out I was here."

Michael collapsed onto his bed, legs hanging off the side. Coraline's eyes widened. For a split second, she actually wondered if he died. But then his hand twitched as she ran forward, causing her to groan in an annoyed tone. Lifting his whole body onto the bed, she muttered, "God, it's like caring for a child."

She kneeled in front of his mattress, and eventually, began to brush blonde strands away from his forehead. A thin coat of sweat formed on her own temple. She felt a scar behind his ear, but didn't question it. At that moment, she didn't really focus on anything else. Her eyes were glued to Michael's face, and she wondered how someone could look so angelic while they slept, hours after they killed someone with a snap of their fingers. Coraline concluded then that he was probably the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen.

She released a heavy sigh and stood up. "Are you actually asleep?"

Michael cracked one eye open. "Not quite."

Coraline rolled her eyes, taking a moment to look around his room for a thermostat. "Its so fucking hot in here, Michael," she muttered and searched the walls for a small, circular sensor. "Do you like living in the pits of hell?"

"That's the plan."

There was no thermostat, of course. She spun on her heel and say goodbye, but found him basically naked in his bed already, laying on top of his black sheets and snuggling closer to his pillow. He was only wearing a pair of plaid boxers, causing Coraline to wonder how he changed so quickly. "What –?" She covered her eyes. "You could've told me you changed!"

Michael didn't answer. He simply hummed a reply and curled his long legs together.

Coraline's lips parted. She walked forward, as if gravity was pulling her to him, and whispered, "Well, I'm gonna go home. My mom's probably already in bed, but if I'm not there once she wakes up in the morning –"

His hand shot out, grasping her own. Coraline's whole body vibrated at his touch and she watched his eyes open with concern. Michael looked down at their conjoined hands, brow furrowing, and she wondered if he was questioning why he made that sudden action. His thumb moved in circles over her skin. The invisible threads squeezed them together.

"Can you stay?" He asked, meeting her stare.

She raised a brow. "I thought you didn't know what a hook up was."

"I still don't," he laughed softly. "But whatever you're thinking surely isn't the same as what I'm thinking."

"Um –" She paused, debating her options. His mattress was large, almost built for two. Coraline hadn't slept in a boy's bed since ... well, since she lost her virginity to Nate Ashworth last year, and even then he kicked her out of the house after an hour because his parents would kill him if they saw her there. It hadn't been a delightful experience whatsoever. To this day, Nate hadn't told anyone what happened, in fear people would find out he fucked "Crazy Coraline."

But this wasn't that same situation. As Michael continued to hold her small hand, she knew he just wanted her there. For what reason, she didn't know.

Coraline watched a few beads of sweat run down his bare torso, and she exhaled loudly. "I guess I can stay for a few hours."

"Okay, okay," Michael grinned. "Fair warning: I might wake you up when I have a nightmare."

He moved over from his spot, but Coraline told him that wasn't necessary. She fanned herself using her hand as she walked over to the other side of the bed and sat down. Kicking off her shoes, she was thankful at that moment that she had a top underneath her sweater. She ripped off the heavy layer, leaving her in a tank and jeans as she laid down.

Coraline wound her hands underneath her head. His pillows were fluffy, and she liked hers to be firm. God, she chastised, why did you agree to this? The answer was obvious. She just didn't want to say it.

She heard the mattress squeak under her, and not long after, she felt a pair of arms hang over her torso. Another head laid right near her hair, inhaling her scent. Snores racked from a mouth laying by her ear. She looked down at the large hand that was draped across her midsection and didn't feel an ounce of panic.

Coraline bit her lip, taking Michael's arm and curling it more around her. His snores were loud, yet calming. The sweltering heat in the room made it unable to sleep, but she didn't really care. All Coraline wanted to feel was the warmth of someone's arm around her. She pursed her lips and found her heart skip a beat.

The worst was yet to come, because Coraline feared that she could love Michael Langdon.

•••

The blood still hadn't come out of Coraline's white sweater. To avoid questions from her mother, she ended up burning it in the living room fireplace. No one would ever suspect a thing.

Days later, Coraline scrolled through Facebook on her phone. She always wondered why she constantly deleted the app and then redownloaded it, but every time she scrolled through it, she was reminded of how annoying people could be online. However, her thumb froze in place upon noticing a specific link on her newsfeed. One of her former friends shared a news article, responding to it with a casual, R.I.P. JOSHUA HART. Coraline bit her lip before finally clicking on the link.

It was about the murder. Their murder.

She swallowed down the bile rising in her throat, remembering the blood she now had on her hands. Except ... she really didn't. For starters, she hadn't been the one who killed Josh, technically. She was just a witness. A simple witness to a murder. A murder conducted for her safety. It wasn't in vain.

The police hadn't found any evidence on the body. They wouldn't ever, because Michael hardly laid a hand on him. They classified the murder as a suicide, even though they had no proof to suggest that. Coraline guessed that they had to give the grieving family some kind of answer.

As she read on, she began to realize that she had known Joshua Hart. He used to be part of her former clique, relishing in making others feel bad for their appearances. He knew her before the "episode," and even tried asking her out once. It never happened. Coraline remembered him dropping out of school early last year, but none of them knew why. They soon found out that Josh had turned to drugs, and the rest was history. Out of all things, he hadn't died from an overdose. He died from fucking with the Chosen One, whatever that meant.

"What are you looking at?"

Coraline was so lost in her thoughts that she forgot Michael was next to her. They laid on the bed casually, dangling their feet over the edge, as her mother sifted through bills to pay downstairs. Big surprise there – Francesca finally stopped trying to meddle in her daughter's social life, and though she didn't exactly approve of having a weird Satanist kid in her house, Coraline told her it was not in her best interest to judge. She might've also threatened to tell the religious housewives around them that Francesca hadn't visited a church in years. That was enough to convince her.

She set the phone down on her chest and muttered, "Nothing." She'd never tell him about the article. Ever.

"I'm really glad we're so close now, Coraline." He paused, looking down at her right hand that laid right near his own. His fingertips hesitantly brushed across the back of her hand as he debated entwining them together. "How have your visions been?'

He had been asking about them all the time now, as if he was waiting for a magical answer to their problems. Out of all things, he never asked about the murder or their kiss. Neither were brought up or referred to, like they never existed. Coraline wondered if they were together-together, or just the 2017 version of Bonnie and Clyde.

"Um ..." Coraline frowned, twiddling her thumbs. She grabbed a pillow and put it under her head for comfort. "Well, for months its been this weird continuation of visions. Like, whenever one comes to me, it just resumes from the last one."

Michael raised a brow. "What are they about?"

"I don't know. It's all really confusing," she sighed. "It looks like the scene of a dance, but all I can hear is screaming, and I just ... I have no idea. It would be nice if these visions could be a little clearer sometimes."

"Huh," he mumbled, and Coraline could tell a question was hanging off his tongue. It was like he planted the seed for her.

She sat up, leaning on her elbow. "What do you mean, 'Huh?'"

"I'm just thinking ..." His voice trailed off. Coraline's curious stare urged him to continue on. Michael parted his lips, sat up, and crossed his legs. "Okay, hear me out on this one," he said, laying his hands on his thighs. "Have you ever thought of ... using your visions for something?"

"Is this you giving me a speech on how I should be 'using my powers for good?'" She snorted. "Because if you are, I think you might be reading too many Spider-Man comics."

Michael chuckled. "No, no," he said. "Well, maybe I am. I'm just saying ... You told me that your visions revolve around some pretty dark things, like murder and trauma. What if you ..." His lips curled into a smile. "What if we used them to help others?"

He had her attention then. Coraline's eyes grew wide as she thought about the question. "How could I even do that?" She asked cynically. "How could we do that? No one wants our help. People think I'm crazy. Who's gonna want help from a false-diagnosed schizophrenic?"

"No one has to know," he replied, as if it were so obvious. "You just have to remember the people you saw in past visions, like murderers and assaulters who haven't committed the crime yet. The internet is powerful and teenagers are smarter than ever because of technology. We can figure out who the people are and stop the crimes before they happen in the future. Can you imagine how much we will be helping people?"

Coraline chewed on the edge of her fingernail. It was almost gone from nervously biting. "Stop the crimes how?"

Michael grinned. "By any means necessary."

•••

Coraline often wondered what prison was like. Michael told her it was silly to think things like that. He often said this while wiping blood off his hands.

When Coraline agreed to his ideas of "helping the community," she didn't expect them to immediately get into action. They spent a week trying to search the depths of her mind and recall past visions. It took hours of research to find the identities of the cruel humans in her visions, but luckily, most of the people were local. The anticipation of murder made Michael excited. He would bounce his leg enthusiastically while roaming the internet for any information on the subjects, as Coraline brushed her fingers through his hair.

It was nice to have someone who understood; someone other than Miriam. He finally had someone loyal to his hungry heart.

So that was what led Coraline to where she was now: behind a dumpster with gravel on her hands. Orange and yellow reflected in her eyes. Michael grinned big on her left, snaking a long arm around her shoulders as the rapist tried putting out the flames that engulfed him. The fire licked at his skin, kissing and burning every part of his flesh. Michael thought the show was taking too long. With a snap of his fingers, the flaming man disintegrated into ash.

His name was J.D. Crowley. Months from now, he would be convicted of sexually assaulting several underage girls from a high school softball team he coached. The vision told her he'd get away with thirty years in jail. The two teenagers didn't think that was good enough. It wasn't hard to find him, seeing as he got high every night behind the abandoned corner store. They wanted to end him before it could ever happen.

Coraline blinked as they were engulfed in darkness. Weirdly enough, she hadn't thought twice upon seeing J.D. die. Now that she'd seen death firsthand, she was almost not afraid of it anymore. Maybe she was just glad to be using her visions for good. Michael had been right. She should've been doing this all along, except she could've never committed a murder like this by herself.

Michael flexed his cramped hands. "It always amazes me what I can do with these fingers. Being the Chosen One has it's upsides." He looked over at her, smirking devilishly. "I've never liked getting my hands dirty."

"He deserved it anyway," Coraline whispered, narrowing her eyes at the pile of ash before them. The wind picked her hair up and off her shoulders as she grabbed his hand that lay on her shoulder. "Because of us, we're saving dozens of girls from future trauma. We're, like, totally the good guys in this situation." She smiled proudly. "Can you believe it? Murder being used for good?"

"Totally," Michael grinned her way. Coraline was almost tempted to kiss his lips. "What do we do now?"

Coraline frowned at the pile of ash that was once a man. She felt so accomplished. They deserved a medal of honor for this shit. The visions weren't useless anymore. She wasn't useless anymore. There were bigger plans for her.

Eventually, she shrugged at his question. "Wanna get ice cream? There's a place right down the street."

He smiled excitedly. Coraline took his hand without thinking, but Michael was the one who laced their fingers together. Sticking a headphone jack into her phone, she placed one earbud in Michael's ear and the other in her own. She turned the music up on blast and the two teenagers clumsily danced their way to the local ice cream parlor. Michael swung their hands in the air, enjoying the music as she sang loudly to it. Coraline had made him this playlist, filled with her favorite modern songs to equip Michael with the latest pop culture. She named it: CORALINE AND MICHAEL'S JAMMIN' JAMS.

Coraline used her free hand to mimic the beat of Taylor Swift's, Getaway Car. She turned to Michael, pretending that there was a microphone in her hand, and sang theatrically in his ears. It wasn't good singing whatsoever, but it made Michael happy. He laughed harder than ever before, as if everything was okay. As if the most important thing right now was seeing Coraline Avery happy. As if they hadn't just tracked down and killed a future rapist.

She didn't regret cutting two kids in line at the ice cream parlor. Coraline wanted her banana split and was willing to do anything for it. She handed the bored teenagers at the counter her money as they placed the big sundae plate in her hands. Michael had been sitting at a long wooden table as she ordered, twiddling his fingers. He liked the way the parlor was decorated outside and decided they should sit under the pink fairy lights strung across the establishment.

The banana split plate clattered onto the table. Michael looked up, noticing Coraline's excited expression, and found his own face lighting up. She threw him a spoon as he said, "I could've gotten money from Miriam and paid for it."

"Shut up and eat," Coraline said with a roll of her eyes. She sliced a piece of banana with her spoon and combined it with a spoonful of strawberry ice cream. She shoved it in her mouth, savoring the sweetness.

Michael had never tried a banana split before. His favorite dessert involved anything chocolate. He hesitated, taking a little bit of everything on his spoon. Coraline gestured for him to continue eating. With a quick shrug, Michael placed the ice cream in his mouth and was shocked at how cold it was. Miriam never let him have ice cream because he liked the hot. Michael held a hand over his mouth and sent Coraline a wide-eyed stare.

"What?" She asked, taking a piece of whipped cream on her finger. "You don't like it?"

He finally swallowed, surprised that he liked the flavor. "No, I – I just didn't expect it to be cold."

Coraline tried not to laugh, but she couldn't keep it in. She released a string of giggles, and Michael followed with some of his own. Coraline looked to her finger again, tempted to lick off the whipped cream, but decided she had a better idea.

She reached out quickly and smudged the whipped cream over Michael's nose. His mouth dropped, and then his expression changed. The ends of his lips pulled upward as he dipped his own finger in some chocolate syrup and rubbed it on both sides of her face. Before Coraline could retort, he grabbed more syrup and smeared it on her pointed nose.

"How dare you?!" She laughed. Her giggles were so loud that other patrons were staring at them, and for once, it wasn't because she was Coraline Avery and he was the Satanist neighbor that she shouldn't be friends with. She released a few hiccups when her laughter died down, and then stared at him with a soft smile. She hadn't felt happiness like this in a long time; not even with her old friends.

"Hey, Coraline?"

She blinked, forgetting how long she had been lost in her own thoughts. After picking up a napkin, she began to wipe off the sticky chocolate from her skin. Coraline handed Michael one and replied, "Yeah?"

His mouth was in a firm line as he debated what to say. Coraline waited with a raised brow. "Is this ..." He bit his tongue. "Are we on a second date? Is this how dating works?"

She wanted to tell him that sharing a banana split after committing a murder wasn't usually how dates went, but instead, Coraline managed a sweet grin. "I don't know, Michael," she answered, placing another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "What do you think?"

Michael responded with a smirk.

•••

A/N: OH WORM SORRY THIS IS SO LONG BUT SOMETIMES YA GIRL HAS A LOT TO SAY

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

This video??? Oscar worthy

Just want to mention that Nate Ashworth is one of luciangemini's OCs from her Michael fic, Killers!!!!!! Y'all BEST BE READING IT 😤

Also if you guys wanna listen to the playlist Coraline made for Michael with all modern songs hERE IT IS

My Spotify username is just stxrmborn!!!!!