“Her phone rang again. “What?” she snapped as she answered it.Myrnin, of course. “Are you on your way?”“No!”“Claire, there are things to do.”“Here, too,” she said. “And I’m staying here, believe me.”Myrnin was silent for a beat, and then he said, “Bob would be very disappointed in you.”“Bob the spider?”“He looks at you like a mother, you know. I’m surprised at your lack of work ethic. Think of the example you set for—”She hung up on him and turned the phone on vibrate and relaxed in Shane’s arms.”

“Myrnin was silent for a beat, and then he said, "Bob would be very disappointed in you.”

“The ringtone was a dead giveaway, emphasis on dead . . . creepy organ music. She didn’t even have to glance at the image of fangedbunny slippers on the screen to know who was calling. She just sighed, thumbed it on, and held it to her ear.“Claire! I need you here immediately. Something’s wrong with Bob.” Myrnin, her mad-scientist, blood-addicted boss, sounded actually shaken. “Ican’t get him to eat his insects, and I used his favorites. He just sits there.”“Bob,” she repeated, looking at Shane in wide-eyed disbelief. “Bob the spider.”“Just because he’s a spider doesn’t mean he deserves any less concern! Claire, you have a way with him. He likes you.”Just what she needed. Bob the spider liked her. “You do realize that he’s a year old, at least. And spiders don’t live that long.”“You think he’s dead?” Myrnin sounded horrified. So wrong.“Is he curled up?”“No. He’s just quiet.”“Well, maybe he’s not hungry.”“Will you come?” Myrnin asked. He sounded calmer now, but also oddly needy. “It’s been very lonely here these past few days. I’d like yourcompany, at least for a little while.” When she hesitated, he used the pity card. “Please, Claire.”“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m bringing Shane.”After a second of silence, he said, flatly, “Goody,” and hung up.”

“There," she said, waving her hands at the corridor. The expression of delight on her face was a very bad thing to see."You're wrong! You don't know where your parents are, do you?" she turned and looked at Coraline. "Now," she said, "you're going to stay here for ever and always.”

“I thought you'd be halfway to Tokyo by now,” she said, stalling.“Not without you.”Oh, man, she was so screwed. He was bad enough when he was giving her shit. Right now he was looking at her as ifshe was the most precious thing on earth, and she knew what she looked and smelled like. The world had turned upsidedown.“I don't suppose you love me,” she said. “Even a little bit?”“Don't be an idiot, Ji-chan. Why else would I be here? Now, do you want to stay here or do you want to prove you're reallycrazy and come with me?”“Will you grow your hair again?”“If you want me to.”“Then tell me.”“You're not going to make this easy, are you? Su-chan warned me about you.”“She warned me, too. Tell me.”He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Aishiteru,” he muttered.“In English.”“I love you.”

“That does not surprise me,' Annie said and once again hung up the phone thinking that she had chosen to surround herself with people who were, for lack of a better term, retarded.”