HAUNTED

Epilogue

five years later

"I'm going to miss you!" she cried into her friend's shirt, the one that wasn't coming with.

He smiled sadly, and Wybie could tell he didn't know what to say.

Norman's just as shy as when we first met him, Wybie thought. He's just not really a pariah anymore.

He watched as Norman simply gave Coraline a quick kiss and a hug, letting her go once her tears stopped flowing.

Wybie opened the door into the back seat and climbed in. His sister sat down next to him, with Norman sitting on the edge of the seat next to her.

It had taken him two years to stop calling her 'Jonesy' and start calling her 'Sis' instead.

Norman looked at Coraline and promised to e-mail her a few times a week. Wybie heard her make Norman promise, like they used to. He did.

Their parents were already in the car - Mr. and Mrs. Jones were already arguing about which interstate would offer the most direct route to Detroit after all these years.

His sister's old home.

But she was happier here.

Wybie's parents (it had taken him a year and a half to get used to calling them that) finished their argument about the freeways and started one concerning their new jobs and what they were going to end up forgetting here.

Eventually, though, their arguing stopped, and they were ready to go.

Wybie held up a hand in goodbye as he watched Norman stand up, drop Coraline's hand, give her another quick kiss, and shut the car door. She looked back and smiled at him until they reached the end of the street and turned down a new road.

But Wybie kept looking back. This was his neighborhood - there was the house he and Norman had had to break into to help save Coraline (which he did not regret at all, and looking back on it actually considered it 'payback' of sorts for Mrs. Henscher); there was the town hall where they had searched for information about Aggie; there was the tree they and a few other kids had toilet-papered as a prank on the Spanish teacher the year before.

He knew that the truth of the Blithe Hollow incidents would remain hidden with the three of them for the rest of their lives.

Wybie knew he wasn't ever going to forget.

The friendship those three shared was absolute: forged by fire, cemented by truth, tried by powers unthinkable to the common man.

Theirs was an uncommon friendship; it was a powerful friendship.

A friendship that was haunted, and would remain so forever.

the end

(A/N): The journey has ended. We have had a fabulous time together, creating new relations and building new friendships. Haunted has skyrocketed to the top of my stats list on everything except the number of chapters, of which it is only one chapter behind the record-setter.

I must thank everyone for the almost 7000 hits this story has received. Thank you for simply reading this now.

I must thank everyone for the 115 reviews Haunted has received by press time. I must thank any reviewers that plan to do so (or will do) in the future.

I must thank the 26 people who have favorited this story, and the 24 people that put it on alert, and anyone who plans to do so in the future. You know who you are.

I must thank the staff of the three communities that have added Haunted to their archives: David Abbot's Favorite Stories Collection; escape from reality; and Ranma ,Digimon ,Dragonball Z and Anything else I Think of. I must also thank the staff of any communities that plan to add this story to their archives in the future.

I must thank the four people that were not satisfied with just one Coraline/ParaNorman crossover, who passively but readily demanded for another one. Without these people, Haunted would probably not exist at this time: bleadgirl123, CMR Rosa, mangabreadroll, and Nicktendo Squad.

My largest, deepest, most honest thank-yous I've ever said in my life go out to Nicktendo Squad. I cannot thank you enough for the reviews, helpful comments, truthful tips, splendid suggestions, roleplays of randomness, disguised inspiration, and Slenderman. Because you can never have enough Slenderman. XD

Final thank-yous go to Neil Gaiman, Henry Selick, Chris Butler, Sam Fell, and all of the writers, animators, actors, and other positions that have worked at that beautiful organization called LAIKA.

Thank you all.

PS: Now that Haunted is done and finished, I told Nicktendo Squad a while ago that there is a possibility of a sequel, focusing solely and entirely on Normaline shipping. In a little while, I will have a poll up on my profile to decide what my next project will be, of which this is one of the options.