The Legacies Only They Knew

Chapter 1 - Darkness Before the Light

No one ever truly knows or appreciates how normal their life has been thus far until their life is drastically changed in what seems to be in the blink of an eye. One minute, their life is exactly as it has been for what seems like forever, and then the next, everything they had known about the world isn't even remotely true.

Coraline Evans's life was exactly like that. Since she moved to London's Lower District a little over four years ago, Coraline's life had been entirely mundane and, quite honestly, very uneventful. Each day that passed was almost an identical copy to the day before.

28th of August 1890. It had been a cooler August evening, thanks in part to the light breeze that passed through the streets in the Lower District. Coraline stayed at the Sir Jameson Finishing School for several hours after the end of the day's lessons to get a bit more caught up with her classmates in her needlework. In the four years she had been required to attend the Finishing School, she had yet to truly gain any kind of skill in embroidery. Thus, she was constantly forced to stay at the school many hours after everyone else had gone home in an attempt to make her current piece even the slightest bit passable.

In her frustration of trying to get the piece to come together, she had completely lost track of time, causing the afternoon to slip away into the late evening quickly. It wasn't until a loud crash echoed through the alley next to the school's building that Coraline looked up, and her eyes widened once she realized how late it had gotten. She quickly threw her belongings together into her rucksack as she darted from the room and out the front door of the school.

Once she made it out onto the main street, Coraline slowed her pace to catch her breath and to try to keep her wits about her. There were only six blocks between her current position and the home she was staying in, but as a young lady walking alone after dark, it felt more like a thousand blocks. Coraline grasped her elbows tightly and pulled her arms against her chest for some semblance of security. However, as the first whistle echoed down the empty street, Coraline's breath caught in her throat.

"What's a pretty lady like yourself doing walking down the street this late at night without a fine gentleman accompanying you," a gruff voice questioned from directly behind her.

Coraline's sheer terror almost caused her to stop walking, but the rational side of her brain overrode that thought and forced her to continue walking quickly. She continued looking straight ahead, desperately hoping that if she ignored them, they would leave her alone. Only two blocks left.

Her focus on the home in the distance was quickly shattered as a hand reached out and clamped around her left bicep. Coraline didn't even have time to turn her head to her left before the hand roughly dragged her into a dark, narrow alley. She attempted to regain her footing to pull her arm out of their grasp, but the hand continued to drag her before releasing their grip to throw Coraline into the brick wall like a rag doll. She barely managed to put her arms up in front of her to lessen the impact of the wall before she collided with it and was roughly turned around and pinned to the wall. The hand that had dragged her into the alley was now tightly wrapped around her throat, barely loose enough to allow her to breathe.

"That's better. Now, let's try that again, shall we?" Coraline grimaced at the burning smell of alcohol on the man's breath as he leaned his head closer to hers.

"I was trying to be a gentleman, offering to accompany you home, and you try to ignore me?" He roughly stated with a clear accusatory tone, causing fear to continue to rise within Coraline.

She didn't answer him for a myriad of reasons, though it was primarily out of fear of saying the wrong thing and angering him further. However, saying nothing did the exact opposite of what she was hoping would happen.