Book One

I Think I've Seen You Before

                         Even after the incident had been solved by her older brother, Coraline had known that he hadn't fixed everything. She had been following a lead for weeks but to no avail. She decided to take a break for a day and just rest. She found a motel and rented the room for the night, hoping that she could finally get some peace and quiet. Just as her head hit the pillow there was a knock at the door. She grumbled and got out of the bed, slipping her dark brown trench coat over her body, only a bra and shorts under it, and walked over to the door. She opened the door and used the coat to cover herself. A girl, maybe 19 years old, was standing there holding a scanner. "Umm, I'm sorry to bother you ma'am but I was getting strange reading from this room." The girl said, stuttering over her words. "Oh, it's fine, I'm used to interruptions" Coraline said as she loosened the jacket, feeling more comfortable in front of someone her own gender. The girl looked away slightly. "W-would there be any reason for something strange to be coming from your room?" She asked, her eyes down at the scanner. "I've been hunting something so that might be the reason." Coraline answers, looking over at the clothes she stripped off minutes ago, coated in dirt and dried blood. She sighed and gestured into the small room. "Would you like to come in?" Coraline asks as she walks over to the single table in the room and sat down. "Yes, thank you" The girl answered as she followed her into the room and to the table. A bag laid open on the floor filled with guns and knives of all shapes and sizes, along with a canister of salt and a tank of gasoline. "So, what's your name?" Coraline asked the girl, zipping up the bag with her toe. "I-I'm Karen, or that's what most people call me" She answers, laying her own pistol on the table, an old six shooter with different bullets in each barrel. "I'm Coraline, but you can call me Cora if you like" Coraline says, admiring the weapon on the table. "So, what are you hunting" Karen asks Coraline, offering her the weapon. Coraline took the weapon and looked at the bullets. "Not entirely sure, but it's something fast so it's not linked to anything" Coraline answers, looking at each bullet. "Silver, gold, wood, iron, steel, and salt. Everything you need to kill nearly anything, impressive" Coraline remarks, admiring the bullets as she pushes them back into the gun. "It's what I use for hunting something when I don't know anything about it." Karen says, smiling at her interest in the bullets. "The gun is built on an iron frame plated with silver with a holy water stained grip." Karen says, taking the gun back and polishing it. "It's a very nice weapon" Coraline says, unzipping her bag and taking out an old shotgun and five boxes of shells. "Each one has a different round in it. Salt, silver, iron, holy water and" Coraline takes a bullet out of the third box and shows her the end of it. "Devil's trap carved into each one, stops a demon right in it's place." Coraline says, loading the gun with a salt round and putting it on the table, slipping one more of each round into her jacket pocket as she puts the boxes back in her bag. Karen smiles and reaches into her pocket, pulling out five shotgun rounds. "Each one of these is loaded with salt, holy water, iron and silver shavings, and tipped with wood, just for those occasions when you need a bit more than just one of them." Karen says, passing them to Coraline, a bright smile on her face. "Wow, these are amazing." Coraline remarks, slipping them into her pocket and laying the gun on the table. "So, what are you hunting?" Coraline asks, getting a beer from her bag and opening it, sliding it over to Karen and opening another, taking a sip. "Same as you probably, it's been a long time since that lead in Nebraska." Karen says, slipping the gun into her pocket. "I must have followed the same lead, odd how we haven't ran into each other before" Coraline says as she slips the gun back into her bag. "Very" Karen says, not entirely focused on the conversation, looking at Coraline's near bare body, but trying not to make it obvious. Coraline looked at her and smiled. "Would you like me to put some clothes on Karen?" Coraline asked, pulling the jacket over her slightly. Karen blushed and looked back up at Coraline's face. "I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to look." Karen said, stumbling over her own words. Coraline smiled and got up, dropping the jacket and putting on a light gray tee shirt. She picked the jacket back up and put it on, sitting back down at the table. "Better?" Coraline asked. Karen's face went a bright red, she was embarrassed to have been caught looking at Coraline. "Y-yes, I'm sorry I was staring." Karen mumbled, looking extremely embarrassed. "Don't worry about it" Coraline said, smiling at her. Karen stood up and started walking to the door. "I should be getting back to the hunt" Karen said, opening the door slowly. Coraline quickly walks over and closes the door. "You don't have to, if you like you could stay a while, make yourself comfortable" Coraline says, trying her best to sound flirtatious. Karen looks at her, her mind moving to places she told it never to go to again but she couldn't help herself, Coraline was beautiful and she couldn't help but find an attraction for her. Karen smiled and walked back over to the table, her face becoming a light red as she sat down on the table. "And why would you like me to stay?" Karen asks, putting on the same flirtatious tone that Coraline did. Coraline felt her cheeks heat up as she blushed. She looked at Karen, admiring every inch of her that she could see. She tried to think of a lie to make it less awkward for her. "W-well we might both be hunting the same thing s-so we might as well hunt together" Coraline says, the tone in her voice making it obvious that she was lying. Karen smiles and walks over to Coraline. "Why don't you tell me the real reason you want me to stay." Karen said as she pressed herself up against Coraline. Coraline bites her lip nervously and tries not to blush anymore than she already was. Karen smirked and put her arms around Coraline's neck, almost as if she was ready to kiss her. Coraline looked into her eyes, her own purple ones reflecting in Karen's brown ones. Coraline slowly wraps her arms around Karen's waist and leans in to kiss her, the real reason she wanted her to stay finally showing.