Lineage: The Legend of The Red Riding Hood

Chapter 03: Waking the Past

At that moment everything went black in Coraline's mind. There's this strong denial inside her right now despite witnessing the truth for herself. Am I dreaming again? This thoughts came hollow when they manifested in her mind because she know she's not. It was just her attempts in escaping reality, her hopes of shielding herself from the truth. It was at this very moment when time seems to have stopped for her. She started reminiscing all her memories with her mother starting from the moment before she died all the way to her early memories in childhood.

She doesn't know what's happening anymore. It felt like her whole world fell apart after seeing the last person in her life that she truly holds dear, the same person that took care of her since birth, and the same person that treated her with utmost love suddenly vanishes from her life. She sobs, dropping down to her knees, then her sobbing became crying. Her tears are so overflowing that her emotions seems to be flooding out of her chest.

"MAMA!!!" Coraline cried her heart out. "MAMA!!!" She's like a helpless little baby that doesn't know what to do. "MAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Her crying is really getting out of hand that she's attracting the attention of some werewolves near her location.

Coraline kept on crying, still on her knees to the floor, and in the middle of her sorrow the door suddenly busted open with three werewolves standing there, gnawing a severed arm while glaring at Coraline with insatiable hunger. She slowly stands and wipes her tears, staring at the three werewolves with no fear. "Get lost." Coraline said in a cold voice, enraging one of them as the biggest one pounces at her, swinging its claws for the kill. But the furry beast then falls to the ground, yelping in pain as it holds its wrist where its hand used to be. The bleeding werewolf looks at Coraline with a murderous glare, about to rip her heart out the moment it gets on its feet, but as fast as it got up, is also as fast as it fell dead, after Coraline throws a knife, nailing it deep on the werewolf's head. Gnawing

"Mama," Coraline lowly muttered, shedding a tear, pulling out the knife from the werewolf's head. She looks at the knife covered in blood and begins crying again, kneeling to the floor and covering her face with her hand. "Ma... Ma... Mama," Coraline wallowed in her sadness and sorrow, not worrying about the other two werewolves that could kill her anytime soon, but she doesn't care anymore. Her father and sister are already dead and now her mother. So what reason does she have to keep on living?

"Girl, are you alright?" Taking her hands off her face, Coraline saw the two werewolves dead on the floor, and standing behind them is a tall guy with a golden hair, wearing a steel plate armor that has the symbol of a griffin. "It's okay, don't to be afraid. We were sent here by the kingdom after receiving reports of werewolves attacking a small village." The knight said.

Another knight with long black hair riding a horse arrives at Coraline's house, his armor smeared in blood. "Falcon, most of the werewolves have been killed, but there's still one left and it's slaughtering all our men."

"I'll catch up with you in a minute after I get this girl to safety." Falcon said, looking back at Coraline. "Girl come, you must get out of here quick."

Coraline stops crying and wipes away her tears, slowly standing, and heads out using the back door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Falcon asked, following Coraline to a shed that's been tightly secured with chains and a lock. "What are you doing? We don't have time to waste, we must leave now."

"I was a fool for thinking that I could escape my past" Coraline said, unlocking the rusted padlocks. The chains and lock made a heavy sound when they hit the ground. The thick, old wooden door hasn't been opened in years, trying to pry it open, Coraline ends up taking down the whole door instead. Moths flew out of the shed once the door collapsed.

Inside the shed, sitting on the dust and cobwebbed floor is a metal chest. The sight was quite unnerving as spiders the size of a palm swarmed the chest, with their spine chilling inducing hiss as they seemingly attack the object in front of them. It's as if they sensed an injured predator resting inside and for reasons even they themselves do not know, something deep down in their primal instinct is telling them to kill it now before it has the chance to regain its strength.

Coraline simply sweeps them all to the side with a broom, some hissing and baring their fangs at her as they scurried away into the corner.

"What's inside that thing?" Falcon asked, impatiently. "Girl, we must make haste. Should those monsters attack us in a group, I'm not confident in my skill's to protect you."

Inserting the key and slowly twisting it, the chest made a clicking sound as it opens.

A wolf's pelt with rugged, yet somehow smooth feel to it rests inside the chest. Though already been long dead years ago after being skinned from its body. The fur was preserved so well that it almost looked like it will spring to life at any moment.

"W-Wait... that's," Falcon Stammered. "You're..."

Coraline takes the crimson red pelt out of the chest and puts it on like a cloak. Immediately, many unpleasant memories begun flooding back in as the warm, thick, and soft fur embraced her skin.

"You're the one who slayed the Crimson werewolf... You're..." 

Falcon swallowed, 

"Coraline Nightwalker."