Book 1: Into the Woods | Larry Stylinson ❀ [Werewolf AU]

1 - Where it Started

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Everything started when the Styles family had moved back to Colchester, Essex - known as one of the oldest cities in England.

It wasn't like this was the ideal place for Harry's new home to be, in fact, he had no say in the move. It was sort of forced upon him when his mother and father had gotten a divorce, and Anne wanted to make the financial decision in moving back to her hometown. She had actually lived in Colchester up until she was eighteen years old before she left to go to Uni in London, and that happened to be where Anne had met Des, Harry's father.

It was on the long drive over from London when Anne began boasting about her home town, which was something she had never talked to Harry about before. She really tried to lighten up the town in a positive manner, but Harry was more focused on the fact that he was moving into an older town where more people retire to rather than start a family at - but the worst part about the move was how it was only him and his mother moving and how he had to make the big change in leaving his old life behind in London.

It took until they were breaching the edge of the town when Harry really started to show the tiniest amount of interest towards the move. He noticed the big buildings of the city started to get replaced with a blanket of trees, and he had never seen so much nature before in his life. He was from the big city, so he was used to traffic and modernized architecture instead of being surrounded by nothing but trees. Anne must have noticed the twist in Harry's head as he stared out the window in fascination because that was when she started telling Harry about her family's past, which was apparently a lot more intriguing than Harry had ever imagined.

Anne started with how her ancestors were one of the first settlers in this town. Georgia and Bartholomew Cox, two of the original founders of Colchester.

Harry's interest peaked even more as Anne continued to talk to Harry about their family. He thought it was fascinating how he was a part of a founding family and how the house he and his mother are living in was passed down through their family, of course with many renovations, but Harry's great ancestors had built the original house on the land that their new house is on, so even where they are living comes with a lot of history.

Not only was the history of their family fascinating, but Anne started to explain the tight knit community the town was about. Since Colchester was so small, everyone knew each other on a first name basis so it was easy to feel a part of this community. A lot of the stores and the restaurants were locally owned and ran, so the relationships between the businesses and the customers were also very close. Then there was the fact that everything was in walking distance of each other, so traffic was the least of their worries, the absolute complete opposite to London.

So after that long drive, Harry realized maybe moving to Colchester wasn't the worst possible thing to happen to him, even if the town looked as if it was torn from an 1800's historical page.

Simply from looking at what Harry could see of Colchester from first entering the town, he could definitely tell the building's designs were not up to date. There had been no modernized innovations that even resembled to any of the buildings seen in London, so this was one of the biggest changes Harry has noticed so far. There were no tall office buildings or smooth asphalt roads. There were not a lot of cars zooming by nor a lot of street lamps lighting up the town. It was all aged.

The first thing Harry noticed when they drove into Colchester was City Hall, the tall bell tower that stood right in the middle of town with stores and restaurants surrounding the monumental building, all colored in wooden panels and old, black shingled roofs. There were three lamp post that lit up the circular dead end road of City Hall, and the roads leading up to it were paved in rustic bricks. The entire town was encompassed with a blanket of trees that Harry could have sworn he heard animals howling from as they continued to drive to their new home.