Girl In The Red Coat

Girl in the Red Coat
By
Gemma Owen-Kendall


 
Dedications
 
In loving memory of Patricia Jacqueline Turner, my Nana, who loved to read books just as much as I do now.
 
In loving memory of Mrs June Evans, my primary school teacher. She always told me that I had such a wild imagination.


Chapter 1.
I t was the year 1884 when the initial shape shifting werewolves walked the grounds of this Earth. Some claimed this to be a complication during the boys’ adolescence, but others would say they were cursed from childbirth by the Devil himself. Luckily for these teenagers, they weren’t alone; as they had one another to go through these changes, to have the ability to transform from a mortal being to werewolf and shift back repeatedly. There was no desire for a full moon to establish this development. The first of many shapeshifting wolves to have transitioned their bodies were teenage boys named Constantine and Magnus. Both were from an upscale household. Constantine was the son of the town’s local farmer and Magnus’s father was the town’s Mayor. The lads were educated at school and their health was exceptional; there wasn’t a flaw with either of them.
The transformation just happened one day on an autumn evening when Constantine and Magnus were trudging home from school. They chose to go an unusual route down an overgrown pathway. An area of the trees and hedges had been cut back and a pack of recently removed railway sleepers were layered up high. A fresh railway track was to be laid on what was once a public walkway, and the lads were keen to discover what it would look like once the new track was formed. The sunlight had slid behind the rest of the trees forming oddly shaped shadows and there were no lanterns along the path. Constantine dared Magnus to lead the way to the other side. So as not to appear a coward to his friend, Magnus bit his lip and braved the walkway.
The whistling breeze caught up and occupied the air with half-dead leaves that had dropped along the path. Magnus trod carefully along the track. His parents repeatedly instructed him to be mindful when he strolled home from school, that he should remain on the regular pathway at all costs, to never step on the busy roads and most of all, never talk to strangers. Even as he got older, they still warned Magnus of their strict instruction that he be safe at all times. Constantine’s parents had the same rule for their son. But the boys never listened. On their strolls to and from school they thought it hilarious to nudge each other onto the busy highways in front of horse-drawn carts and carriages, the drivers yelling at them for terrifying the horses. Magnus and Constantine would just laugh in return and dash suddenly away. Once, Magnus pushed Constantine in the path of a policeman on patrol, riding a stallion. To teach them a lesson the lads were seized and thrown in a jail cell to settle down, putting their fathers’ reputations on the line.
Florence, the chief of police’s only daughter, was in the same school year as Magnus and Constantine. She took a shine to them and the lads took a liking to her. She pleaded with her dad to set them free. Her father dropped the charges, under the condition that they leave their homes only go to and from school. He warned that if they continued their mischievous behaviour, they would be removed from school early and forced to fight in the army. The boys were freed from jail the day before they decided to take that different route home along the railway track.
At school, Florence had been happy to see them and hugged them, individually. They couldn’t tell who she liked the most. Sometimes, she would choose to chat to Magnus more than Constantine and other days she would talk with Constantine more than Magnus. However, the lads who had formed a brotherly bond, agreed that they would not let their feelings for Florence impede their friendship.
Florence, with her golden blonde hair full of curly locks and her red-hooded cloak, wasn’t your usual teenage schoolgirl. There was something mysterious about her, but no one could figure out what it could be. Some would say she was into witchery and others said she was a freak of nature. All the young woman did was leave her home to walk to school and then, as school finished, would stroll straight back and wouldn’t be seen until the next day.
Magnus and Constantine once spied on Florence on her trek home, as she held tightly to the basket that held her schoolbooks. She hadn’t noticed they were watching as her head was down to avoid having to speak to anyone. When she reached her house, she went straight to her chamber. The boys watched with anticipation, hoping to learn what she got up to, and all they saw was her walking around a huge object in the centre of her room. Now and then it looked as if she had thrown some herbs or plants into whatever it was. Perhaps this was soup she was putting together for her family, Florence’s mother was dying and as the next eldest female in the home, she had the duty to help feed the family during meal times. Soon they became bored watching Florence and her soup making. They left not realising that she had spotted them standing outside, gazing up into her chamber window. The only thing they had become excited about was seeing Florence remove some of her clothes, revealing her under garments.
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Crunch crunch crunch was the sound of their feet on the leaves along the pathway. In the distance they could see a shadowy figure who appeared to be sitting on the ground. As they got closer, they saw a man or boy with