Cora Pritchard

Cora Pritchard was a character from the It Lives In The Woods book. She is first seen in Chapter 10.

Appearance
Pritchard had gray hair tied in a bun, fair skin, brown eyes, cataracts in her right eye, and burn scars on the right side of her face. She wore a green sweater underneath a black coat and a brightly patterned scarf.

Personality
Judging by the fact that she lived alone in a cottage and her dislike of Main Character and friends for trespassing, one can assume that Pritchard was reclusive and highly protective of her privacy.

Despite her initial hostility towards Main Character's friends, she was also willing to help them defeat Redfield, disproving the rumors of her eating children in the process. Nevertheless, she maintained an abrasive attitude even when helping others.

Background
Along with a number of unnamed individuals, Cora was a part of a group responsible for keeping the dark energy of Westchester, named The Power, contained to the limits of the woods. In exchange, they were rewarded supernatural powers with Cora gaining the ability to create supernatural being such as moss creatures. However, as attempting to wield too much of their ability could have disastrous consequences she was limited to creating a single construct at a time.

When one member became greedy and attempted to harness more of The Power than his human form could maintain he fused with The Power to become it's physical manifestation and consequently the undead entity of Redfield. Working together with the remaining members of the group, Cora bound Redfield to the ruined house in the woods. However, during the binding process Redfield lashed out, scarring the right side of Cora's face including her right eye.

She is mentioned in a journal entry in Chapter 4 of It Lives Beneath. The writer had ventured into the woods and had an encounter with Redfield, which terrified them. It was then that they met Cora who introduced herself as the keeper of the woods.

It Lives In The Woods

 * Chapter 1: Old Friends (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 9: Ungrateful (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 10: I'm Not Scared
 * Chapter 11: You Again
 * Chapter 12: Homecoming
 * Chapter 13: Fight or Flight (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 14: In the Dark  (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 15: Everyone Plays Together  (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 16: In Memoriam

It Lives Beneath

 * Chapter 4: In Hot Water (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 6: All Hands on Deck  (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 12: Riptide  (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 13: Hell or High Water  (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 16: Thicker than Water  (Mentioned; Determinant)

Jane & Noah
Ten years ago, Cora allegedly approached Jane and Noah and tried to grab them much to their surprise and horror. It is possible she was trying to protect them and knew they had already encountered Redfield.

Josephine
Josephine and Cora met as mentioned in the message bottles found by your character. Josephine wandered off into the woods into Westchester and encountered Redfield. Josephine fell unconscious as she was fleeing him. She woke up resting in Cora's house. Cora explains to Josephine that just like her, Josephine is a clairvoyant and the Power calls out to the ones who can hear it. Cora is the Power's keeper in the woods in Westchester and Josephine was chosen by the Power to be it's keeper in the Waters of modern Pine Springs.

It can be assumed that she is the one who taught Josephine how to use spells to better protect the Power and her loved ones, which was twisted by Astrid into becoming a sacrificial ritual. She is also the possible source of Josephine's powerful runed Marlinspike.

Trivia

 * The writing for Cora's character is inspired by the song "Famous Last Words" by My Chemical Romance.
 * Through Josephine's journal entries, she is mentioned in a number of premium scenes in It Lives Beneath.
 * Her book, Things That Live in the Woods, appears in Save the Date, Chapter 8.
 * According to Tom Sato, he once met her at the bus stop when he almost ran her over on his skateboard and she called him a "boneheaded guttersnipe."
 * She shares a surname with Nicolette and Stephen Pritchard from The Unexpected Heiress.