Chapter 1: The Quiet Before the Storm
Isabella Swan had always considered herself a quiet person. She preferred the comfort of solitude, the silence of the forest, and the rhythm of rainfall tapping gently against windows. Her life, up until now, had been a series of predictable days spent in Phoenix—where the sun always shone too brightly, and people always seemed too loud. But that was before she was sent to Forks, Washington, to live with her father. A decision she had reluctantly agreed to, hoping the change would offer her some peace after the chaos of her mother's new life with her stepfather.
The small town was exactly what she had expected: damp, dreary, and shrouded in mist. She could already feel the weight of the town's isolation pressing down on her, making everything feel distant and surreal. The few people who lived here seemed to move at their own slow pace, and Isabella quickly learned to keep her head down and stay unnoticed.
It was her first day at the local high school, and though she had braced herself for the stares and whispers of a newcomer, she hadn't anticipated the sudden, inexplicable pull she would feel when she laid eyes on him.
Edward Cullen.
He sat in the cafeteria, his presence so magnetic that it was almost as if the room had shifted its focus entirely to him. He was unlike anyone she had ever seen—tall and impossibly handsome, with pale skin that gleamed like marble in the weak sunlight. His golden eyes glinted with an intelligence that seemed far older than his years, and yet there was something distant in his gaze. His family—if they could be called that—sat with him, all equally beautiful, equally strange.
But it wasn't just his appearance that unsettled Bella. It was the way he seemed to move through the world as if untouched by it. There was a stillness in him, a presence that felt as if he existed outside the normal flow of time. It was disorienting, and yet Bella couldn't look away.
As she sat at an empty table, trying to eat her lunch and ignore the flurry of thoughts racing through her mind, she noticed that his gaze flickered toward her. It was brief—almost imperceptible—but it sent a shock of warmth through her chest.
Why was he looking at her?
The question lingered, unanswered, as the rest of the school day passed in a blur of awkward introductions and strained conversations. But through it all, Bella's thoughts kept returning to him. Edward Cullen. There was something about him, something that drew her in and made her feel both anxious and intrigued.
After school, as Bella made her way to the parking lot to meet her father—Charlie—she spotted him again. This time, he was leaning against his sleek, silver car, talking to his family. But his eyes were fixed on her once more, his gaze intense and unyielding, as if he were studying her every move.
Bella swallowed hard, her pulse quickening. She couldn't explain it, but something about him felt...dangerous. And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that her life was about to change in ways she couldn't even begin to understand.