Hi. This is my new Twilight fic which is an Emmett / OC story. I'll be updating this story regularly, mainly every two weeks on Monday.

I've written more than this chapter (actually I'm already at chapter 12) but this is a slow writing process and I wanted to be able to keep updating regularly. There's nothing as annoying as finding a good story that doesn't get updated for months. So I'm not doing that to you.

Hope you like the story.

Chapter 1

I was only fourteen years old when I saw him for the first time. He had introduced himself as Lord Beckett to my father but he told me to call him Archie. It felt almost wrong to be all alone with this gorgeous man and my father would punish me severely if he ever found out. But Archie promised me he wouldn't, and I believed him.

There was a fancy party going on and my entire family was invited. My mother had been running from one room to the other the entire afternoon. My eldest sister had just turned eighteen and my mother was hoping to find her a future husband tonight. My sister Daphne wore a beautiful flowing gown with lots of ruffles that I was very jealous of. I had to wear a simple dress and when I asked my mother why I couldn't wear something as magnificent as my sister, she told me I was too young for that, that I was merely a child.

Ever since my sister had developed a chest, she had been my mother's favourite. My mother longed to wed all her children to good matches so that my family could extent its power to other people. She was the shallowest woman I had ever met. And all her children were alike. My oldest brother Oliver had found a wife three years ago. She was beautiful, came from a wealthy family and that had been his only criteria. My other brother, William was sixteen and looked up to my father as if he was the greatest man on the planet. He wasn't. My father was a brute and could never find a kind word to say about anyone, not even his wife. The only person I did care about to a certain extent was my youngest brother of nine, Charles, but even then I could already see how deep my family had their hooks in him. Every day he became more and more like the other people in my family where it would eventually come to the point I could no longer call him my favourite. The only person I actually had respect for in this family, was myself.

I wasn't all that bitter that I couldn't see the good in my family as well. I saw the way my mother tucked in Charles at night and gave him a loveable kiss on the forehead. I saw how my sister smiled every time the butcher's son gave her a compliment. I witnessed how my father took the time to teach Oliver everything he knew about banking. I saw how William always helped out the oldest woman in our town because she no longer had anyone to take care of her. But even though I saw all those things I couldn't help but feel trapped in their little superficial world, fearing I would stay there my whole life.

I had been afraid that surrounded by all these people who only cared about wealth, I would turn out like them. It had been the greatest fear to ever live in my heart but Archie had told me people could not make me into something I am not without my permission.

The party was boring. All the men talked about was business, all the women did was gossip, all the girls cared about was which of the handsome boys in the room they would one day wed and all the boys wanted was the girls' attention. I didn't fit in any of those categories. What I wanted was to have a conversation with a smart person, a sincere one, someone who wasn't afraid to speak his mind and drop all the pretences that came with this life. I had never met such a person.

When the people stopped talking, I looked up. They were all staring at a figure entering the room. It was a man, though he seemed to not belong here. He was too beautiful for this place. I stared at him in awe, as did all the other people. He had long shiny blond hair and his skin was as pale as snow. Even from where I stood I could tell he had piercing eyes that made it impossible to look away. Even at my age I felt this inexplicable need for him to like me. And even though every person in the room was gaping at this gorgeous man, he looked at me.

I almost gasped out loud when I saw the colour of his eyes. They were red, like blood. I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. Even though I kept thinking in the back of my mind that this was highly inappropriate, I couldn't not look at him. Eventually he walked further into the room and was no longer staring back at me. The way he walked was even more graceful than the most elegant woman in the room, yet there was still something about it that demanded respect. For the rest of the evening I stared at him. I stared when he spoke business with my father, I stared when some of the women were flocking around him, I stared when he kindly refused to dance with my sister and I stared when he walked outside for some fresh air.

I thought it might have been my imagination but I thought he had given me a look before stepping outside on the balcony. A look that stated he wanted me to follow him. Women weren't allowed to be all alone with a man but I could not see the danger of it. This man looked thirty years old and like my mother had told me, I was merely a child. He could be my father and fathers do not hurt children. After deliberating for a few minutes, I decided to go with my instincts and followed him outside. When I got to the balcony, he wasn't there. How could that be? He had been here the entire time since I didn't see him enter again and yet I was standing here all alone.

I turned around in fright when I heard the doors to the balcony close behind me. He stood there and looked even more beautiful in the moonlight. It was as if he belonged to be in the night, a creature of the darkness I would learn later on.

"Have you never been taught that it is rude to stare?" He asked but he didn't seem angry about it.

I was distracted by his voice. It sounded like music and I would have done anything, said anything to hear it again.

"I'm sorry, Sir." I told him but I wasn't. Staring at him had given me the greatest satisfaction I had experienced so far.

"I don't think you are."

How could he know such a thing? My breath stocked. I wanted to tell him that I truly was sorry but then I would be lying again and somehow he'd know that.

"What is your name?" He asked while stepping closer.

"Laurence." I told him shyly.

Somehow I had known he did not care for my last name or who my family was, he just wanted a name to go with my face. I didn't care about his last name either. Lord Beckett could be anyone but this man needed a name. I needed a name to dream about him tonight and dream of him I would.

"Laurence." He repeated while stroking my face with his hand.

His hand was cold, like ice and somehow I didn't mind. His touch made me shiver but I did not want him to pull away his hand. It felt different than when my mother did it. Much, much better.

"Why did you follow me out here?" He asked me while stroking the red curls around my face.

"I wanted some air." I lied, he knew.

"I don't like liars, Laurence." He said while gripping my hair a little too hard to remain pleasant. I let out a little shriek.

"Why don't you tell me the real reason? I promise you I won't get mad."

"I was...fascinated." I admitted.

I really was. There was something so different about this man that I couldn't help but wanting to find out. At my response, he smiled. It wasn't a warm one, rather cold but it just drew me in even more. Who was this man?

"By what, Laurence?"

He stood even closer to me now, still holding on to my hair but gentler now, pleasant. He smelled my hair it seemed and I didn't even mind. I would let this man do anything to me as long as he stayed this close to me, talking to me, rolling my name of his tongue.

"You." I breathed out.

The answer didn't seem elaborate enough because he let go of me and looked down on me with an expecting gaze. I could feel the blush on my cheeks when I uttered the words.

"You seem so different, from everyone else here. Better, stronger, without pretences." I whispered but he still heard me.

"I am different." He told me. "But so are you, Laurence. You don't fit here just as much as I don't."

He was right about me not belonging here but the way he said it made it sound like we had something in common. I found it hard to believe that me and the beautiful man in front of me were similar in any way.

"Why not?" I asked him.

Maybe he knew why I was so different from all the people who surrounded me. Maybe he could tell me why I always wanted more than the life they all seemed so content with. Maybe I had followed him because he could give me those answers.

"You are meant for greater things than what you have now."

I stared at him with my big brown eyes. I hoped with whole of my heart that he was right. That there was something in the world that could give me what I wanted.

"There are things in this world beyond your wildest imagination, Laurence. An entire world kept from you, a world you would fit in perfectly. My world."

I shivered when he whispered those words in my ear. The promise of belonging with this man was enough to make me give him everything he wanted. He pulled on my hair lightly so that my head would fall back a little. I let out a small groan from the pain but he paid no attention to it. He lowered his mouth to my neck and placed his lips there in a kiss that made me shiver.

"How old are you, Laurence?" He whispered to me.

"Fourteen." I stuttered.

I immediately regretted telling him that for he pulled away and I was left without his embrace. Of course I was too young for this man, a man that could have any woman he would want. I felt ashamed for even thinking he would want me. I didn't dare look up at him so instead I looked at the ground. I shivered when I felt his cold hand lift up my chin after a while and I stared back in those red eyes.

"That's the beauty about aging, you can be as old as I want you to be."

I didn't understand what he meant by that but I figured my age didn't matter to him that much.

"If you could be any age forever, what would that be?"

"Eighteen." I responded immediately, having my sister's recent birthday in mind and I remembered my mother saying eighteen was the most beautiful age.

"Eighteen, what a wonderful choice. So it will be." He told me as if we had just made an agreement and to seal the deal he softly pressed his lips against mine.

When I opened my eyes again, he was gone. All there was left was the cold sensation on my lips and the sweet memory of him. I didn't even know his name.

When we got home from the party my father had told us how he hoped Lord Beckett would want my sister's hand in marriage. But when I went upstairs there was a note lying on my bed. It said his name was Archie and we would meet again. I felt in heaven. This beautiful man seemed to find me interesting enough to talk to me and kiss me. I touched my lips to see if they were still cold but my warmth had already spread to them. In the following days the news that Lord Beckett had disappeared had reached the ears of my family and thus mine as well. I was devastated. The beautiful man I would not meet again and I would be trapped in this world forever. Years went by and though I had not forgotten about him, I had moved on with my life.

I would be eighteen in a few days and my mother was planning my engagement party. I had become rather beautiful if I may say so myself. My red hair had become darker and had a more beautiful shine to it now. My body was that of a woman now and my mother called it my greatest asset. I had blushed when my father told me how many young men had come to him, asking for my hand in marriage. I couldn't help but secretly still be waiting for that beautiful man I had met such a long time ago. Eventually my parents had decided for me to wed Frederick Burkham, the son of a wealthy man. Frederick was a nice man and easy on the eyes but he was normal and over the years my dislike of the ordinary had only increased. I wanted something extraordinary in my life and it looked like I would never have it.

My mother had pulled a gown over my head, similar to the one Daphne wore all those years ago that had made me green with envy. I loved this beautiful gown as well and was glad to wear something a little more special for once. I had been twirling around in my room when my father had called me down, saying the guests were arriving. It was a small party since my father only wanted people who mattered to come. Frederick had told me how nice I looked but since he had already said the same thing to three other girls, it held no meaning to me. I would have been more pleased if he said I was ugly. At least that way I would have stood out to him and standing out was what I wanted. I wanted people to acknowledge the fact that I was different, that I was extraordinary.

After an hour of conversing with people I didn't like about things that didn't interest me, I had snuck outside for some fresh air and a moment to clear my head. I had been sipping a glass of wine when I heard it. I couldn't pinpoint what the sound was exactly but it had come from the large shed behind my house. The smartest and most sensible thing to do would be to quickly enter the house but like I said, I didn't like normal so I approached the shed. I opened the door to reveal an emptiness. Where was the source of the sound?

"Is anybody there?" I asked.

But like expected, no answer came. I took a step inside and since nothing happened, I walked to the middle of the shed. It was rather large and there were so many dark places someone could be hiding. It was more like a barn really, one with two floors. Maybe there was someone on the second one. Climbing the stairs I couldn't help but feel there was something watching me.

Coming upstairs I thought I saw something moving in the far corner. Foolish as I was, I approached it. I couldn't see what was there in front of me but I still kept walking. My foot got caught in something and I fell flat on the wooden floor. I groaned, trying to get up. And when I opened my eyes after closing them to brace me for the fall, I looked straight in the eyes of Frederick's sister. Her dead eyes. I wanted to scream bloody murder but before I could, a hand pulled me to my feet and put the other one on my mouth. I was looking at the man that had been the main subject of my dreams for years now. The beautiful man with the red eyes. Archie.

"You will be the crown jewel." He whispered to me before lowering his mouth to my neck.

There had been a time I craved to feel those lips and those hands again but this was nothing like my memory. It wasn't gentle, neither was it pleasant. The way he yanked my head back by my hair brought tears to my eyes. When his teeth pierced my skin, they rolled down my cheeks. This wasn't what I had wanted. He had promised me something new, something special, something wonderful. This wasn't it. There was only pain now. It had started in my neck but slowly spread to my entire body and soon there was a painful stinging over my entire body. I screamed and clawed at his back but he didn't let go. This was it. I was going to die. The beautiful man was killing me.

Suddenly he pulled back and my body was dropped to the floor. I couldn't get up anymore. I couldn't do anything but scream for him to make the pain stop. He didn't. He just stood there, watching me crawl on the floor in overwhelming pain. The stinging had intensified and it was now a burning that went through my entire body. I yelled at him to make it stop, soon I was begging him to kill me. It would last for three days.