Soulless – Chapter One

Disclaimer: Everything Twilight belongs to Ms Meyer.

The amazing Rob's Sleeptalker and Eternally Cullen helped me with this chapter and I am so grateful for their help.

I was quickly starting to get very pissed off, as I stood freezing to death outside the club waiting for the security guard to finish studying his list.

"I'm really sorry young lady, but your name isn't on my list," he muttered whilst still looking through the pages on his clipboard.

"But I won the competition on their fan page, look I have the email here," I replied, thrusting my piece of now very crumpled paper towards him.

Without even looking at me or the paper, he replied. "Look, I'm very sorry Miss but you need to move along now."

"No, you look," I shouted back. "I have proof here that I've won the god damn competition, so you could at least have the courtesy to take a look at it and then get someone who can sort this out."

My little temper tantrum seemed to get his attention and he finally looked down at me and roughly grabbed the paper from me. He read through the short email message before turning away from me, and saying something that I couldn't hear into his radio. I really hoped he wasn't calling security. He quickly turned back to me and looked down on me making me feel even smaller and I braced myself for the onslaught.

"If you'll step to the side and wait, someone from the fan club will be out shortly to speak to you."

Before I had chance to reply he took my arm and guided me over to a chair, and told me to sit and wait. I pulled my coat a bit tighter around myself and shivered; I really was starting to wish I'd not bothered coming at all.
When my friend Angela had told me she had entered our names into a competition to win VIP tickets to see the amazing band Rift, I had not taken much notice. I figured the chance of actually winning was slim to none. In fact I had forgotten all about it until the email had arrived this morning. But strangely, the email said that the VIP ticket was for just one person. I had thought that these things were usually for two people, you know the winner and a friend.

I was brought out of my musings by the security guard walking towards me with a gorgeous guy about my age next to him. I smiled at the guy thinking he must be from the fan club, but the guard motioned him to sit on the chair next to me. He turned to me and smiled, and I felt an embarrassing flush run up my neck and onto my cheeks.

"Hey, I'm Edward," he said. When I didn't reply he continued. "I heard the way that guard spoke to you and it was out of line."

I was really confused now, who was this guy? He must have noticed my confused expression, as he stared to explain further.

"I was stood behind you in the queue, so I heard what he said." He paused for a moment before adding with a smile.

"I seem to be part of the mix up too, as I'm not on the list either." He was holding a similar bit of paper to me in his hand, which I presumed was his email.

I laughed nervously and mumbled "Ummmm, yeah."

God I was smooth. I slumped down further in my chair. Could this night get any worse? I was stuck outside in the wet cold night, I couldn't feel my toes and I had a fuck hot guy next to me, and apparently I had now become a mute.

I let my long brown hair fall around my face before trying to sneak a look to my side - of course he caught me looking and laughed. I felt him lean forward, the chair creaking as he did. I spied through strands of my hair, and I could see he was trying to get a better look at my face.

"So you are supposed to have won this competition too then?". He asked with a mischievous grin. I saw his finger and thumb reach for a strand of my hair and he gave it a gentle tug to try and get me to look up. When his action worked and I looked up at him his face lit up in a huge grin.

"Yep." I replied, lamely waving my email at him.

Before either of us had chance to say anything else, we both noticed a young girl walking towards us. I looked up, hoping this was going to get sorted as I was starting to shiver, and my toes hurt they were so cold.

"Ok folks, can I have a look at these emails please," she asked.

We both handed over our bits of paper, and she looked at them with a frown playing across her face. This was not a good sign I decided.

"I'm really sorry guys, but I don't know anything about this competition."

She looked sympathetic adding a shrug too. We both stared at her blankly, finally Edward spoke.

"Are you sure? I mean do you need to show the emails to someone?"

"I'm really sorry but I'm head of the fan club and this isn't an email address that belongs to us."

She paused, before adding, "I think you have both been scammed, but I cannot think why someone would do this!"

"Oh!" I managed to say.

"Yeah, so I'm really sorry but we aren't giving out backstage passes, and the venue is fully booked, so….." she trailed off.

"Oh yeah, don't worry about it, totally understand," I said getting up quickly, feeling extremely embarrassed.

I walked away quickly in the direction of my truck feeling very pissed off. I could hear the guy and the girl from the fan club talking in the distance. It sounded like she was asking him out, I wished I had the confidence to do something like that. Not that a guy as good looking as him would be interested in me. I wasn't bad looking but not a stunner either, and I always felt shy and awkward in social situations. I was also a bit of a geek; I would rather have my nose in a book than watching the latest movie or surfing the net.

As the concert was sold out there had been no parking nearby, so I had quite a trek ahead of me to get back to my truck. Suddenly, I became aware of someone behind me, and I peeked over my shoulder nervously. I got a rush of heat to my cheeks and a flutter in my chest when I saw that it was the guy from outside the concert and he was running to catch up with me. When he got to my side he stopped and gave me a panty dropping crooked smile. I felt my face flush more and I dropped my eyes to the floor and let me hair fall forward, blocking his view of my embarrassingly red cheeks.

"Hey, I don't think you told me your name," he said with a smile. When I didn't immediately answer he carried on speaking.

"Look I'm not a weird stalker guy or anything I promise. I just thought that seen as we are both free now this evening that you might want to go and grab something to eat or a drink or something. I promise we will go somewhere busy and well lit," he added with a laugh.

Edward showed me his watch. "Look, it's not even eight-forty yet."
I stopped and looked up at him. He did look genuine, and I suppose that as long as we went somewhere public I would be okay. Past experiences had made me wary and untrusting of men.

"Okay, there is a nice coffee shop just down the block, maybe we could go there," I finally answered.

The smile he gave me lit up his whole face, and I couldn't help but smile back, even though I was still extremely nervous.

"That sounds perfect," he answered, before adding. "Do you live in Port Angeles then?"

"Yeah, I live just outside of town."

We began to walk again and I led us in the direction of my favourite

coffee shop. It was inside a lovely book shop that I often went to when I wanted to get out of the house. The owner was a lovely old woman that never said anything when I spent hours in there reading, usually only buying one drink and rarely buying a book as I couldn't afford any. I would spend hours in there, getting lost in one of my favourite novels.
The rather awkward silence between us continued, and I desperately tried to think of something to say to him. But before I could, he spoke again.

"So are you going to tell me your name or do I just have to guess?" His smirk on full power now.

"Bella, its Bella," I replied.

"Lovely to meet you Bella, I'm Edward." He genuinely looked happy to meet me, and I wanted to squeal like a cheerleader that he had made the effort to make sure I knew his name.

"Yeah, you too Edward." God I liked the way his name sounded when I said it. I chanced a peek to the side to see he was looking at me with an expression that I couldn't read.

"So it's just here. The coffee shop that is," I mumbled whilst pointing to the shop front just ahead, feeling embarrassed once again.

Bookworms was a quaint old fashioned book shop. I imagined the shop front must have been the same for the past fifty years. In fact, I didn't think the windows had been cleaned in that time either. The shop front had two massive dusty windows that were full of old book, and a good few cobwebs with a massive old fashioned wood door between them. The whole of the shop front was painted a glossy black, but the paint was old and peeling in many places. The word 'Bookworms' was written in large gold letters above the door.

I pushed the large heavy door open and the bell above it chimed. This was my sanctuary, and a lovely calm feeling came over me as soon as I stepped in the door. The aromatic smell of fresh coffee and muffins hit me, and my stomach rumbled in anticipation. I smiled and turned to Edward.

"Well, this is it. It's nothing fancy, but I love it here." I stated smiling.
I watched Edward look around and take in the shop.

"It's kinda cool actually, I like it." He smiled at me obviously approving in my choice.

At the back of the little shop were five small tables, each with two chairs pushed under. I led us towards them and before I could sit down Edward pulled out one of the chairs for me. When I looked at him with a surprised expression he said, "There are still gentlemen around you know!"

I sat down and he sat in the chair opposite me and leaned on the table towards me.

"What would you recommend?" He asked, looking into my eyes in a way that unnerved me a little. His eyes were the most beautiful and unusual shade of green.

"I don't drink much coffee; I usually have a hot chocolate, but I can definitely recommend that," I answered, with an embarrassing little giggle. God, I just got smoother by the minute.

"Okay, hot chocolate it is then, although I don't think I've had one of those since I was kid."

"The muffins are really nice too. If you're hungry that is!"

"Okay two hot chocolates and two muffins coming up," he said as he stood up. "Which type of muffin would you like? It looks like there's a few left."

"I quite like the vanilla ones with chocolate chunks. They have this smell to them which is so..." I realized I was rambling and that Edward was just staring at me. "Um, yeah the vanilla one please." I added with a shy smile.

Edward smiled at me before heading over to the counter.

As he went to order I thought about how relaxed I felt with him. I was usually uncomfortable and apprehensive around men. I took the opportunity to look at him properly whilst his back was to me. He was tall, maybe a little over six foot, the opposite of my short five-foot-four stature. He had a mop of messy, unruly bronze hair on his head, which I noticed he ran his hands through almost constantly. He was lean, but not overly skinny and looked like he had a nice toned body hiding under his hoody. I felt my face flush again as I ran my eyes over his body, and thought about how damn sexy he was.

My toes were still frozen, so I took off my boots and rubbed my hands over my poor dumb feet, before tucking them both to the side underneath myself on the comfy chair.

"Comfy!" Edward smirked before putting the tray down on the table.
I smiled shyly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm still frozen from standing outside that damn club for so long!" I answered placing my hands gratefully around the warm cup.

"That is so weird that we both got scammed like that. I cannot for the life of me understand what someone would have to gain from sending those emails," Edward said with a shrug.

"I know, I wonder if many more people turned up like us?"

"Mmmm, I wondered that too. There are some strange people in this world though," he added.

The bell above the door chimed again and I looked towards the door automatically. When I saw who had come in I leaned towards Edward to whisper hoping I wouldn't be heard. "And there's one now."

Edward's eyes followed in the direction I was looking, and he saw the strange man I was talking about. I'd seen this guy several times lately, a few times in here and once in the grocery store I shopped at. He had jet black long hair that he wore slicked back. He always looked deathly pale, and wore heavy rimmed dark glasses. He dressed strange too. Today he was wearing a long black velvet coat that almost went to his toes, making him look like a character from a bad vampire movie.

Edward laughed. "Yeah, he's a bit of an odd one isn't he!"

I joined in his laughter, enjoying the warm feeling that spread through my body. It had been a long time since I had laughed like this, and felt so young and carefree. I leaned both elbows on the table, and took a slow sip of my heavenly drink.

"So are you from around here too?" I asked, feeling more confident by the minute.

"Yes, I've lived in Port Angeles all my life," he stated.

"I definitely haven't seen you around school, so I'm guessing you go to or did go to Lincoln?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I go to Port Angeles High by the way. Well I did, I just graduated this year."

"Same here," Edward added with a smile.

"Oh cool, so are you in college now?"

"No I work in a music shop," he stated simply. He didn't seem to want to add any more information so I didn't ask.

"No college for me either, I'm still looking for a job though."

"What would you like to do?" he asked.

"I don't know really, maybe that's the problem... and the fact that I go to pieces during interviews and always come across as a total idiot." I sighed sadly.

"Well you seem like a lovely person, so I'm sure you'll find something," he said kindly.

"Thanks."

We sat talking in the coffee shop for over an hour. The conversation flowed easily, and I discovered that we shared a lot of the same interests and views. I glanced around and realised that the shop was empty apart from us. I looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that the shop would be closing in ten minutes.

"So, ummm, the shop closes soon," I said, feeling a little awkward once again. I desperately hoped that he wanted to see me again.

"Can I have your number?" He asked suddenly.
I wanted to fist pump the air and shout "Yes!", I was so overjoyed. I was incapable of playing it cool, so I let a huge beam light up my face.

"Yes, I'd like that a lot," I answered.

We both took out our phones and swapped numbers.

"I'd like to walk you to your car, if that's okay!" Edward asked.

"Yeah, that's really kind of you thank you," I said whilst pushing my now toasty warm feet back into my boots.

As we walked out of the door and back onto the street my mind was working overtime. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he would try and kiss me when we said goodbye. The thought thrilled and terrified me both at the same time.

"I'm just parked up this way," I said pointing up the street.

The streets were deserted and I was very pleased that I had Edward with me. We had been walking for only a few minutes when suddenly a figure jumped out of a shop doorway straight into our path. I didn't even have chance to think or respond before the world went black.

A/N – So what do you think? Hope you enjoyed and are eager for more.

Please review it will make me write faster and I'll sent all those that do hit review a sneak peak at Chapter 2

I am going to try and a post once a week but as you know life does get in the way sometimes.