A/N: This is not like anything else I've written. This story is from the darkest part of my mind, so please don't read this if you are normal. It is violent, kind of inappropriate, and fundamentally messed up. You have been warned.

Lauren tripped Isabella on her way out of the schoolhouse. Her bag fell, and her pencils and paper spilled onto the dirt road. They laughed and walked away, swishing their hips in a way that would get them switched at home. Lauren and Jessica were always mean to Isabella because while she was good and got to sit at the front of the room, they were often being punished and had to sit at the back of the room where it was cold. As they walked home, it got darker. It was closer to winter, and twilight came earlier than before. It was just a normal day, but it was also the day she heard the voice that would change her life forever.

The voice was sweetly wrapped around his dangerous words, spinning through the air and dulling her senses to everything except... him. "Come little children, I'll take thee away...into a land of enchantment. Come little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of shadows." The other girls ran, laughing joyfully, into the woods, but Isabella stopped for a moment. She wasn't a naughty girl, and she remembered every lesson and warning that Papa had given her. "Follow, sweet children, I'll show thee the way..." she turned and ran as fast as she could into the forest.

She was at the back of the line when they reached the castle. The warm smell of a feast wafted alluringly in the cold October air.

Once inside, they found the dining hall almost immediately. Roasted turkeys, vines of grapes, sparkling crystal glasses of apple cider, and huge beautiful cakes decorated a long table. The entire room was lit by a giant, beautiful chandelier. Her mouth watered. Everyone ran to the table and began stuffing their faces. Isabella stopped for a moment... could the food be poisoned? Her stomach growled and she looked to the other girls eating. She gave up then and sat down at a corner spot and put a leg of turkey, and a handful of grapes on her fancy plate. Surely being poisoned was better than starving to death. It all looked so strange to Isabella, who so rarely had the food to eat off of such utensils.

She lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip of it. Even the wealthy would not have tasted such delicious cider. It was crisp, and sweet, and perfectly spiced. She gently cut small pieces of meat on her plate and ate them, trying not to act like the starving child she was. Everything was so amazing, but there was one thing missing: the voice. The beautiful, raspy, voice that had sang for her to follow.

When he walked in, the room became silent. It was the automatic feeling of dread and fascination that thickened in the air like someone could choke on it. It was the way the candles in the chandelier almost flickered out, until they remembered who they were working for.

"Hello," he said quietly, but there was more power in that one word than in the speeches of any lord.

"Hi, Mister," one brave girl spoke up. "Thank you for the food."

"You're quite welcome, Miss Katie." The girl gasped, and Isabella narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"I'm Edward," he announced to the dumbfounded girls. All the girls mumbled their greetings and thanks. Isabella stared at his face, and didn't feel that guilty because he was looking at everyone else and she probably wouldn't get caught. Suddenly, however, his eyes met her's in disbelief. She resisted the urge to duck her head to hide behind her hair, and looked into his pretty gold eyes.

"What's your name, dear?" The other girls sighed with envy. "Oh, Isabella, forgive me," he acted as if he had just remembered. She listened, baffled, as he moved along the line, saying everyone's names as if they were old friends. The strangest part, though, was that no one else was afraid.

After Edward had done this, he sat down in a gold and black throne at the front of the room, sipping his dark wine and watching the girls with a funny look in his eyes. Everyone else chattered joyfully about how handsome, and how polite, and how wealthy he was, but Isabella just ate her food, and looked around with wide eyes.

That night they were each directed to a different room, more elegant than they had seen in their lives. Isabella looked around her room with wide eyes. The walls were crimson and the covers on her bed were black silk. The posts of her four-poster bed were made of dark cherry wood. Mama and Papa would be very worried that she was gone. She considered going to bed then, she was suddenly quite tired, but instead determined she would find out what Edward was, and why he had put a spell on her classmates.

Isabella crept down the hallway, looking at the strange artwork that filled the huge gold frames on the wall. Paintings of beautiful mermaids making wanton faces led to ships at sea that crashed into jagged rocks and then to mermaids with ugly faces swarming the bloody water. She shuddered as she recalled the legends of these creatures. Sirens, she remembered, walking a little faster. She tried not to look at the paintings after that.

She wandered for a long time. Left, she suddenly heard as if a beautiful, raspy voice had spoken into her ear. She turned around, gasping, but there was no one there. Slowly, she turned back around and looked left. There was a tall set of french doors. She went up to them and nervously put her hands on the doors. Before she even pushed, the doors opened, creaking loudly. She pulled her hands back, startled.

Looking in, she saw that the room she had found was indeed a library. She tentatively walked inside. The bookshelves were so tall... much taller than the ones at the school. She tried to think of what creatures she had learned about from her Papa's crazy friend Billy. There were Sirens, of course, but those were only women, and she wasn't in a ship.

She walked through the library, unsure where to start. 'Creatures' begins with 'C', she thought, looking to the sides of the tall shelves for the letters. There are no letters on the shelves, but surely C is near the front. She looked at the titles of the books, always putting them back when they weren't what she was looking for.

She had nearly given up when a black book with gold trim caught her eye. She approached it and pulled it down. It was really heavy, and cold to the touch. She opened it, ignoring the sting in her hand the brief touch delivered. Creatures of the Night, it read. She shivered, and then turned the page.

That night Edward went to the library and gently picked the sleeping girl up. "A curious one," he sighed happily. "You'll like it here, inquisitive little kitten."