Into the Storm | twilight au
• emmett cullen x fem.OC!(isabella swan's sister)
Chapter 1: The Scent of Rain
Forks, Washington; was a town drowning in its own atmosphere. While my sister Isabella Swan or AKA Bella viewed the constant, suffocating blanket of gray clouds as a personal affront, I found it to be a sanctuary. The rain was a curtain that hid the world, and by extension, hid me.
We had moved back in with Charlie a few weeks ago. Bella had acclimated with surprising speed, drawing the attention of half male population at forks High School like a magnet. I, on the other hand, had immediately fallen ill. My immune system had always been fragile, and the sudden shift in climate triggered a vicious bout of sinusitis that settled deep behind my cheekbones and refused to leave.
I spent my first weeks in Forks wrapped in a quilt on the faded floral sofa in Charlie’s living room, surrounded by crumpled tissues, sketchbooks, and empty mugs of chamomile tea.
"You're sure you don't need a doctor, Lia?" Charlie asked for the hundredth time. He stood awkwardly in the doorway of the living room, his police cruiser keys jingling in his hand. He loved us, but living with two teenage daughters terrified him on a fundamental level.
"I'm fine, Dad. Just need rest," I rasped, my voice sounding like sandpaper. "It's finally breaking. I think I can go to school on Monday."
Charlie looked relieved. "Good. Good. Bella says you're missing a lot of geometry. I don't want you falling behind."
When Charlie left for his shift, the house fell into a profound silence, save for the rhythmic drumming of rain against the windowpanes. I pulled my sketchbook onto my lap. My pencils were smudged with charcoal. For the past week, I had been drawing storms—violent, chaotic squalls ripping through ancient pine trees. It was the only way I could expel the restless energy building up inside my chest.
The front door banged open, letting in a gust of freezing wind and my sister. Bella shook her umbrella out on the porch before stepping inside, her cheeks flushed.
"Hey," she said, dropping her backpack with a heavy thud. "You look slightly less like a zombie today."
"Thanks," I murmured, offering a small, tired smile. "How was school?"
Bella’s eyes lit up, a subtle but undeniable spark igniting in her brown eyes. It was a look I was becoming intimately familiar with. "It was... interesting."
She sat on the edge of the coffee table, leaning in. "Edward actually talked to me today. Like, really talked to me. He's so frustrating, Lia. One minute he looks at me like he wants to kill me, and the next he’s saving me from being crushed by Tyler's van."
I paused my sketching, my brow furrowing. "Wait, what van?"
Bella waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, it was nothing. Black ice. But Edward...he's just impossible to figure out."
She launched into a detailed, slightly obsessive recount of her interactions with Edward Cullen. I listened quietly, my green eyes fixed on her animated face. Bella had mentioned the Cullens before. Dr. Carlisle Cullen's adopted children. They were the town's resident enigma. Beautiful, aloof, and tightly knit.
"What about the others?" I asked, pulling my knees to my chest. "Do they talk to anyone?"
"Not really," Bella said, playing with a loose thread on her sweater. "Alice is... eccentric. Jasper looks like he's in physical pain most of the time. And Rosalie and Emmett, they're always together. Not like dating together, but they just sort of orbit each other. I think they just prefer each other's company to the rest of the school. Rosalie is gorgeous, but she glares at everyone. And Emmett is just...huge."
Huge. It was an abstract concept. I had no face to attach to the name, only the vague impression of a closed-off, impossibly beautiful family.
"Well," I said softly, looking back out the rain-streaked window. "I guess I'll finally get to see these mythical creatures on Monday."
The noise of the Forks High. School cafeteria was a physical assault.
After a morning spent navigating unfamiliar hallways, dodging overly enthusiastic attempts at conversation from a boy named Mike Newton -I guess- and keeping my head down in History, the cafeteria felt like stepping into a gladiatorial arena.
I clutched my plastic tray—holding nothing but a limp salad and an apple—so tightly my knuckles white. My wavy, light brown hair fell forward, acting as a shield for my face. I spotted Bella waving at me from a table near the center of the room. I took a deep breath, fighting the urge to retreat to the quiet sanctuary of the library, and made my way over.
"Lia, this is Jessica, Angela, and Mike," Bella introduced, gesturing to the teenagers around her.
I offered a shy, close-mouthed smile and slid into the empty seat beside Angela, a quiet girl with glasses who offered a warm, non-intrusive nod. I immediately liked her.
As Jessica launched into a breathless monologue about an upcoming dance I had zero intention of attending, I let my gaze wander. The cafeteria was a sea of flannel, denim, and damp hair. But then, as if drawn by some invisible, magnetic current, my eyes drifted to the far corner of the room.
It was as if someone had painted a masterpiece and casually dropped it into a room full of finger-paintings.
I don't think I even need to guess who they are.
The Cullens. Mythical creatures that Bella mentioned.
They sat at a secluded table, not eating, not talking. Bella hadn't exaggerated; their beauty was unnatural. Breathtaking. A girl with spiky black hair—Alice, I assumed—was arranging food on her tray into geometric patterns. Beside her sat a blond boy who looked rigidly uncomfortable. Across from them was a girl whose beauty was so aggressive it made me want to look away. Rosalie.
And then, beside Rosalie, was Emmett.
Huge didn't begin to cover it. He was a mountain of muscle wrapped in a dark, fitted Henley shirt. His skin was impossibly pale, possessing the same marble-like quality as the rest of his family. He had dark, curling hair that fell slightly into his eyes.
As if he heard my thoughts, Emmett turned his head.
The world around me simply ceased to exist. The clatter of trays, Jessica’s shrill laughter, the smell of institutional pizza—it all vanished. His eyes were a startling, liquid topaz, and as they met my doe-like green ones, his entire massive frame went completely, terrifyingly still.
It wasn't a casual glance. It was a collision.
I felt a violent jolt in my chest, right behind my ribs. The air in my lungs evaporated. Emmett’s lips parted slightly, his chest expanding as if he were taking his first breath in a century. The intensity radiating from him was a physical weight pressing down on me, dark and consuming and overwhelmingly possessive.
Look away, my brain screamed. He's staring at you. Everyone is going to notice.
But I couldn't. I was paralyzed by the gold in his eyes. For three agonizing, earth-shattering seconds, we were the only two people in the universe.
Suddenly, the beautiful blonde girl, Rosalie, touched his arm, her brow furrowed in confusion. The spell broke. Emmett blinked, the fierce intensity in his eyes shifting into something bewildered, and he looked down at his empty hands.
I practically choked on my own spit. My face burned with a humiliating, fiery heat. I quickly dropped my gaze to my untouched salad, my heart hammering against my sternum like a trapped bird.
"Lia? Are you okay?" Bella asked, her voice cutting through the ringing in my ears. "Your face is completely red."
"I'm fine," I squeaked, my voice betraying my panic. "Just... I-it's really warm here. I think I-I... Uhm... I need to go to my next class early. To get a good seat."
I stood up so fast my chair scraped loudly against the linoleum. Grabbing my bag, I fled the cafeteria, desperate to escape the phantom weight of those topaz eyes burning into my back.
This is my first fanfic series (I actually wrote this series before, but never had the chance to publish it. I decided to publish it after correcting a few spelling mistakes). I hope you enjoy reading this series.
Perhaps, after continuing this story a bit (or after this chapter), I will share some one-shots or other fanfics 🤷♀️...
