NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Forks Beckons
The drive into Forks was long, gray, and drenched in mist.
Raiko sat in the backseat of the black sedan arranged by the school registrar, watching trees pass by like spectral shadows. The Washington wilderness was unlike anything she had ever seen — even in her previous life. It pulsed with nature's quiet magic, a sharp contrast to the divine thunder that constantly coiled beneath her skin.
She was still getting used to her appearance.
The reflection in the window showed her: impossibly tall, elegant, lavender eyes shimmering with residual electrostatic light. Her hair, long and violet-black, shimmered faintly like silk under the overcast sky. She had stopped trying to suppress her aura entirely — it was too deeply woven into her essence. Instead, she learned to wrap it gently around herself, veiling it unless she willed otherwise.
Forks College was a small, ivy-covered institution nestled in a sleepy town that didn't see much change — until now.
The car pulled into the circular drive. Raiko stepped out, duffel bag slung across one shoulder, umbrella in hand, uniform perfectly pressed. She was an enigma — poised and unreadable — and people noticed.
Eyes turned toward her as she entered the admissions office. Professors greeted her with polite smiles. Students whispered.
It wasn't just her beauty. It was something else — something ancient. A hum in the air. A pressure in the lungs. A tingling on the skin.
The first to truly see her was Alice Cullen.
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Alice stood at the edge of the courtyard, half-listening to Jasper talk about an upcoming campus festival. Her gaze drifted — as it always did — toward the strange. The moment Raiko stepped onto campus, Alice stiffened.
She saw her.
Not just physically. Her vision spiraled. Fragmented. Past, future, and something else — something divine — collided. For the first time in decades, Alice's foresight fractured.
She dropped her coffee cup.
"Ali?" Jasper asked, concerned.
"I… I'm fine," she said, brushing past him, walking toward the transfer student who shouldn't exist.
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Raiko found her first class — advanced metaphysics and symbolism — already buzzing. She walked past rows of students and took a seat by the window. She didn't expect company.
But fate insisted.
"Mind if I sit here?"
Raiko looked up, and it was Alice.
Short, radiant, eyes like honey with sunlight trapped inside.
"You may," Raiko said calmly, motioning to the seat.
Alice smiled. "I'm Alice."
"Raiko," she replied.
There was a pause. A flicker. A pulse. Something ancient stirred between them, and neither could name it yet.
"You're not from here, are you?" Alice asked, tilting her head.
"Does it show?"
Alice chuckled. "Only in the way you move like the world owes you reverence."
Raiko blinked. Then… laughed. Softly. Honestly.
It was the first time she had done so in this world.
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Rosalie Hale watched all this from the rooftop of the east building.
She saw Alice smile. Laugh. And she saw the stranger — this tall, quiet, beautiful girl — exude a stillness that wasn't human.
"Trouble," she murmured.
Emmett raised an eyebrow beside her. "What kind of trouble?"
"The ancient kind."
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By the end of the day, Raiko had left a quiet storm in her wake.
Half the student body wanted to know her, and the other half were too intimidated to try.
Professors praised her insight. Students noticed how technology flickered when she walked by. Phones glitched. Lights dimmed. Air shivered.
That night, alone in her apartment, Raiko stood in front of the mirror.
"Why this world?" she whispered. "Why now?"
She raised her hand.
A crackle of electricity shimmered across her fingertips. She closed her fist. Shut the power away.
Then, her phone buzzed.
A message.
From an unknown number.
> "You shimmer like a storm, but I see the loneliness in your eyes. Welcome to Forks. – Alice"
Raiko stared.
And slowly, a smile ghosted across her lips.
Alice.
Yes.
Forks was about to change forever, and so was she.