The Great Unknown *ON HOLD*

Chapter 1

Hey! hope you enjoy this new story i'm posting, its quite different than my other one. Let me know what you think! The first couple of chapters are filled with little hints and details, so keep note of certain things. Then comes the downward spiral......

Hope you enjoy :)

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                Does love at first sight exist?

 Lucas Flynn would testify against it. He believed love was impossible to understand at merely one glance. He knew for a fact that when he saw Charlotte Lockwood for the first time, he had to do a double-take.

When he saw her, he knew little to nothing about her. He just knew the things he had eavesdropped from the other townspeople’s conversations. She was the daughter of Flint Lockwood, a renowned freelance lawyer, and Veronica Lockwood, a fitness model. The entire family appeared to be living the American dream, but it only seemed that way from the outside. Dark rumors shadowed the Lockwood name. There were always whispers about murder, betrayal, and loss, which made for juicy gossip in a small town. It was these stories shut the Lockwoods away, and isolated them further from regular society. Charlotte never showed her face in public, or even outside the manor.

In fact, Lucas would have never met her had he not foolishly accepted his best friend’s bet. Never one to back down from a dare, Lucas had climbed the gates and trespassed onto Lockwood Manor with nothing but a light pull-string bag strapped to his back. Inside the bag rested multiple cans of newly bought spray paint; Lucas intended on vandalizing the plot with graffiti. However, in hindsight, it was not the best idea to wrong the property of a lawyer, even for twenty bucks.

                Lucas dropped his bag at the side of the gardening shed and looked around at the manor. He admired how beautifully it was attended to. The gardens stretched on for at least a good acre. They contained a wide variety of sweet-smelling flowers, from roses to Queen Anne’s lace, and everything in between. There was a large fountain in the center of it all, in which water cascaded down a wavy marble surface. Lucas felt a tinge of guilt for defilling such a pretty place and made a silent promise to at least vandalize tastefully. Well, maybe tasteful wasn't the correct term.

Lucas turned his back to the garden and took out the first can of paint. He shook it nervously, suddenly aware of his stupidity for accepting the dare. Why did he have to care so much what his friends thought of him? He had not even paused to consider the consequences. Too late for regrets now. After a quick check over the shoulder, Lucas began outlining the letters on the brick surface of the gardening shed:

What’s a lawyer’s favorite playground apparatus? The suings.

Lucas stopped to admire his neat handwriting as he prayed Mr. Lockwood had a sense of humor… Lawyers liked puns, right?

Suddenly, he heard some footsteps in the distance. He nearly dropped the can of royal blue as a wave of panic overcame him. Scared out of his mind, Lucas pressed his body against the shed wall, unaware of the wet paint until it was too late. He cursed silently and turned his attention to the source of the sound.

A girl was wandering the garden and luckily, she did not appear to see him. Lucas decided he desperately needed an escape plan. He looked down and tried to discreetly kick one of the spray cans back into the bag. Wait a minute, he thought… Lucas looked back up at the girl, who had to be Charlotte Lockwood herself. His jaw dropped into a small “o.” She was the girl everyone talked about but nobody talked to, and she was gorgeous! Her hair looked as if it came from the red-hot heart of hell itself, and cascaded in soft curls down her shoulders. She had ash colored eyes that could burn a soul and set it free in the same stare. It had to be love at second sight.