the protector // h.s au

four

4||

It's been four days. Four entire days and I haven't seen Flora Rose. I'm slightly, scratch that, very worried.

Sure, it's normal. There's hundreds of people on campus and I'm not definitely going to see all of them every day. But when a certain one of them is in your evening music class and doesn't show up for two classes and you haven't seen them in four days you start to worry.

Well, I start to worry.

I'm trying to concentrate on my English novel, I swear I really am. But Leisel Meminger's story just is not appealing to me at this moment in time. Nor has it for the past four days, either.

Sighing, I fold a crease in the page and set the book aside, smiling as I remember watching Flora Rose do the same the first day I met her.

What if she needs protecting? It's my job to protect her, after all! That's it, I've got to find her. She could very well be cosied up in a blanket in her dormitory right now but she could also very well be in trouble, deep trouble.

I throw on my favourite Rolling Stones shirt on with a pair of black skinny jeans and red Chucks and I'm immediately ready. I slide my newly acquired iPhone in my back pocket, along with my keys, and with that I'm out.

The could wind hits me like a slap in the face but I dismiss this immediately. I'm not going back for a jacket.

After walking for about seven minutes I realise something. I have no idea where I'm going or where I'm to look.

After a few more minutes of walking and thinking about both Flora Rose and how stupid I am, I arrive at campus. I suppose this is a decent place to start.

Even though it is six in the afternoon and it is becoming ever so slightly dark, campus is packed. Much more crowded than it usually is at this time, in fact.

The queues at the cafe are monstrous and every bench in sight is occupied.

What the hell is going on? Have I missed something?

Confused and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people crowding around me, I decide a trip to the restroom is in need.

I rack my brain, trying to remember where the closest laboratories are. Oh yeah, beside the library.

Slowly but surely, I shove my way through the ever growing crowd of people and come closer and closer to the toilets.

I heave a sigh of relief as I step into the men's' bathroom. This side of campus is thankfully a little less crowded any way seeing as nobody was really venturing past the cafe.

I look at myself in the mirror. I look undoubtedly tired with obvious purple bags underneath my eyes.

I'd be lying if I said I'd had more than two hours of sleep last night, or any night for the past few days for that matter.

I can't look at my reflection any more, so I step outside again. Fortunately it's still quite vacant around the bathrooms so I don't have to trudge through noisy crowds to make my way to my next destination; the library.

Flora Rose is a moderately quiet girl, plus she seems to like reading as I caught her doing it in her spare time the day I met her. Her personality screams 'library goer'.

If that makes any sense.

I smile as I round the corner to the alleyway that houses both the book office and the library but soon my smile is wiped from my face faster than I can say Flora Rose.

For, there she is, sat on the cement with her back pressed roughly against the wall behind her and her arms squeezing her long legs against her chest. She's cowering away from two figures dressed in grey; a lady who looks not much older than me and a man who looks to be in his forties.