How the Flower Bloomed

Chapter 3: Where's Harry?

He's not at home or at the hospital that he was taken to almost five days ago. How many days does it take for alcohol to clear out of a human's system? Not more than one, I reminded myself about last week's biology course. Why am I worried? In my mind the image of his gentleman self is turning into the image of a merciless liar. I felt like I was missing out on something here. Plus, he did say that he needed to tell me something and I felt a powerful urge to know what it is.

"Hello 991! I would like to report a missing person," I said in between uneven breaths, "Harry Skies."

"Oh no miss, there must be a misunderstanding. Mr. Skies was brought to the 55th department yesterday." Brought to the department? Isn't he supposed to be able to freely drive there because it is after all, where he works?

"Brought in to the department as what? You mean as criminal or something? Where there ch-charges pressed against him?" I stuttered.

"If you are related to Mr. Skies,also you can see him during visiting hours."

"Also? Why did anyone else come see him during the time which he was imprisoned?"

"Only his wife came yesterday." Wife! What wife?

"Yes his wife came to see him." Oops, did I express my shock too loudly?

And with that, I hung up. But Harry is divorced, why would his wife only care to come see him only when he's in trouble? So many questions and little answers in return.

Not that I know much about his relationship with his wife, but the fact that she interacted with him after more than five years of divorce, intrigued me. Harry was a very serious person, the image of him carrying flowers for a woman or going out on a date made my stomach perform olympic backflips. He certainly wasn't the romantic type.

When I first hung up, a huge wave of worry draped over me, but after a few minutes, I felt all the burden slide off my back. I have enough on my mind to be wondering about why a policeman was at a police station. With that thought I drifted off to sleep.

**********

School felt unusual, I could feel a thick and metallic aura fill its halls. I wouldn't tell Reina and Sasha because I could tell from their jubilant faces that they weren't feeling the same queasiness. Sasha was too preoccupied with getting back together with Raymond after she apologized and admitted that their break-up was her fault.

"I am so happy that i think we should celebrate," squeaked Sasha.

"It doesn't seem like we're all in the mood of celebrating," whispered Reina after she had descried the uneasiness spread out on my face.

"Okay sugar we can go out and have dinner at a nice restaurant doesn't have to be a celebration," Raymond said and kissed Sasha on her temple. She returned it and hugged him warmly. It just occurred to me that Sasha has never dated anyone other than Raymond. Crazily loyal is that girl, although he has never dated anyone besides her too. Their relationship was the perfect fairytale that any girl wishes for except for me; love just isn't my thing.

The day dragged on and I spent most of it thinking about Harry because my mind was so stubborn and just couldn't shut him out. The incidents that I know of so far are very perplexing and I could imagine a thousand situations that Harry would be tangled in right now. Reina kept shooting me with sharp questioning looks but I was very thankful that she didn't interrogate me about them.

I had to freshen up and find an escape route for a while so I left Reina and Sasha and headed to the washroom which was at the end of hallway. As Sasha, Reina and Raymond got farther, and the hallway got quieter. I had a strange feeling and then a sudden muscled arm clasped me and dragged me from my neck forward. I screamed as loud as I could but all my efforts went to waste, nothing could be heard. I was trying to catch a glimpse of my kidnapper, and while I hardly lifted my head up, I saw familiar blue highlights. Okay so why would Adam drag me very ferociously across the school's hall to the men's bathroom? We finally reached the door that read 'MALE' and Adam pushed it open.

"Stop it! What do you want?" I screamed at him. He turned me around with so much savagery that didn't suit a sweet-looking boy such as him. Gazing at me with dark and blazing eyes, he slowly asked me a question while moving his mouth around the letters to clearly indicate each one.

"How could you let Harry be taken to the fifty-fifth?" he said in the most dangerous voice possible.

"He's a cop, and he's at his workplace, what's the big deal?" I answered defending myself.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Okay, that slightly hurt. And with that, he walked out, leaving me alone in the men's washroom.

I joined Reina and Sasha, but without telling them anything because both of them were over the moon with the perfect men in their life who keep their lips stretched into smiles. Sasha had Raymond looking after her and Reina had almost every hot guy's number in the school, so that satisfied her enough.

To me classes were trailing behind other classes until we reached the crime class, the last session of the day. I always felt that this class was useless, but today, something caught my attention right from its soul.

The moment we entered the class, we espied the subject of today's discussion: police departments. On the board the departments were listed from the least serious to the most grievous. To my horrendous surprise, the fifty fifth was the most grievous.

Our professor talked about the main department that we all know about and when I asked him about the fifty fifth, his face darkened and I could clearly see unease climbing up his facial features.

I couldn't take it anymore. The moment that the class finished, I excused myself and ran out of the school building. In ten minutes I found myself facing the police station. I entered and went straight to the information desk.

"Hello madam, may I help you?"

"Yes, what is the fifty-fifth police department?"

"May I have your full name madam?"

"Alison Salt."

"Okay, follow me."

He gestured for me to follow him into an interrogation room and asked me to sit down. Without warning he just blurted out information that, a few minutes ago, he made me feel like it was top secret.

" The fifty fifth is a mental institution for curing abnormal mentally sick people."