Protector (Harry Styles)

Chapter 1

Shit! Shit! Shit! I'm late for my interview. I can't loose this interview. I need a job. My rent is coming up soon and I don't want to sell anymore stock to make ends meet. I am only a few miles away from the building but I'm stuck in traffic. Why does this have to happen today? I could be stuck in traffic any other day and I would be fine but today just happens to be the day the universe said "Hey! Lets cause a huge traffic jam today". Screw it. I jam the levitator button and my mobi shoots into the air. I hit the accelerator and fly off. I know you're only supposed to use the levitator setting for emergencies but I can not be late.

After the year 2136 traffic was almost completely eliminated but jams happen about twice a year now. I guess the mobi system is backed up. Most people wait through them since they're so rare but today is not the day for me. I speed through the sky and make it to Coop five minutes early.

I walk up to the doors and punch in the intern code I was told. I am granted access inside and I walk up to the woman behind the desk. Then I see her ears and see she is not human.

She is a Buddy. Jeez they look more and more realistic all the time. There are only two ways I can tell them apart from humans. Their ears are pointed like an elves and their eyes are gold. Buddy's are robots designed to look and function like humans. But they can only be programed to do one specific thing besides basic commands like walk and talk. Looks like this one is a secretary.

When I reach it's desk it looks at me. "I have an interview with Mr. Chonc."

"Whats your name?" it asks in an almost human voice.

"Lana." I reply. Just Lana. I don't like my last name.

It nods and types something into her screen. It looks at me and says I can go up. It hands me a small screen with the route highlighted and an indicator telling me where I am.

A screen is like what you would think of as a computer. But its completely flat. Its hardware is so small its almost non existent. It projects any image I want. Like a tablet without a back. Just a screen.

I walk across the lobby to a platform where I shoot up to the correct level of the building. I step off and walk down the hallway my screen told me to walk down. I stop at the end of the hallway where I come to a giant door. The screen projection shuts off leaving me with nothing except my nerves. I reach out to grab the platinum doorknob and enter the room when a hand grabs mine and pulls it away. I look at who stopped me ready to tell them off and shove past them but it's the man. The stranger who has saved my life seven times. Eight now I guess.

The first time he appeared I was four. I was at the park when my balloon started to float away. I ran after it for three blocks until I lost it. But then I was lost. I had no idea where I was or how to get back to the park to my mother. There was a scary looking man on the other side of the street and he was standing next to a big beat up mobi. "Hey little girl I have another ballon for you." I started to run over to him because I really wanted another ballon but a man materialized out of nowhere and stood in front of me. He grabbed my hand and I automatically knew I should trust him and not the scary man on the other side of the road.

"No thank you mister." I said as the stranger led me out off there and all the way back to the park. My mom was so happy to see me and when I tried to tell her a man had saved me he was gone.

Only later did I realize the intensions of the scary man and that the stranger had been made of mist.

He also appeared once when I was six and almost rode my bike in front of a mobi. And another time when I was seven and I almost fell off the second story of my play house.

When I was ten and someone started following me he appeared and led me away from the danger. When I was thirteen and about to go to a guys house he spoke to me. He said "Don't go or you will get hurt." Sure enough one of his friends told me the next day he was planning on trying to become intimate with me.

When I was sixteen someone asked me to meet up with them to go get drugs and he appeared and told me the seekers would show up. That person was arrested while I stayed home and took a nap.

The most recent was when I was eighteen and he appeared in my mobi and told me not to take the bridge on the way to where I was going. The bridge collapsed fifteen minutes later and killed seven people.

I wonder why he is here now. Whats going on? His misty figure is tall and handsome. He looks about my age now. Even though his form isn't solid I can tell is was muscular. He has curly brown hair pushed off his forehead and piercing green eyes. I find him incredibly attractive even if he isn't solid. "It's a scam. they are going to steal your identity. Just walk away." He tells me. I don't know how but he grabs my hand and pulls me away from the door. I have no objections. I just want to get away from this place.

I am so curious as to who he is. I have never asked but I want to know now. "Who are you?" I ask. I have never actually said anything to him before.

"I can't tell you." he says. He has a British accent. Its lovely. But I want to know who he is and he is going to tell me.

"Why?" I ask.

"You can't know yet."

"Why?"

"You just can't yet."

"Yet? When can I know?" I ask as we step onto the platform. It lowers us down to the lobby.

"I can't tell you anything until your Convergence." he says. That damn Convergence. My mother has been talking about it for months now. On a persons twenty-first birthday the Convergence occurs. Its a chemical change in a persons blood stream. It leads us to the person we are supposed to marry and Bond with. Its supposed to be the link between childhood and adulthood. Its also when we get out Protectors. I honestly don't know much about it.

"Thats only three weeks away. Please just tell me." I ask. I really want to know. We have walked out of the building and are headed to my mobi.

"I'll drive." he says. Wow I was expecting him to leave.

I get in and he starts it up. A mobi is an advancement of what people called cars almost two hundred years ago. Just to elaborate after the year 2000 everything became about technology. It became a necessary part of life. Since then the whole world started to run on technology. Now in 2177 the whole world is technology.

"At least tell me your name." I say as he drives to my flat.

"I can't."

"Please. You have saved my life eight times. I need to know your name."

"It's Harry. Don't tell anyone about me or that I told you my name. You can't know until the Convergence." He says. It sounds like he shouldn't be here or something. But I wont tell anyone.

"I won't." We're at my flat. Harry parks and gets out. He says nothing else to me. He just starts to walk away. "Harry!" I yell after him. He turns around. "When am I going to see you again?" I yell.

"In three weeks." he yells back. With that he turns around and evaporates.

I walk up to my flat in a daze. I am very shaken up. All I can think about is how I am going to get a new job before I have to pay rent.