Her gorgeous hair shining in the sunlight, reflecting light almost like a dagger. A dagger. No. Not a dagger. Not a knife. Her hair reflected light like a, like a, like... beautiful hair was supposed to.

If I had ever thought the library near my high school was big, I had been terribly wrong. 

This hall was huge and filled to the rim with shelves full of books. There were at least five stories, all with their own corridors and rooms. It was beautiful.

I had never thought I could possibly find a library beautiful, but here I was, gawking over books. Research books, of course. I presume that normal romances would be hard to find in a pack driven by knowledge.

Only then I took my time looking at the number of people that stood in the big hall, presenting their research in small booths, each with a poster and other gadgets, some even more flashy than the other.

I walked through the human mass slowly but surely, pretending to be interested in everyone's findings, while in truth I was looking at their clothes or facial expressions. 

Gly-co-pro-tein-something was a word that was way too long for me to be able to read. When I tried reading words longer than 8 letters, they started dancing in front of my eyes. It was really annoying, actually, as this way, I was never motivated to learn and like reading. 

So usually, I didn't. Including now. So when someone would recognize me as the girl that was able to win the intelligence competition at her pack at age 19, and they would ask me to join their research, I would just improvise, saying that I hadn't seen everything yet. Or that my interest was in another field of research, or that I thought their research wasn't challenging enough. 

One by one, they sulked and then attacked other winners with their questions.

***

The doctor had been right, the pain in my wrist did die down very slowly. 

During the tour around the university complex, I eventually found that it didn't hurt as much as it did earlier. Even then, a big yellowish bruise started to form on the inside of my entire wrist. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to, but I wouldn't go around screaming that, not if it meant they had to do it again. 

No freaking way.

After what seemed like ages, we had finally gone around the entire university, which turned out, stretched throughout almost the entire city. 

With hurting feet and a sandwich in my hand, we looked at the presentations of certain chosen researchers. I heard a presentation about the gly-co-pro-tein-something, which turned out to be glycoprotein-synthesis. 

It was a lot more interesting than I would have thought beforehand, and a lot easier to understand the fundamental bases than in the presentation about neutrino's, black radiation, or techniques used in brain mapping. 

There was a man that was supposed to talk about economics, but he didn't show up.

Not that I cared, I was almost falling asleep after the lecture on nano-robotics, where I had understood about three words in the entire hour. Seeing that the representative from the Pulchritudo was also looking at the screen as if they told him that they had found proof that the earth was flat, I took it that even for actual smart people this was more difficult than it seemed.

***

It was around seven when we returned to the Headquarters. For the first time since we had come to the Sapientiae pack, we had to scan the chips in our arms, even though it wasn't working yet with three of nine, me included. 

By showing our tags and Willow's we managed to get accepted, after which we were allowed to go through the metal detector. As I was one of the three where the chip didn't work, I was still in line for the metal detector when all the commotion started.

The metal detector of the security station beside ours went off. It gave off a loud beeping noise, one that actually hurt my ears. 

Immediately, a dozen police officers came running in the lobby, their guns in their hands. Only once I had taken off my hands of my ears after the beeping had died down, I looked at the station next to me.

A man stood there, a revolver in his hands, frantically looking around the lobby. He was turning around viciously every few seconds, pointing the gun at someone else. 

A strategy that was deemed idiotic in the Fortis pack. You couldn't focus a gun that quickly if you weren't extremely skilled in gun firing. Which most people weren't. One look at this man told me he wasn't either, he was just as scared as the people he pointed at.

It just took just a few seconds before he stopped turning and just focussed on one person, as if he had remembered what I was doing. That person...

Happened to be me.

I was far away enough not be of any threat to him, but close enough that I couldn't hide, couldn't run, couldn't avoid being hit, must he shoot. 

Somehow, however, I didn't feel as terrified as I think I should have felt.

I glanced over to Willow, who to my surprise, acted as if she was afraid. Acted, yes. Because while here posture was seemingly scared, her eyes still held that incredible coldness I had grown used to today. 

She wasn't afraid, at least not truly. She just wasn't ready to blow her cover yet.

Or she just didn't want to do it for me.

I looked at the man closely this time. Directly I knew why I didn't run for the hills the second he pointed his gun at me. He wasn't planning on killing me. 

Hell, he probably even wasn't planning on shooting at all. He just wanted to cause commotion, to cause chaos, to cause fear. It was working in most of the representatives and other people in the lobby of the Headquarters, but not on me. 

In the Fortis pack, we had to learn really early how to defend ourselves on a basic level. It was required if you wanted to start high school. Which was mandatory as well, so you get my point. 

Every single pack member knew how to defend themselves. One of the lessons was to recognize a killer, a criminal or an innocent, scared man. This man was not a killer or criminal, I could see it clearly in his eyes. 

He was, however, very determined, even though his heart probably beat a mile a minute.

As did mine. I wasn't afraid of my death, but I had to admit it wasn't a walk in the park for me either. I was, nervous, so to say.

I slowly put my hands up in the air. "It's okay, you don't have to shoot, it's okay, it's okay," I muttered slowly. "I won't do anything."

"Put the gun down, sir."

He made no move to put the gun down. "Don't you dare move closer, any of you."

"Sir, put the gun down, now. Now."

He didn't move an inch. Until at once, he just fell over, unconscious. A tranquillizing dart sticking out of his shoulder. The guards in the lobby slowly encircled the man and closed in on him, while one officer walked over to me. "Ma'am, are you okay?"

I nodded stiffly, still high on adrenaline. "I just want to go to my room right now, if that's alright."
Without hesitation, the man nodded his head vigorously. "Of course, ma'am, right away. If you need anything else, just let us know."

They brought me to my room, and I followed calmly. Once more they asked if I needed anything. Once more I declined. I was fine. Nothing happened. Back there, I wasn't even scared. Not really scared.

And even if I told myself that, as soon as they closed the door behind them, I sank to my knees slowly, and broke down in tears.

***
Hoihoi!
So, Livia was almost shot today... Who was that man? Why was he so adamant on causing chaos and commotion, if he wasn't even planning on shooting at all? 
I'd like to hear what you think!

Liefs,
Sanne