Fear and Blood

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Rome Armida ran through the university campus, not paying any attention to the strange looks directed her way by her fellow students. She was about two months into her first year and she still had no idea where anything was, not to mention that her timetable had her running across the campus from one class to another to get to lectures on time. To top it off, all he classes were in the afternoon, meaning it was well past dark by the time she finally left for home.

The university was huge and still growing. Having been established for almost two hundred years the older buildings were now surrounded by more modern structures that had sprung up over time, meaning that it was now covered more area than any other single establishment in the entire city. Needless to say, this made it very difficult to navigate.

She began to panic, not wanting to be late for he last tutorial for the day and thinking that she would never find her room in time. If she could only find a familiar face, she would be able to ask for directions. Looking around, she hoped to find someone she recognised who could direct her to her class.

Rome had moved to the city to attend university and it was the first time in her life she was completely on her own. Her family had been against her moving out and had begged her to study from home, like she had been doing since the age of five. Her parents had their four children home schooled due to their need to relocate every year or so. This meant that Rome had never experienced having to deal with classes, timetables or other students. Unless other student's included her three brothers.

As she turned her head to scan her surroundings, Rome ran straight into something rather solid, knocking her to the ground and causing her textbooks to tumble from her arms and spill across the pavement. She grimaced as she scrambled to pick them up.

"Watch where you're going girl," a deep voice growled harshly. Rome looked up to see the thing she had run into was a rather tall, hansom, young man with messy black hair and deep blue eyes. He was scowling down at her as if everything about her was offensive to him.

Rome swallowed nervously. "Sorry," she said, still looking up at the man. He looked kind of jittery, tense and nerves. His hands were twitching and his eyes looked dark, haunted. They were darting around, flicking from her to the people walking past and back again, as if he was paranoid about being watched. She shivered, wondering if there was something wrong with him or if he was on some kind of drug.

She kept an eye on him as he moved off down the path that ran through the Arts courtyard. A short distance away, he stopped to light a cigarette, which he puffed on a few times before throwing it angrily to the ground and stepping on it. The look on his face was pained, almost desperate. Rome continued to watched him until he disappeared around the corner.

The shaken girl got to her feet and run her fingers through her dark red hair, still looking down the path after the man. She took a deep breath to calm herself before picking up the remainder of her fallen books. What made him look like he was in so much pain?

"Rome!" She heard her name and turned quickly to see her friend Melissa running towards her. The two girls had met on the university orientation day at the start of the term and had some of the same classes together. Rome had ended up sitting with Melissa and some of her friends for most of her lessons. Though she could be quite pushy and a little annoying at times, it was better than having to sit alone.

"Are you all right?" Melissa asked. "I saw you run into that guy."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rome replied, shifting her books into a more comfortable position on her arm. "No harm done, though he was a little rude. Would it have killed him to offer me some help?"