Chapter 3

"Sk...Sky...Di...Dive...What?" her voice was quaking as she looked again at the words plastered over that little piece of paper.

Your right, I do hate you she thought to herself. It made her laugh when he said "I've never had the guts", so it's okay for Klaus to be the coward but if she was the coward she got 'consequences' typical.

She read the letter again, he believes in me. That's got to count for something. She wondered when they will actually meet; she was keen to talk to him to ask him why he's doing this.

She remembered the day he helped her find Buckingham Palace, how they talked about their interests, she was talking more than him but what he did say was that he liked to draw and that he lived in London.

Thinking back now, he didn't say much about himself, nor did she ask.


The next day came around quicker than she expected and 3pm arrived even quicker. She entered the address into her Sat-nav and followed the directions, a turn at a time. Until eventually she arrived at a small area with a helipad placed right in the center. Her gut told her, this was the right place

"Hello, are you Caroline?" she gave a gentle nod "We've been expecting you" the instructor gave a wide smile as he handed her the safety harness and took her through safety procedures.

She looked at the tall man in front of her telling her how to not die. He stood there calmly explaining every aspect of jumping out of a helicopter. Caroline saw no nice way of seeing what she was about to do.

She got a mouthful of blonde hair as the instructor tried to strap him in. Surprisingly, she didn't struggle as much as she thought she would, although that would be hard considering that she had another brunette man strapped to her back. He was telling her to calm down and to stop playing with the straps unless she wanted the parachute to inflate in the helicopter.

"It's okay to be nervous you know, Klaus said you would be" her fidgeting stopped as she heard his name

"He's spoken to you?"

"Oh yeah, he's told me everything. It's fine, I know him quite well" the blonde smiled at her, but Caroline wasn't interested in smiles, she wanted information. The helicopter was slowly taking off but Caroline didn't notice, at that moment she didn't care. If he knew about Klaus, she wanted to know as much as she could find out

"What does he do?"

"He's an architect, a good one too. He designed that building over there. He's quite well known actually" the man laughed as he pointed to building on his right, but it was slowly getting smaller as they began getting higher. Luckily, Caroline didn't look where he was pointing, she just kept staring at his face, looking for a sign and flicker of something past this calm stature

"What did he say about me then?"

"Oh nothing much, he just told me you're a little scared of heights and frankly, you're doing pretty well considering how far up we are" Caroline frowned, how did Klaus know she was scared of heights, she never told him that, did she? Then the second part of that sentence set in and she looked out the window

"Oh God, how did that happen?" all her questions that she wanted to ask flew out the window, she was hyperventilating now

"Caroline, its fine you'll be on the ground soon enough" he smiled as he started to open the door. The helicopter was hovering in mid air and the brunette behind her was shuffling her forward

"Wait...what are you doing? I don't think you noticed the open door...hey, stop pushing me towards the door, I'm too young to die" the last thing she did was scream; scream for her life as she went pelting down into the open air.

"Don't look down, keep your head up" looking down was the last thing she wanted to, the instructor must have switched off when the blonde mentioned that she was scared of heights.

Caroline rolled her eyes; trust Klaus to pick the most arrogant instructors, she could imagine that he searched high and low to make sure that these men were the right frequency of idiot. Always the best for his little Caroline, she smiled.

Now they were hanging in mid air, their parachute was up and they were just floating now. This bit she liked, looking over London she could see everything. The London eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, it was doing all her sightseeing in one go. She had to admit, London did look amazing from this height, again another thing to thank Klaus for. He was making this a habit, making her feel thankful

"Beautiful isn't it? I never get bored of seeing this" she could hear his soft voice coming from behind her, she couldn't see him but she knew he was smiling

"It is amazing, how many times you done this?"

"Only few, I've only been here a few weeks. I'm still training" Caroline nearly fainted; Klaus stuck her with a trainee, a bloody trainee. She kept her mouth shut, the man was doing his best; all he needed was a mouthful of grief from her. She watched as the buildings started to gradually get bigger and more real life sized

"You're lucky you know. Your man really cares for you. He was up here giving everyone a stern lecture, making sure you were in safe hands. He wouldn't take anything less than perfect. It's nice, I hope I could be like that with my girlfriend too"

"I'm not ..." she stopped herself, she had to be grateful. He even came in person to make sure everything was alright, he truly did care. The more she heard about him, the more she was starting to grow fond of him "Yes" she continued "I am lucky"


They neared the ground with a soft bump and that was the end of the ride. She landed exactly where she started, on the helipad. She was happy she wore jeans, imagine falling from the sky in a skirt, letting all the lucky people below get a sneaky glance at her underwear

"Thank you" she gave a sweet smile to the brunette who was now lending her a hand to help her off the grassy grounds

"You're very welcome, miss. You know, he's lucky too"

"Why's that?"

"He's lucky to have you" she started to blush, she never thought of Klaus as anything other than a kind stranger but now maybe it was more, maybe they were becoming friends.

She found her car where she left it and on the window pane was another one of his famous letters. Caroline lifted up the windscreen wipers to release the letter; she took it close to her chest as she sat in the car and turned up the radio.

"I think an angel just fell from the sky. Did you have a nice ride, love? You sure looked like you had fun, I'm joking you looked terrified. Don't worry, I didn't miss that chilling scream; I think the whole of London heard you. I hope they were nice to you; I may have to have words if they weren't love. You do mean a lot to me, I'll take care of you. I know your eager for challenge number three, am I right? I may make you wait a little longer, you don't mind do you? Remember, what happens in London...Klaus"

...Stays in London Caroline finished the sentence for him, knowing his words so well. She didn't mind waiting for him, she embraced the quiet unadventurous moments that she had to herself. It excited her to see what he had in store for her next, something daring.

Already she could see herself changing. Before she would quiver at the sound of danger, hide from anything that seemed a little risky, but now she was convinced she could do anything, nothing can hold her back. She felt safe knowing that Klaus won't let anything happen to her, she meant a lot to him.


It was a long journey home it felt quicker on the way there than it did back. But she didn't mind. Caroline was happy, at peace with herself, proud that she was able to overcome her fears.

She learnt a little more about Klaus every day, a little piece of him was in every challenge. She was so used to being the one that had to control everything; she liked knowing what was happening, where she was going but Klaus had made her wait, made her slow down and enjoy not knowing. There was something in not knowing that made her calm and happy, her normal stress and anxiety wasn't there and she preferred it.

When she arrived at her door, there was a beautiful basket full of all different types of chocolates and sweets. Handing from the handle, there was a note saying "find me", inside was a little picture of a long chocolate finger. Caroline took the basket inside and began rummaging through its contents, she found snickers, malteasers, crunchies; every kind of chocolate known to man was there, except this finger.

She was starting to lose hope, this was a prank, the finger wasn't really in here, she thought as she began eating one of the chocolate bars. Something caught her eye, at the very bottom of the basket there was a little compartment, hidden under all the chocolate. Emptying the basket completely she opened the compartment to find a small box and inside was the finger. She sighed with relief "Thank God" she said as she began unravelling the packaging.

True enough there was a chocolate finger inside, but that was it, no note, no message, just a chocolaty mess. Rolling her eyes once more, she slumped down on to the ground, and took a bite of the finger. She figured she might as well.

To her surprise, there was a note, rolled up very tightly in a little plastic casing inside the chocolate finger. She smiled shaking her head, where did he come up with all these things. The note read:

"My dear Caroline, you found me. As promise Challenge three awaits you. I thought I'd be a little nicer to you, love. I'd loved to do this with you myself, but I'm a busy man but I'm sure you will actually like this one. I hear you are fond of horses, so my little treat for being such a good girl is a little horse-back riding around London's tower bridge tomorrow. I know it certainly is spectacular. Remember when we met all those months ago, I told you I'd show you around London. This is me keeping my promise. Don't worry, love we'll meet, I have more challenges for you until then. Remember my sweet, what happens in London, Stays in London. Keep safe always; wait for a sign, Klaus"

He was being nicer in the fact that yes she did like horses but Caroline had never ridden a horse in her life. This again was probably to do with the fact that she really didn't like doing anything out of her comfort zone and well horse-back riding was definitely on the avoid list. But here she was prepared to take on a horse, she wasn't scared but liberated.

She always questioned Klaus, how did he know all these things about her? The skies were growing duller and it was time for Caroline to get something to eat, it had felt like hours since she had eaten anything.

She smiled, if only he really was with me this time, she thought but until then,

"Horse-back riding here I come"

© Ms Zola, Aug 2012