Author's Note: I must give my apologies for not writing in a long time, I've just had a few personal and academic problems so what I would have written would have been awful anyway . But I am on holiday now, so hoping to do my usual amount of writing – will finally finish this story!
Chapter 11 – Regret & Repentance
Michael had slept on the short connecting flight from Kiev to Prague, but he had never slept worse in his life. He had even managed to wake up all the passengers surrounding him when he abruptly woke up from a nightmare, shouting "Frieda!"
He had entered into a dreamscape where they had been resting together in her bedroom and he had woken up to find her limp and lifeless and cold. He had never been so devastated in a nightmare before, and boy, did he used to have some real crackers! When he grasped her icy hand and could not rouse her from her now permanent sleep, he had shaken her so hard, had she been alive she'd have been screaming in agony.
Only when he began to sob in his tragic dream, did he wake from it. Unfortunately, passengers in first class were not very sympathetic to being woken up late at night by what seemed to be a nutcase shouting out. However, Michael was in no mood to respond to any of their curses and swears in what seemed to be more languages than were spoken than Michael knew existed. All he could think about was that Frieda – his Frieda – was dying and he had had to leave her.
He drowsily disembarked from the plane at Prague International Airport and plopped himself ungracefully into a seat in the waiting area as he saw his flight to Stansted airport was delayed for two hours. So, he had two more hours to brood over his decision to take off and abandon Frieda. What hurt him the most was that he hadn't been able to say goodbye…he had just left after he had let her family frighten him away.
As he checked the status of his flight, another flight going to another place caught his eye. One that was flying back to Kiev… He would have loved to just run back to Frieda and never leave her side again, but he would not ruin her last days by inciting arguments between himself and her family. She deserved so much better. She deserved better than some jackass American, who had fallen head over heels for the Ukrainian beauty, leaving her up the creek without a paddle when she really needed him just to stick around until the bitter end. He thought he was a stupid, stupid idiot! What on earth was he doing sitting in a different country to Frieda? Stupid, stupid man…
Split-second decision – he had to get out of here and back to the woman he had only recently learnt he loved and who he was going to lose way too soon because fate had once again conspired against him. He strode purposefully towards the airline desk, knowing full well what had to be done.
"One ticket to Kiev, please, whatever you've got...pronto!" Michael said frantically, slamming his passport down on the desk.
Her family could be damned…he was going to be at her bedside when her world went black, and nothing would be able to stop him.