Dead By Sundown

Chapter Ten: Home again

     Chapter Ten

Just as she was about to give in and knock again the door swung open.

In all the years she'd been gone, nothing had changed, not truly. There were new locks on the door, and maybe a new carpet to replace the old shitty burned one, but it was still the apartment she knew and loved.

The first place she dared call home.

Michael hadn't changed either, not completely. He had a rough stubble that he'd let grow through now, and shorter hair than the last time she saw him, but he was still the same Mikey as he had been before. Tall and broad and built. Golden hair flashing in the late afternoon sun, and those eyes. God those eyes. One blue as the winter ocean, the other hazel like the deepest forests. Warm and gentle despite the years of work. The lines of his cheeks the same, the feint scar across his chin, the same damn dimple in his right cheek.

Still her Michael. Her Mikey.

There he stood, in the threshold to what was once their apartment, his eyes wide in shock and surprise.

Nadia's heart hammered against her ribs, a dull ache grounding her. This was very real. He was stood right in front of her. And there was a real reality that he would either kill her on the spot or slam the door in her face. It had been three years, there was no saying how he would react.

There was no questioning in her mind which would hurt less.

  The instant their eyes met, she wondered if this had been the most stupid thing she had ever done. Not the hundreds- if not thousands- of idiotic things she had done before this, but right here stood in front of this apartment after last time when she was told never to come back.

  By an assassin.

She realised that if she had any luck left, now would be the time she should cash in.

What she hadn't counted on were the years that Michael regretted every word he'd said to her when they parted ways, the months he prayed she would come back to him, the days he waited for a phone call from her. 

Nadia was immediately grasped into his chest, her hair knotted in his fist as he pressed her in closely.

It wasn't at all the reaction she had expected. She hardly had time to take note of the shooting pains that shot through her at his embrace. Nadia had prepared herself for the worst, yet there she stood, cocooned in his arms.

A deep breath. The smell of home, of fresh linen and cheap cigarettes, filled her nose, and for the first time in months she let out a sigh of pure relief.

She gripped onto the back of his shirt with all her might as if he might disintegrate before she would get to say everything she wanted, ignoring the discomfort from her injuries.

A soft chuckle drifted past her lips as she buried her head deeper into his chest, his breath fanning across her neck as he did the same.

"Hey Mikey," she said, the sound muffled by his cotton shirt.

If she hadn't felt his breath fanning out across her neck beforehand, she would have presumed he'd held his breath until those two words met his ears.

"Hi, Dia,"' he whispered as if speaking any louder would make her disappear. He clung tighter to her for a moment, "I thought you were—" Nadia couldn't contain her soft yelp of pain, cutting him off before he could continue.

Michael's eyes immediately darted for her face, inspecting every inch of her, then taking in the rest of her as he did so.

Her clothes hung from her frame, her body not quite filling the fabric the way it should. Bruises and cuts littered her face, dark bags hung heavily under her eyes and her skin was not as bright as it used to be.