three french hens

Just as the previous night, he got a visit from the police soon after the phone call was cut off. Mats knew it was over for Pia before they even said anything. He felt guilty, because he wanted to save her and he had tried so hard to do so, but she ended up leaving him anyway. Now he thought it was a way that God was using to punish him for lacking appreciation for the people he had in his life, particularly Pia.

He called Jude and Marco to give them the news after the police left his house. They were expecting Pia for dinner and she never arrived. 

When he told them what had happened to her, they were very upset. Just took it the hardest of the two because she and Pia had become very close from the moment they met. But Marco offered to go over to Mats' house and spend the night to make sure he would be okay. Mats assured his friend that it wasn't necessary. He only wanted to be alone. Before ending the call, Marco promised Mats that he and Jude would take care of everything for the funeral since it was evident that Mats was in no condition to do the sort of thing.

Feeling completely devastated and drained of any will to continue, he went upstairs to their bedroom and laid in bed. He pulled the covers up over his head and shut his eyes, willing himself to fall asleep. The tears spilled from his eyes as he thought about the entire day and what he could have done better to prevent her from leaving. 

After what seemed like hours in which he contemplated whether he had been responsible for her death, he finally let sleep take him. There were no more tears left to cry in his eyes and he was exhausted after all his efforts to keep her alive. But what could his efforts do against the awful grace of God? If it was written that it was her time to go, then there was nothing he could do to save her. 

Still, he missed Pia, and he wanted her back.

-

The next morning came whether he wanted it to or not. This time, he didn't expect there to be his beautiful girlfriend waiting for him with a tray of warm food for breakfast, but he hadn'tt expected it the day before either. Mats opened his dark eyes with a heavy heart and a deep sadness. Downstairs, he heard footsteps moving about in the kitchen just as Pia did every morning. The sounds were joined by the sizzling of breakfast on a skillet.

Mats' eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and hope. What would be the odds that God would grant him yet another chance to save Pia? It couldn't be possible. The thought had already been far fetched from the start. Perhaps it was Jude and Marco. They told him they would take care of everything for the funeral and then make sure he was okay. He didn't want to get his hopes up by letting himself think that it could be Pia, that she was safe and well. This time, he wasted no time and practically raced out of bed to find out who was in the kitchen making breakfast.

The first thing he noticed after peeling the covers off himself was that he was only in his boxers. The night before, when he was given the news about Pia, he had gotten into bed fully clothed. But that morning, he was in his boxers as well.

Mats quickly pulled on the first items of clothing he could find and hurried out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and to the kitchen.

As he turned the corner, he collided with someone and there were several sounds heard, as well as the flying of kitchen utensils and food everywhere. The tray fell out of their hands in the next second and a surprised scream left their lips. 

Mats looked up from the food on the floor and into the brown eyes of Pia Klein.

"Shit, Mats." She breathed, bringing her hands to her chest. "You scared me."

"Pia..." Mats got out in a bit of a surprise, "I thought you were dead."

She shot him a look as though he were crazy. "Yes...I am. And you are as well. I was just on my way upstairs for-"

"For a peace breakfast together." He finished for her and immediately pulled her into his embrace. It took her a few seconds to hug him back, since she was still surprised over what had happened moments earlier. And she could feel the relief in his embrace and the way he spoke to her. 

"Did you have a nightmare?" She guessed, snaking her arms around him.

He decided to lie in order to keep her from thinking he was out of his mind. He lied about the part where it was only a dream. He felt it was real life, but no one would ever believe him if he told anyone. "Ja. It was terrible, liebe. You died in a car accident after we got into a big argument and I was completely lost without you."

"Well you're okay now." Pia assured him. When they pulled away from their embrace, she added with a smile. "Tonight's the Christmas party, so it'll get your mind off the nightmares."

He forced a smile onto his face. "Yes." He told her with a nod.

But there was no way he was going to allow the day repeat itself with the horrible ending he knew it had.

-

While Pia stayed home preparing for the party, Mats told her he needed to buy a few things and that he would return as soon as possible. In reality, he just wanted to be out of the house so that she wouldn't catch him calling everyone to cancel the party. That would save him one of the problems that led to her leaving and having the accident. He called everyone who had been invited, one by one, and let them know there was no party that night because he wasn't feeling very well. 

He spent the entire morning out of the house and returned just a few hours before the party was scheduled to begin. By that time, everything was being set up by a crew they had hired. There was a sound system outside by the pool, where the DJ was going to play some music. There were tables set up with different trays where the food was going to be. There were also drinks being cooled for the party. The house was decorated top to bottom with ribbons and balloons. 

Pia emerged from another room, already changed into her dress. Her cinnamon red hair was pulled back into an up do and there was light make up on her face. He saw the bright smile on her face when she spotted him back at their home. She was very excited for their party that night.

"Hurry and go shower, Mats!" She urged him, closing the distance between them and taking his hands in hers. "Its only a few more hours before the party starts."

He hated what he was doing; cancelling the party behind her back and then lying about it. But she would never understand. He had tried talking to her about it in the previous parallel universe, and she wouldn't listen to him. This was his chance to try a different approach to things.

Mats continued with his charade and got into the shower and got ready for the party, pretending he knew nothing about the guests not arriving. As the time neared them for the party to start, he saw Pia in the living room, phone in hand, and she was very upset. Her eyes were trained on her phone screen, waiting for a call or a text message so that someone could tell her why no one was coming. She had yet to find out it had all been a plan of Mats to cancel the party.

He walked into the living room and she looked up at him. "I don't understand. Why isn't anyone coming?" She asked him.

Mats bit down on his lip. He thought it was as good a time as any to tell her the truth. "I told everyone not to come. I'm really sorry."

"You what?" She asked, outraged.

"I told them not to come." He repeated. This time, he could not look her in the eyes and instead looked down at the tiled floor of the living room. He quickly added an explanation, "That dream I told you that I had was real. For the past two nights, I've been reliving the same day where we have a huge fight and you drive off. The first one was during the Christmas party. In the second one, I cancelled the party and you were so mad that you drove off anyway. I just want to save your life. I want you to be okay."

Her mouth fell open in surprise and her brown eyes burned with anger. "So you cancelled the party because of a stupid dream?"

"Did you listen to anything I just said?" He asked her.

"All I could hear was you blabbering away nonsense, Mats." She countered. Getting up from her seat on the living room couch, she walked past him to get to the bottom of the stairs.

"Where are you going?" He wondered, following her with his eyes.

"I'm so upset at you right now, I don't even want to look at you." She confessed. By now her eyes were filled to the brim with tears that were threatening to spill at any moment. She took a deep breath to keep them from falling. "I'm going to pack a few things and then I'm going to spend the night at Jude's house."

"No, Pia." He begged, following her to the staircase now. "This is exactly what I was trying to prevent. If you leave now, I know exactly what is going to happen."

She laughed bitterly at his bizarre notions that she was going to die that night if they had a fight and she drove off in her car. "So according to you, I'm going to die tonight?"

Mats sighed, giving in slightly. It was a thing of compromise. "If you really want to leave, go get your things and I'll take you myself. I just want to make sure that you get there safe." He said to her. At least that way there was a compromise between the two of them.

Pia groaned, but ended up agreeing. They both went up to their room, and he watched her worry etched across his face as she packed a few things. But as he waited for her to pack her things, another idea came to him. It was then that he got up from where he was sitting at the edge of the bed, hurried out of the bedroom, shut the door, and put a chair in front of it to block the exit. 

"I'm sorry, liebe." He called to her through the wooden door while she banged on it and yelled at him, threatening him to get him to open it. "I promise I'll let you out tomorrow morning. And if you still want to leave me by then, you can go." At this point, he knew she would be so angry, she would probably leave him for a couple of days, and he knew he couldn't blame her. But nothing mattered to him more than her safety at that moment.

The next thing he thought to do was to go downstairs and tell the DJ and the cleaning staff to leave. Without a party happening, there was no reason for them to be there. 

Everyone was gone in a matter of about thirty minutes, and he grabbed a plate of food for her from the table where the staff had set up everything. He returned to her room to check on her and knocked several times on the door.

When he got no response, he moved the chair aside and pushed the door open. 

She was no longer there, and their balcony doors were open. From there, he could see a rope made out of sheets tied to the railing of the balcony. Mats rushed over and looked down into the driveway. Her car was gone and she was nowhere to be found. 

He quickly got his cellphone out of his pocket and called her number.

Like the other times, she answered his call. "What do you want Mats? I'm driving and you're distracting me." He could hear her cries from the other line. 

Mats ran a hand through his dark hair in frustration. He had tried so hard to prevent this precise conversation with her. Now there was really nothing that he could do but wait and listen. He was pacing back and forth in the living room, speaking urgently into the mouth piece of the phone. "Come back home, Pia." He said to her.

"For what? So we can argue again? We're always at each other's throats now. I really can't take it anymore." She spat, her voice shaking. He immediately caught the hurt in her voice.

"No. Just come home and we'll talk. Please. I'm worried about you. Come home before you have an accident." Mats pleaded once again. By now, it was the third time he was having a similar version of this conversation with her. It was more like recited lines in a play, and he knew when the curtains were coming down on this story. He dreaded the conversation reaching its end.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? I bet-" She began an accusation, but she never finished her sentence because Mats heard a horrible sound of metal twisting and colliding, glass shattering, and tires screeching against the road. It was all so fast and before he knew it, the line went dead.

Though it was the third time he was hearing the horrible sound, it still wrung his heart out like the very first time.

-

third part for this story. im super behind with posting updates, so i doubt that this will be over by christmas now, which is a real bummer. but im not giving up on it like i did last year. im going to continue writing as often as i can until i finish it. im positive that i can finish it before the new year, since there are only twelve chaps, one for each day of christmas.

and an epilogue. so im pretty excited and inspired to actually finish this story. 

so thank you all loads for reading and voting. it really means a lot.

-clary xx