Remember Me

Chapter One: Turning Point

To say that Samuel was nervous was an understatement. His flight had landed at the Saint Petersburg airport just moments ago. As he stared at the black SUV waiting for him, he knew he was either walking through the pearly gates to Heaven or walking straight into the white hot flames of Hell.

He turned to his collie, who was sitting in the seat next to him. "What do you say Chester? You ready?"

The dog stared at him with a blank expression, drool dripping off the tongue that was sticking out of his mouth.

"Yeah.. me either" Samuel looked back out the small window of the plane.

With a deep calming breath, Samuel stood. He walked, what felt like slow motion, to the exit of the plane, all of his struggles and failures playing through his head. With Chester at his heels, he paused in the open exit. He stared at the bottom of the stairs. With a final calming breath, he began to descend the steps to his future.

His auburn patterned bags were placed down beside him by two men in black suits and sunglasses. He was about to ask 'What now?' when the back door to the SUV opened. A tall woman with ink black hair stepped out of the vehicle. She walked up to him, chin high and emerald eyes judging his worth. She stopped just a foot away from him. She looked him up and down. Samuel gulped.

"You showed real promise at the Grand Prix, Samuel." Lilia spoke, her Russian accent thick. "I looked at your previous performances as well. That fool Anson was training you all wrong, if he had brought you up the correct way you would have beaten Nikiforov one hundred times over by now."

"You think so..?" Samuel asked shyly, a red tinge forming on his cheeks.

"I know so. I saw a boy who is wrapped in chains when I watched you skate under him. But, now we will make you into a man."

Samuel's eyes sparkled in wonderment. This woman was amazing.

"Now, let's go." Lilia said turning to the SUV.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lilia had brought him immediately to the ice rink that he would be training at.

Samuel looked around in awe. This ice rink could practically swallow the one back in England two times!

"Now, something I noticed watching you preform is that you are no where near as flexible as you should be. Why is that?"

Samuel looked back at her. "Well, Anson never really focused on my flexibility. He focused on my footwork on the ice."

"You never went off and trained on your own?"

"No, I only did that once. I nearly pulled a muscle in my thigh, so I never tried practicing on my own again."

"I see. Well, that's where we'll begin then."