Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.

A/N: Another short chapter. This one is pretty confusing. Just to clear it up, Zelda's passing in and out of consciousness in the beginning. Italics is her dream/vision that she's having, and the normal is obviously what's going on around her. Time is speeding up and slowing down, just showing how out of it she really is. So try to bear with me and read through it a couple times if need be. And I know, I know, I'm waaaay off schedule. But Miss Apple Blossom had a misfortunate occurrence this past Wednesday. The doctor couldn't tell because it was too swollen (I have to go back Tuesday), but she thinks I tore my meniscus (a thingamajigger in my knee) while I was running the dreaded mile in PE. So I was high as a kite Thursday, and Friday I was miserable, and this weekend I was in Wichita being upset. Sorry for being off schedule.

So now, I present to you:

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Seven: I think it makes you look manlier.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

~ Edmund Burke

"Hee hee hee!" laughed a high, childish voice.

A white blanket of fog covered everything. Zelda could hardly breathe. She was wearing a lacy, white dress and her hair was curled. She had a flower behind her ear. She couldn't breathe properly or speak.

"Zeeeeelda!" laughed a girl, as she ran by. She was dressed similarly to Zelda- lacy, white dress with a flower tucked behind her ear. Zelda wanted very much so to join the girls playing and swirling about in the white mist.

"Tee hee!" a girl laughed, spinning past Zelda. She had long, raven-black hair with an almost violet sheen to it. She was wearing a white dress with a red flower like Zelda's tucked behind her ear.

"Where in the hell could she be?" a male voice asked. A second voice answered, but the voice didn't carry far enough to tell what he or she said.

Zelda was vaguely aware of the voices as she regained consciousness.

"It's been how long?" asked the first male.

"About twenty, thirty minutes," said a second voice. Zelda could tell they were coming closer.

Another girl, dressed identically, ran by laughing.

Two more girls came out. They all wore lacy, white dresses with red flowers behind their ears. The four girls were playing tag. Zelda didn't notice that it was unusual for teenage girls and young women to be so happy about playing a childhood game. She just had the longing to join them, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt a wide gap between their worlds...

Another girls walked into the frame. She had short, blonde hair with dark low lights in it. Her eyes were green. She was pretty. She showed no sign of bodily harm. She stopped walking directly in front of her, and smoothly turned to face her. The girl walked closer to Zelda, and Zelda recognized her.

"Help me, Zelda," Ilia told her. "Get him. You can do it... Don't let me go home with him. Help me."

Why did her head hurt so bad? Zelda's cheek was pressed against the steering wheel, and there were flies buzzing around her. She lifted her right hand and swatted at them. She sat up, and it felt like someone had hit her with a sledgehammer. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her head slammed back into the steering wheel.

"Hello?" a man called. "Miss Buick Driver? Where are you?"

Help! Zelda thought. Oh, this was gonna hurt... She bottled up her giant headache and sat up.

"HEY!" she screamed loudly. "HELP!" Black spots appeared around her line of vision, and she slumped back over in the seat. She could hear the mens' voices, but she was too out of it to answer back. Their voices were coming out very distorted. Zelda struggled to sit up, but she couldn't manage it. She could almost see one of them, now. He was standing far away, and she could barely make out his silhouette. Zelda willed him to please come help her. Then he spoke.

As Zelda watched, Ilia started to change. Her hair became messy and undone. The flower became brown and withered. Mascara ran in streaks down her face, reminding Zelda of a prisoner behind bars. Long scratches appeared up and down her arms, and the number five appeared on the stomach of her dress. The dress became black and very torn. She was crying. In the background, the other girls were undergoing similar changes.

"It's too late for me, Zelda," Ilia said, tears running down her face. "I'm dead now. You didn't help me in time."

I'm sorry! Zelda wanted to scream.

"Sorry doesn't cover it," Ilia said. "It's too late for me... But he won't stop. He'll never stop. He has to be stopped. Help us, Zelda. Stop him. Kill him."

"Kill him," the other girls said, simultaneously walking up to Zelda and Ilia.

"You can't help us come back," Ilia said, "but you can help yourself. You're next. Look at yourself."

"Do you have the knife?" he asked. "She's close."

"Yes," said his companion. "What number is this?"

"Uhm, the Berardi girl made five." The man had a deep, husky voice.

"I'm not really in the mood to kill," said one of the men. "Not so soon, anyway. The cops might get suspicious..." The other man merely laughed.

"Oh, Miss Royale, where are you?" he said in a singsong voice. Zelda closed her eyes and let the pain of her headache overtake her.

Zelda looked down. Her dress was black and lacy, just like the other girls'. She touched her face- her mascara was streaked. She pulled the flower from behind her ear. It was dying.

"ZELDA!" shouted Liam. Zelda started waking up. "Zelda, where are you?!"

Zelda was too afraid to shout back. It could be the men...

She heard men shouting her name.

No, no, no, no, she thought repeatedly. Stay away, stay away, stay away...

"ZELDA!" Sheik shouted.

Sheik, Zelda thought. No. NO! Don't get Sheik! STAY AWAY!

"Zelda!" Sheik said. Zelda heard running footsteps. "Din! Zelda, you okay? Zelda?"

Her car door opened, and then a rush happened.

"SHE'S OVER HERE!" Sheik shouted. "Zel, Zelda," he repeated her name over and over. "Get up, please, get up!" When she didn't move, he undid her seat belt. "Come on, please, please, please," he said, pulling her out of the driver's seat and into his lap. He sat down by the totaled car and stroked her hair. "Zelda!"

"Sheik, ow," Zelda said so quietly he almost missed it. Her eyes were shut, and her head was tucked against his chest.

"Zelda!" yelled Liam, running over and skidding next to Sheik and Zelda. He slipped and fell into the Buick. "Ouch! Damn. Zelda!"

"Doomie..." she said softly. Then a vision of a large, barrel-chested man with a kitchen knife and a slim, tall companion came to mind. Zelda couldn't see their faces, only their retreating backs. Ilia's face came next, and Zelda began wildly screaming and flailing around in Sheik's arms. "GET AWAY! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!"

"DOCTOR!" shouted Liam.

"Shh, shh," Sheik said, stroking her hair. "No one's here. Just us. There are some cops nearby..." Zelda continued screaming, and then the tears came. A large flock of people suddenly appeared, and she could see flashing lights and hear some sirens. Then, she heard Sheik grunt in pain.

"Z, hold still," Liam said. Zelda felt hands on her, but she could only see the men from earlier multiplied around her, and Ilia and the other girls' crying faces in the background. As one of the EMTs administered a tranquilizer, Zelda's screams quieted and the five on Iila's stomach burned the brightest of all.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The incessant ticking was all that reached Zelda's ears.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Huuuuuh, uhhhh. Huuuuuh, uhhhhh.

She could hear someone's deep breathing.

Tick.

Huuuuuh...

Tick.

Uhhhhhhh....

Tick.

Huuuuuh...

Tick.

Uhhhhhhh...

Zelda opened her eyes. It was very dark. The blinds were pulled, but there was no light peeking around the edges anyway. It was nighttime. Zelda was in a foreign area. She was lying in a white bed that wasn't very comfortable, and the white sheet and blue blanket were both scratchy. Zelda saw a TV, and a couch. Liam was slumped over on the couch. The heavy breathing was coming from him. Zelda was very confused, but she decided she would get answers later. There was a clock hanging above her night stand. It was three fifty six AM. Zelda stared at it, and then looked back at Liam. She felt her eyelids begin to droop, and then she fell asleep.

"... fine," said Liam. "We're just waiting for her to wake up. The doctors say we can checkout at any time."

"That's good," said another male voice. There was a short pause. "Did anyone call Link?"

Link?! Zelda's heart began racing, and she struggled to try to open her eyes.

"Yeah," said Liam darkly. "He's not very happy. He wanted to fly down here, but I talked him out of it. Doc says she'll be fine, she just needs to rest. He doesn't need to skip class just to make sure she's sleeping. He worked so hard to get it, it'd be a shame for his grades to drop so early in the semester because he misses school."

"Yeah," agreed the other voice. Zelda almost, almost, detected a cheery note to it. Which could only mean it was Sheik. Zelda opened her eyes. It took the two, who were immersed in a football game, to realized she had woken up.

"Hey," said Liam softly, walking over to her. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a frickin' truck," Zelda said. "My head is pounding."

"Yeah, that should go-"

"I'm dizzy."

"Doc said-"

"I feel like I'm about to puke."

"If that's the case, aim for the trash can, not me," Sheik joked, ducking out of the way. Zelda stuck her tongue out at him, and then was overcome by surprise.

"What in Din's name happened to you?" she asked. Sheik had white gauze taped over his nose. "You look ridiculous."

"You hurt Sheik worse than the tree hurt you," Liam teased. "You have a concussion, and you almost broke Sheik's nose."

"They just freed me," Sheik said, reaching for the gauze.

"Your mom is gonna freak," Liam warned.

"Let her," Sheik muttered, tearing the gauze off. His nose was crusty with blood, and there was a cut on it. He looked in the mirror on the wall by the miniature whiteboard that the nurses used to write notes and food restrictions. "Not too shabby," he said, nodding in satisfaction.

"I think it makes you look manlier," Zelda said. The other two laughed, and then the Baldwins came in. Mrs. Baldwin helped Zelda change back into her clothing Liam had brought from home, and then the two families left the hospital.

Zelda stared at the number on her phone. It was so familiar. So many times had it been dialed, so many times had it appeared on the screen and Zelda's heart had jumped... But this time, she wasn't so sure. Sighing, she hit the green button. The phone began to ring.

Zelda was wearing a pair of Soffe shorts and a loose, white shirt. She was lying in her own bed, at home. It was later that night, and Liam was in the living room. Zelda had a feeling he'd be staying out there all night, in case she needed him. She smiled at her brother's thoughtfulness.

"Hello?" Link's deep voice answered.

"Hi," Zelda said weakly. There was a momentary silence.

"Zelda," Link said, his voice as weak as hers. Her face bunched up, and a tear slid down her cheek.

"I miss you so much," she said, her voice cracking.

"Zelda," he moaned again. In the background was silence. Zelda wondered where he was. A coffee shop, maybe? That seemed very Link-like. He enjoyed coffee very much, and he liked to go there when he was overwhelmed.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you too," Link told her. "How are you? What happened? You'd better tell me everything." A slight, affectionate growl was added on the "everything". Zelda smiled. She had been afraid that he would yell at her for being so stupid. She should have known better. As she told him the same story she had told Sheik and Liam, he reacted similarly. A few deep, heavy breaths, and then: "We'll discuss that when you're feeling better. How do you feel now?"

"Dizzy. Nauseous. My stomach hurts. Headache. I don't have very good balance," Zelda said. "The doctor told me to sleep as much as I could, which I've been doing all day, which is why I didn't call sooner."

"I figured. Doomie texted me and told me you were fine, you were just sleeping a lot. Just do exactly what the doctor says, Z, don't overdo it."

"He says the concussion I have isn't very serious. I should be better by tomorrow or in a few days."

"Good," Link said. "He said that you must have been touched by Din, because if that really was the killer, you weren't very far from the road. And the Buick's totalled, but you just got a minor concussion."

"Yeah," Zelda said thankfully. A soft silence followed.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Coffee shop. It's the same one as home, but it's not as good. You know what they say, home sweet home."

"Yeah," Zelda said. Another silence followed, and she felt sleep pricking at the corners of her consciousness.

"Hey, I've been thinking," Link said. "About open relationships."

"What?" Zelda said, whatever glimpse of sleep she'd had disappearing. Fire filled her insides.

"You know. Where we date other people."

"You had better not be suggesting that is what we do."

"I'm not, I'm not!" Link said, backtracking. "That's not-"

"Good," Zelda said. A silence followed.

"Get some sleep," Link said abruptly. "Good night."

"Good night," Zelda said, hanging up. As soon as she did so, she felt extreme frustration. He probably really wasn't suggesting they date other people. He was probably clearing the air because he felt insecure about Sheik. Zelda bit back tears of frustration, and squeezed her eyes shut. She succumbed to the desire to sleep.