Chapter 13 - Till Death Do Us Part: Part 2

Zelgadis found his way back to Lina's home by his usually impeccable but occasionally faulty memory. As he mounted the threadbare steps and crossed the narrow hallway with poor lighting on the second floor, he wondered if he was doing the right thing.

He stopped, halfway down the hallway. At the far end lay the glorified motel room Lina and her, for lack of a better term, "family" lived.

Last time he had seen Lina, he had been so crushed by the look in her eyes that he wasn't sure if he could continue living. He had almost collapsed on her doorstep and begged her forgiveness. Instead, he had been so wracked with guilt at the mess he had made of his life, and everyone else's life too, for that matter, that he had blindly, wordlessly, numbly left the building and made his way home.

Desperation, fear, betrayal, resentment - emotions Zelgadis hated to see in anyone but were especially debilitating to him when they came from Lina. And there had been something else there, too, something he hadn't seen before and hadn't expected: Resignation.

He should have turned around, marched right back in, and swept Lina off her feet like a prince in some stupid fairytale, even though Lina would've probably fought him every step of the way. Right where he was standing now, right there, that's where he should've spun on his feet. Carried her right out of this godforsaken building and away to somewhere better for the both of them.

Love makes people to stupid things, but fear makes people absolute morons.

How long had it taken him to realize he was truly, utterly, madly, inescapably in love with Lina? That was a stupid question. He had known from the first glimpse of her bouncing poppy-red hair that they were destined.

It had occurred to him before that he may be doing a disservice to his first love Mika, thinking things like that, and the thoughts had first filled him with shame and grief, but the more he searched himself the more sure he was that Mika would approve, and that she would bless them with whatever heavenly powers she now had.

So here he stood, bolted to the floor, on the cusp of either making a huge mistake or the best decision of his life.

Was she truly so upset that she wanted to end everything with him? He couldn't know. Not until he saw her.

Even if this would be their last moment together, it would be worth it.

Zelgadis crossed the remainder of the hallway with long, determined strides and rang the buzzer next to the peeling wooden frame of the door.

Lina lifted her head from the floor, panting heavily, at the sound f the doorbell. Xelloss, some feet away leaning against the wall, cradled a broken wrist with his opposite hand, also breathing heavily.

"You're not answering that," Xelloss growled. As if Lina could just stand up and waltz over to it. It was all she could do just to keep breathing.

"I hope," Lina began through gritted teeth, "That someday I'll be able to repay-" Lina paused to cough, almost gagging at the coppery taste in her mouth, "-the favor you so graciously bestowed on me."

"No thanks," Xelloss replied, lurching toward the prone girl. "You've done enough."

"Does 'kitty' play too hard for you?"

"Shut up!"

Zelgadis wondered if he should try again, or just walk away. He could faintly make out sounds coming from the other side of the door, but there was no way to tell if it was a strung-out Luna or a drunken Mom or his beloved Lina.

Suddenly there was a crash, loud enough for Zelgadis to discern that something bad was happening in that hellhole of an apartment.

He knocked on the door, hard, and rang again. He tried turning the knob, in case he had just taken for granted that these people ocked their doors, but the door was indeed locked.

"Lina?!" he shouted, putting his face close to the wood. He banged on the door again, hard enough to make his knuckles throb in pain. "Lina!"

"Sounds like your loverboy is here to pay you a visit."

Lina, having just managed to get out of the way of a falling bookcase, squeezed her eyes shut. Tears coalesced on her lashes, and she brought up a hand to wipe them away. Her jammed fingers on that hand gave a twinge of pain, causing even more tears to come forth.

"Go to hell," she whispered. "Go to hell."

"I would've thought you 'd scared him away forever, after last time."

Lina didn't rise to the bait this time, but she did start to slink and roll toward the door.

"ZEL!" she shrieked.

"Lina!" Zelgadis put his face flat against the door. "What's going on?! Are you hurt?!" There was no vocal response, at least not any that he could understand.

Zelgadis looked wildly around, desperation turning him into a cornered animal. He caught a glimpse of two pale faces, and he whirled around to face the tenets of the apartment two doors down. His mouth opened to speak and their eyes widened. The faces disappeared.

"Wait!" Zelgadis yelled, and when the door began to swing shut he lunged toward it. He got his hand on the knob and his foot in the door, just as the wood would have slammed home into the frame. Ignoring the jarring pain, Zelgadis pushed the door back. "Please, you have to help! Call the police!"

"Get out of my home!" the older of the two, a tragically young mother, shrieked. She pushed behind her a small child, who stared at Zelgadis with a mixture of fear and awe. No doubt Zelgadis looked a fright himself, though surely he couldn't be any mor dangerous than what was going on behind Lina's closed door.

"I will, just - just, please, call the damn police!"

"OUT! GET OUT!" The woman began throwing magazines and whatever else lay at her immediate disposal. Zelgadis retreated, but, spying a cordless phone on the rickety entrance hall table, he grabbed what he wanted before slamming the door after himself.

He dialed as quick as his shaking fingers allowed him.

Lina and Xelloss eyed each other, both suffering in more ways than they dared to show. Lina sat in the entryway, bruised, bleeding, holding a broken arm to her breasxt and using her other hand to grab at her shin. The pain was so intense and so completely overwhelming she wasn't even sure what, exactly, was broken or damaged. At the very least, she took comfort in the fact that Xelloss looked the worse for wear, and thankful that she hadn't trimmed her nails in a very long time.

In spite of the damage she had dealt, the bastard was still on his feet, which unfortunately meant he still had the advantage. He was, at the moment, mourning the loss of depth perception in general and his left eye in particular, but Lina was positive that wouldn't last long, as he'd surely come after her to repay the favor any minute.

Zelgadis was on the other side of the door at Lina's back. All she had to do was get the door open. Turn around, unlock the stupid thing, and she'd be okay.

That's what she kept telling herself.

The thought of seeing his face, the thought of being in his arms, the thought of him destroying this demon in the room gave Lina the energy to move.

She pushed herself off the floor, every joint aching in protest, every wound including the superficial ones burning as if salt had been poured into them. She half turned, half fell against the door, and disengaged the chain lock. Her head pounded.

Lina held onto the knob with a death grip, using it to keep her in at least a semi-vertical state, and turned the deadbolt lock. It felt like her vision was beginning to go fuzzy at the edges.

One left. The lock in the doorknob itself had to be turned before the door would open.

One left.

Bloody fingers grabbed a handful of Lina's hair and snapped her head back, trying to drag her away from the door. She clung to the doorknob like it was a life raft and she was adrift in the sea. A red-hot pain blossomed in her head.

"You stupid bitch," Xelloss's voice gurgled in her ear. "You ugly whore-"

Lina choked, from the pressure on her throat or the tears in her eyes, she wasn't sure. To even attempt to fight back she'd have to let go of the door, but she couldn't be sure she'd be able to reach it again.

A flick of the wrist, the slightest pressure from a single finger, that is all it would take, but somehow she was unable to get her fingers in the right place and position, as if she had forgotten how to use them.

But Zelgadis…

Right there…

A breath away…

A moment of clarity burned clear Lina's mind. She could suddenly sense that Xelloss was leaning on her as much as she was on hime, and if she could just shift the balance…

Lina let go of the doorknob and pushed off against the door with the foot that hurt significantly less than the other. When she felt them both start to fall, she pushed as hard as she could and used her momentum and weight to land on Xelloss as hard as she could.

She heard the sharp crack of Xellos's head connecting with the linoleum floor. The grip on her hair loosened as the monster shrieked. Lina, cushioned from the fall by her assailant's body, rolled away. Her body begged to stay where it lay, pleaded with her to just close her eyes for a second or three and rest, but she knew she couldn't.

She began her crawl back to the door.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Zelgadis spat at the woman whose phone he had just hijacked. The woman, having reclaimed her phone by subjecting Zelgadis to a barrage of blows via a broken umbrella, scowled at him and slammed the door. "Ashamed," he repeated, returning to his spot by Lina's apartment. At least I got the call in…

Zelgadis heard a click. He looked down at the doorknob, hardy daring to hope. When the door didn't open immediately from the inside, a wave of terror flooded Zelgadis's heart. Someone unlocked but didn't open the door? Or couldn't?

Zelgadis wrapped his hand around the knob and opened the door.