Zephyr's Promise

35

The gun Axel insisted we have in our apartment shakes in my hand. Two knocks at the door woke me and Ira up. Anyone at our door at this time can not be trusted.

In my hand the gun wavers from side to side and I wonder if I could really shoot the person on the other side of this door. We were never actually supposed to have to use this damn thing. Simply it was supposed to be a precaution in a slightly skewed hypothetical. Our options were severely limited when Axel gave us the ultimatum. Keep the gun or he will be moving in. Lately he has been even more paranoid than usual. Quite frankly I wonder if it has anything to do with our time spent in Vegas. Although I'm not sure if it's my place to wonder about those kinds of things anymore.

"Who the fuck is at our door at three in the morning?" Ira yawns.

"I don't know." Quietly we tiptoe down the wooden halls. The dead of the night envelopes our apartment. Only sounds are the ones coming from the heart of the city.

"Oh give me that." She chides. Between the two of us she definitely is the better one with the weapon. Easily I slip the weapon into her hands. "You're going to end up killing yourself with how much you're shaking. Answer the door. I'll be here aiming this little baby."

Another set of knocks hit our locked door. For more than a second I feel like I am drowning. Like whatever is on the side of this door will kill me. Call it intuition or paranoia. Either way I can't stop the feeling from trapping all of the air in my lungs.

Louder the knocks seem to become. Because of my fear or the fact that it is in the middle of the night I don't know.

Acutely I am aware of the vibrations passing from the other side of the door. Through the peephole I only see the back of the person's head. Yet it is enough. I don't need to see the tempting face of the devil to know it's him. Everything about him is etched into my memory. Forever embedded into my synapses. Up to the point that I could paint the back of his head and just know.

He's here.

Stumbling back, my arms wrap around myself. Axel warned me he would be in Chicago. What he left out is the part that the betrayer would be standing at my door. But it is too late. This isn't a fairytale story where he gets to abandon me then just shows up. No grande declaration of love will ever be enough. Not after hurting me the way he did.

"No." Shaking my head I turn my back towards the door. Towards him. If I wasn't enough the first time what makes him think anything has changed? "Send him away."

"Send who...oh. Oh." Realization crosses her face. Rushing to my room I don't even let myself dwell on the pity on her face. There is no time when I am pulling the covers over my head for security.

Why would he do this to me? Abandoning me just to stalk me isn't enough. My limit has been reached with how much I can give. The threshold of scarification has been fulfilled. Nothing is left of me. Nothing left to give. Carrying this weight is enough. He will never understand just how badly he hurt me.

Shouting comes from the living room. Somehow he found his way into my home. Of course he thinks he can just barge into my home. Into my fucking life like nothing at all. He may be king of the world but not this apartment.

Shoving off the blanket I march out of my room into the living room with the hell of Ares. Fire flames around me from my anger. Without true thought my feet bring me right in front of the perpetrator. To the one man I resigned to never seeing again.

"Kitten." The softest smile graces his face. Like an eighteen wheeler it slams into me. Forcing me to address the veneration in his eyes. A look I have only ever seen from him this one time.