Two words. Epic fail. John Erik scrambled around on the floor, trying desperately to get his hands to close around one of the knives that he'd knocked to the cheap linoleum. The tears in his eyes from the blow to his face and the blood dripping from his nose was a distraction though and before he knew what was happening it felt as though something had clamped around his throat and he was flying through the air. Leverage gone...completely.

The impact of the wall knocked the breath from him further and as he clawed at the hand around his neck, John Erik realized that he couldn't take in any air. What else was disturbing was the rate at which he was becoming exhausted. Cold certainty started to creep into his consciousness and John Erik realized that he had lost. What had started as another battle for another trophy had quickly become a battle to live. And he was losing, he was losing quickly.

Stars started to swim in front of John Erik's eyes and his hands grew more and more weak as the woman took more and more energy from him. He tried to breathe again and failed once more. She really was willing to kill her lover to stop him. John Erik was amazed and horrified that he'd made such an error in judgment as far as the woman was concerned.

Slowly, but far more quickly than he could have ever imagined it happening, John Erik's eyes grew droopy and his hands stopped flailing at all, his initially feeble struggle diminishing to almost nothing. This was it...there would be no return from death this time, no passage on to something greater or more terrible. Simply a cessation of being as the woman drank in everything that was left of his essence. So much work had been completed, so many great things had been done, only to be destroyed with one fatal error.

That was the last thing he thought...a final wave of fatal exhaustion swept over him and the body Lee held went completely limp. Face red and slightly blue with the lack of air.

Lee was trying not to actually look at the man she was holding by the throat against the wall as the tears that had crept into her eyes spilled over. It was one thing to have no questions about who was in control of the body when he was grabbing her by the hair and threatening her life. It was completely different when she could actually see him, when he wasn't able to speak because he couldn't get air.

Lee felt her stomach twist painfully as she felt the fighting against her growing weaker and weaker by the moment. How much did she have to take to get rid of this guy? Would that kill Tarin? How fine was the line between doing one, but not the other?

The tears started streaming down her cheeks heavier as Lee stifled a sob, but she didn't loosen her hand around Tarin's neck. Hard as it was, one way or another things had to end, even if it killed her, or Tarin. Or in some way, killed both of them, which unfortunately was seeming far more likely as each second slowly ticked by.

Then Tarin went completely limp, his hands dropping away from his throat, his body slumping completely. She had been holding most of his weight up by the throat, now she was holding all of it. Lee's stomach felt like it dropped, her heart jumped into her throat; she couldn't breathe, couldn't see through the tears in her eyes, but she knew something major had happened. The energy she was feeling coming through her hand on the throat had dropped dramatically.

Lee had planned to make sure, she had to make sure the spirit was gone, no matter what. Even if she hadn't known for sure herself, she had bluffed when she said she'd kill Tarin to get rid of the spirit. Squeezing her eyes closed against the flood of tears, trying to fight the sobs that were threatening to break through, Lee moved her grip on Tarin, swiftly but gently settling him down on the floor of the kitchen.

Then Lee was scrambling backward, away from Tarin, as fast as she could. Feeling her back hit something - a chair, the table? - she turned a bit before continuing back, and only stopped when she hit the opposite wall. As soon as she was there, stopped, Lee wrapped her arms around her legs, her chin on her knees as she looked through her tears at Tarin's still form, the sobs finally breaking through as she rocked back and forth slowly.

She could only hope and pray she hadn't crossed that fine line.

Tarin couldn't help but think about all the specials he'd seen on TV about near-death experiences. People always said that they could see themselves as they floated about a room, watching what was happening before somehow coming back to themselves. If that was really the case, then Tarin knew exactly what it was they were talking about because he was experiencing it at that very moment.

He could actually see himself pressed into the wall, arms and legs struggling to loose Lee's hand around his neck but not succeeding. Tarin was proud of Lee, but sad for the obvious pain he was causing her, she so very rarely cried.

The body on the wall went limp now and Tarin studied the bloodied face, hands, and body and wondered if it was really worth it to try to go back. This was pinnacle of everything he'd been thinking about over the past few hours. Would it be better if he just stayed where he was? The body was sliding down to the floor now and Lee was scrambling backwards as fast as her arms and legs would move her over the floor.

Tarin looked over at her, no, he'd told her something not long ago. He'd neglected to fight for her once, that was never going to happen again. If nothing else, he owed her that. She'd stopped him....again. At great personal risk to herself...again.

He was crumpled on the floor and he felt so weak that he could hardly move, just opening his eyes brought on a wave of nausea and made his hands shake. Tarin's ribs stung and his eyes drooped, but it actually felt good to be breathing. Lee was still too far away to be able to know he was okay, and Tarin knew at this point he wouldn't be able to move. It was over though, at least it felt like it was over and Tarin let his eyes slip back shut, he needed sleep.