Sand swirled in front of the entrance to the temple. The dark night of the sky did nothing to hinder the dark terror that lay just inside.
A prone figure stood staring at the gaping blackness, contemplating. There was an ancient torn page of a book clutched in her hand.
A small flash of movement removed her attention from the temple. She watched as a hooded cobra circled her, and she listened to the hissing, magnified by the empty silence of the desert.
The daunting task that lay before her soon captured her attention once more. She examined the fading words of the page, carving them into her mind, for remembering them in their entirety was her only chance of survival.
"To enter the temple means to remove your being from the plane of the living. The great serpent will slither through your veins the second the venom touches your lips. Bringing death upon yourself is the only way to escape the temple alive with the treasures that you seek. Drink the poison of the serpent, find that which you came for, and make haste through the winding passages. If you do not succeed within a full day, you will be trapped in the shadowed hallows of the serpent's lair, and you shall become a soulless shell for the hooded cobra to feast on for all eternity."
She folded it up and slipped into her backpack, and turned her attention back to the entrance of the temple.
The temple had been in existence for over 4,000 years, and had claimed the lives of many explorers before her.
The object it contained was an artifact of great power. A dagger, coated with the blood of the cobra that allowed the possessor to become immune to all serpent venom, if the venom from the dagger was mixed with the possessor's blood.
It was the Italian sister to the Dagger of Xian, and had been forged by the same hands. This dagger was appropriately named the Dagger of Serpenti.
The legend says that in order to obtain it, you must enter the temple, and drink the venom of a serpent. This will turn you into an undead being, and will allow you to progress through the temple, because a living being would stand no chance of survival. Your greatest fear will try to stop you from going any further, and if you bypass it, you will be granted access to the dagger. You will have a full day to escape. If you don't, your immunity to the venom you ingested will run out when the day is over, and your soul will perish.
The history books have no more details after that. What happens after you take the dagger from its resting place is still a mystery.
Who better to find out than Lara Croft?
She allowed herself one last glance over her shoulder, and then stepped into the inky blackness.
The passage was extensive and sinister. Lara's footsteps echoed off of the stone walls, and her faint shadow danced ahead.
As she made her way to the end, a muffled hissing sound reached her ears. Only when she stepped into the first cavern did she realize what it was. Snakes. They were all around her, slithering along the marble floor. She found it odd that they were not aggressive towards her, but dismissed it and surveyed the room. There were statues lining the walls of creatures with the bodies of snakes, and the heads of men and women. Thin cracks emerged from each side of the room, running along the marble floor, and led to a central pedestal.
Lara squinted, trying to find a permanent way to light the room. She smiled when she noticed the unlit torches that were attached to every statue. She quickly scanned the area in front of her for any traps, and stepped forward to the first statue on her left. She lit a match, and held it to the torch, and smiled again when that section of the room was illuminated.
The detail on the statue was now visible. Blood red gems were used for the eyes, and the expressions were those of permanent frozen terror. Lara's eyes widened. These statues were made to represent all those that had failed at the same task she was now attempting. An excited shiver ran down her spine, and she moved to the second statue. Once all the torches were lit, and the room was brightly illuminated, Lara could see the room in its entirety. There was a passage directly across from the one that she entered from, and the central pedestal was now clearly observable.
Twin marble serpents wound around the base, and stopped at the top. The head of one was a fully formed cobra, and the other was a flat platform, on which an object of great importance sat.
Lara stepped over to it, and scrutinized it carefully. It was a small red marble flask, and it appeared to be empty, which probably meant that she was supposed to fill it up with something. She glanced around, looking for a liquid substance, even though she hadn't noticed one before.
There was none. She knelt down next to the pedestal, and ran her hands over the base, searching for a latch or a lever.
Her fingers brushed over something small and recessed. She smirked, and pushed the small black beetle into the statue. The sound of running water immediately filled the room.
Lara knew that one should not believe something is indeed water, just because it bears a resemblance to it. The mouth of the marble cobra across from the platform was now open, and a nearly transparent yellow fluid was emitting from it. It had to be the venom that the text spoke of.
She glanced back down at the flask, and realized that she was meant to use the flask to drink it. She flipped open the lid on the flask, and held it under the trickling liquid.
Once it was about half full, she stood up, brought it to her lips, and finished it in one swallow.
Her eyes widened, and the flask fall from her hand, smashing on the stone floor.
The pain that was coursing through her veins caused her knees to buckle, and she fell to the floor, vision swimming.
Suddenly, it was over as quick as it had begun. Her eyes opened slowly, and she looked around for any differences. The opposite passage was now brightly lit, and the room around her looked as if it had been freshly built. There was no sign of decay on the statues, and to her expectance, the passage behind her was now non-existent. She held her hands out in front of her, and started when she saw small red veins pulsing and glowing just under her skin.
She stood up, shakily, and inspected the rest of her body. No tentacles, fur, or scales. That was a good sign.
The radiant light coming from the next passage beckoned her to move forth, and seeing no other way to continue, she complied.
It was exactly the same as the last passage, only much shorter. It opened into a tall shaft-like room, with a rope hanging down the wall in front of her.
Lara wrapped her fingers around the rough twine, and started to ascend. The air became humid as she climbed, and the rope started to burn the skin of her hands, even though she couldn't feel any pain.
She quickly clambered out of the shaft, and immediately went on the defensive for possible death hazards. She may be undead now, but she was positive that this no-pain thing didn't last forever, should she lose a foot or some such thing.
A swooshing sound above her caused her instincts to jolt into gear, and she dove out of the way of whatever was about to decapitate her.
Something crunched into the marble behind her, and she whipped around to investigate. A large ornate sword was protruding from the marble.
It was Damocles all over again.
Another whistling noise crackled through the air, and Lara swiftly jumped backwards, and again as another sword started to fall.
Lara relaxed a bit, and then realized that she had acted too soon, as the ground started to crack under her feet.
She hastily scanned the room for the next corridor, and upon finding it, sprinted into the opening.
She twisted around, and something flew past her in a blur, slamming into the ground. A metal door. Of course.
Turning away from the door, she peered down the next passageway. Something shimmered in the distance, and she slowly inched her way towards it. The passage opened into a small circular area.
This room was dark, and Lara had to strain to see what had been glimmering in the room before.
Her eyes narrowed, as she became conscious of the fact that she was surrounded by copies of herself. The wall was lined with mirrors.
She stepped over to them, and then recoiled when her image in the mirrors started to transform. Slowly, her body transformed into that of a man. No. He was dead. He died in the Strahov. She was never going to see him again.
The reflection of Kurtis Trent became distorted, and came back together in the form of a man that Lara never wanted to see again. Not after the prayer wheel incident. In fact, if Alex West had the misfortune to cross her path again, she would see to it that he suffered greatly, in the form of a full .45 caliber pistol.
The next figure was of a man that she had killed herself. Terry Sheridan was the type of person that didn't know the meaning of stop while you're ahead.
What did this mean? Why were the mirrors showing her these people that she was prepared to forget?
Then it dawned on her. The implication hit her, making her recoil even further away from the mirrors.
Her greatest fear. She had some kind of feelings for these men, at some point. Having feelings for someone means becoming dependent on them. Lara Croft depended only on herself. She didn't need a man to hold her hand.
She stared at the mirrors with narrowed eyes, mulling over the solution to this seemingly simple puzzle.
She was supposed to overcome her fear, but how? She glanced up, and noticed that the face staring back at her was smiling humorlessly, and then the reflection was abruptly pointing a gun at her. She gazed at the barrel, and the solution came to her as if she had known it all her life.
Within seconds she had both pistols leveled at the mirrors, and pulled both triggers. Shattered shards of glass flew around her, leaving small cuts in her skin. The reflections in the mirrors that were left were morphing rapidly from one figure to the other, until there were no mirrors left at all.
Lara reloaded and holstered her guns, and fixed her eyes on the damage she had done. The damage that was now slithering across the floor in silver trickles. The now silver liquid transformed itself into a mirror like box, and then melted away revealing a key. She closed her hand around it and looked around for a key hole of some sort.
It was embedded in the wall behind her, and was a bit difficult to spot. The hole didn't look like any keyhole she had ever seen, more like a bullet hole.
Lara made her way over to it, and inserted the key, turned it, and waited.
She had about 3 seconds to prepare for it, before her feet dropped out from under her, and she was falling quickly.
Blurred stone flew past her as she thrashed her arms, trying to find something to grab. Air rushed by her ears, and then suddenly she felt detached from the world, and wet. When she regained a grip on reality, she found that she had fallen into a pool of water.
The pool was crystal clear, and it didn't appear to have a bottom. Lara quickly swam to the surface, and surveyed her surroundings.
The object in the corner of the room caught her eye immediately. It was what she had come for. The dagger was imbedded in the mouth of another marble cobra. The hilt looked as if it was made out of pure onyx, and the blade platinum.
Something brushed against her leg, and she watched as the rippled shape swam through the water.
A sea snake delicately made its way to the steps at the edge of the pool, and Lara supposed that she was meant to follow.
She swam to the edge and pulled herself out. The snake glided across the floor, and over to the stone serpent with the dagger. It wrapped itself around it, and gazed at Lara with small beady black eyes.
Lara stopped in front of the dagger, and throwing caution to the wind, unsheathed it from the serpent's mouth.
The second it was removed, her veins started to burn, and her lungs constricted. Her immunity to the venom was running out. Her life's clock was now ticking, and she had to get out of there before it stopped. There was a small gap in the opposite wall, just big enough to crawl through.
A crumbling sound jolted her out of her reverie, and she whipped her head up to stare at the ceiling. A wall of bloody spikes was descended rapidly towards her, waiting to exterminate her.
Her life depended on getting to that crawlspace. She quickly shoved the dagger into her backpack, and she dove into the water. She swam as if the nine levels of hell were chasing her, and hauled herself out when she made it to the edge.
She slid through the opening just as the first spike crunched into the ground. She didn't have long to revel in her victory. The walls of the crawlspace slowly started to close in. Being squished was decidedly not the way Lara was prepared to die. She scrambled to the other side and rolled out into what looked like a butcher from hell.
Blood covered the walls, and blades swung from wall to wall. A lone ladder sat propped up against the other side of the room, leading up to a narrow ledge.
Lara timed her jumps past each blade, and thanked every deity under the sun that she had outstanding reflexes. She clambered up the ladder and into the narrow passage, and watched as the floor in the blade room vanished, revealing a pit of boiling lava.
She quickly came to a dead stop. This passage had no way out, or so it seemed. She looked up, and saw an opening just above her. She jumped and grabbed the ledge, pulled herself up, and quickly jumped back down and out of the way just as a large black boulder shot out of the opening.
She returned to the passage, and made her way to the end. A long river of lava stretched before, with a ledge on the other side. She took two steps back from the edge, and ran forward, launching herself over to the other platform.
She stepped into the next area and quickly ducked as a blade swiped the air above her. She crawled to the other side of the room, and noticed a switch on the floor. She pushed it in, and heard the sound of rushing air and crumbling rock. She rolled to the side instinctively, and watched as the now upright blade raced forward and embedded itself into the wall. Cracks started to appear, growing larger the farther away from the blade they got.
The wall crumbled away, revealing a large cavern. Lara cautiously ventured into it, peering around the room.
Something was lighting it. She glanced up, and saw a trapdoor in the very top of the cave. On the other side of the room were 7 golden slots, just big enough for the blade of a dagger to fit through. Each slot had a roman numeral above it.
Lara pulled the dagger out of her bag, and carefully examined it. She found what she was looking for on the bottom of the hilt. A small roman numeral three was indented into the onyx.
She smiled softly, and slid the blade into the corresponding slot. The room started to shake, and she watched as columns rose up out of the cavern floor, leading up to the way out. She slipped the blade back into her pack.
She jumped up the platforms, quickly, in case the cavern had a nasty surprise in store for her. The traps were over, she realized, as she landed on the final platform. She placed her hand on the trap door, and pushed. It swung open easier than she expected. Sand fell in around her, and she hoisted herself out of the temple.
The still silence of the desert surrounded her once more. Lara turned around, and saw the temple entrance. She shrugged off her backpack, and removed the dagger from its confinement.
She felt the venom leave her body, and every single cut she had acquired flashed with pain, as the numbness the venom had induced disappeared.
Lara ran her fingers over the smooth weapon, taking pleasure in another triumph.
She returned it to the bag, zipped it, and raised herself up off the sand. Off in the distance, a man in a red robe riding a camel rode towards her.
With one last look over her shoulder, she walked through the sand towards her ride.
That temple had claimed the lives of many treasure hunters.
Fortunately, no temple in existence could claim the life of Lara Croft.
.