Chapter One: Blink

I didn't want to open my eyes.

Even now, I could tell it was dark-reddish-blackness shone through my eyelids. My weight pressed firmly into the wet sand; I let my mind wander to the rapid and uneven expansion and contraction of my rib cage as I drew ragged breath.

Something about the sheer space of the room seemed apparent as well: echoes of falling water created a deeply resonant sound, each individual drop showering sparks of reverb against the cavern walls. They seemed to tear brutally at the fabric of the moment.

Tear brutally at my focus.

At my quiet.

"Lara?" I breathed, my lips quivering with the cold. She needed to respond-I couldn't open my eyes knowing I was here alone. It would be better to remain in darkness.

"Lara!?" My voice remained little more that a spurt of air passing my lips in the shape of her name.

I hated my fear and found my breath following the pattern of sobs. It'd be disastrous to fall into hysterics at a time like this and I knew that-I just couldn't possess myself to face whatever lay beyond the confines of my current sight. Opening my eyes would do nothing more than expand my perceived size of this hell.

"Lara Croft, do you copy?"

My jibe was met with none more than silence and a pattering of droplets across my face. A bit of water caught in my eyelash and I blinked it away-unwillingly exposing myself to the milky darkness that met its zenith many feet above my head. Some unseen light source sent slanted sheafs of sunlight through the oddly pleasant gloom, sharp and linear in their path. Myriads of tiny dust motes skated about the beams, visible only there. I sneezed.

I sat up with a groan. My entire body felt tender and bruised from the fall, but aside from a gash across my left palm I found myself unharmed. I looked at the blood, for a moment. As I held up my hand it oozed to the heel of my hand and the base of my wrist, and when I touched it, it was as if I couldn't feel. The skin peeled back effortlessly, jagged, whitening slightly, exposing some bloodied layer of pink beneath, and transfixed me until I found myself sane enough to press it to my pants. The blood was bright on the light denim.

My confidence now fostered, I stood, noting a large body of darkness at the far end of the room, which I innately decided to avoid.

"Lara? Tell me you're in here, baby." I said. Weakness in my legs prompted me to stay low to the ground, crouching slightly. To my right lay a jagged assortment of rubble. A protruding piece of white caught the sparse light and identified itself as bone-I didn't dare delve further into the pile's contents with my eyes, for fear of deterrence.

I didn't want to be scared.

Further down the wall, an opening was shrouded in darkness, surrounded by more rubble. A bit of water trickled through; when I looked within the rough hole, I could see scarcely more than the glint of wetness on various pieces of scrap metal and rock.

Damnit.

That seemed to be where we came in from. Lara was with me, I hadn't fallen alone...Various scenarios drove me to the brink of panic-I fought it tooth and nail. A painful knot was brought to my throat where I stored my sobs.

I continued to scan the rubble, extending into sovereign darkness near the wall before me. I needed to proceed. She had to be in here. Stepping gingerly onto a sturdy looking two by four, I made my way across it, squinting into the darkness. My sight didn't do me well-but as my eyes adjusted further to the gloom, the jagged outlines of various breeds of debris began to clarify foreground and background. And then-

"Lara!" I scrambled over a precariously balanced sheet of metal, falling once, standing, finding myself at her side. Her back, facing me, rose and fell with breath. A relief. I squatted down next to her, unsteady, and shook her gently. Blood from my palm stained her torn shirt. My heart was beating in my throat. Silence came and passed-I finally found the courage to step carefully over Lara and inspect her front.

Her face was oddly peaceful despite the blood. The curve of her brow and the weightlessness of her eyelids suggested sleep; the ease in which soft breath passed through her slightly parted lips seemed...removed. I needed to move her before she grew too pale.

"Come on Lara, we're standing…" I muttered mostly to keep myself focused, slipping my arm under hers and pulling up sharply at her weight. I let out a steadying breath-balanced precariously under her weight.

"And we're walking…" I gulped, took a step, and cried out as something gave way beneath my feet. Debris shifted-I fell, hard, and found myself some feet before where I'd been previously standing. Something broken jabbed into my leg and I hissed a curse through grit teeth. My eyes remained tightly shut for a moment after that as pain sent throbbing pulsations of blood through my consciousness. Sitting up, I realized that the actual puncture was deceivingly small, spreading more blood over my light-washed pants. Lara was on her stomach a few feet in front of me, half on the sand of the cave floor.

"Shit, shit, shit…" I stood, teetered, and made my way to where she lay, hair riding silently on the thin layer of water over the sand-I feared I'd hurt her more. Becoming aware of the incessant dripping again, I cursed it with every fiber of my being. I knew I needed to move her somewhere dry-but the blood needed to stop first. I took a shaky breath.

"Alright Lara, I'm gonna flip you. Just...stay with me, okay?" With as much care as possible, I nudged her by her shoulder, flipping onto her back, positioning her primarily on the sand. Our breath filled the blaring silence about us.

I put myself where I needed to be to start fixing this: and that was in a state of left-brain analytics. The fall had made short work of Lara's blue tank top, and hadn't spared the white one beneath. A wound across her left side spread blood across the totaled fabric, clouding the water on the ground with twisting, warping, streaks of red. Even through the obscuring layer of tank and blood, I could see a number of splinters embedded in her side, and cringed visibly at the thought. I knew I couldn't let myself panic. Not yet.

Lara lay without consciousness on the sand. Her face had become a bit taut, eyelids fluttering-like she was dreaming something bad. Her hair was plastered to her skin and I looked upon her almost guiltily, eyes finding the concave of her collar bones, the cords tighten in her neck as she swallowed. I didn't dare let my sight pass out of the range of her jaw and clavicles, half fearful of what lay there, half fearful that I would look upon her in such a way that was considered abnormal for a woman to look upon another woman.

Lara was beautiful.

I'd removed the shreds of her shirt to help spare her from the cold-It'd been useless, anyway-and used some thin cord I'd found near the debris to tie my folded jacket to her abdomen. She was a sorry sight: bruises forming across her arms as the slanted light grew dim, shadows accentuating the hollows of her face, making her look tired and old. Her superficial weakness left me somewhat disheartened.

My eyes scanned her body. I convinced myself I was checking for further injury-but my gaze got caught in the cyclic undulation of her torso, the convex of her breasts, the tiny movement of her lower lip as she blew air from her lungs. I looked away and blushed, ashamed of myself for looking at a friend in such a way. But I couldn't ignore the shiver in my spine. It felt as if a bird was trapped within my core, fluttering madly to escape-without hope of it. Turning my gaze past her, I willed myself not to look closer.

It was nearly night and I was freezing. One look at Lara's discolored fingertips told me she was colder-we were both soaking wet in chilly water. I lay down next to her left side without the courage to face in her direction, scooted closer, and drew my knees to my chest. It took some minutes for me to relax enough to let my head fall against the sand, into the water-but by that time, the cold had prompted me to flip my position so that I was facing her with my face in the nape of her neck and my torso at her side. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to think.

"Sam?" My eyes fluttered open at Lara's whispery voice. I froze, breathing stopped, eyes wide-and watched her lips quiver with voice; with cold.