Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
Time stood still in that moment of pure bewilderment as no one knew what to do. Everyone looked towards at Lara for some sort of reaction from her, but she seemed lost for words after the shock encounter. Linda decided she would break the awkwardness surrounding the group and be courteous to the unannounced guest.
"Please come in Christian, would you like a midnight beverage?"
"Thank you, a glass of water wouldn't go amiss please." Christian smiled and stepped foot into the grand manor.
"Okay, Winston and I will go get some drinks." Linda gestured towards Winston with her eyes and he nodded in response.
After closing the door, Winston went along with Linda to the kitchen to show where the glassware was stored and helped prepared the refreshments. Kurtis did not know how to react in this situation, but he decided to see how Lara was before introducing himself to the strange visitor who seemed to know his wife…Obviously there was some history between the two which he wanted to find out more about…
"Lara, are you alright?" Kurtis placed his hand on Lara's shoulder, he could feel how tense she was…however a second later she seemed to shrug it off.
"Yeah sorry, this is all so out of the blue. Kurtis, this is Christian Schneider. He and I go way back to when we were both students of Werner Von Croy. Christian, this is Kurtis Trent and he is my husband." She announced in an unheard-of monotone style.
As the two were introduced, Kurtis studied Christian seeing if he could figure out what intent he had, but in that split second he did not know what to make of him and as expected the guest was doing the very same thing to Kurtis too. There definitely needed to be some reason as to why this was happening, nevertheless they both shook hands in a friendly manner.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Kurtis." The unfamiliar visitor happily greeted him.
"Likewise, Christian. Shall we head through to the living room? Makes no sense to stand around here in the hallway." Kurtis suggested, eager to get some explanations.
"Ah good idea, lead the way." Christian motioned as he continued smiling at the couple, strangely there was no immediate hint that he took notice of Lara's change of behaviour when he made his appearance.
Without further ado they walked through the alcove corridor on the left-hand side and reached the lounge, where the lights had automatically turned on and the three had found places to sit on the plush chairs in the room. Winston and Linda were not long behind them delivering the glasses of water to the trio, and once done the good-natured couple decided to retire to bed.
"Well we'll leave you three to catch up. Goodnight all, and thanks again for a wonderful evening!"
"You're both very welcome, night both." Both Lara and Kurtis waved at the couple.
"Nice to meet you Winston and Linda." Christian kindly remarked as they closed the door behind them.
Attention then turned back to the mysterious person whom in that moment was observing his surroundings of the elegance and décor of the manor interior.
"A lovely home you have here!" The late caller commended them both. Lara was unfazed by this complement and immediately wanted to cut to the chase.
"What brings you here then Christian? What do you want from us?" Lara almost snapped at him, but he held his calm composure.
"Why a proposal of course... I know we have our history Lara, but I may be onto something and I need your help."
"Oh no…I'm sure we've all heard of something like this before, and I'm not falling for it…You and Werner chose your paths when you both turned your back on me all those years ago…"
"But that is all in the past, and our mentor has passed on as you well know. Please Lara, you have to believe me when I say I'm on the verge of an amazing discovery…I didn't travel all this way just to be shown the exit."
"I don't care what you think, now I would appreciate it if you would leave…" Lara gestured towards the front door, just as Christian lost hope in trying to convince the ex-tomb raider Kurtis decided to step in.
"Woah hang on Lara…I don't know what the deal is between you two but at least let's hear what he has to say."
"Humph. Fine. Go ahead Mr. Schneider, what revelation have you found?"
With that Christian did not say another word and delved into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a tattered piece of rolled parchment and placing it on the tabletop. He looked into the duo's eyes as they stared in confusion at the papyrus scroll and the fellow protégé of Von Croy at last unveiled to the couple what he had in his possession. Silence befell upon them as they promptly studied what it was.
"A map?" Kurtis suggested, as he viewed the markings and noticed an occurring pattern upon the sheet.
"Indeed, can you guess where it is from?" He queried them both, and Lara had soon chimed in.
"There is some hieratic script on this side, meaning its of Ancient Egyptian origin."
"Right you are Lara, do you know what it says?"
She began to roughly translate the text that was exquisitely written upon the page. All were intrigued as it spoke of a concealed chamber that was secretly constructed underneath a supposed vast complex, which itself was being built around the time this was written. To what purpose the secret was still unknown, however there was no doubt that whatever was down there would be of significant value. Unfortunately, some of the written text became harder to decrypt, so Lara decided to take a break deciphering the writing and gave the guest a puzzling look.
"Christian, where did you find this?"
"Glad you asked that question. Oddly enough on an excavation off the coast in Japan, how it got there all the way there from Egypt is anyone's speculation. My wife and I led a small team on an archaeological dig originally with the aim of finding shipwreck relics or Japanese treasures if we were lucky. A couple of days ago Marie and I stumbled across an eerie underground cavern, oh you should have seen it…nasty traps galore and messages of danger, telling us to go back etcetera…" It was this point Christian was partway through explaining the story, where Kurtis noticed a glaring omission…
"Sorry to interrupt, but where is Marie by the way?" He questioned.
"Ah my beloved Marie...It's hard for me to say it but she died right in front of my eyes in that cave…I won't go into details as it still hurts me deeply…even this horrific event happened I spurred on and eventually found what you see before you. Now I know what you are thinking, I should have stopped this risky journey altogether after losing my wife…but not only I am doing it for her. My excavation is also at financial trouble and I have five days to come up with something or risk losing the site. I know it won't bring her back though I want to do this on behalf of her memory, and I don't want her sacrifice to be in vain."
Suddenly the emotion had started to pour out for Christian who was delicately holding his gold wedding ring in his palm, and in an instant turned into crying as he put his head into his hands over his loss and burden. With a heavy change of heart, Lara consoled her broken down associate and friend from long ago.
"We're sorry to hear about your loss and sad circumstances." Were all the words that came out of her as she hugged him for support.
"This is why I have come to you at this late hour…I'm not asking for your money, but I need an experienced trustworthy partner…will you help me find out what this all means? I just know there is more to that cavern then meets the eye and I believe the breadcrumbs of this map will lead us to something grand…"
"I don't know…" Lara looked towards her husband in that moment for any reassurance, however he was subtly shaking his head, this situation all seemed too surreal.
"Ask yourself this Lara…will an opportunity like this arise again for you?" Christian directly inquired her, knowing he had asked the right question since it made her go deep in thought.
"Hmm. Well it is getting too late to decide now, let us sleep on it and pick this up in the morning. Have you booked a hotel for the night before you got here?" Lara quizzed.
"I haven't in my rush to get here, so my apologies."
"Don't worry about it, you can sleep in the guest room next to Winston's. It is already prepped."
"Thank you so much for your hospitality Lara and Kurtis, I certainly look forward to hearing your answer tomorrow." Christian stated, as they all departed from the living room.
