I just felt inspired so I started to write, I'm not to happy with this uppie so I my end up changing it later. But for the moment here it is

And btw I am going away for a week next week so I won't be able to update, till then I will try to update at least once more. Can't promise anything though. Anyway enjoy and please review

Disclaimer: I do not own Lara, Karel or sadly Kurtis, or anything to do with Tomb Raider…(I know I should do this every chappy but I keep forgetting)

Chapter 8

"Gaeta"

Kurtis and Lara arrived in Gaeta late in the morning, the sun was out and the weather was considerably better than in Prague and Utah. They checked into a small hotel called "The Mediterranean Sun", it was cheap and it was all they could afford as they were running out of money.

Lara had a small room with that shared a bathroom with the room next to it that happened to be Kurtis's room.

On the plane, Lara had tried to ask Kurtis questions but he grumpily turned on his side and ignored her for the rest of the trip. Then when they arrived at the hotel, the only thing he said to her was "We'll meet in your room for dinner." Then he walked off into his room and locked the door.

At lunchtime, Lara decided to go for a walk in town to try to clear her head and maybe get some clues, as Kurtis obviously wasn't going to stop acting like a drama queen until this evening.

Lara decided to go for a walk later on in the day as she was getting bored of just sitting in her room reading over the files that the mysterious "Phoenix" had giving her, 'Who is this Phoenix anyway? He still hasn't shown himself yet.' She thought as she stepped out of the hotel onto the tiny street.

She had gotten a map from the front desk and decided to go to the museum, as you never know if you may find something that was over look or covered up.

The Museum was located in a park not far from the hotel so Lara decided to walk.

Gaeta was a little village on the Tyrrhenian sea and most of the village was on the mountain face and the shops on the beach, Lara decided to go via the back of the village as there was a market going on down on the beach area.

It was completely empty up at the back, which was the way Lara like it, peaceful and quiet. She was glad she had chosen that way, she was glad she had chosen that way as it was the only part that the cretins who had designed the buildings on the shore hadn't touched.

They were all 19th century buildings and even the streets were still cobbled up there, it was very magical to Lara, as she had always thought that places like this had been destroyed.

She continued to walk through the back roads that became narrower and lead further away as she continued. After a while she realised she was no longer in the village but heading up a dirt path, she consulted her map and it said she was going to right way so she continued up the dirt path.

As she walked up a little further she found a tiny church hidden in the woods that covered the mountain, it was probably where the people who lived up in the forest went instead of walking down to the bigger one in town.

It was also 19th century and slightly crumbling, probably due to earthquakes and fires. Lara decided to go in and have a look, as she was tired and a little bit interested to see the inside.

She pulled open the single red door and slowly closed it as quietly as possible as there were people sitting in the pews.

The church was very dark as it was only lit by three small windows and candles, there were fading frescos of religious events on the walls, there was a small room to the left of the pews with bust and statues of saints and Madonna, at the altar there was a statue of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus in her arms and to her right there were two confession boxes.

It looked as if they tried their best to cram everything into the tiny space they had and they managed to do a good job except they obviously had to give up a few pews for space.

Lara walked around the back of the pews towards the statues, she fished around in her pocket for a coin and dropped it in the pot full of coins and took a small candle.

She walked past the statues and bust of saints but she wasn't terribly interested in them as she was looking for a certain one St. Ursula. She was the daughter of a British Christian king set to marry a pagan prince, she wanted to preserve her virginity so she said she could only accept this marriage if the prince's father gave her 10 noble virgins each with a thousand virgins in her service and be allowed 3 years to consider the proposal. The virgins all embarked a ship and sailed through France as far as the Colonge and later to Basel. But Ursula's Fiancé grew frustrated and fired and arrow at her that killed her. The other virgins we killed by a king of the Huns.

She was Lara's favourite Saint and probably the only one she found slightly interesting.

She found her in the middle of the row of saints; Lara took the Candle and lit it then placed it on the try in front of St. Ursula. It was not the most beautiful Statue Lara had seen of Ursula, it was chipped so badly you couldn't see her face but the arrow sticking out of her chest showed it was defiantly her.

After a while, Lara decided she should leave for the museum so she headed for the door, but as she reached it, she noticed a bust sitting in the corner of the room that looked familiar.

As she got closer she still couldn't figure out what was familiar about this Saint, maybe it was a memory from when she had endure those boring hours of Sunday school.

It was so cold and haunting to Lara, even though it was made of marble Lara felt as if its eyes were staring at her.

"Posso aiutarlo a mancare?" a voiced asked, it was a priest. He was in his late 40's with black hair, a small moustache and glasses

"Parlate inglese?" Lara asked praying he did speak English

"A little," he said with a very distinctive Italian accent "Can I help you?"

"Actually yes, who is this saint?" Lara asked as she pointed to the bust

"This is St. Joachim he was St. Anne's husband, father of the Virgin Mary and Grandfather to Jesus Christ." he replied then he placed a hand on Lara's back "Are you alright? You've gone very pale." but Lara was not all right, she new why she had thought the bust was so familiar it was Karel. It amazing to think that Karel, a nephilim, could be the Grandfather of Christ.

"Yes, I'm fine thank you." Lara managed to say

"If you are sure?" Lara nodded

"Yes, thank you for your help. I have to go now." Lara turned around and stepped back out into the forest.

The whole time she walked back down into the city, she was thinking about it, the irony that Jesus was the grandson of Karel a nephilim, a son of an angel and a mortal.

She hurried back to the hotel to tell Kurtis her new piece of information but when she continued to bang on his door no one answered, she went down to the front desk and asked is he left they said "He had left about 30 minutes after you."

Lara went back to her room to wait for him and take a bath.