I know it has been a while and you can all hit me if u want sits patiently for bashing but I've been writing something else for a competition and its taking up a lot of my time, but I said to myself today that I gotta do an uppie. Anyway hope it was worth the wait

Chapter 12

"Cyrus's Crypt"

The further that Lara and Kurtis travelled down the stairs it grew colder and damper than before making Lara shiver slightly, she was starting to feel the cold for one of the first times in her life. To keep her mind off it she tried to think of things that would make sense as to why the doors would open when they said Karel, or why hadn't the mysterious phoenix turned up yet? But she found that it was pointless, as she had no clues on how to figure out either enigma, 'I wonder if Kurtis knows, I'm not sure if he did whether he would tell me or not…I highly doubt that he would.' She looked up at Kurtis at the thought, he walked confidently ahead with his head high and a serious expression on his face, he looked like he was about to go into battle.

Kurtis noticed she was staring at him and she quickly turn away making him raise an eyebrow and grin slightly, but Lara didn't notice as she was pretending to adjust her backpack straps so she could hide her blushing cheeks. Kurtis knew that's why he was grinning then when he looked ahead again he silently chuckled and thought to himself 'I knew it, she has just been hiding the whole time. Each time we get close she lets her defences down and gives in then just at the wrong moment they come up again and she says some kind of sarcastic comment.'

"What are you laughing at?" Lara asked

"Oh nothing." Kurtis replied trying to suppress a grin but failed

"Liar, what's so funny?"

"Why do you care?" He asked, and then added now with an evil grin "I have a better question. What were you staring at?"

"Oh nothing." Lara said exactly as he did

"Bullshit." He replied

"Never mind." Lara blushed again then looked around for some kind of escape and saw that they had reached the end of the stairs. They were now in a rather dimly lit room, in the middle of the room there was a long crypt, and it was at least 7 feet or more and decorated with the same symbol from all the other doors "Well looks like we found Cyrus."

Lara walked over to the crypt and ran her fingers over it, it was made of black marble and the symbols were carved into it then filled with silver. It was very grand and beautiful to her that made it seem like even more of a shame when she found out it had been sealed shut and they would have to smash it.

"Kurtis you have the crowbar, would you rather I did it or would you like the honour?" She asked

"I'll do it." He unhooked the crowbar from his bag then brought it down onto the lid smashing a large chunk of the beautiful workmanship then he brought it down a second making an even bigger hole. Kurtis picked up the debris and threw it to the ground making it shatter into more pieces

"Don't you have any feelings for the craftsmanship that went into that?" Lara asked irritably

He looked at her and pretended to think

"No," Then he crashed the crowbar into the cracked lid with such force he finished the job, he flashed Lara a grin then picked up the rest and threw it on the ground with the other pieces "It was crafted by them so I don't give a shit."

"How can you be so immature?" Lara snapped

"Look its just a dead Nephilim's crypt; it's not fucking Atlantis or Jimmy Hoffa." Kurtis replied, "Let's take a look at old ugly here."

They both looked into the crypt and saw not a decayed skeleton but an intact perfect body. His skin was as white as cream, his hair was still shinning in the dim light after all those years and his face seemed so angelic and perfect

"Are you sure he's dead?" Kurtis asked and he leant in and lightly poked the corpses arm

"I would have thought you had seen a lot of corpses in your life." Lara looked at him and grinned then added, "I am almost certain he is dead, anyway look what's on his chest." Lara pointed at the body for there lay a leather bound book no bigger than a notebook on his chest clasped in his hands, she reached in and wrestled the book away from the corpse with small difficulty and placed it carefully in a waterproof bag then into her backpack.

"You were right," Kurtis said then leant into the crypt "He is dead."

"I said it earlier and I will say it again, your so perceptive." then she walked over to him and looked at the body "What made you say that?"

"Look closely at his heart." Kurtis replied, then Lara obliged and looked at the left of the body's chest where the clothing had been ripped and bloodstained but covered by the book, she spread open his shirt then recoiled from the body

"That is not supposed to be like that." She gasped. Underneath the rip in his shirt was, where a wound should have been, there was instead a huge hole. It was as if someone had cut away all the flesh then dug out the muscle, ribs and taken the heart, but the most bizarre part was that the entire area had turned grey like it was made of ash and when Lara touched it she realised it was, as it collapsed into dust under her fingers.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" Lara asked Kurtis

"Yes, its one of the ways of killing a nephilim. Towards the end of the Lux Veritatus no one was doing it anymore. I think we should get back Lara, I have a bad feeling about this place…it was too easy."

Lara nodded then they both hurried out of the chamber and back up the stairs at a faster pace than before. They burst through the mouth of the stairs into the long hall again but now they were not met with warm light, but almost complete darkness and a light rumbling sound

"Kurtis is that what I think it is?" Lara asked unsurely

"If you think it sounds like gushing water you would be right!" He cried then water threw the door, their only exit, off it hinges and continued to gallop towards them like wild mustangs, Kurtis grabbed Lara by the waist and pulled her over to the nearest corner and placed her behind him just in time to miss the water. Then he extend his palms outward as the water raged towards them and just a few inches away from Kurtis's hands it crashed against an invisible barrier making Kurtis groan slightly. Lara realised what he was doing but she didn't see how it would really help as the water was still rushing in by the gallon, she was also worried if he could hold on for long enough.

"Lara it's getting stronger!" he shouted to her "Hold on to me as tightly as you can!" Lara didn't hesitate; she wrapped her arms around his chest tightly and closed her eyes.

The water engulfed them as soon as Kurtis brought his arms down; they were thrown around in the strong current holding onto each other as strongly as possible hoping that they wouldn't be thrown into anything.

Soon Lara was starting to feel dizzy and her chest was pounding, she was running out of air. The water was getting less rough and Lara could feel her legs gently float. She nudged Kurtis with her knee to get his attention, then he looked at her and she pointed to her throat he nodded at started to swim as fast as possible to the exit with Lara hanging onto him.

Kurtis swam into the long tunnel with still plenty of air making Lara envious and thankful at the same time, she wished she had his lungs but thankful at least one of them had them. Kurtis could feel Lara's grip loosening he knew she wouldn't make it to the tree even thought it was so close, he took her hand and turned to face her. They looked at each other for a moment, Lara could tell what he was thinking as and his eyes were saying everything for him. She nodded slightly and closed her eyes then Kurtis brought his lips to hers.

She took in as much air as she needed but found herself not breaking away from him; she also felt Kurtis's hands on her back pulling her closer to him. She was helpless, she was letting her guard down and she was confused, one part of her never wanted to break away from Kurtis and another part of her was screaming at her to push him off.

She chose the second part of her subconscious and pushed him away, Kurtis looked at her with bewilderment and anger. Lara just stared at him coldly then swam past him and eventually he followed, Lara swam as fast as possible to the pool area that was now under water. She reached into her bag and pulled out her torch then shone it upwards to the hole and swam up not waiting for Kurtis.

She reached the top and gasped from air then pulled herself out of the tree, she wanted to run as far away as possible, she didn't want to see him; she just wanted to forget what had happened.

She waited a few seconds until her came out of the tree then before he could say anything she dived into the black water and swam on the surface to he could follow the light.

I know that you can't see that well when you're underwater, but whatever….

Hehehee that was a fun uppie, must go plot wonders off