Chapter 12
Lara's heart stopped as a different noise sounded beside her, she turned to see the sharpened pendulum flying toward her head. Her lungs let out a shout of fear as she lowered her body, and a shout of warning as her thoughts waned to Kurtis.
She quickly turned around as the blade passed over her form, expecting to see it rip through Kurtis's unknowing body. Her eyes were met by something else.
Kurtis was there, but he wasn't dead upon the ground, he was shouting to her, telling her to move. She watched as he rolled forward and flattened himself to the floor, then she screamed. An identical pendulum had fallen from the other side of the room, much lower than the first. She stared as it passed over Kurtis, and rushed toward her. Her mind was paralyzed from fear but her body moved from instinct. She felt the coldness of wind behind her back as she rolled forward, the blade splitting the air behind her head, slicing away slight fragments of her hair.
"We have to get out of here!" Kurtis screamed to her as he stared at the walls, waiting for another blade to emerge.
"No!" Lara screamed as her mind returned. "We have to finish the sequence. That door is the only way out. If we don't complete it we'll be trapped."
"How the fuc-" Kurtis slightly jumped away as a spike shot though the tile beside the one he was standing on.
"We have to!" Lara cried out as she climbed to her feet. "Look for the next symbol, and be quick about it!"
Kurtis desperately searched the doors for the next tile, he didn't know which one he was on. He had forgotten the last symbol when Lara had called out to him.
"It's there." He heard a voice cry out. "The one that's cracked through the center." Lara had known its placement through the symmetrical pattern of the tiles, and had figured its position in comparison to hers. They stepped together as a towering blade suddenly fell from the ceiling, and split the floor where they had stood only seconds before.
They continued forward, rushing to find the correct symbols and step upon their identical tiles before the surrounding traps severed their bodies, though they were unsure if the door would even work after the puzzle had been ruined and the traps had been triggered.
They were almost there, only four tiles to go. Lara found her placement and stepped. Kurtis did the same.
The next symbol came to her and she placed her foot forward. She felt Kurtis's hand grip her elbow and hold her back as a blade swiped passed her chest, slicing the space an inch in front of her. She looked to him with thanks that neither of them had time to make verbal.
They continued forward until only three tiles remained, then two, and then the final. They stepped upon their remaining platforms' surfaces with praying hearts that the door before them would open.
They stood, staring forward as nothing happened. Lara tightly gripped Kurtis's wrist as her heart raced faster with the anticipation of death.
A noise, loud enough to break the unsightly clashing of the metal traps around them, sounded behind their position at the entrance of the room. Lara and Kurtis turned their heads toward the source and gasped. They watched as a three large pendulums were released from the back wall of the immense hallway. They stared at one another with growing fear as the blades started toward them. Lara grabbed his wrist tighter and she looked at him, she felt the urge to tell him something before they died, something that she couldn't grasp or come to grips with. The words left her mind, leaving only insignificant thoughts for her to ponder. They came back.
"Kurtis," she spoke above the noise of their death racing toward them. "I-"
Lara felt her senses jump with surprise as the door beside them lifted with incredible speed to the ceiling above them. It stood open, greeting them in to the safety of the room beyond.
She looked back to Kurtis, wanting to finish her sentence, but the urgency in his eyes made her stop.
Her trance was broken as the door suddenly began to close as fast as it had opened.
"Fuck!" Kurtis screamed as he rushed Lara toward the rapidly closing gateway.
Lara forgot her words as she felt her legs quickly pummeling forward, Kurtis beside her. She leapt with strength and speed as the door continued to drop down, hoping to either lock them within the deadly hallway, or crush them under its heavy weight.
(-)
The words were gone, a mere memory in a confused mind. She opened her eyes, making sure that she was alive, not sliced in half by a pendulum, or crushed into the ground by an iron door.
She felt a movement beside her and slightly tensed. The motion was followed by the groan of a deep voice, and Lara felt Kurtis's shoulder brush against her own. She stared at him as he raised his head from the ground and connecting his eyes with hers. They looked at one another, each breathing hard from fear and exhaustion, sighs echoing loudly throughout the silenced room. Kurtis looked to the door behind them, now tightly sealed with no possible way to open it. He looked back to Lara and they realized what had happened.
The silent stare was broken by the sound of laughter as Lara and Kurtis expressed their relief. They were still alive.
The companions quickly helped one another to a stand, the remnants of happiness still within their throats.
Lara's mind wavered, as she stared at Kurtis, to the words that had nearly left her mouth at the moment of their approaching death. "Kurtis, I-" What would they have ended with? Even she was not sure. She looked to him with uneasiness as they ventured a glance at the space around them. She forgot the thoughts as she glared at the room surrounding her.
The giant space was circular and unbelievably large. The roof raised no less than ten storeys above them, and each floor was lined with doors, much like the hallway before this one.
Wooden beams fell between each level for support, which continued completely to the top. The beams where rotten with age, and seemed to crack and break with a mere glance. "Not like the sturdy metal ones in the Hall of Seasons." she remembered her venture beneath the Louvre. The entire room slightly reminder her of the main shaft of that temple, but after seeing the state of this place, the Hall of Seasons would've been a welcomed improvement. "All the Veritatis strongholds must be similarly built." A small wooden door graced the opposite side of the room, and held a lurid glow from the torches placed simultaneous around the walls.
The door behind them was tightly sealed; there was no going back.
Lara stared to the ceiling with a worried look, her eyes fixated upon the decayed wood. "Please tell me we don't have to go up."
"We don't have to go up," Kurtis repeated her statement, then paused, "yet." he smiled. "That's our way out. I'm guessing the map is somewhere in the lower part of the cavern. That way it'll take us longer to escape."
"Escape?" Lara muttered sarcastically. "Lovely."
They neared the center of the room, as their next obstacle confronted them. Lara's hand neared her holster as the enemy neared her. She stared at the two forms, bone without flesh, an iron sword within their lifeless hands, and a helmet upon each one's head. They were knights of the ancient days, kept alive to protect whatever the hell she and Kurtis were searching for.
Her mind raced with familiarity as they came closer; Lara had been honored with these creature's presence before. "Another asset from the Louvre fortress." Lara remembered the knights vividly, how pathetically slow but deadly they were, not to mention the fact that they couldn't be killed.
Their bodies looked half rotten, with rusted iron shields that seemed to break apart with the creature's simplest movements. She started to rush them, when Kurtis stopped her.
"I don't think they'll attack." he spoke with over confidence as the ancient beings continued toward them. "They know I'm the last Lux Ve-"
His sentence was cut off as one of the knight's swords sliced at his head. He quickly retreated.
"You were saying?" Lara sarcastically asked, smiling.
"Come on." Kurtis directed her forward, running past the decayed knights, aggravation amidst his mind. He headed for the wooden door, hopefully an exit of some kind.
Lara suddenly gave a shout of warning which Kurtis was thankful for. He hadn't noticed the blades towering above, waiting to bisect whoever neared the doorway. He heard the clash of metal behind him and turned. The knights had closed in and were almost on them. He glanced quickly at Lara and she knew his plan.
In unison, the two leaped backwards and pushed themselves flat against the floor. Before the undead creatures could respond, Kurtis lifted his hand and forced the rigged door open. Less than an instant later the blades fell, missing the companions bodies by mere inches, and striking the knights where they stood.
The air filled with rotten bone and century old armor, as the trap completed its deadly design.
Kurtis dared a look to see if the blades had receded. After several minutes it was safe for him and Lara to stand.
Kurtis thanked Lara for her reaction time, and cursed himself for another near mistake. He couldn't risk himself anymore. He wasn't the only person that faced consequences for his actions, everyone did. The fate of every human being was based on his stupidity. Even worse was that his unawareness had almost cost the life of the only person who had agreed to help him, even after he had stolen, touched, aggravated, and endangered her many times before.
He watched her, waiting for the sarcastic comment she'd no doubt put out about how slow-witted he was. It never came.
He was relieved until he realized that the only reason it hadn't was because her attention was somewhere else. He followed her gaze.
The trapped door now stood completely open, a small and eerie stone corridor behind it.
The walls of the newly accessible space seemed to be covered in blood as a red glow caressed the hall's interior.
Lara was halfway through the passage when Kurtis began to follow. The flare she lit gave the claustrophobic room an even eerier feel, the red glow mixing with the green, the odd color brightening as they neared an opening at the end of the tunnel. The light was blinding in the room beyond, but originated from nowhere; no torches or lights of any kind were placed within the room. Lara was fascinated as the studied the new chamber.
The low ceilinged room was circular, with a single podium standing in the center of its walls. An ancient book lay open on the top. Kurtis approached it as Lara threw away her flare, the red illumination making its use pointless.
"Thine's final step does not always lead to an ending." Kurtis translated the Latin scripture upon the book's pages. "For the origins of the chosen can lead us back to salvation, and start the process of discovery and rebirth."
Lara stared at the book, not trusting his translation. She rendered the words herself; they were identical to what Kurtis had read. "You can read Latin?" Lara started, slight surprise and admiration in her eyes.
"We're taught it when we're young." He answered, returning her stare.
Lara smiled as she turned again to the book, she reread the scripture.
"Ok", she was finally ready, the sentence memorized within her mind though it didn't make sense. "And that's supposed to mean what?"
Her body tensed as the solid wall beside her suddenly began to move. It's surface rippled like a stone tossed upon water. It seemed to stretch as if made of flexible material, not the stone that had been used to construct it thousands of years ago. It molded itself away from the center, a small diamond-shaped hole forming, barely large enough for a person to fit through.
Lara's eyes shifted to Kurtis. He held the same expression she did, confusion, wonder, and slight fear. She cautiously neared the newly formed crevice, and slowly peered inside of its darkness. Nothing. Pitch black all around. No sound, other than her rapidly echoing breaths, building out of excitement. She didn't understand.
She lowered her head, hoping for something, a light or movement of any kind. That's when she felt it, a slight weight upon the strands of hair that hung from her forehead, now fallen from their placement within her braid. She smiled.
"There's water in here." she informed Kurtis. She could see nothing within its depths however, and quickly cracked a flare upon the her knee before dropping it into the invisible liquid. She watched as the instrument slowly began to fall, illuminating the tight space and the equally small passage that fell within the water below.
A small shadow formed at the bottom of the incredibly cramped surface where the flare had fallen. She studied it. There was a tunnel down there, virtually invisible. She smiled to herself as she crawled back out, redness absorbing her once again.
"There's a hidden passage under the water." she told Kurtis as she tightened the straps of her backpack "I think I can swim through."
She started to climb back into the hole, when she felt a grip against her arm. She looked back to see Kurtis's hand wrapped firmly around her forearm. His face held a look of dread and sternness.
"Let go."she quietly commanded, confused.
"No" he said without emotion "You don't know where that passage leads to, if it leads anywhere at all. This is my responsibility, not yours."
"Don't even think of telling me what I can and cannot do!" she harshly spoke as she forced his hand away. "I've been through things a hell of a lot worse than this before, and I highly doubt you'd be able to fit through there anyway. Hence, I have to."
"Fuck the map." he spoke loudly, "It's not worth it."
"What's not worth it?" she thought to herself. She'd never seen him care about anything besides himself before, why was he doing it now. Unless this was just another ploy to pull her in. Kurtis Trent was an idiot, a smart one. That's why he scared her. What was going on inside of his head?
"So you would sacrifice the entire world for one human life?" she asked him, curious to hear his answer.
"No." he spoke coldly "But I wouldn't sacrifice your life to save the entire world."
Lara felt her mouth open slightly out of shock at his words. What was he saying? Was he actually worried about her? Or did he just feel guilty for making her do something that he was supposed to?
Or, was it something else, something more personal?
Lara looked at him with a sincerity he had never seen before, just as she left his side and quickly dove through the darkened hole on the opposite wall, swimming down into the water-filled passage.