Chapter 19
She watched with regret as the mountains and plains quickly turned to ash, like they had been burnt by the scorching sun. She could feel its heat beaming down upon her fair skin as the wind blew into the convertible Jeep, flowing wildly through her hair. She starred straight as the rented vehicle continued forward, but soon closed her eyes, which lay tired and heavy upon her, though she knew that sleep would be impossible. The reflection from the colorless earth below was blinding, and Lara was forced to search her bag for sunglasses.
Her mind had been on the verge of depression the entire day, but she hid thoughts of Winston with those of Kurtis. She wondered what kind of person could raise a child in such a desolate place. The salt flats seemed abandoned, other than the occasional idiot driving by in some over the top vehicle, just waiting to be killed.
She tried to imagine Kurtis growing up in such a place. She looked to him as he drove forward, her mind regretting the way she had treated him the previous night. She saw his face, nervous and maybe even scared, a bruise upon its side, a mark of her doing. She knew he didn't want to go back to his childhood home. Despite her better judgement, she decided to ask him about it. He explained that his training was much easier in a deserted land such as this. There were no people around to ask questions, or to nose about. He told her that his telepathic training was greatly tested, and that he could easily move things around without raising suspicion.
He went on for several minutes just talking about his childhood, and about his father. He seemed different when he spoke of him. Lara knew that he had to have felt horrible about abandoning his father before he was killed. He must have really loved him, and Lara wondered why Kurtis was doomed to end up where he was now.
Kurtis's voice suddenly halted mid-sentence. Lara looked at him with confusion and saw him staring straight. She peered in the same direction, wondering what had provoked his silence. At least a half a mile away, she spotted a small building, apparently of some significance. Lara was more shocked to see a low mountain side behind it that seemed to rise from nowhere. She couldn't believe that in the middle of all this nothing there was actually a rise. She knew it must have something to do with Kurtis. She directed her eyes toward the desolate building in front of the elevated ground.
"Is that your home?" Lara asked, though she knew the answer.
"It was." He replied with his head down, as if unwanted memories had spawned.
Lara's head snapped back as Kurtis slammed his foot against the gas peddle. The old house came nearer and nearer until the Jeep came to a halt not ten feet from it.
"Let's get this shit over with." Lara heard Kurtis mutter. He left the vehicle, and began pacing across the barren lawn toward the decaying house.
Lara quickly kicked herself over the passenger door and landed on the soft earth below. She kneeled and picked up a handful of ashy salt. She curiously let it drop between her fingers.
Kurtis stared at her with amusement. "What is it?" He asked. "I was sure you'd been here before."
"No actually." Lara returned, slightly fretted. "And what makes you think I would want to come to some place like this? There was nothing ever here anyway."
"I was here." He said. "To bad you didn't stop by. But I'm nothing too, so..."
"I didn't mean that." Lara answered, annoyed. "Why do you always have to curve my words." She saw Kurtis smiling, and knew that it was his purposeful intention to make her angry. She rolled her eyes, and quickly stood, wiping the remaining salt from her hands by brushing them across her pants.
She followed Kurtis to the door of his old home, and watched him forcefully kick it open.
Lara stalled her entrance a few seconds, expecting the entire house to fall from the crashing blow. She saw rotten wood line the outer and interior walls. The entire place seemed like a death trap, just waiting to bury them in a grave of molded tile and cracked cement. She cautiously entered.
Lara saw Kurtis anxiously looking around the newly opened fortress, searching for the real reason he was there.
She felt sympathetic toward him for a few seconds while watching him look upon the remains of his childhood. The feeling quickly subsided as she realized that he had noticed her staring at him.
"So," she quickly started. "What are we looking for?"
"I have no idea." Kurtis answered, like he was ready to give up after less than ten minutes of searching.
"Well let's find out." Lara returned, over enthusiastically, hoping to raise his spirits though hers were still low.
She quickly began to walk around the small room in the house, running her fingers over the dust covered furniture she passed, hoping that Kurtis would try harder to find whatever it was they were looking for. A tapestry on the wall caught her attention, and she studied the medieval handiwork with great respect. She searched the rest of the room, but soon decided that nothing of interest was in it. Maybe she would have better luck in a different room.
She saw a door in front of her, and quickly walked toward it. She slowly opened the pathway, and turned to see if Kurtis would stop her.
She continued forward as he returned no response, and curiously peered into the room. She smiled as she saw a small bed in the corner, and knew that it was either Kurtis's room, or one of his unmentioned siblings. She brought herself forward, stepping completely into the room.
Lara quickly looked around, but to her surprise, saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was a normal teenager's room, equipt with everything from a baseball bat, to a family portrait on a dusty shelf. She picked the picture up with curiosity and blew away the age old dirt that blurred it..
She stared at the image as she spotted Kurtis, the same smirk on a younger face. His hair was shorter in the photo, but it's pitch black color remained. He definitely got his looks from his father, same eyes, same structure, same-
She quickly jumped as she saw the grown version of Kurtis beside her.
"Thanks." Lara sarcastically stated at his frightening her.
Kurtis didn't reply as he eyed the room. "I don't like it here." he stated. "Too many bad memories."
"Bad memories?" Lara asked with confusion. "It seems like you had a normal life."
Kurtis picked up the baseball bat, and twirled his wrist, spinning it around several times. "You think my family actually had time for baseball?" he paused, staring at the photo in her hand. "Or family portraits?" At this he knocked the picture from her grasp. The glass shattered on the floor. "No," he stated, faking a smile. "We were too busy running."
As he turned away, Lara picked up the broken frame, and went to place it back on the shelf. As she moved toward the placement, she dropped the photo back to the floor in astonishment of what she saw.
"Kurtis." Lara spoke quietly out of surprise. "I think I know where to look."
Kurtis spun around, and stopped as he saw it.
On the bare wall in front of them, a strange drawing constructed itself from nowhere. It seemed to be painted with black tar, and slowly etched itself along the wall, creating the symbol that was naturally tattooed upon his chest.
The black finally stopped, and Lara looked back to Kurtis with confusion. He held a look of anger that Lara didn't understand.
"So what do we-" Lara halted as Kurtis suddenly leveled his Boran X, rapidly pulling the trigger and tearing the plaster wall apart with bullets. Silence conveyed and she looked back to him with surprise. "Ok." Lara spoke, removing her hands from her head once he had finished.
Kurtis quickly walked to the wall, and tore it away, using the newly made holes. Lara helped, and the wall slowly fell away before their eyes, falling in pieces to the floor.
Kurtis stared forward in silence, his face emotionless. Behind the fallen plaster, upon a small outcropped platform, sat a papered scroll, decaying along with the house as age slowly destroyed it. He was still, his anxiety paralyzing his thoughts. He reached toward the object before him.
Lara was silent as Kurtis gathered the scroll. She stared at him, reading his emotions of fear and anxiousness. "What is it?" she quietly asked as Kurtis unraveled the decaying paper. She watched as his expression changed to confusion.
"It's a drawing." He simply answered, showing her the scroll's surface. "It's the mountainside out back."
Lara stared at the picture. It was nothing special, a flat ground in front of a barren cliff that rose about forty feet, and spanned the entire length of the page. It was the exact image of Kurtis' yard, other than the vision of a dead tree that had rooted upon the top surface of the structure. At the bottom edge of the page, four symbols were drawn. Lara studied them. "Where have I seen these?" her mind asked. The drawings were familiar; a sword embedded in flames, the head of chimera, a family's crest, and a snake laced upon an empty sheath. "A snake upon a sheath!" Lara's mind screamed.
The vision of Kurtis ran back through her mind. His foot upon the lettered floor in the Realm of Valor and the trap almost "castrating him" as he had so elegantly put it. This drawing was of significance.
"Where is this?" Lara suddenly asked, pointing to the tree in the drawing.
Kurtis stared at the picture. "About a mile down from here." He stated, knowing the thoughts in her mind. "I used to play there all the time."
(-)
Lara anxiously left the Jeep once again. She slowly walked to the mountainside, and directed her eyes upward. Shadows streaked across her face as the sun beamed down through dead branches of a lifeless tree that stood forty feet above her. She smiled as she walked closer, her eyes fixated on the cliff-side.
Kurtis was confused as Lara studied the side of the rocky structure before them. She ran her fingers across it's surface, obviously hoping for an indentation of some kind.
Lara stopped as she felt it, the roughness of it was unmistakable, not natural but carved by the hands of a human being. She moved her fingers slightly to the left of the granite wall; she felt another, then another, and then a final depression. Her lips curved as she backed away, the four rough spots morphing into the images drawn on the scroll she held in her hand. The carvings were virtually invisible unless actually searched for.
"May I ask the purpose of your smile?" Kurtis stated with fake elegance, his impatience building.
"Look," Lara returned with slight aggravation, directing Kurtis's eyes to the symbols on the page, and then the carving's upon the mountainside, each smaller than one's fist. "They're the key." she said, pulling him toward the faded images. "There has to be a path or something, somewhere around here."
"Move." Kurtis flatly stated. His anxiousness corrupting his once desirable attitude. Lara handed him the paper, and quickly backed away not wishing to see his fussy side.
Kurtis studied the four symbols drawn upon the paper before tossing it to the ground.
Lara watched with unwanted amazement as he neared the four symbols inscribed in the mountainside. Kurtis raised his hands and placed them upon the middle carvings, leaving the outer two bare. His eyes slowly closed as his palms began to glow, giving off the color red, and becoming brighter with every beat of his heart.
He breathed heavily as he closed his eyes, seeming as though he were in pain, his unique abilities being forced throughout him. His body slightly shook as he continued, and Lara felt herself slowly backing away. She stood still with anxiety as she watched him. He breathed hard once again, before quickly lunging back as though he had been hit by some unseen force.
Lara eyed him curiously as he steadied his balance. He grabbed his head with pain, giving the look of just having been punched. Something about his powers seemed to drain his energy, making him weaker, making him-
Lara felt surprisal run through her veins in that instant as the ground suddenly began to shake. She quickly steadied her movements upon the rock's facing beside her as her knees began to succumb to the sudden movement. She stared upward, weary of any large stones that might have worked themselves away from their base upon the cliff-side. She felt herself sigh with relief as the movement suddenly stopped. She quickly began forward, trying to reach Kurtis.
She stood still once at his side, slight shock still within her. She looked to him with wide eyes.
"What did you just do?" Lara asked him, frightened brows lining her features.
"I let them know we were here." he answered, still separate from the world.
Lara stared at him as he stopped. "Who?"
He didn't answer but simply walked a few feet away from the symbols, studying the mountain.
Lara stared forward at his silence. She directed her eyes at the four carving, now glowing brightly with an eerie essence. She watched the symbols, expecting them to conform, and lead her and Kurtis toward their next objective.
Her eyes turned to her companion at the thought. Kurtis seemed nervous, scared even. There was something about his home, something that made him different around her. He was more distant, even though he had never been that close to begin with, other than physically.
She smiled at the thought of them together, of the motel room and the intimacy they shared. Her frown returned however, as the thought of Winston appeared in her mind. She would have to delay the thoughts if her and Kurtis were ever going to accomplish their goa-
Lara suddenly let out a frightened scream as she felt herself falling down, falling into nothing, being absorbed by the ashy ground as it began to spin around her.
She acted fast, thrusting out her arm, searching for anything that would keep her from falling further.
Kurtis had already grabbed her elbow.
He forcefully pulled her away from the whirling salt and up toward him, resting her body upon the solid ground, now holding her wait.
Lara steadied her feet as Kurtis helped her gain her bearing, surprised at the way he had grabbed her, surprised at her un-angered expression. She stared at Kurtis. For once, she didn't want to curse a man for helping her. She actually wanted him to. She wanted Kurtis to.
She turned back toward the trap he had helped her from. She watched the ground, stirring and spinning before them, sinking deep, hoping to capture an unsuspecting victim.
The strange movements suddenly stalled as the crystalline earth slowly began to flow upward, blowing rapidly away from the space it had occupied until hardly any salt remained.
The motion stopped.
They stared with surprise. The ground's previous actions had created a path into the earth that ran toward the mountainside. The crevice before them wasn't very large, no more than 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep at it's lowest end. Ancient stairs led into the ever darkening abyss, as the remaining salt upon them was gently blown away.
Kurtis left Lara's side and slowly walked toward the gaping darkness. He stared down as his lips slightly curved.
Lara watched him. He hadn't shown any signs of happiness ever since they had arrived at this place. She didn't understand why it haunted him so.
His feet shifted forward, beginning down the stairs, bringing him closer to his destiny, daring him to step again, wanting him to.
Lara slowly followed him as he cautiously entered the dark tunnel. The sun grew dim as they continued, and finally faded away as their feet pummeled slowly down the stairs and into the black path ahead, unsure of what was to come.