Chapter 26
Lara rarely wavered as she quickly made her way back through the invaded cemetery, sprinting silently from mausoleum to mausoleum, hiding in the shadows, coming closer to the horrid wraiths with every step.
She was unaware of the steady smile that graced her features as she acted out her assault. The excitement of death and adventure causing the bizarre habit to arise.
She momentarily crouched behind a smaller monument before rapidly diving for the cover of a larger one. She was gradually making her way to the demon's rear, preparing herself for their death, preparing herself to kill.
She paused and nervously moistened her lips as the sound of footfalls fell on the opposite side of the mausoleum that she now used as a temporary shield from sight. She slowed her breaths as the noise grew louder, slowly coming toward the building's edge, ready to appear around its side and meet her. Lara quickly retreated away from the building's corner, and circled around, carefully scaling her movements to hide them in the shadows.
She continued around the following edge, and then neared the final. She carefully flattened her body against the wall as she slowly continued to the building's corner, ready to meet the wraiths on its side.
Her head turned the corner, followed by her upper chest and torso as she slightly leaned around the bend. She quickly pulled herself away, remaining in view for barely a instant. She had used the second to see the demons that awaited her. There were four, their backs turned, holding their attention on the cemetery's hilltop.
Lara held her breath as she silently turned the mausoleum's final corner. The wraiths now stood before her, their unknowing forms greeting her toward them. Her feet fell swiftly as she neared the first. She took note of the automatic assault weapon draped around its shoulder. "Better be extra careful."
The essence of death filled the air as Lara slowly stood, her height meeting the possessed man before her's. She was ready.
A grin stretched across her features before she thrust her hands forward.
Her fingertips met the structure of the wraith's jaw, and she violently jerked it to the side, a silent death from the instant rupture of the brain from the spinal cord.
She wasted no time as she rushed toward the next demon in the group. In a single movement she stripped the knife from her boot and thrust it into the demon's lower back. She covered the creature's mouth out of habit, though she knew that no noise would've followed the act had she not.
She recovered her knife and slightly gasped as the other wraiths before her began to turn toward the slight noise that her destruction had caused. She rushed forward, slitting the throat of the closest wraith before his body completed its turn. The final creature however, had finished his, and now stared at Lara as he hurriedly raised his weapon.
Lara rushed to the creature's side and powerfully brought her foot to its chest. The wraiths body fell into the mausoleum's wall before it recovered itself and began toward her once again.
Lara used his force against him as she shoved the palm of her hand into the man's nose, breaking it instantly and sending the fractured elements of bone into his brain.
Lara moved away quickly as the creature fell, knowing it was dead. She hurriedly continued her assault through the shadows, making her way to the center group of wraiths, waiting to meet Kurtis, and take them out.
(-)
Kurtis waited with anxiety as a shadow stretched around the nearby corner of the building he rested upon. The shadow grew bigger as its owner came closer. Kurtis gripped the churigai tighter and turned it to the side, preparing for the creatures that waited nearby. He stared at the mausoleum's edge, holding for the last possible moment, when the slight form of the wraith would appear around its edge. He was silent as he prevented his breaths, his eyes never wavering from the corner.
A figure appeared.
Kurtis quickly threw his weapon forward as the features of a man shown around the building's edge. His timing was absolute, slitting the demon's throat immediately after it had appeared. He watched as another of the creatures came into view. The demon growled with anger before instantly falling to the ground, the returning churigai now stuck into the back of its head.
Kurtis grabbed the weapon as he rushed toward the building's edge, wanting to meet the remaining wraiths while they were surprised. The demons apparently didn't have the ability to be taken off guard however, as two more of the vile creatures appeared and rushed toward him. Kurtis quickly leveled his arm to the nearest demon and ran toward it. The form of his limb met the creature's chest, sending it to the ground.
Kurtis instantly grabbed the remaining wraith's arm before it could react, and flipped the creature over his shoulder, its back finally meeting the ground. He held its wrist as it stared up at him. Kurtis's face conformed with anger as he lifted his foot, and forcefully shoved it into the creatures throat.
He stared as the creature slowly gasped with hidden pain, its dying body trying to hold on. He smiled.
Kurtis quickly walked to the wraith that he had previously winded, and lifted his blade, ready to end its torture and its host's pain, ready to finish his job and get back to Lara, ready to-
Kurtis gasped as a coldness appeared on his neck, the coldness of metal, the coldness of a blade. He halted his movements as a smirking laugh sounded behind him, the feminine evil unmistakable.
"Hello Kurtis." Mariana spoke as she held her blackened sword to his neck. "Good to see you again."
(-)
Lara was patient as she stared at the remaining group of wraiths, anxiously waiting to see Kurtis's form appear over the hill where she had left him. She had been right about their offensive strategy, tackling part of the wraiths separately and then the largest group together. It had made things easier. For her at least.
Lara sighed with impatience as she stared. Kurtis never appeared. She made herself wait several minutes, considering that it would've taken him longer to destroy the wraiths. She remained alone as he never came into view.
She admitted her worry and knew that something must have happened. "No." she told herself. "He's a capable man. He doesn't need me to help him with everything he does." A silence entered her thoughts with contemplation and realization. "I shouldn't have left him."
Lara quickly flattened herself to the ground as a sudden shout filled the space around her, conforming into words too familiar to her mind, her name. Someone was calling to her, seeking her out for an unknown reason. She sighed at the voice. It wasn't Kurtis.
"Lara Croft!"the angered voice shouted once again.
Lara stared at the hill she had descended from, toward the origin of the mysterious yet familiar voice, and the hiding place of Kurtis Trent. Her eyes were steady, waiting to see the person who was challenging her, knowing their appearance would prove less than friendly.
That person appeared.
She closed her eyes with an unbelieving mind before letting out a horrid sigh at the reality that stood before her. Mariana appeared around the far corner of a distant mausoleum.
Lara had not sighed out of fear of her enemy, but out of worry and regret, for Mariana was not alone. Standing before her with an angered yet swaggering face, Kurtis Trent waited, waited for the pistol that was leveled to his head to fire.
"Lara Croft!" The demon repeated, her eyes scanning timidly throughout her surroundings, searching for the subject of her calling. "I know you can see me, and I know you can see him." She forced the gun barrel deeper into her captive's skull at the words. He grimaced. "Come out and we can discuss me letting him go."
Lara was silent, obeying her instincts and making herself not care. She wanted to scream for her stupidity. She should've protected him, after all, wasn't he the most important thing she should've worried about?
Mariana searched the grounds again, searching for a movement of any kind, waiting for Lara Croft to show herself. She didn't
"That's alright. I understand." Mariana spoke aloud as Lara remained hidden. "What I don't understand is how you can let this man die from the simple act of not showing yourself."
Lara's heart stopped. Mariana was going to kill him. She couldn't allow it. She quickly lifted herself, ready to leave her place of hiding, ready to give herself up for Kurtis Trent.
She stopped as the words came again in another voice, a voice that made her smile despite her mental anguish.
"Don't listen to her." Kurtis shouted to Lara, trying to keep her from exposing herself. "She won't kill me. She needs me alive."
Lara sighed at his words and the simpleness of hearing his voice, her body fell back to the earth, returning to its hiding place, ignoring the threats that came from beyond.
"On the contrary," Mariana spoke to Kurtis, her words a hidden lie. "I don't need you alive. I just need that pretty little brand on you shoulder." She paused with an evil smile. "Comes off easily with a knife."
Kurtis shook his head in response, knowing that Lara could see him. "It's a trick." he shouted to her. "The second you come out, the wraiths will kill you."
Mariana forcefully brought Kurtis's head closer to hers. "And why would I do that?" she spoke in a whisper, not wanting Lara to hear. "You always think that you're the most important aspect of this world, but she's the one I need."
Kurtis's brows sank with confusion at he words. She wanted Lara, for what he wasn't sure, but he wouldn't allow it.
"Lara, listen to me." he screamed, pleading. "Forget about me, just get-" the words were ended with a sigh of pain as the demon's fingernails sunk into his back.
Lara felt air swiftly leave her lungs as his words were stopped. She quickly leaned herself from cover just enough to see him. His face was contorted with pain, and she wanted to cry. "Forget him?" he mind questioned his previous statement. "No." she answered herself. "Not even if he wasn't the savior of the world."
Lara gripped the knife that remained clenched in her fist, so tightly that its metal surface met the blood of her hand. She wanted to lunge from her cover and shove it into the demon's chest that held Kurtis captive, threatening his life. She felt her hand start to shake with anger as the creature's voice started once again.
"I've been patient Lara." Mariana began. "Even after you have mutilated my body more than once during our meetings." She paused, her mind recalling all the new bullet holes that had graced her body since meeting Lara Croft. "But I've lost my patients, and quite frankly," she paused with a fake grin that instantly changed to anger, "I'm pissed. So I'll tell you what,"
Lara sat upright, making sure that she would hear the creature's words.
"I'll give you three seconds before I blow a hole in you boyfriend here's head." She paused, knowing that Lara had heard, curiously wondering what was going through her mind. "I think that's fair. After all of my men you've killed, I think one man's life will be getting off easy for you." Her voice grew louder at that moment, the words creating a countdown of unknowing death. "Three..."
Lara felt her heart pulsate rapidly as she closed her eyes, her thoughts focused on Kurtis and the gun barrel being held to the back of his head. She didn't believe Kurtis, didn't believe that Mariana wouldn't pull the trigger.
She had to save him, and help him break away from his captivity. Once he was dead, they would all be dead. His life was important, not hers. "No." She argued with her statement. Even if she showed herself, what good would it do? The wraiths would still kill her, and then they would kill him. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help him." Her mind spoke, convincing her to step away from her shelter. She stopped as realization consumed her. "What's a clear conscience if you're brain is splattered on the sidewalk?"
"Two..."
"Oh God." her mind screamed as panic entered her thoughts. She was afraid, not for herself but for Kurtis. She had to do something. She had to save him. Her mind never wavered as she thought, contemplating all the situations that could get her and Kurtis out of here alive. There were none. "No. There is something, something you've missed."
She ran her surroundings through her mind, desperately searching for the answer. Kurtis's life was in her hands now, everything depended on the next single second of her life. She sighed loudly as tears built within her eyes, adding to her frustration and the thought of Kurtis's demise.
"One..."