Disclaimer: Once again, the characters from Tomb Raider games or movies aren't mine.
The Hole in the Rock
As soon as she thought it was safe enough to open her eyes she did and noticed that the bright white light had vanished and been replaced by dim red one. The single ray of light that still shot out from the source of the light formed by the hearts pointed toward an opening. The power of the single ray had been enough to destroy the stones that had hidden the doorway. The nephilim still covered their faces like they were in pain or afraid that the light was still there. She didn't know the reason for their behavior but wasn't going to waste her chances of getting away.
She stood up quietly and sneaked toward the doorway trying not to make any sounds. It didn't take long for the nephilim to understand what was going on. The bright light that had hurt their eyes so had now abated and the room was flooded with crimson one.
She had made it to the doorway and as soon as she noticed Karel standing up she sprinted forward, running for her dear life. She wasn't going to loose this time and whatever lay forward she didn't care – there was no other choice than going on.
She was surprised that she couldn't hear her running steps against the floor, she couldn't hear a thing – it seemed that the space she was in destroyed every noise made inside it. At least she wasn't in the dark now, the hallway she was running along was lit with red, painful lights. Lamps filled with crimson light lined the corridor creating a ghostly atmosphere but she had little time to investigate them further, her business here was other than that..
She sprinted through the corridor only to find herself in another one. A long hallway loomed in front of her but she felt no desire to run through it. Long hallways in tombs were usually not hallways but some deadly trap – this she had proved a time after time. The ancient civilizations had had a great need to place everything from spikes to poison arrows in their constructions to prevent anyone from seeing what they hid. If they had known they were guarding something so terrible then why did they make it possible to find? On the other hand, if they hadn't done so she would never gotten interested in tomb raiding.
A single gunshot got her moving again – was that bastard nephilim trying to shoot her? Her dying here began to seem inevitable she chose rather to die in a way of her choosing and not by some unnatural creature's hand.
Here and there she could see something metallic glimmering inside the walls but didn't give it a second thought.
As her feet carried her further into the corridor her ears began to fill with too familiar noise – more blades and yet she did not see them. Only a few running steps later she saw the source of the noise – the metallic echo of the blades filled the corridor as they began to struck fast out of the walls still far away from her but drawing nearer to her. As she realized what was happening she stopped and glanced back seeing another set of similar blades chasing her. If she stayed here she was going to get cut into pieces.
She glanced at the approaching blades once more, closed her eye, reminding herself why she was doing this and dashed forward pushing herself to the edge of her strength. The noise of metal hitting metal drew closer to her and it didn't matter how fast she ran it would catch her and there was the other set of blades in front of her. If she only could stop at the right spot that the metal wouldn't cut into her flesh because she knew this was metal and not the material the pendulums had been made of. She could see the little dirt there was on the floor soaring through the air as the blades hit the ground in a lethal force and were pulled back again inside the wall. The glimmer of metal in the walls, the glimmer – now she understood what it was. The blades, hidden in the wall, were given away by the slight metallic shine through the thin layer of stone that protected them. She hadn't seen any cracks in the walls – had the blades impaled the rock to get free?
Another set of the blades thrust themselves through the thin rocky wall causing small pieces of stone to explode from the rock. Pushing herself harder she dashed forward to the awaiting doom to avoid the one behind her. Being close enough to the approaching blades Lara ducked and stood up as soon as the blades had passed, sprinting forward just getting out of the way of the other blades.
She ran the short way there was to the next doorway but stopped dead as she noticed she had arrived to a round chamber illuminated with small candle-like lights. They twinkled in different shades of blue and otherwise reminded her of candles except there was no candles in these ones. The lights seemed to float in the air and slowly moving around. They brought spectacular warmth into the room, lighting up every single spot there was to be seen. But the atmosphere in the room could not be fixed even with the warmth of the small lights: The chamber reeked of death, it was written on the walls and the floor without a single letter. This place was the end of all life, a doorway to death and whatever was on the other side. Even though the little lights made the room soulful not even them had the power of banishing the death that resided so strongly in here.
The chamber itself wasn't decorated in any way. The walls looked like the chamber had been carved into the stone, even the floor was rough. Only thick roots of trees encircled the room and made their way to the roof. In the middle of the room a single object stood on a pedestal that seemed to be made out of glass. What really surprised her was that there wasn't supposed to be glass during the years this place was constructed.
She stepped forward to take a closer look of the object, the scales, but couldn't tell for sure what it was made of. She reached out her hand and let a single finger slide on the surface of the object, feeling its coldness numbing her limbs. The scales of Judgment held no grace or beauty and for the first time during her career she felt no pride in discovering something ancient. There was no glory to be received from this. A single feather lay in the other of the cups of the scales looking light but still securely attached. Whose soul could weight only that little?
"Found anything interesting, Ms.Croft?" She had completely forgotten about Karel. This was the part where she would've turned around, pulled out her guns, fired at the approaching figure and ducked for cover. That is, if she only had her guns.
"What I've discovered doesn't match my definition of interesting." She pointed out, her voice showing her growing annoyance. No one could push her around this long and live to regret it.
The nephilim looked around with his black, emotionless eyes while his three remaining helpers held her at gunpoint. Oh what she would give for a little distraction.
"You see these little lights?" He asked but didn't wait for her to answer. "Do you know what they are?" Again, there was no pause for her to say anything. "This is what you are, this is what you will always be. They all look the same."
What was he talking about? In the back of her mind the small voice was telling what the bluish lights were – souls, one of every single dead person not already judged. They all were similar to each other, only their shades were different. How could one tell where they all belong? How would one know their crimes? Would their guide be one of the glowing lights? What about Konstantin? Where did they all go after this room? Was there an other side? Questions she would never get an answer for ran through her mind, an endless litany of inquiries of a studious mind, as Karel ran his hand through yet another little light, yet another soul.
"Nothing." His voice was arrogant. "Ethereal and never free, dependent on something as silly as judgment."
"It is better than having one's destiny already written." She snapped back at him.
The remark could've earned her a bullet between her eyes from one of Karel's helpers but the man never got to fire his weapon. His cry of death was suffocated as the blade ran through his back from back to front sucked out his soul in one grayish flash. His eyes showed enormous disbelief as the life he had thought was eternal left his body.
Lara needed only this one diversion. As the nephilim closest to her aimed at whatever had taken the other's life she kicked the weapon out of his hands and ducked after it.