AN:...umm...I'll try to pick it up some more. Seriously I feel really terrible, when putting my fic up to others...well...I think you know what I
Selphiefan 89: Hee hee hee. I'm glad you like it, but you will find out soon enough (I'm at least cramming in two chapters or more a day, so don't worry...-)
Shauntiwritesit: Ooh! thank you very much. As for the German, I just used Babelfish for it (yeah I know I'm cheap x.x;;) so it's probably all terribly translated...bah...stick a fork in me...I'm done.
...and here we go ...
Chapter Three: Dissonance within a television set
Lara observed the falling snow outside from the café window, and watched some bleak citizens trudge about it in, in their overcoats; rarely a car would slush by. The café itself was dim, but comfortingly so, and rich aromas of foreign teas and coffees masked the odorous smell of cigarette smoke, as some chose to on this bleak and frozen morning. Snatches of hushed conversation hung about in the air from the sparse people at the bar. The hum of a television set traveled underneath it all as she tried to recollect fully what happened last night.
Lara opened the note that Kurtis had handed her, as he still looked at his hands. She could only make out a few words, in the ushered handwriting, but nothing more. She folded it back up again and looked out at the opposing wall with the note still in her hand. She was puzzled as to exactly what was going on, and why everything was terribly downcast in Prague, as if their whole world was overturned in an instant ."Where did you find it?" Lara turned to Kurtis, as he stood up, beginning to pace, seeming like he needed something.
"In a room downstairs. There was screaming, but when I got there–" Kurtis sat back down again, his hair slightly awash over his face "-- No one was there...although, they did take a certain liking to trashing the room itself." Lara seemed intrigued as her eyes went down to the paper, as she turned it over in her hands. She just wanted to go home, even though this could possibly mean something. Perhaps it was just one of those Satanic gangs that took certain members of the youth and murdered them in the woods, fufilling their "rights".
She glanced back at Kurtis for a moment. What if he were to have been put into danger again? She didn't want to think about it, but the thoughts came anyway, as she remembered his already pale form half-slouched against a grimy wall, the blood having already soaked his clothes was drying. The feelings that she first experienced flooded her mind, as she had managed to drag him back through a short-cut that lead to the bio-research lab, and out again. Even though she was certain that he was dead, he had managed to pull through, much to her relief. Those painful moments in the hospital had nearly brought her over the brink of spiraling insanity.
"Hey...Lara?" Kurtis' voice pulled her from her dangerous musings. Lara looked back into the crystalline blue of his eyes. "Hmmm?" She managed, still trying to ease those memories as they ripped through her. His face clouded, noticing the air about her "You okay?". Lara nodded, trying to reassure herself more than him, "Oh, yes...yes everything is alright...I just..." She sighed then looked back at him "Sorry for waking you up. I didn't mean to." Kurtis let a grin return to his face, like the one when he had outrun her at the Louvre. "Hey, nightmares happen."
"What do you think it means?" Lara's eyes fell back to the note, which still resided in her palms. Kurtis shook his head as he let a hand rake through his hair. "I don't know. Maybe it was just one of those teenage cults that gather young women and sacrifice them...". Lara quirked an eyebrow "A bit too morbid on the details, Trent.". Kurtis chuckled "Glad to help, Miss Croft. I think we've both had a tiring night, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way". Lara jutted her lower jaw slightly forward as he left the room, as she resisted the urge of chucking a pillow at him. Oh that man was so difficult. "Americans..." she muttered. "I heard that!" the familiar voice trailed into her doorway. Lara scowled, which was slightly tinged with amusement, and shut the door, flicked the lights off, and, literally, jumped into her bed, the webs of her previous dream completely torn away.
Cigarette smoke imbued her mind on impact. She turned infront of her to see Kurtis with a cigarette in between the fingers of his left hand, staring out of the same window. "Why do you smoke?" Kurtis turned his gaze back to her and shrugged "Bad habit." Lara raised her eyebrows and stared at the aged wooden table, with various phone numbers carved in it. He slightly paused, after taking in her look, as he took in another drag and exhaled from his nose, the dusty smoke soon returning to the far recesses of space before putting it out. "And now, I have a question for you." Lara leaned back in her chair slightly, dark eyes ostracizing him, "Alright then, ask away." Kurtis leaned in slightly, both forearms resting on the table. "What was it? The dream, I mean."
Lara exhaled as she looked out the window again, her long braid releasing its hold from over her shoulder. "I was in a very dark place, seemed to be a cavern of some sort...and...I heard this voice, which I went to see what it was. I kept on traveling until I reached a terribly bright light, and..." Kurtis looked at her as if wanting her to continue "...it was in the shape of some sort of figure, then I fell. That was about the time when I woke up." She studied Kurtis, whose brow was furrowed in deep thought, then he looked up, as her visage met the deep blue again "Well...sounds interesting..." Lara was a bit perplexed "Is that all you're going to say?"
"...Is there anything else you want me to say?"
Lara sighed and let her eyes capture the images on the television set perched up in the left corner of the bar, behind Kurtis "Oh...I don't know. Just wondering why you're so interested about what I dream. What about your little expedition downstairs? Anything more on that?" Kurtis began to pleat the white paper napkin with one hand, his head propped up on the other "I'd rather not talk about it". She was beginning to get a little exasperated with him and his "cool, pristine aura", as it were. It was so meaningless. Why the hell should he care what she dreamed about anyway, and heaven forbid if it was connected with the Nephilim or the Cabal at all. He didn't want to tell her anything, which made her even more angry with him. It seemed almost that he wasn't even grateful for her saving his life back in Boaz' lair.
The bartender moved to turn the television set up, as a breaking story came on. Kurtis turned around and Lara gazed more intently, fully focused. A blond woman with a red neatly cropped suit was looking at the Teleprompter behind the cameras as she continued in a somewhat accented voice "...Reports of another murder in Prague have just come in early today. The victim was brutally murdered inside this small house just within Olšanskè. The victim was later identified as Andrea Moldov; a nineteen year old girl, that was staying at this hotel–"The image of the hotel that Lara and Kurtis were staying at flickered on the screen. Lara nodded 'So, this was the girl that was murdered last night...'. The drab voice continued on "-- She was found brutally murdered with various symbols on the walls marked in blood. Research suggests that it somehow is linked to a Satanic cult. Witness Olga Steinmetz said she had an encounter with an American man who came out of the room–"
Lara looked at Kurtis, who already had his hand to his forehead, muttering curses. A picture of Olga encompassed the screen, right outside of the place where Andrea was kidnapped "-- He came out of the room and told me to 'shut the hell up and don't ask anything', and he had a gun–"Kurtis shot up and silently mouthed "I didn't say any of that!...stupid teenagers..." Lara shushed him "They might suspect you now..." The screen went back to the news reporter "–Hotel staff said that an American was staying in the same hotel. Police have currently suspected him–" A drawing of Kurtis plastered itself on the screen. It looked nothing like him, even though it had attempted to do so. Lara began to snicker in the sheer irony of it all as Kurtis' jaw nearly dropped to the floor in disbelief. "No freaking way..."
"–If anyone has seen this man, please, report any information you have for the police." Lara almost could feel Kurtis' stomach drop, as people began to look in their direction, and the bartender was already talking on the phone. "Great...just great..."Kurtis sighed tiredly suddenly shocked as he felt Lara's hand encompass his. He turned to look into her deep brown eyes. "You were seen by Miss. Steinmetz?" Kurtis nodded weakly "Yeah, she apparantly went to go get a freaking soda– Jesus fucking christ". The doors were wrenched open as the familiar sounds of police sirens filled the snow-glazed air.
"Kurtis Trent, I presume?" a thickly accented authoritative voice sounded from his left.
"Yes?"
"You are now under arrest."
"Oh...Thanks..."
AN: Ooh, ooh, Deja vu. Don't worry. Things won't get too bad for Kurtis, although...things get very interesting in the next couple of chapters. hee hee hee...(wow...I'm such a bloody dork x.x;;)