"-am!"
My ears are ringing so loud inside my skull I can't hear anything else. Ringing, and white, washed out vision. Distantly, I can make out someone yelling something and the pattering of a thunderstorm. A dark shape begins to form in front of me, vague and hazed. Something takes hold of my arms and I'm too out of it to react.
"-am. Samantha!" It's her. Even blurry and half-together I can tell it's her. "Samantha, you have to calm down. Breathe." She waits a second for me to respond, but my body is stiff and tense with shock. The ground leaves my back and I'm pressed closely to her chest as she lifts me and takes off down to the opposite end of the hallway, dodging toppled columns. I can hear her heart beating . Despite the sudden dark situation, its pattern is even and slow, and it calms me enough to regain control of my arms and legs.
She kneels behind a tall marble piece of debris and lets me pull away from her, peering over into the direction of the explosion.
"W-What's going on?" I whisper shakily, trying my best to calm myself. She's so unbelievably passive that for a moment I think maybe something not-so-bad happened, an accident, a faulty water pipe burst or something like that. But then I hear shouting. Gruff, male voices yelling lines of orders at each other. Lara's eyes narrow tightly at the chaos and she touches the sides of her thighs, making an unsatisfied noise when her hands find nothing there but the hunting blade she'd sort-of threatened me with yesterday.
"Bugger," she mouths, sinking behind our cover. "I knew that bastard couldn't be trusted."
"What?" I nearly shout. "Holy shit, I just almost fucking got blown up! We need to get out of here."
"No," she says coolly. "If they get their hands on what they want it's going to be a big hassle."
"A hassle?" I grit incredulously. "Our being dead is gonna be a pretty big hassle, Lara!"
"Calm down," she glares at me. I purse my lips and shut my mouth tight. "They're looking for the Lusitania coordinates."
"So, let them have it."
"No. Vymes knew I wouldn't be willing to give them up after figuring out what he was actually looking for ."
"Jesus, couldn't he have just looked up the coordinates himself on Google or something? The Lusitania's not even a myth!"
"Well, he didn't exactly ask for the Lusitania. He asked for the coordinates to the Shield of Perseus. He doesn't know that they are one in the same." She reaches into her front and pulls a small golden vial from between her breasts. "The Shield is said to be adorned with the head of Medusa. Regardless of the truth behind that, it's without a doubt a powerful weapon. He can't possess it."
"Well, there's about ten guys out there with guns who'd like to say otherwise."
"We'll see about that," she glowers, stands up, and whistles as loud as she can between two fingers. I nearly have a heart attack right there.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I curse, grabbing the waistline of her shorts and trying to pull her back behind cover.
"Hello, gentleman!" She muses, cupping a hand over the outside of her mouth. "You wouldn't happen to be looking for this, would you?" In her fingers she waves the vial back and forth like a useless piece of junk. I'm too scared shitless to take a look over the pillar myself, but a moment after she speaks, thunderous footsteps storm down in our direction. Lara does a heel turn and breaks into a swift run around the corner and down into the foyer, and the rest follow like cattle, yelling at her and each other. Not a single one bothers to look down; they're so close as they pass me I could stick my foot out and trip them.
After a minute of distant noise, I peak out. There's a gaping hole leading outside where the wall of the hallway used to be, but no sign of any people. I stand up, heart pounding. I can't believe that just happened. Holy shit. I look around frantically and breathe one even breath, then two, and find my way to the foyer.
Still no one. She must have led them into the bowels of the manor, areas that she knew well but they didn't. Areas where one wrong step would mean getting crushed by a sliding door or being possessed by some kind of evil spirit. I bound for the front door and grab the gold leaf handle tightly. One more step, and I'm done with all this. She led them away to distract them from me. She's giving me the chance to get the hell out of here.
I pause.
No, she can take care of herself. She's, like a superhero or something, right?
I shake my head and make a frustrated noise. Come on! You're right there!
I back away from the door and clutch at the sides of my head, breathing as evenly as I can and letting out a stream of 'okay's. Alright, calm down. Calm down. Lara's here somewhere was a crapload of guys with guns and knives and shit who probably wouldn't have a problem cutting the coordinates out of her cold, dead hands. I can't leave her, I can't. I don't know why, but I just can't. But what can I do?
I look to the hall that leads to the underground. What if something went wrong? What if she's in trouble?
No, she can't be in trouble. She's Lara Croft. She could probably just glare at them and they'd all fall over dead.
…Right?
Hesitantly, I walk to the pathway down.
I'm only at the second tunnel when I see the first dead body. I throw up almost immediately. He's caught between a stone cast and the hard brick of the wall, his chest cavity caved in under his Kevlar. I wipe the nervous sweat from my forehead and swallow hard, resisting the urge to look at him again, and take the giant gun from the ground next to his body; it's heavy as shit and I have no idea how to use it, but having it makes me feel a little better.
I pass two more bodies without studying them, without even looking at them completely. I don't want to see.
When I get to the stone wall that I know leads into the possessed objects room, I stop. It's pushed back and open, and there's slivers of light coming from the edges of the slipthroughs. From inside, I can hear men. Cautiously, I slip around the corner and peer inside.
The lights are all on, as I thought, which already isn't a good sign; I'm far enough in to see but not be seen. There's a circle of the remaining men in the center of the room, and between them Lara is kneeling on the ground. Two men are holding her arms back and another is standing directly in front of her. I can tell they've roughed her up already; her lip and nose are bloodied, and it makes my stomach turn and twist in anger. She's still wearing that cold, humorless smile.
"One more time, Croft."
"Piss off."
He backhands her across the cheek hard enough to make me gasp sharply with dread. She spits a mouthful of blood to the side and looks up at her assaulter.
"My, you should really take a girl to dinner first before you try to ruffle her feathers."
"We can do this all day, Miss Croft."
"Please," she says with a crimson grin. "Call me Lara."
He doesn't seem entertained. "Give us the real coordinates, Croft!" He waves the golden vial in her face. "There's nothing written on this!"
"Oh, dear." She looks genuinely apologetic for a second. "I must have left them in my other trousers."
I can't believe she's fucking being coy with these guys right now. I step outside of the situation for a moment and examine the room, evaluating my options and trying to resist just crying and curling up in the fetal position. Okay…what happened last time I was in this room? The lights were off, and the doors were both closed. And the presence was here. I shiver at its memory; that thing that I couldn't see but could feel in my brain, whispering and growling and stalking.
The big guy puts his gun to her forehead and presses, forcing her head back. "Can't say it's been a pleasure, Croft. Guess you're just lucky I like blondes."
"What?" she mutters, still with that deadpan smile. "You don't think I'm pretty?"
The opposite door is already shut behind them. I narrow my eyes.
Wait. That was her plan! She lured them all here, but they caught her before…
His gun cocks, and she closes her eyes.
And my gun goes off. The shot catches him right in the shoulder at the edge of his Kevlar breastplate. He shouts out, and right before I hit the lights and shut the door behind me I catch Lara's shocked expression through the guy's legs as he topples over. She shouts at me as everything goes dark,
"Shut your eyes, Sam!"
I crush myself into the corner and I do. But the noises are enough. Bones crunching and men screaming like children. Hysterical laughter and pleas for mercy. I can feel them again, all of them, all around. I cover my head and wait for the screaming to stop.
I reach for the lights again, and one of them lumbers in front of me, sizing up. I keep my eyes closed, but I know it's there, with flesh between its teeth. I can smell its breath, rancid and rotted out, and just it lunges I yell and spring forward, smashing my palm into the light trigger.
And everything stops. Artificial lights flood in impassively, and all that's left are the uniforms and weapons and clothing that once held human bodies. No blood or limbs or heads rolling across the floor like I'd expected. Just…nothing.
Lara.
I rush over to her, dropping the gun with a heavy 'clang', and dive to a kneel where she is, laying on her side with her back to me. She's got three long claw marks stretching across the entire length of her scapulas and I'm struck with ferocious anxiety.
"Lara, Lara," I mutter over and over, grabbing her shoulder and rolling her over, resting her head on my lap.
She groans in a strained way and wipes the blood out of her eyes.
"What were you thinking?" she says hoarsely. "You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I know you aren't lecturing me right now," I retort. She turns over and lets out another mouthful of blood. "I-I think those things got you."
"Yes, they did. And you?"
"Almost, but I'm okay."
"Well, I suppose I'm a little more guilty than you are, Sam. They feed on the sins humans have committed in the past. The Maya actually thought that-"
"Lara," I interrupt.
She clears her throat and wipes the red off her lips. "Sorry."
I stroke her bangs out of her face; her lip is split and her cheekbone is cut open, and she's got a deep gash on her eyebrow, but she still looks good. "You okay?"
"Better than those men," she snorts, glancing over at the empty clothing strone all over. "Thank you for taking care of the vial."
"Huh?" I look at her quizzically.
Silently, she reaches behind me and sinks her fingers into my back pocket. From it she pulls another golden vial; she's wearing that clever expression again.
"You reverse- pickpocketed me up there?" I take the object from her grasp and blush furiously. "I can't believe you!"
"Didn't even notice, did you?" She looks right and proud of herself, despite being beaten bloody.
"Yeah, you're real sneaky. Can we get out of here now, please?"
She sits up with a groan and pushes herself to her feet, looking not even a tiny bit less confident. "I hope Zip and your friend are alright up there."
,