Scared Yet?
So, here's chappy 2! Now, I realise I kinda got into the whole Karel thing a lot quicker (with Lara being scared in the first chapter and all), but, this is going to be a thick-plot story, so, fortunately, we won't be seeing Karel for a little while, but unfortunately, we won't be seeing Kurtis for a little while either. Well, you'll see him in about two chapters, but it'll take a little while for the fluffiness. Which, once I get started on fluff, will be hard to stop. You don't call me laraandkrtisfan97 for nothing y'know!
Oh, and a message for ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess: I have finally managed to get Eclipse in the Twilight series and shocked my Twilight obsessed friends by joining – rather, shouting into – the conversation by saying something they didn't expect me to know. Just shows you, I'm full of surprises. And if you haven't got it yet, it is a good book. It's worth reading.
Lara rubbed her eyes, just making sure her mind was playing tricks on her. When she removed her hand from her face, she was alone, as she had been from the moment she entered the room. She turned back to the mirror and her face fell when she saw the words written on the now steamed mirror: 'Scared yet?'.
She turned back around and exited the room with her blade in her hand. She ran over to the light switch and flicked it on, narrowing her eyes at the sudden burst of light. She searched threw all of her bedroom, which didn't take very long, and found nothing. When she returned to the bathroom, the words weren't there. She was loosing it. She knew it. Maybe her life HAD taken a turn for the worse. She looked up as she saw Winston enter the bathroom, not noticing the knocking on her bedroom door, presumably Winston asking for permission to enter. "Are you alright, Lara? I heard your screams."
"Winston, did Zip notice anyone near here on the security?" she asked, completely ignoring his question.
"He didn't say anything, no. Are you sure you're OK, Miss Croft?"
Lara smiled at the butler's concern, "I'm fine, thank-you Winston." she brushed it aside, as if it were nothing. But it didn't feel like nothing.
"I shall be downstairs if you need me." he made his way over to the door of her bedroom, before Lara stopped him, "Winston, what time is it?"
"Just after six o'clock." and then he left.
Lara was glad that she didn't have to try and sleep again. She would be too worried in case she had another one of her dreams. Nightmares more like, that little voice argued again. Where had that voice came from? It had seemed to pop up out of nowhere with the walls she had built up, I'm something you might call a conscience, it answered for her. She doubted she would have gotten to sleep anyway. Each shadow would seem like a threat, Lara probably flinching at the slightest of movements. She would never get to sleep when she was so stressed.
She walked threw to her wardrobe and pulled out something comfortable and easy to wear before making her way back to the bathroom – making sure to take her pistols with her – turning the water tap on to almost the hottest it would go and the room almost immediately filled up with steam. She stepped into the shower after discarding her clothing and let the water relax her muscles. She had a lot on her mind.
She closed her eyes and let her body relax into the hot, steamy shower. The water flowed over her body and with it, the stress of the past few months.
She was snapped out of her comfort as she heard a scream from downstairs. Dreading the worst, she jumped out of the shower with the water still running and slipped her clothes on with ease. Good job I chose combats instead of jeans she thought as she pulled her trousers on after her vest top. She pulled her hair back into a low, loose ponytail and grabbed her guns, rushing out of the bathroom and out into the landing. She scanned the area down below and rushed down the stairs to Alistair who was sitting with a book, "What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.
Alistair chuckled, making Lara look at him as if he were mad. "Zip was installing a new security camera and he had a little fall."
Lara jumped as she heard Zip's voice from behind them, "A little?! I'm lucky to be alive!"
Lara stood there, blocking out the bickering coming from her two companions. She suddenly removed one of her pistols from their holsters and fired a bullet at a lurking shadow. It was still dark in most parts of the house – the storm from the night before was continuing, minus the thunder and lighting. Alistair and Zip jumped and turned their attention to Lara who was staring hard at the shadow. "Are you OK, Lara?" Zip asked.
Lara snapped out of her trance, still keeping her eye on the shadow, "Yeah, I just thought I saw something." Brilliant excuse she thought. You've already used that one.
"You positive?" he asked again.
"Why does everyone think that I'm not alright?! I'm perfectly fine. Hunky dory, even. Fandabidosy. Now will you just leave-me-alone!" she stomped back upstairs, slamming her bedroom door shut behind her. She sighed as she walked back into the bathroom, avoiding the pool of water that had formed on the floor and turned the tap to the 'off' position on the shower.
She emerged from the bathroom, grabbing her pistols again before walking out of the bedroom, downstairs and outside. She needed to vent her anger on something, and she hadn't had a good run on her assault course for some time. She threw the front door open, despite Winston's future protests, and headed straight for the course. She walked to the start of the course and looked at her watch. Three, two, one! And she raced off, hopping over the first platform before jumping bigger gaps as she progressed. Being outside in the poring rain, soaking wet and not wearing a jacket might mean her catching neumonia, but right now, Lara didn't care.
She ran and jumped onto the climbing wall, pulling herself along as fast as she could. She grunted as she pulled herself up and took deep breaths, looking at the challenge ahead. After a few years of training on the same old course, she had Zip order some new blocks and climbing apparatus. In front of her were monkey bars, a sloped block down below them, a swinging pole, a rope and a set of other blocks, all leading to a pool of water below a zip wire.
She sighed as she sprinted forward, her feet leaving the ground as she grabbed the bars above. Near the end of the monkey bars, she dropped down and slid down the block before flipping forward and grabbing hold of the pole. She swung several times, timing her jump and flipped off the bar, gripping the rope. She pushed her feet outwards, swinging on the rope. She suddenly removed her gun as a target appeared to her right; she also had new targets installed. She holstered her gun, her swinging now powerful and she swung her feet above her head, tying her ankles around the rope. She let her arms go and she flopped down, now only hanging by her feet. She reached for her guns, firing at targets behind her. Placing her guns in their holsters, she grabbed hold of the rope, now swinging in her original position. She jumped off it, and grunted as she hit the blocks.
She looked left and right, expecting what was coming. She had run threw the new course just as many times as the old one. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted forward as darts shot out of the walls that were made of the same materials as the blocks, joint onto the blocks themselves. A target popped out to her left, and she quickly shot it before performing a round off over a group of rubble blocking her path. It wasn't real rubble; just bits of plastic squashed together for the effect. She continued to back-walkover quickly before finally performing a back flip, turning while in the air.
She ran down the blocks again, now out of the enclosed area. She was now out to the rest of the non-renovated part of the assault course. The zip wire was just head of her and she wrapped her hands around it, lifting her feet off the ground and swaying slightly as she travelled down on the handle.
Just before it reached the end, she let go, bending her knees as she landed and got back up, this time into a ducked position. She crawled threw the low passageway, where her pistols were usually kept when she was attempting the course. Because she already had them, she just passed threw the spot, getting to her feet again, un-holstering her pistols. She jogged along the grass before stopping and shooting at the targets that came up behind blocks. She fired several times at all the wooden planks before sprinting to the finish line, happy that she had done her job. As she rolled over the line, she remembered the other new target she had installed. She had decided that she should add a twist to the course, so she made Zip put a target in after she had finished the course, just to give her an extra practice.
She turned on her heel, shooting at the target that was now half hanging off the wall. Lara continued to fire at it, even when it showed she had got the better of it. The bullets kept impaling themselves into the wood as Lara felt her anger rise and soon, she was just pulling the trigger for nothing to come out. She fell to her knees and tears flowed from her eyes as her mood matched the weather – dull. She threw her guns to the side and pulled herself up, wiping her tears away and trying to calm herself down, shivering. Even she was surprised at her sudden show of emotion. But so many things had happened in the past few months, it was hard to keep them bottled up for so long. She picked her guns up and walked back towards the house, feeling some comfort as the rain began to pour down heavier.
When she entered, Zip was in his usual spot; the Tech room, Alistair was still hunched over the book she had last seen him with and Winston was just exiting from the kitchen, carrying his signature tray of tea. "Oh, Lara. You're soaking! Let me get you a blanket."
Lara smiled at Winston's concern. She may not need it, but it was nice of him to care for her, "I'm fine, Winston, thank-you." she sat down on the settee opposite Alistair, relaxing at the soft material of the couch. "Would you like a cup of tea then?" he motioned towards the tray in his hands.
"Yes, please." she reached out, grabbing the nearest cup and sat back down, taking a newspaper that had been left on the coffee table with her. She briefly scanned threw the front page, before one article caught her eye, Young girl flees orphanage after suspecting herself of harming other children. She sighed, just another teenager in doubt of their lives, thinking that running away would make it all better. She relaxed back into the chair, resting after a hard-ish days work.
Lara awoke when she heard someone tutting. Her head snapped up, immediately regretting the position she had been sleeping in as it had a disadvantage on her neck. Looking around, she realised she had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, and looked to see Zip sitting on the opposite armchair with the paper in his hands. "Wh...what?" she asked, yawning.
"Ungrateful teenager. Runs away because her room mate is found with bruises and burns on her arms. The girl who ran away claimed to be experiencing strange glowing energy flying about her in her own subconscious. Apparently she has 'powers' that only come about when she's angry. If you ask me, she's just an attention seeker. They'll find her eventually and the guilt will make her admit that it was all a lie. It's a lot of bull." he threw the paper on the table, getting up and taking an empty cup of coffee to the kitchen.
"Well, thankfully nobody asked you." she said to an empty room. All the information seemed to be a bit suspicious to her. She wouldn't say that it wasn't possible for the girl to have these 'powers'; she had seen it happen before. But it did seem like an act to her. Her room mate could just be a part of it; self-harm or use make-up on herself and make it out that the other girl had assaulted her, giving her a reason to flee the orphanage.
Lara looked up at the clock. "Half eight?!" How long had she been asleep? She got up and walked into the kitchen with her own cup of tea. She looked outside the window as she entered and noticed that the weather hadn't changed. If anything – it had gotten worse. Zip was sitting over a piece of paper, scribbling down what looked like to Lara, calculations for re-installing his computer. He had mentioned it before and had been rather excited about it. Anything to do with computers, Zip would either know about it, or be doing it. Alistair and Winston were nowhere to be seen. She sat down beside him, pouring a fresh cup of tea and sighing. "I'm not so sure it is."
AN: Right, it's moving slowly, I know, but remember it's only the second chapter and their was a bit of important information in that chapter that you should note down in your memory.
I'll see you on Saturday for a chapter that made me feel like my head was going to explode. Luckily, it didn't.