Chapter 5

Stupid ancients. Stupid civilizations that created stupid artifacts that stupid people like me go racing after and don't make it back alive.

I was nine when I wondered what death would be like.

Would it be peaceful? Like a dreamless, constant sleep. Would I meet the people I had lost? Tell them how sorry I was to disappoint them. I had always expected it to be serene.

Or rather, I had hoped it to be so. If it was peaceful and calm, then my parents would be happy, not suspended in limbo for eternity. Since I blamed myself for my parents death, I had hoped against hope that they would be happy at least on the other side of the world. And together forever...

I had never expected it to be this painful, though. Memories of my father crying after my mother s disappearance, pulling mother back from the dead, leaving Amanda in the flooding temple, kneeling beside a dying Alister and asking him to come back to me... These memories float in my head.

My throat chokes; I take in a huge gulp of air and open my eyes. Sunlight streams through my lashes, hurting my sore eyes. I feel the pounding at the back of my head. My headset hangs off my right ear and my back feels bruised.

"Zip?" I call onto the speaker, holding the crippled headphone to my ears.

I can hear static.

"Lara?" Zip's voice floods my ears.

"Oh god! Thank god! I thought this was the end" I say, rising to my feet before losing my balance and falling down on the ground.

My ankle is sprained, my head is bleeding and my knuckles are raw from hitting the ground so hard.

"You fell almost 15 feet downward! How the heck did you survive?"

"Zip Are you crying?" I can feel the heat radiating off my face. The sweat pouring down my head cools me down.

"Yeah, well it has been exactly 7 hours since your fall. Your mother is not in a good shape."

"Tell her I'm okay, probably concussed though"

"Do you have any first aid supplies?" Zip asks quietly.

"Yes. Wait a second" I reply, pulling a kit out of my backpack.

I pull out a tube from my backpack and apply the ointment to my head wounds. Then I place a bandage over it.

"Lara! Dear, are you okay? How are you? I was worried sick" It is my mother's voice that speaks in my earphone.

"I'm okay. I just can't walk properly" I reply soothingly and try to stand up. My leg gives a small throb but I know I've handled far worse.

So I start to climb my way up the wall and finally reach the doorway. I crawl into it and look around. I emerge into a small room.

There, right before my eyes rests the artifact I've been searching for.

It rests on a marble pedestal, full of carvings and the vase is made of crystal. I can clearly see the blue liquid inside it.

My savior.

I search the room for traps and start to edge towards the pedestal, when the room starts to shake.

"Oh...Oh Shit! Lara, get out of there!" Zip cries into my head.

"No, Zip. Not when I have a chance" I fight my way through the boulders that have started to fall from the walls.

I almost touch the artifact when the whole floor underneath is whisked away.

Or whisked downwards.

I feel the breeze in my hair as I drop down and my leg gives another unpleasant throb.

"Ah, so you couldn't figure it out as well" A snappy voice remarks.

I turn my head slightly to spot Pierre DuPont perched on a large boulder.