"I will kill you." One of Matthias his followers said. "I will murder you if you don't listen to me. Slit your little throat and let you bleed out like a sheep." I looked around me to see if I could get away but all I could see was darkness. Just black, nothingness. "Open your mouth, bitch."

"FUCK YOU!" I yelled and violently tried to get away. I couldn't, though. I was held down by something. No ropes, hands, or chains, just... something. A force. I couldn't move.

"C'mon, princess." Another man said. "Let's make this easy for everyone." The man was dirty. Not just his clothes, but his odor too, and his face and hair. Everything was absolutely disgusting. A few other men standing around me couldn't stop laughing. I closed my eyes as I felt the tears run over my cheeks, but it didn't help because the inside of my eyelids were as dark as the nothingness around me.

The Croft manor felt safe. It felt secure. It felt impenetrable, to be honest. I knew it wasn't actually impenetrable, but it felt like it. I never used to liked large, fenced off houses, but since Yamatai… It was just good being here and knowing no person could just walk up to the house and break down the front door. There wasn't some lousy, half asleep, overweight guard reading some magazine near the front gate. No, we bought services from S-Tec, the absolute top when it comes to security in Great Britain. This was the same company who provided security for the CEO's of the most controversial company's in the country. The guard next to the gate was ex-military. Same as the two other guards patrolling the gardens around the house, working in 8 hour shifts. All three of them were holding fucking assault rifles. Do you know much you can get away with if you're rich? A lot, I can tell you. And S-Tec didn't just supply some guards, no no. The alarm system was not only directly in contact with local police, but with S-Tec, as well. They said they'd have an armed response rate of under two minutes. It sounded infeasible, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to find out. Hell, S-Tec sounded like a private military company. The only thing Lara didn't agree on was camera's inside. She said she wanted to maintain our privacy. No guards, nor camera's inside the house. I guess that was fair of her. And she was probably right. I was just glad I got Lara to fund the security outside. I could've asked my dad, since Lara still isn't too keen on spending any money from her fortune, but I knew what he would say; If you want to be safe, come back to Japan and live with me. Blah, blah. I asked Lara for the additional guards the moment we came back from Brighton. I just felt so uneasy, even more than usual. She said she understood and made the call. 1,5 hours later and the guards were here.

This so called seminar would be on Monday, which would give me the entire weekend to think about whether or not we should go. I decided, however, to not think about anything today. This Saturday would be about nothing. Just Lara and me here, in this house. I'd probably hit the sauna, and afterwards the pool or jacuzzi. I finished unpacking the bag I took to Brighton and left my room. I stood in the hallway, which overlooked the large living area in the middle of the mansion. I took a right and went to the library to look for Lara, but she wasn't there. That means she can only be at one place; the gym. I contemplated joining her, but convinced myself to swim a few more laps in the pool after the sauna. Plus, I much prefer having a run outside to stay in shape rather than workout indoors. I did decide to go to check up on Lara, though. You should see Lara while she's working out, damn... I made my way to the other side of the house and entered the gym. The gym was huge, about 250 square meters. And it had everything, from a climbing wall, to treadmills, to gymnastic bars. I stood in the door opening and immediately saw Lara. She was doing pull ups on one of the gymnastic bars. I knew what was waiting for me, when I went looking for her but… wow. She was wearing black spandex shorts, black sneakers, fingerless gloves and a pink sports bra. Each time I saw her scarcely dressed like that, it reinforced my theory that Lara was actually a genetically engineered girl, with a sole purpose on this earth to arouse humanity. Perhaps for world peace or something. Honestly, she is just indescribable. People on the street would see her flawless face, and perhaps had the slightest idea of her body, but...no. Her body was pure perfection, I thought, as I looked at her body going up and down. Her arms were thin, but when flexed, showed muscles. Same as her completely flat stomach. Toned and feminine. With her beautiful c cup breasts above it, tightly tucked in that sports bra. And her legs, real long climbing legs. Again, feminine but toned. And not to speak about her tight ass, Jesus Christ. I envied her willpower to work so hard for that body. Although, I knew she didn't do it to show off to anyone. And to top it all off, her cheeks were red from effort, and she was drenched in sweat. I followed a sweat drop roll down her ribcage, sidelong her belly button, which finally faded away on her shorts. Okay, time to look away. I stepped outside the gym area and leaned against the wall. This was getting really bad, I shouldn't think this way. She's my best friend. Stop it, Sam, stop it. What if she found out? What would she say? Perhaps I should just tell her? I probably should because the way how it's going now, she's bound to find out. Just as I wanted to walk away and reassess the situation, Lara stepped through the door opening and looked at me. She had her towel around her shoulders and was holding a bidon.

"What are you doing here?" She frowned.

"Spying on you." I smiled while she laughed. "I was wondering if we could have a talk today. You know where we left off in the restaurant?"

"Now?" She pressed her lips together.

"Yes. Please. Can we?"

"Yeah... of course. I'll take a shower and I'll meet you in the living room?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Give me 15 minutes. I'll be right back." Lara said as she walked away.

"Tea?" I yelled after her. She agreed by putting up her thumb.

I handed Lara her tea as she sat down with me on the couch. She had changed back to her usual attire; cargo pants and tank top. I still felt a bit flustered about looking at her in the gym.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes, I am." She said slightly surprised. "Why?"

"Because of what happened, you know, with Yamatai being covered up, and your family name getting dragged through the dirt. I've read some more articles online and-..."

"I thought we were talking about where we stopped in the restaurant?"

"I know." I said as I looked down. "I just feel like… I don't know, I feel really bad for you, Lara. With everything that has happened. I mean, I know you, and I have a feeling the thing that bothers you most these days is your tainted family name."

"I think you're making it sound worse than it actually is." Lara said, slightly frustrated. "Fine, Yamatai is being covered up by this Trinity organisation, God knows why, but it's not that bad. People will just think I misstepped, it's not that big of a deal."

"People died, Lara." I looked her in her eyes.

"Who's side are you on?" She asked.

"Yours, of course. I'm just telling you what the public might think."

"To hell with the public." Lara looked away.

"I was just asking, Lara, I am on your side. You know that, right?." I tried to smile.

"I know." She looked at me again, and did smile.

"And you know I love you, right?" I said. She grinned. It felt good saying that, although I couldn't shake the feeling that I might have said it in a slightly different way than Lara perceived.

There was a silence for a couple of minutes where we drank our tea. It wasn't awkward or anything. We just sat next to each other, letting our thoughts run about. I looked at her for a bit until she looked at me back.

"You said the reason you wake up at night was me." I said. Her smile promptly disappeared. "Back in the restaurant before we were interrupted." She mumbled something.

"Tell me." I said.

"It's hard to explain." She said. I was insanely curious what she was thinking.

"C'mon." I put my hand on hers and looked her in the eyes.

"Sometimes things aren't always what they seem, Sam."

I frowned. "A little more vague than that and you might win an award or something." Lara looked away, pondering.

"I told you it's hard to explain." She said.

"But you can try a little harder than that. What exactly keeps you up at night? Is it something I do at night? Do I make any sounds? Perhaps you keep thinking about me? What is it?"

"I worry about you."

"Oh, please."

"What?" She said, almost offended. "I wasn't the only one at that island, you know?"

"You have had it far worse on Yamatai than me."

"Says who?"

"Says me, look at what you went through. Compared to me-..."

"It's not a competition, Sam." She interrupted me.

"Please, just tell me what exactly keeps you up at night. Am I the cause of those nightmares you have? Am I the reason you are feeling like you do?"

"I feel happy around you, so yes, you're the reason I feel like I do."

"You know what I meant." I said.

"Do you think we should go to that seminar?"

"Don't change the subject!" I snarled at her.

"You don't ever have nightmares?" Lara asked.

"No. Well not that I recall, anyway." I answered, trying to think back if I could remember any nightmare. I couldn't, actually. I couldn't recall a single nightmare since we got off the island. Which was weird, because it's not like I never had nightmares about anything before.

"Yeah, maybe you don't recall them."

"Well, let's say I did have nightmares but I don't recall them, why would that be an issue?"

"Not saying it's an issue, Sam. I'm just worried about you, okay?" She put her hand on my shoulder.

"And that's what keeps you up at night? Honestly?"

"Yes, of course. Why is that weird?"

"It's not." I looked away. "It's not weird. Just know that I'm totally fine."

"Okay then." She smiled at me. Her smile was so cute. I couldn't resist smiling back. "So, was that all you wanted to talk to me about? I really need to refresh my memory on anything that has to do with the Amazon. Perhaps in link with Yamatai. I do recall a sort of manuscript that describes a man that discovers a mine, his wife was Japanese, so who knows." I just grinned at her while she talked. It was amazing how much she could talk about her passion. She would just get sucked into her own little world. I kind of wished I had a passion like that.

"Well." I interrupted her. "You still haven't told me how it was."

"How what was?" Lara asked confused.

"You know, kissing that mohawk chick. You know you are totally out of her league, right?" I said grinning. Lara buried her face in her palms.

"Oh, please. Let's not talk about that." She begged.

"Oh, c'mon, you can tell me. Did you like it?" I gently poked her ribs. I was pretending to be making fun at her, but I was genuinely interested in whether she liked it or not. Lara making out with a girl? As far as I knew, that was a world's first. Here's hoping it wasn't a world's last.

"I...I-I don't know, Sam." She said as she slouched on the couch. "I guess it was okay. Honestly, though, I can't remember much anyway." I could see her cheeks getting bright red.

"Oh, you are so cute!" I gave her a quick hug. "Just so you know, it was super hot."

"Yeah, okay, then. I think we're done talking."

"Wait, wait." I held her by her arm before she could get off the couch. "In all seriousness, why did you do it? I've seen you drunk before, but you never kissed someone out of drunkenness, let alone a girl."

"I don't know, really. I promise you it was nothing, don't look for stuff that isn't there. She kissed me, and I was too drunk to stop her."

"Fine." I laughed. "Well, I am sorry about what I said in the hotel, though. I'll keep my nose out of that kind of business."

"You don't have to!" Lara said suddenly as she turned to me. "That's okay, really. I just… I don't know, okay? It's like…"

"Don't worry. You don't have to explain to me."

"But I want to." She said.

"Then do it when you're ready for it, okay?" I said. She smiled at me. "Now, go read your century old books. The interrogation is over. I'll be here if you need me."

"Don't forget." Lara said as she got up the couch and started walking away. "It's pizza and movie night tonight, your turn to order!"

The rest of the day by as usual. I still got my jacuzzi and swim session, and spend the rest of the afternoon watching TV. In the evening we ordered pizza and watched movies until midnight. It was all just normal, like in the past. It made me wish that things would just like they were before. That that TAFDI guy never showed up, because no matter how I felt about it, I knew Lara had an insatiable hunger to go. She would want to know what the hell was up, and I knew, deep inside, she was hoping we'd go to the Amazon and discover this so called stone. She hid it from me, because she knew how I felt about it. I thought it was a horrible idea to go. I wouldn't ever want to be put in a situation like Yamatai again. But I couldn't do that to Lara. So, I'd go with her to the seminar. I mean, what is the worst that could happen? We're only visiting a seminar in a public place. If we then decided that we wouldn't go, then we wouldn't. Simple as that. Right?

"Let's not get pulled over again." I said as I got in the passenger's seat of the Audi RS6. We just had dinner and we were, of course, on our way to the seminar. Jonah couldn't come because of his restaurant. I was pretty nervous about it, and I could see Lara being a bit restless, as well. Why wouldn't she be? I am sure we have some information regarding Yamatai that would of interest to you. Connor had said. How could they, whoever the hell they might be, have more information about Yamatai than the people who lived it?

"I am sure we'll be fine." Lara said, as serious as ever. Lara spent the entire weekend digging up old books about the Amazon, studying them and try and find a link to Yamatai. I, myself, spent the entire Sunday worrying about what was going to happen today. I also spent quite some time searching the internet for some information about Trinity, but I was unable to find anything at all. The engine roared once more as the gate was opened by one of the S-Tec guards. I quickly glanced at him as we drove by, off the long driveway and onto the road, and he nodded at me. I was glad we had this kind of protection around the house, but something was a bit eery about the guards. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I'm sure it had something to do with how they looked at me. They always looked right through me, past my eyes, past my soul. It was as if they'd seen so much horror in their lives, they couldn't possibly care about anything, or anyone, else except their job. I hope Lara would never be like that.

"Where was it again?" I asked as I looked outside. It was still light outside, but the darkness would soon return.

"Kingstreet."

"So the Hilton hotel?" I looked at Lara.

"Yeah, the Hilton hotel." She said. I grabbed my phone to check Facebook, but quickly closed it again after a few meaningless notifications. I didn't even really knew anyone on there. Not anymore, anyway. I checked my e-mail inbox, which had a few unread messages in them.

"Maybe you should have a talk with those people. You know, to clear things up." I said.

"The reporters?" Lara asked.

"Yeah. I mean, now they're just speculating."

"You think they'd even believe me?" She frowned as she quickly glanced at me.

"Not if you tell the entire story. But, you know, tell them it is actually Yamatai."

"Even if I only told them that, and leave the whole zombie queen part out, people would still call me crazy." I could hear the hopelessness in her voice. "Plus, I want to see what these Trinity people are about before I would even consider talking to the press. They might be trouble."

"Might be?" I asked sarcastically.

"You know, serious trouble."

"If they manage to cover up something as big as Yamatai, they are serious trouble, Lara." I said, but Lara didn't respond. I knew she was trying to rationalize everything, as she always did. Plus, she probably didn't want to put Trinity into too much of a negative light, or convincing me to go would be impossible. I already set my mind on not going, though.

We parked in a street nearby so we had to walk a few minutes before we got to the hotel. Luckily, it was still summer and the temperature was bearable, but it started g. The Hilton hotels will always look fancy to you, no matter how many times you've been there. I had been there a lot, with my dad, but it never ceased to amaze me. They really did a good job of making you feel like a VIP in there. We were greeted by the red carpet as we made our way to the reception.

"We're here for the uh...seminar?" I asked. I show the lady behind the reception desk the pamphlet Connor had given us.

"The conference rooms are to the left, ma'm." The lady said as she pointed down the hallway to our left. "I wouldn't know what TAFDI is, but there's an unnamed seminar in the third door on your left." She smiled as I thanked her. Lara and me made our way through the hallway as we reached the third door on our left. The receptionist was right, as it had a sign Seminar on it. Just as the Lara wanted to open the door, it swung open. Connor was standing in the door opening.

"Ladies." He did his best to smile. "Glad you could come. Please, come in, it's about to start." He said as he stepped aside. We walked in the room. There were several rows of chairs pointing to the front where a small podium was situated. It seemed we were the only ones, as all the chairs were empty.

"Not a large turn up." Lara mentioned to Connor as he walked us to our seats.

"Seems there's not a lot of interest for an island in the middle of the ocean." He laughed. He sat us down at the front row and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. We politely declined. This felt so weird. I wanted to leave and go home. I wanted to forget everything about this. About Yamatai. But I promised myself I'd sit through this. For Lara.

"This feels odd." Lara said. "Really odd."

"Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that." I said relieved. We looked around us, but Connor had left and there was no one to see in the entire room. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now we leave." Lara said as she got up.

"Really? Are you sure? What about the seminar?"

"Screw the seminar, this doesn't feel right at all. Let's just go." She didn't have to say that again. I quickly got off my chair and followed her. I half expected someone to stop us before we got to the door, but we made it. I looked behind me once more, to ease my paranoia as Lara opened the door. Just as we were about to step through, a man, who had been standing just outside, stepped in front of us and stopped us in our tracks.

"It's best if you stay inside." The man said. The man was huge, not fat, just tall and muscled. He had a black suit with a black tie on and he was bald.

"No." Lara said. "It's best if we go home now." And she wanted to walk past him. But the man held out his arm which stopped Lara. He then opened one side of his suit which revealed the gun the man had in his belt.

"Please, take a seat inside." He said again. He actually looked quite friendly, for some reason. But that didn't prevent my heart for beating in my throat. I expected bad things to happen, but we were 5 minutes in and we were already being threatened by a man with a gun. I looked at Lara who was looking directly at the man. I could see how she was already planning her next move. She turned around to face me and looked at me. She was so focused, no sign of stress, anger or fear. Just pure readiness. Run is what she motioned with her lips without making a sound. Where the hell would I run to? Past the guy and have him shoot me? Or back to my seat? What good would that do? My question was answered by Lara who plunged her elbow in the man his crotch. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Within a second he lay flat on the floor in fetal position, his hands where Lara her elbow just landed. Before I could react, or even realised what exactly was going on, Lara grabbed me by my arm and pulled me away. Reality hit me and I managed to run after Lara going through the hallway. I heard the man behind us shouting something, probably through a radio or something, to his buddies. My heart was racing as we sprinted past some people in the hallway, who slowly shook their heads at us.

"Hurry!" Lara yelled as we pushed through the doors going outside. We quickly ran off towards the street where we were parked. Within seconds I heard several men pushing through the same doors behind us.

"Stop them!" I heard one of them shout. I ran as fast as I could, but there was no way I could keep up with Lara, not even with the adrenaline shot I got. I knew she wasn't even running as fast as she could, so I could kind of keep up with her. I was scared, so scared. I wanted to be away from those men, as fast as possible. What the hell did they want from us? What did we even do wrong? I didn't want them to catch me. What were they going to do to me if they catched me?

"C'mon!" Lara shouted as we made it to the street where the car was parked. The footsteps behind me told me the men weren't far behind. I sprinted after Lara and was desperately looking where exactly the car was parked, but luckily the headlights lit up when Lara unlocked the car with the remote. I was absolutely sure they would catch up with me the moment I opened the car door. Fortunately, they didn't and I lunged my body inside. My knees landed in the chair as I faced backwards. Lara started the car and immediately floored it. The g-force of the car accelerating made me unable to turn around right away. I didn't even have time to close the door, and it incidentally rammed into one of the men running towards the car, which slammed it shut. I looked with complete shock as the man flung aside and his lifeless body just lied there on the street. It was now somewhat dark, but I could clearly see the body as a nearby lamp post illuminated him slightly. The car beeped, because we weren't wearing our seat belts, but that was the least of our concerns right now. As Lara made a sharp turn right, I managed to turn around and sit down.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" I yelled, completely out of breath, trying desperately to buckle up my seatbelt. "You think we lost them?" Lara looked in the rear view mirror. She didn't even seem to have broken a sweat, which was remarkable.

"Probably not." She said. I looked in the side view mirror and I could see two headlights keeping up with us, swirling through London traffic at about double the speed limit. I held the leather seat with both hands so hard I almost felt sorry for it. I looked at the oncoming cars and held my breath until I couldn't anymore. Everytime Lara almost hit a car, I flinched. Everything was going so quickly, I could only see the head- and tail lights fly by.

"Maybe we should just surrender! Maybe they won't hurt us!" I yelled as the car roared through another red light. Lara didn't even answer me. She didn't have to, I probably wasn't thinking straight. I just didn't want to end up dead in a pile of creased metal. A car honked at us as we cut it off to avoid a frontal collision with another car in the other lane. I looked behind us, but unfortunately the car was still there. After a few minutes, and countless of near crashes and screams, we got on the freeway, which was relieving, considering the situation. I knew how fast this car could go, so maybe we could lose them. The traffic wasn't too bad, fortunately, which was a straight up miracle. Lara floored it, and even though we were already going about 80 MPH, I was still pushed back in the leather seat. Within seconds we were going over 130 MPH and I saw the cars on the other lane whiz by as if they were standing still.

"Seatbelt!" I yelled at Lara, terrified of the thought what would happen to her if we crashed at this speed and she wasn't wearing one. She held the wheel with one hand, and buckled up. The next thing I felt were little pieces of glass in my neck as the back window was shot out by a couple of bullets. Lara let go of the gas in a reflex.

"They're shooting at us!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Why the fuck were they shooting at us? What was wrong with them?!

"Stay down!" Lara shouted and I lowered my self as far as I could and put my arms over my head. I heard several more bullets made impact with the body of the car. She put down the pedal again, but the other car had already caught up to us. Their car wasn't a slow one either. I let out a sharp scream as they rammed us in the back. It made Lara lose control of the car. She wanted to correct it, but it was too late. We hit a car in the lane next to ours and I was suddenly looking at the world spinning in front of me. Airbags deployed from places I would've never guessed even contained airbags, as we spun into the guardrail, which left me deafened as the car scraped to a halt. My entire body was shaking. Notifying emergency services of our current location said a female voice over the car stereo. I was about to check if Lara was okay when I noticed the headlights from the corner of my eye. Our car was hit again, this time so hard I was knocked out flat.

I heard a beeping of the car when I woke up again. My ears were ringing and I had a sharp pain in my head. My vision was blurry, and all I could see was the cracked windshield. It smelled like burned rubber in the car. I could barely move my arm up to my head, God my head hurt so bad. What the hell happened?

"Are you okay?" A man suddenly asked. The window on the door was completely gone. He tried to open the door but it was jammed. I just looked at him, but couldn't say a word. I was just too dazed. I shook my head at him, but wasn't really sure why. Everything hurt so bad. When I looked to my side, I was pulled back to reality. My body filled itself with adrenaline once more when I saw Lara unconsciously next to me. Her head hung forward and little strands of her hair were stuck to her cheeks by the blood running over her face. I reached for her, but my seat belt wouldn't give. I tried to unbuckle it, but it was stuck, so I tried to pull it off. Obviously to no avail.

"Help her! I'm fine, just help her, please!" I yelled at the man who was still trying to get the door on my side open. He looked past me. He promptly went around the car and pulled on the door. Luckily her door opened. The man put two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. "Is she okay?!" I screamed. "Please, tell me! Is she okay?!"

"I don't know!" The man was panicking. I felt the tears run over my cheeks. Oh my God, if Lara isn't okay…

"Do something…" I tried to yell but I couldn't anymore. The adrenaline wore off and I felt my body get weak again. Shit, not now. I heard faint sirens getting louder as more people gathered around the car. Two more tried to pull my door open, but I didn't see much more after that. My eyelids were too heavy. I just had to close them. Slowly I felt myself slipping away.

I awoke once more to a beeping sound. And my head still hurt like never before. I looked around as I regained my vision, although it was still blurry. I saw there were some things attached to my arms, which made me realise the beeping sound was a heart monitor I was attached to. Apparently, I was in a hospital. I spent a few minutes getting my bearings back when a nurse walked in.

"It's good to see you're up." She said as she checked my signs. "Take it easy, you had a pretty bad hit. Luckily, there's no real damage to you. Also, there is someone to see you." She smiled.

"Lara?" I asked. Her smile disappeared and she turned around. She walked towards the door and held it open for someone. A Japanese man stepped inside. He was around 50 years old was wearing a black suit with a red tie.

"Hello." He said smiling. I looked at him dumbfounded.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Someone who has been dying to meet you."