- Sneaking Into Room 57

As Lara walked up the stairs, she kept thinking that something wasn't right with the absence of Ayesha at the banquet. She halted on the second floor, to where she and Ayesha walked through the hallway only hours ago, and looked over to the door. 'Hmmm, I wonder...'

Lara tried knocking on the door to see if this time around she would get a response at all. Unsurprisingly just like earlier on that evening no one answered the door, except Lara was not going to just leave it as it is. She even tried the door herself, but it was locked from the other side. There must have been a reason behind the door as to why no one was answering, since Lara knew Ayesha was not the kind of person to ignore calls. Lara sought to find out if Ayesha was even in the room, and started to plan how she was going to get though, without alerting either the hotel staff or even especially Eric Copper.

Whilst thinking of a plan, in the spur of the moment Lara randomly eyed a window pane at the end of the corridor, and then the answer to the problem came to her. Though risky, Lara proposed she rappel down the hotel wall with the assistance of climbing gear she'd brought along, just in case she required it. Luckily Ayesha's room was just two floors beneath her own, so she didn't have to descend too far down. She swiftly rushed up the stairs and went straight into her room, knowing full well what she was going to do.

Lara changed her clothes from the evening dress to her black latex body suit, not only to blend more into the night environment so she couldn't be seen so easily, but also to make movement simpler. Once she equipped the climbing gear on her person, Lara was ready to rappel down the building. She opened the window onto the balcony, and checked below to see where her destination laid. Most of the hotel windows were lit up with bright light shining through the curtains. This would make the descent more challenging, as if Lara accidently went over these panes, her shadow would be cast through the cloth of the curtains.

Determining the whereabouts of Ayesha's window from the balcony, Lara judged this from where she was, and picked out from what she could guess would be her target. She attached the anchor onto the balustrade of the balcony, and then fastened a harness with a rope threaded around her waist securely. Along with attaching the locking carabiner to her harness, and assessing how far down she had to go, Lara took a deep breath and dropped down.

Immediately the rope stretched, but it held itself together thanks to Lara's expertise and experience on climbing equipment, and she clenched onto the strong cable tightly. Looking down to where she needed to be, Lara reeled even lower, getting closer to her objective, yet still minding where she put her footing on the wall.

'What was that?' Upon hearing the noise from one of the hotel rooms, Lara hid herself in the shadow that was casting underneath a nearby platform. Peeking over to have a look at what the noise was Lara saw a female person talking on their room balcony to someone in their suite, undoubtedly her partner. They were discussing what had happened in a local restaurant to which where they both had dined in prior to that very evening.

"Did you hear and see that couple on the table near us? They kept on complaining about the service and food and making sure the whole place had heard of their misery woes! Going on and on all night, very inconvenient, almost spoiled our night out" the lady carried on, obviously not very happy as Lara saw her folding her arms in disappointment.

"Yes darling, I did my best not to take notice, but they were so loud, and I wholeheartedly have to agree with you about them." A male voice came from the interior of the room.

"Dear, oh dear, no wonder the staff looked all embarrassed by the outbursts from them, they were horrible people"

"True, well at least we had a nice late night dinner, my was top-notch, I must say complements to the chefs after what they had to deal with tonight"

"Yeah, mine was alright too..." She gave out a big yawn, and stretched her arms out.

"Oohh, bedtime I think for me!" the lady told her companion.

"Me too, it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow" He said in reply, and with that, Lara overheard her footsteps and she kept her stance low for that moment.

...

Lara took another stealthy peek above and saw the lady going back inside the room. She waited until she had heard the sound of the closing balcony doors before moving on. Carefully Lara moved onwards towards Ayesha's balcony, and it didn't take too long till she reached the balcony slab platform. There, she let go of the rope and tied it to a nearby pillar, so if needed or any danger comes to her, she could easily make a quick escape.

The moonlight from above in the sky had given enough light to see, particularly in areas that would have been masked by darkness. With it nearly being quite late in the night, most of the hotel guests were tucked up in bed fast asleep. This was exactly what Lara needed, as she peered through the window pane glass of Ayesha's room, and was astonishingly surprised to see that no one was there...

There was no light within the room, the bed sheets had still been made up, Ayesha's belongings were not even out and her suitcase was barely opened upon the mattress. It was all too enigmatic...

'Where is she?!' Lara became evermore increasingly worried for her friend. She would've understood if Ayesha was in deep sleep from her supposed illness and wasn't able to answer the door. But seeing nobody there infuriated Lara, someone was deceiving her one way or another. In the mist of her frustration and tightening her grip on the balcony door, Lara was in a shock to find that the door suddenly swung wide open, and realized that it had just been left unlocked.

'Oh, how strange, let's see if there any clues to be found' Lara thought, as she took her first step inside the suite. Lara had a good look around the room for any clues that could lead her in the right direction, however to her dismay there was nothing to be discovered in the space.

'Blast! Nothing!' Lara cursed, as she still wandered around the room, desperate for any sort of breadcrumb clue to show itself, so Lara could follow it.

'Perhaps she has gone out for a walk?' One of Lara's first guesses was, as she didn't want to think what else could have happened to her. Lara was even planning to look in the grounds, however it was too late in the night to go out, and if she was spotted wandering outside, it would be all too suspicious. Lara decided it would be best to wait until morning to find out her answer, as there was nothing she could do anymore tonight.

The trail of Ayesha's whereabouts had gone cold. Knowing this, Lara left everything untouched and went back to the balcony. Ascending up the wall using the rope and retreating back into her room, Lara would see what tomorrow will bring, and she'd interestingly pondered whether Ayesha would show up or not for the morning. Either way, Lara will demand to have her questions answered, as all this doesn't seem right.