Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lara and Sam.
Author's Note: So as some of you have noticed, I've already broken my promise of updating twice a week so I'm sorry about that! I'm finally at the point where I've managed to build the story up a little so we can have a bulky action chapter next time (which may take longer to write). Thank you for being patient and I do hope you enjoy reading. As always, all feedback is appreciated.
Lara listened to the recording repeatedly until she knew it almost off by heart. It was a relief hearing Sam's voice, knowing she was still alive and safe (to a certain extent). Sam had a soothing voice; her delicate American accent flowed melodiously compared to Lara's choppy British growl. It made Lara envious, but at the same time grateful that she could admire the voice from the perspective of another person: Sam wasn't keen on the sound of her own voice. Though the fear in Sam's voice in this particular recording was obvious, the subtle changes in pitch and volume that made it so soft on the ear could still be heard if one knew what he/she was listening for. And Lara certainly did know. She heard Sam's voice just as she always did: tender and sensitive. It broke Lara's heart to hear how it shook with trepidation, yet it was still music of the same quality as usual.
It took a while, but Lara eventually managed to drag her attention away from Sam's voice and towards the words it was producing.
The message revolves around games, Lara told herself. But that isn't much to go on because it always bloody does. It must be something to do with levels. He mentions that a lot.
Lara listened to it a couple more times to see if Sam had put emphasis on any of the words, but there was nothing that Lara could pick out. She supposed that Sam had been less willing to drop any further hints following the blow to the chest and the threat she had received.
"'I will stay with my victim until you reach my level'," Lara repeated after Sam. "He's going to wait with Sam until I find her."
Lara smiled momentarily, proud of herself for working out this rather obvious clue.
"'In my game, in my place, on my level. This is my home. Enter if you please.' They must be somewhere that's close to Cow Blood. It must be something that represents him," Lara deduced, frowning lightly.
She was scared, but not too anxious. For the moment, her mind was occupied with the current puzzle and she hoped it would stay that way. Worrying did nothing for her own wellbeing and it certainly wouldn't help her find Sam.
Lara thought back to everything she knew about Cow Blood. Where would he live? Would it be a normal house or somewhere else? Could it be close to Lara or Sam's house?
No matter how much she thought about it, nothing could answer her questions. Instead, she decided to go to Sam's house in case that was what Cow Blood meant by 'home'.
It was pretty cool outside by now, so Lara pulled her jacket round herself tightly and took her car to Sam's house. She was unarmed, but she knew that Sam had a gun tucked under her sofa cushion. Besides this, Lara doubted she wouldn't find the house empty anyway.
As suspected, the house was in silence and without movement. Lara had a careful and thorough look both upstairs and downstairs, but it was obvious that nobody had been here since her last visit.
Lara took this opportunity to sit down and think. She had deciphered the message to death, so there certainly wasn't anything else in there that could mean anything to her. She thought back to the Skype call as she had a sudden realisation.
I remember something, Lara frowned, starting to pace. Something Sam said... I remember it stuck out to me, it sounded weird, but I couldn't say anything in front of the guard. Oh come on Lara, think. What was it?
Lara paced up and down hastily, as though the speed of her walking would help her get to the answer quicker.
"Think Lara, for goodness' sake. This is important," she murmured, clunking on the floorboards. "It was something that sounded strange, unrealistic."
She thought back to everything that happened in the call: Cow Blood's voice; the gunman; the ornaments; Sam; Sam's chair; the book-
That was it. The book!
Lara thought back and heard Sam's voice say, "It stinks, Lara."
Lara had thought it was a strange thing to say: there was only a few sentences written in blood, surely not enough to emit such a strong smell up to Sam's nose. Admittedly, the blood was fresh- Lara remembered how it gleamed at her when she looked at it- but such a small amount couldn't possibly be the cause of a 'stink'. As soon as Sam had made this remark, Lara had automatically assumed she was referring to the blood on the paper. It was only moments later that she started to consider the possibility that Sam was referring to the air.
"Wait," Lara said to herself, physically stopping. "Sam nodded down at the book when she told you it stinks. She must have been talking about the blood."
This made Lara pause for a moment, but she soon took off once again. This time though, she didn't pace back and forth. She left the house.
She had figured it out:
Sam had been referring to blood, but not the blood on the paper. She had very cleverly nodded at the blood in order to tell Lara that that was the smell, but it was coming from a much bigger source: the blood was all around them. The fact that the writing was fresh suggests that it had only just been put there, so it must have been written moments before the call and from a nearby source. Cow Blood had written that they were in his 'home'. Lara took this to meant they were in a place that acted as a symbol of Cow Blood, something special that specifically fit his personality. Combining these things together, Lara deduced that they must be in the place that supplies Cow Blood's cow blood. The problem? She didn't actually know where that was.
Driving quickly, Lara found herself on the main road that led to a series of small shops and marketplaces. She came here only on rare occasions, as she did most of her shopping at supermarkets and even then, Sam often combined their shopping lists and bought Lara's food for her. However, Lara continued her journey to the shops, slowing down as she reached a chain of branched roads. She leaned over her steering wheel each time she approached one, trying to get a decent view of the road to see if she had found the correct one. On approaching the fourth branch, she peered round the corner and recognised the set of tables with tarpaulin roofs that sat at the end of the road. Lara drove down this road and kept her eyes to the left, looking out for the butcher's that she knew was situated here. She jerked the car to a halt when she saw it and jumped out, looking through the window. The lights were on and she could hear a voice, but the sign on the door said closed. Lara got closer to the entrance and examined the inside of the shop. There was a man in uniform- a white 'chef' suit and a brown and cream apron- mopping the floor in a dancing style whilst singing to Michael Bublé. It was audible from outside. Lara knocked on the glass sharply so that the butcher would be able to hear her over the music. He jumped, startled, before pottering over to the CD player and pressing pause. He then put down his mop and opened the door to Lara.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we're closed," he smiled, pointing to the sign.
"I know, I just need to ask you a question," Lara said, smiling reassuringly. "Do you, by any chance, sell or supply animal blood? Cow blood, to be specific."
The butcher frowned. "I'm afraid not. Francis does," he nodded, pointing to the set of tables and tarpaulins.
Lara's blank expression informed him that she hadn't the faintest idea who Francis was.
"He comes here on market days and sells all kinds of voodoo stuff. You know like tarot cards, potion ingredients, those kinda things. But if it's a big amount that you need, I wouldn't bother going to Francis. He only sells blood in small pots. He says it's the 'correct portion for a potion'," the butcher explained, his left hand flying around in empty gestures.
"I see," Lara remarked, taking it all in. "Well actually, I am in need of a large amount. I was thinking maybe a permanent shop or company could supply it to me."
The butcher 'humf'ed and looked up to the sky like he was thinking hard.
"I'm not sure about a company, but I know that the slaughterhouse sells it. After killing that many cows every day, they always have an excess of the blood so they're usually willing to give that stuff away. I buy my meat off them, you see, and they're always trying to persuade me to take some. I refuse point blank, though. Seeing a tub of blood on the counter seems to put customers off," the butcher laughed, jovially.
"Understandably," Lara nodded, smiling back impatiently. "So where is the slaughterhouse, exactly?"
"Oh they will send you some blood if you call them up. There's no need for you to go there."
"Actually I was rather hoping you'd know an address. I prefer to do my business face to face," Lara pushed on.
"It's about 30 miles from here, quite a long drive. If you head out Northbound on the highway, it's signposted pretty much all of the way."
"Thank you. You've been really helpful," Lara smiled, already walking back down the pavement to her car.
"Alrighty then, seeya soon," the butcher smiled, waving.
Lara drove back to the main road with only one thing on her mind: getting to that slaughterhouse. She had hoped that the butcher's would have been the right place to start with, but she knew it was unlikely. In fact, she would have been rather disturbed if a local butcher's sold tubs of cow blood on a daily basis.
After a good 10 minutes, Lara was on the motorway, heading North just like the kind guy had told her to. She had only been driving on there for 15 minutes before she started to worry about the lack of signs. However, after another five minutes, she came across a large overhead structure that bore a number of different signs. Lara's eyes scanned over them, searching for her destination. Finally she noticed it on a large sign at the very top of the structure: Copperthorne Slaughterhouse, 7 miles.
Lara almost laughed. Why the hell would anyone ever signpost a slaughter house?
Within the next ten minutes, Lara had arrived at her intended destination: a menacing, stocky, grey building with 'COPPERTHORNE SLAUGHTERHOUSE' printed in huge white letters across the side. It was heavily guarded with black gates and fencing, but Lara could already see that there was an entrance further down the road that would take her to the rear of the building, so she carried on towards it. After careering round the corner- the road had appeared much quicker than Lara had expected- there was a good view of the back of the building. Here there was little to no security and Lara suspected that this was a retired part of the slaughter house. Her suspicions were confirmed as she found herself pulling up next to a small chiselled rock that told the history of the place. Behind the rock stood a door. It was ajar and there were a few tiny splashes of blood leading inside. Lara was in the right place.