Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lara and Sam.
Author's Note: A little bit of everything in this chapter, if you know what I mean! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
"Lara!" Sam yelled desperately, jumping up and running at Lara. Saying Sam was surprised would be a complete understatement.
Lara held her left arm out to keep it out of the way and picked Sam up with her right arm, wrapping it tightly around her waist. Sam let Lara's neck cradle her head as she sobbed into it violently.
"Don't let them take me away again," Sam wept helplessly. "Don't leave me."
Lara hushed Sam before pulling away.
"Where is he?" Lara asked, holding Sam's cheek and looking into her eyes.
"Where is who?" Sam sniffed.
"The guy who's doing all this. Where is he?"
"I don't know, I've never seen him. It's always his cronies that take me away."
"Are we alone in this room?" Lara asked impatiently.
"Yes. We're alone. The guy with the gun left a few minutes ago."
That was enough for Lara. On hearing this she pushed Sam down onto the floor and straddled her clumsily as they kissed wildly. Their moans of pleasure rang loudly in the otherwise silent room but it only made Lara want Sam more.
Want is no word for this, Lara thought to herself as she breathed into Sam. This is nothing but need.
Lara didn't stop Sam when her hands found Lara's breasts under the ripped v-neck, nor did she hesitate to reciprocate the gesture. Lara leaned down further and kissed the line of Sam's jaw before continuing down her neck and along her collarbone. Sam was paralysed at Lara's touch, managing only to emit small groans of encouragement. This was emphasised as Lara let her right knee slip between Sam's legs and their grinding motions grew in depth and pace.
A loud clatter from the far corner of the room was the only thing that stopped them. Lara looked up, chest heaving, eyes glazed, lips pink. She sat back on her knees and pulled herself together before rising to her feet. Sam followed suit immediately, desperate not to be left behind. As they reached the darkness of the corner, Lara's eyes fell on something familiar. It was The Bag. There was a note pinned to the front. It was written in red, obviously. Wet red.
Thought you might find this useful.
Lara looked up above where it had landed and found a small hatch, no bigger than the wooden square ledge she had dangled from only minutes prior. Neither of the women would be able to fit through it.
"Damn it," Lara muttered to herself, dropping the bag and walking away.
"What's the matter?" Sam asked, grabbing Lara's hand to stop her. It was her bad hand and she jumped away in pain. Sam frowned worriedly and stepped closer to Lara.
"He left a note instead of just speaking to me which must mean he's not here anymore. He must have left as soon as I reached you," Lara explained, not meeting Sam's gaze.
"Well that's a good thing, isn't it? Lara?"
Lara shook her head. "I wanted to catch him. I wanted to hand him over to the police and watch the bastard get everything he deserves."
Sam shook her head in return. "That doesn't matter now. What matters is that we're together. What matters is that he's not on our backs anymore."
"Don't be so naive," Lara snapped. "Of course he's still on our backs. This is a game, Sam, you know it is. And he hasn't finished with us. He'll be back. Or his bloody soldiers will be, I know-"
"God, Lara, why do you have to be so fucking pessimistic? Can't you just be happy and grateful that you're with me and neither of us are dead?" Sam argued back.
"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic, Sam. We can't pretend everything is okay because it's not. I'm not sure you understand what I've been through to get here. It has been hell trying to find you and the tasks that I've had to complete have been ridiculous. The only way I can describe it is utter torture bec-"
"Oh because it's been such a walk in the park for me!" yelled Sam. "There's nothing I wanted more than to be drugged and kidnapped and electrocuted and beaten up! I've loved every fucking second of it!"
Lara laughed angrily before speaking quietly. "I slaved for hours over these bloody stupid clues that this crazy man has given me. I played a sick computer game that wasn't even a game. I jumped out of an aeroplane and watched minute after minute of a shitty skiing competition, both of which turned out to be completely pointless and irrelevant tasks! I listened to the woman I love recite a shitty clue that was written by a pathetic psychopath. I listened to afore mentioned psychopath take the piss out of my dead loved one and mock him like he was nothing. I climbed along and jumped across ledges that are metres above the ground, breaking my wrist in the process, just to get here. Why do you think I put myself through all of that, Sam? Especially so soon after Yamatai. Why on Earth did I put myself through it? Because I love you. Because I wanted to rescue you. I wanted to get you out of here and take you home and make everything better. Contrary to your apparent beliefs, I don't want to play this man's twisted games. I don't want to carry on with this ridiculous adventure. Quite frankly I'm scared of this man because he hurts me one minute and helps me the next and I just don't even know what's going on anymore. Just when I think I've cracked it he throws another bombshell and I have to start all over again. I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to. I do it so I can help you and love you and so everything can go back to normal.
"So please, Sam, believe me when I say this is not the end. He's going to come back and destroy everything that we've fought for. I'll do my best to stop it but I am virtually powerless. I just hope you're going to stand by me."
Sam stood motionless for a few seconds before bending down and retrieving a bandage from The Bag. She unravelled the strip of material from Lara's wrist and replaced it with the bandage. She then found a joint support in the bottom of The Bag and put it on top of the bandage. She kissed Lara's lips softly.
"Thank you," Sam whispered, smiling sadly.
"You don't have to thank me. You never have to thank me," Lara replied, returning the expression.
They sat down hand in hand. After using the next few minutes to share their recent experiences, Sam asked a question that Lara hoped she would be able to avoid.
"So... What now?"
Lara sighed. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm shattered."
Sam nodded in agreement. Lara glanced at the wall that stood behind the wooden chair, briefly examining the door it held. It looked sturdy and strong, but Lara was willing to bet it wasn't locked anyway.
She took a deep breath. "I think we should stay here tonight."
"Wh- Are you serious?" Sam asked, raising her eyebrows at Lara.
Lara nodded. "Something tells me it's not going to be easy to get out of here. We can't come through the way I came- it was hard enough getting up here, getting down would be impossible. And I'm willing to bet that whatever is behind that door isn't going to be all swings and roundabouts."
"Something tells me you're right," agreed Sam.
"Which way did you come in?" Lara asked, frowning. There was no other apparent way to enter the room they sat in.
"No idea. I was unconscious."
Lara sighed sympathetically and kissed the top of Sam's head.
"I don't think I'm up to trying to get out tonight. I think we should sleep."
Sam nodded again and they both laid down on the solid, uncomfortable floor.
"Hey Lara," Sam murmured after a couple of minutes.
"Mmhmm?" Lara said sleepily.
"You've come so far from this whole experience, you know?"
"Really?"
"Really. Wanna know how I know?"
"How?" Lara asked.
"Earlier you said Yamatai. That's the first time I've heard you say Yamatai since before we went to Yamatai," Sam smiled.
They smiled blissfully until they fell asleep.
Lara woke up to a strange yet familiar tune playing faintly behind her. She attempted to sit up before opening her eyes but found she couldn't move. When she eventually opened her eyes (it took her a long time to get started on Saturday mornings) she found that her right arm was trapped underneath the weight of Sam's torso. Lara, desperate to gain use of her left arm back, reached over with her free hand to retrieve Sam's wrist which she knew had a watch wrapped round it.
10:30 am exactly.
Sam stirred as Lara set her arm back down again and her eyes fluttered open to see her girlfriend.
"Morning," Sam smiled, stretching and sighing.
"Do you hear that?" Lara asked, pulling her arm free.
Sam stopped mid-stretch to listen carefully.
"Yeah," she murmured, frowning. "Hey, you know what that is, right?"
"I recognise it but I can't put my finger on it. Do you know it too?"
"It's the New Super Mario Bros. theme tune!" exclaimed Sam, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're right, it is," remarked Lara, sitting up to listen harder.
She looked around the room, trying to identify where it was coming from, but the corners of the room were still in darkness. She prowled round the edges, looking at the floor with a furrowed brow before she came to the corner she was sure it would be in: the corner beneath the hatch. To Lara's surprise, the source of the noise wasn't on the floor or around the hatch area. The noise had, however, gotten a lot louder as she had approached this part of the room. Her head bent low, Lara carried on along the next wall, the noise getting ever louder, before stopping beside the door. That's where it was coming from. The other side of the door.
By this time, Sam had got up and joined Lara. As Lara took hold of the doorknob, Sam grabbed the waistline of Lara's jeans to prevent her from going further.
"What?" Lara whispered, in case they were greeted by an undesirable stranger on the other side.
"Are those my designer jeans?" Sam whispered back, looking disgusted.
Lara rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sam, they're your designer jeans. From high school. Does it really matter?"
"Yeah it matters," Sam hissed, tapping Lara's forehead.
"The fact it took you this long to notice that I'm wearing them tells me that it doesn't matter one bit. Come on."
Sam huffed before clutching the back of Lara's jacket. Lara twisted the knob with her right hand and felt it give.
"3, 2, 1."
She pulled hard and opened the door with a heavy groan from both herself and the door. On the floor in front of Lara and Sam sat a small, black DS Lite. Mario was on the screen, waiting for a level to be selected, the music blaring loudly. Lara looked up, suddenly noticing the arrival of light in front of her. There was a doorway only ten feet in front of them. It had no door, it was simply open for them to walk through. It led to the outdoors.
"Why the hell is that there?" Sam asked, releasing Lara's jacket and nodding down at the game console.
"Who gives a shit, Sam, let's go," Lara whispered excitedly, making for the door. But after only three steps they were forced to stop as a man with a gun turned the corner through the open doorway, pointing his weapon threateningly at Sam. Lara gasped and Sam winced exasperatedly. It was the same man who Lara had seen on the Skype call.
"Step back," the man ordered quietly, pressing forward with the gun in his hands.
Lara and Sam did as they were told. Lara didn't take her eyes off the gun, but Sam was careful that they didn't crush the Nintendo; it was obviously important.
"Pick it up," he said in the same monotonous voice.
His eyes were staring at Sam so Lara nudged her to do what he said. Sam bent down and picked up the DS but didn't look at it.
"Press B."
"Why?" Sam asked, her hands shaking.
"Press. Fucking. B."
"Do it, Sam," Lara hissed, nudging her again.
Sam bit her lip before bringing her thumb down on the B button. As soon as she had pressed it, she and Lara were launched into the air by the floor beneath them which had shot up on springs. The wood and springs fell away into the hole that the trap had created. The man laughed when Lara and Sam screamed as the realised they were going through the floor.
Sam's eyes were screwed up tightly, but Lara had to keep hers wide open. They fell through the gap and landed a few feet down on a hard, wet surface. It didn't stop there though. Lara could see that they were surrounded by red as they whizzed down what seemed to be a water slide. The only difference was that the water had been replaced with blood.
The smell was putrid but there was no escape. The slide was a tube that surrounded the whole body and it twisted this way and that with no indication when it was going to stop. Lara was scared it never would. She held Sam tightly next to her to stop them from being separated: Lara would go considerably quicker than Sam, being the taller and heavier of the two. Sam dared to open her eyes when she realised the ordeal wouldn't be a quick one, but she certainly regretted it when she did. Sam let out an ear-piercing scream when she realised they were both drenched in reeking blood. Lara tried to comfort her, but she herself wanted nothing more than to accompany Sam in her shrieks.
"It's okay, Sammy. We're going to get out of here. Don't you worry," Lara said once Sam's screams had died down to a sob.
After only ten seconds longer, the chute came to an end and Sam and Lara were deposited out onto a hard, grey flooring, quite like the rest of the building. They landed with an ugly splat before standing up and trying to look around. The room was pitch black and there was no noise apart from the menacing drip of blood as it seeped from their clothes and fell to the floor. Lara had an arm around Sam but it only made the situation more disgusting.
"Come on, let's try and find a wall," Lara whispered.
As soon as they took a step forward they were greeted with another surprise. The room lit up and the Mario theme tune started to play out of speakers around the room. If Lara didn't already know she was in a slaughter house at that present time, she would have never guessed she was inside a slaughter house. The whole room was decorated high and low to mimic the Mario game: there was grass on the floor, question boxes hovering above bricks, tortoises roaming around. And at the end of it all, metres away in the distance, there was a door. Lara looked up as something caught her eye. Above her own and Sam's head, there was a large, flashing sign.
"Let's play!"