Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 22: Annus Horribilis

"Who?"

But he didn't say more. His breathing became more wheezing, more hissing, and suddenly a spring of dark blood gushed out from the corner of his lip.

"Kurtis!" Lara yelled, and forgetting all precautions, took his head in her hands. "Don't do this to me, damn it! Look at me!"

She thought she saw a slight smile on his bloody mouth. Then his eyes rolled back to blank, and he remained motionless.

In the distance she could hear the sirens of the ambulance.

(...)

Don't.

You can't die, not now, not this way.

Don't die on me.

Don't do this to me.

(...)

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

In front of the hospital's ICU door, Lara patrolled like a soul in pain. She still wore the same clothes - same skirt, torn at the bottom, stained with garden grass, fresh and damp from the night dew. She'd cut herself when kneeling between crystals and her leg was bleeding, but she didn't realize. Strands of unruly hair began to come loose from the bun. The mascara in her eyes had run.

She didn't care at all. She kept striding, only she'd no room to move forward. She was trapped.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

"He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

Kurtis smiling blatantly, waving the Chirugai in hand, provoking her.

Kurtis dropping backwards, over the railing.

Kurtis falling through three floors and landing on his feet. Without a scratch.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

Kurtis falling into the void in Meteora. Hundreds of meters from the top of Ayios Stefanos at the bottom of the valley. Dragging the last Nephilim with him.

Karel shattered into parts. Kurtis didn't.

"He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

He no longer had the help of angels. He was fragile. He was like the others. The Light had abandoned him.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

No, he'd renounced the Light. To be able to return. Another chance.

One, two, three, four, five, half a turn.

Lara jumped when she came face to face with her mother, who was almost as tall as she was. Then Lady Croft reached out and grabbed her arm. Lara looked down and stared at the wrinkled but still firm hand of her mother, soft, warm, with that perennial smell of peppermint that she well remembered, and as always, covered in jewellery and rings. She hadn't touched her for many years. Not since Lord Croft disowned her.