Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 26: Monster

Lara shrugged slightly and rubbed her eyes again. "She can't see. She's blind." She sighed, exhausted. "Kurtis said she'll recover her sight..."

"Then, she will. He's been through this before. We must have faith in his experience." The priest's smile widened. What was he smiling at? "By the way, my dear, did I hear correctly?"

"Hear what?"

"You referred to him as a husband."

"Me?"

"You said, no daughters or husbands or families in danger."

"Did I say that?" Lara put her hand to her forehead, as if her head ached, but the corners of her lips trembled slightly. "I must be very tired. I don't know what I say anymore." She looked up, and the slight smile flew from her face. "Oh, no."

She looked down the hall. The priest turned around. A middle-aged woman, elegantly dressed, approached them stomping, chattering violently against the linoleum floor. Father Dunstan didn't need to be told who she was. The woman had a swollen face, and her makeup was running from crying.

"Lady Hartman." Lara said, greeting her politely, with a faint voice.

The woman seemed willing to throw herself on Lara, but the priest stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder. The aura of authority that the consecrated man carried with him for the mere fact of being a priest worked. The woman stopped, kept a distance. "You!" She muttered; her face distorted. "You and you...daughter...!"

"How's Maggie?" Lara murmured, her face serious, suddenly expressionless.

The woman writhed as if she'd been pricked. Father Dunstan clenched her shoulder with more force. "Do not dare to utter her name!" She shouted. "You...you... abnormal! Monster! You've always been a monster- and so your daughter. You live like the animals you are. Beast! Your parents did well to cast you away from home... to disown you. It's the least you deserved. Murderess! And your daughter's another killer!"

"Enough." The Irish priest's voice turned severe. "Enough, Lady Hartman. With insults and offenses, you're not helping Maggie." The lady looked at him, confused through the veil of her tears. "How, I'm not allowed to utter her name either?"

Dunstan's hand was still on her shoulder. She didn't remove it. She blinked and sobbed. "My girl... my Maggie... she's in a coma." She looked back at Lara. "She's in a coma! Do you hear it, Lara Croft? For I'm not calling you lady. You're not a lady. My dear daughter is in a coma! Full of tubes, vegetative! With the marks of your daughter's fingers on her neck. Murderous beast!"

"Lady Hartman." Father Dunstan raised his voice. "If you don't control your anger and manners you'll have to leave. Lady Croft's hardly guilty of what happened between your daughters."

She took a deep breath, snorted. "Of course she's guilty! That woman's a murderer!" She pointed her finger at her. "She's killed hundreds of people around the world! Everyone knows this! She even killed her own mentor! But she gets away with it thanks to her corrupt friends... and if God's fair, one day she'll be killed too!" Dunstan grabbed her firmly, but without hurting her, and began to push her back. "If God's fair your daughter, rotten bastard of a rotten womb, will also be killed! We'll see then what you do!"

"Anna's sedated." Lara said suddenly, and her voice was monochord, faint. "But she's been conscious. She can't see due to the attack she's suffered, but she told me that she's sorry for what happened, that she didn't want to kill her. She asked me to tell you this. To forgive her."

"Forgive her?" The furious lady howled, writhing in the priest's firm embrace. A lot of people came running down the hall. Doctors and nurses, even security personnel. "Forgive her? My daughter's vegetative, because of her, and I must forgive? Screw her! Screw you too! And whatever man who fathered her! All of you can go to hell!"