Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 19: Belladonna

As soon as she touched American soil, Marie Cornel began to die. As unexpected as it may seem, that was the truth. Perhaps her body, which she'd tamed and made resist during that trip to Turkey, her last trip, gave up when feeling again the homeland's scent. And the signal of her giving up was that the pain, usually quite constant, suddenly became unbearable.

Marie didn't want to scream in pain in front of her son, much less in front of her granddaughter. It wasn't pride, although she'd been proud, and for a while. It was the need, the urgency of not making them suffer. But it was difficult. Her last days were going to be horrible.

She was an exceptional woman though, and, in the same way that she'd given birth to her son without uttering even the slightest groan in the middle of a field surrounded by enemies, she didn't utter a single word, nor a moan of pain throughout the journey back home to her rancho in the Navajo Nation. Anna noticed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, except that she was tired and sore, so when she reached the rancho, the girl didn't waste time to pounce on her beloved Niyol, greet him with affection, brush and jump on him to leave for the gallop.

Only then Marie allowed herself to collapse in Kurtis's arms, while the world revolved around her and diluted as in a watery paint. She heard his son say something, but she didn't understand. It was all pain. Only pain.

She felt him lifting her in his arms and carrying her inside, a shrivelled, deformed and wrinkled doll in the arms of the one she'd given birth to. How strong he was. How strong he'd become. If the old woman had any pride left, he was its personification.

When she regained some consciousness, she was lying in her old and dear bed, while Kurtis tried to make her drink some water. She rejected it. "No." She murmured in a faint voice. "I need... I need the infusion."

"What mixture?" She heard him saying. His voice was distant, very distant, behind the brutal veil of pain.

"Belladonna." She managed to murmur and closed her eyes tightly.

Kurtis frowned, but said nothing and got up. He knew the mixture she'd indicated as "belladonna." Actually, this plant was only one of the components. It was a strong sedative and analgesic infusion. Too strong, depending on what for. But he didn't protest and prepared it without questioning, feeling that he suddenly returned to childhood. He knew how to do it since as a child he'd helped his mother to prepare thousands of different healing beverages, or simply for pain relief, while the patients screamed in their bed of pain.

Now it was she, his mother, who was screaming.

(...)

Help me. Help me. Please. I can't stand this.

Who was she telling? To a God in whom she didn't believe, to the spirits of her people, to herself and her long years of experience in relieving pain, to her absent husband, or to the present son? She didn't know. It was all pain. Only pain.

She noticed Kurtis incorporating her and finally, the warm, sedative liquid that poured into her throat. She swallowed it eagerly and almost instantly began to feel relief. It wasn't just belladonna. It also had opium, and other drugs. It would numb her, although the effect wouldn't last long. It would also deprive her from her mental faculties, which she hated with all her might, but she could no longer resist the pain. She would try to sleep through that state of drowsiness. "Kurtis."

"I'm here." A large, warm hand grabbed her cold and deformed hand.

She licked her lips, dry and cracked. "Anna." She murmured. "Bring her."

"She went riding. She shouldn't..."

"Bring her, Kurtis. Please. Please." Silence. "Kurtis..."

"You want her to see you like this?"