Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 22: Annus Horribilis

Don't you dare surrender

I'm still right beside you

And I would never

Replace your perfect imperfection.

EVANESCENCE, Imperfection

All the manor's lights were on. The alarms sounded nonstop, losing their raucous echoes in the blackness of the night.

Lara jumped off the motorcycle as if driven by a spring, not realizing that her skirt got caught on the exhaust pipe and tore the bass of the precious fabric. She threw herself against the entrance doors and slammed them open, unloading all her weight on them and crossing the front yard at full speed.

The front door was open, and, in the frame, she saw her mother, who was leaning, panting, on it. Lady Croft wore a nightgown lightly splattered with blood and, oddly enough, had a dark fence around her thighs.

When she saw Lara, she pointed to the left side. "Behind!" She gasped, almost breathless. "Next to the assault course!"

The British explorer didn't even slow down the race. She sped down the lateral landscaped corridor, until she reached the manor's backyard, where the assault course was. And then she saw him, lying on the ground, in a bed of broken glass.

"Kurtis!" She shouted and pounced on him. When she saw him close, a sob rose to her throat and stuck there, unable to leave or descend again. She collapsed at his side without worrying about the crystals.

The man she'd loved for years lay crashed like a broken doll, crooked legs, left arm at an impossible angle. He'd many cuts due to the windowpanes through which he'd been fired, but they seemed superficial. A thread of blood slipped through the corner of his lip.

She looked up. Several meters above, the curtains of the broken window fluttered in the night sky. As if he'd voluntarily thrown himself - if it weren't because the wooden sheets were bursting out and the shattered glass. Looking at the huge climbing column behind her, she realized he'd bounced off the track before crashing to the ground.

"Kurtis!" She yelled again and patted his face. She daren't to move his neck. "Kurtis!"

Lara had repeated his name several times. She slapped him several times. In the end, the man's eyelids vibrated and opened slightly.

Lara felt as if her heart was twisting. The veins in his left eye had burst, so it was submerged in blood. The contrast with the blue iris was shocking at least.

"Kurtis!" She shouted once more and leaned over him. "What happened?" And in doing so she leaned slightly on his torso. Almost instantly he contracted in pain.

Lara pulled away while he murmured: "M'lady..." His voice was wheezing. Lara felt his chest and noticed the left side of his abdomen hard and swollen. It can't be. Grabbing the collar of his shirt, she tore it, opening it and baring his torso.

Yes, it could be. The inflamed area began to darken. For a moment she was suspended, horrified. Then she noticed her mother standing a few meters away, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Stop staring like a jerk and do something!" Lara shrieked furiously. "Call an ambulance!"

Lady Croft nodded stunned and disappeared quickly.

She daren't move him. What else could have been broken, or burst? She realized this was new. It was wrong. He'd never fallen before. He...

She noticed him move his bloody lips slightly. Lara bent and brought her ear to his mouth. "Finally...got...him." The voice came out weak and wheezing. Each breath should cost him excruciating pain. "That... bastard."