𝘈 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (𝘍𝘢𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘺 3 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯)

Chapter 4: Dr Earnhardt

Lara's nights became as nightmarish as her days.

She had yet to understand why she was not tied up with her companions. The crazy pirate she'd saved had been keeping her in his shack, where he himself hardly seemed to spend any time. She guessed that it was her saving the psycho which meant she was relatively better treated than the others, but surely this would not last. Not knowing what he had in store for her was the worst. Lara was someone who liked to know what was coming, liked to be prepared, liked to brace herself. She hated surprises. Was she to become the pirate's next head in the sand? Would he get another girl after her, introduce that girl to Lara's dead head? Weirdly, Lara felt she could have dealt better with knowing this was her fate, rather than remain free to imagine it.

One night, as she'd fallen asleep on the floor, her head resting on her arm and her arm on the settee, she dreamt that the pirate named Vaas walked into the shack, and suddenly Lara could see that it was filled with heads, blue, dead heads, with flies crawling out of their mouths. Heads on the settee, the TV, in the fridge... The pirate spoke to them, had full, one sided conversations with them. The room was dark and damp, the door was wide open and some horrid smell came into the shack and filled Lara's nostrils. The noises of the jungle sounded threatening and she could hear some sort of growling, as if a beast was lurking around the shack. Should she shut the door? The pirate was walking around, talking to his dead heads, then suddenly he froze, his eyes grew huge and he stared at Lara. His teeth showed and growed, sharpening, and he said: "I need your head, nena. I need your head. I need the mermaid's head." Lara made for the door but her legs refused to follow her, and her whole body felt heavy and unresponsive. Raging, she fought the dream to reach the door, crawling, and as her hands grasped the threshold she turned back and saw the pirate crouch then jump to her, all teeth out. She screamed her terror but it got stuck in her throat.

A whimper escaped Lara as she woke. It was daylight. The jungle noises were as normal. There was no beast, no heads, and most importantly there was no pirate. The filtering sunbeams had not moved, they were still shining on the exact same stripes of the room. Her guard had not even shifted foot. She couldn't have been asleep long.

"That's five minutes sleep in about two days now nena."

Lara's head hit the back wall. The pirate was standing by his bedroom, looking at her with a scowl on his cruel face.

"That's no good." He stepped further into the room, contemplating. Lara shuffled to the corner. Had the moment come?

"Why aren't you sleeping well?" He was hardly asking her, it was more like he was thinking aloud. "You don't want the bed. You don't want the settee. Why not, huh?" He addressed her this time, and Lara shrugged weakly. She did not want to be on anything that resembled a bed in fear that he might join her there. Of course, she couldn't say that. She blinked and it felt painful. Her eyes burnt with exhaustion. Everything was starting to feel a bit distant. Only the nightmares felt real. She was having more and more trouble focusing on single thoughts. Realising that he was waiting for her to say something, but having forgotten what he'd asked, she said :

"I'm having nightmares and they wake me up before I can rest."

"What nightmares?"

"Um... I see um, heads everywhere. Dead heads, with flies coming out of their mouths." She was not daring to face him as she said that. Surely he would work out where that sordid image had come from. "And I hear a beast lurking around the shack, like it's hunting me."