Part XIV

                                    

                                          
Location: Unknown 2017
                          
When Lara came to she was in a small, stuffy room, probably a bedroom, but the furniture was missing and the carpet had been pulled out. She wasn't bound, for which she was grateful, and pulling herself to her feet she moved to check out the door. It was locked and it was too sturdy to attempt to break, not unless you were Jack. She checked her pockets. Her wallet and phone were both gone so taking it apart was going to prove difficult. Next Lara checks the walls and ceiling. There was a small vent high up but it was too small to be worth considering. There was no way out via the ceiling either. The boards were smooth and if she was in an apartment then it would be another dead end anyway. What she needed to do was call Jack or Mac. Get somewhere safe, possibly head for Mac's house. There was a part of her that threatened to take over, the rational part that screamed she was in danger. She ignored it, tucking it away to be dealt with later. She needed to get out. Whatever drug was used to knock her out appeared to be out of her system. Or at least she wasn't feeling any obvious effects. First things, first though she had to disable that lock.
                          
Bending down to the door she examined the handle. The good news was that the lock was contained in the handle itself, the bad news was the cover had been painted over making it harder to remove, particularly considering her nails were chewed down to the skin. Pursing her lips and looking around Lara tried to think of what she could use. Coming up short she settled for the longest nail and began running it around the base of the cover.  Her brother had changed all the locks of the apartment after one of their mother's particularly unsavory boyfriends had left, taking the apartment key with him. Lara had been thirteen, her brother a couple of weeks off eighteen. At the time Lara had seen it as a great project for her and Joshua to do over the weekend She'd been enthralled by the way the pieces slipped in together and Josh had let her put in most of the interior locks. Uneven at that age though she'd understood it was more than just a time-filling exercise.
                          
Finally, the cover slipped free of the paint and Lara wrenched the handle up, pushing to get it beyond the apex so it would come apart.
                          
"Come on. Come on," Lara coaxed. As it gave way, Lara stumbled slightly at the sudden loss of resistance. Sliding the cover off, Lara looked at the way the mechanism was attached to the door. Hesitantly, she slipped off her mother's bracelet. With slight hesitation she slipped the flat infinity link into the screw, she needed to get out of here. Four screws later, her bracelet was broken in three places and Lara carefully put them in her pocket. She'd get it fixed.
                          
'You need to get out of here first,' a little voice told her. 'Escape the psycho before he realises your uncle isn't going to come to you.'
                          
"Shut up," Lara said aloud as she attempted to take apart the mechanism, unlock the door. She couldn't quite get it and her heartbeat began to drift to her ears before she realised that there was something not right with the air she was breathing. What she had before mistaken as stuffiness ner brain was beginning to recognise as other than. It was a chemical, she realised, as it saturated the air. Her head began to move too fast and too slow simultaneously. She couldn't think straight. It wasn't chlorine-based, no it had an ammonium smell... that couldn't be completely right though. How long had she been exposed to it? She worked quicker at the lock, or at least she tried. She could hear footsteps, couldn't she? Multiple footsteps. She couldn't think... she just needed to think. Her limbs were growing heavy, when had that begun? Her fingers wouldn't do what they were told. The room grew hot and arid, it dipped and weaved. Screwing her face Lara closed her eyes as the footsteps came closer and begged for the room to stop moving.