Masked

XVIII.

I sighed.

The weather outside was getting worse when I closed my laptop and got up from my seat.

I was worried. What Lara had told me seemed unbelievable at first – like it was a bad dream I could wake myself up from every minute. But it wasn't a dream. And I knew it.

Lara said she set the apocalypse in motion. The world was in chaos. And it sounded to me like everything she did only made the situation worse. I sighed again.

Everything inside my body had turned itself upside down when I saw her face again. It was the same feeling I experienced the days before her departure, the moment we said good bye and out last conversation we had when she still was on Cozumel.

And it became harder and harder for me to ignore these feelings.

I knew what the quickened heartbeat, the flushed cheeks – the nervousness – meant. But I tried to deny it. Lara needed a good friend right now and nothing else.

I let myself fall onto my bed and closed my eyes. I needed to get back to father soon, to tell him about the news, but my mind was still lingering on Lara.

I missed her. And it hurt me even more that, at this point in time, I had absolutely no clue how I could help her from so far away.

"What the hell am I going to do?", I mumbled to myself.

The little voice in my head that had been bothering me so much since the brunette was gone was screaming at me to help Lara, but I knew that my father would probably keep me from that. In the time Lara was away now, he had told me everything he knew about the artefacts, Trinity and Lara's father.

And it honestly scared me.

The people Lara was dealing with were beyond dangerous. Especially Doctor Dominguez, who – apparently was power-hungry even before he cut negotiations with my father.

Rain was hitting my windows and in the distance roared thunder when I suddenly saw the flash of Lara's deep brown eyes in my mind. I inhaled sharply and sat myself up immediately.

'Cut off this crap, Isabelle. You don't have time for this, and Lara needs a friend – not a person that develops feelings for her at the most inconvenient time. ...There, I said it.'

I sighed out loud while swinging my feet over the frame of the bed, getting off in one fluid motion.

"I should probably tell father about this – and continue to help him with his paperwork", I said to myself, to make me forget about the troublesome thoughts that had slipped past the secure barrier of my own mind.

Determined, I stepped to her door, grasping around the handle while taking a deep breath.

It felt like the situation had now complicated itself even more.

--

Bennet manor, 01:24 a. m.

A strange smell filled my nostrils while I was lying in bed, half awake, and half asleep at the same time. Since I admitted to myself that I was indeed attracted to Lara in more than just one way, it had kept me up for the rest of the day, not making it possible for me to concentrate on the work father had given me – and apparently the thoughts that were still haunting me did not rest for the night.

I started to sniffle and groggily positioned my head on my elbow. It kind of smelled like –

I couldn't think further when I was shaken by a cough. And another one. Then, it hit me.