The twinkling lights below the plane fought for dominance with the stars above. Lara watched in awe behind her mask, folding her arms protectively.

  She glanced at the details on her helmet, filtering through each section of Circa wherever she turned her head.

  They’d ascended from Freehelm. And the neighborhood she and Knox had wandered through was Vallan, just a few steps away from the shanty-town they’d left called Gurram. From the plane’s perspective, Freehelm and Gurram danced with light, while Vallan remained sheathed in night.

  Lara sighed, turning her attention to the bubbling in her stomach that was fueled by her newfound unease.

  How long of a way had it been from the small shackled house with its powdery blue walls and overgrown yard?

  When the bridge opened and signaled the plane’s arrival at their destination, Lara found herself filled with thoughts of Sammi and Pav. They’d relied on her -- granted her some sense of normalcy, even -- and in return, she’d disappeared. Even though she knew the situation had been out of her control, Lara couldn’t help but feel small under the pressure of their imagined opinion. The distance between them had somehow increased Sammi and Pav’s value, something they hadn’t had before when she had to see them -- or at least, Samantha every day.

  She scuttled over to the edge of the bridge as the wind blew mercilessly at her face. The plane was still aloft at least a mile above the roof of the skyscraper beneath her.

  A rope shot from the bridge, its end disappearing from sight as it fell to the roof below.

  Lara grimaced.

  With a reassuring rub to her stomach, she grabbed hold of the line and slid down.

  The wind’s force rocked her, turning her into a human pendulum, but she landed safely, her boots thudding as they hit the ground.

  The plane rescinded its attachment and shot off, abandoning her to her plight.

  Alright. She mentally recanted as she walked through what she needed to do next. Get inside.

  Hopelessly, she fumbled at an obviously locked door.

  Shit.

  Suddenly, her mask flickered to life, with the recognizable blue of Freehelm’s systems reflected on its screen.

  A map for your struggles - Zanatos

  Mild relief washed over her at the notion that he hadn’t left her alone. But pressed for the time she’d just wasted, Lara carried on. She hustled over to a massive rotating fan and removed its outermost cage.

  Its exposed paddles swooped before her, unaffected by her presence. Lara stared them down, calculating how many seconds she’d have if she were to jump through an opening.

  She’d only need to slow it down. But a lightbulb flickered on in her head.

  Pulling one of the bladed fans from its hammock on her thigh, Lara took a breath and shoved it into the rotation, forcing it to flick open.

  The air system rattled in protest while the blades spread, and finally halted, revealing enough crawl space between its paddles into the ventilation behind it.

  Throwing a leg over one of the paddles, Lara entered the vent, shooting a hand over to grab the bladed fan from its obtrusive position before the air system forcefully re-engaged.

  Inside, she curled onto her hands and knees and began crawling forward. A renewed blast of air from the unobstructed fan pushed angrily at Lara’s back.

  She came to a crossways, vents to the right or left of her.

  Once more, her helmet activated -- this time pointing her left. Lara let out a sigh of relief that unexpectedly fogged up the mask, and proceeded through the maze until she arrived at an opening in the vent.

  She peered through, attempting to catch a better glimpse of any security, but struggled to see past the rungs of its covering.

  Cursing her memory, Lara decidedly pulled at the frame, dismantling it from the vent, and placed it aside.

  She barely managed to slip down with her arms above her head, and landed on the floor, rolling to distribute the impact. She stood and hurriedly surveyed her surroundings, mentally thanking the amount of failed landings she’d had with her mindless tumbling back in Champaign.

  At the end of the dimly-lit hallway stood glass-to-ceiling windows. Through them, three other skyscrapers could be seen in the far distance. She immediately recognized one as the buiLissome. It rose triumphantly, piercing the sky.

  Enough staring.

  As if in agreement, the map in her mask reappeared with a blinking red dot a few rooms away, highlighting the location of her target.

  She wound through the halls to find the door leading to the supposed location of the pocket watch.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  It opened with ease, forcing her hair on end.

  In Champaign, she had occasionally explored old, abandoned wrecks; would-be homes with their tenants long gone. This meant she’d never considered it breaking and entering. But knowing that it’d been more difficult entering any of them than it was now triggered the looming feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

  Regardless, she entered the darkened office.

  She swept the room, rifling each nook and cranny. Its windowless interior was stuffy, especially evidenced by the beads of sweat that formed behind her mask as she circled the room half a dozen times with growing frustration. She was close to giving up when a strange shine caught her eye.

  Lara strode to a warm countryside painting on the wall. Behind it glowed a dull light, outlining its frame in the same way it had with the door at the Indianapolis racetrack.

  Tracing the illuminated frame, her fingers gripped and pulled at the painting. It swung open, revealing the same blood-red wallpaper lining the rest of the room. However, the golden light remained, slipping through tiny slivers in the paper. A fantastic new excitement had taken hold of her, with the golden glint of the target within her reach.

  Her fan flapped open with a flick of her wrist, and Lara traced the blades over the glowing outline.

  Severed from its hold, the wallpaper furled at its edges, rolling off the wall.

  Lara stared at a cold metal safe and its foreboding triple-digit dial.

  You’ve got to be kidding me.

  She awaited instructions from her masks’s screen, but it remained blank.

  At wit’s end, Lara reached for the dial, ready to run through spontaneous combinations. Her fingers were a hair away when it suddenly clicked.

  The dial whirred furiously, back and forth, stopping at eight numbers. Her hand shot back and her eyes darted around looking for a button that might’ve gone off; but there was nothing.

  The safe clicked once more in finality and its door easing open.

  Inside lay the pocket watch.

  Blood pounded in her ears as she hesitantly wrapped her fingers around its golden metal.

  In that moment, a massive force blasted from the watch, a far-off scream emanating from a sound wave as it rippled through the air. It swept through Lara’s body, bringing her to her knees in its wake. An involuntary shout escaped her lips.

  Gasping, she clutched her chest. She was struggling to breathe when a foreign, high-pitched clicking echoed down the hall.

  Startled, air shot through her lungs, bringing her to her senses. Lara stood and wobbled out the door, only to stumble back into the room a few seconds later as she remembered to close the safe and replace the portrait.

  By the time she reached the hallway with the vent she’d originally descended from, the frequency of the clicking had increased dramatically. They bounced off the walls, each time closer than before.

  Staring at the open vent above her she realized that she hadn’t thought about how to get back up. Cursing herself silently, she ran down another hall searching for a different way out.

  With luck, she spotted the gray metal of a stairwell door as she turned the corner. The red glow of an Exit sign above it beamed prominently.

  But without warning, something dark collided with her helmet, knocking her onto her back.

  Lara opened her eyes to the sight of an armored creature; half mechanized. The living parts of its body looked as though they’d been burned away by acid, with its one real eye having glazed over in a web-like film. Its other mechanical eye tracked her unfalteringly.

  She watched the beast unfalteringly, slowly pushing herself against the tile to put space between them. It opened its jaw, and clipped clicks pierced her ears. Metallic teeth gleamed with her reflection which vibrated with the call.

  From somewhere around them, another mirrored the strange noise.

  In a decisive movement, Lara shot up and flew down the hall.

  The sound of claws scraped at the ground, close on her heels.

  Through the growing web of cracks on her mask, she caught sight of a dark blur just as it pounced from behind the corner, tackling her.

  The ravenous beast ripped at her armor, growls and clicks blending into a bloodthirsty chorus.

  Lara cried out, grabbing at a fan with one hand while attempting to hold back the beast’s head. She swiped at the fleshy crevice of its throat, and the sound of a creaking whimper rebounded against her mask as oil-like fluid sprayed from the severance.

  She was jerked back by her ponytail -- the original creature biting at her hair. Through its cracks, the mask flickered erratically, attempting to assess her suit’s damage. The growing number of reddened sections flashed in alert as she was dragged across the floor.

  In desperation, Lara sliced the fan across her ponytail, releasing her from the gripped locks. Freed, she rolled forward, unsheathing another fan. Swiftly, she swiped at the beast. More creatures sounded nearby as a wounded whine escaped her target. It stumbled backwards and, with one last slash to the exposed section of its head, toppled over. With the last of its dying cries, Lara set off around the corner.

  The windows lined the wall ahead of her. As she sped past an adjacent hallway, more half-breds followed, their threatening clicks trailing.

  The survivor of the original collision limped after her, joined by a pair of backups.

  With the detection that she was going around in circles, a disjointed map flickered harder through the mask’s broken surface; her suit had taken too much damage.

  With no time left to think, Lara removed her helmet, centering all her strength in her arm and slammed it into the window.

  She hammered at it relentlessly, each impact devastating the surface more than the last. Venous cracks spread further across the window’s weakening structure. Counting the seconds, her heart burst to her throat when she finally jumped to the side, just barely avoiding a targeted assault from one of the creatures. Its body smashed through the fractured window, plummeting dozens of stories to the Noremi below.

  The others suddenly hesitated, giving Lara her chance.

  She sprung to her feet, wrapping the pocket-watch around her forearm, and dived through the opening in the window after the beast.

  The wind from the fall stole the breath from her lungs as she braced for impact. The black depths approached her faster than she’d anticipated. But before she could hit the rivertop, she was submerged.

  A film of water suspended her midair, slowing her descent. The scenery blurred as she sank down, until the horizon line shot past and she was enveloped in darkness.

  Lara flailed around, attempting to re-orient herself. Catching sight of a light source, she kicked hard at the river depths, propelling herself up.

  Buoying to the surface, she gasped for air, wiping at her face. A few meters away, a pillar of water cascaded into the sky, nearly as tall as the building she’d escaped.

  Her eyes widened. As though it saw her gawking, it dropped back into the river, dispersing a wave that pushed her toward the forest on the opposite side of the Noremi.

  Forcing herself through the shock, she swam to land.