she's either in a waking nightmare or a twisted dream.
eyes followed and mouths warned as she tread the cobblestone. leave, she's sure a soft voice whispered at her as she came upon a grave, a shrine, a name carved in stone. lara gazes at the letters but they don't fall in line. the name doesn't come together, she crouches down, careful fingers feel the slab of ceramic and search for the carvings as her eyes close. don't leave.
lara's brows tug together as her fingers feel out the letters, the name they spell, her heart slows, almost still. ' samantha nishimura ' her fingers are ripped away and her eyes fly open. she doesn't look down, not yet, not ever. please don't let it be real. but she looks down, and it's sam's grave, decorated with lillies of the valley. her favourite. embellished with kanji that lara thinks are not quiet the right symbols for sam's name. she's never been particular good with kanji. but's sam's grave. sam's gone.
you left her, now she's gone.
❝ no ... ❞ lara's voice is a broken whisper, scraped past a throat closed up tight as the grief claws at it, grief she's never allowed free now roams her body, ravishes it in cold that wraps her tight and roots her to the earth. vines of it tighten, shackles that bind her to her favourite companion's resting place. she balks to the pull, maybe if it pulls her into the depths of the earth she could rest with her too. maybe she could hold her rotting body. maybe she could weep apologies into her flesh and claw at her chest and search for her still heart inside. maybe, maybe, maybe ...
something touches her shoulder, lara's head rises from its mourning bow to find porcelain fingers laid over the curve of her shoulder. delicately manicured nails, black painted, and hope beats at her binds. she follows the path of lace and linger on the veil, behind it she sees fair skin, she sees powdered cheeks, rosy lips. ❝ sam ? ❞ lara takes her hand and the vines unfurl as she rises to shaking legs, ❝ sam ? ❞ she asks again as her fingers linger on the veil, and slowly lift it overhead. she sweeps raven hairs out of @embodies' face, picks up those soft cheeks into the cushions of her palm, ❝ oh sam, i'm sorry, i'm so, so sorry ... ❞
and she does it. dream meets reality, nightmare torn apart, sam's not gone, she's right here. her thumb sweeps under eyes, is she crying for her ? does she hate her ? will she forgive her ? lara doesn't wait to ask, doesn't linger to be told to stop. their lips touch and their tears join on her cheeks, ❝ i'm never, ever leaving you again ... never ... ❞ lara swears to her lips as she kisses them, to her arms as she winds them around her, to her eyes as she catches more of the tears with her thumbs.
she's not warm, the body she holds so dear is an icy embrace. lara's eyes dare to open, and she gazes into a featureless face. her hands still hold her cheeks, her fingers sweep, as if she were dusting off the dirt of buried treasure, trying to find sam underneath the sands but she doesn't surface and yet her heart already aches familiar for it. ❝ no....no, no, no ... come back to me .. ❞ she pleads into those lips, pulls her closer, her fingers float down to her neck, as if she could split her skin and exhume her best friend from the figure she holds delicately. ❝ come back to me, i'm here, i'm staying, i swear .. i swear. ❞
donna beneviento sent: ' kissing your lover after believing you’d lost them . '