Red Raider - Prologue Part III

Graveside

It was the last of the three cemeteries on her list. She'd already visited more cemeteries in the past two hours than most towns this size usually had but the two she'd checked out on a whim and the three on Bryce's list hadn't put a dent in the fourteen he'd claimed the town contained. As cemeteries went it wasn't the fanciest or even the oldest she'd visited that day but there were several promising crypts near the back, against a large clump of trees.

Even in the bright Californian sun they gave off a dank, worn, and almost evil odor. Something living had occupied them in the recent past but unfortunately neither contained what she was looking for. Like most tombs of this sort, they were more likely the shabby remnants of the attempts of past residents to show how important they had been to those around them than the reliquaries she was seeking.

Searching in the rubbish filled nooks and crannies of the crypts she'd singled out, Lara found no sign of the symbol she was searching for, an eye embedded in a pentagram. The Mark of Pentificus, while not as ancient as the Illuminati's All Seeing Eye, was the mark of a long disbanded ancient order of alchemists. Rumours going back centuries claimed they guarded a number of artifacts she'd been searching for in a desultory fashion on and off for years.

While hunting for the whereabouts of the Urn, Bryce had unexpectedly found additional information claiming some members of the order had been buried in Sunnydale. It now looked like she wouldn't have time to check the remaining cemeteries to confirm it if she was going to get back to LA as planned. There were other things she needed to do before her flight to New York the next morning that had precedence. The remaining cemeteries would have to wait until she was in the neighborhood again. Disappointing but not the end of the world. She knew they would still be there next year or whenever she managed to return.

It had turned into a very uneventful and uneven side trip. A veritable vacation jaunt compared to some and Lara was feeling a bit out of place dressed in her usual tomb crawling gear in the sunlit cemetery. Although she'd felt like she was being watched several times during the afternoon it had never gotten strong enough to make her feel threatened. She wasn't really sure if her armed to the teeth approach to cemetery visit accessorizing was a factor or if it was just her imagination working overtime in frustration at the lack of action.

As she headed back to where her bike was parked near the entrance a flash of color and movement in another part of the cemetery caught her eye. Lara paused for a second to watch it. This was the first sign of any life in any of the cemeteries she'd visited that afternoon.

A small female figure was slowly meandering across the cemetery towards a recent grave, occasionally stopping to touch a headstone here and a tree there as if greeting old friends. Upon reaching her apparent destination the figure seemed to gracelessly collapse on top of the grave.

There was something about the way the woman had picked her way across the cemetery that peaked Lara's interest. And from a distance there was something familiar about her. Curious, and without drawing attention to herself, Lara carefully made her way closer, stopping in the shadows of a nearby willow tree. Now that she was close enough to see the face of the woman the feeling of familiarity suddenly made sense.

It was the redhead from the coffee shop from earlier in the afternoon. But from the way she'd moved across the cemetery it could almost have been the redheaded young woman she'd glimpsed around Westbury the previous summer and whom had consumed so many of her stray thoughts and had given rise to unexpected feelings of protectiveness. The desire to stay and figure out if this was the same person overrode her need to get back to LA. And if it was the same person, the not normally so introspective Lara was curious to see if these feelings still existed.

Lara crouched down in the afternoon shadows with her back against the tree and intently studied the young woman, trying not to intrude on what was obviously a private moment. Not usually prone to such whimsical thoughts, Lara felt there was something magical about the scene. Leaves, blowing in an early fall breeze, gently encircled her like butterflies, seemingly shielding her from the rest of the world as she rose to her feet.

The sad stillness that radiated outward from the young woman as she now stood there was like a cold gray rain falling on some half forgotten civilization. Leaning down, she seemed to trace something on the gravestone in front of her. The gentleness with which she placed something, too small for Lara to see, on top of the stone before walking away was evident even from Lara's vantage point.

Years of travel in dangerous places had honed Lara's senses to detecting the out of the ordinary and she was rarely taken by surprise. But as she stood, stretching to relieve stiff muscles arising from her position against the tree, she suddenly sensed something dangerous near her in the shadows. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck tingle in anticipation of sudden violence about to erupt around her.

Startled, Lara looked around for whatever was causing this feeling, slowly inching her hands towards her pistols in their quick release holsters. Standing a few feet away, just out of harms reach, like Lara out of sight of the now distant redhead, was a small blonde woman.

It was the redhead's companion from the coffee shop, staring at her like she was a bug collector's prized specimen. Lara involuntarily shivered in the coldness radiating at her from the blonde's eyes. The sense of danger and impending mayhem in the air increased exponentially.

"I wouldn't", said the woman with a quite menace and something in her voice stopped Lara's hands from moving any closer to her guns.

"I believe you were just leaving...", the blonde continued while gesturing towards the entrance to the cemetery.

Much to Lara's surprise she found herself silently obeying the tiny woman, heading towards her bike parked a hundred feet outside of the cemetery entrance with the blonde silently following. She removed her guns, knife, and any other gear she didn't need for her return trip to LA and packed it away in her saddlebags under the watchful gaze of the blonde who broke the tense silence with a brief, ominous comment as Lara mounted her bike.

"She doesn't like guns and neither do I." Gesturing towards the cemetery, she continued, "If she sees you with them near there, you won't like what happens. And I probably won't stop her."

And with that she was gone, leaving Lara to wonder what it was about the redhead that inspired such protectiveness in others, herself included.

The return trip to LA was uneventful. Ensconced in her seat in first class, Lara spent the entire flight to New York the next day deep in thought. The only conclusion she came to was that she needed to keep an eye out for anything unusual concerning that small Californian town and its intriguing occupants.

© Copyright 2009 Andy Stoffel. Last update: 7/19/09; 10:54:37 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.