Tomb Raider: Souls of Shadow

Expelled from Heaven, the Watchers walked amongst men, and upon the Earth bred a curse, an abomination of shadow. –Enochian Gospels

In the darkest recess of every human soul slumbers the shadow of evil. –Werner Von Croy

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Chapter 1: Welcome to Paris

Lara Croft sat on the filthy backseat of the Parisian taxi, listening to the rain pounding the car roof and watching the seedy district slide by outside. Fat, brown rats scurried around the garbage littering the streets. Windows had been smashed and sloppily replaced with millboard. It was only twenty minutes ago Lara had arrived in the airport and she'd already realized Paris had hit rock bottom since she was last here.

The streets were unusually deserted. The few pedestrians that were there walked swiftly, casting nervous glances over their shoulders. Lara knew what they were afraid of. It was all over the news: "The Monstrum's Dark Rennaisance", "Jack the Ripper reborn," "Police not making any headway, Monstrum still on the loose." A ritualistic serial killer dubbed the Monstrum roamed the city. 16 seemingly unconnected victims had been reported so far, and there were no known survivors. Each body had been desecrated and the blood used to smear unintelligible graffiti and occult-looking symbols all over the crime scenes.

The taxi stopped in front of her destination, the Chantell apartment building on Rue Valise. Lara was relieved to get off the blood- and sperm-stained backseat, but the freezing rain outside wasn't too comfortable either. Her blue jeans and denim jacket were soaked in the blink of an eye. She produced a worn wallet from her old brown backpack, paid the driver and watched the taxi drive off. "Maybe I should have stayed in that cab and told him to take me back to the airport. Maybe I should just go back to London and forget about Werner," she mused.

But Lara knew she would never do that. She had to visit him - Professor and archaeologist Werner Von Croy, her one time mentor. It had been some years since their experiences in Egypt at the turn of the century, but neither of them had forgotten anything and the poignant feelings remained. And yet, they were about to meet again, here in his apartment.

In the cold darkness beneath the Great Pyramid, Lara had promised herself she would never even talk to Von Croy again, let alone help him. The moment she picked up the receiver in London and heard his desperate voice on the other end, she had realized that promise would be broken. He'd rambled about the Monstrum and some paintings he had to find, begging his former protégé to come to Paris and help. Right after the phone call, Lara booked her flight and now she was here on the sidewalk just below his flat. It was one of those moments where you knew things were about to go horribly wrong, but you couldn't do anything to prevent it.

A profound feeling of dread washed over Lara as she stepped inside and walked up the stairwell. The Chantell was one of the few apartment buildings around here that still lacked an elevator. There were no other sounds than her footsteps and the rain's endless drum solo on the window panes.

She finally reached the right floor, walked down a carpeted corridor and stopped in front of the door to Werner's home. "So, this is it ... I shouldn't have come here. Something terrible's going to happen ..." Her finger hovered at the button for a moment of petrified procrastination before ringing the bell.

Seconds later, the door swung open and Werner Von Croy appeared. He was 68 years old and didn't look any younger. The little hair he had left was white as a cobweb and his face riddled with wrinkles. He wore a grey shirt, dark green trousers and gold-rimmed glasses. "Lara ..."

"This had better be real good, dragging me all the way from London," Lara said and stepped into the narrow entrance hall. Werner quickly closed the door and secured it with numerous little bolts and locks.

Lara raised an eyebrow. "Afraid of uninvited guests, are we?"

"Y-yes," Werner stuttered, "afraid of one particular uninvited guest."

"The Monstrum."

Werner nodded as they stepped through a doorway to the spacious combined office, kitchen and living room. Hundreds of old-looking books on archaeology and history lined the shelves. The living room was decorated with various plants, African statuettes and paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. A Persian carpet with intricate, colourful patterns lay on the polished floor. The cramped office in the middle had two desks covered with books and faxes. The kitchen on the other side was too far off for Lara to get a good look at. A spiral staircase next to the kitchen led up to the apartment's second floor.

"My, what a fancy place you've got here. How much is the rent?" Lara asked, not really interested.

Werner ignored her question. "Take a seat, Lara. We have to talk."

"I don't want to be here. You've got five minutes. Convince me I'm not wasting my time," Lara said as they sat down in two comfy armchairs in front of an empty, cold fireplace. Through the living room's large round window, she could see the rain pouring down from the black skies, about as fast as the words streaming from Werner's mouth. "Help me, Lara, I need you to get something for me or I'm going to be killed."

"Go on."

"I'm tracking five Obscura Paintings for a client called Eckhardt," he said, leaning forward in his chair, "but he's a psychopath."

"Not my problem," Lara shook her head. "You took the comission and now you're out of your depth. So why should I care?"

"Because I'm being stalked!" Werner abruptly rose from his chair. "I daren't go into the streets," he said, gesturing to the window. "People are dying out there!"

Lara got up from her chair, too. "Handle it, Werner. I had to when you abandoned me in the tombs."

"Lara, please ..." Werner turned around and picked up a crumpled brown card from a table. "Look, go and see this woman, Carvier. She can help." He put the card in her hand and closed her fingers around it.

"Sort out your own mess. I'm going," Lara said and started back towards the entrance hall. "No, wait!" Werner made as if to follow her, but she whirled around and pushed him back down on his chair. Leaning in over him, she let her eyes lock onto his in a glare of pure hatred and vindictiveness.

"Egypt, Werner. You walked away and left me. There was no pity then."

"Get out!" Werner yelled and produced a pistol.

Four gunshots rang out.

Werner gasped as his body was flung through the air and collided with the wall. Blood flowed from his nostrils and mouth. While he heard his ribs snap like fragile branches on an old tree, the pistol flew out of his hand, skidding to a halt under a table. Then, he fell to the floor, dead.

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Lara awoke with a pounding headache. She stood and scanned the dark living room. It was a real mess, to say the least. Shelves had been knocked down and books were scattered on the floor. Windows were smashed and the rain poured into the room. A table had been cleaved and the armchairs overturned. Paintings had fallen from the wall and now lay on the bloodstained carpet. Crimson graffiti covered the wall to her right, weird symbols daubed all over it with Werner's blood.

And Werner himself lay on the floor with his back to Lara, facing the round window next to the blood-smeared wall. Lara slowly walked through the room towards him, eyes wide with terror. Her legs felt jelly-like, ready to collapse under her there and then. Miracolously, they managed to carry her all the way across the messy room.

Lara crouched down at the limp body and lifted it from the floor. Werner's skin was pale, icy and filled with bruises and wounds. His glasses had fallen off and his glazed eyes glared accusingly at the woman holding him. Lara checked his pulse. Not the slightest beat came under her fingers. She closed his eyelids and gently laid the corpse back on the floor.

As Lara stood, she felt something warm coating her fingers. She slowly raised her hands and gasped when she saw the crimson liquid dripping from them.

Werner's blood.

Lara turned around and staggered away from the dead body, overwhelmed by a sudden dizziness and nausea. She could clearly remember everything that had occurred up to the moment when Werner pulled out a pistol and yelled "Get out!" Then, there was a big black hole of amnesia in her memory, until she'd regained consciousness on the blood-stained apartment floor and found Werner dead. The only thing she could recall during that time was the sound of four gunshots. But who had been shooting? Lara wasn't armed, although she could easily have taken the pistol from Werner and used it against him.

She couldn't remember what had happened, and the possibility remained that she had killed an innocent, defenceless human being. "But who's painted all the weird symbols on the wall?" she pondered. "It could have been the Monstrum ..."

Shivering uncontrollably, Lara burst into the hallway, walked up to the nearest window and opened it to get some fresh air. The cool night breezes didn't stop the sweat from trickling down her face as she reached out her hands and let the rain wash Werner's blood off.

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A/N: Of course I don't own "Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness" or any of its characters, they belong to Eidos and Core. I do own this novelization, though ... If you've actually read this far, please leave a review, thanks. -E.P.O.