Don't Forget To Remember Me

Happy Anniversary

Laura groaned when she opened her eyes, squinting at the glaring sunlight.  Her brain vaguely registered that she and Carmilla had been driving, and then the car suddenly went bonkers and dove off the road, and then… nothing.

We were unconscious all night, she slowly realized, turning to look at the passenger seat.

She gasped to see an entire branch jutting out from Carmilla’s lower ribcage, entering from the rear window at an angle.

“Carm,” Laura rasped.  “Carm, can you hear me?”

There was no response.

Laura moved to undo her seatbelt, wincing when she discovered she had probably sprained her wrist.  She wasn’t sure what other injuries she had, but checking would have to wait.  She unbuckled herself and managed to wiggle out from her broken window.  The trunk was already warped open a bit, so Laura managed to pry it completely open and rifle through its contents.

She silently thanked her father for making her pack a slew of seemingly useless tools–– just in case–– including a first aid kit, canned fruits and vegetables, matches, a crowbar, granola bars, a small toolbox, a backup first aid kit, bottled water, flash lights, a backup crowbar(?), and a sturdy handsaw.

Laura broke the back passenger window with one of the crowbars, grabbed the handsaw, and cut the branch from the back of Carmilla’s seat, leaving enough of it to grab it and remove it.  The vampire still wasn’t moving, but Laura tried her best not to think too much about that.  She braced herself, and then pulled it out, ignoring the blood-coated end.  She cautiously broke Carmilla’s window and pulled the unconscious girl out carefully, lifting her from under her arms and backing the two of them up until they were several feet away, ignoring the pains shooting through her own wrist.

Carmilla’s wound began to heal itself slowly as the bleeding gradually stopped.  The small cuts covering her body were already healed, betrayed only by the blood that was smeared where they had been.

Laura took a deep breath, and finally decided to look down at herself and assess her own injuries. 

Well, there was her sprained wrist, which she totally just agitated when she basically became the equivalent of a mother lifting a vehicle off their child.

She looked along the rest of that arm, which was fine, but her other arm had a long cut on it.  One of her legs had a gash.  That wouldn’t explain the whole lightheaded feeling I’ve got going on right now…

She knew there was something else that was causing the dizziness–– something she couldn’t quite place.  She looked around the rest of her body, and–– wow, did not know that was there.

There was a very large, deep cut along her side, and Laura vaguely remembered thinking she got her shirt caught on one of the windows she crawled through.  Guess it wasn’t just my shirt that got caught, she thought, feeling very tired and like she needed to put her head down…

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She tried to open her eyes but winced when the light from the fireplace was too much.

“Laura,” a relieved voice came from beside the couch she was lying on.  “You’re okay.”

She tried to sit up, but it was too fast, and pain shot through her side, causing her to let out a gasp.

“Whoa, whoa, Laura, hold on,” the voice rang urgently.  Carmilla rushed to her human from the chair she was sitting on, gently helping her sit up.