Don't Forget To Remember Me

Save The Day

Carmilla teleported into the Lustig building, carefully avoiding the pit that the lovely Silas University administration had continued to neglect to fix.  She spotted Laura’s friends tied up by some weird glowing rope and made her way over to them.

“You came,” Danny said, not hiding the surprise in her voice.

Carmilla rolled her eyes, but before she could fire back a response, a sudden light flashed through the room.

“Now you’re all stuck in here until midnight,” a shrill voice echoed.  “Can’t have anyone running off, can I?”

Carmilla turned to face the witch.  “Hi, Lilah,” she greeted.  “How have you been for the past week?”

Dressed in a slimming black robe, Lilah narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.  “Well, how about that?  You got your memory back.”  She shrugged.  “True love’s kiss is a bit of a cliché way to undo a spell, I know.  But the coven’s founders were very into the cliché of it all.”

She flitted over to within a couple feet of Carmilla and let out a grating giggle.

“To answer your question–– I’ve had quite the busy couple of weeks.”

Lilah counted off her fingers.  “First, I followed that friend of yours to Styria.  I lost him, but I found you.  Plus, the site of where the lophiiformes used to dwell made this a great center of magical energy.  And then, of course you remember that I captured you, but you escaped, too.  I panicked–– what was I to do?  I couldn’t kill you before the ritual, and the next full moon was a week away.  So in my panic, I cast the first spell I could think of, and it was a memory loss spell to stall.”

She shook her head.  “I thought that would be enough, but then you and your human just had to go looking for my coven.  So I ran you guys off the road and skewered you with a branch to hold you in place and thought that’d be that until I needed you for this ritual.”  She sighed.  “But I came back and somehow you two had left so I decided to pay my coven a visit before you could, and I killed all of them and took any evidence of the memory spell I cast.  It’s been quite a nuisance to get you, but you’re here now.  Everything’s been ready, I just needed the prime ingredient,” she smirked.

Carmilla scoffed.  “I know you’re pretty certifiably crazy, so I don’t know why I’m wasting my breath, but just so you know, immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Lilah waved her hand dismissively.  “Let me ask you something.  Why haven’t you tried to, oh say, rip out my throat yet?”

Carmilla couldn’t answer.

“It’s my power.  I’ve always had more of it than a normal witch.  You wouldn’t even entertain the idea of attacking me, because every instinct in your body is telling you not to.”  She sneered.  “Why waste all this power on a mortal life?”

Without hesitation, Lilah plunged one hand into Carmilla’s chest and waved the other to summon the ingredients.  Her eyes rolled back as she began chanting, speaking in tongues while waves of power poured from her and filled the room until Carmilla thought she might suffocate in it.

Seconds passed by, feeling like years, as Carmilla could feel her own power and life sucked from her.  The world slowly faded away and the air around her felt colder and darker.  Her eyelids began to droop and she grew limp.

Everything came rushing back and snapped Carmilla into reality as she looked around, fuzzily attempting to figure out what had happened to the hand in her chest.

She saw Laura–– Laura?–– with some kind of blade in her hand, her eyes wide.  A bloodied blade.

She heard Lilah screaming in agony and–– Was her throat slit?

She felt herself falling as the witch collapsed to the ground.

Arms wrapped around her as Laura let go of the dagger and dropped to hold Carmilla.

“What did you do?” Carmilla rasped weakly.

Laura was trying to hold back tears.  “A-After you left, J.P. found mentions of rogue, overzealous witches being killed during a ritual, because that’s when they’re vulnerable,” she stammered.  “I was driving here in your car as fast as I could when he sent me the text.  And the crazy witch had the dagger just lying around with the ingredients, so I-I thought… well, I didn’t think.”  She sniffled.  “It’s just that I already saw I was too late, so I figured I might as well take her down so it’s not like we’ll have a manic witch running around.”

Carmilla managed a chuckle.  “That’s my creampuff, always finding a way to save the day.”

Laura let out something between a sob and a laugh.

By then, all of their friends had gathered to somberly watch from a distance great enough to allow them their privacy.

“You saved everyone from the terrible witch, Laura.”  She touched the small girl’s cheek and smiled.

Laura nodded, tears falling. “Yeah, everyone,” she said softly.  “So don’t you dare die on me.”

Carmilla’s eyelids drooped. “I’ve loved you from the moment you said I deserve better.  Both times.  Because I never thought I’d deserve to love someone like you.  And because I never thought someone with so much reason to hate me could ever care about me,” she murmured.  “I love you,” she said weakly.  Her eyelids closed and she went limp in Laura’s arms.

“I love you too,” Laura whispered, burying her face into her shoulder and crying.