Midnight

It was midnight and Laura was walking down the street, tired and cold. She’d just spend hours with LaFontaine and Perry studying for mid-terms, and her brain was currently throbbing out of her skull. She could hear footsteps behind her, but she just brushed it off – whoever it was was probably on their way to a party, as parties seemed to be very popular in college. Not that Laura actually had time to go to parties, with her mid-terms coming up and all. Study, study, study was her life at the moment, study for this, get notes for that, which was why she was walking home in the first place.

She pulled her cardigan tighter around herself; the wind was starting to pick up a little now, and as Laura tucked a few stands of her honey coloured hair behind her ear, she couldn’t help but noticed that the person behind her was getting closer, their footsteps starting to get quicker. Something wasn’t right, whoever was behind her should’ve gone turned off on the street that had the party on it, but they were still walking behind her.

Trying not to panic, Laura started walking a little quicker, all too aware of the person behind her quickening as well. Looking around for a place to hide, she noticed a phone box. The feeling of dread in her stomach seemed to lift a little as she eyed the box; it wasn’t an ideal place to hide, but it was her only choice, unless she wanted to run all the way back to her place. As fast as she could, Laura bolted towards the box and the guy behind her started running too. Laura was quicker, though, slamming the door and fumbling with the lock before it clicked, signifying that it was locked. The person on the other side must’ve heard the click too, as a few moments went past without any noise.

Laura collapsed against the wall, relieved to be safe – or somewhat safe. With her dad being a very cautious man, Laura knew many things about keeping herself safe – seeing as the self-defence lessons when she was a kid and the packet of bear repellent he’d given her when she moved to college – so she knew that she wasn’t safe just yet. Heck, anyone in her situation would know that that guy could still be out there, just waiting for her to emerge from the box. Laura wasn’t going to take that chance, so the only rational thing she thought to do was to call her friends to help her.

Quickly, she punched the numbers in for LaFontaine’s mobile, almost not being able to as her hands were shaking so much. It rang, and rang, and rang; for a second Laura thought that they weren’t going to pick up, but as soon as the voice on the other end said ‘Hello?’ she couldn’t help the word vomit that followed.

‘Hey, I know its late and I know I was just there but there’s this guy who was following me back home and I locked myself in a phone box and I can’t see him anymore so I was wondering if you’d come and take me the rest of the way home ‘cause he could still be out there and I don’t want to die or worse so will you come?’

‘Who’s this?’

Laura felt her stomach drop.

‘Laura?’ she said slowly, ‘I’m guessing you’re not LaFontaine.’

‘You guessed right, cupcake.’

‘Oh,’ she said quietly into the phone. Laura could feel the panic starting to rise up again. She was sure that she’d keyed LaFontaine’s number, her hands had been shaking a bit, but that couldn’t have caused her to dial a stranger’s number, right? Her breathing started to quicken a little bit. Was she stuck here all night? Was she going to have to wait ‘till morning to go home? Should she just take a chance and keep walking home?

‘Calm down, cupcake,’ the voice on the other end of the phone said, jolting Laura out of her internal freak out.

‘How did you—‘

‘I can hear you breathing. Where are you?’

‘The… the corner of West and Ashgrove, why— no you don’t have to pick me up, I can just get home myself, its fine, really. I’m probably just over reacting again, and its way too late for—‘

‘I’ll be there in 5 minutes.’

The line went dead. Laura couldn’t believe it, how in Hell and Hogwarts had that just happened? First, she accidently calls a stranger at midnight, promptly spills guts to said stranger, and then the stranger agrees to drive her home. How on earth had Laura managed to get herself into this situation? She should’ve just stayed the night with LaFontaine and Perry and watched the Harry Potter movies with them. But no, she was trapped in a phone box. At midnight. Why did Laura do things again?

Taps on the glass scared Laura out of her thoughts, causing her to jump and slam her back into the wall. She looked up frantically and saw a woman on the other side of the glass. Clad all in black, the stranger was looking at Laura with a hint of a smirk on her face.

‘Who are you?’ Laura called through the glass, worried.

‘Not LaFontaine,’

Laura visibly relaxed, letting out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding. She unlocked the door and stepped out into the night air, shuddering and pulling her cardigan tighter. Laura smiled at the woman, and realised that she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

‘I’m Laura by the way.’

‘Carmilla, cutie,’ Carmilla smiled, nodding in the direction of her car, ‘Coming?’

‘Right, yes, coming. You know, you really didn’t have to do this for me, you don’t even know me. For all you know I could be a raging psychopath killer,’

Carmilla laughed, a very cute laugh that made Laura’s heart skip a beat. ‘I wasn’t just going to leave you out here. Besides, chivalry isn’t dead you know.’

Laura hopped into Carmilla’s car, feeling more at peace than when she started walking home.

‘Thank you,’ Laura said quietly a few minutes later. ‘You didn’t have to, but I’m glad you did.’

‘No problem, cutie. I’m glad I did.’