The Mistletoe

Chapter XXII

As we walked back home, I couldn't stop thinking about what Laura had told me about my "Grandmother?"

"Laura. Could you tell me how my grandmother looked?" I asked.

"Umm... I didn't really get a good look, but I remember she wore a beautiful gold necklace and a cloak or coat that seemed to have falcon feathers. The lady was very beautiful; I loved the braid in her red hair. Her face seemed very similar to yours, so I believed her right away. She had the same eyes as you, and her dress wasn't much different from what I or Carmilla wear."

"How on earth did she get here? What is happening? I don't understand anything." As I pondered, I felt a bit overwhelmed; there were too many things happening in such a short time.

Laura held me and said, "Let's go home, don't think about it. You'll have time later."

One of the soldiers who were collecting the wounded stopped me and handed me a sheath.

"You need to keep the edge of that sword sharp. Don't cut yourself with it carrying it like that on your waist." He chuckled.

"And to think I ran with this thing twirling on my waist; it could have fallen or cut Laura." I put the sword on my back and adjusted a cut on the sheath to draw it more easily; the sword wasn't that long anyway.

Mrs. Perrodon arrived crying and screaming, Laura's father was hurt.

Laura ran home sobbing and I followed her. Laura's father was being attended to by the doctor and others, he had been injured, but he was lucky.

"Carmilla...she's out of control...Laura...don't go near her..."

The scene looked like part of a horror movie....

Carmilla's room was covered in blood everywhere, the bodies of several vampire hunters lay everywhere.

One of the vampire hunters was being treated and told me what happened:

"We were able to surprise her while she was sleeping, and we tried to do the routine procedure with a stake straight through the heart, the stake broke. We tried to decapitate her, her skin was almost impenetrable. She woke up and eliminated several, then fed on those who were still standing...she was like a fox in a hen house...."

"She doesn't discriminate anymore Miguel.." Laura's father said. "She will feed on the first thing he sees on the road. Women, men, children...no one is safe." Then he looks at Laura and says. "Promise me you won't go, promise me you won't go!"

"Where to?" I said.

"Surely she's gone back to her crypt, in the ruins of Karnstein Castle." Said the hunter. "Another group together with Baron Vordenburg, and a Dutch investigator, have gone to intercept Carmilla, but we have no idea how they are going to stop her, most likely they will go to set her on fire and burn her alive, they will surely carry even explosives."

Laura looks at me along with the sword and seems to nod with her face. My blood had turned Carmilla into a lethal and ruthless killer, normal methods were not going to work.

"Father!" exclaimed Laura. "The sword that Miguel has was effective against the Beast and we were able to kill it, it is very likely that it could work against Carmilla, it possesses magical properties..."

"Laura! Don't you hear me? you stay here!" her father shouted.

"I'm not going to let the woman who abused me get away with it! She stole everything from me! I can't sleep, I have nightmares, I still see her in my dreams!" Laura looked at her father seriously, she was sobbing, but seemed determined to get out of her comfort zone and face her worst nightmare.