Carmilla

Barely Breathing

Chapter I

Laura

I couldn't believe how shaky my voice was when I finally spoke.

I figured it was partly because of the rawness from all the screaming I'd done, but mostly it was probably because I was seeing Carmilla again for the first time in what seemed like forever. I could feel the shock of it still coursing through my body. It felt like I was seeing a ghost. A day ago I didn't know if I'd get to see her again, and now suddenly she was here, right in front of me, and it was almost unbelievable.

"It's r-really y-you..." I whispered, my tone sounding more disappointed than joyful.

I didn't understand. This was it, this was the moment that I'd been waiting for, the moment that I both dreamed of and feared ever since I'd started looking for her, and now here she was. Carmilla was standing right in front of me, staring at me with those mysterious, beautiful eyes of hers; the eyes that haunted my thoughts every single time I closed my own, watching me as if she wanted me to say something more than the few words that managed escape me. Carmilla was alive. This was the moment I'd been wishing for ever since the night she'd left, the moment I thought I would have given anything to have...so why wasn't I happy?

Carmilla must have sensed that something was wrong because she immediately let go of my hand, the teasing smirk long gone. Her whole stature changed at the flip of a switch, her body going rigid, and catching me by surprise, especially when I saw how she looked at me. Her coffee-coloured eyes, which had been full of content just a few seconds ago, were now dark and forbidding. Carmilla was now regarding me with the same perspective she did when we'd broken up, and I couldn't help but flinch and avert my gaze from hers, protectively crossing my arms over my chest as I waited for her to lash out at me.

"You're still bleeding," I heard her say after a moment's pause, surprised when her tone wasn't filled with venom, but instead concern. It almost caused me to overlook the exhaustion in her voice, "We need to patch that up and stop the bleeding."

I allowed myself to look at her again, dropping my guard slightly, worried by the weakness that laced her voice. The second I took the sight of her in, half of me wanted to laugh at her statement, and the other half wanted to start freaking out as my eyes scanned over her body, finally taking the full extent of her injuries.

At best all I had were a few scrapes and bruises, minus the bleeding wound on my neck-which I could handle-even if it made me want to scream like a little girl again. Carmilla on the other hand looked as though she'd been trying to fight off an entire pack of rabid wolves, with nothing more than a simple twig as her weapon. Her clothes were so unbelievably caked with blood and sludge from the cave floor, that I couldn't tell what colour they'd been anymore. Scarier than that was how her right arm looked completely lifeless dangling at her side, so lifeless in fact, that I convinced myself the only thing holding it to her shoulder anymore was the skin and muscle alone. The remaining damage to her body that I could see under the torn clothing, were deep gashes along her skin that had left her blood streaked to the point where I couldn't see where the source of the bleeding was coming from; not to mention the blood still seeping from her wounds that audibly dripped on the ground now and then.

How is she even still standing? I thought to myself as I watched her in silence for a second, noting how she was swaying slightly, like she was about to fall over. I couldn't help the panic that flooded through my chest, I need to get her to LaFontaine.

"Um...Carm, I think we need to worry about you first-"

"No, Laura," she said sternly, cutting me off with a flick of her wrist as a way to dismiss my protest, "I need to worry about...a-about you first." she coughed and I watched her clench her jaw in pain from the sudden force on her ribs, "I'll heal on my own."