A Ghost of a Chance

Visitors, Pt. 2

Laura's eyes widen and she gulps. "Carm, who is this?"

Mattie flashes her a large, unsettling smile. "May I come in?" Without waiting for a reply, she brushes past Laura and takes a seat without any formalities, as if she owns the place.

Laura scowls. "Suuure. Just make yourself right at home," she growls.

"Easy, cupcake," Carmilla comments, amused. "Mattie's basically a sister to me. I'm sure she has a reason for visiting."

"Of course I do, my little monster," Mattie replies affectionately as Carmilla and Laura enter the room. "I have much better things to do than babysit you. Although I'll admit I have missed you."

"I've missed you, too," Carmilla says, and Mattie stands while Carmilla wraps her arms around her in a wide hug. Mattie returns a small pat on her back.

"Whoa, you can touch her?" Laura asks, mouth dropping open.

Mattie lets Carmilla go and narrows her eyes at Laura. "And you can hear her. And apparently see her. How is that happening? I'm not sensing a witch or ghost hunter vibe from you. I could be wrong. But I'm not, as a general rule."

Laura shrugs. "It just sorta... happened?"

Mattie looks over at Carmilla but she merely mimics Laura's shrug.

"How intriguing," Mattie says, giving Laura an unnerving grin. "No history of witches or anything like that in your family?"

Laura shakes her head. "Just a dead mom and a clingy dad."

"How come I've never seen this clingy dad, cutie?" Carmilla asks, choosing to tactfully sidestep the comment about Laura's mother.

Laura takes a cookie and offers the package to Mattie, who wrinkles her nose in disgust. She starts to fire back a response to her rudeness but Carmilla shoots Laura a look so she just lets out a long sigh.

"My dad thinks I'm busy with an internship," Laura replies.

Carmilla quirks an eyebrow.

"I'll explain later," Laura comments vaguely, looking over at Mattie.

Mattie does an exaggerated yawn. "Yes, as I invested as I was in your life story, I did have another purpose for this visit."

"I assume the usual," Carmilla drawls. "Mother wants to know what's taking so long to serve up this girl to her."

Laura swallows hard and Mattie smirks. "Not to mince words, but yes. What is taking so long? At least for an update?"

Carmilla shrugs. "Nothing to report. She's not getting this one. I just gave her a perfectly good sacrifice a few months ago."

Laura shifts uncomfortably.

"'Nothing to report?'" Mattie scoffs. "This girl can see and hear you and we don't know why. She's here digging around and clearly aware of this whole scheme. I'm pretty sure she's been recording it all on that laptop over there and plans to do God-knows-what with the footage. And you don't think there's anything to report?"

Carmilla and Laura share a look and neither reply to her.

"Darling, please don't tell me you've fallen for this one, too. You're always asking Mother to spare this poet and that musician—"

"This is different, Mattie. I won't let you hurt her." Carmilla's voice is soft, but unwavering.

Mattie blinks in surprise before letting out a small chuckle. "I'd like to see you tr—" Something catches her eye by the front door and she cuts herself off. She narrows her eyes in thought and purses her lips together.