New Beginnings

9. Laura

Her world was a whirl of black and purple. While her eyes told her she was spinning her body told her she was somehow falling and yet rising upwards at the same time. What she could hear changed every other second between the stone grinding she now associated with the gargoyles and as crazy as it seemed, a radio playing music. It felt like she was drowning in water yet she didn't feel wet. Her nose couldn't smell anything, which she considered to be actually pretty helpful of it considering the mixed nonsensical signals being sent from everything else.

Her senses failing her utterly, she fell back on expectation and imagination. Why had Carmilla made them do this? Did she not see how clearly a portal to some hell dimension the vortex was? Did she forget she wasn't a vampire anymore and hence probably couldn't simply enter the domain of Beelzebub on a whim?

Oh what horrors must await them. She imagined tentacle monstrosities with creepy large eyes, giant writhing insects, random scenes from David Cronenberg films, red hoofed monsters with pitchforks, that bald guy with pins all over his head, a world without cocoa. Her mind filled with such terrors, she fought hard not to scream as she saw the swirling black and purple colours start to fall away, signalling the end of either their trip or one hell of psychedelic ride. She braced herself for whatever horror was to come. She and Carmilla would survive no matter what kind of monsters lay on the other side of wherever the vortex had taken them. Ancient Gods, vampires, demons,

Chest of Drawers!

The swirling colours finally fell away completely and Laura found herself hurtling face first towards a brown chest of drawers, the momentum of their jump downwards turning into some serious speed as they came out of the vortex. Without any real time to react she barely twisted her left shoulder forward to take the brunt of the impact.

Shoulder first she smashed into the drawers and crippling jolt of pain accompanied an almighty crashing sound as the force of her and Carmilla's bodies pushed drawers over. It fell backwards until its top hit something Laura was in no position or frame of mind to see that arrested its fall and there the drawers stayed, learning backwards about halfway up.

"Ouch." Laura muttered, while she and Carm lay face down prone on the drawers.

Behind them on a wall the black and purple vortex continued to hum menacingly for a few seconds before quieting down and when Laura, with great effort, turned her head behind her to look at it she saw it had stopped swirling as well. It looked more like someone had simply splashed some paint on the wall now.

They lay there, groaning in various pains on the precariously balanced chest of drawers for a few moments, trying to collect themselves. Eventually Carmilla took the effort to climb up slightly and peer over the top to see what the drawers had hit on its way down.

"It's a couch." She said matter of fact.

Well of course it was. This was all making perfect sense. Everything that was happening right now was absolutely logical and Carmilla didn't have anything to explain at all.

"What is happening? What just happened? Where are we? Also important. What the hell is happening?"

Carmilla took a few more moments groaning before answering.

"Okay, look cupcake. Don't freak out. Everything is fine. We're safe. Give... give me a second here." She talked slowly with frequent pauses and after finishing she gingerly slid off the drawers onto the ground.

Laura stayed where she lay on the drawers and looked around at their surroundings.

They were in an averaged sized room with white walls and a brown wooden floor. A number of yellow bulbs supplied them with light. The room was packed to the brim with furniture and storage containers. Across the room and to her right a closed door seemed to be the only exit. The room had a stuffy feel to it, as if most of the things in it hadn't been touched for a while. But then why were the lights turned on?