New Beginnings

17. Carmilla

It was, she supposed as she opened the door, on the whole a moronic action to take. Less hero saving her lover and more foolhardy idiot about to get herself killed.

Before she had even started opening the door, a part of her recognized the logic in Laura's words and another, much larger and more emotive part, screamed in protest at ignoring the plea to stay. Going outside to fight armed gunmen was one thing, leaving Laura bleeding on the ground alone with someone she didn't trust was quite another. She had so wanted to stay with her, to hold her close and do anything she could to soothe her pain.

But that would have gotten them all killed and moving Laura would have killed her, so with that in mind, perhaps this moronic action did have one thing going for it. It was slightly better than all the other options leading to certain death.

She didn't get riddled with bullets as soon as she opened the door, so she counted that as a good start. Instead she was met with shouts in Italian, the gist of which being 'we would quite like you to get on the ground now', though worded a great deal more strongly.

She counted six of them, two were as close as a stride or two away, one straight in front of her with a window at his back and one to her right. The other four were cautiously moving down the smaller connecting passageway towards her.

She wished she could work out which one had fired the bullet into Laura, though whether she wanted that one to die first or for that one to suffer more, she couldn't work out.

She'd have to settle for hurting them all.

To her left stood one of the many busts placed around the gallery. She picked it up with both hands and hurled it at the goon to her right before launching herself at the one straight in front of her. She pummelled the first goon's head and neck faster than they could react and they collapsed to the ground, wheezing.

The second came upon her quickly. Either they had evaded the bust or it hadn't hurt them enough to slow them down much. He swung the butt of his gun at her face as she turned towards him. She twisted away to avoid it and used his momentum against him, turning side ways to let him past and then shoving him hard in the back towards the window.

The glass in the window had been shot out and so nothing stopped him as he fell screaming through it and down into the courtyard. A few moments later Carmilla heard something between a thud and a squelch, like watermelons dropping from a great height.

The gallery went still and quiet. Carmilla could feel the demeanour of the remaining goons shift. One of them spoke, a harsh woman's voice cutting through the air to voice what Carmilla guessed they were all thinking.

"Ad inferno con lui, solo l'uccida e dica a Gustav che noi abbiamo processato" To hell with it, just kill her and tell Gustav we tried.

They were done playing nice.

As one, they raised their weapons and fired. She had started running down the corridor away from them before that, realizing what was about to happen. She stayed low as the bullets whizzed past, breaking yet more glass and destroying priceless pieces of art along the corridor.

Stings of pain erupted on her arms and body as ricocheting pieces of wood and stone ripped through the air around her. She couldn't stay on the corridor, that she hadn't been killed yet was already a miracle. She took the first door she could see on her left and went through it shoulder first.

The door led into a room similar to the one they had first tried to hole up in, dark and square with another open doorway at the back leading to further rooms. This one wasn't empty however, a statue of a man on a horse stood in the centre and artworks hung around the walls. With any luck the goons would pursue her in here and forget about Laura.