The Banshee's Cry

Chapter 1

College. It's a big step in life. Laura basically just ate cookies and slept the 8-hour drive to Silas University. It's creepy that it reminds her of vampires. LaF, her best friend, had just been re-reading the Twilight books for the whole trip. She's never been into Twilight, always more of a Harry Potter fan. Her Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff. Yeah, shocker. The main reason she didn't get into Twilight, was that she always hated vampires. She just hates them. It doesn't help that LaF is always swooning over Edward.

She just stepped into the huge campus, when some douche in a cheap Dracula costume pretended to bite her. Thankfully, before she could faint, LaF clocked him with a prop fish. She glared at the offender. Well, fuck. She forgot it was Halloween. She mentally kicks herself for forgetting that. She hates Halloween. It's just a bunch of dimwits dressing up for free candy. She heard a "sorry little hottie" and motioned with her hands that it's fine.

Just as she was recovering from the shock of plastic fangs on her neck, a sleek, matte black Corvette slides in front of the gate. She expected some weird rich guy to come out, but what she saw was way better. Dark hair to match equally dark eyes, black leather pants paired with combat boots. Black t-shirt with a leather jacket, and a confident smirk topped off with scarlet lips. She walked in her direction, and her jaw dropped when she saw her jawline.

"Hey cutie, do you know where I can find the help desk?" asked the mysterious girl. There was an expression on her face that Laura couldn't quite place.

"Um, I-I'm new..." She stutters. She nervously taps the wall with her small fingers.

"Me too, buttercup. I just drove here from Ontario. What's your name?" The raven-haired beauty asks.

"Oh, uh, I'm Mackenzie Wiley," She drawls, getting lost in her dark eyes, "What about you?"

"I'm Carmilla Karnestein, sweetheart." she says in a light husky tone. She gestures towards LaF, "Who's the Walmart version of Ron Weasley over here?"

Just as Mack was about to answer, the redhead in question walks towards them, holding a soda. "Who's the emo punk?" LaF sneered.

"Who's talking, ginger nerd?" Carmilla shot back with a scowl.

"LaFontaine. LGBTQ+ activist, bio major, dedicated Twilighter, and Laura is the mac to my cheese," They replied.

"How cheesy. I'm Carmilla, philosophy major, and I totally hate garlic and especially Twilight," she said, which resulted in an exaggerated gasp from LaF and a "How can you hate Twilight?!".

"Because," she rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue, "Edward Cullen is basically a human shaped sack of glitter and hair gel. Vampires don't sparkle," enunciating the last word for dramatic effect. Laura was laughing like a maniac upon hearing this, "See! I told ya LaF, it's so stupid!"

"Yeah, yeah. You both just don't have taste." They stick their tongue out and walk away, sipping the now stale soda, as indicated by the grimace they sported mid-step.

"So, she seems nice," Carmilla quips, sarcasm dripping in her raspy voice.

"They," Laura corrects her.

"Oh?" Carmilla asks, visibly confused.

"Yeah, LaF identifies as non-binary, which is basically an umbrella term for people who don't fit into the gender binary or norms, like they aren't masculine or feminine... just somewhere in between the whole spectrum. So, the pronouns are they or them!" Laura explains.

"Damn, okay. People are slowly becoming so open-minded. God, you have no idea how exhilarating it is to watch the world change in front of your eyes over the years." Carmilla says with a look of wonder in her eyes, and Laura cant help but look inside them, and to her, it feels like they've seen so much chaos and beauty.

"Anyway, Shall we?" Carmilla interrupts her thinking, looking towards the main hall. Laura hums in response, and they walk towards the main hall. Everything was decked out in Halloween decorations, vampires everywhere. Even the university mascot is a vampire. They asked a bunny for directions and she told them that the help desk was in the giant, white, old-looking building, just ahead.

Just as they're about to enter, LaF runs up to them, and says "Wait up!" They pat Laura on the shoulder and they go in together. The person sitting on the desk smiled and waved them over. "Hi, I'm J.P. Are you guys new?" He said with a thick British accent.

"Hello! Yes, we just got here, can we check in or whatever you call it?" said Laura. After all the formalities, She and Carmilla were put in the same dorm, LaF was with some girl called Lola Perry. They walk back to their dorm, and plop down on their beds. 

College was going to be an adventure.