The Time Traveler's Wife

The Picture Perfect Day At the Park

November 2021

The house is empty, and it's evident that it hasn't been lived in for months. The front door's lock clicks open and Perry pops her head in. She frowns in disgust.

"It's filthy in here."

"Per, there hasn't been anyone living here since like, New Year's."

Perry steps into the house. "I know, LaFontaine, I know. I guess just... knowing Carmilla, I thought it'd be cleaner in here with no one living here anymore."

It was an exaggeration but, to be fair, Perry was doing most of the cleaning even when someone was living here.

"It's not like Carm's been around ever since the whole thing with Laura," Mattie chimes in from behind them.

"Tsk, Mattie, be a little understanding," Perry chides. "Would you stick around after that?"

Mattie crosses her arms and narrows her eyes in a glare. "I wouldn't be in that situation, because I would never allow myself to get so sentimental."

LaF sighs. "I'm pretty used to this house without Carm. But the house without Laura? Man, it's rough."

Mattie sits down with a sigh. "Yeah, I know. I'm going to miss her annoying chattering."

"Well, we can at least be good friends to Carmilla in her absence. Let's clean the house for... whenever.." Perry quickly walks off to get a vacuum cleaner and other cleaning supplies.

The thing that's been touched most frequently are the books on the bookshelf.

Mattie rolls her eyes. "Definitely not doing anything so trashy." She sits on the couch and picks up whatever's on the seat next to her to move it so she can have more sitting room. The letters on the front catches her eye, scribbled in crayon and faded from a couple decades. But the album itself is newer, and familiar to Mattie.

"Laura & Carm."

She opens the photo album and smiles at a bunch of pictures she had never seen before of Laura and her friends celebrating a birthday party, captioned, "Danny's birthday, 1997." And someone else in the background.

In fact, quite a bunch of "someone elses" catch her eye.

There's an adult Carmilla. Next to an adult Laura.

With another adult Laura watching.

And another adult Carmilla, unaware of all of their presences.

But the Laura with Carmilla aren't looking at the little kids celebrating Danny's birthday in 1997. No, their focus is on another kid.

~*~

May 1997

"Whoa," Laura says as she gets her bearings.

"This is starting to become the most well-traveled attic," Carmilla comments from beside her.

Laura looks around the attic and her eyes widen as she takes it all in. "This is before my mom died," she comments, noting that none of her mom's clothes are up here.

Carmilla nods gravely, having already wandered around the house while waiting for Laura to appear. "May 1997."

"Wait! Oh my god! We have to get dressed and get to the park!" Laura squeals excitedly, grabbing the clothes Carmilla must've gotten from Laura's mother's room while waiting for her.

A few weeks after Carmilla had returned to find Laura could time travel in April 2020, LaFontaine had found a way to begin altering Carmilla's treatment so maybe she could also target where and when she travels to.