No Matter How Dark It May Be, There Is Redemption

I'm Doing This For You

Carmilla knelt next to Laura, unsure of what to say or do.  Laura lay there, blood seeping from the wound around the spear, looking up to Carmilla, eyes pleading for help.  Carmilla couldn’t help but look away from them, guilt weighing in her chest, her eyes resting on the weapon lodged in her girlfriend’s chest.

“I-I-I didn’t mean what I said before,” Carmilla stammered quietly, unsure of what else to say, “about you being a stupid, tiny human.”

Laura gave as much of a laugh as she could muster.  “You totally did,” she said weakly, but smugly.

Carmilla scoffed, her gaze returning to Laura’s face.  “Fine, I did.  And here you are, being a tiny, stupid human, what with your saving me and pushing me out of the way, just to get yourself––”  She choked back a sob.

“––Turned into a human kebab?” Laura finished, flashing Carmilla a smile.

Danny rushed over, dropping a small sack of weapons by Carmilla.  Her jaw dropped when she realized why the couple hadn’t joined the fray.

“Laura…” no other words could come out of Danny’s mouth, but her eyes were speaking volumes.

“Behind you!”  Laura called out, watching as Danny spun around and blocked a blow with her sword blade, before pushing her and her attacker back into the battlefield.

When she was sure Danny hadn’t been too distracted by her own current predicament, Laura turned her attention back to Carmilla.  Her breaths came in small gasps.  “You’re going to use the Pommel of Azathoth and the Blade of Hastur on lophiiformes and your mother, aren’t you?”  Carmilla nodded solemnly.  “Hmm.  I guess neither of us considered we might both die during this whole thing.  Kind of a cocky oversight on our part, huh?”

Carmilla gave a wry smile as her ears picked up that there was a vampire approaching.  She swiftly reached into the sack Danny had left, grabbing a small athame and sidestepped an attempted tackle.  She grabbed the collar of the vampire, pulled him back toward her, and jammed the business end of the athame into the back of his head, shoving him on the floor, and he died a few feet from Laura.

Laura watched the scene and then focused on what was happening behind her girlfriend.

Her father was currently splitting his efforts back and forth between two vampires, using a weapon that had a blade on end of a metal shaft, and a sharp wooden point on the other.  He was struggling, holding his own, but more vampires were approaching him.

Danny and Kirsh were working as a team, as Danny weakened vampires with heavy attacks, and then shoving them towards Kirsh while he made quick work of staking them.  Laura could see the pair was tiring, though, and definitely wouldn’t be able to last much longer.

Lafontaine and Perry weren’t doing as well as the others, having resorted to perching on a pile of some old furniture, firing arrows from crossbows while hiding.  The vampires had quickly deducted where the arrows were being fired from and were closing in on them.

“Carm,” Laura said, and Carmilla turned around, scanning and seeing the same things Laura was seeing.  “You gotta help them.”

“Because this last attempt at vampire heroics worked out so well?”  Carmilla turned back and shook her head emphatically.  “I’m not leaving you.”

“Who said anything about leaving?” she mustered as large a smile as she could.  “Just march your butt over, kill some vampires, and I’ll just, uhm, lie here and watch.”  She looked Carmilla up and down.  “Plus your butt looks great in those pants.”

“I love you,” Carmilla blurted out.  Well, no point in stopping now…  Words began rushing out.  “I love you.  I love that you’re the most stubborn dork I’ve ever met.  I love that you see people and it’s not just the way they are, but who they can be.  I love that you’re so, so human, Laura Hollis.  I love that there’s so much good in you that right now, you’re concerned about everyone else in the room, and you’ve got this goddamn goofy grin plastered on your face.  I love you.”  She shook her head again, tears flowing freely.  “And I can’t leave you.”

Laura put a hand on Carmilla’s, wincing at the movement.  “Carmilla Karnstein, I love you, too.”  A tear rolled down her cheeks, but Laura didn’t let the smile disappear.  “But remember when you told me a couple days ago to save my pouts for a life-or-death situation?”  Her forced smile changed into a pout.  The biggest pout she had ever made.  And then she blinked at Carmilla with big doe eyes and batted her eyelashes.  “Pretty please go save my friends?”

Carmilla laughed dryly, then bit her lower lip.  “But you––”

“Will be so pissed at you if one of them dies because your lazy vampire butt didn’t do what I asked.”  Laura tapped Carmilla’s hand.  Her eyelids were drooping more now, and her voice was almost a whisper.  “Any memory of you not cleaning out the shower, and of you eating my food, will be erased, if you would just do this.  For me?”

Carmilla sat there for a few seconds, listening as Laura’s heartbeat slowed down.  “Fine.  I’m doing this for you, Laura.”  She turned to the sack and emptied the weapons.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Laura rasped as she watched Carmilla slowly get up and walk away, “that’s my centuries-old bad-ass.”