Darkness.

The Void.

An infinite limbo.

Carmilla looked all around herself, mist and blackness trying to swallow her up. Her limbs felt as if they had lead poured into them. Her throat was dry and she was starving; her eyes were still damp from the tears she had shed in the final battle.

But she felt at peace. It was too peaceful to be real. She knew that she could stay there if she wanted to, no more "Mother", no more being a minion, no more pain...

No more Laura...

"Mircalla...Mircalla, is that you?"

For a split-second, she thought her heart could start beating again any moment. The sound of that sweet voice she hadn't heard in almost century and a half had her senses on full attention. If she could just see her one more time...

"Elle! Where are you? Elle, please..."

"Turn around, sunshine."

Carmilla did as asked and clenched her hands into fists as she faced her long-lost love. The young provincial girl with the small mole on her face and hair that made her want to bury herself into it. She smiled at her as if nothing had ever gone between them, no horrible separation; as though they had only seen each other not so long ago. Alas, the vampire couldn't help but smile back.

"You know I hated that name, cupcake."

"It was the only name I ever called you..."

"I go by Carmilla now. Has a better ring to it, don't you think so?"

Elle giggled into her hand and stepped forward, taking her old lover's hands into her own. "You did wonderful." She inspected her up and down. "Not a single scratch on you, I can see."

"Did I?" Carmilla inspected herself and smirked. "Harming myself in a battle like that would not have been as embarrassing as getting caught by a group of imbeciles." She smiled at the disapproving look she got from Elle.

"Imbeciles? Is that how you call those girls who you helped? If I was to give them a name, I would call them by what they are: brave. As well as you."

Carmilla raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Brave? How so?"

Elle wouldn't stop smiling. "You stood up to that Mother of yours. Mircalla...I had been trying to save those poor girls from her wicked ritual for decades". A small tremble in those lips."...and as well as you, I failed time and time again. But you finally knew it was time to end with her."

Carmilla couldn't understand I thing Elle was talking about. All that talk about standing up against Mother and being brave for once and for all sounded too familiar to her. Vampires were not the heroes in the story, they were the bad guys. No one would believe or hope in someone like her to save the day. It was as though she was talking to...

"That girl."

Carmilla got thrown out of her train of thought. "Who?"

"You know well who I am talking about, Calla. That girl you did all these for: Laura".

For the first time in her undead life, Carmilla thought her face was as red as she felt it. The lack of blood on her cheeks was not what made Elle laugh, but the way Carmilla had just hunched over herself did.

"She's a nice girl...she'll be alright now."

"Will she, sunshine?"

There was no pushing in her voice, how could it if she was one of the sweetest people she had met in her existence. "Yes. She won't have to deal with vampires and supernatural things anymore." She looked down at her hands, still intertwined with Elle's, and sniffed.

"Sunshine...you must go back to her."

"What?" She snapped her head up and saw the sadness in Elle's eyes, but also a spark of understanding. "Elle...we can be together now."

Elle shook her head and giggled softly. "Sunshine...you have to go on without me".

Carmilla could feel the adrenaline starting to pump through her body as she braced herself for the worst. "No, no, no, Elle...I can't lose you."

"And Laura cannot bear the same as you. I know you love her and that that flame inside of you will not stop growing for her. I was once the maid your unbeating heart belonged to. But someone else has stolen it now. Farewell, Mircalla. May our paths cross again in another life."

Carmilla tried her best to get a grip on Elle's wrists as she started to disappear in front of her. Hands going through her pale flesh as if they were nothing but air.

"I will live for you, Elle. I promise!"

"Live not for me, but for your own sunshine."

Carmilla chocked back a sob and squinted her eyes. "What does that mean?"

Elle's smile was only a ghost and a thin line now. "You were the brightest light in my life, I believe she is yours now."

"Oh, you were always a helpless romantic, Elle."

"Aren't we all?"

"-dead! Don't be dead!"

Laura?

Carmilla let the scarlet liquid run down her throat as she recovered consciousness. Her hunger was satisfied, at least for a while, as she tried to make out where she was. Her hands touched something soft as she took a seat. A bed perhaps. Her vision finally settled and she saw Danny, Perry and Laura, all looking at her as if she had returned from the dead.

Have I? Not so much of a surprise now.

A pair of arms wrapped her in a clumsy hug and she couldn't help but smile lightly. She could feel Laura's hair trying to get into her face and took a deep breath of it before she pulled away.

"Hey."

Good riddance, she's here. I'm here. With her.

"Hey."

Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the door closing. She could feel herself standing up and getting too close to Laura. Her tiny talkative roommate had her heart pounding a hundred miles per hour as she leaned in. And then lips were touching and sparks were flying.

The gentle rubbing stopped and the vampire smiled with such a smitten face that the small girl couldn't help but giggle. The undead girl had never felt so alive in her three centuries of life. She kissed her love one more time before buring her face in that hair of hers.

She's my sunshine, alright.