Laura woke with a start to find Carmilla sitting across from the bed in a comfy-looking chair, staring at her. And though Laura hadn't been conscious, she had a feeling that Carmilla had been there for a very long time. But despite the feeling, she had to know.
"How long have you been there?"
"Long enough."
Carmilla had eyes that reminded her of a cat, the way they stared at her as if Carmilla couldn't have cared less if she'd died in her sleep. The intimidating way they almost seemed to be considering ending her life right there—very much like a cat.
"Where's... Where's my stuff?"
"Oh, your car?" Carmilla asked. "It was totaled. You won't be getting that back. As for your stuff... I managed to use my superhuman strength and pry the trunk open."
Laura felt sheepish having used the term 'superhuman,' and she could see that Carmilla was not going to let her live it down.
"Your stuff is stowed under the bed."
"Thanks," Laura managed a small smile just before the pain hit. She winced and Carmilla chuckled at her pain.
"A concussion, I presume... or just a bad head injury," Carmilla remarked, rising to her feet and going over to close the door. "Want something to kill the pain?"
Laura eyed Carmilla, who did not have anything in her hands, nor did she have anything in her pockets from what Laura could tell—Carmilla's pants were so tight, Laura would've been able to see if she had anything in them.
Laura said nothing as Carmilla advanced.
"Yes or no, cupcake?"
"I- I might pass," Laura finally answered, deciding not to trust Carmilla. Something about the girl was just giving her the creeps.
"Oh, Laura..." Carmilla crooned. "I insist."
And before Laura could dodge Carmilla, the vampire had her hands around Laura throat and began tightening her grip. Laura reached up in attempt to wrench Carmilla's hands off her neck, but it was no use. Carmilla had a steel grip.
"What- What are you doing?" Laura rasped, still clawing at Carmilla's hands.
"Killing your pain, creampuff..." Carmilla smirked sinisterly. She watched Laura's eyes begin to dull.
"Please..." Laura wheezed. "Please..."
"Killing your pain," Carmilla repeated again. "And mine."
And with that, she heard Laura's heart stop beating right in her chest, and saw the last bit of life drain from behind Laura's eyes.
"Goodbye again, Laura."
Laura woke with a start after such an awful dream and strangely found Carmilla curled up and sleeping at the foot of the bed. She lightly kicked her.
"What?" Carmilla asked, immediately awake.
"You just slept like that the whole night?"
"Night?" Carmilla chuckled. "It's four in the afternoon. You've been out for several hours."
"I've been out for thirteen hours!?" Laura asked shrilly, causing Carmilla to cringe.
"Mm, try thirty-seven," Carmilla replied.
"What!?" Laura exclaimed, still using that same shrill voice. "You let me sleep for thirty-seven hours straight!?!"
"I didn't let you," Carmilla calmly corrected her. "You just wouldn't wake up for thirty-seven hours straight."
"And you didn't do anything? Did you even call a medical professional at all?"
"Relax... I've seen humans survive much worse," Carmilla retorted. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that you'vesurvived much worse."
Carmilla's last statement was more of an inside joke with herself. It was true; some lifetimes with Laura's soul felt like a terrible Looney Tunes episode where no matter what she tried, she or Laura were not in the right place, or whatever method she tried on Laura happened to fail.
Laura had survived anything from being shoved over the cliff of a waterfall to "accidentally" falling out of a skyscraper to "mistakenly" ingesting something toxic and even to surviving minor explosions and fires. It was strange just how resilient the human body could truly be.
Laura's stomach betrayed her and gurgled loudly, attracting both of their attention.
"You hungry?" Carmilla asked, and Laura sheepishly nodded. "I've been warming food on the stove for a while."
"While we were asleep?"
"I wasn't sleeping a second ago, I was resting my eyes," Carmilla insisted as she got up to leave. Laura decided not to argue and simply followed Carmilla down the stairs. She could smell onions, egg, oil, and various herbs. The hunger pangs she'd previously been experiencing were suddenly amplified as the smell of the food hit her.
Just as they rounded a corner into the kitchen, Carmilla pulled out a chair and gestured to it before pulling a glass pan out of the oven, setting it on the stove, and dumping a mixture from a frying pan into the other pan, spreading it over the top of the glass pan's contents.
"Is there, uh... is there meat in there?" Laura asked shyly. Carmilla looked up at her and stared for a few seconds.
"There's egg. That's it."
"Egg is fine," Laura told her. Carmilla didn't respond as she scooped some of the food out of the glass pan and onto a plate. Laura eyed the plate and noticed Carmilla only had one plate out. But she didn't dare say anything more.
Carmilla returned to the table and set the plate down in front of Laura, adding a fork and glass of water before going over to the other end of the table and sitting down.
"You're not eating?" Laura couldn't help herself.
"No, I'm not very hungry at the moment."
That was a lie.
"Oh," Laura nodded, using her fork to move the food around on her plate. She could feel Carmilla's eyes on her.
"It's spätzle," Carmilla told her tersely. Laura still wasn't eating. Carmilla sighed and went over to grab a fork for herself. She mixed the food around a bit and scooped up a small bite for herself and ate it in front of Laura, who seemed to relax slightly as she seemed pleased with the display.
"Sounds German," Laura remarked, finally lifting a forkful up to her mouth. Carmilla made a mental note of Laura's distrust as Laura chewed her food thoughtfully, appreciating its flavor. Quite oppositely, Carmilla was struggling to get through even the small bite she'd taken. The flavor was overbearing for her.
"Close," Carmilla nodded once, forcing herself to swallow the food and keep a neutral face. "It's an old Austrian dish. There are, of course, German variations."
"It's very good," Laura complimented her. She saw no reaction in Carmilla's eyes.
"It emerged a little before the 1700s. This specific recipe was my family's."
She studied Laura as she ate the food. Even though she wished people could remember past lives, she knew they couldn't. Besides, she'd tried numerous times to get Laura to remember, and she never did. And she knew it was always a legitimate obliviousness because Laura might've known otherwise that this was the last meal Carmilla's family had had at the last dinner they'd eaten together. But Laura was ignorantly chewing away, unaware of the dark past associated with the dish. It was torture for Carmilla every time she ever made it smelled the food. And yet? She made it at least once a year. Rarely did she eat it, but she still liked to have it around.
Carmilla heard the fork being laid down on the plate and she realized that Laura had finished.
"Thank you," Laura told her. "It was delicious."
Carmilla still didn't react. Instead, she rose to her feet.
"Your stuff is—"
"Under my bed," Laura finished Carmilla's sentence before she realized what she was doing. Carmilla looked at her strangely.
"How did you know that?"
"I don't know..." Laura trailed off, trying to think of how she would know that. Suddenly, it came to her. "Well, I didn't know that. But I had a weird dream and that's where all my stuff was."
"Interesting," Carmilla answered flatly. Laura watched her walk over to the door. "I'm going out for a bit, and I'm taking my key. Don't get locked out."
"You're not... you're not going to take me home?"
"I thought you were running away from somewhere," Carmilla reminded her. Laura nodded as the memory came back.
"I am," Laura said. "That's right. But you don't mind me staying?"
"Guess not," Carmilla murmured as she opened the door and left. Laura watched the door swing closed behind Carmilla before she stood up and put her plate and fork in the sink. Her water glass was left untouched and still full. She hadn't taken a single sip.
And yet, Laura went immediately to searching the cabinets for a glass to use. She found it in the third cabinet she looked in and she took the glass to the sink, washed it by hand, and then filled it with tap water before eagerly downing it in just a few gulps.
She looked over at the water Carmilla had offered and went over to pick it up before carrying it over to the sink and dumping it.