Disclaimer: Carmilla the web series was created by Jordan Hall and Ellen Simpson, and is based on the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Hellboy was created by Mike Mignola. This odd little blending of the two, however, was created by me. Here's hoping it works...
The news, as far as Carmilla was concerned, was both good and bad. It was disappointing that Mattie wouldn't be actively helping them... but, if she was being honest with herself, she hadn't really expected that to happen. She'd known Mother would have had some method of keeping Mattie under control, though she hadn't expected this one. (In retrospect, she probably should have, as it was the easiest and most obvious method of reining Mattie in.)
However, not only had she gotten to reconnect with her sister (which would have made the trip worth it to her all by itself), they'd also gained valuable intelligence on the situation. "There's just one thing I don't understand," she said to Mattie before she left.
"One thing?" Hellboy echoed dryly.
"Why are you the Mayor?" she continued, ignoring him. "Even setting aside how much you don't care for politics, why would Mother want you here? This job technically gives you power over her, and people will eventually notice you're not aging."
"Technicalities aren't worth much, in this case," Mattie replied, lips thinned with annoyance that was obviously directed at their Mother. "With the abilities she's grown over the millennia, as well as magical knowledge she's picked up, she can use my necklace to do more than just threaten to kill me. You can only make that threat so many times before it starts losing effectiveness, after all. Inflicting pain extends that time considerably. Also, I suspect my distaste for politics is precisely why I was given this job. Besides, one of us had to be Mayor - she'd never allow the highest local authority to not be under her direct control - and I'm one of the only ones who look old enough. We switch off now and then. I have another decade left before I get to stand down, I think."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Carmilla promised. She gave her sister another quick hug, then she and her teammates left the office, heading back toward the exit.
"Well, that was... somewhat less than productive," Abe decided once they were outside.
"Somewhat, maybe," Carmilla allowed. "Though given Mother's skill at chess, that's not a surprise. Still, it wasn't a wasted visit. We've confirmed the number of victims so far, learned more about how deeply Mother's tendrils of control go in this town, discovered that Mother does believe I'm dead, and we even got some info about Laura's roommate. I'm sure there are others, but Bree and Will are the only two of my 'siblings' on campus that we know about, and he seems to be more involved in the actual abductions, so we might want to focus more on him." She smirked at Hellboy. "You might want to suggest that to Mister Thorne; I know he's your favorite member of our team, so I'm sure you'll want to be the one to talk to him."
He gave her the Look that statement deserved, and she fought down a grin. "And where are you going to be?" He knew her well enough to have picked up on the signs of her restlessness, even if she'd been trying to hide them, so he wasn't surprised that she didn't seem to plan on heading back with them.
She didn't bother wasting their time by denying it. "I'm gonna go for a walk, take in the town. Further establish my cover as 'Carmen the tourist'. Not that there seems to be much to see, but what can you do?" Besides, the longer she stayed in their company, the more attention she was likely to attract, and they all knew it.
She wasn't going to head to Silas. Sneaking a visit with Mattie was one thing, but trying that would make it almost certain that Mother would find out about her. Like she'd told Hellboy and Abe (more than once, over the years), Mother was very good at chess. They had a chance to actually catch her off guard, for once, and she was not going to waste it.
But, she decided as she walked off down the sidewalk, that didn't mean she couldn't do anything to learn more about what was going on. Hollis had tweeted earlier that morning about how she really did need to go grocery shopping, if only to stock up on food to offer guests that was actually food. A quick check on her phone showed that Hollis- that Laura had just headed out on her shopping trip about five or six minutes ago. There were only so many grocery stores in Trofaiach, and since Laura was on foot, Carmilla could guess which one she was going to be at. If she hurried, she could catch her before she was done.
(And if she planned on talking to her, she knew she really had to try and make sure she remembered to use the girl's first name. Judging by her videos, while some of her friends seemed to prefer their last names be used, Laura wasn't one of them.)
Trofaiach was a nice enough town, she supposed. At least, on the surface; she hadn't exactly forgotten that Mother was pulling the strings. Though, given how little regard Mother held for humans, chances were she didn't care what they did as long as it didn't interfere with any of her interests, so the rest of the town might actually be as quaint as it seemed.
There were modern elements all over, as there were most everywhere that wasn't some kind of historical site, these days. It could be a little depressing, if she really thought about it, but she could hardly blame people for wanting to keep up with the times. Progress happened for a reason, after all, and just trying to ignore it would be silly. (It also helped keep her grounded, remembering when and where she was, as well as why she was there.)
Laura, apparently unable to stay away from social media for longer than a few minutes at a time (when not in class), had sent a few more tweets as she shopped, even soliciting Perry's opinion on what constituted "appropriate" drinks and snacks for guests. (Perry, it seemed, was the go to person when it came to food or manners in the dorm. Part of her job as 'Floor Don'? Carmilla had no idea.) Perry had responded with a flood of tweets full of suggestions, advising Laura to pick and choose based on who she expected to come over most. Not terribly subtly, she then mentioned a few items that she'd seen Danny eating now and again.
Carmilla took a few shortcuts, taking a moment to be glad that she'd not only had occasion to exchange some money into local currency, but had also studied a map of the town during the flight. The directions provided by her phone were well and good, but not quite as helpful when one was walking.
She winced slightly at the glare of the fluorescent lighting, and was briefly tempted to pull out her sunglasses. She grabbed one of the red plastic baskets and began scanning the aisles. The store was a bit bigger than she might have expected, though a moment's thought told her that was due to the proximity of Silas; no doubt most of the students shopped there. (Idly, she wondered if the vampires in town - those not at Silas, anyway, such as Mattie - could pick up prepackaged blood there, too.) She occasionally grabbed an item or two - it would have looked suspicious if she left without buying anything, but the houses kitchens' were already stocked, so there was no point in wasting her money in filling up a cart with food. It had been a while since she'd had any German chocolate, though, so she could hardly resist.
As she'd kind of suspected, she found Laura in the snack food aisle.
She didn't approach her right away. Instead, she walked past her, studying the various bags of chips. (Laura was looking at the snack cakes, likely torn between her natural desire to fill her cart with them and Perry's list of far healthier alternatives.) After a few moments, she paused, then turned to look carefully at Laura, as if she'd only just registered what she'd seen. She took a few steps closer, maintaining her scrutiny, then asked, "Wait, are you... Laura Hollis?"
Laura started, clearly not having seen her. "Um, yes." She didn't seem to know how to react to being recognized, so at least she wasn't automatically assuming it was a good thing. "I'm... sorry, do I know you?"
"Not for lack of effort on my part, Cutie," she replied with a sly half-smile.
The nickname finally clued her in. "Oh! Carmen?"
"In the flesh. Though I can hardly blame you for wondering if I was some thirty-something loser living in his Mom's basement." Or unholy creature of the night, out for her blood.
"I didn't think... that... exactly." Whether what she'd imagined was better or worse was unknown. Laura shook her head. "Well, it's nice to meet you, though you probably could have picked a better time to visit our little town."
"Yeah, I've been keeping up with your videos." Carmilla carefully affected an attitude of unconcern. "The BPRD's on the scene, now, right? I'm sure they'll have things under control soon enough."
"I hope so." Laura, not knowing Hellboy and the others as well as she did, wasn't entirely convinced. Carmilla supposed that was fair. "I just hope the girls will still be alive when they find them."
Carmilla didn't want to admit it, but that was a legitimate worry. She had no idea what happened to the girls when her Mother took them. It was entirely possible they were dead already. She had to cling to the belief that, if this was a sacrifice, they'd all be sacrificed at the same time, and there still wasn't a fifth. "Me, too, Cupcake. From what I've heard, though, if the BPRD can't protect those girls, you can be damn well sure that they'll avenge them." If Laura was as big of a nerd as she came across as in her videos...
Sure enough, a smile stole across her face, and she couldn't quite suppress a quiet squeal of happiness. "Point taken," she said, trying her best to at least pretend to be dignified. "Why come here, though? I mean, I live here. You could have gone around, stopped by some town where girls aren't being mysteriously abducted by forces unknown."
"Could've," Carmilla agreed with a (deliberately calculated) careless shrug. She didn't like how easily her old training came back to her, or needing to use it on Laura, but until the girl stopped broadcasting everything related to the investigation for all to see, she didn't dare reveal who she really was. (She had contemplated taking Laura aside and explaining, giving her contact info for the BPRD for anything she might learn under the condition she not broadcast anything they didn't want her to. Somehow, though, she just knew Laura would never go for that. She wanted to be a reporter, not a secret agent.) "What can I say? This was just too interesting to pass up. Besides, I seem to recall saying if I swung through town I'd take you out for hot chocolate." Her voice took on a flirtatious tone that wasn't entirely feigned - not that she'd ever admit it - as she added, "And I never break a promise that involves... chocolate."
Laura looked momentarily flustered. (It probably would have been worse if Carmilla had been in her usual leather pants, but since Liz didn't wear those, neither could she, today. The black T-shirt and camo pants seemed to be affecting Laura plenty, now that she was looking.) "That's a wise policy," she said, rallying. "I can't today - I have a class in about an hour, which should give me just enough time to finish here and get my groceries put away - but if you're gonna be in town for a while, I'll absolutely take a rain check on that."
"Don't really have anywhere else to be for a while," Carmilla said with a shrug. "Let me see your phone; I'll give you my number."
Somewhat hesitant, Laura fished her phone out of her pocket. (Remembering her second video, Carmilla was careful not to seem to judge her on it; she knew all-too-well what it was like to have a overly controlling parent.) Carmilla plucked it out of her hands, quickly adding her (fake) name and number. She quickly sent a text to herself from it, so that she'd be able to recognize Laura's number, should she actually call or text herself. (She wasn't about to just take it for granted that she would, given what she knew Laura and Danny were getting up to when the camera wasn't running.) "Well, when you find a time that works for you, let me know where you want to meet," she said, placing Laura's phone back in her pocket... and lingering right next to her, her hand on Laura's hip. "I'm sure you know exactly where to go for hot chocolate," she added, maintaining a steady eye contact.
Laura froze. For a long moment, they simply stood there, staring at each other. "I, uh... Well, I-I know some places, yeah," Laura finally managed, seeming to reboot her brain. "And what are you going to be getting up to between then and now?"
"Hm." She smiled. She stepped back, which seemed to help significantly with Laura's ability to process information. "Well, I have to keep some of my secrets. Otherwise, I'll lose my air of mystery, won't I?" She turned and headed off down the aisle.
Her smile widened when she heard, behind her, "Was that...? Were you just flir...?"
She decided she'd leave that part out of her report to Kate, later.
It was funny, Laura mused. As much as she might not appreciate people just barging into her room like they lived there, being there by herself was just weird, somehow. And maybe that was partly because she was missing Danny. She understood why Danny hadn't been able to stop by - it had started with cleaning up (only metaphorically, thank goodness) after the whole 'mobile compost heap' incident, then spiraled into other Summer-related business - but that didn't mean she didn't want to see her...
Actually, what were they? Could she call Danny her girlfriend? She wanted to, but usually when they were together (and not making out), they were working on the whole missing girls thing, and asking about their relationship status in the middle of that didn't really seem appropriate.
After Carmen's flirtations, though, she really needed to know. If only so she could be completely truthful when she said she had a girlfriend to try and discourage any further such comments.
(Though, she had to admit, having someone who looked like that be interested in her hardly hurt her ego.)
In the meantime, she was recording another video. She didn't exactly have a lot of new information, but she also didn't really have anything else to be doing (for once, she was all caught up on her classwork), and making the videos had become something of a habit. "Good evening. Danny had to hit an emergency Summer Society meeting, so it's just me today. 'But Laura', you might be saying. 'Isn't the BPRD on the case, now? Why are you still making videos at all?' And you would be right, gentle viewer, but since they're not exactly keeping me in the loop as to what they do and don't know, I wouldn't exactly have any way of getting information to them otherwise. Besides, I still have a Journalism project to complete, and I'm not about to let all of you down after you offered to help sort out the weirdness that is Silas."
She tapped out a few commands on her keyboard, pulling up some of the pictures she and Danny had painstakingly looked through. "Now, I don't think anyone was near all of the girls at every party - which says that not only are we dealing with someone who's smart enough not to be that obvious, we're likely dealing with multiple kidnappers. Because, clearly, one wasn't enough. The only person we managed to find in more than one place he shouldn't be was Kirsch's 'bro', Will. If he is a vampire... Well, having seen a little of what Bree can do, confronting him seems like an amazingly bad idea. Not that I wouldn't pay real money to see him try his luck with Hellboy." She had no idea how fast or strong Hellboy really was, but somehow, she just couldn't see a punk like Will getting the better of him. "As things stand now..." She trailed off as she became aware of a noise in the background, faint but growing. It sounded almost like... chanting?
"What the...?" She hadn't wished for anything to happen so that she'd have something exciting to talk about in her video. She'd been careful about that. What good was it to not tempt fate if that sort of thing just happened anyway?
Before she could wonder too much about it, Danny burst through her door, then hurriedly shut and locked it behind her. "Are you okay? Did they try to get in?" she asked breathlessly.
"Who are 'they'?" Laura countered, confused. Hadn't Danny been busy with Summer Society-related matters?
"The Zetas," Danny replied, walking closer and sitting down on the edge of Laura's bed. "They were trying to walk the women's swim team home from the gym, but then one of the girls called us for help. But then someone shoved someone, and now it's turned into this big turf war over who'll protect the gym or the track or who knows what else! I didn't know if it had made it this far; I had to know if you were okay."
Laura was touched. A little surprised, maybe, since that was a little more intense than she was used to from Danny, but touched. (She was also a little worried about the whole turf war thing that Danny seemed to be trying to gloss over.) "Oh, wow. That's..." She frowned, her mind finally registering something, and leaned closer. "Why are you wearing warpaint?"
Danny looked at her like that was the odd question to be asking, but a rapid series of knocks on the door kept her from having to answer it. "Hey, little nerd! Laura! Are you in there?"
Oh, perfect. This was all she needed. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she grumbled, getting up and heading for the door.
"Laura? Laura!" Danny was immediately on her feet. "What are you doing?!"
"It's only Kirsch," she said as she unlocked the door. (She made a mental note to lock it more often, though, now that she knew for a fact that the lock actually worked.) Really, if there was anyone in Zeta Omega Mu that she knew wasn't a threat... "We're fine," she told him as she opened the door.
"I was really worried about you, because-" That was all he got to say, because then Danny grabbed him by the ear, dragging him into the room and tossing him at Laura's bed. "Whoa! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
"Danny, what the hell?!" Laura exclaimed, aghast. She shut the door mostly by reflex, though she was pretty sure no one who saw a Summer and Zeta fighting would be terribly surprised. She was, but only because of Danny's unprovoked assault on a clearly harmless Kirsch.
"Come on, why are the hotties in this room always trying to hurt me?!" he demanded.
"Karma?" Danny suggested.
"Uncool, Summer Psycho. Not Mark of Kingsbury rules."
Danny looked tempted to smack him, but, possibly remembering Laura's reaction from before, refrained. "Okay, first of all, it's Marquess of Queensbury, and secondly, that's boxing, dumbass." She shook her head, then turned to Laura. "I can't believe you let him in here. For all you know, he was trying to take this dorm for the Zetas!"
"Hey, we're just trying to protect hot people," Kirsch objected.
"The only threat to the girls in this dorm are you and your fratdaddy frats," Danny told him heatedly.
Yeeeaaaahhh... This wasn't going to end well, Laura could sense it. "Okay, maybe we should just..."
"That is unfair, okay?" Kirsch said, ignoring her as he stood up. "'Cause I'm here out of the, like, bro-ness of my heart, alright? I'm not even trying to hook up, 'cause I got a girlfriend, alright? So why is everyone so pissed at us because we're trying to keep the campus safe?"
"Because safe for you goons does not mean safe for everyone else!" Danny immediately shot back.
Really, she would have hoped that Danny at least would listen to her. "Okay, no, no, seriously..."
"If you weren't such a hottie, you'd be in big, big trouble."
Danny pushed Kirsch onto the bed and adopted a fighting stance. "Bring it, popped collar."
Okay, that was it. "Enough, already!" Laura burst out, startling the two of them so much she had to wonder if they'd forgotten she was even there. "Stop. This. Now! Look, I get it, okay? You both wanna protect the campus. You don't seem to realize, though, that right now, what we need protecting from is you!"
Danny looked at her in shock. "Laura..."
"No! You've both had your say, now it's my turn to talk!" She shook her head, disgusted. "You're worried he's here to 'take this dorm'? Well, as a resident of the dorm in question, let me assure you that we can't be taken by anyone on either side," Laura snapped. "Do you guys just view the rest of us as things to fight over, or something? 'We get to protect the swim team!' 'No way, they're ours! We saw them first!' Nevermind what we have to say about all this!"
Kirsch shifted uncomfortably. "Um..."
"So, great protectors that you are, has it even occurred to you that while you're duking it out, nobody is actually out there protecting anybody at all?! Because the actually useful thing to do might be to skip the smackdown in the middle of my bedroom and go talk some sense into the idiots setting fire to security carts over who gets to protect people!"
There was a moment of stunned silence.
"I knew from the first day of English Lit that you were smart," Kirsch declared. To Danny, he added, "She is so smart."
"Yes, she is," Danny agreed, making that the first time a Summer and Zeta had agreed on anything that Laura knew about.
Kirsch, sadly, didn't seem to know when not to press his luck. "And a hottie," he continued. "That's-"
"Aaaaand it's time for you to go, now," Danny decided, shoving him toward - and then out - the door. She paused before leaving. "Laura, are you sure you're gonna be alright by yourself? I know you don't see him as a threat, but where you find Kirsch, Will usually isn't that far away. And if Bree's out for the evening..."
"I'll be fine," Laura promised her. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll even leave the camera on, just in case he tries anything sneaky - though I doubt he really cares what I think about him. Honestly, I think I should be more worried about you right now, turf war and all."
Danny waved off her concerns. "Ah, it's mostly just paintballs and anchovies. I'll talk 'em down."
Laura stepped closer. "Still... Be careful?"
"For you? Absolutely." Danny leaned down and gave her a kiss that made her tingle all over, then left, shutting the door tightly behind her.
Not even caring about the camera, Laura allowed herself a dreamy sigh, leaning against the door with a goofy smile on her face.
Riots aside, this was shaping up to be a pretty good night.