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...
Author's Note: So, yeah. As it turns out, my job situation is affecting my writing. Fortunately, this story - aka the Carmilla fic I'm writing right now that people actually care about - hasn't been delayed, yet. Hopefully, it'll stay that way.
Also, I am constantly amazed at how well these universes blend together with minimal tweaking at most.
"Please stop fiddling with that."
Laura (mostly) buried a guilty wince and let go of her new bracelet, dropping her hands back down to her sides. "Sorry. Just... trying to get used to it." Not only was she not accustomed to wearing jewelry, this particular piece was actually warmer than her own skin, and at times she could almost swear she felt it vibrating. Whenever she focused on it, though, it was completely still.
"I understand that," Bree replied. "I would simply prefer that you not call attention to it if you don't have to."
The two were walking back to their dorm - or Laura was heading there, anyway. When Bree had a late morning class like she had today, she didn't typically come back until noon or later. Laura wasn't sure where she went, though for all she knew Bree was in some kind of prayer group, or something. (She really should learn more about what Bree's studies entailed, she decided. Until Bree decided to start opening up about herself more, research was the only way she'd be able to advance her goal of getting to know her roommate better.) Today, however, despite her class getting out a good fifteen minutes or so before Laura's, she'd been waiting in the lobby of the General Class building, clearly intending on escorting Laura back to their room. Whether she was going to stick around after that or not, Laura didn't know. "It is okay that you gave me this, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's very old, and one of a kind. Anyone who recognizes it for what it is might want to take it for themselves." Bree paused. "It would also be more accurate to say that I'm loaning it to you. Once the dreams have stopped, for whatever reason, I'm going to have to return it."
"Fair enough." It wasn't like she'd need it after that. "Who did you borrow this thing from, anyway?"
Bree hesitated - just for a second, but it was enough to catch Laura's attention - then admitted, "My mother."
Laura blinked. "She must live pretty close to the college," she observed, because Bree hadn't been gone very long at all when she'd gone to get the bracelet. "Do you two not get along? Back when we were talking about what would happen when Betty was found, you didn't give the impression that moving back home was something you'd even consider doing." She paused, realized something, then added, "And when you say mother...?" Bree had never said how long ago she'd been changed into a vampire, so it was possible she was talking about her real mother... but for some reason, Laura couldn't help but doubt that.
"I am talking about the one who changed me, yes," Bree confirmed. "And she doesn't really care how I feel about her as long as I do what I'm told."
"And what might that be?" a new voice asked. The caffeine must have been wearing off, Laura thought - which was probably why Bree had been waiting for her, to make sure she got back to their room in one piece - because she'd somehow missed Hellboy walking up to them.
Bree didn't even flinch in surprise. She, clearly, had seen him and his friends. Abe, Laura recognized. The young woman with them...? No. She privately resolved to do more research into the more well-known BPRD field agents later. "Oh, hey, there you are," Laura said before Bree could answer... though odds were good that she hadn't been going to. As Bree herself had said, everyone was hiding something, and while she might not lie, she also did not seem to like talking about her past. "I was hoping to run into you guys today." Particularly while she was still awake enough to take in what was going on. "Oh, Bree, this is Hellboy, Abe, and, um..."
"Liz Sherman," the woman in question said, briefly shaking Laura's hand. She seemed nice enough otherwise, so Laura didn't get the feeling that Liz's evident reluctance to touch her was due to having anything against Laura. Maybe she just wasn't a touchy-feely kind of person? "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. So, what can I do for you?" Because they'd clearly come looking for her; if they'd wanted to talk to Bree, they would have had plenty of time to catch up to her while Laura was still in class.
"Since we were already on campus, we wanted to check up on you," Abe told her. She wasn't entirely sure she was reading his face correctly - his features were alien enough that she suspected it would take a while to learn how to interpret his expressions properly - but she thought she detected concern for her there.
"If you're talking about my latest video, I'm doing okay right now," she told him. "Thank you, though."
"You could still probably use a nap before your next class, though," Bree said. "If you keep relying on caffeine, you'll be vibrating by the end of the day."
Laura laughed. "Yeah, maybe."
"You didn't seem all that excited at the prospect of more sleep last night," Hellboy commented with a deceptively casual air. "What changed?"
Laura paused, then looked inquisitively at Bree, who, after a thoughtful pause of her own, shrugged. 'If you want', her expression said. "Bree got me something to block out the dreams," Laura said, holding up her left wrist to display the bracelet.
"Did she?" Hellboy's face remained impassive. "In all the recorded instances of vampires giving humans gifts - particularly jewelry - not a single one of them has lead to anything remotely good."
Laura frowned, not liking his tone. "She called it the Charm of Maugris," she said, lowering her arm.
That got a reaction. Hellboy's eyes widened in surprised recognition. "The... Huh. That would be..."
"Overkill?" Bree finished for him. She shrugged. "Maybe so. But it was the only thing I could find that would do what Laura needed it to."
"You've heard of that thing?" Liz asked Hellboy quietly.
"The Professor mentioned it when he was telling me about one of his first missions, back in 'Thirty-Nine. He lost it in Transylvania while dealing with Erzsebet Ondrushko."
"Ugh, her," Bree said, rolling her eyes.
"You knew her?" he asked coolly. Laura didn't like that tone, either, but she supposed Bree having access to something that professor he'd mentioned - Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, she suspected, given what little she knew about the BPRD - had supposedly lost while taking care of a hostile vampire (she presumed) was a good reason for it.
"I knew of her," Bree corrected. "Most of us did. She was a vain, arrogant monster who attracted far too much attention to herself." To Laura, she explained, "Erzsebet Ondrushko was, in life, a Hungarian Countess obsessed with keeping herself young and beautiful. She murdered over six hundred young girls and bathed in their blood, believing it would keep her young forever. Naturally, it didn't. So she then sold her soul to Hecate, the so-called Queen of Witches, who turned her into an odd variation of a vampire, to serve as Hecate's High Priestess. She eventually settled in a castle in Transylvania near a village where she abducted and murdered young girls as she did in life." She paused, then admitted, "I honestly have no idea if what Hecate had done to her required her to bath in anyone's blood in addition to drinking it, though I suspect she would have done so either way. Too bad for her that Hecate being a goddess of darkness meant that, unlike the rest of us, she actually could be killed by sunlight."
"Uh..." Laura honestly wasn't sure what to say to that story. If that sort of thing was where most of Hellboy's experiences with vampires came from, it was little wonder he didn't trust Bree. She knew Bree wasn't anything like that, though. "So, she might even be the reason people think sunlight's deadly to you?"
"Maybe." Bree shrugged. "Her ego would probably enjoy that. The rest of us already have enough reason to dislike her, given how much attention she drew to us over the centuries." She turned to Hellboy, looking pensive. "I trust your Professor is well?" she asked politely.
"He's fine, thanks." If anything, Hellboy's attitude became even more guarded.
"Good." She paused, then casually added, "Tell me, did he ever manage to locate that manuscript about the Servants of the Left Hand? Given their worship of Hecate, it would make sense that Erzsebet would have a copy of it."
Hellboy froze. "How do you...? Wait. That blonde girl he mentioned was you?"
"I told you, Erzsebet was drawing far too much attention. When we discovered a concentrated effort to exterminate her was in the works, it was decided to provide discreet assistance to ensure that the group was successful. Though I believe that, had the others listened to Professor Broom, it would not have been needed."
Laura, who'd been looking from one to the other as she listened to the conversation, was struck by something. "Broom? Wait, it's pronounced...? Oh. Well, easier for me," she muttered to herself. Better to be sure she knew exactly how to pronounce Professor Bruttenholm's name, should she wind up mentioning him at some point in one of her videos.
Hellboy didn't seem to know how to react to what he'd been told. After a moment of awkward silence, Laura spoke up. "So... What have you guys been up to today? Or is that one of those things you won't tell me so that I can't mention it in one of my videos?" And maybe there was a tiny bit of annoyance in her voice during that last part. So what?
If nothing else, her questions helped Hellboy find his mental footing again. "Aside from asking questions, we also wound up clearing out the basement of the Shunned House."
"You killed the cecaelia?" Bree asked.
"The what?" Laura interrupted.
"Think non-Disneyfied version of Ursula from 'The Little Mermaid'," Bree told her. She looked expectantly at Hellboy, waiting for an answer.
"Yeah, we did. It didn't leave us much choice."
"I'm not surprised. She was such a pain in the neck." She paused, then added, "Literally. She injected people with her toxin at the base of their necks, which, if the toxin doesn't work on you, hurt immensely."
"How did a sea creature wind up in the basement of a building hundreds of kilometers away from the ocean?" Laura asked.
"You'd have to ask the Oannes Club about that," Bree replied with a shrug. "I don't know much about them, myself. Inez wasn't exactly much for conversation, but she blamed them for... well, everything."
"You talked to her?"
"Some of us checked on her from time to time, made sure she was behaving herself. I don't think the Dean liked her being down there, but since she wasn't really doing anything, she just ignored her, for the most part. I doubt she'll be terribly upset that you got rid of her, though," she said to Hellboy.
"I'll try and contain my glee," he deadpanned. "And this Oannes Club?"
"Like I said, I don't know much about them. The Oannes Club, or Society, or whatever they feel like calling themselves these days, operate out of Milgram Lab in the Bio Labs building."
"Is that room one-oh-eight?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Probably?" She shrugged again. "I'm not the one to ask about that."
"We'll make that our next stop, then. Unless there are any other basements that we should check out first?"
"I wouldn't know. The Dean doesn't like any of us, living or undead, wandering into places we're not supposed to be." This was said with a warning look at Laura, who'd been thinking about taking a look around some of those basements herself, now that she knew she might find something there.
"Okay, okay, I'll keep that in mind," Laura assured her. Which wasn't to say that she wouldn't risk it anyway, should she decide the result might be worth it.
"Glad to hear it," Liz interjected. "In the meantime, here." She drew a small piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Laura. "If you learn anything you think we should know, you can reach me there," she said, referring to the phone number scrawled neatly on it. "If you could check with us before broadcasting anything you might discover relating to the missing girls, that would be very helpful."
"I think I can do that." Laura wasted no time in taking out her own phone and programming the number into it. "Just you?" Liz seemed nice enough, but she also hadn't been with Hellboy and Abe during their first visit, so Laura wasn't sure she could count on her being near them all the time in the future, either.
"HB tends to break delicate electronics, and they have yet to invent a waterproof cellphone, so I'm kind of the only one left." Liz looked more amused than upset, so Laura hoped that meant that the other woman understood her reasoning, and that it wasn't anything against Liz herself.
"You're never gonna let that iPod go, are you?" Hellboy asked, sounding vaguely amused himself.
"I still haven't gotten that replacement you promised me."
"You will."
"Then that's when I'll get over it."
"Great," Bree interjected. "In the meantime, you-" She gently poked Laura's shoulder. "-should go lay down before you fall asleep on your feet."
How Bree had been able to tell she was swallowing a yawn, Laura wasn't sure. It sounded like a great idea to her, though, so she didn't argue. "Good luck," she told Hellboy and his friends once she was sure she'd be able to speak clearly, then headed off with Bree back toward Crowley Hall.
She hoped Bree would stick around. If the charm did everything she said it would, and let her sleep without fear of those horrible dreams coming back, she might end up sleeping for a week without someone to wake her up.
While Bree hadn't been able to stick around - her next class had been two hours before Laura had asked to be woken up - she had gotten Perry to take over for her. Being woken up by her Floor Don's gentle yet persistent efforts was a new experience, and it had left Laura confused for a while, until she woke up enough to get her brain working at full speed again.
When Laura worried that she'd made Perry miss any of her classes, Perry assured her that her next class wasn't until evening that day. "That's why Danny's not here instead of me, I think," she added, quiet amusement lurking in her eyes.
"Danny would have just let me sleep, nevermind any classes I might have," Laura disagreed. "Believe me, her texts this morning after she saw my latest video made that perfectly clear."
"Make sure to get a good night's sleep tonight, and she'll probably relax about it," Perry suggested.
"That's the plan," Laura confirmed. "And... thanks, Perry. I know sitting around my room and waiting until it was time to wake me up couldn't have been terribly interesting." She was pretty sure that sort of thing went beyond a Floor Don's typical duties.
"I didn't mind," Perry insisted, smiling. "You needed the sleep, and it gave me plenty of quiet time to think about things."
"What things? Oh, and have you heard from LaF lately? I think Hellboy and the others were heading down to the Bio Labs building after I saw them."
"Just... things. Everything that's... going on." Perry seemed to find a spot on her wall fascinating as she said that. Laura paused in the middle of making sure she had everything she needed for her next class to look closely at her. "And that room they wanted to look at was locked up tight. Unless they wanted to break down the door - and they don't have cause to do that - they're going to have to wait until they find someone with a key."
"Maybe LaF knows someone?" Laura suggested. "She's down there all the time, right?"
"They," Perry corrected quietly.
"Huh?"
"LaFontaine recently came out as non-binary. That's why they don't use their first name, anymore."
"Oh." Laura winced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"You didn't know," Perry interrupted. "Sh- They don't exactly go around announcing it. But you sometimes mention... them... in your videos, so they should have at least said something to you."
"You two have known each other for a while?" Something was a little off, Laura was noticing, whenever Perry talked about LaF - something more than just pronoun trouble. Usually it was barely noticeable, but her recent contemplations seemed to have guard somewhat.
"We've been best friends since we were five," Perry confirmed, a fond smile on her face.
Which explained why she might be having trouble adjusting her thought processes to LaF's revelation. Still, though, there was something... "Just friends?" she asked lightly, watching her closely.
Perry twitched, smile becoming brittle. "Yes." She paused, her smile softening. "I wouldn't give up that friendship for anything."
"But you want to be more, don't you?" Laura asked gently. When Perry hesitated, she added, "I won't tell anyone, if you don't want me to. Not even Danny."
"...yes, I do..." The words were barely a whisper, and Perry bowed her head as she spoke. "They just don't... see me, like that."
Laura pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "Have you ever asked...?"
"No. I... I can't. I told you, I couldn't bear losing her - their - friendship. I need them in my life, even... like this."
"How do you...?"
"...I love them... so much..."
Laura hugged her tighter, having no idea how else to respond to the pain in her voice. "Well, P-" She broke off. "What is your first name, anyway?"
"Lola." The word was murmured against her neck.
"Oh, that's pretty. Um, do you prefer to be called by your first or last name? You've never said, and I don't want to just assume."
"Either's fine, really." Perry took a deep breath, then let go of her and sat up straight. "Speaking of Danny...?"
"What about her?"
"What exactly is happening between you two? If you don't mind my asking."
"No, fair is fair." She'd poked her nose into Perry's love life, after all. It was only fair to let Perry do the same to her. "And... I don't know. I'd like to be able to call her my girlfriend, but given, well, everything, there hasn't exactly been a good time to raise the subject. But hopefully, with the BPRD taking care of things on campus, that'll change."
"I hope so."
There wasn't much else to be said. Laura decided she had just enough time before she had to get going to have something to eat, and Perry proceeded to demonstrate that she could probably be teaching her cooking classes, if she felt like it. She had, at least, bought enough real food when grocery shopping the other day to earn Perry's approval. Cooking seemed to recenter Perry, and by the time she left to go back to her own room, no one who spoke with her would be able to tell she'd been perilously close to heartbroken tears just a short time ago. Maybe she was right. Maybe being LaFontaine's friend was enough for her.
And maybe, Laura thought to herself, the next time she saw LaF, she could discreetly try and find out if there was any chance their feelings for Perry might be in any way romantic. For Perry's sake, she hoped there was.
Everyone deserved a chance at real, serious love.