CHAPTER 21

THE RE-THINK

A/N For those of you who have guessed where I am going with the story well done you:)

For those of you who are still just enjoying the angst just as much as me then yay you!

I am sorry there has not been more regular updates but with work being hell and having next to no free time at the moment it has been hard to do 3 stories and update as much as I would like to. I do have holiday time coming up soon so I will use some of that time to try and do a couple of chapters. Once again thank you all for showing this story the love. Please leave a review or PM me any comments are welcome.

Being in that dingy black room had given Laura time to think, time to assess everything, time to forgive even. All she wanted was her old life back. She wanted to be that carefree big hearted girl she was before Carmilla came into her life. She wanted to be the girl who crushed big style on her TA Danny, not the Vampire lover she had become.

"Oi Hollis!" Laura's head jerked to the front of the class, she saw Danny looking at her with a small smile playing on her lips.

"Erm yeah?" Answered the student.

"Now you're back in the room can you tell me more about how Jane Austin made her stories so unbelievably boring?" Joked the TA to see what reaction she would get from the girl she had taken an instant liking to.

"I don't think they are boring at all, they are idealistic in the way that Ms. Austin would like to see love happen in her own world. Instead she writes it down because she cannot find this deep and meaningful connection."

Danny looked taken aback. She hadn't expected this kind of response.

"Hollis come see me when class has finished and we can discuss it some more." Danny smiled at Laura.

Laura was a bag of nerves by the end of the class. She had been running through the exchange in her head for the last hour and couldn't figure out why Danny would want to speak to her. She hated being the one to speak out in class. Even though she loved to talk, give her a camera and an empty room and she was in her element.

Laura could hear Danny breathing close to her in the darkness, she smiled at the redhead even though she knew that she couldn't see her. No matter what had happened she knew that Danny was her friend and that none of what happened was her fault. It wasn't Carmilla's either. Carmilla wanted to let her keep her best friend rather than let her die, and what had happened with feelings and everything was just a cost of the circumstances.

She still wished that things had been different. What if Carmilla hadn't come to Silas all those years ago, what if she and Danny had got together instead, what if LaF and Betty and Elsie and Natalie had been eaten by the giant angler fish instead, what would her world be like now?

Laura let her eyes close, she hadn't slept in days, she only wanted a few minutes of peace a little bit of time to collect herself, she always could think better after a good sleep.

Laura jolted awake and she was back in her apartment. It was the same but different. All the Gothic decorations had gone and they had been replaced with medals and trophies and certificates all over the walls. She got up off the sofa and made her way into the bright kitchen that used to be dark, bright colours everywhere. What had happened why had everything changed.

"Babe are you awake?" She recognised the voice but couldn't place it.

"Erm yeah I'm awake." She replied confusion burring her mind.

"Well I will be out in a minute, then you can grab a shower before we go to your awards ceremony OK?" The voice was soft but commanding. Danny's voice!

"Yeah sure, why do we have to go again?" Laura asked.

"Well you silly sausage you got the journalist of the year award remember for your coverage of the Battle of Silas 15 years on."

Laura couldn't believe what was happening everything she had ever wanted and she would have had it with Danny. She knew it wasn't real. She knew she was still kind of with Carmilla but she could enjoy this dream while it was happening, maybe there would be something that could make her see clearer and understand all the crap that was going on and why Carmilla's mother had come back from the dead dead person world and decided that she wanted to finish what she started all those years ago.

She let her mind take her back, back to when she was at Silas trying to piece together everything, why she had been chosen by the dean, why Carmilla had fallen in love with her and saved her, why they broke up a few months after getting together, why when she thought about it they had never really got back together officially, they had quite literally fell into bed and never left it so to speak.

It's funny how everything had happened it was like it was preplanned when you took the time to think about it, except the falling in love part, that was something that couldn't be planned no matter how much you might want it to.

Laura's mind went back to when they broke up, it was when her sister Mattie had come back to Silas, they were squatting in the Dean's apartment on campus because they couldn't stay in the dorm. Everything had been perfect Laura had got the girl well vampire. They were in their own little bubble loved up and oblivious to everything almost. Then the newspaper thing happened and Laura had wanted to do her Veronica Mars impersonation and solve the mystery and avenge what had happened. Then Mattie had turned up. She had said that the den was dead, so how could she be alive now? How is it that someone who has been dead twice can now be alive for the third time. Laura wasn't convinced it was the Dean that was doing this stuff, and the way Carmilla had been after the Dean had died she would not be here now if she was still alive. It would be Carmilla who was dead.

'Clear your head Laura!' she said to herself not sure if it was real or her imagination saying it.

"Focus on what is happening the answer is there somewhere!" Came the little voice.

Laura was trying to focus on events over the past 19 years see if there was any pattern or consistency but she couldn't see anything. Then it hit her. It was to do with how people acted around the Dean towards the ceremony at Silas. How it was like they were almost hypnotised, but why weren't they like that now? Why were they left as they were? Was it the Vampires that were being hypnotised to do the leaders bidding.

Laura's eyes shot open "I need to get the fuck out of here!" She almost shouted into the darkness.

"Yeah well when you find a way let us know!" Snorted Danny.

"Hey I am not the one who betrayed my best friend, so I think I have the monopoly on being angry not you!"

"Hey Laura how many times do I have to apologise to you? It was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened but how long are you going to hate me for something that I didn't instigate in the first place!"

"It's not about apologising it's about morals. You didn't stop it, you knew it would hurt me yet you carried on doing it. You betrayed me in the worst possible way, forget the time you tried to force yourself onto me, I got that and I maybe played a part in that, but to sleep with my girlfriend for what 6 month, a year longer? Now that is low!"

"I think you should be saying this to Carmilla not me! I am just someone she was helping but she was the one who instigated the sex not me!"

"Hey guys, I think you need to calm down else you will get everyone in here killed" Betty whispered loudly into the darkness.

"Laura, keep quiet, I am working on something but I need time to think, I can maybe get us all out but just let me think?" LaF said calmly.

"LaF we don't have the time!" Laura said the fear evident in her voice.

"We have a few days I think, so just chill yeah. I know you love being hardcore and all that but just chill OK." They said.

"How the hell can you stay so calm LaF?" Danny asked them.

"It's not about staying calm because I am freaking the shit out. I want to get out of here and I may have a way to but I need to think."

"Hey LaF what was all that reanimation stuff you said to Carmilla earlier?" Laura asked them.

"It's nothing, just a stupid idea I had that wont amount to anything." They replied

"Hmmmmmmmm." Was the response they got.

They all went quiet when they heard footsteps heading towards the door and a long shaft of light spill into the room as the door was opened.

"LaF it's time..." This was a voice they didn't recognise.

"LaF got up on wobbly legs and staggered into the light. It took them a while to adjust to the brightness of the corridor before they could look around, and taking a sharp breathe in they finally spoke.

"Oh my God, Jeep is that you?"

"Shhh yes it is LaF. I had to change bodies."

"Please tell me this is all a dream?" They asked.

"No LaF it is not a dream, but I am here under cover hence the new body. Carmilla asked me to take you to the hospital, she is there waiting for you."

"Oh Shit." was all Laf could say before Jeep lead her to the waiting car outside.