"What are you reading?" Laura wondered, resting her chin on Carmilla's shoulder.
Carmilla looked up from the thick hardcover book her attention had been focused on. "Hmm? Oh, this. Los Fenómenos Extrasensoriales. I've been going through some of the books in - well, our library now - to see if I could find anything about how or why you can apparently sense me." As much as the library might belong to the two of them, now, and the more dangerous books had been isolated and locked up (just in case), she still wasn't entirely comfortable in there, yet, so she'd moved to the den. It was smaller than the living room, with only a few overstuffed chairs and a coffee table - Lilith had decided at the last minute to have it added on when the mansion had been under construction (presumably to give her 'children' somewhere to read or relax while still being social), and the living room rendered it so redundant for Carmilla and Laura that they hadn't bothered doing anything with it, yet - but it had the bonus of being nowhere near Laura's camera. (She'd been talking with June about the possibility of replacing the current surveillance devices with something that would watch out for possible threats without recording anything they might say or do. June was looking into it, but with such broad, unspecific parameters, she couldn't promise they'd be gone anytime soon. That was understandable, and she'd been assured that the footage wasn't being broadcast to anyone, so Carmilla was tolerating them as best she could. It was, at least, far less malevolent and judgemental that Lilith's surveillance of her had been.)
"Oh, yeah?" Laura moved around the chair to perch on the left arm. "How's it coming?" Her Spanish wasn't great, but in this case, the book's title sounded enough like the English translation that she probably could have guessed it anyway: Extrasensory Phenomena.
"Not very well," Carmilla admitted. "There aren't that many reasons I've found for being able to sense someone while being completely human - and I've tasted your blood enough times to know that you are - and of those, none limit themselves to just one person. If you knew when Mattie or JP were nearby, as well, I'd think you were sensitive to the presence of vampires."
"If I was, Mom would have had some explaining to do a lot sooner than she did."
"True. You've also never demonstrated any other psychic abilities that I know of."
Fortunately, the fandoms Laura enjoyed were varied enough that she knew that the word psychic included all manner of extra-sensory abilities, not just precognition. "You mean, like the way our neighbor back in the dorm could read auras? No, not that I've ever noticed." Her expression turned thoughtful. "If I got to choose, I'd probably go for something like teleportation or remote viewing, instead."
"Those might let you get in a bit less trouble," Carmilla agreed.
"Admittedly, I picked up on the weirdness of Silas even before Lophii's light was extinguished, and the dreams were more clear and persisted for longer than normal, from what you've said about the other sacrifice victims," Laura continued. "Though, this is the first time I've really been away from home, so I was taking in everything as much as I could, and Perry and LaF prove that, if someone had cause to look past or overcome the weirdness censor, they stayed clear of its influence. As for the dreams... I think that was more Elle realizing I could actually help the trapped souls than anything."
"Probably." Laura was glad to see that, while Carmilla obviously still didn't like talking about Elle, she wasn't being haunted by the memory of her, anymore.
She stood up, gently tugged the book from Carmilla's grasp, closed it, set it on the coffee table, and sat down on her lap. "Maybe we're overthinking this," she said, arms going around Carmilla's neck.
"Oh?" Carm's own hands were resting on Laura's hips.
"Maybe it's just 'cause you're my soulmate."
Carmilla was momentarily at a loss for words.
"Hey, you've read Plato," Laura continued. "Probably know plenty of Theosophy, too. You know what I'm talking about."
"I do," Carmilla allowed slowly, working to get her brain back in gear. "That's just... a bit more metaphysical than I'm used to you suggesting."
Laura thought about that, then shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure we're meant for each other."
"I never said I disagreed." She cocked her head. "So, why can't I sense you?"
"How do you know you can't?" Laura countered. "With all your regular senses cranked up to such ridiculous degrees, even if you can't see me, you can hear or even smell me coming long before I'm anywhere nearby. If there's anything extra-sensory going on, maybe you're just not noticing it through all that."
"Hmm..." That, Carmilla decided, was an intriguing suggestion. "We'll have to work out some way of testing that, then."
"Maybe expand your reading list, too." Laura leaned in for a kiss. "Later," she breathed against Carmilla's lips.
"Much later," Carmilla agreed. Their lips had just barely touched when the quiet was abruptly shattered by the ringing of Laura's phone.
Laura sat back with an annoyed huff. "Really?" she demanded of the ceiling, exasperated.
"Just hang up on whoever it is," Carmilla suggested, no happier than she was to have their moment interrupted.
Laura pulled out her phone and unlocked it, then blinked. "I forgot I even had Skype on this thing." Or Mel had, anyway. Despite Carmilla's suggestion sounding rather appealing, she hesitated, then answered the call. "Hello?"
"Laura, you need-"
"Mom?" Geez, speaking of psychic powers... Had her mom-sense been tingling, or something, letting her know her daughter was about to get busy?
"Yes. Now, Laura-"
"Are you underground?" she interrupted, squinting at the screen. "I thought the tunnels were cleared. I mean-"
"Laura." She jumped at her mother's own (far more sharp) interruption, then jumped to her feet when Rebecca turned her own phone around to display the cavern she was looking out into.
And the undead horde within it.
"Holy crap!" she blurted, shocked.
"Quite," Rebecca said dryly, turning the phone back around to face her. "I haven't quite worked out what it is that's raising them, though I suspect I can at least rule out the large... entity, in the center. It may be guarding it, though. They're still massing, at present, so we have some time, yet. I've been looking, but there doesn't seem to be any exit except for the tunnel I'm in." Which explained why she thought the giant... whatever... was meant to be a guardian for something, rather than one of the big guns, since it obviously wouldn't fit through a person-sized opening. "That the tunnel had been hidden until now tells me this could not be a mere coincidence, which means they must be able to climb fairly easily. If we act now, we can collapse the tunnel and keep them trapped. Since I didn't bring any high explosives with me, I'm going to need you to round up something suitable to the task." She provided detailed directions to the exact tunnel opening. "I believe this is the section Mister Armitage searched during our first sweep, so he should be able to find it easily enough. I'll be waiting here. They haven't seen me, yet. If they begin attempting to reach the surface, I'll slow them down as much as I can."
"Be careful," Laura said, her stomach twisting.
"I assure you, Laura, 'death by zombie' is not something I am at all curious about undertaking."
"Right." She paused. "Wait. You don't have any explosives?"
"Nothing more than small breaching charges. This is not a scenario I foresaw. Live and learn, I suppose."
That was certainly true, Laura silently agreed. But also not what she meant. "Then... What was on the Charter when Lilith and JP found it?"
"A pound of modeling clay from an art classroom, some wires I stole from someone's alarm clock, and a blinky light," Rebecca said promptly. Perfectly deadpan, she added, "The blinky light, of course, was the key to the whole thing."
Laura was still for a long moment as she digested that... then burst into outright laughter. "Oh, I like that," she choked out. "Almost wish she was still around, so I could rub her face in it." She sobered quickly enough. Raising her voice, she called, "Hey, June? We need to make something blow up. Could you find LaF or somebody, let them know?"
June, lingering near the doorway, had obviously heard the entire conversation, but merely nodded. At least they didn't need to spell out for her just how big of an explosion they needed, this way.
"After that, I have a little errand for you to run," Laura continued. "I'm gonna need you to go round up whatever forces Dad has nearby and be ready to move at a moment's notice, in case this doesn't work, and we need backup." She and her mother - and Carmilla - had discussed the matter more than once in the week or two since Laura had first decided to seek out any potential final traps left by Lilith, and they'd agreed that having a backup strategy, just in case, was only prudent. Both Rebecca and Laura also knew Patrick well enough to know that, as paranoid as he was about his daughter's safety, he'd already have the resources in place to provide them with one, whether they'd wanted him to or not.
June frowned. "I cannot simply-"
"June, please. No one else could find them, get to them quickly enough, and have the authorization to get them moving in time," Laura interrupted. She knew June had orders not to leave her unguarded - indeed, Laura's safety and wellbeing was her primary concern - and that she couldn't simply ignore them. Laura just had to make her understand that she wouldn't be. "If Plan A works out, I won't be in any danger at all. If it doesn't, we'll need some heavy artillery to handle the threat. I'm asking you to go get it. The sooner you get going, the sooner you'll be back, so you should head out soon."
June still hesitated, looking more conflicted than Laura had ever seen her. "Please be careful until I return," she finally requested. "I have no purpose without you."
"I will, I promise," Laura replied, touched. She ignored the odd look on Carmilla's face. June hesitated for another moment, then nodded once, turned and left. Shifting her gaze to her phone, Laura added, "You be careful, too."
"Believe me, Laura, I'm not going to try and pick a fight with the zombie horde. I never even liked watching any of the movies; I certainly have no desire to be in one." With that, she hung up.
Laura put her phone back in her pocket. "Okay, gotta think," she said, running her hands through her hair. "June's taking care of the explosives, so we don't need to worry about that. Um... We should probably round up the rest of the gang, fill them in on what's happening. Should we sound the alarms now, or would that just cause a panic? I mean, Plan A could work just fine. Also, if the horde does get out, I have no idea where the other exit or exits might be. She could have arranged for them to come up through the dorms, for all I know."
"Laura." Carmilla gripped her shoulders, snapping her focus back to outside her head. "One step at a time, okay? We'll round up the Scooby Gang, then work out our next move. If Graduation really was her target, we actually have a couple of days, yet. We can handle this."
"Right. You're right." Laura took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Sorry. I'm just so used to ending up dealing with the big threat at the last possible minute, I kinda forgot what it was like to have time to think things through, first." Getting that time had actually been the whole point of the search in the first place.
"That's okay. I know thinking things through isn't your strong suit."
"Oh, very funny."
It was hard to say at what point their living room had become their planning area/war room. It did give them a little more room to move than their old dorm room had, at least, but Laura had to admit, she was a little surprised that Silas didn't have a more appropriate location. The former Dean, evidently, had taken care of most of her problems before they'd gotten bad enough to need one... which she didn't really want to think about.
Still, at least this let her record the meeting.
Filling everyone in on what they knew didn't take long. In a refreshing bit of good news, it turned out that, while Rebecca hadn't brought any high explosives with her, Corvae had. (They'd actually been meant for Mattie's plan to collapse the campus on top of Lophii and bury her alive. When she'd been ousted from the Board and the plan scrapped, the explosives had simply been set aside and mostly forgotten about.) June had simply helped herself to their stockpile, prepared sufficient quantities for JP to transport, then departed to secure hopefully unneeded reinforcements. JP, naturally, wasted no time heading down into the tunnels as quickly but safely as he could.
"Zombies," Danny remarked, shaking her head. She was pacing back and forth behind the couch, which Laura, Carmilla, and Mattie were sitting on. LaF and Kirsch were sitting near the computer, while Perry was lurking off to the side of the room, looking quietly miserable. "Maybe it was silly of me, but I honestly thought I might get through my time at Silas without taking on a bunch of rejects from The Walking Dead."
"Tell me about it," Laura agreed. She looked over at Carmilla and Mattie, their resident experts in most things supernatural. "If they get loose, what do we need to know to deal with them?"
"That depends on exactly which type we're talking about," Carmilla replied with a shrug.
"There's more than one?" she asked, shoulders sinking. Nothing was ever simple, was it?
"Remember our discussion on why former Board members couldn't get their jobs back?" At Laura's nod, Carmilla continued, "That's one: a dead body, reanimated through sorcery, to do someone's bidding. It's closely related to the second type, the Voodoo zombie, but those are technically still alive. They've just had their brains fried with some kind of neurotoxin."
"Really?" LaFontaine asked, wheels almost visibly turning in their head.
"I think any experiments with that are going to have to wait until your senior year," Laura told them.
"Oh, of course. I just-"
"Then there's the kind you're probably used to thinking of," Carmilla interrupted, getting them back on topic. "The ones infected with a virus. It wasn't until the dawn of the 20th Century that anyone even realized they were a separate breed. They're the 'don't let them bite you' kind."
"Sounds like a bloodborne pathogen," LaF mused.
"Something like that. Given that some of the ones we're dealing with are just skeletons, however, it isn't likely we're dealing with any of those. That leaves the most annoying kind: the necromantic zombies."
"That sounds sort of like the first kind," Laura pointed out.
"Oh, you wish. Sorcery typically just focuses on one zombie, and the point of those is for people not to realize they're dead. They're also easy enough to neutralize or destroy, once you've identified one. The necromantic kind, on the other hand...? You can shoot them in the head, or even blow it off, and they'll keep coming. Chop them into pieces, and the pieces will keep coming. If you're really unlucky, they'll even start putting themselves back together. Fire, being a purifying force, is one of the only ways to take them down."
"The last time there was a sizeable gathering of that kind of zombie was in 1871, in the United States," Mattie added. "Specifically, in Chicago, Illinois."
Laura's jaw dropped. "Wait, are you saying...?"
"In all the chaos and confusion, who'd notice any extra remains?" Mattie offered an elegant shrug. "As far as I know, the ones who were already dead before the fire weren't counted in the final death toll."
"Great. Well, let's try to avoid that strategy, shall we?"
"Our best approach would probably to cut off the source," Carmilla told her.
"Which is probably what the big whatsit is there to guard?"
"Probably."
"Joy."
"So, what is it, then?" Danny asked, not slowing down in her pacing. "Those gates she was trying to open? I thought we stopped her. Did she get one open anyway?"
"No."
The answer, surprisingly, had come from Perry. She'd been speaking quietly enough that the humans in the room barely heard her at all. "What?" LaFontaine asked, frowning.
"No," Perry repeated, louder. Not looking even the slightest bit happier than she had before, she reluctantly moved forward to stand near the couch. "But we're meant to think she did."
"What do you mean?" Laura wondered.
"Um... Well, you know I've been talking to the people at mental health services," Perry began. "I don't really... remember a lot about what the Dean had me doing. I mean, I'm okay with not knowing specifics about the kids at the Voice - seeing the aftermath was bad enough - but the rest..." She looked at Laura. "Even if it wasn't anything good, not knowing is infinitely worse."
"Because then your imagination takes over, and you can't stop it." She, at least, had had her camera running the whole time the Dean had possessed her, so she knew exactly what she had and hadn't been made to do. (Not that knowing that had stopped the nightmares where things had been worse.) Lilith had been inside Perry for months.
"Exactly. So, we've been seeing if they could help me remember anything - anything aside from what I was seeing in my dreams, anyway. It doesn't seem like she got up to anything more nefarious than quietly retaking the reins at Corvae, at least, which is good. There were also some times when neither of us was entirely in charge. So... So, between all that, there are some... things, that I remember. Things she probably didn't want me knowing. This... is a failsafe. If everything else she tried was thwarted, this would still ensure she got what she wanted. I don't... think she expected banishment. We shouldn't have been able to do that."
"Guess she wasn't as smart as she thought she was, then. I take it she set this off before coming for me in the hospital?"
"I... think so?" Perry shrugged, biting her lip. "I didn't really remember anything about this until you started describing what your Mom found, but... I think it should have taken longer than it did for the horde to be as big as it is. A lot longer. I don't..." She shook her head.
"Okay," Carmilla said slowly, knowing better than to stress Perry out further by demanding answers, "but why did she want us to think a gate had opened?"
"She wanted... S-she wanted..."
"What?" Mattie's voice wasn't kind or gentle, but it wasn't harsh or irritated, either. She was simply speaking normally - in a bizarre way, Perry seemed to almost appreciate it. "What did she want?"
"She wanted... the Great Beast dead and the gates opening. She wanted the reign of hell on earth. The end of all things. The first gate, though... It wants strength." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "It wants the Rook."
Mattie started. "What?"
"The first gate wants the Rook," Perry repeated, louder. She started shaking. "You can't... You can't go down there. You can't!" Tears began slipping down her cheeks. "Please! You don't know what... I-I-I..."
"Hey," Mattie said softly, standing up and gripping her arms. "Easy. I'm not the Board Chair anymore, remember?"
"That doesn't matter!" Perry insisted, frantically meeting her eyes as she tried to make Mattie understand. "That never mattered! The Charter's power, your necklace... They were just to make you so convinced of your own immortality that you'd go down toward the gate, or where the giant could get a hold of you! That's why she had you be the one to take care of the sale to Corvae, to get you back here."
"I think she means that, if someone was going to go down there and try to force an open gate closed, it wouldn't be her," Laura broke in.
"Quite," Mattie agreed. "But since we know one isn't, there's no reason for either of us to go down there." Perry was still shaking, but seemed to be calming down. Without warning, she launched herself at Mattie, knocking them both backward onto the couch, with only Carmilla's quick reaction in steadying her sister keeping them upright. "...and now there's hugging. Why is there hugging?"
"...I don't even know," Perry admitted. Still, even when she let go, she stayed cuddled up next to Mattie, who wasn't pushing her away.
Those who didn't know the two were sleeping together were rather confused. Danny shot a look at Laura, who hesitated, then waved her hands in front of her, indicating she was staying out of this.
"Can't say I like the thought of something down there just continually reanimating corpses, though," LaF said, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Even if we can trap them down there, we might wanna figure out what's causing it and shut it off, at some point."
"Well, if we can trap them, we'll have plenty of time to work something out," Laura decided. "If not... Well, if all else fails, we've still got a crapton of bombs." She sighed. "In the meantime, we should probably have contingencies set up to deal with any zombies that might escape while we're doing that. I hate to ask, Perry, but do you have any idea where they might come out other than the tunnel?"
"Um..." She closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. "I think... Maybe the little grove across from the crater on the North Quad? There's... something about it, anyway."
"Okay." That at least gave them a place to start. "Danny, Kirsch, as discreetly as you can manage, start getting people as far away from that grove as possible. I don't want to panic people for potentially no reason - actually, I don't want to panic people at all. If they start panicking, they're more likely to get themselves hurt, or killed."
"We've been drilling for this sort of thing, Laura," Danny reminded her. "It'll be okay."
"I know, I know. Still, I don't want people thinking this is anything like the end of last semester, with the big brawl. This isn't an enemy they can fight, and you know some people wouldn't believe that until it was too late. Sound the alarm the second it looks like containment has failed, but not before."
"This late in the year, with classes over, nobody's really out in the Quad, anyway," LaF offered.
"We can have the security people cordon off the grove, just in case," Carmilla suggested.
"Works for me," Danny decided. "C'mon, Kirsch, we've got some people to move." The two headed out.
"And what are the rest of us doing?" LaFontaine asked. "I mean, if this is one of those things that the Charter can't do anything about, and the weapons we have can't stop..."
"Well, the Charter might not let me shut off whatever's causing it, but if I couldn't do anything against the zombies themselves..." She turned to Mattie. "You'd never have gone down into the cavern if you couldn't even affect the zombies, would you?"
"Of course not. That would have been both foolish and pointless. I'd have been more inclined to follow my original plan and collapse the campus on top of it."
"Oh, that reminds me!" Laura said, attention instantly diverted. "We should check with the protesters, see what - if anything - Lophii knows about what's going on, and if she can do anything to help." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "If she can, maybe we could plant a few strategic charges around the hole, to let her get back down to where she was. If she can shut off whatever the source of the problem is, I'd be more than happy to let her."
"I'll get right on that," LaF decided, hopping to their feet. "Perr, you gonna be okay?"
Perry smiled wanly. "Eventually, yes. Thank you. I just..."
"Need to cook something?" Mattie suggested. She stood up, bringing Perry with her. "Come on, I'll escort you home. You'll be safe there, whichever way this goes."
"Yeah, that might... Yeah."
Laura waited until the three had left, then turned to Carmilla. "'Escort you home'?" she repeated, quietly enough that even Mattie wouldn't hear it, her eyes dancing.
"Yeah, I caught that, too," Carmilla noted, amused. Her merriment didn't last long, though. "Now, what's bothering you?"
Laura raised an eyebrow. "What, you mean aside from the potential zombie apocalypse?"
"Sort of. When Perry was talking about the size of the horde, you reacted."
"You weren't even looking at me," Laura said, giving her an odd look.
"I know. And you controlled yourself well. But I've never needed to be looking right at you to know when something's bothering you."
"So, maybe I'm not the only one picking up on vibes?"
"Huh. Maybe. In any event, I know you. She said something you didn't like."
"I was just thinking... If it should have taken a lot longer - like, maybe months longer - maybe it was sparked off by someone else... crossing a line, with some kind of quasi-necromancy?"
Carmilla took in a slow, deep breath. "That's... possible. Lilith wouldn't have anticipated that any more than we did, but she would have happily taken advantage of it. On the other hand, if it had taken months longer before anything happened, to the point of being sometime in the next school year, we never would have seen it coming, let alone been ready to counter it."
"I guess that's true. Still... Let's not tell LaF. I mean, there's no reason to, and it is just a theory. If we can't prove it, there's no reason to make them feel guilty about something they never could have predicted was even possible."
"Works for me. So, what are we going to do?"
Laura shrugged. "Go wait near the North Quad? Close enough to see what's happening and send up the alarm if we need to, but far enough that I won't have lied to June?" She shuddered. "Charter or not, I don't really wanna have to fight zombies. They're just... gross."
"Cupcake, you have a gift for understatement."
Author's Note: After much (much, much, much) consideration, I've finally settled on an actress for Rebecca: Camilla Luddington. So, yes, Laura's mother is basically an even more badass version of Lara Croft. I think we can all agree that works. ;)