Chapter 5
Contrary to the day before, Carmilla slowly woke up to the warm and relaxed feeling of a good night's sleep. Slightly shifting to get more comfortable, she felt a weight laying on her chest. She lifted her head to get a closer look and saw a small blob of black fur. Only her enhanced eyes were able to identify it as Sabrina, since her room was nearly pitch black. She never again wanted to live through the pain and discomfort, that the sunlight had brought. So she had, after getting home last night, covered her windows with thick blankets. Seeing not even the smallest hint of sunlight in her room, ensured her that it was the right idea.
Her constant shifting had apparently disturbed the kitten on her chest, and it opened its yellow eyes to look at her and let out a mewling cry, making its displeasure about being woken known.
"I'm sorry little one." Cooed Carmilla, lifting her hands to scratch behind Sabrina's ears.
Seemingly accepting the apology, the small ball of fur pushed its head up, leaning into the scratches. Carmilla pulled the kitten closer to her chest and was happy to see it melt into her, purring under her attention. She was amazed at how quickly the kitten had gotten over its fear of her and accepted her.
She spent a few minutes just petting Sabrina before she decided to get up and greet the day. Carefully, ignoring the complaining meow, she placed Sabrina on the bed, and went over to her drawer to put on some clothes.
Slowly opening the door, she checked the hallway and relaxed after she didn't see any sunlight. Thankfully, Karla remembered her new situation and didn't open the shutters this morning, like she used to do.
She walked down the hall to the living room when Sabrina shot past her.
"What's gotten you in such a hurry?" Carmilla called after her. "You were complaining about me getting up and now look at you."
"She probably realized how hungry she was and smelled the food I put aside for her." Came Karla's answer from one side of the living room.
She sat on the couch, with the Tv on the wall showing a random cape-show Carmilla couldn't be bothered to remember. Hearing Carmilla call out, had her turn around slightly and watch as Sabrina shot into the living room, straight for the cat food she went out to buy this morning.
Watching Carmilla enter shortly after, had her go from joking to concerned in a heartbeat. The minute Carmilla had entered the living room she went stock still and she fixed Karla with a crimson-eyed stare that sent goosebumps up her arms.
Where the day before the red eyes quickly went away and had Carmilla return to normal, now they stayed for what felt like an eternity and Karla could see her friend visibly fight for control. The predatory stare kept Karla routed to her seat, not daring to move in case it would trigger the predator in the room.
Karla saw in the corner of her eyes, that even Sabrina had realized the danger and so the kitten cowered in the corner, food completely forgotten.
After what felt like forever, but was actually around twenty seconds, Carmilla managed to take back control. Her eyes turned back to green, and her muscles slowly loosened up until she just slumped against the wall, making sure to only breathe through the mouth.
"Guess Sabrina isn't the only one that is hungry, eh?" Karla weakly joked, trying to hide her fear with humor.
"It's more like a burning thirst than a hunger but yeah." Carmilla answered, appreciating Karla's attempt at lightening the mood, even if it was a weak one.
"It looked like it was a lot harder to keep control than the previous ones." Karla said, scooping up Sabrina that had slunk over after the tension left the room.
"It was." Carmilla said softly, not looking at her friend. "I was even expecting it, but the strength of it completely blindsided me. It was like a lump of burning coal was stuck in my throat and I knew I could simply make it go away by attacking you."
"Does it still feel this way?" Karla asked concerned.
"I can still feel a slight burning but it's not even close to the same intensity, and I think I could ignore it after a while. If it doesn't get worse that is." Carmilla answered, moving from her position at the wall. She walked closer into the living room and sat down on the chair furthest away from Karla, not wanting to initiate another bloodthirst.
"And what are the chance of that, huh?" Karla snorted. "It will probably get worse, to the point where it feels like burning coals even if you didn't smell any blood. We need to figure out a way for you to get blood as soon as possible. As much as I like you, I don't want to die just because you wanted a taste of me."
"But what can we do?" Carmilla said, she also didn't want to hurt Karla. How close to attacking she had come before, scared her more than she wanted to show to Karla. "We have ruled any easy solution I can think of. The only thing I could see working, is getting enough money to buy a supply of blood bags. And even that is going to get more difficult when someone realizes that they are going missing."
"You could go out and find yourself some Gang members." Karla proposed, agreeing with Carmilla on the difficulties connected to the blood bags.
"That will probably get me in trouble even quicker than the blood bags." Carmilla said, surprised by her herself for being more concerned about the consequences than the actual killing part. Not really in the mood for a moral crisis, she continued. "Not only would I have the authorities after me, the same as with the blood bags, but I would also have to watch out for any capes looking for their missing people. You can say a lot about the gangs, but they are organized and members going missing would alert them quickly."
"You could kill most of those as well." Karla said, making her disdain for the villains clear.
"Until I come across one that I can't defeat." Carmilla countered. "For example, Hookwolf. How would I even go about defeating him."
"Okay, so that wasn't the best idea then." Karla acquiesced. After that admission, it was silent between them for a while. Both thinking of other ways, the silence only broken by Sabrina's purrs in response to Karla petting her.
After a while Karla said. "What about volunteers?"
"Volunteers?" Carmilla repeated confused. "How does that work? I don't think there are many people out there, that would volunteer to be killed."
"Only, you don't have to kill." Karla countered. "You said, you could stop drinking from the blood bag, so you could just take blood from people, as if they went to donate."
"But we don't know if that will work." Carmilla said, not really sold on the idea. "I don't want to stand over some person I just killed and go "Ups", sorry I thought I could stop in between. So, who's next? Also, what would I even offer those people in return for their blood? It would come back to the same problem as with the blood bags, we don't really have the money for it."
"Obviously, we would have to try it first." Karla said, not seeing the problems as insurmountable as her friend. "And you could just offer them a service in return for the blood."
"I'm not going to sell my body just to get enough nourishment." Carmilla said, only belatedly realizing what she said.
"What's wrong with selling one's body for food?" Karla said with a blank look.
"Nothing's wrong with it." Carmilla clarified quickly. "You know I'm not judging you for your work, it just simply isn't for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have taken the crappy job at the bar. I would have just joined you."
"I know." Karla said, now smirking. "I'm just messing with you a bit. Yes, we have problems in front of us, but you need to relax a bit and not worry so much about everything."
"Easy for you to say." Carmilla crossed her arms and pouted. "You don't suddenly have your diet changed to only blood, as well as an acute sun allergy on steroids."
"I also didn't become a knock-off version of Alexandria overnight, so I think it even things out. Besides I have enough problems on my own to worry." Karla said, before clarifying her previous sentence. "I also didn't mean sexual services with my previous statement. I know you don't do that. What I meant was different kinds of services. You're a cape now. You have services you can now offer to someone for a bit of blood. Lots of people are looking for capes to do a job. You could be like Faultline and be a mercenary or you could offer protection from the gangs."
"You think so?" Carmilla said skeptically. "I'm not that strong and I don't have a team like Faultline. And there is still the problem with not killing them when I drink their blood."
"We could test it." Karla said, standing up.
"What? Now?" Answered Carmilla confused. "How?"
"Sure, unless you got a better idea." Karla answered easily, sounding more confident than she actually felt. "It's like you said, you can't just ask someone to volunteer, if you don't know whether or not you're gonna kill them. And finding a gang member to try it out on could go wrong quickly and change the outcome when he fights back while feeding. Neither of that is going to be a problem with me."
"Are you crazy?" Carmilla said shocked, not really believing what she just heard. "What if drinking from a person is different than from a blood bag? I'm also thirstier than yesterday, so that will likely make it more difficult to stop as well. I could kill you."
"Doubtful." Karla countered. "You have a lot more incentive to stop with me, than you had with the blood bag. You also have more time to stop, since I can lose more than just a bag full before it becomes dangerous."
"I'm really not sure about this Karla." Carmilla hedged. "I appreciate you trying so hard to help me, but this goes too far. What if I drink too much? I would never forgive myself, if I hurt or scion forbid kill you."
"I have an idea." Karla said, trying to get her friend to go along with the idea. "What if we had some kind of fail-safe? A way for me to get you to stop if it gets too much?"
"I guess." Carmilla hedged, not seeing where Karla was going with this. "How would we do that?"
"We could open one of the shutters, and then have me stand in the sunlight, with only my arm sticking out of the light. That way, I could just yank it back if it gets too much. I mean, as long as you think the discomfort of the sun is strong enough to snap you out of your frenzy."
"Oh, definitely." Carmilla agreed quickly, shuddering at the memory of the sun on her changed body. "I guess that could work." She added feeling unsure.
"It will." Karla said confidently, feeling that she nearly had her. "Unless you got a better idea?"
"Not really, no." was Carmilla's answer.
"Great." Karla said, and walked over to one of the covered windows. She wanted to move quickly, before Carmilla had the time to change her mind. "Careful, I'm going to uncover this one. I don't want you to get blasted with sunlight."
"I'm good." Carmilla said having moved over to the hallway to not get caught by any ray of light.
Quickly taking down the towel they had put up, to act as additional cover, Karla opened the shutters and checked where the sun was shining. Because of the angle, only a small part of the living room together with the door was illuminated. They would have to move quickly, before the sun rose higher, and the patch of sunlight would become too small to provide Karla any protection.
"Okay, I'm ready." She said after moving into the light. She started to roll up one of her sleeves and asked Carmilla. "You said you bit the guys into the neck, right? Do you have to do that, or could you just drink from the arm?"
"I don't think it really matters." Carmilla answered, moving closer. As much as she feared for her friend's safety, the thought of drinking that sweet nectar once again was quickly overriding those fears.
Reaching her friend, she had to force herself to walk close enough for her arm to reach. Her body seemed to physically react to the sunlight and even the closeness to it was enough for it to urge her back. She pushed past the discomfort and got close enough to reach the arm.
"I guess here goes nothing." Karla said, now sounding much less confident than before. Before she could start to second guess herself, she stuck out her bare arm.
Carmilla reached out to take her hand and wanted to ask Karla once more, if she was sure about this, but before she could get a word out, she touched Karla's arm and all conscious thought left her.
She had only taken small breaths through her mouth to avoid taking in her scent and thus keep control over herself. The feel of the warm flesh and the pulse of the warm blood, however, had pushed her over the edge before she even realized it.
All there was now, was the blood she could feel pump in the skin underneath her hands and before she realized it, she had sunk her fangs into the warm flesh. The sweet nectar flooded her mouth and she practically inhaled it, desperately trying to quench the burning thirst in her throat.
Karla had seen her friend open her mouth as if to say something, before her eyes suddenly turned crimson and quicker than she could see, her friend bit down on her wrist.
It felt less like a bite and more like a sledgehammer had hit her arm. Trying to move it, she started to realize, that she made a mistake. She had forgotten her friend's newfound strength and Carmilla's grip on her felt like her arm was stuck in a vice. Even throwing herself back didn't budge her friend in the slightest, and all it did achieve was a sharp pain in her shoulder from the maneuver.
She thought she could feel her blood flowing out, the sensation similar to a blood donation, just much, much faster. She felt herself growing weaker and at the same time a strange, pleasant feeling started to spread throughout her body. Her body realizing that she was losing too much blood and going into shock.
Karla felt her heartbeat speed up and knew, that it was a bad sign, but she couldn't bother to care. Her body tingled with pleasure, radiating from her wrist and even if she could, she wouldn't have bothered to fight anymore.
Carmilla meanwhile was in a similar state as Karla, the warmth of the blood had seemingly spread throughout her body and it felt both invigorating and soothing at the same time. From the moment she had bit down, Carmilla had surrendered any control and simply enjoyed the warm pulsing blood, its taste being much better than both the blood from the bag as well as the gang members two days ago.
It was the pulse that first clued her in, that something was wrong, as she felt it first stutter and then speed up. Realizing the situation and the danger her friend was in, she started to fight back for control of her body. She constantly told herself, that her friend was in danger and she didn't want to hurt her. Slowing down the drinking was exceedingly hard as parts of her simply didn't want to stop. Agonizingly slow, she managed to wrestle back the control and with a last enormous effort she yanked her head back, releasing her friends' arm.
Bereft of the support and weakened by the blood loss Karla started to collapse and tip back. Quickly taking stock of the situation Carmilla realized that if Karla fell back into the light, she wouldn't be able to help her in any way. So, she did the only thing she could and pull her friend towards her, taking her into her arms and propping her up.
Realizing how close she was, and how she could once again feel her warmth and her pulse she nearly panicked, not wanting to bite her again and killing her for good. She nearly dropped her then and there but stopped noticed that the feeling of thirst was completely absent, and she instead felt a strange sense of protectiveness.
Not thinking too much on it for now, she was just thankful, that the thirst was gone. Lifting her friend up and moving over to where the couch was. Carefully placing Karla down, she then took a closer look at her and started to worry about what she saw.
Her friend's skin was pale and felt cold to the touch. Combined with the rapid heart rate that she could feel and the fact that she seemed unconscious, had Carmilla starting to panic. The first instinct was to grab her and drive her to the hospital, quickly scratching that idea, since she couldn't leave the house with the sun still out. The second thought was calling an ambulance and she started to look for her phone but faltered as she realized she didn't know how to explain the whole thing. There was no wound on Karla to show the reason for the blood loss and telling the truth would put her right into the attention of the PRT. And if Karla still died despite calling an ambulance, she could be charged with murder and would go straight to jail or even the birdcage.
She felt ashamed for her indecision, putting her own interests above her friends live left a bad taste in her mouth. She looked at Karla and seeing her lie on the couch, after just having risked her live, so they could find a solution to her problem, she decided she couldn't just let her die.
She again started to look for her phone to call an ambulance, and whatever would come from it, she would deal with once her friend was save. She found the phone lying on the kitchen table and had already started to type 911 when she heard Karla weakly call out.
"Carmilla?" She sounded strained and it was barely louder than a whisper.
Carmilla rushed into the living room, phone still in hand, and she was quickly kneeling next to Karla. Carefully taking her trembling hand into her own.
"I'm here Karla." She said, looking back down at the phone to call 911. "I'm calling an ambulance for you. Just hold on, okay? You're going to be alright."
"No, don't." Karla protested weakly. "I'm fine."
"Karla you are not fine." Carmilla said forcefully. "You lost to much blood, I nearly killed you. You could still die, if we don't get you to a hospital."
"I'm already getting better." Karla kept on protesting. "We don't have an explanation for the blood loss and that could end up exposing you."
"I don't care." Carmilla answered, not mentioning her previous internal struggle. "I'm not going to let you die, just because it could end up putting me in trouble. You risked your life to find a solution to my problems, so now I'm getting you to a hospital."
"Seriously, I feel like I'm getting better." Karla argued weakly. "Tell you what, if I don't feel better in the next hour, I'm going to the hospital. But until then you are only allowed to call 911 if I pass out, okay?"
"Arrggh. Why are you so stubborn?" Carmilla let out a frustrated sound. "You know what? Fine. You want to put your live at risk, be my guest. Just don't come back as a ghost to haunt me, if you actually do die."
"Deal." Karla chuckled, before adding. "Could you get me something to drink? They told me to drink a lot of fluids when I last donated some blood. And something to eat as well please, I'm a little peckish."
"Of course." Carmilla said quickly, getting up and turning to the kitchen. "Do you want anything specific?"
"Some orange juice please." Karla called out. "And some kind of sandwich. I don't really care what's on it."
"Okay, I'll be right back. Don't pass out while I'm gone."
Not even two minutes later, Carmilla walked back into the living room balancing a tray with the OJ and a plate stacked with sandwiches.
"Okay I got PBJ, ham, cheese and salami." She said after placing the tray in front of Karla, pointing towards the mentioned sandwiches. "Do you want anything else?"
"No, this is fine, thank you." Karla answered, reaching for orange juice, and taking a long sip.
She started to wolf down the food on the tray, all the while Carmilla just sat next to her and Karla could feel the nervous energy mixed in with guilt and shame, radiating from her. Feeling a bit guilty for being the one that had brought the whole idea up, she wanted to take some of the guilt away from her.
"I'm sorry." She said, between two bites nearly finished with the third sandwich already.
"You're sorry? Why are you sorry?" Carmilla asked confused. "You're not the one that almost killed your best friend."
"No, but I was the one that brought it up and convinced you to try." Having calmed down by now, Karla started to realize how stupid and risky the whole thing had been. "I didn't think about your increased strength, or how quick I would grow weak from rapid blood loss."
"I am the one that has the power, I should be the one that thought about the strength. But I didn't, and I nearly killed you because of it." Carmilla countered. The worst part about it was that she couldn't even feel bad at the moment. She wanted to feel awful for what she just did, but all she could think about was the warmth and strength that flowed through her veins after she had fed.
"Don't kid yourself." Karla said, flashing her a lopsided grin, ignoring the dread she still felt in the back of her mind. "You know you could never deny me something when I set my mind to it."
"I should have this time." Carmilla persisted and ignoring how good she felt after feeding she said. "It was too close. I'm never doing that again."
Having said that, she could feel something soft bounce of her head. Looking down she saw a piece of bread on the ground, figuring out who it belonged to, she looked up.
"Are you stupid?" Karla said, some color returning to her face as she grew upset. "We just proved that this could work, and you can sustain yourself like this, and you want to stop? "
"I only just barely avoided killing you. What if I can't stop myself next time?"
"We use what we learned out of this." Karla argued. "We obviously need a third person there that could act as emergency stop, maybe shining some sunlight or throw silver at you."
"And what if that doesn't work?" Carmilla argued back, not understanding her friend's confidence after what just happened.
"It will." Karla said confidently. "You managed to stop on your own with me. I'm sure the next time will be the same."
"How can you be sure?" Asked Carmilla.
"I just am." Was Karla's unhelpful answer to that. She took Sabrina and placed her in Carmilla's lap before saying. "Now be quit for a while please. I need some rest."
Effectively shutting down any further argument Karla closed her eyes and tried to relax. She had started to feel lightheaded during the discussion and didn't want to pass out and actually go to the hospital.
She started to feel better after a while and slightly opened her eyes, only to see Carmilla still sitting at the same exact spot. She kept on glancing at her, probably not realizing she had opened her eyes enough to see. Karla could see how concerned her friend was and how she was petting Sabrina quiet aggressively, oblivious to what she was doing. Karla was surprised the Kitten hadn't walked away yet, but remembered her reaction the day before and figured it was probably too scared to just get away. Seeing Carmilla obviously fretting about her, but not wanting to disturb her apparent sleep, combined with the obvious discomfort of Sabrina proofed to be too much for Karla and she started laughing.
Not expecting the sudden sound, Carmilla flinched, and Sabrina used the distraction to wiggle out of Carmilla's hold and bolt out of the living room.
"What is it?" Carmilla asked, once she calmed down, looking at Karla's giggling form with concern. "Are you doing better?"
"Yeah." Kalra said after managing to reign in her laughter. "Much better actually. Still a bit weak, but I don't feel as if I'm going to faint any second now."
"I'm sorry." Carmilla once again tried to apologize, before Karla cut her off.
"You already apologized, and I don't blame you for what happened, so stop it already." Trying to prevent a further discussion about whose fault it is, she asked. "How are YOU feeling by the way? Did you get enough to feel sated?"
"Definitely yeah." Carmilla says, not elaborating further.
"That's good." Karla said, noticing Carmilla's hesitance to say anything further. "How did it feel? You described the blood of the gang members as divine nectar and even though I was a bit out of it, I was still able to hear your sounds of pleasure when you drank from me. So, was it as good as the night before?"
"It was better." Carmilla said hesitantly, before admitting. "I didn't want to stop drinking, not even when I could feel you growing weaker. It took all my willpower to slow down and let go of your arm. And now I can still feel it coursing through my veins, it feels warm and energizing as if I could take on the whole world right now."
"Is that why you feel so guilty?" Karla asked, easily connecting the dots now that she knew how Carmilla had felt. "Because you didn't want to stop, even as you knew you were killing me?"
Carmilla didn't say anything and just gave a shaking nod.
"Well…" Karla started, not really knowing what to say to that. "Well, you stopped. So that is all that I care about."
"We also know that you can be sated without killing the one you feed on." She continued. "But I'm afraid it will be some time before you can drink from me again. At least a few weeks like they do with blood donations."
"It took me just a few days to feel the thirst again." Carmilla said, realizing that Karla was done with talking about what happened before. "So, if it stays the same I will need to drink once more in two to three days. Maybe longer, but I don't want to risk it. At least not until I get a better feel for my new powers."
"Which just means, that we will need a few more volunteers." Agreed Karla.
"You say that so easy. Do you already know someone that would offer their blood in exchange of cape work?" Said Carmilla. "That was your solution to it right?"
"Indeed, and yes, I do actually." Karla answered.
"Who?" Carmilla was curious now. "It's obviously not the gangs, since you hate them. So, who else is in need of some cape muscles?"
"I am. And a lot of girls I know as well." Karla said simply.
"I'm going to need a bit more explaining for that." Carmilla said, surprised and confused at her friend's statement.
"It will take a while so best you get comfortable." Karla said and after a moment she started to explain.
"You remember when I told you about some of the girls going missing, right? Well, I recently heard rumors of them being snatched up by the ABB and we both know what that means for them. It also neatly comes together with the recent encounter I had with some ABB recruiter. He offered me "protection" in exchange for a share in my profits. And when I say share, I mean more than half of what I earn. So obviously I told him to fuck himself, but he only laughed and said I would come to regret not taking that offer. Later I talked with some of the other girls, and I learned that they too had been approached by that guy. With some of the girls already gone missing, we are concerned that we will be next. And there isn't anything worse that I can imagine than, being forced to work in one of the ABB brothels."
"You never told me about that." Carmilla exclaimed. "I mean, you told me about the missing girls, but you never said you could be next."
"I didn't want to worry you." Karla said simply. "There wasn't anything you could do before, so I saw no reason to needlessly bother you with it."
"Bother me?" Carmilla repeated. "You could have gone missing, and I wouldn't have known anything about what happened to you."
"Like I said, you couldn't have done anything about it, so it would have been better if you just thought I left or something. Better than knowing what actually happened."
"I could have told the police what happened." Carmilla countered, but realized the futility of that argument.
"You think they don't know already?" Karla scoffed. "We already told the few cops we trust what is happening and both them and the PRT are aware of what the ABB are doing. But for some reason or another they don't do anything about it. And if you talked about it to the wrong cop, the ABB would learn about you and that would have placed you in danger as well. So, it was best that you didn't know anything. But that is a moot point now anyway."
"So that's why you keep on talking about me taking on Lung." Carmilla realized. "You are hoping I could protect you from the ABB."
"Yup." Confirmed Karla before adding. "I was getting pretty desperate before you gained your powers, since I couldn't really see a way out. It's also why I wasn't really scared to test you feeding on me. Even if you had killed me, it would still be better than being drugged and forced to work for the ABB."
"You're crazy." Exclaimed Carmilla, not really believing what she was hearing.
"Nope, I was desperate." Corrected Karla. "And it worked out in the end. Even if you can't go toe to toe with Lung, you can still keep us safe from any ABB enforcer that comes knocking."
"So, what, I protect you and the others from any ABB members and in return I drink their blood?" Carmilla tried to clarify. "Doesn't that make me just like the gangs? Protecting them in exchange for payment."
"Pha, not by a long shot." Karla laughed before adding. "Many of those girls have bills they have to pay, so they can't lose any of the money they earn. But giving some blood once every few weeks doesn't really cost them anything. So no, you're not just like the gangs."
"Are you sure they would even agree with that?" Carmilla asked, not really sold on the idea yet. She was also a bit scared of going against the ABB. She would protect Karla without question but taking on the protection of dozens if not more, seemed like an impossible task. "And what if they don't trust me? What if they think I'm some kind of master that gains control by biting them? They could even go and report me to the PRT or talk to the gangs about me."
"Some of them maybe." Karla agreed before adding. "We would have to start with a small group and then continuously add people if we need and trust them enough. I know of at least three that we could trust, and they are all smart enough to realize the opportunity in front of them. We have already talked about getting a cape to protect us, but the problem has always been how much we would have to pay them. Except for money, they would have given a lot for someone's protection. Some monthly blood donation wont scare them off."
"You trust them enough to tell them?" Carmilla asked, still not quit convinced of the idea.
"Definitely yeah." Karla agreed, seeing her friend's reluctance she added. "I could go and feel them out at first. I can just tell them I might have found a cape willing to offer protection and that they don't want money but something different. Based on their reaction I will be able to tell, if donating blood is too much to ask."
"You're not going anywhere." Carmilla disagreed. "You're still much too weak to go anywhere."
"I meant in the evening, if I feel good enough. Or even tomorrow if necessary. I didn't mean to go right now you worrywart." Karla said, rolling her eyes. "But you are on board with the plan for now?"
"I guess." Carmilla hedged. "Not really sure how I can actually protect them. It's not like I can be in multiple places at once to stand guard over them and if something happens when the suns out, I will be helpless to do anything."
"We can figure that out, when we know if they actually agree to it." Karla said, dismissing the problems for now. "But for now, I'll just write them, if they have time to meet up. We'll deal with everything else when it comes up."
"Someday this constant improvising will bite you in the butt you know that, right?" Carmilla asked, glad to see Karla once more acting like herself. In hindsight she could see how the stress of the situation had weighted her down and now that she saw a ray of hope she started to perk back up.
"Meh, it'll be alright." Karla said with a smug grin. "Can you hand me the remote? I want to distract myself a bit. while I recover some strength. And could you bring me another glass of OJ and some more sandwiches? I'm still feeling hungry, and they were really good."
"Sure." Carmilla chuckled and stood up. "One glass of sandwich and juice coming right up."