After a few of Laura's regenerations, Carmilla had the routine down. She'd find the girl, stalk her and follow her around to get to know what her interests were and who she had for friends. This made the next step easier, which was to make her acquaintance before killing her not soon after.

It wasn't long before Carmilla found Laura's latest reincarnate several years later in England. This girl didn't have the light brown hair that original Laura had had when Carmilla had first met her in Austria. She had auburn hair and green eyes. But despite her difference in appearance, Carmilla had recognized her instantly. She spent weeks trailing the girl, learning her interests, her routine, who she talked to and what types of things they talked about.

The girl's name was Elizabeth and she was taller than Carmilla this time. She loved the rose garden her parents had in the backyard, and she often spent time sitting by the fountain in the center of town. In fact, sitting and listening to the splashing water was her favorite pastime, according to a conversation she'd had two days ago with the boy she liked. His name was James.

James had dark brown hair and eyes so dark, they almost appeared black. But if you got close enough, which Carmilla had, you could see that they were brown. He was a kind fellow, always willing to help if there was anyone in need. He and Laura had been seeing each other and everyone expected they'd marry some day. Yes, everyone expected a marriage.

Everyone except Carmilla, who knew better.

It was a fine, sunny Sunday afternoon when Carmilla finally decided to approach her. Elizabeth had been watching two boys playing a little distance away and, of course, listening to the water of the fountain.

Just as last time, Carmilla masked her disdain for the girl and prepared herself for a performance.

"Do you mind if I sat here with you?" she asked Elizabeth, offering a kind-looking smile. Elizabeth shook her head.

"Please," she replied and gestured to a spot near her.

"I just love the sound of running water," Carmilla remarked. "It's so peaceful, so soothing."

"It is quite beautiful," Elizabeth agreed. She paused. "Though, I don't recall ever having seen you here before. Do you come here often?"

"No, no," Carmilla shook her head. "I just relocated here with my family. But after today, I think I might come here more often. It's beautiful here. With the fountain."

"It's my favorite spot," Elizabeth informed her, and unbeknownst to Elizabeth, Carmilla already knew that. "I'm Elizabeth."

She offered a hand to Carmilla, who hesitated.

She'd never touched Laura for any reason unless she were hurting or killing her. And now she was expecting a gentle handshake. But still, Carmilla accepted her hand and did so with a smile.

"Carmilla," she responded, deciding that 'Carmilla' was less famous of a name than her birth name, which was sure to have made news, considering she was a former recluse, wanted for the murder of her father, Count Karnstein and her mother.

"What a peculiar name," Elizabeth mused.

"Well, I didn't pick it out," Carmilla joked, earning a laugh from Elizabeth.

"No, of course not," Elizabeth agreed. "Parents do the silliest things."

Carmilla was losing patience. She hated making small talk, especially with someone so evil.

"What would you say if I asked to meet you here at sundown?" Carmilla suddenly inquired. "Because I'm new here, I'd like to consider you a new friend. Perhaps you could show me around a bit."

"I would, but I planned to meet with a boy tonight," Elizabeth answered apologetically.

"James, is it?" Carmilla pried. Elizabeth stared at her. "I've seen you two around town. I think you make the dearest couple."

"Yes, James..." Elizabeth admitted, seeming to relax.

"Do you suppose he'll ask for your hand?"

"Oh, I do hope so," Elizabeth sighed. "But asking for such a thing takes... bravery, and I am not sure he had any such thing."

Carmilla nodded, feigning empathy.

"If things were different and women could ask, I'd have asked years ago," Elizabeth confessed quietly. "Oh, but don't tell anyone I've said these things. They'll have me committed for spewing such unprecedented madness. Then I shall never marry him."

"I won't speak a word of it," Carmilla promised sincerely.

"You know, you're very easy to talk to," Elizabeth told her. "I feel like I could spill all my secrets to you, right here in the middle of day, in the center of town."

"Please do," Carmilla gently urged. "If you feel so inclined."

"Well... the other night, James and I..." Elizabeth hesitated for a moment before continuing. "We did something we should not have done."

"It can't be that bad," Carmilla replied, making sure there was an edge of curiosity to her voice.

"We had sex," Elizabeth finally admitted. She looked ashamed. "So if he and I don't marry, I will have committed an even bigger sin than if it were just so and then we married later."

She paused.

"But please, I beg you, do not breathe a word of this to anyone," Elizabeth pleaded. "We won't do it again. It was one mistake—"

"Everyone makes mistakes," Carmilla assured her. "Perhaps you've made worse ones."

Elizabeth studied her, confused by her words.

"I won't tell a single soul," Carmilla reassured her. "I will take it to my grave... as I'm sure you will."

A pause settled between them, and Carmilla felt herself grow antsy.

"Well, it's getting late—"

"It's only three in the afternoon."

"Yes, but I must spend time with my brother," Carmilla lied.

"Oh! You have a brother?" Elizabeth asked. "How old?"

"He is twelve," Carmilla answered, choosing the number of times she'd already killed Laura over the years. "About to be thirteen."

"What an age."

"It truly is," Carmilla sighed, rising to her feet. "But I must go now. Perhaps I will see you around town again some day."

"I'll be here," Elizabeth kindly reminded her.

"Of course," Carmilla nodded before turning on her heel and walking away.

She rounded a corner around a building and climbed up a nearby tree, waiting for night to fall. She watched Elizabeth for another hour or so before Elizabeth left. She was probably tending to her family's horses. That was what she did around that time in the afternoon, Carmilla knew. She spent the remainder of her free time before sunset feeding on the people who lived within a mile radius of the fountain and building her strength.

As soon as it got dark, Carmilla heard two sets of footsteps approaching the fountain, and she looked up to see Elizabeth and James, just as Elizabeth had said. Carmilla dropped down from the tree silently and used the shadows to slink over to them without being seen.

"—you told her?"

"She was so easy to talk to."

"How do you know she will not expose us for what we've done?"

"She won't. She swore on her own grave, James..." Elizabeth insisted. "Besides, I really like her."

"Of course you do," James shook his head. "You're too trusting. If word about us got out, we would never know a life of peace."

Carmilla spied a sizable stick on the ground near her foot and picked it up. It was sharp enough to pierce Laura's flesh—and even her own—but Carmilla wasn't sure that's how she wanted Laura to go this time. She decided to have a little fun, so she snapped the stick in half and tossed one half hard, letting it hit a tree and cause a loud crack! noise. James and Elizabeth looked in the direction of the tree.

"What was that?" Elizabeth whispered to him.

"Probably just some dumb animal," he told her, though his eyes were still fixed on the tree.

"A dumb animal would have been silent in its approach," Elizabeth pointed out.

"But if it's dumb, it would be foolish enough to make such a noise," James argued.

Carmilla slowly emerged from the shadows, hands behind her back, and allowing their eyes to take her in.

"Carmilla?" Elizabeth gasped with surprise. "You scared us half to death!"

"Both of you half to death?" Carmilla asked, wearing a strange smile on her face as she made her slow approach. "That's one whole death right there. I wonder whose it is..."

"James, this is Carmilla," Elizabeth introduced her with a smile. "The one from earlier. She's a funny girl, isn't she?"

"I suppose..." he mumbled, checking Carmilla out. He looked untrusting, and Carmilla didn't blame him. If he were as smart as Elizabeth always claimed he was, he'd make his escape now. But sadly, James was a fool.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Carmilla declared, as she drew closer. "I'm always a sucker for a full moon."

"You shouldn't be out so late at night by yourself," James told her, her voice full of concern. "With all the animals and crazy people... Terrible things happen at night."

"They do, don't they?" Carmilla agreed, stepping closer to him and revealing the other jagged half of the stick she'd picked up earlier. "But that's what this is for."

"A little stick isn't going to do much damage," James commented. Carmilla rolled her eyes, fed up with his attempts to help.

In one swift motion, she drove the stick into his throat and left it lodged between the rings of his trachea. Elizabeth screamed and sobbed at the gory sight, and Carmilla hit her, knocking her to the ground and telling her to shut up before turning to James.

"A little stick isn't going to do much damage?" she asked, chuckling. "You were wrong about that. But you were right about one thing. Terrible things do happen at night. And it just so happens that tonight, you met one of the crazies."

He gasped for air and reached up for the stick in his throat, but she stopped him.

"Mm-mm," she shook her head. "You're not going to want to do that. It'll only make it worse."

"HELP!" Elizabeth screamed. "SOMEBODY HELP—"

Carmilla hit her again, putting her in a daze and causing James to emit a sickening gurgling noise as he tried to protest on Elizabeth's behalf.

"Oh shut up, the both of you," she snapped with annoyance. "No one's around to hear you anyway. They're all dead."

Elizabeth's eyes widened with fear, and James wheezed.

"I killed them," Carmilla informed them with pride as she turned to look at Elizabeth. "And now it's your turn."

"Please..." Elizabeth begged hysterically. "I'll give you anything you want. What do you want? Money? Land? What do you want? Just please—"

"I already told you what I want," Carmilla impatiently interrupted. "I want you to shut up. Shut up and listen. We're going to play a little game."

"A-A game?" Elizabeth stammered.

"Yes," Carmilla nodded. "A game. It's like... hide-and-seek, but better."

She forced James to the ground next to Elizabeth.

"Let me establish some rules first," Carmilla began. "James, you get to be James in this scenario. And Elizabeth? You get to be... a girl named Laura. Think you can remember that?"

'Laura' nodded frantically.

"Good," Carmilla smiled. "Now, what we're going to do is enjoy the fountain."

Carmilla gestured to the fountain behind James and Laura before going over to Laura and rolling up her sleeves to expose her pale forearms. She dragged her razor-sharp nails down the length of Laura's, cutting open her skin and allowing the blood to flow freely.

Just as all her previous murders with Laura, the metallic smell of the blood tempted her, even after a day of gorging herself. And just as all her previous murders with Laura, she swore not to taste the blood of the one who killed her family those many decades ago.

"Now, let's all step into the fountain—it's nice and warm after a sunny day like today," Carmilla remarked, helping James and Laura to their feet and dragging them over to the fountain's edge. "Get in."

James and Laura obeyed, stepping into the fountain with her. Carmilla was indeed right, the water from the fountain felt like a bathtub.

"Sit," Carmilla instructed Laura. She looked at James and said, "And you. Lie on your back and float."

James did as he was told, never breaking eye contact with her. The blood from his throat began to dye the water red in combination with the blood from Laura's arms.

"Rules of the game," Carmilla went on. "We're going to see who bleeds out first."

Laura whimpered, and Carmilla violently splashed water on her.

"I wasn't finished talking," Carmilla snapped. "You can cry later while you wait for death to come for one of you. We just don't know who will go first—that's the fun part, you see."

"This isn't hide-and-seek..." Laura muttered.

Carmilla glared at her.

"We're... We're going to hell, James..." Laura breathed as the realization hit her. "This is God's punishment for what we did. We sinned, and now this is God's way of punishing us. We will die as sinners, and we will go to hell."

"I sure hope you do," Carmilla responded with a sincerity one might hear in an encouraging situation. "But let me let you in on a secret."

James groaned softly.

"It's in the form of a short story," Carmilla informed them. "So get comfortable."

She looked at James.

"I'd tell you to put your feet up, but... that'll just make all the blood rush toward your head and you probably don't want that—unless you do. Then by all means... put your feet up."

James stayed as he was, floating on his back in the fountain's warm water.

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away... there was a girl only eighteen years of age," Carmilla began in a voice as soft as velvet. If it were any other situation, it would've been soothing. However, in this context, it was bone-chilling. "She decided to sneak out of her house one night and go to a party. And she enjoyed herself that night, only to come home and have her world shattered as she discovered her entire family had been murdered."

Carmilla glanced at James, whose eyes had since shut, but she could still hear faint breathing coming from him. Laura was still conscious.

"The girl's parents were set up at the table like dolls," Carmilla continued. "Lifeless, dead-eyed dolls. And the girl screamed for help, but no one ever came. That entire night was a blur for her. She'd been bitten by some boy at the party, and transformed into some sort of monster. She'd come home to her dead parents... but she does remember one thing about that night."

James' respirations were getting slower and slower and more shallow.

"The girl who murdered her parents," Carmilla sighed. "A girl named Laura—that's you, Lizzy."

Elizabeth sobbed.

"It can't be," she pleaded. "I know of no such thing. I've lived in England my entire life! I—"

"I wasn't. Finished."

Carmilla splashed more water at her.

"I kill her—youevery time! And every time, you come back!" Carmilla shouted. "Don't you see? You don't get to go to hell. I say 'get to' because that'd be a step up for you. I track you down, and I murder you over and over again, Laura. But you just won't stop coming back! You're as relentless as the dead eyes that still haunt me after all these years!"

"Carmilla... I'm so sorry..." Laura apologized.

"You're not!" Carmilla roared. "Because you don't even know what you've done! You can't even begin to know!"

Carmilla took a deep breath and adjusted her tone to a calmer, more collected time.

"You took something that I loved, and so now I'm going to do the same to you," Carmilla explained, as if what she was doing were logical. She reached over and using James' ankle, she pulled his suspended body over to herself. "I never intended for him to win the game. He wasn't meant to last longer than you."

"Carmilla, please... no," Laura begged. "No, no—"

And with that, she yanked the stick out of his throat, allowing the last of his breath to escape the puncture wound, and killing him almost instantly.

"How could you be so cold?" Laura shrilly cried out. "How could you?"

"Funny..." Carmilla murmured, sitting his body up against the center of the fountain. "I once asked myself the same thing about you."

"I hope they catch you one day," Laura spat. "I hope they hang you."

"Oh, I hope so too!" Carmilla replied sarcastically, crossing her arms and sitting back, preparing herself to wait for Laura to die. "And when that day comes, I suppose I'll see you in hell—and then, I shall kill you even there."