It hadn't taken long before she woke up.
The first thing she did was scream for help again. Summers, out hunting for Danny had rescued her. They had the decency to hold back the congratulations over slaying a vampire, considering the entire campus knew about her and Carmilla.
Under any other conditions she might have been impressed at their tact.
They took Danny back.
She took Carm.
She had stopped at the first building, it was tiring carrying your girlfriend's body. The place was strange, opulently furnished, but with bizarre décor: Hunting trophies of not quite natural beasts, disturbing painting, obvious secret passages.
Time passed, she tended to the body, people came and went, probably told by the Summers. That left her here, talking to LaF and Perry again at last, after they were supposed to all escape together what felt like so long ago.
"You sure your okay?" LaF asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The small girl mumbled.
"I really think you sh-" Perry started to offer.
"It's okay Per. I'm fine." She said, not rudely, but more firmly.
LaF looked at the body on the bed, before they could say anything Laura spoke up.
"How is doing Danny anyway?" That was nearly the furthest thing on her mind, but she was still trying to put off the inevitable questions.
"We don't know yet. The Summers are seeing that she gets the best care has to offer, but the break looked pretty bad. It could go either way." LaF replied.
Perry quickly moved in to ask the obvious, and necessary.
"So is she?' She gestured at the bed.
"Dead?" Laura managed a brief wry smile. "No more than ever. The stake only scratched her heart. Really considering it was a random tackle even managing that was pure chance. I think she's hurt, badly, but she'll recover."
Perry awkwardly shuffled for a moment. "I know it's not exactly our business but, well; what are you going to do?"
"Our relationship pretty much started with me kidnapping her, tying her to a chair for two weeks, and starving her to death Perry." She started.
"In our defence-" LaF tried to explain.
"No. It was never right. If we were both correct about one thing, it's that normal here was never okay. Carmilla was only ever taught that love is about hurting someone enough that they stick with you. First her family, then the Dean, and then me."
She let out a long, pained sigh and gazed at the unconscious form of her lover.
"Now I try again, and keep trying until we get this right."