Chapter 11

"What the hell is that?" Laura points down at an unknown being on the ground and watches as it rises and falls. As if it were breathing.

"-ra" Laura's eyes open wide as she listens to the heap speak.

"Laur-ra" and with her name, Laura's jaw drops to the floor. She quickly gets down on the floor next to the speaking mess and hopes that it is not who she thinks it is. She pulls back the item of clothing that she assumes would be covering its face. When she sees what looks to be the side of a shaven head her heart drops.

"No" She yanks back the rest of the items of cloths that is covering the being to reveal LaFontaine. They were curled up in a ball, covered in the wires that were spilling out of their laptop. JP's flash drive was gone and LaF looked really bad. Laura lifts up LaF's head into her lap and moves the hair out of their face.

"LaF what happened here? Who did this to you?" Laura looks over their body and finds cuts covering almost every inch of their skin. They turned in every which way but when put together they seemed to make tribal markings. They looked a little like African scarification ritual markings but the places that they were placed was what looked a bit off. LaF looks up at Laura, their eyes finally fluttering open. Laura repeats herself.

"Who did this to you?" LaF's eyes' got wide and start darting around as if they were looking for someone. They grab ahold of Laura's sleeve and pull her close. They whisper in her ear, then slowly let go of her sleeve as they pass out again. Carmilla's face is one of confusion.

"What did they say?" The raven haired girl looks at Laura with questioning eyes. Laura's face, however, was scrunched up in anger.

"They said a hooded girl." Laura lays Laf's head down and starts to storm off. She looks behind her and spoke to Carmilla in a tone that she hadn't used since before they were trapped down in the library.

"Watch over them, I am going to find that bitch and I'm going to show her what happens when she fucks with my friends!" Quickly Carmilla picks LaF up as though they weighed nothing, throws them over her shoulder, she starts to walk when she hears dragging coming from behind her. She looks back to see the non-bionarys' laptop being drug behind them. With a sign and a tug on the wires she pulls the laptop up off the ground and puts it under her other arm. She uses her vampire speed to catch up to Laura and when she does she sees something she never expected to see in the young girls eyes. Hate.

"Laura, calm down please I know that she hurt your friend but you are no match for her. She is not a human anymore, she will kill you." Laura stops in her tracks and startles Carmilla into a complete halt. The vampire looks down at the anger in the smaller girls eyes and knows that very little can be said to stop this kind of rage. So instead of trying to stop her, she tries to compromise.

"Okay. I know that you are going either way but can we at least go to our pallet and talk this out so you have some chance of surviving?" Laura's look softens and she nods her head then hangs it low. Carmilla looks at the girl and can understand the feelings she is having. She puts her hand on Laura's shoulder and she feels it drop in defeat. Laura looks up at her with sad eyes.

"I don't understand how I can feel like this. I have never felt this much hate for someone in my whole life. There is something about her that makes me feel like I am not myself anymore. She makes me feel… like…" Carmilla cuts her off.

"Like a monster." Laura sees the sadness behind her eyes and finally realizes how the raven haired vampire felt all these years. She was being forced to feel like a monster as she fed to survive. She was being watched over by a woman that made her blood boil in hatred because of all the things she had done to her, and she tried to save those girls, hoping she could feel a little less like a beast. Laura takes the girls face into her hands and kisses her cheek. Carmilla closes her eyes at the contact, so happy with it that she almost wishes that it weren't real.

"I am so sorry for never understanding you before now. Thank you for never giving up on me." Camilla gives the girl a small smile as Laura turns back around and heads back towards their pallet. The older woman can't remember a time when she felt so at peace with just words being said to her. The girl that she loved finally understood what it was like to feel so much hate for someone that it almost changes who you are. She follows behind the girl as they make their way back toward the center of the library. It was mostly silent on their trek back other than a moan here and there from the body mounted atop Carmilla's shoulder and the light footsteps of the two girls. It wasn't a creepy kind of silence but more of a calming kind. The air around them was a little stale do to the lack of ventilation but it was a good temperature. The silence didn't make them eerie. It was more like the silent that comes after a storm. There was no tension between the girls, just an understanding that gave them all they needed for now. Laura did admit to herself that their relationship wasn't quite moving in the direction she wanted it to but at least they could still be close to each other.

*After they finally make it to the pallet*

Carmilla slowly lowers LaF onto the pallet and covers them with one of the blankets. Laura watches in awe as the normally cold vampire shows any kind of kindness to anyone other than her. Carmilla catches her watching before the girl could whip her head around, trying to pretend that she didn't see anything.

"You know Carm, I have never seen you be nice to anyone else before. It's kind of… sweet" the vampire's nose crinkles up in disgust.

"Don't call me sweet you're going to make me sick." She puts a finger in her mouth and pretends to throw up, causing them both to laugh. As the laughter dies down Carmilla looks at the short haired non-bionary and pats them lightly on the arm.

"I've just never really had a problem with them. The only time I wanted to kill them was almost every time you and I were trying to… well you know…" Laura thinks back on all the times Carmilla and her had been interrupted by LaF and chuckles a little. It did happen more often than not, or they would hear the two girls committing the act and posting it on social media because they didn't understand the noises at first.

"Yeah, they did do that a lot. Didn't they?" Carmilla nods her head and thinks back at all the different things that tried to pull them apart or separate them. It started with, well, Laura herself. The first time Carmilla even showed any kind of signs of her having an attraction to her was when Danny busted in and they tied the vampire to a chair with garlic around her neck and starved her till she nearly died.

"Yeah if it wasn't one thing it was the other." Carmilla agrees as she walks around the room. All of a sudden she stops and smiles to herself.

"You know what? I just remembered about a little something that I had stashed here from a couple years back." Carmilla then walks toward a painting of what looks like and wolves eating meat off of human bones. She removes the painting from the wall to reveal a wall safe. She puts her hand flat on the wall safe and it lets out a few beeps and the door hisses as it opens up to reveal five bottles of what looks to be red wine with no labels on it. Carmilla grabs one of the bottles and closes the safe.

"How about we take a load off for a bit?"