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“You. Did. WHAT?!?!”
The shriek bounced off the walls of the dorm room and travelled out into the hallway, assaulting an unsuspecting Carmilla on her way back from the library. Now that her mother was gone, she had no obligations to continue attending school, but as long as Laura stayed at Silas so would she. And surprisingly enough, clearing up the evil entity below campus had left it kinda…boring. Sure there were the weird aftershocks, but there had been no more giant mushroom attacks, and even the library had been uncharacteristically quiet.
“What have you DONE?!”
The shrill screams continued, obviously coming from their room. Carmilla picked up the pace; brushing past the door next to 307 as it opened and a very disgruntled girl poked her head out into the hallway. Carmilla ignored her, as was her usual practice with anyone who wasn’t Laura. Or the dimwit squad, though much more of her attention had been on Laura as of late, for obvious reasons.
Shaking those particular thoughts from her mind, for now, Carmilla threw open the door, and narrowly missed a head-on collision with her very angry girlfriend. She was pacing. That was never good. The only thing worse was when she stopped pacing altogether and just did that ridiculous looking rage shake that she did so well. That’s when you knew you were in trouble.
A bewildered Carmilla instinctively tried to reach out and grab hold of Laura, steady her and keep her still just for a second in order to find out what was going on, but angry Laura was a fiery little she-devil. She flew to the other side of the room, almost completely unaware that Carmilla had even come in. She was muttering angrily under her breath, pausing occasionally to glare down in the direction of the yellow pillow, that for the moment rested on Laura’s bed. As did Rosie. Carmilla turned the corner to find the teenager sprawled haphazardly across the bed reading, rolling her eyes so hard in the direction of her sister that Carmilla was worried the girl might hurt herself. She had the hood of her black sweatshirt up over her head, but her strawberry blonde waves could be still be seen peeking out. The young girl turned her freckled face back to the book as her older sister continued her wild muttering.
“Hey!” Carmilla suddenly exclaimed, trying to gain control of the room.
Laura responded by collapsing into her desk chair, head in her hands. The muttering continued. Rosie slowly turned the page of the book, and looked up at Carmilla even slower. She didn’t speak, just raised her eyebrows in the vampire’s direction, as if she was already so fed up with whatever was happening that the slight facial movement was all she could muster.
“Rosie what in the hell is-hey is that my Kant?? I’ve been looking for that.”
Before Rosie could answer, Laura erupted.
“YES. YES IT IS. IT IS A BOOK ON ETHICS. BECAUSE SHE IS TRYING TO BE IRONIC I GUESS. AFTER BETRAYING HER SISTER. HOW IS THAT FOR ETHICS, HUH??”
An unintelligible sound of exasperation escaped Rosie’s lips as she threw herself into a sitting position and launched the book across the room. It flew so close to Carmilla’s face she felt the rush of air that accompanied the flying object, but she didn’t flinch. She had lived long enough that she was able to read people well. She knew the kind of person Rosie was the instant she stepped into their room that day. Rosie would never hurt her, especially when her anger wasn’t even directed towards Carmilla. Then again, she never thought she would see the day when Rosie abused a book. It landed with a thud on Carmilla’s bed as Rosie faced her angry sister.
“You need to RELAX. He was gonna find out eventually what does it even matter!”
“What does it matter?? What does it matter?!?! Are you insane Rosie? What were you thinking!?”
“Stop this! One of you needs to-“
But Carmilla was cut off as the argument intensified. She threw her hands up in frustration. This was completely out of control, and not something she would normally have the patience for. It's only just begun and this relationship may very well be the death of me, she thought, if I wasn’t already dead that is. She chuckled wryly to herself as Rosie continued to rant.
“Laura for the love of god The Dean is gone, the giant deep-sea fish god hidden beneath the school is GONE. We SURVIVED. What is he gonna do, retroactively punish us? For saving lives?
Things started to click for Carmilla as she stood between the warring siblings, hoping to prevent any more airborne books. There were enough of those in the library already.
“Rosalie Elizabeth Hollis I swear!” Laura screamed in frustration before she could stop herself.
The room grew quiet. Carmilla stood confused but alert, unaware of the meaning that exclamation held. She glanced over and saw tears in Rosie’s eyes that had sprung out of nowhere, and the color had so completely drained from her face that Carmilla was sure the poor thing was going to pass out. She was about to reach for her, to steady her, when the young girl began to speak.
“So you’re really mad then, huh,” Rosie squeaked, her voice cracking as she struggled to keep it together.
Laura leaned dejectedly against her desk, but kept her eyes on the floor. Was that guilt Carmilla detected in her features?
“You always hated when Dad used my full name. You said it reminded you of mom, that it was too painful. That is where I got my middle name from after all,” Rosie stood up from the bed and stepped closer to her sister, “You’ve only ever used my full name once before. Dad let us go to the mall alone, and I wandered off. We hadn’t been separated more than a half-hour, but when you saw me again you used my full name.”
“I knew Dad was gonna be mad, and I was upset at you for it,” Laura muttered unconvincingly, her eyes still averted.
“No, that wasn’t it. Maybe you were mad, but more than that you were scared. You were scared you had lost me, that I was gone forever. You were terrified and you used my full name. So, I’ve gotta ask, what could you possibly be so afraid of now?” Rosie moved slowly forward, getting louder, “We literally just took down a nest full of ancient vampires that have been here for decades. We defeated an unspeakable evil so intense it actually required human sacrifice. We did all of that and lived to tell the tale. They’re all gone! There’s nothing left for you to be-“
“Rosie he could take me away from Silas and he could make sure I never came back!”
Stunned silence filled the room. Even Carmilla seemed to be taken aback by the outburst.
“What?” Rosie questioned quietly.
Laura shook her head as she tried to regain her composure. Carmilla wanted to go to her, but this was so beyond her realm. She didn’t know what to do or what to say, so she just let Laura get there on her own, painful as it was watching her struggle. Carmilla eventually had to just look away.
Finally, Laura lifted her head and looked directly at her sister, the tears building behind her eyes threatening to spill over with every shaky breath she took.
“You know him Rosie, you know how he is. It’s not even a matter of him thinking we’re crazy; we’ve got the proof. But if he’s seen the videos, which he definitely has if you told him about them, then I can guarantee he isn’t on his way right now in order to pop some champagne and celebrate with us. He’s on his way to pack me up and take me away from here, forever. And if he takes me away from here, he takes me away from…” Laura trailed off as her eyes shifted to Carmilla, “…her.”
Carmilla looked up when she heard the word. Her eyes met Laura’s and in that moment the world disappeared. Even when Laura broke eye contact to turn back to the fight, Carmilla remained fixated on her. She could hear them yelling, but it was muffled and she was able to tune it out as her thoughts began to wander.
She thought she had lost her sister, and the fear she felt in that moment is the same level of fear she feels now. When she thinks she might be separated from…me. Instead of fearing me, she fears losing me.
Carmilla absently brought a hand up to her face, and she felt the flush of happy warmth in her cheeks.
The fight had gotten so intense that Carmilla could see the vein in Laura’s neck. That thing had caught her attention the first day she’d been in this room. It was always just as angry as Laura was. As she stared, Carmilla realized she hadn’t looked at it in quite a while. And as her eyes shifted upward, it hit her that it was because she had found something much better to spend her time staring at.
At this point the fight was flailing limbs and words spit like venom, but Carmilla couldn’t be bothered. She thought for a moment, and then threw caution to the wind. She knew how to make it stop.
Laura was mid-setence, rambling about something, but Carmilla didn’t care. She stepped forward with purpose and placed her hands gently, but firmly, on Laura’s face, silencing her and turning her so they were facing each other. Before Laura could object Carmilla was kissing her, with a passion she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Carmilla deepened the kiss until she felt Laura’s tense muscles relax beneath her and the girls arms found their way around her waist, pulling her in closer. When Carmilla finally pulled away, Laura’s eyes remained shut, as if in a daze, with the goofiest of smiles having replaced the angry scowl. Carmilla, smiling so hard her face hurt, tucked a strand of Laura’s persistently disheveled hair softly behind her ear as the smaller girl let out what could only be described as a squeaky giggle. Carmilla was about to poke fun at her for it when their forgotten third wheel made herself known again.
“You guys seriously need to get a room. And by that I mean a room that I am not in, come on!”
The couple turned toward her, both of them blushing, and they laughed as Rosie very dramatically threw herself onto Laura’s bed and covered her face with the yellow pillow. She spoke from beneath the plush mass, playing up her drama.
“Ugh, continue if you must, but please keep your adorable, barf worthy happy noises to a minimum. A girl can only take so much.”
Laura, who seemed back to a normal level on the anger scale, twisted in Carmilla’s arms to grab a small stuffed bear from her desk. She tossed it at her sister and let out a loud, infectious laugh that soon had even Carmilla joining in. Thoughts of Mr. Hollis and the events of the past few days were forgotten as stuffed toys and pillows were catapulted through the air. The quality of the throws was quickly lost to the uncontrollable laughter. One particularly poorly thrown pillow found itself flying toward the door, where it hit LaFontaine square in the face. Howling laughter ensued from the trio inside the room. That is, until they all looked back at LaFontaine to find them not amused in the slightest.
“Geez killjoy, you coulda knocked. For once,” Carmilla huffed.
“Sorry LaFontaine, did you need something?” Laura said kindly, discreetly swatting at her grumpy girlfriend.
Before they could answer, another aftershock rippled through campus. Laura’s owl lamp fell into Rosie’s lap as the tremors shook the room, and Carmilla struggled to keep all of her books from falling.
“You guys,” LaF started, their voice dripping with fear, “I think we have a problem.”
That’s when the siren sounded.