Chapter Text
“Fine, so I’m a vampire,” Carmilla admitted, as the gang looked around uneasily at each other, “But I couldn’t have made off with either of the two cupcakes because I was here with you, and then I was here being ambushed by toddlers the whole time.”
“Well maybe you have some kind of vampiric accomplice,” Laura exclaimed.
Danny scoffed at the two from her place on Laura’s bed as their banter went back and forth. Laura was getting visibly frustrated.
“You’re a vampire!” she finally yelled, clenching her fists.
“Yea but not a kidnapper!”
“She’s got us there,” LaFontaine chimed in, ignoring an unpleasant look from Danny, “Assuming she’s up to something diabolical just because she’s…”
“An undead fiend from the pits of hell?” Laura offered.
“I’m from Eastern Europe.”
Danny rolled her eyes. So did Carmilla.
“Potayto, potahto,” she continued.
Confusion and uncertainty settled on the room. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. LaF and Perry rushed forward as it opened in order to block the view. They were quick on their feet as they cheerfully turned away offered beer shots and distracted from the happenings inside the room with an excuse about some made up scene rehearsal. With the door safely closed behind them, the pair turned and rejoined the others. Perry’s mind raced.
“Ok,” she started, “as much as I appreciate that we have this whole hysterical vampire thing going on, I think it’s time that we just…deescalate-“
“Deescalate?! She just admitted to being a vampire!” Laura cried out.
“I know. And that’s insane. So, maybe she’s just insane and instead of holding her here hostage we should take her to student health services. I hear they have a great collection of strait jackets and tranquilizers.”
Perry looked around the room, waiting for a response from someone, anyone. But before anything could be said for or against Perry’s new plan, there was another knock. Perry threw her hands in the air and started yelling before she even got the door open.
“We said we’re good on beer shots alright! We’re…trying to rehearse in-“
But as the door swung open, Perry swallowed her words. The small girl standing outside Laura’s door was not a partygoer peddling shots. Perry couldn’t even see the girl’s face, but for some reason she felt as if she knew her, without knowing exactly how. As she looked the girl over, she realized that if she didn’t know Carmilla was tied up behind her, at a glance she might mistake this girl for her. She wore similar footwear, black combat boots with the laces haphazardly tied. No leather pants, but her jeans were just as tight and just as black. The leather this girl was wearing was in the form of a jacket, worn over a black sweatshirt, the hood of which was pulled up and over her head, obscuring her face from Perry’s view. She noticed the duffel bags the girl was carrying, just as her head shifted slightly, letting more light in under the hood. Perry almost gasped. She did know this girl.
She still couldn’t see the girl’s eyes, but she could see the wild strawberry blonde hair peeking out from under the hood and the freckles that dotted her face. There was no doubt who this girl was. Perry began to speak, but just then Laura called out to her from within the room. Her head shot up when she heard the voice, and before Perry could even process what she was seeing the girl slid past her into the room.
Upon seeing the intruder, LaFontaine and Danny jumped up, standing next to each other directly in front of Carmilla. But the shadowy girl had already seen their captive; she had stopped in her tracks. The two spoke in unison as they stepped apart again.
“It’s just an experiment, we swear!”
“Who are you and what do you want?”
They waited for a response that was not forthcoming. Still unable to clearly make out her face, they all just stared at her. But Laura had recognized the girl instantly, how could she not?
“Rosie,” she spoke softly, shaking her head in confusion.
“Rosie? As in your little sister Rosie?” Danny exclaimed as she swiveled her head to check the pictures Laura had plastered all over the room.
That was enough to spark Carmilla’s attention. Unnoticed, she swiveled slightly in the desk chair to get a look at the newcomer.
“I recognized her from the pictures Laura, I didn’t know what to do,” Perry shrugged, at a loss as she moved to stand by LaFontaine on Carmilla’s side of the room.
Laura’s focus remained on her sister.
“You’re here. But how? And…why?”
Laura began to panic. She wasn’t thinking clearly, all she could think was what their situation must look like to her little sister without context. She had to get Rosie out of here. She stood up quickly, eyes wildly surveying the room as she scoured her brain for ways to explain this and get Rosie to leave.
“Look I’m so glad to see you but you can’t be here right now Rosie. I’m ok and this is totally normal and everything is fine but you just need to not be here, ok?”
Laura spoke with her hands, her arms lifting emphatically in Rosie’s direction to get her point across as she stole a nervous glance at Carmilla. All the others were too busy watching Laura to notice how Rosie flinched away from her sister’s raised hand. All except Carmilla. Her full attention was now squarely on the interaction taking place in front of her. If she looked close enough she could see the girl shaking.
Laura continued talking, but there was no response from Rosie. She just stood there, frozen. Eventually Laura trailed off and looked up, finally sensing that something wasn’t right. Her sister was just staring at the floor.
“Rosie,” Laura started again, worry creeping in, “why did you come all the way here?”
No answer, although Carmilla thought she heard a stifled sob.
“Rosalie,” Laura spoke her sister’s full name firmly, “look at me.”
Slowly, Rosie lifted her head until she was looking her big sister in the eye.
Laura’s face paled and she gasped for air as she stumbled back into her desk, desperately grabbing for something to hold her upright. She managed to stabilize herself, as everyone else in the room was stuck staring at her sister’s face.
The girl’s right eye was almost swollen shut, menacing shades of black and blue and purple. Her lip was split open, the skin around her mouth red and angry.
With all eyes on her, Rosie’s face burned with embarrassment and shame and she let her head sink towards the floor once more. Carmilla could see that she was shaking harder now. As she glanced over, she noticed that Laura was shaking too.
Laura slowly stepped forward, hot tears stinging her eyes. She placed a gentle hand below Rosie’s chin and brought her head back up.
Realizing the magnitude of what was taking place between the two girls in the center of the room, the others present dared not move or even speak, lest they disturb the fragility of the moment.
Laura, softly brushing her thumb over Rosie’s cheek, looked up into her sister’s tired eyes. Laura was shorter than her younger sister, but only by a little. And in this moment, her sister looked so much smaller than she was. As she looked at Rosie, the fury that filled her made it hard to breathe, but she knew she had to ask.
“What happened?”
Laura asked, but she knew the answer already. That’s why she was so filled with rage. Her sister just shook her head.
“He did this to you, didn’t he?”
Rosie looked her sister in the eye and nodded.
And with that, Laura just couldn’t take it anymore. She threw herself forward to embrace her baby sister. But Laura’s arms came up empty as Rosie jumped back, a pathetic cry escaping her lips.
Something inside Laura shattered as she realized just how broken Rosie was.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Laura,” Rosie finally spoke, her head shaking.
Laura took a deep breath.
“No.”
Rosie stared at her.
“You don’t apologize for this. This is not your fault, none of this is your fault.”
Rosie nodded, and even managed the tiniest of smiles for her sister, before furtively glancing at Carmilla.
The two locked eyes for a second, and Carmilla was taken aback by all that she saw. Rosie quickly looked back to her sister for an explanation, but Carmilla was as mesmerized by the girl as ever. If only she could figure out why.
“Oh, right, that,” Laura stuttered, “We should probably explain that, huh? But you know what Rosie, that’s not important to me right now, you are. Tell me everything. How did you get here, why did Dad let you come…oh my goodness Dad, what did he say? What did he do? You’re not here because Dad murdered him are you?!”
Rosie started to laugh, but it turned into a sob that she quickly suppressed, shaking her head.
“I didn’t tell him.”
Laura’s eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth to speak, but Rosie talked over her.
“I couldn’t Laura, I just couldn’t, ok? I couldn’t tell him, I couldn’t even look him in the eye…not like this. He was out of town anyway, something for work. I used the emergency credit card to get myself here. I left him a note and all my flight information. And I left a message on the landline once I got to campus. He’ll know where I am. He’ll know that I’m with you, that I’m safe.”
For a moment, Laura’s heart soared. Her baby sister was in trouble, and she ran all the way to Austria to be with her. It was what she had been building to for so long. Rosie wasn’t one to break; even with Laura it would sometimes take a while to wear her down. She was always reassuring her baby sister that that’s what she was there for, to be leaned on. And now, it appeared that all her hard work as big sister had paid off. All the bullies, identity crises, girl problems and boy problems that she’d been there for over the years had fostered the kind of relationship Laura remembered dreaming of when she first laid eyes on baby Rosie in the hospital. Their Dad loves to tell the story of little Laura’s first words to Rosie. “I promise to always protect you and keep you safe”.
Not that she had wanted something like this to happen of course. But it had happened. And Laura knew in her heart of hearts that Rosie’s reaction to something like this could have been much, much worse than just running away from home. Especially since when Rosie ran, she ran here, to her. And now she was going to make it ok again. She was going to make Rosie ok again, and honor that promise she had made sixteen years ago.
Except right now she had a vampire tied up in the middle of her room who may be a kidnapper, and who knows what else. She sighed as she rubbed her forehead, hoping an easy solution to both problems may be dislodged from somewhere deep in the recesses of her brain. She wondered if college was like this for everyone else.
“Rosie look-“
“If you’re about to not explain why you have someone tied up in your dorm room, think again Laura,” Rosie cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows expectantly, already feeling more comfortable and confident now that she was finally with her sister.
“This is not your problem ok, right now I need to-“
“Laura. Come on,” Rosie looked to her left and right, eyeing the strangers that surrounded her as her sister attempted to air her dirty laundry, “I’m leaning, alright. Just, let me lean, for now.”
Laura looked around at her friends, all very much on edge and uncertain about what was appropriate behavior here. She looked down at her stupid vampire roommate, who now probably posed the same threat to her sister as she did to every other girl on campus. Rosie was right. Now that she was here, she was safe. She could be kept safe. And she was obviously going to be staying in this room until it was time for her to go back home, no doubt at the behest of their father as soon as her realized she was gone. So she had to know.
“Alright, point made. But we are talking about this later, got it?” Laura looked sternly at her sister, and satisfied with the small nod she received in response, she moved on, “As for this…I really doubt you’re gonna believe anything we have to say about it. But we can try.”
“Plus we’ve got proof!” LaFontaine offered excitedly with a smile at their new friend, “Hi. I’m LaFontaine. You can call me LaF if you want.”
Rosie looked over, slightly startled. But the smile was genuine, the words warm…and she was calm again.
“Proof of what?” she asked, with a small smile of her own.
LaFontaine suddenly looked uncertain. Was it really their place to break this news? They barely knew this girl, who knew what her reaction could be.
Carmilla felt the hesitation, so she took the job upon herself.
“That I’m a vampire,” she said calmly.
As soon as the last word was uttered, the tension in the room came to a head as its other occupants held their breath anxiously.
Rosie looked around for a second, puzzled.
“Rosie, say something sweetie,” Laura urged.
“What’s happening here?” Rosie asked, still looking quizzically from person to person.
“I think they’re waiting for you to laugh or tell them they’re all crazy,” Carmilla offered.
Rosie cracked a smile at that, and she shared an inexplicable look with the accused vampire.
“Ok, I’m not sure if you’re all aware, but at this precise moment there is a small army of lawn gnomes participating in what appeared to be a war reenactment outside your building,” Rosie’s mischievous smile grew bigger to match the smirk that was appearing on Carmilla’s face, “I had to solve a riddle at the front gate just to get on campus. It was given to me by the STATUES. Because they could tell I wasn’t a student. This revelation is not the weirdest thing to happen to me in the last hour, not by a mile.”
While the others in the room looked around, dumbfounded by Rosie’s seeming nonchalance, Carmilla could hardly contain her fascination. This girl was not to be underestimated.
“So, supernatural stuff is going on all around you and you’re…ok??” Laura’s awe at her sister was plastered all over her face.
An innocent, childlike grin broke out on Rosie’s face, and Carmilla felt herself physically drawn to her. She saw the impish spark that had lit up behind the girl’s eyes, eyes that were somehow simultaneously the color of the Yellow Sea at dawn and a forest of pine tress covered in moss. Carmilla was baffled by the odd connection she felt with this girl she knew next to nothing about. It was completely platonic, but at the same time it was something different than just a friendly attachment. She was mystified.
“Laura, you’re talking to the girl who cried herself to sleep on her 11th birthday because her Hogwarts letter never came. The girl whose biggest dream in life at the tender age of two was to be a mermaid,” Rosie’s enthusiasm dulled for a second as she focused her soft gaze on Laura, “The girl who constantly begged her big sister to let her ride on the handlebars of the bike so that, just for a moment, it would feel like she was flying.”
Carmilla was sure she saw Laura’s eyes get misty.
“So yea, finding out that vampires apparently exist and that statues and lawn gnomes are sentient is not quite enough to throw me off my game big sister.”
Carmilla was impressed, to say the least. So was the rest of the room.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” Laura said with a smile, shaking her head in sheer disbelief.
“What’s amazing is the fact that you have a vampire tied up in your room. Are we talking friendly Count von Count here or something more along the lines of Bram Stoker’s Dracula?”
Carmilla scoffed loudly, clearly offended.
“Dracula? Please. I was around when that crybaby of a man was turned. I predate him by decades. I honestly couldn’t even tell you where all the macho horror origin story crap came from.”
Her feathers clearly ruffled, Carmilla continued to grumble. From what Rosie could hear her not so inner monologue rant was aimed at sexism in media through the ages.
“To be honest Rosie, we’re not really sure. I guess at this point we would classify her as “Angel early season one of Buffy”. We know what she is, but we have no idea what side she’s on yet,” Laura was rubbing her head again.
“I don’t understand. Has she done something to you? Has she hurt someone?”
“I guess you’re in need of some backstory.”
“Yea I guess I am. Like who are these people. Other than LaF, we’ve already met,” Rosie flashed a smile in LaFontaine’s direction, which was received and returned, “Is the tall one Betty? I feel like you mentioned that Betty was tall. ”
Danny scowled as Rosie looked her over. Laura sighed deeply, shaking her head.
“That isn’t Betty. That’s Danny, and next to LaFontaine is Perry. Betty is…well she’s missing.”
“Missing? And you think black beauty here is responsible?”
“Yes. Well, maybe. As well as-“
“There’s more? More than a missing roommate possibly abducted by some rogue vampire that you now have tied up in your room? God what is this place? Like, definitely keep talking but honestly where even are we.”
Laura, with help from the others, explained in as much detail and as quickly as possible the events leading up to the vampire capture. By the end, Rosie felt like her head was spinning just a bit, but she took it like a champ. She took a minute to absorb everything as she finally set her bags down alongside Laura’s bed.
“Ok so, what now?” she asked.
“What now?” Laura repeated, confused.
“Yea, what now. As in, what’s our next step?”
“Rosie, there is no-“
“I’m gonna go ahead and stop you right there. I’m here Laura. And even though it may not be for long, I’m staying here, with you, as long as I’m allowed to. And you’ve managed to get yourself into a mess. I’m no more equipped to deal with any of this than you are, but it seems like you need all hands on deck. So please, let me help you for once.”
Laura, exhausted, gave a tired nod of her head, conceding defeat.
“Ok.”
“Great! So, what’s the next step?”
“Well, I think we should return to my health services idea. As Rosie stated, none of us are equipped to deal with…whatever this is,” Perry interjected suddenly.
She received the same vacant stares she’d encountered the first time she posited the idea, and she was running out of patience.
“Well, what other option do we have? Keep her here, tied up, watching her every second? Starving her until she confesses?”
At the mention of starvation, the others looked at each other like they’d all just had the most brilliant idea of their young lives. Perry was not amused that what was meant as satire of their situation was about to become their actual plan.
“No, no you cannot do that. I was merely trying to shed light on how ridiculous this all is. Laura you cannot starve another student in your dorm room! I’m pretty sure that’s considered misconduct in the student handbook!”
“Yea, Laura, I agree with Alison Hendrix over here. Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“Alison Hendrix?” Perry questioned.
“Oh, yea like, you may look like a soccer mom but I’m about 1500% sure that you could, and would, kill a man with your bare hands.”
And with that the tension was broken. The air filled with laughter instead, just for a second. Even Carmilla let out a small chuckle. But as quickly as it had come, the levity was once again gone as silence permeated the room. The guests bid Laura goodnight, the starvation idea being the new unspoken plan, under protest.
And then there were three.