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Dinosaur Bandaid #1
Laura Hollis liked dinosaurs. After all, what child wasn’t fed a steady diet of the Land Before Time movies and museum trips to see giant t-rex bones? Her favourite childhood stuffed animal was even an apatosaurus, long neck covered in soft multi-coloured rainbow fabric. However, despite her love of dinosaurs, she wasn’t the one who bought an entire box of dinosaur bandaids.
Which made it a mystery.
She loved mysteries.
As she found the box in her dorm room, her first guess would have been her roommate. The only flaw to this theory was that Carmilla Karnstein was both possibly an evil vampire kidnapper and definitely a total raging bad person.
Not exactly the prime candidate to be owning dinosaur bandaids.
She’d asked Laf and Perry but both had denied leaving the box in her dormroom, kicked under the laundry hamper and out of sight. They weren’t from her supply. Her Dad had packed her first aid kit with only the highest quality bandaids and unfortunately, the flimsy but adorable dinosaur bandaids didn’t do the trick.
Unless the trick was to make her smile. Then the tiny green apatosauruses on a sky blue background did the trick perfectly.
If only she knew where they came from. That was slightly distracting her from enjoying the bandaid now prominently place across the back of her hand. Which was the second phase of the mystery. She hadn’t put that there.
Laura had just woken up with a bandaid on the back of her hand. Which made zero sense. There wasn’t even a cut there.
So not only was there a mysterious box of bandaids stashed under the laundry hamper but somehow one had magically teleported onto her wrist. Perfect. That seemed like it was par for the course at Silas.
Fiddling with the edges of the plastic, Laura debated pulling the bandaid off entirely. She’d just gotten her fingers around it when Carmilla was suddenly in the doorway. Laura yelped, jerking on reflex, and the bandaid came ripping off.
“Whoa there cupcake,” Carmilla said, “There’s no need for all of that twitchiness.”
Laura’s eyes definitely weren’t watering at the pain.
“What twitching? There’s a complete absence of twitching,” she said, rubbing at the now red spot on her hand.
Carmilla raised her eyebrow, “Sure spaz. Just came to give you this.” She held out a scary looking mess of leather and beads and an actual dried batwing that somehow vaguely resembled a bracelet. Laura didn’t move. “It’s a charm or whatever.” Carmilla said, “to help with the bad dreams.”
“Oh,” Laura said and stuck her wrist out, “Um. Thanks?”
Carmilla took the flailing limb with far more grace than Laura would have managed. She quickly wrapped the charm around Laura’s wrist while citing reasons for this odd burst of kindness that were somehow still insulting in their own right.
Was being called, ‘the devil you know’ a compliment if you were still being called a devil?
Just before Laura withdrew her hand, Carmilla’s thumb grazed over the red spot on her hand where the bandaid had been. “Manage to hurt yourself already, cupcake?”
“I yanked off a bandaid,” Laura said, opening her other hand to show Carmilla the dinosaurs.
Carmilla didn’t even try not to smirk, “Well, the dinosaurs at least fit with your whole childish, naive attitude.”
“I didn’t even put it on myself,” Laura objected, “Someone put it on while I was sleeping. Which, like, do you think it’s got something to do with the nightmares? Like the dreams are bad enough but Laf was talking about all this weird object transference stuff and I don’t know how I feel about bad dreams creating bandaids. Like they’re probably infused with evil or something and I found a whole box of them in the closet and I don’t even need them because I wasn’t hurt and-”
“Oh I don’t know” Carmilla interjected, “You look pretty hurt to me.”
It was said with a smirk and a swipe of her red spot but there was something more to Carmilla’s face that Laura couldn’t quite figure out.
She decided to ignore it. Evil vampire roommate and all. “They’re probably evil.” Laura said.
“They’re not evil.” Carmilla said quickly. Then, “they’re just bandaids, cupcake. They fix things.”
“How would you know that?” Laura said. Her eyes narrowed, “Wait, do you know where they’re from? Did you put them on me? Why would you do that? Did you do that? Do you know who did?”
With a wink and a “I’ve got to keep my air of mystery somehow,” Carmilla was gone again.
Leaving Laura with a new batwing bracelet and a crumpled bandaid in her fist.
When she checked the next day, the bandaid box wasn’t in the closet anymore.
Dinosaur Bandaid #2
Laura pressed the towel harder against her neck, mentally cursing the throb of the bite marks slowly bleeding all over her neck. WIth Carmilla in the shower, she couldn’t even clean it up properly.
“Stupid vampires,” Laura muttered, flinging herself into her desk chair, “their teeth and the biting and their stupid dumb flight instinct. I’m not a juice box. Except I apparently am. Great. No problem. Hungry? Help yourself.” She twirled her hand dramatically through the air.
“I’m flattered but I think I’ll stick to the bloodbags. No need to overdose on sugar,” Carmilla called from the bathroom as the shower clicked off. Her voice easily carried into the dorm room.
Laura let her head thunk against the desk, towel still pressed tight, “Stupid vampire hearing!”
“Maybe if you stopped talking to yourself,” Carmilla called, “then I wouldn’t have to listen to you.”
“Maybe if I had all my blood still inside me, then I’d be able to think properly!” Laura shot back.
She didn’t even bother lifting her head from the desk as Carmilla walked back into the room. The sounds of shuffling and the water drops from Carmilla toweling her hair both keeping her well informed of her roommates whereabouts. So it was a surprise when the shuffling moved in her direction.
When Carmilla finally spoke, she was standing right behind Laura, “Move the towel.” Carmilla said.
Laura just pressed it tighter, “So you can take another sip?” She scoffed, “No way. You’re going to bite me. Make new holes.”
The thump next to her head made her jump and when she turned to face it, she was confronted with her first aid kit.
“Move the towel,” Carmilla said again, “You keep using that dirty thing and it’s going to get infected.”
“You’re one to talk about cleanliness,” Laura said but moved the towel.
Carmilla’s fingers were light on her neck. Barely touching. She gently moved Laura’s hair aside and the pads of her fingers hardly touched Laura’s skin as she swiped a gauze pad over the bite. Laura winced, the sting of the antiseptic only aggravating the throb of pain. But she said nothing. Carmilla’s every move was methodical Swiping the pad. Retreating. Swiping again.
Then there was a pause, just the briefest stutter after Carmilla tossed the pad in the garbage. With a whoosh of air, she was gone and back again. Before Laura could protest, Carmilla’s fingers were on her neck and pressing softly. Once. Twice. The soft sounds of paper tearing were the only clue as to her actions.
Laura reached up, feeling the bandaids as Carmilla’s hand retreated for the last time. Her dad would be pleased that the kit was being put to good use.
Without a word, Carmilla was in her own bed and her nose shoved in a book.
When Laura turned on the webcam, she froze at the sight of her neck. A blue bandaid with tiny green apatosaurus dancing over her skin.
Slowly, as she stared, a grin cracked across her face. She spun around to look at Carmilla.
“Not a word, cupcake.” Carmilla said, nose never leaving the book.
So Laura said nothing, not until she was climbing into her own bed with the bandaid wrinkling against her skin.
“Thanks,” she said softly.
“Don’t thank me.” Carmilla said.
“Too late,” Laura said.
No Dinosaur Bandaids
Laura curled up on Carmilla’s bed, her knees pulled to her chest as the smell of the other girl filled her nose. Carmilla was gone. She was gone. She dead and gone and buried somewhere in a pit and she was dead.
She was dead.
She’d come back for Laura. She’d saved them all. She’d thrown herself at the light even though she hadn’t wanted to and now she was dead with the image of her smirking face painted across the back of Laura’s eyelids.
Carmilla was dead.
She wrapped Carmilla’s comforter around her shoulders and padded to the closet, digging through her own bag until her hand hit something soft. Something she hadn’t dared to pull out before because Carmilla would have laughed.
A stuffed apatosaurus with multi-coloured rainbow softness looked back at her.
Her mom had promised that ‘Dino’ would fix anything.
He hadn’t fixed her mom.
This was his second try.
And when Betty came, taking Carmilla’s side of the room and replacing it, Laura had a nest of a stuffed dinosaur and Carmilla’s comforter already made.
Dinosaur Bandaid #3
“Hey,” Laura said and her brain short circuited.
Carmilla was here. Carmilla was right there. Right in front of her like a literal breath away and Carmilla had been dead and now she was here.
Kissing Laura. And Laura was kissing Carmilla.
Kissing.
And it was just the best.
When Carmilla was safely curled up in her bed that night, the final hints of bruising on her skin. Laura crept out of bed and into the bathroom. She tried to rip open the paper as quietly as possible before pressing the bandaid to the dark purple patch on Carmilla’s palm where she’d held the sword.
Then she softly kissed it.
Carmilla shifted in her sleep, palm sliding from Laura’s lips to cup her cheek. When Laura looked down, sleepy vampire eyes were staring up at her.
“Just trying to fix it,” she said.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Carmilla mumbled, then she tugged and Laura tumbled forward. Giggling as she landed in Carmilla’s arms, Laura grabbed the bandaged hand and pressed her palm against it. Twisting their fingers together.
Then she snuggled in and fell asleep.
Dinosaur Bandaid #4
They were back at Silas. Wonderful. And there were more dead people.
And something was wrong with Perry.
Wonderful.
With a sigh, Laura walked to the large bed that Carmilla had commandeered as theirs and face planted into the plushy mattress. She may not have been a fan of the whole ‘scaring off grad students’ but it certainly had its benefits. Mainly this bed.
Her whole body ached. Which wasn’t entirely a surprise given that she’d walked up a mountain, been chased by crazed villages, almost eaten by a witch, narrowly escaped a barn fire, been buried under some rock, and then searching through piles of paper. She rolled over and her ribs complained.
It was worth it when her girlfriend walked in.
“Trust you to get in all sorts of trouble on a simple escape plan,” Carmilla said. She smiled, tapping Laura gently on the nose, “I’m starting to think that you go looking for it.”
Laura rolled her eyes and sunk back into the mattress, “I didn’t ask that kobold to try and marry me. Trust me. So not my type.”
“Oh?” Carmilla said, “And what is your type exactly?”
“Just broody vampires who are secret softies.” Laura said. She pretended to look around the room as she sat up, “Know anyone who might fit that?”
Suddenly she had a lap full of Carmilla, “You are such a nerd.”
“Yeah,” Laura agreed, “but that’s why you like me.”
Carmilla’s small smile was a thing of beauty. Even better when Carmilla smiled it while leaning over her and pushing Laura back into the mattress. The smile disappeared just as Carmilla’s nose brushed her own, replaced with concern as Carmilla pulled back.
“Laura. Why do I smell your blood?”
“What?” Laura said, still slightly dazed, “Oh. Papercut.” She lifted her finger to Carmilla’s lips, “Kiss it better?”
“Really?” Carmilla said.
Laura shrugged, moving her free hand to Carmilla’s waist and creeping under her shirt, “It makes it better.”
“Your finger wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, cupcake.” Carmilla said.
Then, finally, Laura let her smile turn wicked, “Oh. I figured we’d just start with the finger. I ache everywhere. You can kiss that next.”
Carmilla froze and Laura’s seductive image dropped as a giggle fell out of her mouth. Then Carmilla was gone, nothing but whooshing air left. She was back immediately and something wrapped around Laura’s finger.
“Really?” Laura’s giggle turned into a full laugh at the dinosaurs staring out at her from the bandaid, “You can’t save Dino or my pillow or my clothes but you manage to grab a box of bandaids?”
Carmilla leaned forward, moving aching slow as she locked her eyes on Laura’s. Carmilla’s hair fell around her shoulders to frame her face and her eyes practically smouldered. “You said they make you feel better,” she said, voice husky.
Gently, she kissed Laura’s bandaged finger as Laura’s jaw dropped slightly. Words gone. “I figured we could start with the bandaid and then work on making you feel better everywhere else.” The word everywhere rolled of her tongue like a purr.
It cut off when Laura reached up to kiss her. There were better uses for the tongue.
Dinosaur Bandaid #5
Laura walked blindly to the bathroom. Laf and Perry and JP were all in their rooms and Danny was gone which was good because she didn’t care where any of them were. Crows or blood or giant anglerfish or whatever. She didn’t care.
Right now. She just didn’t care.
She didn’t care because her throat was burning with words she didn’t say, every one of them set on fire by the pain in her chest. Every swallow only seemed to fuel them, nothing enough to put out the pain. There probably wasn’t enough water. Every drop seemed to be diverted to her eyes. Tears pressed against her with a pressure that was almost overwhelming, refusing to fall but leaving a watery film over her vision that made anything but vague shapes impossible to see.
Everything just hurt.
Carmilla had broken up with her.
And it hurt. Because Carmilla had said she loved her and then Carmilla had broken up with her and Laura had said all the wrong things. She wasn’t sure what the right things would have been but they were burning in her throat.
She had to have said the wrong things because the right things wouldn’t have made Carmilla leave.
Everything just hurt.
So Laura went to the bathroom. Through the unfallen tears, she threw open the cupboard and snatched the tiny cardboard box. Her fingers shook, dislodging the contents all across the floor as she struggled to open the package. The bandaid stuck to her fingers in a tangled mess.
Dinosaurs nothing more than vague green blobs of colour.
Apatosaurus no more. Just green.
Still, she put the bandaid where it hurt.
Laura slapped the tangled mess of colour against her heart. Only half of it sticking so that it nearly fell off.
She sank to her knees. A broken, “fix it” falling off her lips.
But Carmilla never appeared. No batwings or kisses or sudden revivals.
Just a burning throat and tear-filled eyes and a bandaid pressed to the skin of a broken girl huddled in the corner of a bathroom.
Dinosaur Bandaid #6
There had been an arrow in Carmilla’s chest. Shiny and silver and still covered in flecks of stolen vampire blood, it now nestled itself in Laura’s hand and created shallow cuts across her palm every time she closed her hand.
Better than nestled in Carmilla’s chest.
She was only looking at the arrow to avoid looking at what was clenched in her other hand as she walked down the stairs. Laura didn’t bother walking quietly; you couldn’t hide from vampires. Sure enough, Mattie met her at the bottom.
Laura didn’t look up at Carmilla’s sister, eyes still on the arrow, “I just need to see her for a second.”
“What?” Mattie said, derision practically dripping from her voice, “So that you can finish the job yourself?
If anything could wake her up, it was the irritation that was Matska Belmond, “I’m not going to hurt her,” Laura snapped, “You know that. That’s why you brought her here. Now just let me see her. It’s only going to take a second.”
There was a moment of silence before Mattie stepped aside. Ever graceful.
Her grip caught Laura’s shoulder as she walked by, “I acknowledge that you won’t intentionally hurt her.” Mattie said, “But you have and you will hurt her.”
The grip on her shoulder was unceasing. Too tight. Laura didn’t care.
“Please.” She said.
Mattie let her go but never took her eyes off Laura.
Thankfully, Mattie said nothing when Laura reached out and pulled back the edge of Carmilla’s shirt so that she could see the wound, her fingers never touching the skin of the sleeping girl. Quickly, Laura reached out and pressed the bandage to the wound in Carmilla’s chest.
Dinosaurs dancing between the bloody hole.
Then Laura retreated, trying not to think about what Carmilla might say when she discovered it.
Again, No Dinosaur Bandaids
There was a gash on her forehead, blood dripping around her eye to follow the trail of her nose. Laura didn’t brush it aside. There was a deep wound on her chest, every breath tearing it a little further. Laura didn’t care.
Danny was dead.
Laf had told Laura to clean herself up as Mel took Danny’s body away. So Laura had plodded up the stairs, to the bathroom, and then locked the door. Moving on autopilot, her hands hadn’t gone towards the gauze or the antiseptic or anything helpful.
They’d gone to the dinosaur bandaids.
She fiddle with the package for a moment, getting the plastic open but freezing as she went to slide it out.
What was the point?
She’d asked Carmilla to come. She’d asked Carmilla to come and she hadn’t and now Danny was dead. Laura was numb. Laura got other people hurt. Laura didn’t think.
Laura couldn’t be fixed.
She put the bandaid in her pocket and walked out of the bathroom.
Blood still dripping down her face and oozing from her chest.
Dinosaur Bandaid #7
The library smelled like old books and hints of metal and melted snow. Only one of those things was the library. The others were Carmilla. All Carmilla.
Carmilla who had let Laura fall into her arms after they’d fled from the school for a second time. Carmilla who had found Laura a fluffy blanket in the stacks of books. Carmilla who was still holding Laura in her arms and saying things that Laura couldn’t even begin to absorb.
Carmilla who Laura had killed a man for.
The cut on her forehead had dried to crust. The wound on her chest had faded to a sluggish trickle of thick blood. But the blood on her hands. The blood on her hands was fresh and not hers and she’d made a choice.
Carmilla.
Laura shuffled back, fingertips still touching Carmilla but far enough away that Laura could look at her. Really look at her. Her face looked tired. Worn and dirty and tired. Perfect hair a mess of flyaways and skin too pale from days living in a dark basement with limited food.
Carmilla who had tried to come for Laura and who had gotten captured in the process. Carmilla who had been chained up around her neck and wrist with bonds even a vampire couldn’t break. Carmilla with blood on her mouth and the hint of fangs poking from her lips.
Carmilla who had a full set of bruises around her neck from collar that evil hands had tugged too tight. Hands that Laura had given power too. Carmilla who still had a neck even when a sword had come so close to cutting through it, creating a wound that couldn’t be fixed.
Laura couldn’t be fixed. She was too broken. Too gone.
But.
Laura reached into her pocket, saying nothing. She moved so slowly that Carmilla could have easily knocked her away. Easily ran across the room even without her speed.
Carmilla didn’t move.
Laura pressed a wrinkled dinosaur bandaid to her neck. Blue sky and green apatosaurus against dirty white skin. Dinosaurs still dancing.
Dinosaur Bandaid #8
Carmilla reached into her own pocket. There was a small rustled and then Carmilla was carefully sticking a bandaid over the wound on Laura’s chest.
Both the bandaid and Carmilla’s thumb pressed gently over her heart.
Not letting go.