Chapter Text
“Don’t just stand there, help me get her to the bed!”
Laura acts quickly, despite being unhappy with the lack of hesitation at following commands from the vampire. Hooking one of Carmilla’s arms over her shoulder, Mattie follows suit. A picture depicting a gruesome death is knocked off the wall, but Laura won’t miss it. Just as she won’t miss the crude sculpture that falls from a table as Carmilla’s limp legs knock into it.
They lay her down as carefully as possible and Mattie lets go of Carmilla’s hand, her grip leaving behind bloody smears; a startling reminder of their present situation.
“What happened to her!?”
While Mattie explains, she hasn’t stopped moving since they got Carmilla on to the bed. Using her speed to grab a multitude of different items after wiping her hands off. Towels, thick dusty old books, another lamp that adjusts and bends, a few other things in a bag Laura can’t get a clear look at. Her focus is solely on the explanation of how Carmilla was hurt.
“I thought we were onto something. We were following up on a lead when we stumbled across a body. It was obviousbait, but still we went in. Foolishly I believed we could grab it and get out before any plans for a trap could be triggered.”
Mattie pauses for the briefest of moments, her usual sneer pulled down into what appears to be a frown. It was odd to see for Laura. All her confidence, her whole vibe of being indestructible was wiped away. Though only absent for a moment. Mattie obviously was not permitting her façade to remain down for long.
Mattie continues to run around the room, giving only snippets of what actually happened. Laura takes the moment to focus on Carmilla. She can’t help her hand from rising to the face she knows so well. It’s a gentle touch, and a touch Carmilla gives no indication that’s she’s aware of.
Carmilla eyes look sunken in, beneath them is a blotchy dark purple color. It looks like bruises surrounding her eyes, and if it weren’t for her breathing, although irregular, Laura would think she was dead. Or, fully dead, Laura reminds herself.
Laura doesn’t have enough time to take in her full appearance before Mattie steps in between them, tearing open Carmilla’s shirt. The move exposes a ghastly and infected looking wound. It’s far too close to Carmilla’s heart for her comfort. Greenish-yellow looking vines are spreading outward from the wound forming a haphazard X.
Laura struggles to contain her shallow breathing. She knows Mattie can hear her heart first falter, then beat wildly. Carmilla always seemed untouchable to her, so to see her wounded and vulnerable brings a new kind of pain to Laura. With the lack of a snippy comment on her body’s involuntary reaction, she knows Mattie is more worried than she had originally thought; which truly terrifies Laura more than the sight of Carmilla wounded in front of her.
The edges of the wound look burnt and peeled as if something exploded from inside her body outward. Dark blood coats her wound and any surrounding skin. Though some of the blood pouring out isn’t thin liquid as she would expect, but thick, and slow moving like tree sap.
They both stare down at Carmilla for a moment.
While Carmilla’s skin has always appeared to Laura as pale, it’s never been as ghostly as it is now. The light, almost see through, appearance of her skin brings a view of clearly old scars. She’s never seen them before, perhaps they weren’t visible, or maybe that’s not what she looked for while staring at Carmilla.
All in all Laura ends up staring at Carmilla far more than Mattie who continues to move and speak frantically.
All the sudden chatter brings Carmilla back to their reality. She makes more of a whimper than saying any actual words, but it is enough for Mattie to be at her side within the same second. She reassures her that they are safe, that they are home.
Carmilla’s vision fades in and out, though the sight of Laura leaves her reeling trying to stay conscious a little while longer. She tries to get in a better look, and surprises them bothwhen she chokes out a laugh.
“Well, if this wasn’t embarrassing enough-” Carmilla’s words are abruptly cut off when her airway fills with a mixture of her own blood and what looks like white foam. The sickly mixture spills out of her mouth almost giving her the distinct look of a rabid dog.
In that split second Laura and Mattie exchange quick glances, and Laura can see something she has never seenbefore.
Panic.
“It’s the poison. I'm going to need your friend for this.” Mattie looks disgusted for even needing the help of Laura’s friends. Begrudgingly she states again while wiping up the mess with a towel,“I’m going to need their help."
“Laf! Get down here!Hurry Lafontaine!” Laura yells up the stairs before hurrying back.
It’s in the shake of Mattie’s hands as she tears the rest of the bloody t-shirt off that Laura knows this is far worse than she could have imagined.
They can hear more than just Lafontaine’s footsteps come racing down the staircase. They’re the first through the door, hair half sticking up and rubbing away the tiredness from their eyes.
Perry and J.P follow Laf, each shouting a mixture of wondering what was going on at such a late hour. It only takes a minute for the mood to switch and Perry to ask “What happened?” as they both rush over, scanning Carmilla’s weak and wounded body.
“J.P my bag!”
“Right,” J.P to disappears up the stairs and back again with Lafontaine’s supply bag.
“She’s been poisoned,”
“Poisoned? By what?” Lafontaine questions, rifling through their bag. “Tetrodotoxin? Ricin? Cyanide?” They’re careful to pry open one of Carmilla’s eyes to shine a light into it; when her pupil immediately constricts, there is a small sigh of relief from them.
Mattie shakes her head at the ludicrous implication that anyone of her kind could be effected by such mundane things like human poisons. “Don’t insult me by thinking vampires such as ourselves can’t handle your petty human toxins. Clearly in order to do this much damage to something supernatural, you’re going to need a weapon forged from the same cloth.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I am human, and I don’t have the ‘supernatural poisons your friend’s vampire girlfriend might be effected by 101’ okay?”
Laura swallows dryly hearing the word girlfriend. “If you want their help, you need to tell them what, or who did this."
A small whisper of the word “Werewolf” comes in a gasp by JP from behind the group, stunning them all except for Mattie.
“A what?!”
“That’s what that is isn’t it?”He asks, a little louder.
“How do you know?” Mattie asks in a flat tone.
“Every cell in this body is screaming at me to get as far away from that scent as I possibly can. Tell me I’m mistaken.”
Mattie drops the bloodied and broken piece of arrow on to the table. “I wish I could. My guess, there someone who isn’t who they say they are, and they know far more about this side than they are leading everyone to believe.”
J.P picks up the arrow head for better inspection. When the light hits it at just the right angle, you can see a clear,viscous substance glisten.
“This is not good.”
Laura watches the exchange and fills with an unsettling mix of confusion and fear. “Can one of you please explain what the hell is going on?”
“Laura, you might want to sit down for this.”
****
Carmilla woke with a start as a bang echoed across the open field she found herself in. Face down on the muddy ground, Carmilla groans. Her body feels as if it weighs a thousand pounds. Her heart that for centuries, had a slow and nearly undetectable rhythm, now beats wildly. With fingers tingling and stomach in knots, Carmilla recognized an old feeling. Not since she was human had she felt this. Fear. Debilitating, overwhelming and consuming fear. But from what?
With a great effort, Carmilla rolls over to her back. She is greeted with an angry sky. The clouds are low, black and thick. As if they consumed all the evil from the world. Another bang echoes through the field, following is a shattering scream, telling Carmilla that evil is still very much present on earth, and it is close. With the next scream Carmilla sits up, fingers digging into the soggy ground. The scream sends a shock down her spine. It is almost as if she is being pulled towards it. It doesn't feel like curiosity pulling her towards the scream, it is an absolute need. Glancing down to her fingers, bracing to stand, she realized the soggy ground was actually only one part mud, and two parts blood.
The open field is a large rectangular shape, with the far end narrowing, as if it were a large funnel. She glances up once again at the dark clouds being interrupted by large plumes of smoke billowing up from several locations throughout the field. The strong stench of burning flesh invaded her nostrils and refused to vacate no matter how hard she shook her head or how much she breathed through her mouth.
Surrounding her are stacks of bodies. They are piled up like merchandise ready to go on the floor of a store. Men, women, children, all stared at her with blank eyes, free of any emotion, but holding an eerie sense of familiarity.
Standing, she avoids the eyes of the dead that seem to follow her. Despite her efforts to move quickly, this world seems to move in slow motion. Her muscles feel strained as if she is running full speed, in actuality her feet barely manage to leave the mucked earth.
More screams urge Carmilla forward, but barely audible whispering comes from behind her. Several voices joined as one beckon her back. "See us." they demand. But the effort required to go back was far too great. She must keep going. She must locate the source of the screams.
The clouds drop as the booms of what she thinks are cannons get closer. It was a sound she was familiar with as she remembered bitterly crawling pout of the coffin her mother confined her in until a war broke her open and allowed her to escape. But she escaped with decades of hunger and a heart of vengeance. The sight she is in now seemed far too familiar. But she can’t focus on that now.
Blood splashes up her legs. Other shouts of men in varying accents joined in the screams. More than one source of screaming now rang through the field. But Carmilla focused on one. The important one that fractured her heart and allowed fear to spread through her body like a virus.
They are important. They are everything. Knowing this Carmilla got closer, catching sight of honey tinted hair. "Laura." Carmilla croaks out.
****
“Laura” Carmilla groans, her voice scratchy and gasping with effort.
JP steps closer to the unfolding scene. “No no no, this isn’t good. It’s already happening. I wasn’t expecting it to happen this fast.”
“It has to be because of how close it was to her heart.” Mattie states, clicking her tongue to hide the slight quiver in her voice.
“That doesn’t seem too from off from the realm of possibilities. But if the dreams have already started, our window for giving Carmilla any sort of help or relief is gradually shrinking. We have to act now or she’ll be on her own.”
“There’s nothing in these books, where else can I check?” Laf responds from the living room.
J.P pinches the bridge of his nose to ease the building pressure.
“She’s burning up,” Perry calls out from behind the group, the back of her hand pressed ever so lightly on the side of Carmilla’s face. A sight that takes not only Laura back, but Lafontaine as well. Generally anything in the supernatural realm had the absolute effect of repelling her. Yet there she is, willing herself to be a part of the messy, vampire mortality, situation at hand; not to mention seemingly comfortable with the intimate gesture with Carmilla of all people.
The air sits heavy amongst them all. With the flow of ideas beginning to now only trickle in, panic becomes despair. Is there a solution? Is the effort spent trying to save her futile? What if this was the time for goodbyes, and instead they were standing around shouting at each other about ideas that would never work. Its feeling overwhelming and morbid thoughts began to swim into the front of all their brains.
“Wait!” Laf’s voice booms throughout the house. They come running back into the room with a biomedical textbook in hand. “We’ve been looking at this all wrong.”
The room stares blankly, waiting for Laf to continue on. “Since I couldn’t find anything in these books to help, I turned to mine. Treating this like it isn’t a supernatural virus, but a human one. Then I remembered these chapters on Hematology and phlebotomy.”
“Still not following.”
“What if we treated this like a transfusion?”They suggest with wide eyes and hair stirring as much as their thoughts.
“Modern medicine won’t work on a vampire, come back when you actually have something useful.” Mattie clips out, not bothering to look up from Carmilla’s weakening state.
“I’m well aware of that, and if you’d listen you’d understand what I’m trying to suggest.”
Mattie huffs.
“I’ve seen it done before,”
“Where? Here in the lab?”
“Well, no, not there,” They admit.
“Off campus?”
“No, not exactly.”
“Then where?”
With hesitation and a deeper breath then necessary they blurt out“A television show,”
Mattie throws her hands up, “Yeah, Carmilla’s in great hands.”
“Hear me out. In the show one person gets exposed to a ton of radiation to the point they are about to die, but when they get someone who can tolerate and metabolize radiation much quicker, they set up a transfusion. Circulating his blood through hers, helping her body heal itself and break down the radiation until it’s completely gone from her system.
“Are you out of your mind? Unless you have some magical hybrid on hand, there is nothing in the world that can survive Essence tied with vampire blood like a bad sun tan. You’re insane-“
“Wait,”J.p raises his hand “I see what you’re getting at,”
“You can’t be serious?” Mattie bites back.
“What is your idea?”
Laf pauses to read the potential reaction of the two most invested people in Carmilla’s life. “We go about this like a supernatural detox, or like a kind of cleanse if you will. If the poison in Carmilla’s body will only spread, we have to get as much of it out of her body.”
“And where would you like to get this fresh blood pray tell? I assure you; we scoured this campus looking for dinner and a lead on the situation at hand. There isn’t exactly an abundance of usable blood around here anymore.”
“Well,” Laf points around the room. “From us.”
J.P is quick to shoot the idea down. “She wouldn’t actually be able to intake blood from multiple sources. Each source of blood sometimes comes with the memories or even emotions from the donor. Multiple donors would bring with it far too many conflicting emotions and an abundance of memories hitting her all at once. It will overload her brain and she will likely succumb faster to the spreading virus.”
“So she would need to only have one source replacing her lost blood then?” Perry asks.
“Yes, ideally. However, no human life can sustain the flow rate of blood that would be needed. There isn’t enough time to recover. The donor would die before we got the poison out of Carmilla.
“So unless you’ve come into regeneration abilities, I don’t think this idea is an option anymore.”Mattie says, all but discarding the idea.
No words are said, and Laf takes off out of the room before returning with a small pack. Opening to reveal its contents and showing two vials of what looks like blood. “It’s Carmilla’s,”
Mattie is up on her feet, looking a little threatening, “Where did you get that? How-“
“She gave it to me willingly, we were working on something but it doesn’t matter now.”
“Working on what?”
“Will this be enough to heal Laura for what she loses or not?” Laf interrupts.
“Yes, if we are careful enough.” J.p cautions.
“This idea might just be crazy enough to work.” They flash a mad grin they only break out when playing the role of mad scientist and get to work.
****
Her light. Her life. Her world. The love to overshadow everything in all her lives. She is here, and she is in danger. Carmilla chases her with all her might, ducking into the tree line and nearly tripping over roots and shrubs.
Time moves faster here in the trees, allowing Carmilla's legs to move in a blur, chasing Laura's receding figure.
Several minutes later Carmilla catches up to Laura and reaches to touch her. "Laura, hey, it’s me." She whispers. But her fingertips sizzle and her skin bubbles as she touches Laura's shoulder. Laura stands still, never turning to face Carmilla. So she circles around the statue of a girl, only to recoil in a new sense of fear
It is Laura's frame, Laura's voice she heard scream, but this being in front of her isn't Laura. What makes it even more terrifying is that this figure is faceless. She stills as another scream comes from behind her. This… thing was nothing more than a decoy.
Running full out she hears the whispers getting louder, and the decoy screams a bloody gurgle. Focusing on the real Laura is the hardest thing she has ever done as they heaviness of this world weighs down on her, pushing her into the soft ground. But she trudged on, going back the way she came. Barreling into the clearing she knows somehow that time is running out. Just as the thought passed through her panicked mind, she arrives back into the clearing. The screaming stops and a fresh body is being loaded into a new pile. Now it is Laura doing the whispering "See me."
****
Lafontaine and JP ransack several labs across the campus, pulling everything that could possibly be of use into the room. Tubing, monitors and several electrical panels nobody really knew what they were for all were put in a small circle around the bed. It looked eerily like an operating room; sterile and full of potential deaths.
“Explain this to me one more time, because there is no way I heard it correctly the first time.” Danny demands.
JP points to the thin tube connected to a needle Laf is holding before leaning over to sterilize Laura’s arm.
“The virus multiplies itself, but it takes time. Which it buys itself time by slowly driving the host insane and making them battle their inner most demons until it has consumed every cell in the body. By the time the host completely surrenders to it, there is no coming back. It puts the host through a series of increasingly difficult tests that the person doesn’t even know they are being a part of.”
JP double checks the tube for kinks and nods to Laf that it is ready to go
“So, anyway. What we are going to do is slowly draining the virus from Carmilla’s body. But with the virus, comes her blood. Laura’s blood will replace what Carmilla is losing. Without intervention, Laura will become weak and could die. But, with this alarm that goes off with any sign of duress, Laura will be given small amounts of Carmilla’s blood that will heal her. It is essentially a healing circle. They both heal each other, with neither part being less important.”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this Laura?” Danny asks despite already knowing the answer.
“I’m sure.”
“And you’re positive there’s no other way?”
“I don’t think so. Both Lafontaine and J.p have probably looked over every book in the entire house and J.p went through every database he could get access too. It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice if we want to save her. Laf said it would be tricky trying to time everything just right, but I can’t just give up on her if there’s even the slightest chance this might work.”
“But what if she,”
“Danny don’t, we’ll worry about that bridge if we come to it.”
****
Carmilla’s gut twists into a thousand knots at the sight of Laura’s limp body being stacked with the rest. Just another brick in the corpse wall of horror.
She knows there is nothing to be done. Not for Laura, her sweet naïve Laura. She wants to trade places, finally receive the fate she deserves. But life doesn’t work that way. All she can do now is run. Save herself to at least keep the memory of their short love alive.
So she backs away, not trusting her back to the faceless minions and their jerky inhuman motions as they pile more of the dead atop each other. It is hard to know how long it took for her to take those few steps. Time isn’t working in the way she had become accustomed too.
Her steps didn’t lead her far, but they did lead her to an edge of sorts. The edge of the earth maybe, or perhaps just the edge of the sliver of sanity she had left.
Either way, she tips over the edge landing hard on her back. The hole she finds herself in is deep enough to cast most of her body into a blanketed shadow. Eerie figures loom above her, heads with no faces, limbs made of hardened dust. They have no way to show it, but she can feel it. They are happy. Happy with her will being gone, and what’s left of her mind and body in a hole they dug especially for her.
One blink, two blinks, and a third for good measure.
Suddenly, she can’t see the sky anymore.
Above her are wood panels, framed with cream colored fabric. It was the same ruffled eyesore she stared at for nearly a half century before. The coffin she was doomed to spend eternity in was familiar, but no less panic inducing.
She struggles to conserve the air she knows is scarce. Her body can survive without it, but the effects are devastating. She remembers how the veins in her throat felt like they exploded one by one, her lungs dried and collapsed upon themselves, and her skin shriveled against her weary bones. It was coming, and she couldn’t go through it again.
Pounding her fists against the wood above her, she uses all the fear she has, turning it to anger to fuel her strength. But darkness itself formed into solid tendrils, slick, yet hot. They wrap themselves around her wrists and ankles, a few at first, then more came as she struggled.
She can’t give up, she knows that. Voices in the distance spur her on once again, but even given all her inhuman strength, she can’t break free. Each time she pulls it’s like pulling at her own brain, bringing up everything she’s done to deserve the terrifying situation she’s in.
Missions from her mother, hearts she’s broken, lives she’s taken. And Laura, who she doomed from the start. She didn’t save her from her mother, she only prolonged the inevitable death of her only true love. It is her greatest crime to date, soiling all that was pure within Laura.
She begins to doubt whether she deserves to escape the coffin just as the cream fabric becomes a dark brown hue. Blood seeps completely through and begins to fill the coffin as if it were a tub someone carelessly forgot to turn off.
This can’t be real. She thinks so loudly the thoughts echo through her skull. But it feels real, and is what she deserves in the end, so it must be real.
She wishes she could see Laura just once more. Hear her voice, feel her touch. She squints her eyes and tries to piece together the squeaky voice she’s come to love so much.
She wants to imagine Laura saying it’s going to be okay. That it is alright to surrender to this hell.
As the blood covers her mouth and creeps towards her desperate nostrils, she does hear Laura, though not in the way she hoped.
“You would have never saved me, you should have just stayed away. You should have stayed buried.”
Carmilla gives in just as the voice of Laura gives up on her, and them. She has nothing left to lose.
But for the first time, her lungs are burning, screaming for open air. This feeling brings on its own level of panic, because such an unfamiliar sensation reminds her she isn’t as invincible as she’s come to know.
She is actually going to drown. She was going to lose the one light in her life. She’s going to die if she doesn’t fight.
And if there is one person on this earth that was worth fighting for, it’s Laura.
***
The team splits up, each with their own mission. Danny in a surprisingly helpful burst of energy pulls in a couple plush chairs from the living room. Putting it as close as possible to the bed, given Laura and Carmilla would need to be close for the transfusion.
Laura may be putting her life at risk, but she would be comfortable doing it at least.
Who knows how long the process will take. Hours, days? Would they fail immediately after starting? Laura tries not to think about it.
“Why do you two look so worried?” She asks as JP and Lafontaine franticly whisper to each other, pointing at a paper Laura can’t quite get a line of sight on.
“Will this work or not? Can we save her?”
JP sighs, clutching the paper into a tight grip of his fist.
“I am afraid I cannot guarantee anything. We have analyzed every variable we know of dozens of times. That does not however account for variables that well….vary.”
Laf takes the opportunity of his pause to cut in, “We don’t know if we have enough of her blood to keep the transfusion going for as long as it needs to. The IV system we have works far slower than we would have hoped. It will be a rush to the finish.”
“Are you going to mention the theory that we…?” JP attempts to ask before Lafontaine delivers a death stare usually reserved for those risking harm to Perry.
“No what? What theory? It’s my life and Carm’s at risk here. I want to know everything.”
“Well,” They continue “There is also a risk that if we rush the process that you may develop something akin to an addiction to her blood. It’s powerful stuff, and frequent or high doses may lead to a craving for that power once again.”
Laura grips Carmilla’s hand, its burns into her own which is only one layer of odd in their current situation. She isn’t even sure why she asked really. No matter the risk, the reward is too high for her to refuse. They didn’t have another option.
“We can figure that out later. What matters is getting Carmilla back, no matter what happens after that, it will be worth it.”
“So, no chance of you backing out then?” JP asks tentatively.
“None.” Laura says more to Carmilla than anyone else.
Without further questioning, JP and Lafontaine gather their first needed materials. The glint of the needle coming towards her doesn’t even make Laura flinch. Too much is at stake for petty fears. She welcomes the bit of pain if it takes from Carmilla’s internal torture.
She needs to be patient and have faith in Carmilla’s mental ability to beat this. Though there are far more risks than rewards in this entire situation, saving Carmilla is the only thing Laura can focus on, or care about. Even if that means sacrificing herself to try.
Mattie see’s Laura’s head raise as the budding scientists insert the IV. She is braver than expected. Stupid and brazen absolutely, but still brave. She gives a small nod of approval to Laura for her bravery. Perhaps this is why her sister chose the woman. Even in the midst of what was supposed to be her immortal sister falling victim to an ancient sickness, Mattie could see clearly why Carmilla chose her.
As Laf flips the switch, Laura watches her blood rise through the web of tubing surrounding her. It flows through more machinery JP set up and finally back into the tubes leading to Carmilla. It inches it’s way there, but finally reaches her. There is no stopping it now, not that she would even given the chance.
It has begun.