Turn Away (A Hollstein Fic)

"Star Gazing" (I Want To Know You)

"Tell me something," Laura says stepping ahead of me swinging our hands forward and backwards.

"Anything." I say watching as she takes another swig of the bottle in her hand. Since we started walking she was taking sips here and there to the point where her balance was already going a little off.

"Tell me everything." Laura giggles. Before I could begin speaking she spots our apparent destination. "OH LOOK, SWINGS!" She begins running wobbly towards them still stringing me along.

"Laura slow down" I laugh holding her back to try and keep her balance.

"Come on you worry wart," she laughs, "I got this!" She let's go of my hand and grabs hold of the swing dropping herself into it, almost missing the thing entirely.

"Laura you're buzzed."

"And you're beautiful." She smiles closing her eyes and leaning back. I quickly run behind the swing to catch her before she leans too far and falls out of the swing.
"Hey Carm! Of course you can push me on the swing, how thoughtful." She says looking up at me as I stood behind her swing. I laugh.

"You're something else you know?" I say kissing her forehead as she looks up at me.

"I love when you do that, you know?"

"Is that so?" I smile as she nods frantically.
"Easy there Laur,"

"Hey! you were supposed to, supposed to.." She sticks her tongue out biting it gently trying to remember our discussion from before.

"Tell you 'Everything'?" I say smiling down at her as she grins widely.

"Yes! Sit sit. I want to know you!" I let Laura's swing go as soon as I know she's got her balance and take the bottle from her making her hold the swing with both hands.

"Well" I say taking a swig from the wine bottle. "My real names Mircalla, daughter of the count Karnstein in Styria, a duchy of Austria in 1680. I was 18 when I was murdered-"

"Woah. I've really got to sober up for this." She says shaking her head and looking at me with a serious face. She takes my hand and holds it tight. I smile taking another swig.

"And.. 'Mother' saved me.."

"Mother?"

"Not my birth mother. A very old and wise vampire lady I allowed to raise me.. to teach me my strengths." Laura nods keeping her focus on me. "The most painful part of it all was watching my family age from afar.. I still think of them often." I sigh. "A wide world.. it opened before me in death as it had never been in life. We saw the birth of a new world in science and philosophy and revolution. Seeing these amazing things.. only blinded me to mother's true colors." I felt a sting in my chest thinking about how cruel I had been before.

"Every night was a grand ball.. a hunt.. a feast.. At first I saw no harm in it. Until I met Ell."

Laura's hand squeezes mine pressing me to continue.

"She was one of the first humans I couldn't kill. It was 1872 when we were on our usual hunt. I went alone that night. When I went to lure in a meal, the girl that caught my eye was just.. too kind to hurt. I never told Mother about it. We soon became very close friends. I found myself spending most of my time with her, that was until mother got suspicious of my whereabouts. Ell was my best friend.. and in order to keep her safe I had to cut off ties with her. Mother threatened to murder her if I didn't.." I take another drink of the wine, a longer one than before. "I watched her age from afar. Start a family with a very nice gentleman. She was hurt when I left, but learned to live happily."

"What happened to you and your mother afterwards?" Laura asks gently pulling the bottle from my hands to stop me from drinking.

"We um.. I couldn't forgive her for making me leave. For threatening to kill Ell. So I threatened to leave and she.. she didn't take it lightly.." I raise my shirt slowly to show Laura a scar on my lower right side just below my ribs.