Les Sacrifices auront leurs Conséquences

3. J'ai besoin de fermeture

It took Sherman roughly a half hour to drive back to the hotel base, the ground and weather making it more difficult to drive. Carmilla sat in the passenger seat silently staring out the window.

The air wasn't quite tense, but rather forlorn, the weather reflecting it perfectly. The gray skies hiding the sun away and the green of the summer trees looking muted, dark, and dreary.

Sherman was saddened, not by the state of the campus and the foliage, but rather by the state of his beloved girls. Though Carmilla was still fairly new to his life, he knew how much she meant to his Laura and how much she had done for her. From just their conversations in the Library he knew she was special and he should do his best to make her feel like part of the family.

As he was prepping that morning he saw Laura sneaking off to his room. He unfortunately couldn't go and see why she wasn't with Carm resting in their room, but now he understood.

Knowing his daughter, she would probably stay there all day and ask to curl up on the small couch for the night, needing her father and a little bit of comfort despite knowing she's the one who needs to fix this. No matter how mature she had shown herself to be, Laura was still a little 19-year-old who wasn't quite ready for the world and all its evils.

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Sherman pulled into the parking lot, parking the truck right in front of Laura and Carmilla's room. Carmilla shook herself to focus when she felt the truck stop and shut off. Looking ahead of her, her face grew cold and stern. "You're not expecting me to go in there?" She asked, not really wanting an answer. "Yes, I am. She's not in there." He looked at her with sad eyes and nodded towards the neighboring room, "She's in my room. Has been since early this morning and it's not likely she'll dare going back till tomorrow morning. Go clean yourself up and get some rest." Carmilla nodded and clambered out of the truck, folding the reflective blanket in half and leaving it on the seat. "Thanks." She mumbled out, not turning to look at him again.

Pulling a key card from her back pocket, she slid into the room, taking in the smell of the cheap roach infested room mixed with Laura's familiar hot chocolate and vanilla scent. She closed the door behind her and looked around.

Laura had left her TARDIS mug with black coffee on the desk next to her laptop. Carmilla realized that she must have been real rough off after the previous night to be drinking coffee, let alone black coffee. She looked at the computer with slight curiosity as to what Laura could have possibly been doing. She touched the mouse pad to wake it up and saw the podcast upload screen.

Her first reaction was more anger. Why on earth would Laura go and post more about their lives now? After all this hadn't she learned her lesson? Apparently not.

Her second reaction was desperation for things to be like they were when she came back from the pit the first time. Holding hands behind the pillow, making out on camera and faking a disgust for the PG-13, and champagne mixed with stars and very non-PG-13 things.

Her third reaction was apathy. She grabbed the mug, taking a sip of the very cold, very bitter coffee, and turned to sit on the bed. She was much too exhausted to be worrying about a stupid podcast right then.

She needed a shower, but that could wait. She needed sleep. Her semi-human body shouting out to her to rest and relieve it of all the tension that had built up in her joints and muscles.

Setting the mug down on the bedside table, she swung her legs over and laid down, Laura's scent enveloping her. At first it was comforting, but it quickly grew to be too much. She got back up and grabbed a blanket to lay down on the small couch next to the desk. It wasn't very big, more the size of a love seat, but it worked, her exhaustion making her more apathetic than ever as to where she slept. In mere minutes she fell into a fitful sleep.

Carmilla had always had nightmares, especially after Ell and the being buried in the coffin of blood. It came with the territory of being a creature of the night. Nothing good could ever come from the dark and death. Being turned semi-human didn't change anything. The only time she found any solace in her dreams were the brief periods of peace with Ell or Laura between chaos.

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Laura, though she didn't want to, knew she needed to go and collect things to shower with. She didn't want to subject her dad or anyone else to how she smelled right now. She figured gathering her yellow pillow and mug might be good as well, hopefully to give some comfort.

She hoped that Carmilla was either still out or asleep when she opened the door. Thankfully, as she peeked in, Carmilla was asleep, but it didn't look peaceful, her sharp features were knotted and tense. She scolded herself for letting her eyes linger and turned to collect her things.

As she began grabbing her things from the shower, she heard a muffled shout. Turning and sticking her head out of the bathroom, she saw that Carmilla had pulled the blanket away, clenching it in her paled fists, and was now mumbling. She looked so pained and scared. It hurt Laura to see her that way, even with the words that had been slung like bullets the previous night.

She watched for a moment to see if it was going to stop on its own or if she really did need to intervene and risk getting choked by Carmilla in a startle reaction, which had happened before.

Luckily it stopped, but only because Carmilla woke. She sat up quickly, her breath coming in quick shallow gasps and her grip tightening further on the blanket. She didn't notice Laura, who was still peeking around the corner of the attached bathroom.

Laura took a small step out to make herself visible, but still keeping herself feeling small and safe, and spoke quietly, her voice scratchy and lifeless. "Are you okay?"

Looking up with a start, Carmilla focused on Laura with hazy eyes. She took a moment to slow her heart and focus her emotions before nodding slowly. "What are you doing here?" Laura was taken aback by the question and reacted with a false silent rage. "It's my room." She said with a hardened tone. "I thought you were staying with your dad." Carmilla responded dryly, her face hardening. "I am, but that's not the point." Laura stated, stepping out fully and squaring her shoulders.

"What is the point, cupcake?"

She didn't even have one. That was the problem. Laura didn't have a point, she just wanted a reason to be angry.

"Never mind. I'm too tired for this. I'm just grabbing things for the night. I'll be out of your hair in just a minute." She turned to go back into the bathroom, her body slumping with defeat.

Carmilla stayed seated on the edge of the couch, her elbows resting on her legs and her head hanging down with her hair covering her face slightly. When Laura came back out she spoke, "Why is the podcast upload page up?" She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it for herself. "Does it really matter?" Carmilla let out a snide laugh, "Yeah, it does cupcake. It mea-" Laura interrupted her quickly, raising her voice, "Enough with the passive aggressive nicknames! Can't you just be an adult?!" Carmilla scoffed and stood up, holding a hand to her chest, "Me? I need to be the adult?! This coming from the 19-year-old little wannabe who thinks the world her audience and my life is her play!"

Laura shook her head and stomped towards the door, "Yeah, you! The same person who I thought would've been big enough to see that it isn't all about her! You know why I do those podcasts?!" Her hands began flying with the words coming from her mouth. "I do it because I need to cope! Just like LaFontaine has their science experiments and Perry has her obsessive cleaning and you have your damn killing sprees and running from crap... I need this Carm! I need closure, even if I know that there likely won't be any fixing this!"

Laura turned on the now speechless Carmilla, exiting the room and slamming the door behind her.