Carmilla: Trinity

Chapter Sixteen: Aftermath

Mia races towards the dorm with the tiny life carefully cradled in her hands. She reaches Trinity's room and thanks the heavens that the door is unlocked. Bursting in, she carefully places Trinity down on a pillow and drops to her knees, searching underneath the girls' bed. She spots the water skin and snatches it out. She frantically looks for something to hold the water and sees a fishbowl with a plant inside. She picks it up and rushes to the bathroom, dumping the contents into the sink before hurrying back to the bed.

She opens the water skin. "Please work." She prays and fills the bowl with the liquid. She carefully picks Trinity up and places her inside. "Come on." She says, seeing no change in the grey body of her mate. "Please." After a moment Trinity's hand twitches, making Mia sigh in relief. "You're still here." She says with tears in her eyes. "You're still here."

The battered students, plus the rescued missing girls, sit crowded in Laura's room. Mia sits on the bed with a fishbowl in her lap, filled with water and a floating creature. Danny makes sure that the girl is okay before taking a seat at the computer desk and looking into the camera.

"So," the tall redhead starts. "Laura's kinda having a rough time right now. So..." She turns to Perry, who steps forward.

"So, Laura and I followed LaFontaine across campus to the Lustig building and then down through the basement into a series of caves." She explains.

"I still cannot believe you used me as a human homing beacon." LaFontaine speaks up, blood running from the cuts on their face.

"I know, but just...we were getting desperate and then-"

"No, no, no, no." They place a hand on her back. "That was hardcore. We do not apologize for the hardcore."

Perry smiles at them. "I missed you, weirdo."

They smile back, fondly. "Control freak."

Perry turns back to the camera. "Um, right, so...then, uh, everyone was there. Um, the vampires, the Dean, uh, Kirsch and all the rest, and they were standing at the lip of this enormous chasm with their backs to us, so we rushed them. Which was a bad idea." Her face falls before brightening. "But I did manage to stake that one guy. Will?" She smiles but it falls when she to Kirsch. "Oh." She pats him on the shoulder, minding the makeshift sling. "Sorry, sweetie."

"It's okay." He assures her. "I mean, he kinda had it coming."

Perry goes back to explaining. "But then the rest of the vampires caught us and they threw Laura and I in an old broom closet to eat later."

Danny turns to the camera. "You know the next part. They forgot to take away Laura's phone, which apparently has really great reception. So, I get a text, and, with...a little convincing, I rustle up the cavalry. Uh, a group of sisters, forty odd Zetas, armed with the traditional tridents and salted herring. And, so, we free Laura and Perry and we rush the vampire line. And we totally had them on the ropes when this rumbling started. And from the bottom of the pit, you could see this light rising. A-and it was like..."

"Like the sun coming up underground," Laura says from her spot on the bed. "and you're transfixed by the brightness. Everybody started walking towards it 'cause what can you do but give yourself over to this light? Which was the moment this huge cat grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me away from the edge. And then it shrank and shifted and there was Carmilla...with a sword. A sword like a hollow in reality, eating light."

Mia speaks up never taking her gaze away from the fishbowl. "Trinity pulled me away and snapped me out of it. She wanted me to stay safe while she fought. She was going through vampires like they were nothing."

"And when the Dean saw Carmilla, she screamed and came at us in this swarm of shadows like crows scratching and clawing. And they fought like that until the Dean transformed into a woman again and..."

"And she stabbed Trinity." Mia says, reaching her hand into the bowl and stroking her tiny grey face.

Danny nods solemnly. "Yeah, when Carmilla saw what happened to Trinity, she decked the Dean in the face with the sword hilt and she fell into the pit."

"But it was too late." Laura says. "The light was everywhere. You could see these figures in it, reaching out for you. And I think Ell was...was maybe reaching out for Carmilla and...Carmilla was crying 'cause in all this time she'd never been able to see her. But then Carmilla turned to me and said, 'y'know, I really am starting to hate this heroic vampire crap'." She imitates Carmilla and the group shares a brief laugh. "And then she leapt. Drove the sword right into the heart of the light and the light shook and sputtered like it was alive and the ghosts screamed. And they all fell together into the darkness."

LaFontaine turns to the camera. "Once the light was out, I guess the brain parasites died because everyone seemed to wake up, more or less."

"I was arriving at the wine and cheese and that's it." Natalie says. "I don't even remember if I got any wine."

"I was on a campus tour." Betty says. "I didn't even wanna go to this school."

"But we were all still stuck in an...an almost completely dark underground cavern with a gang of vampires, well the one's Trinity didn't get the chance to kill. It wasn't totally dark, because all over the walls and um, in the air were these beautiful glowing puffballs, courtesy of the alchemy club."

Kirsch nods. "Yeah, it was like having a bar fight in black light. And then this other vamp tried to break my arm and," He smiles at Danny. "Psycho Society here saved my bacon."

"That was accidental." Danny says.

"Hey, even if, you save a Zeta's life you become an honorary Zeta. You get a trident and everything. And, uh, you know, it'd be kinda cool if you would..." He trails off. "When the chips are down, you're kinda like a bro. Um, and I could sorta use one."

"Well, finally, all the vampires surrendered." Perry continues. "Except for Carmilla's mom, who was fifty feet down the cliff face clinging on by her fingernails."

"Oh, and she was doing the whole 'you fools, you don't know what you've done, you'll regret this, zombies will eat your liver', blah, blah, blah, blah." Danny says.

"Yeah, and then Laura's like, 'hey, sorry, the students of Silas University would like a new dean because A: you're a callous, evil witch..." Kirsch imitates her, making a few of the others smile. "'Yep. That one's it. A'. And then Laura goes and pushes this rock that's been teetering on the edge and bam. Done with the Dean."

"Even better than that, now that the ancient demonic brain lantern is off, people are finally coming around, realizing they probably should have been upset about going to a school that serves eyeballs in the cafeteria, has safety protocols for escaped cacodemons, and where mortal combat is a prerequisite for tenure." LaFontaine smiles. "The administration is finally gonna have to listen to my long, long list of health..." They see the look Perry sends them and stops talking. "Yeah. Sorry, Laura...Mia." They apologize, remembering that not everyone is happy with the end of their journey.

"It's okay." Laura says.

"Laura, you did it." Perry tells her. "You saved Betty. You saved almost everyone."

"Yeah. Almost everyone."