As Long As You're Mine

No One Mourns The Wicked

Laura pouts. "Y'know I did just almost die, right? Can't you be a little nicer to me?"

Carmilla lightly nudges Mattie.

"Sorry," Mattie says stiffly. "Am unhappy to be stuck in here."

Laura nods and looks around them as Kirsch and Danny continue to scour the room. "It's just too bad that whole sonic scream thing was a myth. Could really use that right now."

Mattie's eyes widen. "Not a. Myth."

This gets Laura's attention. "Wait, what?" She jumps to her feet, albeit shakily. "Do you think you could use it to blast the door and gate open?"

"Maybe." Mattie walks over and knocks on the door to test the density.

"Who's there?" Kirsch asks, earning a smack from Danny.

Mattie rolls her eyes. "Very thick."

"Yes, he is," Danny says as she walks over with Kirsch.

"Apparently Mattie's sonic scream wasn't urban legend after all," Laura explains. "I was hoping she could blast our way out."

Mattie frowns. "Sense something."

Laura looks around in confusion. "What is it--"

"USE YOUR PHOTO!!!!" a voice echoes through the hall, making everyone jump.

Laura bunches up her face in confusion. "Mel?"

"What the frilly hell?" Carmilla growls, pulling out her photo hesitantly.

"SAY YOU WANT TO SEE LAFONTAINE."

Laura and Carmilla look at each other in disbelief.

Carmilla clears her throat. "I... wish to see LaFontaine?"

The picture glows in her hand and suddenly they can see the other side of the door. Sure enough, the red-haired Winged Monkey is glancing into a pink box, with Perry the Lion peering over their shoulder.

Mel also squints into the box before looking around her. She locates where Carmilla's picture is watching them. "This isn't creepy. At all."

"How did you do that?" Laura asks.

Mel shrugs and points at LaFontaine. "They held up this box and started motioning at my mouth. It was weird. Like a very, very boring game of Charades. With no prize at the end except to see you guys. Yay, me," she says flatly.

"It's a prototype," Carmilla says. "It was meant for Laura to be able to see me and hear me, but it wasn't finished, yet. I was still playing with the audio levels."

"Yeah, I think they wanted me to tell you to say that you wanted to see me, but I wasn't about to tell some glowing magic box my name," Mel points out.

"Okaaaay," Danny says. "But we still have no way out of here. Mattie has her sonic scream but doesn't think it's strong enough to blast through the door."

LaFontaine and Perry perk up and start excitedly chattering and grunting at Mel, gesturing at some object out of view from the picture.

"Alright! Alright, I'm tel- Would you both calm down or I'm not telling them a damn thing--" Mel annoyedly steps away from them. "LaFontaine is pointing at that fan they brought. I assume they want to use that with Mattie's scream?"

Carmilla mulls this over. "That could work."

They all stand back, with Laura giving Mattie an encouraging pat on the hoof.