Chapter Text
You feel uncomfortable as you continue to walk through town. Everyone in town is staring at the two of you. They keep hiding or gossiping or looking very afraid. You look at Laura walking ahead of you, still grabbing her side every now and then from her wound that seems to still be hurting her. You scan her image one last time before finally giving in and speaking.
“Laura.”
She doesn’t answer. You sigh.
“I don’t think the people here are quite fond of your bloody hunter like clothes and the fact that you look like you just murdered a family.”
Laura stops dead in her tracks and angrily turns on her heel to give you a piece of her mind but she looks around and see’s the townspeople in fear.
“You’re right.”
“Well that’s a first, coming from you.”
She glares at you un amused but turns starts to walking again.
“If they’re afraid then that’ll keep them away from me, and that’s good.”
She starts walking faster and heads to a park in the middle of the town. You follow her around not knowing what she’s up to. You look around to see the townspeople still lurking around all looking at the two of you but Laura doesn’t seem to pay any attention to it. She’s more busy looking like she’s searching for something, which what in the world is she freaking doing going around all these trees?
“Laura, what the hell are you doing?”
She stops in front of a tree and takes a few steps back looking up at it. She doesn’t bother answering you. In stead she kneels down and starts digging with her bare hands at the bottom of the tree. You stare down at her confused with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. After some digging you see her stop and clap her hands together getting rid of the dirt. You step closer behind her curious as to what she’s staring at and she pulls out an old metal box and brushes off the dirt from the top of it before standing up and staring at it blankly for what feels like forever.
“Laura-” she flinches up surprised. “What’s in the box?”
She sighs deeply as she looks kind of afraid to open it but she does so anyway, revealing what’s in the box. It’s a bunch of papers and knick knacks. Laura stares down at the opened box in her hands but doesn’t move. She’s frozen in place in deep thought and you don’t know if you should break her from it but once you see some policemen talking to some people and heading your way you decide it’s time to go.
“Laura we have to go.”
Nothing, she only blinks a few times and changes her grip on the box.
“Bring the damn box with you! Let’s go.”
She looks at you and then at the direction you gestured to, seeing the cops coming. She shut the box and placed it under her arm, grabbing you with her free arm.
“Let’s go somewhere else.”
She drags you as the two of you run away and end up hiding in an abandoned building. You’re peaking out the door and you see the cops run past it. You sigh in relief before turning to look at Laura.
“What was that all abou-”
You realize Laura’s kneeling down and opening the box again taking some of the things out and placing them carefully beside her. Curiosity got the better of you and you sat down next to her on the ground, slowly reaching to grab what she placed by her side, giving her time to stop your hand. She doesn’t, and you start looking through these very old looking pages of paper. They’re drawings (really old drawings) of people. Almost like old family portraits.
“Who are these people?”
Laura ignores you and instead takes out what looks like an old passport, opening it and looking at the image inside. She scoffs, not surprised that she still looks the same even though it’s around 50 years old. She takes out a small folder paper from the back of it with a number and waves it in front of you.
“THIS is our ticket to Austria.”
“An old phone number that probably isn’t even in service anymore?”
“It’s in service, trust me.”
“Do I have any other choice?”
“Fair point.” She closes the box and starts standing up,shoving the passport and paper in her pockets. “Come on, let’s go get some new clothes.”
She looks at you for a moment and then reaches her hand out for you to give her the papers which you do. She looks at them with a blank face and then quickly shoves them in Danny’s backpack, before lending you a hand to get up. You grab it and she pulls you up as she looks at you up and down while brushing your pants to get rid of some dirt.
“Those are all the families I’ve had.”
She turns around and walks out of the building leaving you stunned that she actually answered your question from earlier. Her families?
-
You walk into a strange vintage store. Laura had called that number earlier and then started heading to this place, not explaining anything to you. Laura leans on the counter and digs the small bell on it. An old woman shows up fixing up her glasses and staring you and Laura up and down. She’s probably gonna freak out seeing the two of you covered in blood and filth.
“I’m guessing you’re who I talked to earlier.”
“Well it depends...who are you?”
“Laura...uh...Laura Hollis.”
What? You stare at Laura confused. Since when has she had a last name? It must be a fake, it doesn’t sound anything like the name of some centuries old vampire. Laura takes out her beat up passport and gives it to the old woman, who fixes her glasses to look at it.
“Well I’ll be damned...You’re Laura.”
Laura smiles and you don’t think you’ve seen her do it so sincerely.
“Yeah...I’ve been away for awhile but your grandfather told me to stop by if I was looking for help to leave again.”
“Ah yes yes, I have your card right here. Just give me a moment.”
The old lady walks to the front door and flips the open sign to closed. She walks to the back of the store and brings a machine with her, then turns around and grabs a camera.
“Would you two mind standing over there.”
Laura shakes her head and continues to smile.
“No, not at all!”
Laura stands by a white wall where the old woman looks to be about to take her picture when she let’s the camera hand on her neck to take out a wipe and lick it before walking towards Laura. She cleans some dirt from Laura’s face like an old grandmother and Laura giggles but allows her to do it.
“Ok, now let’s do it.”
She takes a picture of Laura and then gestures you to stand where she stood to take a picture of you. She processes them in her old computer and you and Laura stand around waiting for her to be done as she does something with the machine she brought in earlier.
“All done ladies.”
“Great!”
Laura beams and grabs the passports from the old lady’s hand. Passports?! This old woman just made us illegal passports?! Laura hands you your passport and then takes a card from the old woman.
“Here. This should still be linked to your secret account. We always kept it running for you just in case.”
“Thank you. Um could we use your bathroom?”
“Of course!”
Laura gestures for you to follow her. The two of you get cleaned up in the bathroom but your clothes are still stained. Luckily they’re all dark clothes but Laura’s shirt is maroon and you can still notice the blood stains, even more on her brown pants. She doesn’t seem to care.
Laura guides you to a mall after wards. Even though she’s the one who brought you here, she’s the one who looks like she’s never seen a mall in her life. You stare at her as she walks around with her mouth open as she stares up at the stores and tall ceiling. Eventually she picks a store and walks in.
“Laura why are we here? Aren’t we supposed to be heading to Austria? I thought you were in a hurry.”
“We are headed to Austria, but the flight I got booked for us doesn’t leave till midnight tonight.”
“Wait, when did you book a flight?”
“I have my ways.” she smirks and continues walking down the aisle in the store. “But we can’t go into an airport dressed like this. So we’re shopping.”
She skips down another hall and picks out some clothes to try on. You do the same but obviously from the dark clothing side of the store. Once you’re done Laura pays with that card she got earlier and takes the bags. She searches for the mall’s bathroom and gives you your shopping bag.
“Change.”
Once you’re in your new clean clothes you look at yourself in the bathrooms mirror. Not bad. You hear Laura’s stall door open and turn to see her changed into normal clothes. She’s wearing some jeans and a button down light blue shirt.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just not used to seeing you like this is all.”
You stare down at her dirty and blood stained boots and scoff. Of course she couldn't look completely normal, that would just be dull.
You’re both walking around the mall seeing as you still have like 5 hours left till your flight. Laura seems to be searching for something. She seems very concentrated on finding whatever it is. Still, you can’t help but watch her walk around ahead of you. She looks like a completely different person now,dressed in normal clothing. Like an ordinary teenage girl shopping at the mall. Little did anyone know she still had her armor and dagger in her shopping bag. You almost walk into her when she suddenly stopped, looking up at a store sign. You take a look for yourself and see it’s a music store. You furrow your brow confused but notice Laura hurriedly walk inside. You follow her still confused as to why she would want to come in here. Then you remember that CD you found in her room. Right, she didn’t bring any of her things with her.
“Bienvenido a ‘Los Discos de Richy’.” a guy says un amused behind the counter.
You look through the aisles searching for Laura and find her slowly walking down the hall, staring at the CD’s, dragging her fingers over them down the aisle. Her eyes look determined to find something and at the same time you can tell she’s excited right now. You grin to yourself after seeing Laura like this, like an ordinary girl. She stops walking once she finds the “80’s hits” section and a small smile grows on her face. You stand next to her and look at the CD’s.
“The 80’s sucked.”
Laura’s hand twitches to a stop while searching through the CD’s. Her smile fades but she doesn’t seem to comment back right away which is strange coming from her.
“They weren’t that bad.” she says after a few quiet moments. Her eyebrows furrow disappointed and she quickly struts to the counter where that guy was.
“Hey.”
“Hello customer. Find what you wanted?”
You stand next to her as the guy doesn’t look up at either of you and continues to read a magazine un amused.
“No, I didn’t. Where’s Disintegration by The Cure?”
“We don’t have that old one, but we’ve got their greatest hits.”
Laura stands speechless and stiff, her face disappointed and anxious.
“...Can I hear it first?” she let’s out in a low voice. Almost like a fragile one.
“Yeah sure. Here put these on.”
The guy takes out some big store head phones and looks through a drawer playing the CD. Laura nervously puts on the big headphones and stares blankly at the counter as she listens. Her hands placed on the big head phones on her ears.
I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel
Her lips were slightly parted and after a minute her eyes started to look glassy, her jaw clenched tightly as if holding back some strong feelings. You keep staring at her, analyzing ever bit of Laura, wanting to know why this seems so special to her. But Laura would never tell you something like that. Not when it makes her have that look in her eyes.
If only I’d thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I’d thought of the right words
I wouldn’t be breaking apart
All my pictures of you
Laura takes in a sharp breath and takes the headphones off, slightly shaking her head and blinking quickly, almost as if trying to blink tears away.
“Yeah I’ll take it. Can I get a CD player too?”
“What?”
“A CD player. Can I get one?”
“Pff sorry but we don’t sell CD players here..I don’t think they sell those anywhere actually.”
“What?!?”
You snort realizing Laura hasn’t been out of that cave for years. She probably doesn’t have a clue about the new technology.
“Is there an iPod store nearby?”
“Yeah down the hall to the left.”
“Great. Come on cupcake.” you grab Laura’s forearm. She hasn’t moved since the news broke to her about the CD player and she’s staring wide eyed and open mouthed at the guy on the counter as you pull her out of the store.
“Wait- I have to buy that CD!”
“Don’t worry, you can buy it on iTunes at the apple store.”
“The apple store? Why would there be music at an apple store?”
You start laughing and try and cover your mouth with your hand to keep it down. Laura is glaring at you still confused.
“You’ll see cupcake.”
You head inside the apple store and show Laura one of the ipods they had in stock.
“THIS is an iPod. It’s like a tiny floppy disk but for everything. You can hear music on it or watch movies or even take pictures and play some games.”
She’s staring down at your hand as you hold the iPod and show her how it works. Her eyes still wide in amazement.
“So that thing has the CD I want?”
“Sort of. You can buy it online and then it’ll be in this thing.”
“online?”
You chuckle at her. She’s so adorable right now.
“Whatever! Can you...can you do it for me?”
Your smile fades and she seems to get nervous.
“I-I would give you the money! I promise!”
“Okay, I’ll get your stinking music. Any other songs you’d like to buy?”
“Songs?”
“Yeah, you can buy a specific song instead of a whole album.”
“Oh...well get The Cure aaaand New Order aaaand U2! Aaand…”
Laura looks like she’s thinking hard. Probably trying to remember music she had heard decades ago.
“I’ll put some Joan Jett in.”
Laura looks at you surprised.
“You need some female artists in your life, cupcake.”
You smirked at her and she twists her mouth trying not to smile.
“Fine, put some Joan Jett.” she stares down at the iPod in your hand. “in fact, put whatever you want in that thing. You obviously know more about it than I do.”
“It’s not a hard gadget to handle cutie. You’ll get the hang of it.”
The corner of her lips twitch up but she looks away.
“I’ll...wait outside. Here.” she hands you the card and walks away looking down. Even in those normal clothes she has a strong walk, and it seems like her wound is better because she isn’t grabbing her side at all anymore.
You buy the iPod along with a bunch of music: some punk rock, some 80’s weird disco, some mainstream music and some spanish rock than you thought she might like. You walk out of the store to find her leaning against a wall, her hands behind her back and her eyes glued to her shoes as she’s deep in thought again. You wonder what is on her mind today that’s got her acting so...different.
She notices you’re looking at her and raises her head up at you quickly. She stays staring at you like that for awhile before blinking twice and pushing herself off of the wall.
“Did you get it?”
“Yup. It’s got at least 100 songs on it...I didn’t know what you’d like.”
“It’s fine.”
She gives you a quick small smile before grabbing the bag from you and looking down the hall.
“We should get going.”
You exit the mall and hail a cab to the airport. The whole car ride is quiet. Laura seems to be deep in thought again. She’s been doing a lot of that lately. She’s just staring into blank space barely blinking. You can’t take it anymore.
“Are you al right?”
She quickly turns her face to you surprised.
“Yeah, why? Are you?”
“What? Yes I’m fine and I don’t know. You’ve just been in a daze or something.”
“I have not.”
“Yes, you have cupcake.”
She glares at you and quickly faces forward again.
“We’re going to America first.”
“America?”
“Yeah, there aren’t any planes here that go directly to Europe.”
“Listen Laura, are you sure you want to do this…?”
“Why wouldn’t I be sure?”
“I don’t know, you just...don’t seem like your normal self.”
“I’m sure.”
“It’s al right to be afraid-”
“I’m not afraid.” she exclaims angrily.
You shut your mouth not wanting to get her angry again. You’ve seen what she’s capable of back at the dungeon. Your mind starts to wonder as you think of how Laura is now. Is she any different from before then? Was all that bad ass warrior, torturing and being harsh thing all an act? Or is she just holding back since you’re out in public...between humans. You keep questioning things about Laura in your head when she speaks.
“I just...I haven’t been out in a while...I’m not so comfortable with the new world.”
You look at Laura surprised by her sudden words. She’s being honest with you, open even. Maybe Laura isn’t all that she seemed before, but you still don’t know much about her.
“How long has it been?”
Laura stays quiet, still staring forward blankly. You think she isn’t going to answer you but after a solid 30 seconds of silence she does.
“I don’t know...about thirty years.”
“Well...I was locked in a coffin for about seventy or more years so...I get how you must be feeling.”
She finally looks at you, shock and concern in her eyes.
“You were locked in a coffin for seventy plus years??”
“Yeah...I had terrible back pain for a decade or two.” you say jokingly but Laura’s stare doesn’t change.
“Was it your mother?”
You don’t answer right away, looking down at your hands as you play with them in your lap.
“It was.”
Laura doesn’t ask anymore questions, instead she stares at you for a bit and then down at your hands as your fingers keep moving a bit. She moves in her seat, leaning back comfortably and resting her chin on her hand as she looks out the window. It’s quiet for a few minutes and you think Laura’s looking up at the stars. She doesn’t look so concerned anymore.
“Your mother sucks.”
You scoff at her random remark and she doesn’t move at all from her previous position, she simply smiles against her hand.
“Yeah, I’d say she does.” you pause and your own smile drops. “Laura, you shouldn’t try and go against her. You’ll die.”
“Been there, done that.” she jokes, but at the same time you somehow feel like she’s being serious. “I’m not afraid of dying Carmilla.” she pauses. “I’m afraid of losing someone else.”
You stare at her curious as to what she means but the cab comes to a halt.
“Here you are ladies. Have a nice trip!”
Laura opens her door and grabs her backpack.
“We will.” she says before shutting her door and you role your eyes as you get out from the other side. You walked around the car and followed Laura as she walked inside. Once you caught up to her she was looking up at the signs trying to read them.
“Laura-”
“Come on, it’s this way.”
She's walking ahead of you and you could tell she was avoiding your conversation. I guess that’s as much information as you’re going to get from her today.But who knows, maybe she’ll tell you more tomorrow. She passes by airport security and is stopped by two guards.
“Señorita, no puede pasar. Tiene que hacer la fila.”
The man is holding out his arms in front of Laura and Laura only changes her grip on her backpack before pulling out her passport and showing it to him. The man is confused at first but tells the other guard to get someone. After a few minutes the guard comes back and whispers something to the one standing in front of you.
“My apologies girls, go right ahead.”
Laura brushes past the guard and you quickly follow her confused as to what the hell just happened.
“What the hell just happened?”
“I happened, obviously.”
“What did you show them?”
“My passport. Weren’t you paying attention?”
“I know that, but what made them change their minds?”
Laura chuckled and looked back at you as she kept walking.
“I told you.” she smirks. “I have my ways.”
You roll your eyes but just go along with it. Once you reach the gate you see Laura fidgeting. Is she nervous? You couldn’t pay much attention to it because they immediately called you up to go inside and take your seat. This time you were the one who was walking ahead, Laura hesitating for a second before entering the plane. The two of you sat down and Laura got the window seat. She kept fidgeting in her place as everyone else boarder the plane. Laura’s knee was moving and she was chewing her lip. What the heck is wrong with this girl now?
“Hey, are you okay?”
She glances at you with nervous eyes but looks forward again.
“Fine, don’t tell me then.”
The plane starts to move and Laura’s rubbing her palms on her knees as she takes one big breath. Once you’re in the air she seems a bit calmer but you can tell she’s still nervous about something. She takes out the iPod you bought today and tries to turn it on but she doesn’t know how. You stare at her having trouble with it and you can tell she seems anxious.
“Here, let me.”
You take it from her hands and turn it on, handing it back to her.
“Thanks..”
You give her a soft grin and lean into her seat to look at the iPod.
“What would you like to listen to?”
You start browsing through the artists and Laura’s eyes are locked on the iPod’s screen. You stare more at her eyes than at the iPod.
“What’s Coldplay?”
You scoff.
“First time I hear that one.”
She looks ashamed or embarrassed for a bit but she just starts putting her earphones in.
“You like stars right?”
Laura’s eyes widen at you but she slightly nods.
“Yeah..”
“Then listen to this one.”
You press play as you smile and lean back into your own seat.
Look at the stars,
look how they shine for you,
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
Laura focussed on listening to the new song. It probably sounds so different to her, and you hope she actually likes it. Right now though, you think she might, since she hasn’t taken her earphones out. She doesn’t seem to be so anxious anymore which is good and you may feel a bit proud of yourself. You lean back deeper into your seat sighing. Laura suddenly takes out one of her earphones and you get a little nervous.
“I don’t like flying over the ocean.”
You raise an eyebrow at her but she doesn’t bother to look at you.
“Drowning is easier in the ocean.”
Her eyes look sad for a moment but then she just sticks her earphone back in and relaxes into her seat, taking in a deep breath. Her foot moving slightly as she rest her head back and closes her eyes.
It’s true,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Laura’s hand is on the arm rest, almost clutching it and for a second there you question if you should hold her hand or something, but that’s not how Laura is. That’s not what Laura wants. You can hear the music coming from her earphones though and her face seems to be way more relaxed than earlier so you let yourself smile. You’re glad it helped her. You rest your head back and close your eyes too as you get ready to finally get some rest.
You don’t hear the people talking in the plane or the whooshing of the engines.
All you can hear is the music coming from Laura’s iPod.
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.
You don’t know how the rest of this trip with her will go, but you think that maybe, just maybe, it’s not so bad.