MIA
Sudden rapid movement and a ringing squeal had awoken the vampire from her heavenly slumber. The entrancing warmth from last night was no longer running throughout her body and she shivered from the loss of heat. Carmilla's eyes were blurry with sleep and she almost forgot where she was until she heard a familiar jarring voice ramble, “Oh—Oh myGod! Did—did we…Did I… OhmyGod, you—you have to go! Danny is going to kill me… ow, my head!”
Carmilla kept her eyes closed as she grumpily responded, “Good morning to you too, Sundance.”
Laura shot up off the bed, groaning after doing so, and Carmilla let out a loud sigh then looked up at her.
Laura’s hair was no longer in that cute, messy bun, it was now a disheveled mess that clung to her shoulders.
Damn. Still cute.
“No, we didn’t have sex. Although, your face did spend a significant amount of time on my breasts.” Carmilla smirked, rising up groggily.
Laura’s eyes widened and her cheeks flooded with blood at her words.
Carmilla rubbed her face with her hands and stretched. “What time is it?”
Laura held her head in her hands and groaned again, “12:30. Ugh, I feel like crap!
“Yeah well, that’s what too much alcohol does to your kind, cupcake. Lie down. Anymore sudden movements like that and you just might upchuck all over your fancy white bedspread here.” Carmilla informed, standing to her feet and walking Laura back over to her bed.
Laura obeyed, but not because she wanted to. Because her stomach was churning and her head was spinning and she felt she might just throw up if she didn’t.
“My kind?” Laura questioned once she curled into a ball underneath her warm sheets.
“I’ll get you something to fill your stomach. Ya got any bread…or anything not made entirely of sugar?” Carmilla cracked her back—completely ignoring the other girl’s comment—and stopped at the door.
“I…I have bread. In the bread holder—next to the fridge.” Laura hesitated to answer at first, but the churning of her stomach made her change her mind.
Carmilla swung around lazily and proceeded into the kitchen.
Carmilla’s eyelids felt heavy, despite the fact that she had just gotten around ten hours of rejuvenating sleep. She felt as if that beautiful night's sleep had brought life to her after umpteen years of being dead. The cause of the heavy eyelids and grogginess more than likely wasn't a sleeping problem then...which probably meant it was a hunger problem & that she should probably find something to “eat” soon. Too bad she didn’t pack any extra blood bags with her in the car. And she was certain Laura wasn’t going to willingly let the girl she has no memory of stick her razor sharp teeth into her neck.
Unless she has some sort of kink involving strangers & biting. Which I would be more than happy to indulge in.
Carmilla circled around the white granite-topped island (even though she could have just as easily walked by the fridge. She blamed the fact that she wasn’t thinking straight on her hunger) until she found the bread holder Laura had been speaking of. Carmilla sniffed the air and caught the aroma of something disgusting coming from the wooden bread holder. She didn’t even have to open it to realize the foul odor was a result of mold that had been manifesting for quite some time.
Sometimes having heightened senses was a pain in the ass.
Maybe I should just go pick up some food. I think I saw a Starbucks not too far from here. I could pick her up an English muffin and a couple coffees for the both of us. I would hope that the coffee would at least slightly lift the haze overcoming me before I can get my hands on some blood.
Carm felt herself for her keys but came up unsuccessful.
They probably fell out sometime last night.
She slowly made her way up the stairs and back to Laura’s room. Just before she entered the room she realized what she was doing and stopped.
Is my broke ass really about to buy breakfast for some random girl who I didn’t even get the luxury of sleeping with?
Come to think of it, Carm never bought or made breakfast for any of the girls she’s slept with, which made the fact that she was readily about to spend her hard-earned, severely needed money on a girl she hadn’t even seen naked seem ten times as preposterous.
“Did you find it?” Laura softly whimpered from her bed, looking upon Carmilla with her doe eyes straining.
Carm chewed on her bottom lip. How could she not go out of her way to care for her when she looked and sounded like that?
Fuck, those goddamn doe eyes...
“Bad news, short stack. Your bread is molded to hell & has probably been that way for a few weeks now.” Carmilla responded as she walked over to the girl and sat next to her. Laura shifted uncomfortably at Carmilla’s close proximity.
“Oh. So it wasn’t the tuna salad that was smelling like that.” Laura murmured under her breath.
“You know there’s this new concept of grocery shopping. Ya sniff out what you're low on & throw out the things that are bacteria-infested. People actually go in these shops to buy food—most of which doesn’t contain unhealthy amounts of carbs and sugars. Sounds weird, I know.” Carm facetiously drawled.
“Hey I’m a busy woman! I—l” Laura rolled over to argue but was quickly silenced once a wave of nausea overcame her.
The vampire knew the sign and quickly fazed into the bathroom and returned with a trashcan before Laura could so much as blink. She was grateful for the speed though because before she could process why there was suddenly a trashcan in her face, little Laura upchucked the contents of her stomach.
Carm held the girl’s hair back and rubbed circles on her back, “That’s it, let it all out creampuff.”
Laura heaved once more into the trashcan before she pulled back and breathed a little.
After a short period of silence, Carmilla stopped rubbing her back and let go of her hair.
“Oh—my God I’m—I’m sorry. That was—absolutely disgusting…and I look and smell disgusting… I-I’m going to go brush my teeth and…and shower…I’m sorry.” Laura looked as if she were about to cry.
“Cupcake, relax. It isn’t anything I haven’t seen before. Take a nice, warm shower and by the time you’re out I’ll have come back with something for you to refill your stomach with. & I’m going to take this,” Carm pointed to the silver trashcan with a significant amount of vomit in it, “out. Where’s your trash shoot?”
Laura rose slowly out of the bed, moving the trashcan away from her and rising slowly, holding her head and stomach in pain.
“Once you walk out of the apartment it’s all the way to the right…the gray door. It’s labeled ‘trash’.” Laura’s reply was breathy and strained. The raven haired girl saw her black lanyard containing her keys on the bed the minute the cupcake had risen so she secured them and stuck them in her back pocket. After that she lifted the trashcan—yet again hating her exaggerated senses—and Laura slowly made her way into the restroom.
“Hey, uh—” Laura croaked hoarsely before Carm had left the room. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Carmilla shrugged coolly before practically floating to the gray door Laura had spoke of.
Carm quickly removed the bag from the trash can, opened the shoot, and dropped the bag down in it. She was grateful Laura hadn't puked on the actual can. Before she could rethink any of her actions, she dropped the trashcan off in Laura’s apartment building and made her way outside. She decided to take the stairs out so she could stretch her legs and exercise her super speed. Before long, Carm was opening the door to the driver's side of her Corolla.
She hadn't even realized she had left her phone connected to the phone holder & sighed when she unlocked it. Her phone was on the verge of death & she had 21 missed calls and 15 text messages. She knew she was probably fucked & the longer she waited to reply the more she was screwing herself over, but she just wanted a little bit more time to focus on something other than the absolute hell that she was sure to be in. The vampire turned her phone off and started her car. She slid on her black sunglasses that were in the compartment overhead & decided she’d go and get her own “food” before the ache in her throat got too unbearable.
Food for Laura can wait. Because if I go and take care of her first, Laura will be food.
Without a second thought, Carmilla sped off.
“Okay. Okay. Breathe Laura. I’ve done plenty of things I can’t remember while drunk… although somehow convincing a girl as gorgeous as that to come home with me is probably the most unbelievable one on that list.” Laura spoke to herself to try to calm herself down as she was blow-drying her wet hair.
“Where did I even meet her? Couldn’t have been the club, she was dressed too casually for that. Did I go somewhere after the club? Wait… if we didn’t have sex then why is she being so nice to me and… buying me breakfast? And...how did I get into those pajama clothes I was wearing earlie―Oh my God… did the sexy, mysterious girl who I can’t remember meeting undress me?!” Laura began to panic, her head still turning and her stomach churning even more violently.
For Laura, getting blackout drunk was a fairly new concept, but being blackout drunk and bringing a girl home... well that didn’t even seem like it was something she was even capable of letting happen.
All she wanted to do was go out with friends, get a liiiiitle drunk, and forget about work for a night.
Speaking of her friends, Laura began to wonder if all of them had made it back to their respected homes alright...and whether or not any of them had been as hungover as she was.
Suddenly, the thought hit her like a brick.
Elsie had gone missing.
Laura turned off and unplugged her blow drier before going back into her room and looking around for her phone.
She wanted to call Danny...Kirsch...LaFontaine...anyone that could confirm that Elsie had been found, was alright, and then maybe have one of them explain why the living hell they allowed her to go home with someone.
Come to think of it, how did I get home? Danny didn’t drive the group to the club so she couldn’t have dropped me off. Maybe the mysterious stranger drove us here. Which means I’ve given them complete access to my house and they know where I live. Great job Laura. She didn’t look like the type of person to steal...but I could be wrong. I should scope the place for any missing items. Or maybe she's not a thief...but something worse?? What if she’s some type of serial killer that preys on helpless, intoxicated women?
I suppose she would have killed me last night if she was… maybe she likes her victims to be awake and fully aware of what’s happening and gets some sort of sick pleasure out of watching genuine fear on their faces? Yikes.
Laura couldn’t find her phone anywhere in her room or her restroom so she inched her way out of her dimly lit room and into the bright hallway. The light was torturous on her eyes with the splitting headache she had, so she closed the curtains on all the windows that she could reach (she couldn’t really do anything about the gigantic window on the wall above the TV). Laura searched high and low for her phone, making sure no room in her apartment had gone unchecked.
“Where are you, you stupid phone!?” She grunted, tossing a pillow back onto the leather couch.
Some time had passed before Laura had gotten the inkling to pick up her house phone and try calling her phone.
The young girl ventured into the kitchen and grabbed her sleek, skinny black phone off of it’s charger on the granite counter and dialed her cell number.
She walked around listening intently, hoping to hear her phone at least vibrate.
“Laura?” A low, enticing voice had emitted from the phone, catching Laura completely off guard.
Laura had been so startled that she jumped, which caused her to yelp and trip over a thick pillow she had strewn onto the floor earlier.
“Ouch!” Laura whined despite landing on top of the couch.
After recovering from her fall, Laura looked at the house phone as if it were a ghost before whispering back into the phone, “Hello?”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you, cupcake. You left your phone in my car and I took it in Starbucks with me just in case you’d call looking for it.” The same voice from this morning drawled.
So she did drive us to my apartment.
“Oh...Well...that’s very...thoughtful of you. Thanks.” Laura slowly responded.
“Right. Hey, I was going to get you an English muffin but I figured maybe you’d be a little bit hungrier than that, so how’s a toasted ham & cheese sandwich?” The beautiful voice on the other line asked.
A ham and cheese sandwich sounded absolutely delicious, but the mention of food made her stomach churn.
“Uhm...Yeah...Sounds good.” Laura rose off the couch, putting the pillow that she had tripped over back on the couch.
“Alright. See you soon, creampuff.” Her voice sounded icy yet...seductive. It made Laura shiver and she hung up the phone without thinking.
Now how am I going to find out what happened last night?
Laura sat on the couch for a minute thinking (and unknowingly having a staring contest with her Buffy figurine that was on the glass table in front of her). Suddenly a light-bulb went off in her head and she remembered she could send texts from her mac. Laura walked back into the kitchen and opened her laptop. A photo of her and her father at Disneyland popped up as the background and Laura smiled slightly at it before focusing back on the task at hand.
She pulled up her iMessage tab and went through her text messages. She had A LOT of messages, but LaFontaine was the most recent one so she clicked on theirs first.
LaF♡ (2:23am): Laur, we can’t find Elsie anywhere. We’re gunna check her house
LaF♡ (2:58am): The princess is not in her castle. Holy shit dude
LaF♡ (3:01am): Text me when ur home. We don’t need two of our friends going MIA
LaF♡ (4:45am): Laura it’s been almost 2 hours now, r u home??
LaF♡ (11:23pm): Laura answer my call, Perry’s worried
LaF♡ (1:24pm): LAURA PLEASE PICK UP OR I’M COMING OVER
The last text was sent less than ten minutes ago, so Laura responded as quickly as she could.
(1:33pm) Hey, I’m fine. Sorry I don’t have my phone, I’m on my Mac. Any progress on Elsie?
Not even a minute could pass before LaFontaine replied.
LaF♡ (1:33pm): OH THANK GOD. I WAS BEGINNING TO THINK YOU HAD BEEN TAKEN TOO.
LaF♡ (1:34pm): WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!!
(1:35pm): Wait, taken TOO? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN TAKEN TOO??
(1:35pm): And I’ve been asleep at home. Did you guys let me go home with some girl?
A minute or two had passed before there was a response.
LaF♡ (1:37pm): Every1 thinks I’m over exaggerating, but Elsie is nowhere to be found. Without a trace disappeared. This stuff only happens on those crime shows we watch. I think she was taken.
A warm chill ran through Laura. The thought of her friend being taken scared the hell out of her, and she couldn’t help but feel as if it were her fault.
If only I hadn’t drank so much...She was right there and I lost her!
LaF♡ (1:38pm): & u think we’d let little Laura go home with some1 while hopped up on alc? We don’t even let u do that SOBER. Why? Is something wrong?
Laura backed out of the conversation for a second and went to her other texts.
She had 12 messages from Danny, two from Kirsch, six from Perry, four from JP and… 1 from Elsie.
Laura clicked on Elsie’s text message that was sent at 4:03am. The text consisted of several emojis, the first being the sun behind tall buildings with a pinkish-orange sky, the second a cigarette, and the words 'fang 911' right after them.
What does this mean??
Laura took a screenshot and sent it to Laf.
(1:43pm) Elsie texted this to me when I was sleeping. Idk what it means, but 911 sounds like she needs help.
The chat bubble signaling that LaFontaine was typing popped up almost immediately.
LaF♡ (1:44pm): Perry & I are in DTLA right now @ the police station. They haven’t seen or heard from her or anything about her. They said we can’t file a missing person’s claim b/c it’s been under 24 hours. So the police won’t be able to help us.
With a text like that, we don't know if she can even afford a full 24 hours to pass by.
Laura bit her lip and thought for a moment.
If the police won’t help us, then we’ll do it ourselves.
Laura clicked back to create a group with LaF, Perry, Danny, Kirsch, and JP.
(1:48pm): Idc how you do it or what u have 2 do 2 get here, be @ my place at 3:00. We’re going to find Elsie.