Maybe next time?
Carmilla
“Carmilla Karnstein meet Laura Hollis, probably the nicest person on earth!”
This had been how LaFontaine introduced the girl to Carmilla at the local pub by end of a rough day. She had given a good look at the girl who was now smiling, talking and laughing with the red haired lab rat and sitting on the tall bench next to her by the bar. Long honey hair, curious brown eyes and a smile that could probably bring joy to the saddest person on earth. She was actually quite beautiful, Carmilla thought while smirking.
“So, are you part of the mad scientist squad too?” Carmilla said, looking at Laura.
The girl put a strand of hair behind her ear.
“No, I’m actually a journalist.” She answered smilling widely.
“Friendly reminder to kill LaF”, Carmilla thought while she gave a stern look at her friend.
“But don’t worry” The brunette continued seemingly abstracted from this. “I leave my business at the office. And at home. Okay, sometimes I bring it everywhere with me but I promise not to go all Sherlock on you!” She took a quick sip from her beer and LaF laughed.
Carmilla tried to keep a straight face through all the rambling but unconsciously felt a smile creeping on her lips.
“Don’t be fouled by her innocent exterior.” LaF said pointing at Laura, who pretended to scowl. “This one should probably consider being a detective. She can always get the answers to her questions. One way or another. We actually met at a crime scene. Laura here, was trying to squeeze some information about it and we ended up chatting. Not about the evidence. That would have been inappropriate. And get me fired.” The red haired laughed and caughting up the murderous look in Carmilla’s eyes decided that it was time for a quick escape “I better go and see what Perry is up to. She seems...alone”
LaFontaine quickly headed out to join the other red haired at the other side of the room, mumbling “I’m sorry” in an inaudible way to Carmilla. They exchanged worried looks with Perry and she smiled and grabbed their hand, which apparently was enough to bring a shy smile into LaFontaine’s lips. Carmilla swears to God she does not understand how it is possible that this two don’t realize what the rest of the world has known for years.
“So, how did you meet?” A decided voice interrupted her thoughts as she looked at the girl right to her left.
“What?” She saw Laura put on a cocky smile and put her beer down.
“How did you meet LaFontaine, Miss Karnstein?” Her posture had changed from that initial innocent girl to a confident woman. Carmilla let out a small scoff trying to shake it off.
“No one has called me that since I was a little girl, so please, don’t.” She looked to her cup, avoiding Laura’s eyes “We met through Perry.” She pointed to the curly red haired girl standing across from LaF. “She is my agent.”
“I see. And what is it you write about?” The dark haired girl looked right into Laura’s eyes and smirked.
“Should I be offended that you don’t think I’m model material?” This seemed to make the other girl smile as she finished her beer.
“The ink.” She said, getting up from her stool and reaching for her bag.
“Is that some kind of journalist jargon, cupcake?” Carmilla said, turning to face her. Laura seemed to smile triumphantly at something.
“On your hands. Quite an old fashion method, but I can see the appeal.”
Carmilla looked at her hands, indeed smudged with ink and she felt a small fire grow on her cheeks. Laura was stretching her hand to pay for her drink but Carmilla grabbed her arm gently.
“This one’s on me, cutie”. Cutie? Cutie?? What are you thinking Karnstein? She is a goddamn journalist! We don’t flirt with journalists. We don’t get close to them. We run from them. The other girl looked her in the eyes for a moment and then proceeded to pay the bartender for her drink.
“Maybe next time” She smiled widely to Carmilla but she could see something fiery in those hazelnut eyes.
She turned to wave a hand at LaF and Perry as she left the bar and in a second that fire seemed to be gone as the, again, innocent looking journalist left the pub. Well, maybe there are still some mysteries in this life after all, Carmilla thought as she smiled, downing her beer and joining her friends.
---
It wasn’t much later when Carmilla entered her house. Sometimes she thought the mansion was a bit too much just for her but she couldn’t simply get rid of it. Besides, it wasn’t like she owned it. It belonged to Will too, her brother. But when he was away, which was most of the time, this big house seemed like a mausoleum. She crossed the entrance hall and stopped in front of the stairs looking at the picture hanging on the wall next to it. Everyone was smiling, happy, and she missed it. Not those times. Well, it wasn’t all bad but -. She missed having something to smile about. Or someone.
She shook her head to get rid of these thoughts and went downstairs, turning on the lights. The room had a dim light, just as she liked it. There were candles which she started to light.
“Quite an old fashion method, but I can see the appeal.”
She smiled. There was a sofa, a table and a chair at the room but mainly there were bookshelves, filled with books and manuscripts. The table was filled with papers, pens and pencils, a complete mess but her mess. She knew how to navigate through it. This was were she had written all her books after all. Approaching the wall behind her table she stopped.
“To bend is not to break” She said in her usual raspy voice.
A low humming sound followed by a click revealed a crack on the wall and Carmilla got in it. It would still get her, this voice activated totally geeky system that LaFontaine had asked JP to install in her writing room as she liked to call it. The crack lead directly to what the mad red haired scientist liked to call “The Lair”. She smiled, she could almost hear their voice saying it. The room had computers and glass stands with weapons, mostly spears, staffs and fighting sticks. She didn’t like using blades. Or fire guns. The idea was not to kill, simply restrain. There was a training station with several training devices and on the far corner of the room a mini lab. Yeah, they were a pain but LaF had created most of her weapons from scratch right on that table. Besides, and no one would catch her saying it out loud but, she enjoyed having her around.
The raven haired girl grabbed the newspaper from the stand where she had left it, looking through the pages for the article she had read the day before. “NighShadow: friend or foe?”. There was a photo of a blurred shadow, a woman’s figure dressed in what seemed like a long black coat with a hoodie and red hair. She smiled. That had been the closest they’d ever been to taking her picture. Ever since she had made her first official appearance they had been looking for a name. It all had started with her stopping some minor robbery after she had come back from college, three years ago, but it had turned into something else. Something bigger. Not right away of course. There had been endless nights of thinking she was insane for risking her own life for the sake of others but what did she have to lose? She had pretty much lost everything, except Will. Then she started training. Her strength grew. Both physically and mentally. It was almost a year after that first robbery that she went out again. This time properly suited, armed, trained. She hadn’t stopped ever since. And the cops were never able to get her. They had tried a couple of times, but soon realized it was better to have her around has a friend rather than locking her in a cell. Not that they could catch her anyway. She couldn’t help to think that maybe if there had been someone to help when she was a kid, things could be different today.
She shook her head. NightShadow wasn’t so bad. She never wanted a nickname or the fame. But still, as nicknames are concerned, she had been lucky. She scanned the article and a name caught up her attention. She read it several times. Laura Hollis. Damn it. There it was. Two years those dimwits journalists had been trying to come up with some witty nickname and it had to be her. “Where did you come from Laura Hollis?” She said to herself while smiling and throwing the newspaper back to the sofa. There was something about this girl and she was going to find out what it was. “Better to keep your friends close and enemies closer.” She took off her black tank top and leather pants and put on some training clothes. Then she headed to the training station stopping on the way to turn on the radio connected to the police frequency.
Laura
Laura had finished yet another crappy article about some the glorious shenanigans and she let of a large sight while dropping her head against the back of the couch. She hated this kind of journalism. There was no truth seeking, just the endless pursuit for readers who don’t know how to enjoy anything else because it is never presented to them! She stopped and stared at the bookshelf across the room. No point in getting all worked up Hollis, you’ll just have to change the world one article at a time. And if for every truth seeking one you have to write five about this- Wait, am I rambling to myself?
She got up, putting her computer on the table and walked across her tiny leaving room to the kitchen. Her apartment was small, just like she needed it. She could cross the whole thing in less than 10 seconds, which was good because she was always on a hurry. Grabbing some hot cocoa she returned to the room. It had only been a month since she arrived so she didn’t really know anyone except for LaFontaine. They had been friendly but she wasn’t sure she could call them a friend just yet. Taking a sip from her Doctor Who mug she waked past the sofa to the bookshelf. Today had actually been the first day she had gone out since she arrived. And she ended up meeting someone interesting.
“This one’s on me, cutie”
Cutie. That brought a smile to her face.
“Maybe next time”
That had been extremely sassy of her. She could feel her own cheeks warming up with the thought. Way to go with self restraint Laura. You didn’t come here to make acquaintances, you came to work your heart out and find who the hell is this NightShadow girl. She was quite proud of the nickname she had come up with because, really! This girl had been roaming around the city for two years, saving everyone’s ass and they couldn’t even come up with a decente name? Not that it was about the name, what is relevant is the facts and the facts are that she has been cleaning up this city, so the name is not that relevant but it is nice to have a way of identifying this – Rambling again Hollis, rambling again.
She settled the mug on the bookshelf, retrieving an old photograph. It showed two younger girls, smiling. A very tall and long red haired girl was giving a piggy back ride to Laura, who had her arms thrown back in the air while the other girl grabbed her legs and smiled looking up to her. Laura felt her eyes filling with tears, although she couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m going to fall Danny!!”
“I won’t let you fall, I promise! Trust me, shorty.” Danny said grabbing Laura’s legs tight.
“Don’t call me shorty, I am only short by your giant standards!” The brunette said trying to be mad but grabbing onto the red haired’s neck in terror.
“Here we go, are you ready?” Danny smiled and Laura was going to say no but she had no time because the tall one was already running at full speed.
Laura had been terrified for a couple of seconds but then felt free, the wind blowing on her face and hair. Soon she’d let go and was screaming her lungs out, with her hands no longer grabbing her friends neck but waving in the air, in happiness as they crossed across the campus. She felt happy. Alive.
She cleaned the tears from her face, her breath uneven.
“I’ll find her Danny, I promise.”