The two sides of my brain have been fighting each other since Carmilla left. One side feels battered and defeated, like it will never fall for someone again. The other side is pumping its fist in the air and celebrating that I dodged a bullet. Confession: my stomach is with the first half of my brain.
It doesn’t help that LaFontaine has spent the better part of the day twirling in circles, playing air guitar and singing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” at top volume. Perry and I eye-speak, then tackle and restrain her friend once more. The parasites have really kicked it up a notch. “We have to get to the party, we just have to,” LaFontaine whimpers, squirming like a snake.
“There is no party, LaFontaine. I wish there was, I would take you,” Perry says.
I let the two of them hash it out while I get back to my vlog. I look directly into the camera and begin a new post. “So. College isn’t turning out like I thought it would. If you’ve been following, you know that a few weeks ago the dean — who is beyond unscrupulous — kidnapped my roommate Betty to feed some brain-devouring hungry light under the earth as part of her intricate plan to sacrifice five students. I know, it’s a lot to absorb.”
LaFontaine’s screams take over. “I promise there’s a party! I need to go! Perry, if you care about me … the party!”
I power on. “Sorry about the outburst. Back to the dean. I thought I could rescue Betty, but instead all I’ve managed to do is get my friends brain-sucked and my heart broken. Side note, I’m pretty sure I’ve flunked out of freshman year. I’m at a crossroads. If I do nothing, I can just go home but then I’d have to accept that I can’t make a difference. That my actions won’t save the world.” I pause. “I can’t do that.”
LaFontaine bursts out again. “The party! I have to go! We’re missing it! It’s starting without us!”
Perry wraps her friend in a hug. “Calm down. There. Is. No. Party.”
LaFontaine is insistent. “There is and it’s now! The light is over the party! Follow it and you’ll see all the people.”
Perry rubs LaFontaine’s back, trying to help.
Holy shit, I get it! The light is the hungry light. The celebration before the sacrifice that was in the Sumerian book. “That’s the party.”
“Not helping, Hollis,” Perry says, trying to shut me down.
“No, no. I know what LaFontaine is talking about. When Carmilla read the translation from the big book, it said their world ‘narrows to celebration.’ What if it was supposed to be ‘narrows to the celebration’? LaFontaine, is there a bright light at the party?”
“Yes. A glittering, bright party light.”
I kneel in front of LaFontaine. “Do you know how to get to the party?”
Perry is spitting nails, which I get. She loves her friend and doesn’t want to put anyone in harm’s way, but I’ve come this far. I can’t just back down. I try to soften my approach. Not be so obvious.
“Yes! Untie me before we miss it.”
Perry jumps up. “Stop this right now. No one is going anywhere. It’s too dangerous. We’ll all get killed.”
LaFontaine hesitates.
“LaFontaine, if you don’t want to,” I say, “I won’t make you. I don’t even think we have a real shot against the dean and her followers, the Vamp Army. But you never know …” I’m not even trying to be convincing. I have to get to that party. I have to try to save everyone.
Perry is not on board. “I have a post-finals brunch to plan and I don’t like you hassling my friend into doing this. There are things more important than winning.”
I bite back. “True, but sometimes you have to fight anyway.”
She digests that, nods and we untie LaFontaine, who, once freed, drifts to the door. Before I follow, I turn back to the camera.
“Carmilla … oh, never mind, you know.”
Perry and I follow LaFontaine with blind faith toward the Lustig Theater Building. “Yes, the theater. This is where they brought me. I remember all the trees and the name on the building.”
The entry is dark and spooky, and that’s before we’re led down a spiral staircase covered in a curtain of cobwebs. There’s a maze of caves down here, dark and dank. “This is creep on crack,” I quip.
Finally, I hear some muffled sounds. Perry and I duck behind LaFontaine when we hear shrill voices, and soon we land at the lip of an enormous cavern. “Holy hell, they’re all here. They’re really here,” LaFontaine whispers back to us. “I did good.”
I peek over LaFontaine’s shoulder and see the dean, her vampire army, Kirsch and the girls with their backs to us. Even Betty is here, glued to Natalie.
“Yeah, you did. Now we need a plan,” I suggest.
Will is stalking around the group like a tarantula. Prepping for the sacrifice, no doubt.
“I told you there was a party.” LaFontaine is hell-bent on jamming this down Perry’s throat.
“Okay, okay,” Perry replies, “you were right. But it’s not quite the party you’re expecting. Instead of dancing there will be killing.”
“Killing?” LaFontaine gasps.
“They’re going to sacrifice our friends. Unless we can stop them,” I say.
“How are we going to do that?” LaFontaine asks.
“I’m thinking,” I respond.
“Let’s rush them,” Perry proposes. “Take them off guard. Take out Will and the dean first. On my go. Go!”
Holy shit, it’s on.
As soon as she hears us, the dean draws a knife from her boot and charges our friends, holding them at bay. Really wish I could summon up Harry and his Expelliarmus spell. Her minions scatter, trying to surround us.
Will swirls and meets the tip of Perry’s stake, which she drives into his heart. Blood splatters everywhere.
Kirsch gasps. “Sorry, sweetie,” Perry apologizes mid-fray.
He shrugs. “It’s cool. Bro dude had it coming.”
I snag a gargoyle and clock one of the vamps. We have to rid ourselves of them to get away with our friends. I keep swinging until a lasso lands around my waist. I can’t keep my feet on the ground as I’m being dragged down a path. Perry jumps out in front of me. “I’ll save you!” I hear Perry yell, right before another vampire puts her in a headlock.
Our plan is falling apart.
“Nooooooo.” That’s LaFontaine’s unmistakable voice. A group of rogue vampires from Team Dean pin down Kirsch and subdue the others. They must have been hiding in one of the side caverns.
That’s the last thing I see before Perry and I get tossed into a dark broom closet with a steel door. Where is a sonic screwdriver when you need one?
“Shit, we’re going to be dinner.”
Perry gulps. “Crap. We were so close.”
I reach in my back pocket. “They forgot to take my phone, yes. Vampires aren’t the sharpest.”
“Text Danny — she’ll know what to do,” Perry suggests.
Oh God, Danny. “Not sure she would even reply to me, let alone help me at this point.”
“She will. It’s who she is.”
That stings.
“Do you even get a signal down here?” Perry asks.
The phone has no bars. “Not in this spot.”
I test every corner of the closet, holding the phone as high and low as possible in search of a signal. Huzzah! One lone, gorgeous, glowing bar that can save our lives.
Trapped in basement of Dudley chapel under Lustig Theater Building. Dean has us. Come quick. Bring weapons.
I check it over and over, shaking the phone like that will help. It takes forever but the text goes through.
“Yes! Now, we wait.”
“We’re going to be okay, aren’t we, Laura?”
Now is not the time to bring up my doubts. Fear is creeping in — I can see it on Perry’s face. “Yeah, we’re going to be fine. Once we’re back at the dorm, we’ll laugh about all of this.”
No, we won’t.
“I’ll bake brownies.”
Okay, then.
Still and quiet turn into thunderous noise. A battering ram bashes down the door. Danny and a cavalry of Summer Society sisters and Zetas greet us, armed with tridents and the traditional salted herring.
We join them and charge the vampire lines. Perhaps not the smartest but we have numbers and energy. Lots of adrenaline is flowing.
The Zetas use the tridents to ward off the first line of vamps, who all crumble to the ground. Those weapons leave gnarly wounds.
Danny’s squad attacks two vamps with flat irons and broomsticks, both surprisingly effective weapons. I’m wielding a mop that packs a mean punch when swung like a baseball bat.
“Behind you, Hollis!” I hear Perry yell. I whip around just as a vampire is about to bite my neck. I drop him with my killer mop.
Two of the Zetas start hurling the herring at the vamps. Those suckers sting when they hit you in the face. I hear the vampires yelp as they drop to the ground. Danny finishes them off with a flat iron to the temple.
Good thing Perry whittled all those stakes — she’s firing them off like a pro. Kirsch’s karate is coming in handy as he takes on anyone in his path with kicks and chops.
Sticking together, we’ve got them backed up against a wall. Then there’s a rumbling so loud that I can’t hear myself think. I plug my ears with my fingers.
“Oh my God, check this out!” Danny shouts. An incandescent light emanating from the bottom of the pit shines bright and starts to rise.
“It’s like the sun is coming up underground, it’s so bright,” I remark. An earsplitting hum of thousands of voices beckons us to walk toward them. We are all so attracted to the light that it takes us over, and like zombies we start walking right for the edge. I mean, we are heading for the pit. The drop has to be over two thousand feet. Jagged rocks all around it.
When I’m about two feet from the edge, a giant pantherlike cat grabs me by the neck and yanks me back like a rag doll. Shocked, I watch it shrink, then shift.
It’s Carmilla. Brandishing a sword. The sword. As she swings it, we watch it swallow the light bit by bit with each stroke. I tear up and reach for her.
The dean screeches from behind, “I will destroy all of you!” Before I can inch out of the way, she shifts into a swarm of shadows like crows, scratching and clawing at us. The piercing cries are deafening.
“Carmilla!” I plead.
Perry and Danny swing brooms at the dean, taking a few swipes of her claws that draw blood. But she’s fast and skilled. A vamp clips Kirsch with a bat, breaking his arm. Kirsch squeals. That had to hurt.
I see Betty and the other girls emerge from the wings of a cavern. They jump into the fray, swinging their fists wildly like warriors until the dean shifts back into a woman again. She comes right at me. As she’s about to turn me into roadkill, Carmilla hollers and throws herself between us. “Run, Hollis!”
Her mother slices at her, narrowly missing. I run as instructed, turning to see Carmilla deck her mother with the sword hilt and tumble into the pit.
It’s too late. The light is everywhere. People are climbing into the lip of the chasm, trying to fling themselves in. So many figures in the light. I see a girl. She looks like the girl from my dream. She reaches for Carmilla. It must be Ell.
In that split second, Carm turns back to me. “You know, I really hate this heroic vampire bullshit.” I watch her leap down, driving the sword right into the heart of the light. The light snaps and twitches like it’s alive. All the ghosts throw back their heads, screaming, before tumbling into the darkness together.
I kneel down near the spot where I just watched Carmilla die while the waterworks pour down my face. My shirt is soaked.
It was an epic battle to the death.
“It was always you. My hero,” I whisper into vast nothingness.
•
I stumble back to the dorm with my crew after the battle, blood-soaked clothes and all. I take out our first-aid kit and start getting cleaned up. The peroxide stings like hell. I pass out bandages.
Kirsch, pouting, has his arm in a sling. “Why did she have to break my Frisbee arm? Women are so mean.”
I pat his good arm. “You’ll be fine soon. At least you can still pick up a taco with your left hand.” That makes him happy.
Danny and Perry are bedraggled and covered in red as well. I pass them some towels and antiseptic wipes. LaFontaine dotes on Perry, nursing her wounds.
Betty sits on the edge of her bed wrapped in an emergency blanket. “I can’t wait to transfer to Princeton. I bet this doesn’t happen there.”
“This doesn’t happen anywhere but here,” LaFontaine states with some authority. “I can’t believe we won.”
I burst into tears. “But Carmilla died.”