As a calm walk somewhere in the woods showed up the sun. After another common night in Treffen. Morning light came through the windows like an almost transparent veil, painting the shape of the windows on the dark wood floor. Carmilla was on the same floor. She tried to distinguish between the frustrating last day and the wonderful dream of being able to go to the other world.

When she felt her nose hit the cabinet door below the sink, she found that; aside from the miracle of the sword working, everything else had been true. A random visit of a fish, a useless blade that did not obey. The frustration inside seemed to want to open her ribs. Then pulled the blanket to sleep until her back hurt.

Blanket?

She squeezed that blue fabric, thick as a coat, and that tasty perfume invaded her senses. She turned into the counter, back against the curve and the legs into the kitchen. Danny and Laura slept sitting up, with the tallest cheek on top of the shortest head. The lowest was closer to the vampire. Carmilla got up on her hands, looking at the girl wearing a jumpsuit with a ridiculous puppy applique over her front pocket.

Someone knocked on the front door or tried to knock it down with such energic punches. Carmilla held the head that threatened to explode with those beats - a good hangover - she hopped over the counter but ended up falling with one foot curled on the stool. She snorted to open the door, imagining a thousand and one ways to smash someone. But once again her plans were thwarted, as she barely slid the bolt and the door threw violently to the floor, making her even more confused with the head popping. When she realized there was a very strong man on her, screaming like a mammoth.

"Where is my daughter?!" He shouted. "Where is my Lau..." His speech had been interrupted by an ax stuck in the ground a few centimeters from him. He turned to the counter, where Danny recognized him and was relieved to miss her aim.

"Dad?" Said Laura, pointing a wooden spoon between her fingers. Sherman jumped off the floor, ran to the counter pulling his daughter next to him. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She pleaded, while her father turned her upside down, looking for injuries.

"Good morning, Mr. Hollis," Perry said down the stairs in the hallway, followed by LaF adjusting her suspenders. The lady of the house went to the kitchen. Danny took the ax off the floor, thinking about what would have happened if she had got it right. Luckily her aim was not so good.

"What a warning yesterday, but I heard nothing but planes. Was there anything in town?" Asked LaF being ignored as she held out her hand to Carmilla, who got up without anyone's help.

"Only planes and sirens," answered Sherman, with his hands-on Laura's neck. "Not a miserable bomb. This war could end soon. Almost eaten my pillows thinking if my daughter was safe." He looked sideways at her, who was sitting on a chair. "I think about how the store should be. The sirens scream, the lights go out, and the Trollers attack."

"Oh my god, the store," Laura mumbled with her forehead on the table. "Last time..." Last time, she spent the day sweeping the remains of the window on the sidewalk.

"Here," Perry called with a few mugs of latte and cookies. Laura took the heavier tray and handed out the mugs. Everyone sat in a corner, but still close enough to talk.

Getting to the last glass. She looked at Carmilla, practically passed out on the same table as last night. Laura filled her chest and went to her.

"Hey," She called next to the table. "Here, it will get better," Said affectionately to the tangle of hair that didn't even turn to her.

"Let's get going," Said Mr. Hollis after finishing breakfast with his daughter. He offered Laura's friends a ride. Danny accepted a little awkwardly - she almost killed the man a little earlier - LaF picked up her coat at the kitchen door, giving Perry a discreet hug before leaving.

The four went outside. All that remains is the owner of the pension and the brunette who died at the table in the corner. The vampire woke up to the sound of that washing machine choking on fuel and almost tearing off her head. Carmilla looked at the mug with her face in her arms, discouraged when she remembered the other day. Perry asked if she was staying. And the vampire saw no reason not to stay there.

After all.

The plans were uncertain, and growling temples didn't help. In a nutshell, everything was settled. Paid enough to stay a few days, and Perry guided her up the stairs, opening a windowed corridor to a patio. Turning left, the corridor had the wall open to a dense forest behind about three stacks of hay.

"This is it." Perry opened the door to the last room. Carmilla entered the room, ignoring the mealtimes that her landlady explained, nodded at the end pretending to have heard everything.

Finally, alone, the girl fell face down on the bed, right by the window. She reached out and pulled the curtain for the least possible light, which did not happen because the room was still well lit. But she was so sick of the drink that pressed the pillow over the back of her neck, her face on the sheet, and forced herself to sleep.

Frustrated.

A bad hangover.

It wasn't a good day for Carmilla.

***

Discouragement kept Carmilla in bed all day until she couldn't take it anymore. The clear blue sky, gave way to the dark mantle with the moon. The vampire woke up, sat on the bed looking at the room. A bedside table adorned the headboard, stuck to the corner of the wall. A cupboard guarded the door hinge. And another window - that is why the room remained lit, against her efforts to keep the curtains closed - the second window faced the wall of rocks that continued the hard climb of the mountain.

Carmilla went out into the hall, jumping over the railing while putting on her coat. Staggering a little on the landing, she went to the trees, until she didn't see the pension anymore. From there she took fourteen counted steps. Going to a steeper part, going up a little until you reach the branches of a fallen tree with a gap in the wood. She picked up her backpack that she had hidden. It still smelled of green blood. She aimed the sword tucked deeper in the trunk and preferred to leave it there; for now.

She returned to the corridor without anyone seeing that jump. Again tossed on the bed, she took her book from her backpack and opened it in any page. It was an old and worn book. The pages yellowed like an old man's teeth. With the skinned edges, covered in red, leather and a slight metallic aroma accompanying the writing that only Carmilla's eyes could read.

The adventures of the dark kings. She remembered stopping when King Ensom rode his black-haired lion to kill the enemy general.

With the support of Winter, the dark king defeated the Karkhof army. An arduous battle that lasted one summer, but just in time for spring.

The vampire already knew the stories by heart and, inside out. She never gets tired of reading the same thing. It was what she wanted. That world, not merely fantasy. A world denied by that damn blade. Then Carmilla rested an open book on her chest, fitting the middle of the pages around her neck.

"Those eyes." She remembered the last image that the blade had shown. "Blonde." But Carmilla didn't know what that could mean, or if it wasn't a betrayed of her vision. She rubbed her forehead, boil the neurons that hadn't died from the alcohol. Until someone knocked on the door.

Those crashes woke up the neurons that were hungover, which were almost all. The brunette held her head with a roaring "I'm going". She grabbed the handle with a noticeable urge to pulled off. When she finally opened the door, she found Laura taking a couple of steps back because of the scare.

"Ah...hi." She spoke awkwardly, even been she who knocked on the door. Carmilla looked her up and down waiting. "You know ... I wanted to apologize for my dad in the morning. Did you get hurt?" Shyness and concern were clear.

"It was nothing, I'm fine," Replied the vampire, closing her eyes and grabbing the jamb.

"Are you serious? You falling made me jump off the ground." She exclaimed. That made the brunette's forehead almost give birth. "Are you okay?" A vein popped up in Carmilla's temple, pulsing all the anger that was squeezing for her. "Take it." Said the blonde handing a cloth bag. "Perry told me you didn't eat today, so."

"Thank you for worrying." Carmilla closed the door at once and narrowly missed the other's nose. She stuck her back to the door, dripping till the floor. "You dumbass" She murmured as she tried to hold her brain about to explode, by slamming the door. A few more minutes followed, before hearing Laura's footsteps leave the front of her door, moving further and further away.

The vampire rubbed her eyes and stood in the darkroom. She looked from the door, the window to the courtyard, and saw the light come on in the window aligned with hers, on the other side. The Galician of just now closed the curtains, giving a brief pause to look ahead, without knowing it, she looked directly into Carmilla's eyes in the shadows.

She closed the curtains, leaving only a slightly blurred silhouette of a girl undressing. Without noticing. The vampire had her forehead against the glass, her knees on the red book. The light went out. And Carmilla found herself wondering what the hell she was doing.

"Seriously Laura, we go without you!" LaF came out in the courtyard. Laura appeared at the entrance behind the biologist, calling her next to Danny. "At last, let's go before anyone finds it."

"Who will want to find a bear trail?" Asked Danny trying to buy time for Laura who, still tied the boots.

"Dead bears trail. I do not care. I want a sample of what made this trail." LaF replied. "But we have to go just before the trail gets cold."

"Achoo!"

"Not that cold Laura." Said LaF. Perry from the top window asked about the adventurers' coats, and they all answered:

"Yes, we're wrapped up."

Carmilla thought it was a good idea to follow the Samaritans, maybe a little air would improve her hangover and sulk. She took the coat. When opening the door, she came across a bag on the floor. She stuffed it in her pocket and jumped onto the roof. Just waiting for the group to leave to follow the investigation of her tracks.