Jessica finds moral clarity

[Jessica's POV]

Jessica sleeps fitfully the next day, her dreams tortured by passing scene of her former friends and family, mechanically drained of blood. In the dreams, she reaches out, trying to save them, but can't. Diana and Elizabeth laugh at her futile efforts, as they tear into human after human.

In one sequence, Jessica finds herself human again, trapped in one of Diana's infernal contraptions. Needles pierce her neck, and she screams. Diana laughs. In another, she sees the Statue of Liberty in New York, bearing a pare of exaggerated fangs. Instead of a torch, she holds a wine glass. Behind her, Manhattan is in ruins.

Jessica awakens shortly before sundown, feeling thoroughly unrested. Jessica's stomach hurts. Not just from the usual hunger upon awakening, but there is gnawing in the pit of her stomach. Tonight is the night, she thinks ambivalently. Something has changed in Jessica. As much as she would like to, she finds Carmilla's warnings hard to ignore. Drinking, draining, humans is the most pleasurable thing there is. Jessica won't reject who...no, what...she is. But large scale domination and farming of the entire human race suddenly seems gratuitous. Obscene. Jessica can't shake Carmilla's dark prediction. A joyless world without art, or music, or science, or joy. Just blood. Forever.

I have to do something. But what?

Jessica knocks on Carmilla's door.

"Come in" Carmilla says.

Jessica pushes open the door, and finds Carmilla snuggled between her humans, Grace and Laura. The three are naked, Carmilla in the middle, an arm around each human. Grace and Laura are still sleeping. Jessica stands there, unsure of what exactly to say.

"Second thoughts?" Carmilla asks laconically. Jessica nods her head.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Carmilla asks. Jessica is heartened that Carmilla said we and not you.

"I don't know. Elizabeth and Diana are so powerful. I don't know how to stop this" Jessica frets.

"We need to destroy Diana's blood factory, before they switch it on. But that will only delay things..." Carmilla says, looking at the window.

"And then?" Jessica asks.

"We need to destroy Diana" Carmilla says plainly. "She drives all of this." Jessica isn't sure she agrees. Diana is a thought-leader, without question, but Elizabeth is still firmly in control of everything that happens. After a long pause, Jessica speaks.

"That's not enough. That will delay it, sure, but Elizabeth wants this." Jessica says. She takes a deep breath, summoning courage to say the next line. "We need to get rid of Elizabeth."

"No...I....I can't" Carmilla says, looking away. Jessica thinks she spots a tear in the corner of Carmilla's eye. "Elizabeth is cruel, evil even. I know. But I can't. I love her. She made me. She made us both, Jessica" Carmilla says sadly.

"I never asked for this" Jessica says bluntly, immediately feeling dishonest. I love being a vampire.

"Elizabeth is cruel. But before she turned Diana, she never had this...megalomania. Diana is the problem" Carmilla says. Jessica thinks that Carmilla is binding herself, refusing to see the true Elizabeth, but decides that now is not the time to press the point.

"Okay. How do we stop Diana?" Jessica asks. "She's smart, and our other sisters all have revolution fever."

"We have friends too" Carmilla says cryptically. "Jessica, you are pacing. Come, drink. You'll calm down."

Jessica gets on the large bed, spooning behind Grace. Moving Grace's hair to the side, she bites into Grace's neck. Grace murmurs in her sleep as Jessica feeds from her. Momentarily, the blood put Jessica at ease. She thinks how easy it would be to just go along with Elizabeth and Diana -- a constant stream of fresh blood to dull her emotions. It's tempting. Next to her, Carmilla turns to bite into Laura's breast. The vampiresses drink together in silence, the uncertain future weighing heavily on both.