Historia's mother never did much to look after her daughter. She was a burden on her, she'd said many times. Getting in the way of better things, and people, Alma could have been doing. It was odd that Alma had signed her up for ballet classes. Historia hadn't liked ballet that much, but she pretended to enjoy it for her mother's sake. Maybe this was just her mother's funny way of showing affection.
It turned out Alma had been buying drugs off the husband of the woman who ran the studio, so she got free lessons there as a favour.
The studio was, unsurprisingly, no longer in the hands of its old owners. The new owner was a woman named Miss Daviau, and she held tap and jazz classes as well as ballet.
The interior of the studio had changed as well, though not by much. The sound system had been updated, along with the TV screens.
"Christa?" came a voice from inside the studio. Frieda. She started running, hoping to get to her. If she was going to die, then she at least wanted to see her sister one more time.
"Frieda, I'm here!" She shouted. She flung open the storeroom door that the voice was behind, to see that-
That it was empty. A phone sat on a table, playing a recording of Frieda's voice. Historia's heart fell.
"No," she breathed. She couldn't believe it.
"Yes," came a voice from behind her. She spun around to see Irine, smiling like a cat who had cornered a mouse.
"She isn't here," Historia said.
"Nope. Dear sister's just knocked out. You were really scared, it was funny." Irine picked up the phone, and held in front of Historia. "I'm gonna send this to your vamp friends. It'll make this hunt even better."
Historia couldn't speak. She didn't know what to say.
It was a trap. She'd walked right into a trap and now she was going to die for nothing.
She had to fight back. She couldn't let herself die worthlessly.
Noticing a spot under Irine's arm, she ducked under and made a run for it.
Irine grabbed her arm, and threw her against a mirror. It shattered, and Historia yelped. She put a hand on the back of her head, and it came back bloody.
Irine stood over her, still filming. Her pupils dilated at the smell of blood.
"Tell your girlfriend how much it hurts. Go on, say it."
Historia held her tongue. She wasn't going to give Irine what she wanted.
Irine grabbed her leg, and twisted it. Historia screamed in agony.
"Say it!" Irine shouted. Historia cried, but said nothing. Even in her hazy vision, she could see a pale blur knock Irine to the ground.
"Historia?"
Ymir knelt beside her, putting a hand on the side of her face.
"Ymir? You came after me," she said.
Ymir nodded. "I wasn't going to leave you to sacrifice yourself." She pressed a kiss to Historia's forehead. "Stay here."
Irine had stood up by this point. Ymir turned around, and grabbed Irine's jacket, preparing to throw her into the mirror. However, Irine took Ymir's arms and tossed her against the window, causing glass shards to fly everywhere. Irine turned back to Historia, grinning.
"Let's spice things up a bit, shall we?" Irine took Historia's arm, and bit it.
The pain was nothing like she had ever felt before. It dwarfed even the broken leg. And then she realised that Irine had injected her venom into Historia's veins.
She couldn't see what was happening in the rest of the studio. Her vision had blurred even further, and Historia could only make out colours and shapes.
Somebody else joined the fight. They looked - well, they looked like Reiner and Bertholt. They probably were. Somebody came to her side, and she overheard conversation.
"She's going to be changed, I can see, just do it-"
"No, I won't, I can't-"
And something looked like flames. Maybe it was flames. Historia could feel something soft against her arm, and somebody else shouted, and that was the last thing Historia knew.
--
Is this heaven? It feels like heaven.
Historia opened her eyes, and knew that she wasn't in heaven. It was just a hospital room. And someone was gently speaking to her. Someone with black hair.
"Frieda?" Historia asked. Her voice was coarse.
"Yeah," Frieda said. She took Historia's hand in hers, and Historia saw that there was no bite mark on her arm.
"I had an awful dream," Historia said. "What... what happened?"
"When you left Paradis, you came up here. You fell down two flights of stairs and through a window."
"Oh." So that was the story the Fritzes were going with. "Is Ymir here?"
"Your girlfriend? Yeah, she's here. She's asleep."
Historia looked over to where Ymir was positioned on a couch, and smiled.
"Mom and Dad are here too. And Uri. They're downstairs." Frieda sat up. "I'll go and get them."
She left the room after that.
"So what really happened?" Historia asked. Ymir opened her eyes and strode over to her side.
"We killed Irine. We had to burn down the studio to get rid of the body. Jakob ran away though. You're safe now."
Ymir stroked the side of her face.
"No, I mean about the bite," Historia said. "Am I..?"
"I sucked the venom out."
Historia felt mildly disappointed. She had hoped that she'd been turned.
"Thank you for saving me," she said. "I know what you said, about it being hard for vampires to stop after tasting blood. You saved my life."
Ymir smiled. "Don't do anything like that ever again, okay? Next time you try and die a hero's death, I might not show up to save you."
"Hmm." Historia looked up at her. "Can you kiss me?"
Ymir laughed. "I thought you'd never ask."
They were kissing when everyone else came in.