The Early Fright
The Early Fright is the foundational childhood trauma of Laura, the narrator of Carmilla, and the first supernatural event in her life. Occurring when she was no more than six years old, this nocturnal visitation by a beautiful but sinister young woman establishes the pattern of vampiric attack—seduction, a piercing bite, and terrified denial by adults—that will define Laura's later encounter with Carmilla. The episode is the earliest memory Laura can recollect, and she states that the impression it made upon her mind "never has been effaced."
Identity and Setting of the Childhood Visitation
The event takes place in the nursery of Laura's family schloss in Styria, a large room in the upper story with a steep oak roof. Laura, who describes herself as a happy child "studiously kept in ignorance of ghost stories," awakens one night to find herself alone, the nursery maid and nurse absent. Instead of fear, her initial reaction is vexation at being neglected, and she begins to whimper in preparation for a "hearty bout of roaring." Her crying is interrupted by the sight of "a solemn, but very pretty face" looking at her from the side of the bed—a young lady kneeling with her hands under the coverlet. Laura feels "pleased wonder" and ceases whimpering, allowing the stranger to caress her, lie down beside her, and draw her close. The child falls asleep "delightfully soothed."
The Attack and Its Immediate Aftermath
Laura is wakened by "a sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment," and she cries loudly. The lady starts back, her eyes fixed on Laura, then slips down onto the floor and, as Laura thinks, hides herself under the bed. For the first time, Laura is frightened and yells with all her might. The nurse, nursery maid, and housekeeper rush in. Though they soothe Laura, she perceives that their faces are pale with "an unwonted look of anxiety." They search under the bed, about the room, and peep under tables and into cupboards. The housekeeper whispers to the nurse, "Lay your hand along that hollow in the bed; someone did lie there, so sure as you did not; the place is still warm." The nursery maid pets Laura, and all three examine her chest where she felt the puncture, but they pronounce that "there was no sign visible that any such thing had happened to me."
Consequences and Lasting Effects
The immediate consequence is that the housekeeper and two other servants remain sitting up all night in the nursery, and from that time onward a servant always sits up in the nursery until Laura is about fourteen. Laura becomes very nervous for a long time afterward. A pallid, elderly doctor with a saturnine face and chestnut wig is called in; for a good while he visits every second day and gives her medicine, which she hates. The morning after the apparition, Laura is in a state of terror and cannot bear to be left alone even in daylight. Her father comes up, talks cheerfully, laughs at the nurse's answers, and tells Laura it was "nothing but a dream and could not hurt me," but Laura is not comforted, for she knows the visit "was not a dream" and is "awfully frightened." The nursery maid tries to reassure her by claiming it was she who came and lay down beside her, but this does not satisfy Laura. A venerable old priest in a black cassock visits, prays with the nurse and housekeeper, and teaches Laura to say, "Lord hear all good prayers for us, for Jesus' sake," a prayer her nurse makes her repeat for years. Laura remembers the scene with vivid clarity: the priest's "thoughtful sweet face," the "rude, lofty, brown room" with clumsy three-hundred-year-old furniture, and the scanty light entering through the small lattice. She forgets all her life preceding this event, and for some time after it is obscure, but the scenes of this night "stand out vivid as the isolated pictures of the phantasmagoria surrounded by darkness."
