It's amazing how the simple component of appearance can display so little, yet so much about a person.

A good and well kept appearance can display self respect and wealth, yet a tarnished exterior can display traces of sorrow and a tough life style. The latter of those categories applied to one Carrie White.

No one ever seemed to ever try and look beyond what lay beneath that shy expression and clumps of tangled brown hair that fell over her sickly, unwashed face. And perhaps for good reason though, everyone knew that Carrie White was an outsider, a freak even… Not only judging by the outrageous stories that often spread around the school, but simply by the way she carried herself (no pun intended).

She always walked in that same, sorrowful manner, shoulders always slumped over, messy hair always covering her swarthy complexion and dark eyes always locked on the ground, never daring to look happy for even one precious moment.

Not that I could blame her, Chris Hargenson it seemed had made it her life mission to make Carrie's life a living hell, taking every chance she had to attempt to destroy what good was in Carrie's life for no good reason other than simply being the stupid bully Chris was.

But Carrie never seemed fazed at all, she just seemed to accept it as if it was her inevitable fate or something, and move on as if nothing happened. Now that astounds me. I sometimes wonder what can happen to a person to cause such sadness that they simply seem to lose all hope… If the stories were true, then Carrie must have had a pretty bad home life. And even I knew that a person can only take so much pressure before they crack.

And sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

It all seemed like such a simple idea at first, Tommy would take Carrie to the prom and show her a good time. Maybe she could make some friends or gain some confidence or some other reason which I can't quite remember anymore…

I knew Tommy would be hesitant when I asked him, and rightfully, he was. Nobody had even attempted to be nice or even so much talk to Carrie White before, let alone ask her out. But with a little trick called persuasion, and a test against Tommy's good nature, he eventually agreed.

Ewen High was chaos when they found out. It was a very strange occurrence that one of the most popular boys in the school had asked resident loser to the prom. The rumour mill did its usual quick run, and soon, the whole school, including the teachers, had heard of the scandal.

I was almost immediately flocked by my shocked and angry friends, who all asked virtually the same question, "Why, Sue?"

And I gave them all the same answer, "Because it's what's right."

And I thought that it was. After the way the other girls and I treated Carrie in the locker room, for some reason, it seemed like the obvious solution for an apology, and even although I was just a naive teenager, I knew that something had to be done to make things right.

Sure as the sea, the big day came and I spent the whole day sitting in my room trying to kill time, to not try and visualise what it would be like to go to the prom and bum myself out because I wasn't going.

It definitely was a long day. Things were pretty normal until about 10pm that night. I remember I was halfway through reading a book in my room when I heard the sirens. It seemed like there were thousands of them, all screeching loudly in my ears. I went over to my window to take a look. And sure enough, there was a large cloud of smoke coming from a building in the distance, in the direction of the school in particular.

And since I was ever so naive to the danger of seeking out the fire, I snuck out and drove to the school, trying to convince myself that nothing could be going wrong at the moment, I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Oh but I was really kidding myself there, so many things went wrong that night, many of which I could still remember so clearly it was as if it happened yesterday. When I approached the school, I found that there were about a dozen students covered in soot and coughing and weezing madly on the pavement in front of the gym. Frantically, I searched for Tommy upon the the survivors, he was no where to be seen.

Frightened, I asked one of the officers surrounding the burning building what happened, he only could tell me that they were still trying to work out the cause of the fire, that it came from an unknown source.

I remember being very shaken as I drove home, a path of destruction seemed to be trailing from street to street, and way too curious for my own good, I followed it.

I don't remember much about the destruction, just that gazing at the burning houses made me drive quickly down the street to avoid looking at the charred remains of the once fine houses on Crescent Avenue.

After that, I don't really remember how long I drove, possibly for ten minutes, maybe an hour. I was in too much shock to keep track of the time.

Then I remember passing the remains of a familiar red Ford Chevy, it was flipped upside down and crashed into the old roadhouse. I immediately recognised it. It was Billy Nolan's, Chris' Boyfriend's Car.

Getting out my car, I went over and inspected the damage. Then I remember hearing something that made me pause and turn. A pained moan came from behind me. In middle of the road lay something that looked like roadkill. It was all bloodied and big, something that looked like it got run over.

Cautiously, I went over to it and inspected it. Whatever it was, it was probably still alive, judging from the cry it gave just moments earlier. However, I still didn't know what it was, that was, until it rolled over and looked at me with dark eyes.

I remember very clearly how shocked I was to see Carrie there. Her face, hair and prom dress was soaked with what looked and smelt like blood, and her face had to most hateful expression I had ever seen.

"You- you did this to me!" She croaked, attempted to pull herself from the ground but fell back down due to weakness.

"I- I never did anything, please, let me help you, Carrie…" I said, crouching down to her level.

She studied me, her dark eyes seemingly boring into my soul. I remember my heart feeling as though it was filled with ice for a few seconds, but then it stopped, I clutched my heart hard with a hand, feeling suddenly breathless. But then she spoke again with words I am sure I'll never forget.

"You- you had no part in it… You… really wanted to help me…" She gasped, her eyes widening as she spoke.

I stared at her, this blood covered, pitiful girl and gaped in wonder. It was as if she could see right through me. But how? How was any of this possible?

"Carrie, I'm sorry,"I remember saying, "I never meant for any of this to happen…"

She smiled then, something I never thought I'd see, "I forgive you, Sue, thank you for caring."

Then she started spluttering, her eyes started to glass over. And without thinking, I took her plump, blood stained hand and held it as she died.

"Mama!" She gasped, barely inaudible.

And that was the last I ever saw of Carrie White, the girl who has since had me questioning reality. The infamous 'Black Prom'has had many people questioning what exactly happened that night, despite what the few survivors had to say about the whole ordeal. They all claimed that Carrie had some sort of bizarre power, which many claimed to have been a silly story that was induced from the influence smoke and the harsh fumes.

Many people have asked of my account on the whole story, and this is my side of it, my own experience with the girl who many have claimed has spawned many questions in the face of logic and science. But to me, Carrie was the perfect of example of why not to push the underdog too far, you never know what would be the outcome of 'seemingly harmless' bullying. Going back to a previous point, appearances can be deceiving at times, who can say that Carrie was a loser with sorceress-like abilities when that person doesn't know the whole story?


A/N:

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