The Future Lies Ahead
Disclaimer: I own nothing (unfortunately). All rights and characters in this fic belong to Stephen King and other respective owners and creators. I gain no profit from this. It's purely for fun. I only own my OC's.
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Prologue
Graffiti scratched on a desk of the Baker Street Grammar School in Chamberlain:
Carrie White eats shit.
It didn't appear to be made by the same person who carved it into the wood like before. Carrie had seen these enough times to have a rough idea of who left the message for her. It couldn't have been Chris Hargensen. It was too detailed, needing more effort than the future prom queen could muster to mock the timid girl.
Electing to ignore it as always, Carrie pulled back the chair so that she could take a seat, waiting for the teacher to begin class. Rolling her backpack off her shoulder and onto the floor, she proceeded to unzip it and retrieve her textbooks. With her head down, she counted the seconds before the first student would inevitably throw a paper ball at her or slap chewing gum in her messy hair. However, not only was she surprised to look up without harm coming to her, but she also found that she was the only one in the classroom.
Two-dozen desks were unattended before her as she sat in the back of the classroom. The teacher was nowhere to be found and the screen was blank. Carrie furrowed her brows and searched the room, feeling perplexed and lost. Even if the teacher was late to class, which was difficult to believe with Miss Collins always being prompt, there surely should have been a PowerPoint presentation ready for class.
For a split-second, Carrie feared she was about to walk into a cruel prank. It wouldn't be the first time, though nothing of this scale had been thrust upon her…yet.
She flinched when she heard a bang from the window. Turning sharply, she saw a small crack. Her heart raced beneath her chest, fearing that a poor bird had crashed into the glass. Sunlight poured through the window, coating the classroom in a sickly yellow before Carrie spotted red.
A balloon casually drifted into view. Carrie followed it, utterly transfixed. It gently brushed against the window. Everything was silent. A chill crawled up Carrie's spine and her head began to pulse. There was suddenly a loud screech that pierced her eardrums and caused her to hiss in pain.
The balloon popped as a stone fell from the sky. Red liquid splattered against the window, turning the classroom's aura from sickly to deathly. Before Carrie could pray that it was paint, more stones began to rain from the sky. Some drummed against the window, fracturing further.
Carrie was ready to get out from her seat to leave. Turning to the front of the class, she was repulsed to see something bloody attached to the front wall. An empty turtle shell, shattered with blood dripping from its bitten-off holes, was nailed up like a sadistic decoration.
Something else caught Carrie's eye. On her desk, a red balloon bounced once. Then twice. Then it exploded.
Carrie realised at that moment the liquid wasn't paint. The taste caught on her lips, and the way it clung to her body grimly told her that it was unmistakably blood.
Shrieking with terror and covered from head to toe, she leapt from her seat and hurried out of the classroom. The window behind her finally broke as the room was littered with stones, plummeting from the heavens. She wanted to cry for help, even if a voice in the back of her mind told her that no one would help her. Wait? Was that her voice speaking? She couldn't tell and she didn't have time to stop and find out. All that mattered to her was leaving the classroom as soon as
She only stopped when she discovered she wasn't in the hallway outside the classroom door. Instead, she found herself standing in front of the school. Stones continued to rain with thunderous fury. The sky had darkened so much that it was pitch-black. Carrie didn't know where the world ended and the sky began.
An orange glow flickered behind and her back felt unnaturally warm. That's when she heard hundreds of painful screams. Glancing over her shoulder, too afraid to lift a foot, her eyes bulged at the horrible sight.
Fire had erupted throughout the school building. Flame stretched upwards and outwards for miles. But, it was what she could see in each of the windows that really made Carrie's stomach churn. It was impossible for her to tell them apart. They were like silhouettes, bashing their hands against the class and begging for freedom as the fire consumed them. Under their harrowing screams, Carrie heard a chant increase in volume.
''Carrie White! Burn in Hell! Carrie White! Burn in Hell!''
The silhouettes slowly drifted upwards, floating against the windows like balloons.
Overwhelmed, Carrie clutched her hands on either side of her head and prayed for this madness to stop. She dropped to her knees. There was a part of her that wished for the ground to swallow her whole and never spit her back out. The doors to the school burst open, spurting more flames as a shadowy figure emerged from the chaos. Carrie caught a brief glimpse of the figure for only a moment.
It was tall, towering above anyone that she knew.
It appeared unharmed by the fire engulfing its body.
Its eyes glowed a bright orange, then blue, then red. Swaying between the colours like an ocean wave.
It grinned menacingly at Carrie.
It…
It…
Perhaps Carrie's heart was racing too fast, or she had suffered too much to comprehend. Because the next thing she knew, she felt the sensation of falling backwards and bolting upright immediately afterwards. Her hands clutched something soft and it took a moment to register that she was now sitting in her own cramped bedroom.
With a shaky breath, she surveyed her surroundings, not sure what to believe anymore. But, as the seconds passed and reality began to seep in, she knew that she was safe and unharmed. For now.
She rubbed her sweaty forehead and shuffled on the dusty bed mattress. The memory drifted away from her. The fire and the figure standing with a smile disappeared into nothingness and never came back.
Nightmares were not an uncommon occurrence for Carrie White. But she had never experienced anything like that before. Licking her dry lips, she turned to the small window in the corner of her room, seeing the rising sun hanging above the trees. If she didn't hurry, she would be the one late for school. Without a second thought, fearing the wrath of her mother if she acquired another tardy at school, Carrie rushed out of bed to collect her school supplies and get dressed.
While the haunting pictures in her nightmare disappeared, that churning feeling in her stomach never left, causing her to still feel queasy. She prayed that it would pass after the volleyball practice she already knew she wasn't going to participate in.
To Be Continued…
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