Chapter 1

Carrie White opened her eyes and saw the dark clouds, covering the daylight sky. Her dirty blonde hair scattered on the floor with her back on the ground. She breathed heavily as she slowly rose herself from the grassy ground, wearing a baby blue nightgown. Her green eyes looked down at her hands and up to the sky, realising the one thing: this was no dream.

She… Is… Alive.

It shouldn't happen. The house should have killed her.

As she continued to look around herself, Carrie started to walk, limping and even losing balance. Unfortunately, upon walking a few feet and onto the open road, she was nothing but fog. An endless fog that led back to the one place that caused her so much pain and trouble.

She once again breathed heavily as she felt the ashy and stony texture underneath her bare feet. The pain could be felt by each pebble, making her face cringed. Insanity wasn't the right word to describe how she felt. Without staring out into space any further, Carrie slowly and calmly walked into the fog. Or was it mist? She couldn't care less. To her miserable surprise, what was left of Chamberlain, Maine was left to be deserted: buildings were left unexplored, sidewalks were broken, cars were demolished and Ewen High School, the school where she went, was burnt down.

Her mind flooded with horrific memories. It was Prom Night. She was happy. People were cheering for her. Until the blood dump. She was covered in blood. People were laughing and then her hands rose and the force pushed them back. Then, the screaming started. The fire was blazing and they were dying. She was responsible for it.

"W-what-what've I done?" Carrie stuttered with a question with fear.

She managed to cheat Death but, in doing so, she made a decision: she couldn't stay in Maine anymore. Finally, after revisiting the vision from her violent and horrible past, she eventually goes, trudged by and stopped at the one location she remembered the last being at. Her house, or what used to be her house. The house, from what she remembered, had been swallowed whole into a wormhole. Barely anything was left and it brought a tear to her eye.

Carrie ran from the wormhole and arrived at the graveyard. There was one gravestone that caught her eyes. On the gravestone, it read…

MARGARET WHITE

1966-2013

CARRIE WHITE

1995-2013

The gravestone was completely destroyed by red spray paint writing, saying she should burn in Hell. A single white rose was in front of the gravestone. The wind started to blow harsher and the leaves were flying. Tears flooded in her eyes as the gravestone cracked with irritation and her outer scream was heard throughout Chamberlain. She ran from the gravestone and out of the graveyard. Then, she returned to the edge of the wormhole and fell on her knees.

"Forgive me," whispered Carrie as she cried. "Please, God. Forgive me… Mama." She covered her eyes and it released a waterfall. "I'm sorry, Mama! I'm sorry I killed you!"

She looked at the ground and grasped her hands together tightly. "Please, forgive me for I have sinned." Carrie continued to pray until a hand was placed on her right shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?" a woman asked her. "You looked a bit rough."

"I don't want to talk about it." Carrie sighed.

"I could see that. You could possibly relate to the girl who lived here when there used to be a house that is. The poor girl suffered so much. Many believed her own mom didn't love her."

"I'm sure she had hope she did."

"Everybody's got to have hope. What's your name?"

Carrie looked at the woman: brunette hair, blue eyes and pale skin. The woman's face was round and was changed from a joyful smile to fright written all over. She thought that woman knew her.

"You're here," said the woman calmly. "You're Carrie White."

Carrie moved away from the woman and she looked down with guilt. Then, she asked: "Are you scared?"

"No, just surprised."

Carrie focused on her face and dove deeper into her mind. The woman was telling the truth. She looked at her blue eyes again and she could've sworn that she had seen this woman before. From her childhood, perhaps.

"What's your name?" Carrie asked her.

"Don't you remember me?" responded the woman. "Remember the woman who was sunbathing? And a little girl spotted the woman and said 'You have dirty pillows'."

Then, Carrie thought back on her childhood and remembered something. A long time ago...

When she was three years old, little Carrie crept towards the white fences that separated her home and the next-door neighbour's yard. She was wearing a little yellow dress, cute but awfully long for a little girl in the summer. It came down to her shins. On the other side of the fence, a ripe eighteen-year-old woman named Estelle Horan sunbathed on a towel in a white bikini, dozing off to sleep. Estelle turned around and her blue eyes opened, spotting the little girl staring at her.

"Carrie," said Estelle startling and got up from the towel. "You scared me. How long have you been standing here?"

Estelle smiled at the little girl, but little Carrie didn't smile back.

"You have dirty pillows," said little Carrie with innocence, pointing at the young woman's chest.

Estelle looked down and covered her chest with the towel. "Oh, you mean… My breasts?"

"I wish I had some." The little girl said very solemnly.

"You will when you're older."

"No, I won't." Little Carrie shook her head. "Mama says only bad girls have dirty pillows."

Estelle could hardly believe it, and the first thing that popped right out of her mouth: "Well, I'm a good girl. And doesn't your mother have breasts?"

Little Carrie frowned and lowered her head. She said something so softly Estelle couldn't hear her. Estelle asked the little girl to repeat. "Mama said she was bad when she made me. That's why she has them."

Estelle couldn't believe what the little girl was saying. She was just dumbfounded. There was nothing at all she could think to say. They just stared at each other, and what she wanted to do was grab the sad little scrap of a girl and run away with her.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut and the little girl jumped. And that was when the little girl's mother came out of the back door and saw them. For a minute, she just goggled as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Carrie!" The mother shrieked and little Carrie turned and froze. She lumbered towards them with rage. Complete, insane rage.

"M-Mrs White!" Estelle acknowledged her and got up from the floor, still covering her body with a towel. She thought little Carrie was going to faint - or die on the spot.

Little Carrie sucked in all her breath and the little face went to a cottage-cheesy colour.

"Carietta!" Little Carrie's mother picked her up and hugged her. The mother looked at Estelle with a hateful stare. She spoke to the neighbour in a whispered threat. "You… You stay away from my daughter."

"We were just talking." Estelle began to explain. "Just… calm down."

"Don't tell me to come down, whore girl." Mrs White spat at her and looked at her child. "I told you. I warned you about her. Do not get given in by her."

"I'm sorry, Mama," little Carrie apologised. "I… I… I forgot."

Then, little Carrie cried on her mother's left shoulder. Estelle's mother came out of their house and ambled to them. Her face crumpled when she saw the little girl. She questioned her daughter about the situation. "What's going on here? What happened?"

"I didn't do anything," replied Estelle.

"Your daughter's a slut," said Margaret angrily. "Letting her expose herself to the world like that."

"Get out of here, Margaret!" Estelle's mother barked at her. "Leave my daughter alone."

Then, something fell from the sky. Margaret, Estelle, and her mother looked up, only to see the sun in the clear blue sky. Then, they saw another object fall on the Whites' roof and onto the grass. The sun glittered on it. At first, Estelle thought it was a big glass globe. Then, it hit the edge of the Whites' roof and shattered, and it wasn't glass at all. It was a big chunk of ice. Suddenly, they started to fall all at once.

"Shh- shh…" Margaret shushed her crying daughter. "Jesus forgives you. Just stop it!"

Margaret huddled with little Carrie and ran to the back door with the raining stones only falling on her house.

News item from the Westover week;y Enterprise, August 19, 1998:

RAIN OF STONES REPORTED

It was reliably reported by several persons that a rain of stones fell from a clear blue sky on Carlin Street in the town of Chamberlain on August 17th. The stones fell principally on the home of Mrs Margaret White, damaging the roof extensively and ruining two gutters and a downspout valued at approximately $25. Mrs White, a widow, lives with her three-year-old daughter, Carietta.

Mrs White could not be reached for comment.

Carrie gasped as she looked at her. "Estelle?"

"Hello, Carrie."

As she smiled at her, Estelle hugged Carrie tightly. Carrie wasn't so much stunned as she was confused over the kind gesture. This was, probably, the first time, in her mind. She had someone, apart from her mother, hugging her. Unsure of what to do next, yet frightened by Estelle's attitude and appeal, she hugged her old neighbour back.

"It has been so long," said Estelle sweetly.

"Same with you," Carrie replied with a small smile. "Just sucks that I can't stay for long."

"You definitely need a place to live. You can live in my apartment if you like."

"That would be perfect, thank you."

She followed Estelle to her car, a grey compact car, and opened the car door. Carrie got into the car and put the seatbelt on. Estelle sat in the driver's seat. As the car woke up with the engine purring, Estelle drove away from the remains of Carrie's house. Carrie stared at the window and buildings and nature were zooming past them. Estelle drove up at the border of Maine and she looked back to the place that gave her nothing but pain. It was clear she would never forget Chamberlain but what was also clear was that she'd never been coming back. Not in a million years.

"Good riddance," Carrie mumbled.

She looked back at the moving road and never looked back. As the car travelled on the highway, Carrie leaned her head against the window and drifted off to sleep.

"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"

"Get off me, you freak!"

"Are you done scaring us for today?"

"You're going to have to keep killing him. Over and over again."

Carrie forcibly woke up from her hellish nightmare and brought herself back to reality. She was still in the car with Estelle and smiled invisibly. She looked at the window and all she could see were trees and the long road. She didn't recognise the road or the highway. She turned to Estelle.

"Where are we?" Carrie asked tiredly.

"Still far from San Diego," replied Estelle while driving. "That's in California. I'm gonna have to stop for gas soon. Did you have a good sleep?"

"Yes, I have." She nodded.

Carrie lied. That horrific vision was her past, a past from the grave. She wanted to forget the past but she couldn't. Her head leaned against the car seat and directly stared through the window glass and watched the trees going by. She hoped the past would not haunt her. Even if it meant creating her false reality.

Estelle looked down at the fuel tank icon. The icon showed that it had half the fuel in the tank. "Surely there is a gas station nearby." She said and looked at the passenger.

"Okay," replied Carrie and she looked back at the window.

Ten minutes later, Estelle and Carrie arrived at a lonely gas station. The sky was covered by grey clouds and Estelle stopped the engine of the car. She took off the seatbelt and got out of her car. Estelle filled the fuel tank with gasoline as Carrie looked at the main road, seeing cars and vans zooming. Everything was so peaceful, unlike what she caused in Chamberlain. No violence. No pain. No suffering.

Carrie looked right off the road and saw a young woman, maybe around her age, with her head down, her hands in fists and wearing dark clothes. Her back was hunched over and her arms were droopy down. She slowly lifted her head and revealed scars all over her tan face. Her fierce blue eyes were staring at Carrie and her white teeth were shown in anger.

"Chris?" Carrie gasped in fear.

How could she forget anyone like Chris?

Chris Hargensen was Carrie White's tormentor. She was beautiful and wealthy for a seventeen-year-old. Her father, John, was a successful lawyer and went to the same high school as Carrie. She was the sociopathic ringleader of the Ultras, a clique of popular girls. All they would do was continually teased, harassed and mercilessly bullied Carrie for her difference since the sixth grade. Chris had a greaser boyfriend named Billy Nolan who was the leader of a dangerous gang. She also had a best friend named Tina Blake who was just as much of a bully as she was. Chris, Billy, and Tina, as well as several others, hatched a scheme to humiliate Carrie in a particularly cruel way on Prom Night of Ewen High. However, thanks to Carrie's secret gift, she gave them a taste of their own medicine in a dose filled with vengeance and rage.

It couldn't be Chris. Carrie knew it for sure. Chris Hargensen was dead. She knew it because she killed her.

She was chasing Chris and Billy after setting the school on fire. They were in his car and Carrie stopped the car from running over her, causing Chris to fall back first and Billy to fall head first into the steering wheel. He died because of this event. Chris tried to leave the car but Carrie locked her in. Carrie lifted the car up and they stared coldly at each other. With Chris obsessively trying to run over Carrie herself, she sent the car crashing into a gas pump, which caused Chris to fall head first into the windshield, leaving her with open wounds and glass sticking out of her cheeks. Chris silently begged for help but Carrie refused. She then caused a gas pump to fall on the car as it exploded with the corpses of Billy and Chris inside.

The car door opened and Carrie quickly turned her head. She was relieved to see Estelle again.

"Just finished filling the tank and bought water and snacks for the journey," said Estelle while getting into her car. Carrie looked back at the spot but the figure disappeared, making her glad it was gone and scared about its existence. Estelle, looking at Carrie, asked: "You okay?"

"Yes." Carrie answered and the car started moving forward.

There were a hundred reasons why Carrie didn't want to stay in Chamberlain anymore. For a start, she knew it was the right thing to do. She wasn't wanted anyway. Chamberlain had sheltered her for the past seventeen years of her life. She didn't feel sad when leaving Chamberlain at all. She had no problem with leaving anyway.