Chapter 2
The sky slowly turned dark as the car continued to travel on the road. Along the way, Estelle bought clothes for Carrie to get changed into a denim jacket and jeans, a grey tank top and a pair of black converse shoes. Estelle looked at her watch and it was quarter to ten in the evening. She knew she couldn't reach her home by midnight. Estelle turned her head and looked at Carrie.
"Um, Carrie?" She spoke and Carrie faced her with her green eyes. "I think it's best if we stay in a motel for the night. I need some rest."
"That's fine." Carrie responded.
Carrie never went to a motel before. The only time she heard about the motels would be when her Mama would use it to describe the sin of lust between men and women. So, it wasn't surprising when Carrie got nervous yet excited about going to a motel for the first time without her Mama.
Eventually, they arrived at the motel called Rodeway Inn in Phoenix, Arizona. Estelle parked her car in a parking space and switched the engine. They got out of the car and Estelle pressed the white lock icon on her car key and its eyes flashed orange. The car went to sleep. Estelle and Carrie entered the motel and everything was quiet. Almost quiet. Carrie listened to the small blue portable radio. It was on the news radio channel. The words 'murders', 'disappearance', and 'the Menace' caught her ears. The smell of smoke wretched Carrie's small slim nose. She heard the words of her Mama echoed in her head.
Smoke is the Devil's way of hurting you.
Carrie coughed quietly after she smelt its unholy scent. Then, she sat down on the armchair as Estelle reached the reception desk.
"H-Hello?" Estelle said after spotting a middle-aged obese man sitting. The man groaned as he took a cigarette out of his mouth. He turned his round body while sitting on the chair.
"Y-Yes," the man coughed and spoke in a harsh tone. "What is it? What do you want?"
"I would like to book a room for the night." Estelle requested the receptionist.
"For two or one?"
"Two."
"Okay. That will be forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents." The man huffed and Estelle paid through the credit card. He gave her the sign-in book. "Just fill in the details and I'll give you the key.
Estelle took the pen and signed in her details in the book. The receptionist gave her the key and Estelle and Carrie went to their door. Estelle unlocked the door and they walked in. As they entered the room. Estelle locked the door behind them.
"I'm going to get change in the bathroom." Carrie said, carrying the given clothes.
"Alright, and you probably have a wash as well." Estelle replied and switched on the television. A hint of rage sparked in Carrie. "I don't know how long…"
Carrie went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Inside, there were towels hanging on the radiator. She placed the clothes on the toilet and took off her nightgown. Carrie glared at the mirror and saw her reflection. Her body was slim built with her stomach flat yet her hips were wide. She covered her upper and lower body with her hands, feeling disgusted about her body. Carrie noticed that the bathtub had a shower. She breathed in and stepped into the bathtub. Her right hand turned the shower head on and lines of water rushed out. She picked up a green soap and rubbed it on her body tenderly. It was pure bliss, until she reached down. Then, something triggered inside of Carrie and remembered something horrible.
Carrie White headed for a shower after gym class at Ewen High. She played water polo with her classmates, who didn't like her at all. When she went to the shower and took her towel off, Carrie spotted that she was alone and no one was near her. Good for her at least. She switched on the shower and water fell on her. She sighed and her muscles relaxed. She took a bar of soap and began cleaning herself. Then, she dropped the soap and looked at the tilted floor. She spotted something scary on the floor.
Blood.
She looked down at her hands and they were covered in blood. It was her blood. Her hands shook and she started to scream. "Help! Help me!"
Carrie wrapped the towel around her and ran from the shower. She ran to the Ultra and grabbed Sue Snell's white top. Sue was laughing with her friends and felt Carrie's bloodied hand on her. She turned her head and, with disgust, pushed Carrie away.
"Get off me, you freak!" Sue barked at her. "Oh, my… Look what she did to my shirt!"
"Please!" Carrie begged with her left hand stretching to them.
"Woah, woah!" Chris Hargensen spoke. "Stop, stop!"
"I think I'm bleeding to death…" panted Carrie with anxiety.
Chris looked at Sue's blood stained shirt and Carrie. Then, she concluded with a chuckle. "It's period blood."
"I think I'm dying!" screamed Carrie but the Ultras were laughing. "Please, help me!"
"It's just your period," said Chris causally and went to the locker and took out a tampon. She aimed the tampon at Carrie. "Just plug it up."
Carrie grabbed Chris's hand instead of the tampon, making Chris laugh with disgust. The Ultras laughed at the situation. Carrie, still doesn't understanding what was going on, continued to beg for help. Sue took a tampon and threw it at her. "Plug it up!" Sue shouted and Carrie screamed. Then, the Ultras, including their leader, joined in as they threw sanitary pads and tampon at Carrie. "Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"
Carrie blinked furiously and quickly switched off the showerhead. She sighed out as she shook her head, trying her best to get that memory gone. She got out of the bathtub and dried herself with the towel. Once she was done drying herself, Carrie put on the given clothes and brushed her damp blonde hair. Then, she faced the mirror with her green eyes and also remembered something.
Graffiti sprayed on the lockers of Ewen High School: Carrie White eats shit.
Carrie felt the urge to break the mirror. She did it once before in the girls' restroom. There was rage slowly building inside her. She continued to look at the mirror and it cracked yet not shattered. She broke the mirror with her mind.
"Are you okay, Carrie?" asked Estelle through the other side of the room. "I've heard something…"
"I'm fine." Carrie immediately replied and opened the door. After exiting the room, she shut the door behind her.
Estelle turned around and her blue eyes widened with surprise. She gasped slightly and smiled. "Wow… Carrie, you look great!"
"Thanks." Carrie blushed at her compliment.
"Has the fire started or is it just you?"
"Um…" Carrie swallowed nervously. The last time she started a fire was on Prom Night in Chamberlain. "I think it's just you."
"It's just a figure of speech." Estelle added in and switched off the television.
"Estelle," said Carrie as she sat on the bed, facing Estelle. "Why did you take me? Knowing what I have done?"
The pride that had sustained Estelle thus far seemed to deflate, leaving her more wizened and vulnerable than ever. When she finally spoke, it was the voice of a defeated woman. "I've been working for a secret order ever since I left Chamberlain. Now, I need help."
"Go on."
"I'm searching for five Obscura Paintings which are also being searched by the Cabal... And, they're very dangerous!"
Obscura Paintings? The Cabal? They had nothing to do with Carrie. It took all her willpower to stay on the bed, her mask firmly in place. "And I should care about it because…?"
"Because I'm being stalked!" Estelle rose from her chair in a fit of agitation, gesturing out of the window as a flash of lightning threw her shadow into bold relief. "People are dying out there!"
"You've dealt with worse. Handle it, Estelle!" Carrie nearly spat the words, rising to her feet. The way Estelle cowered from Carrie stoked her irritation even further, flushing her cheeks. She couldn't imagine her acting this way to anyone, not even to her former neighbour.
"Carrie... Please!" She pleaded, and pressed her hands against Carrie's hands. "Look, go and find Adam Frankenstein. He can help-"
"What? You expected me to do your work now, after everything that happened to me?"
"Carrie, please don't think badly of me. Joining the Lux Veritatis is the only way I can leave Chamberlain. You taught me there is something supernatural going on in the world." Estelle explained further with Carrie feeling more hatred towards her. "Plus, I've been under too much strain recently and you're the only one who can help at this time. If you would only-"
"Only what, bitch?" Carrie snarled. Despite her newly found self-control, there was heat in her veins, the rage that she wanted Estelle to see. "I hate being used by anyone, least of all you. You should have thought about this by now."
"Carrie, please, you've got to help me!" Estelle cried. "For pity's sake-"
"I'm going," Carrie had enough. Disappointment overlaid her vision. She had come here with Estelle, expecting to find my old neighbour ripe and bombastic, not this weakling hag begging her for favours. As she grabbed her wrist, Carrie turned on her, forcing Estelle back into his chair, not caring that she cringed from Carrie's temper. "You knew, Estelle! You knew my mom was abusing me and you walked away and left me! There was no pity then!"
"Get out!" Her voice rose, shocking Carrie like a piston to the gut.
Carrie barely felt the gun jab into her stomach when head-splitting pain crashed into her skull, knocking her cold.
It might have been the stillness that woke her.
Carrie flexed her limbs, wondering how she had come to lie in such an awkward position. On the floor. In the dark. The noise of the storm rumbled overhead. A sickly, metallic stench was drilling into her brain like an alarm bell.
The reek of fresh blood.
Lots of it.
In a daze, Carrie staggered to my knees, pushing herself upright as the room and her head swung with conflicting shadows. It took a moment for the confusion to abate - ghostly images coming and going with memories. Memories of what? A struggle? Had Carrie fought someone? There were muzzy echoes in her eardrums, the sound of a gunshot, really close. She thought she remembered a scream. Had that been her, an intruder?
Or Estelle...
Carrie saw her, and immediately felt the ground rush back up as she fell by her side. She shook her head in furious denial, not sure if Carrie was still dreaming.
She lay on Estelle's side, curled up like a child asleep on the aging rug - a rug that was slowly turning oily black in the lamp's flickering light. Gently, Carrie lifted her to her lap, turning Estelle's face towards mine. It reminded her of her mother's death. The same cradle that she gave to her dead mother before the house collapsed on her. Yet she doesn't remember how she got out of there.
All Carrie cradled was an empty shell once again.
She was too shocked to weep, or to scream, or do anything other than take in the horrific death in her arms. Estelle's eyes were stretched wide in terror, mouth gaping. There, the blood pooled, drenching the floor, soaking her pants and probably even dripped through some unfortunate ceiling. Something, or someone, had reached in and scooped out her organs with the ease of cupping a handful of water from a bucket. Silvery light twinkled across her body, until Carrie realised that the actual silver was splashed like droplets of mercury over Estelle's gaping wounds.
Her heart thumped with extra insistence as Carrie sat there, rocking her old neighbour's corpse while her head grew clearer. It was then she saw the markings daubed above her head, up the walls, across the fireplace and paintings; there were symbols and arcane images, drawn in the only substance available in that quantity. None of them were recognisable, but at that point Carrie was beyond caring about what they were saying.
That was Estelle's blood on the wall.
Something new sloshed inside her, all but replacing her revulsion. Desire surged through her mind as Carrie slowly rose to my feet, not taking my eyes from Estelle's remains.
Desire for revenge.
Her hands came up without her volition, smeared with hot gore. Carrie suddenly longed to find whoever did this, and close those telekinetic hands around their throat, to squeeze the life from them just as Estelle's life had been.
The feeling was so overwhelming it took her a few seconds to realise she needed to get out of there fast. Her mind was made up in a split second. Without hesitation, Carrie grabbed the motel key and unlocked the door. Then, she locked the door behind her and threw the key in the bin. Carrie ran away from the motel, knowing that she will be blame for Estelle's murder. When she swerved back onto the streets, she saw a group of men wearing black facing her in an alleyway. They smiled at her, but it was a pleasant smile. They had their rotten sharp teeth revealed. All she felt was scorned.
"Carrie White." The pale dark haired medium height man spoke to her. "We have been searching for you."
Carrie couldn't help but feel uneasy. Her hands tightened into fists and swallowed nervously. "How do you know my name?" She asked him and his friends. Or she thought they were his friends.
Suddenly, his eyes turned black. The irises and the pupils were gone and the white of the eyes changed to black. Then, he spoke in a ghastly voice. "Your reputation precedes us."
Their skins burst into flames and their human skin changed into a scaly reptile-like skin.
Her breathing went fearfully and slowly began to walk back. No one was about to stop her from hunting Estelle's murderer. She turned around and began to run away from the demonic creatures.
Carrie just ran away from them. Her blonde hair was moving in the wind as she ran. Suddenly, she stopped at a dead end of the alleyway. A few seconds later, a growl was heard behind her and she turned around. There, she saw three large grizzly dogs standing in front of her. Their red eyes were staring at her viciously and their sharp teeth were shown in the moonlight. Carrie whimpered tearfully as the dogs came closer and closer.
Then, a blade-like boomerang sliced the dogs' heads and burst into flame. A dirty gloved hand grabbed her wrist and Carrie looked up. She saw a man with scars on his face, resembling stitches. His pale blue eyes were looking directly at her green eyes. His short brown-blonde hair was scuffled, complementing his worn clothes. He lets go of her hand as Carrie notices that he is taller than her.
"Are you okay?" He asked her.
"Yeah," replied Carrie, breathing. Then, she stuttered a question. "Um, did… Did you throw that boomerang?"
"It's a weapon from… A friend of mine."
"What's your name?" Carrie asked the mysterious man.
"I'm not a given name sort of person." The man started to walk away from her.
"You saved my life, and you're just gonna leave me?"
He groaned and turned around, looking at her. "My name is Adam. Adam Frankenstein. What's yours?"
Carrie remembered what Estelle told her in the motel before her death. Go and find Adam Frankenstein. She swallowed and stated her name. "Carrie White."
Then, the same group of creatures came to a dead end. They snarled them with pure hatred. "FRANKENSTEIN!" The frontman yelled at him.
"Run!" Adam said in a husky tone, grabbing Carrie's wrist and ran away from the dead end.