After getting humiliated and turned away, Carrie makes a discovery that will change her life forever.

Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie White

Christina Hendricks as Rita Desjardin

"Carrie?"

Carrie White could hear her name being called. She was hiding in one of the janitor's broom closets. She couldn't take it anymore. She hated this town. Everyone hated her and for no reason. Well that wasn't true everyone really hated her because of her mother the religious fanatic. Carrie was never popular, girls like Chris Hargensen and Sue Snell looked down on her as this insignificant thing.

"Carrie!"

They went too far this time. They stole her clothes, they tossed her underwear around the locker room playing keep away. All she had now was a towel wrapped around herself. She was still dripping wet, she was pushed out into the hall and locked out.

Carrie tensed up when she heard someone run up on the other side of the closet door. She started hyperventilating when she saw the knob turn. The door opened quickly.

"Carrie?" An older woman with red hair stared down at her while breathing heavy. Rita Desjardin might've been her gym teacher but she was also the only person Carrie considered a friend. "Come on back to my office."

No one else around. Classes were going on. Carrie was missing English. Rita had some clothes from the 'Lost & Found' box she could wear.

"I'm going to have a talk with Principal Morton," Rita said, helping the poor girl dry her hair. She smiled at her, encouragingly; of course when it was someone like Rita Desjardin it was hard not to smile back. It was hard to believe a woman like her was single. A redhead with an hourglass figure although she was always in a jacket and sweatpants at work.

"Thanks, Miss Desjardin."

She took Carrie's hand, "Everything's going to be fine, Carrie, you'll see."

"I should get to class."

Rita checked her watch, "You might as well head home."

She went behind her desk and looked over some papers, Carrie had no idea what kept her here so late. She could see she was unhappy, maybe not so much the job but something was missing.

"Um..."

Rita sighed, "I'll see if I can find what they did with your clothes."

"Oh. Ok."

"Don't worry. The girls are all in detention in an hour. Chris will snap," Rita said with a sly smirk.

This did make Carrie feel a bit better imagining her tormentors all miserable in that cramped room. She smiled and picked up her stuff. She had a lot on her mind, but she didn't want to hear home, that was a lot worse.

"Uh, Miss Desjardin?"

"Yes?"

"Did you...did you want to maybe come with me to the arcade?"

Rita's eyes slanted. This was a weird request. Carrie was a shy girl though, nice to a fault so it didn't sound at all out of the ordinary to her to ask a grown woman who was a teacher to accompany her as if she were her peer.

"The arcade?"

"Yeah the one under the overpass."

Rita dismissed this even when Carrie bit her lip rather adorably, "I'm afraid I can't. I have things to do."

"Oh...ok...," Carrie said, she waved pitifully and left her office. She didn't leave school right away though. She was curious to see when her dear gym teacher left for the day. Call it stalking but she was determined to see if she really had some place to be or she was going home. She overheard once that she lived east of town; ok so maybe it was stalking. It wasn't quite 3 o'clock but there she was before the bell rang.

Carrie watched her go to her car. She looked nervous. Maybe she did have something important she had to do. Carrie just didn't want to believe she was avoiding her. She watched her drive out of the lot. She headed east. Chances were it was something on the way but it looked like it was straight home.

Oh well she had a bunch of quarters and her mother didn't get home for a couple more hours so she had time to kill.

The arcade known as 'King's Games' was a pretty old place, outdated by today's standards. The only thing keeping it going were hipsters, anyone looking for a place to sell drugs and Carrie.

Carrie entered. The smell of hotdogs and stale air. It got pretty hot in there too. Some games were crowded around but the one Carrie always played was almost never used by anyone else. 'Dungeon Quest'. A basic game where the whole intent was to slay dragons and save a busty princess. You played as a handsome knight. The cartoon picture of the princess reminded Carrie of Rita except for the hair which was blonde and was long and braided like Rapunzel.

Carrie never made it very far but she found herself addicted. Something about the race against the clock. She put her quarters in and got the joystick ready.

For a 16-bit game it wasn't bad. The controls were a little shaky and when you pressed a button to jump or attack there could be a delay. So lives were precious. She was doing well after a couple miserable trys. Even with the overbearing suspense music telling her time was running out. She was making it to level 10, a level she never reached before. She hit dragon after dragon and bat after bat with her sword. She was making it to the top of this castle no doubt to finally see this princess.

Then she fell into a hole filled with lava.

GAME OVER!

"Wow nice one," said a man maybe about college age standing behind her; he had nothing better to do then mock a girl for failing at a video game.

"I did a lot better than last time," Carrie said quietly.

He just laughed and leaned in to look at her score. "You never got her?" He asked pointing to the busty princess, spilling his blue slushie on the controls in the process. Carrie just shook her head, now disgusted. "You probably never will." He sneered and walked away but not without getting some of his slushie on her.

She stayed there a minute longer. She was out of quarters but she liked watching the preview screen show the actual rescue of the princess. It even had this animation that showed her congratulate the knight for his heroics.

She knew she had to get home before her mother freaked out and punished her for disobeying her curfew. She took the same shortcut she normally took, a broken chain link fence that led into a deserted construction site. As she was walking to the fence she saw what looked like Rita's car. She was headed down in the rather seedy part of town where they had the casinos and night clubs. Not really the place you'd expect to find someone like her. Carrie had half a mind to follow her there but no way she'd go to a place nicknamed by her own mother as "Sinner Alley".

She got through the fence, almost ripping her backpack. It was starting to get dark so she had to hustle. She was close to the harbour. It was kind of beautiful but creepy at night. For some reason she felt like she was being watched. That's when she saw it. A face in the water. But no it couldn't be. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She had to get a closer look at this.

She walked to the edge and saw what appeared to be some kind of mask. It was about to float away from her when Carrie snatched it out of the water. It was this wooden mask, big eye holes and an opening for a mouth. It was really old, probably filthy after being in the harbour for so long. Carrie didn't want to throw it away though. Something about the mask, like it was alive and looking right at her. She waved it around to dry it before she slipped it in her backpack.

"Where in God's name have you been!?"

Margaret White was a scary sight. She looked like a bag lady you'd see in the street. Red rings around her eyes. She grabbed Carrie off the front steps and dragged her inside. She had been waiting for her by the window.

"I'm sorry!"

"What are you wearing? You ungrateful little..."

"Mama I..."

She pushed her, well more like threw her at the stairs. Carrie didn't have much time to brace herself, she ended up bruising her forehead and hurting her wrist.

"No dinner for you! Go to bed!"

She left Carrie to wallow and pick herself up; at least she didn't drag her into her 'Prayer Closet'. She was hungry and exhausted. She practicalky crawled up to her room. Once she was sitting on her bed she realized she'd almost forgoten all about the mask. It was like it was calling to her. This inanimate object. Carrie picked it up slowly and looked inside the mask. There was like this glimmer of green but it just seemed like her eyes were tricking her again. She had it hovering just a few inches from her face. She looked through the eye holes. Everything looked strange...different...

To be continued!

Don't worry, mayhem and craziness will follow.