A/N-10/13/14: Sorry it was late. This is the climax, and I was most worried about getting this chapter wrong. The good news is this story's going to be finished within three installments.

CHAPTER 14

Once in the air, I rediscover my fear of heights. What made me think I wouldn't be afraid? But the fear also ramps up my power. Taking it slow, I maneuver myself but accidentally make the streetlights flash. I have no sense of my heartbeat now. Maybe it's at full stop. Maybe I'm dead. My body no longer feels like flesh and blood. The power sings in my head and bones like I'm a bell, or maybe I'm made of glass.

No, more like I'm made of ice. Either way, it feels like the wrong tone might shatter me. My head hurts. I'm dizzy again. I decide to land on the roof, which is flat.

In this state I have no idea what my power could do. The full moon is over me. I'm tempted to see if I can pull it from the sky, but I'm more scared to find out that I can. That's how powerful I feel. Below me, my classmates remind me too much of ants. It's disturbing.

Yet, with all the power, I can't even remember what Eric looks like. When you spend years as an outcast, you just don't get much practice with names and faces. The picture memories I cull from other minds come through blurry. Before I killed him, I got many of Dillon's thoughts. I had a out-of-focus image of the car, a brown '95 A brown Impala. That might sound easy, but looking from above under streetlights, with my messed up vision, it's impossible.

I go from the front to the side and spot Sue and Miss D. staring up at me. I touch Sue with my power.

"Sue, what do you know about Eric Karis?"

Sue grabs her temples.

"Carrie?"

"No, I'm the other voice in your head. He's the last shooter. I can't find him. What do you know about him?"

"Don't you remember he dated Chris earlier this year?"

Suddenly that hazy image of him isn't hazy anymore. "Was that the guy who duct taped my books together?"

"Yes."

"The jerk who broke my bra strap? That was him, too?"

"Yes. She dropped him a few months ago for Billy Nolan."

"Is he like Eric?"

"I think he's probably worse."

"Oh, what taste. Susie, there's a car in the lot that's wired with explosives. Eric can set it off by remote. It's Dillon's car. A brown Impala. I need you and Miss D. to point it out for me."

Sue just stood there. I couldn't hear her shake, but her thoughts gave a fearful tapping like the chatter of teeth.

"Come on, Sue! It can blow up the school probably the whole block if Dillon knew what he was doing. Eric can set it off at any time. I don't know why he hasn't already."

I try to think through my headache and the the internal roar of my power. He wouldn't be in the crowd. I try to remember. The side doors were chained shut. Chris and Billy would have tried to run out the nearest door after their prank. What if Eric knew where she'd run. I turn from the crowd and kneel down. I direct my power away from the crowd. There are four minds almost directly below me, in the basement.

I turn back, and see Sue and Miss D. as they point at the car and call my name. He parked it in the first row, right in front.

"Tell everyone to run, now!"

They cry out to everybody. Eric probably sees them.

My power grasps Dillon's auto. My mind gets pictures of the wires. Before I can start pulling them, they come to life. Detonation. Energy burst. I clamp my power around the car with everything I've got. I squeeze thunder. The force bounces back through my power. It splays my limbs. I hover spread eagle over the roof as Hell hatches from Dillon's car.

I can't contain or drain this much energy, but can I redirect it.

I turn it into a column of fire stabs straight up into the sky hundreds, maybe thousands of feet. Its other end blasts straight down into the Earth. For a moment I'm aware of everything. Time slows. I fall, hit the roof shaking so hard I'm afraid my joints will dislocate. Somehow, I crawl back and get up my knees to look. Gigantic, deep cracks radiate from the bottomless hole where Dillon's car stood two minutes before. It's not really a crater, more like God's bullet hole. The fissures radiate from it all through the lot and beyond; they're still spreading. The gym slants over to one side. I stop the structure from toppling and stabilize it, no problem, but I think they'll have to condemn the building. And maybe the school, too.

Below everyone is lying down. I rescue four people from the cracks that spread under them. Everyone seems too awed to get up by themselves. Then it begins to rain pulverized, red- and white-hot metal globs. Most of it falls back into the hole. For the next five minutes, I have to knock away and cool any debris that comes close to hurting anybody.

I spend this whole time shaking. I gaze at the hole. A painful laugh forces its way out my throat. "I'd say Carrie White left her mark on Ewen High."

I stagger to my feet and away from the edge. Someone opens the door. Sue, Miss D., and to my surprise, Tina climb out.

"Oh my God! Carrie," Sue cries, then lets her jaw dangle open.

"You're . . ." was all Miss D. could manage before she covered her mouth.

After a glance, Tina turns away.

"We can't thank you enough, Carrie," Miss D. said, but her tone implies pity more than gratefulness.

I giggle. I'm still shaking. "I guess I don't look so good now. Well," I clap my hands together and they all jump, "there's only one thing for that." I stagger by all of them toward the stairwell.

"Wait, where are you going?" Miss D. asks.

"I'm going to take a shower."