CHAPTER 16

What am I? Billy's question weighs on my mind.

When this evening began a hundred years ago, I pondered that none of the telekinetic people I've read online matched any of my experiences with the power. . . .

As I float down; the rail bends around behind me and its bolts are yanked from the wall. I'm not doing this consciously. I'm very aware I might bring this building down on myself, but going outside would endanger far more people. As my hand reaches for the door, my power spikes, splits it in half and knocks it off its hinges.

So much for a demure entrance. I might as well go full grandiose now. "Eric, Chris, Nicki, Lizzi. This is your prom queen. You felt my power. The reason I'm here doesn't concern you. Don't get in my way, don't bother me, and you won't get hurt." That was little bit of a lie. They might get hurt regardless. "As far as I'm concerned, the police can deal with you now."

My breath catches and I get a dizzy spell. This is where everything began. I became a woman here. Or perhaps I became something else entirely. People would say this place pushes my buttons. And to take a shower here would be to push the big red button. I close my eyes, or my good one, anyway, and attempt to tame my restless power. When I'm ready, I take a few steps. Eric's voice stops me. It doesn't sound shouted. Maybe my hearing is finally recovering.

"Cute little Carrie White. I'm very impressed."

"And I don't care." I begin to walk again.

"How are you going to fit in now, Carrie. You know what the government is going to do with you when it learns what you did tonight? You still have no friends, now people will be scared shitless of you. Do you think you can have any kind of life now?"

. . . . Nobody described the flex, nor the growth of the power with practice, nor the difficulty with live creatures, nor the involuntary arm movements, nor the distortions other minds create.

My arms stretch out in front of me, palms up. I'm just trying to control my power now. "Stop trying to trick me. I know where you are. Your gun won't fire, on me, but I can kill you where you stand."

He laughs, and I have to admit to myself, he's as cool as a reptile. "If I were tricking you, I would already be dead. You're not a stupid girl Carrie. No, you need my help. You need to disappear now, become another casualty whose body is never found, just like Lizzy, Nicki, Chris and I will be." He sounded so full of sympathy.

I'm certain now everything I've read about other telekinetic people has been fake. This means as far as I know, nobody else on Earth has these powers . . . .

I begin to lose control of my breathing. "I know . . . Eric. Here's the deal I'm offering you . . . you shut up now, and let me get control of my power, or all of us will die."

That puts a pall over them.

What if I am the only one with these powers? Then am I even human? I pray that there's a God and I'm his arm and sword, because I'm unfit to be a goddess myself.

I creep toward the showers, the sinks lined up on my right. The walls were cracked and leaked water. The lights blinked. I cross in front of the sinks. I forgot: above them all are mirrors, and they might as well be a trap. My reflection hooks my gaze and before I can force myself to look away I see what I've become. My skin's like marble, translucent, veins bulging through. One eye swollen shut but the bruise is a pale as all my features. Dried blood trails run from eyes down my face. Also from my temple, my nose, my ears.

But the other eye shocks me. Wide open, protruding, the white is bright red. The rest is black. Like fire surrounding a black hole. Any trace of my human green eye is gone.

WHAT AM I?

I scream. All the mirrors explode, and then I lose control. The walls behind them crack as the sinks fly off. The water that gushes out floats upward and begins to whirl with the cloud of glass. A bank of lockers falls like dominoes. By the time I get control of my power, my body is totally tensed and I'm on my knees. I stop the whirlwind of water and glass.

Somebody attacks from my blindside and sprays something—mace or pepper spray—into my temple wound and bad eye. I thought I was numb, but the pain is off the scale. "Freak! Freak!" Chris cries and kicks me in belly.

At that moment, Chris is the luckiest girl in the world because I find out that pain blocks my power. Not just any pain, but extreme spiking, stinging, stabbing pain. Chris accidentally discovers my kryptonite and saves our lives. So, I don't lose control of my power again, which is still building, but the pain has bottled it up. She pins and chokes me.

"Jesus fuck. She's cold as dry ice!" She cries. "Shoot her, Eric!"

"No, she's our only chance of escaping now."

My good eye peers at Eric as Lizzy, or maybe it's Nicki, stabs him in the back. He falls forward on his hands as knees, and drops the rifle. The other twin picks it up. She says to Eric. "You mean it's your only chance of escaping now. Everybody knows you were shooting, but nobody knows about us."

My vision is going blue as she turns the rifle on me. "Except her."

"And us!" Cries a female voice. The rifle fires but misses by four feet, deafening me again, because the twins are both being tackled. Someone knocks Chris off me. It's Sue. I don't believe she, Tina and Miss D. actually followed me, in a building that might collapse on them at any moment. Especially Tina.

I sit up, breathing again. The pain is fading into numbness again, and now it occurs to me:

I should have just used the boys' shower.

Mamma raised me so I could have never thought of it.

Miss D. grapples with one of the twins, disarming and pinning her, but Tina is getting owned by the other one.

Eric is back up. He punches Sue in the jaw then pulls her off Chris, who sees I'm that recovering. "Eric, never mind her. Get Carrie!"

Flex! I grip my power, but some it slips. Glass and water rise and dance around the room. The lights flash, and plaster falls from the ceiling. This is all getting into people's eyes, but not mine. I shore the building up again before we're all killed. Meanwhile, Chris reaches for the pepper spray. I pin her flat against the floor. Then I twist the knife in Eric's back. He falls to his knees. Sue scuttles against the wall, taking glances as she tries to protect her eyes from the abrasive storm. Miss D. goes petrified with fear and shuts her eyes. The twin underneath her, Lizzie, reaches for the rifle.

But my power gets there first and aims it at her head.

Bang!

Oops! I swear I didn't mean to do that, but I don't even know anymore. Maybe the power is me.

Blood and brains splatter on Miss D, and join the glass, plaster and water storm.

"Lizzie!" her sister cries stricken as I bash a sink into her in the head.

"Carrie! Stop the glass!" shouts Sue.

"I can't! It's not totally under my control now."

But I do manage to twist the knife in Eric's back. "Carrie," he rasps. "Remember my offer. You don't have to be a freak now. You can disappear in the middle of this calamity and start a new life. I can guide you through it . . ." He screams as the knife goes in deeper and begins to cut."

I answer. "The only deal you're going to make now, Eric is with the devil in Hell. You're running out of breath so you better save it for him." The knife is in to the hilt and and begins to slice across his back, it continues around his side. I stand up as his knees give out. He writhes. With both hands and all the muscles in his arms, he fights the blade to no avail. It progresses around and cuts slowly, deeply into his belly. "You can't get more faithless than talking your friends into a murder-suicide pact then double-crossing them. I'm sure the Prince of Darkness will tell you how proud he is when you see him."

Eric's arms give out. I lift him to his knees as the knife continues it course from his belly to his side and around his back. I bring my face right up to his and gaze into his glassy eyes. "And besides, you murdered Tommy." The knife severs his spine and meets Lizzy's stab wound where it began. I let him collapse his torso is almost sliced in two.

I notice nobody on my side tried to stop me. I turn my attention to Chris, picking her up off the floor and pinning her against the lockers. "What kind of monster are you?" she says. I have to admire her guts.

"One of your creation. I'm going to give you a gift. I have picture of you heart in my mind. My heart beats faster when I use my power, but yours is beating slower."

"Carrie, please . . ." says Sue. For her, I almost relent.

I released Chris from the locker. She staggers and is pallid. "You cunt," she says.

My arm goes up and my hand balls into a fist. Chris' heart explodes from her chest. All three females scream. I know her blood is all over my face. "And that's my gift. A quick death."

The light above me breaks before I grab my power with all my might. The whirlwind stops. The water, blood and glass fall to the floor. My whole body tenses up and my eye is shut. I whisper, "I'm not sure how long I can control it. You all need to leave before this building comes down."

I hear a voice say, "No!" It's Sue. "We're not leaving you. Why did you come down here?"

I speak to her psychically.

"I have to break the cycle . . . the power makes my heart fast . . . drains heat from my body. I think . . . those . . . somehow activate more power. I need hot water. Need to get into the shower." I open my eye and close it again as I begin to lose control.

Sue explains this to Miss D. She says, "I don't know if the water pressure will work. But there's something better than a shower."

My body is stiff as corpse as they carry me. Miss D. remarks that I'm colder than a corpse, too. I didn't appreciate that.

But then they put me into a warm bath that turns out to be the Jacuzzi. Luckily there's still power for the jets and heater. My body's so rigid , Sue must hold my head above the water.

I don't know how long I was in before it began to work. My muscles relax, then my power decrease and become manageable. I started to get sensation back. The warmth seeped into my bones and gradually quieted my mind and diminished my power.

"Carrie? Friend."

I opened my sluggish eyes. It was Sue. She was soaking in her clothes across from me. "You said Eric double-crossed a suicide pact he made with his friends. What did he do?"

I sighed. I'm so tired but answer anyway. "Eric planned all along to survive but have his shooting accomplices commit suicide. He wanted to set that bomb off, make everybody think he died in the explosion, too. Then he'd disappear off the grid with a false identity. He had that all set up."

"How did Nicki and Lizzy get involved?"

"He didn't want to disappear alone. He brought them in on the plan. Turns out they weren't happy with their lives and wanted to disappear, too, with false ID's that made them adults with degrees."

"God, what a criminal mastermind!"

"I'll say!"

"And Chris?"

"She wasn't in on it, but when she and Billy were trapped against the door with Eric aiming at them, Chris saved herself by professing her real love for Eric and turning on Billy. She would have disappeared, too. Eric didn't have credentials for her ready, but he would gotten them."

"How were they going to survive the explosion?"

"Eric had the whole brainstorm about the school shooting when he found a bomb shelter attached to the tunnel between the school and the gym. You know, the one we use during winter? But, when I—um—altered the explosion, it collapsed the tunnel. So, Eric needed a plan B." I lay my head back. "Please, no more talking. I'm so tired."

I rested until I felt too hot. Then I began to get out. "I hurt all over!" I said. Sue had to help me. She had a spare set of gym clothes in her locker that I dressed in.

After I struggled to put them on, Miss D. said, "You need to go to the hospital, Carrie. Get your eye treated."

"How do I look?"

"Not good," Miss D. answered, "but human again. Your open eye is bloodshot. Your skin's a little pale."

"What's going to happen to me when I show up in the Emergency Room?"

"I don't know," said Miss D., but you need medical care."

Then it hit me. I stood and almost fell over. "Oh shit! I left Mama trapped in the prayer closet."

"You trapped your mother?" said Tina.

"In a prayer closet?" said Sue.

"Yes, she didn't want me going to the prom. The rest is a long story." I turned to Miss D. "Could you take me to the hospital. And could you two go and let my mama out out?"

A/N—11/16/14: That's it. The only thing left now is the epilogue. Or perhaps a short chapter and an epilogue.