EPILOGUE
My recovery was hard: I was underweight, I didn't like eating at first. I hated my body, it just seemed a source of pain. Also, I was in mourning for Tommy and my mother. At times I'd get cold and my heart would begin to race. I'd feel my power surge, trying to flex itself. I always managed to calm down without unleashing it.
For my whole life, my heart embraced hope where my mother's love should have been. I hoped more than anything in my life that she would start acting like a mother and not an abusive cult leader. Her dying was the death of hope.
But it was nothing else. I felt guilty that I didn't miss her and instead felt relieved. After a few months of watching me struggle, Sue said, "It sounds like your mother's exactly where she wants to be."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean—excuse me for saying—the poor, insane woman is in God's care now. And He can handle her better than you could."
"But Sue, I don't think there's a God anymore."
She shrugged. "But it still works out for the best. I believe your momma wouldn't have wanted to live in a world without God, and that's really why she tried to kill you, Carrie. Your power challenged the existence of her God."
This brought an abrupt end to my mourning for her. I didn't tell Sue Momma also wouldn't have wanted to live knowing her daughter questioned His existence. I realized that some mothers just do not get along with their offspring. From there my depression was over. Yet, I could have gotten the same relief by just moving out, then I'd still have my hope that Momma would eventually be a mother.
But perhaps that was a false hope anyway.
Even after sadness over my mother passed, I kept mourning Tommy Ross. Me and Sue both. It's funny. We would've probably ended up opposed if Tommy had lived, but our love for him turned out to be the first knot in a very strong bond between us.
The vision I had after I was shot made me feel the emptiest, though. It seems in both realities, Tommy and Momma were doomed. At least I was spared the anguish of abandoning Tommy to become a monster and deliberately committing matricide.
Rita did her best to move into the role of mother. For a time, I lived at her house. Considering how scared she was of me, this was amazingly kind. Her fear finally dwindled and in her eyes, I could see a mother's love for an amazing daughter.
But the worse thing: I felt guilty at what I did, the torture and killing I committed. Again, I knew under different circumstances, I would have done far worse. I had to learn to control my own rage.
I neither used nor practiced my power for over a year.
From the Chamberlain Commission transcripts:
Q: Miss White, Please tell us what happened after you were crowned prom queen.
A: I was standing up there with Tommy. I couldn't really see the audience. I was pretty much blinded by the stage lights. Suddenly, there were several loud bangs . . .
Q: Several? Can you tell us how many?
A: Four, maybe five, but they were so loud and bright the first two made me blind and deaf. I have permanent hearing loss from that night. So, I couldn't tell you accurately.
Q: Where were these?
A: The first few were up close to the stage. I mean I could feel those explosions so they were really close. I think they were at the first row of tables. The others were more distant, I think. I couldn't tell you.
Q: What happened after the explosions.
A: I turned to Tommy Ross, the Prom king, but I couldn't really see him. I was too dazzled. So, then . . . I guess I got hit.
Q: You were turned toward him?
A: That's right.
Q: What were you hit with?
A: A bullet, but I only found out later.
Q: Do you remember being hit by the bullet?
A: No sir, that's what I said.
Q: Your medical report says the bullet grazed the outer orbital of your left eye, and the temporal and parietal bones of your skull.
A: I can't confirm what doctors say, but it scraped by the left side of my head.
Q: Please turn your attention to this slide. Does that path look accurate?
A: That's about where I got my stitches.
Q: And photograph on this slide. The cut going upward from your left eye, is that accurate?
A: Yes, it left a bald scar over my left ear, so I can still show it to you.
Q: You said you were turned toward Tommy Ross. Is it correct that he stood to your left?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: If you were, that would have presented the right profile to your audience.
A: Well, sir, maybe I lost some moments in there. The last thing I remember before waking up was turning toward him.
Q: And what's you're next memory after that?
A: That would be Ri—um, Miss Desjardins and Tina Blake helping me get out of the gym. I must've blacked out again, because the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital.
Q: Did you, perhaps, come to before that?
A: No, sir.
Q: Miss White, have you ever heard of telekinesis.
A: (Pause.) I think that's the power to move things with your mind.
Q: You think that is?
A: Yes.
Q: We have library and Internet search records that suggest you spent a considerable amount of time researching telekinesis in the weeks leading up to the Prom.
(Gallery discussion interrupts questioning.)
A: Well, I didn't want to admit to a nerdy pleasure like that. My religious upbringing makes me ashamed about it.
Q: It's quite a coincidence you would be studying telekinesis before this incident, and even more of one that you would attempt to conceal it . . .
A: I didn't conceal it. I downplayed it a little.
Q: My apology. I stand correct. Miss White, are you telekinetic.?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you use telekinesis on the night of your Prom?
A: No, sir
Q: Miss White, we've had witnesses give sworn testimony that you somehow stopped the shooters, tortured and killed them. That you were able to move objects without physically touching them. That . . . you were able to fly? That you even altered the explosion in the parking lot.
A: Me? Really? No. They must have been seeing things. It was a scary night for all of them.
(Talk in the gallery interrupts the proceeding. Testimony starts after the committee chair warns the audience.)
Q: Did you affect the explosion of the car through some power you haven't told the committee about?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you stop the shooters and torture them.
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you kill them?
A: No, sir.
(The gallery talk interrupts the hearing. Testimony continues when after the chair restores order.)
Q: I have no other questions, Miss White
Oh, Momma would have been so shocked at me. I beared false witness many times over the year and a half following Black Prom. I denied and lied because I was afraid of what would happen if I didn't. My lies didn't get anybody else wounded or killed, and didn't send anybody else to jail. So, it was a lesser form of false testimony. My power didn't keep itself a secret, so my classmates all knew that I had saved them, as did the school staff and some emergency workers. But without physical evidence connecting me with anything that night, it was impossible to prove to any committee, judge or jury. So I lied and that's how I escaped charges.
Almost all my classmates covered for me when the investigations started. They were so grateful that they denied knowing how any of it happened. I don't blame the few that didn't, either. Something like Black Prom is hard not to talk about with so many people wanting the answers. And for those who weren't there, it's still an unsolved mystery.
People in Chamberlain, particularly my classmates, treated me like their secret local celebrity. Somebody anonymously paid for Momma's funeral and for my hospital and rehab. For a year, Rhonda Simak's parents let me live in one of their apartments rent free. I never had to pay for anything. I know some of them did out of fear, but I couldn't talk them out of it either way.
Sue had her baby, the cutest little girl with big brown eyes named Melissa, or Missy. Sue moved from Chamberlain shortly after giving birth. We stay in close touch. By then Tina and I had a thing going. We continued for six months then broke up. Her awe and fear of me made the relationship too one-sided, and I had more desire for a relationship with a male, though that hasn't happened yet. I'd have to move from Chamberlain before that happened.
My so called "pillar of fire" was actually seen from space by a satellite. The video went viral. Because of that, the hole and cracks I made with that explosion became a local landmark; and a tourists' attraction they call it the "Fire Spring." The locals have their own name for it, "The White Hole." Yeah, I hate it, too. It's the main physical evidence of the unsolved mystery of Black Prom. They still make documentaries about it, but I don't do interviews.
There were some government agents who still followed me around. Just because nobody could prove anything doesn't mean they weren't suspicious. Oh, I wasn't supposed to know they were there, so I humored them. My own informants told me about them. I didn't know what they'd attempt if they saw me use my power, but they've kept watching me for two and a half years.
After giving my power a rest for seventeen months, I tested and practiced when I was alone, because of course I did. I hadn't lost anything in the interim. I used it to mess with the G-men's equipment. They never suspected.
The more I read the Bible trying to get guidance on how I should use my power, the less the book looks like it's even set in the same world. I discovered Momma lied so many times just to make the Bible look accurate. Also, nobody in the Good Book had my power. Did the normal rules even apply to me?
I know the answer was in that dream I couldn't remember, but I just couldn't stay in bed till reruns. When I figured out the rules and responsibilities I have, maybe I'll actually go out those agents' cars and offer my services. I'm sure they'll be very interested.
THE END
A/N—12/12/14: Yes, it looks like I kept it open for a sequel. If anybody else wants to write it, go ahead. I'm done.
Carrie has always been my favorite story. My interest in everything about it came back after the 2013 version of the film came out. I began to do a retrospective appreciation on it. But Carrie's an overwhelmingly sad, tragic story. So, thinking about my thining about it made me sad.
I started this project because I was depressed one night, couldn't sleep, and was too stressed out at the length my novel to work on that. So, as a way of cheering myself up, I thought why not use fan fiction to rewrite Carrie with a happier ending?
How could it be rewritten so she becomes, not a monster, but a hero? To be heroic, she would actually have to save her classmates. Within a few minutes, I had the idea of bringing a modern school disaster into the story. The school shooting—something that was so rare in the 1970s, when Carrie was written—that when an acquaintance of mine was caught in school with a pistol, the principal gave it back to him at the end of the day, with a warning but no punishment!
The tragedy of Carrie White was that what pushed her over was no ordinary gag. It was amazingly cruel. This makes Carrie more of victim of circumstance than most tragic characters. Her tragic flaw was that she couldn't forgive. That's why the discussion with Miss Desjardins at the prom was important. (Something that doesn't enter into any of the adaptations.) There was nothing in Carrie's upbringing, either, that made her forgiving.
In Chloe Grace Moretz's depiction Carrie is more cruel than the others. Unless really look carefully, this trait comes out of the blue from the character. In one way, it's the most accurate to the book, though. In the book, after the blood spill, Carrie was absolutely merciless and monstrous. So, I decided to base it on the 2013 version. So, this version has a sadistic streak. Though I love the 1976 movie more, it's so stylized I would have had a hard time picturing it for fan fiction.
So, I began to write this story. However, my old troubles in writing plagued me again, i.e. I can't predict length or time a project will take. If I had any idea when I began this how long it would take, I wouldn't have started it. I end it here close to four time the word length I expected it to run, and eight times the weeks I expected it to take.
So, enjoy this one, but don't expect a lot of fan fiction from me. With how much work and time I put into fiction writing, I can't afford to do it for free.
That's not to say didn't have fun, and it did cheer me up that night. And many other nights.