Chapter 3 - The Depart

Hey guys, Olivia here. =) This chapter is written in flashback mode (italics), since it's a flashback. This is the chapter things really start to heat up, so if the earlier chapters seemed introductory and boring, this'll be an action break. (Yay!) It also explains some of Carrie's past history. Oh, and your first char comes up here! Yeah, you're welcome.

Well, enough talk - As usual, enjoy and review!

Carrie's eyes fluttered open. "Mom?"

Clumsily she toppled off the foot of the bed and hobbled to the kitchen in her pajamas, her eyelids still heavy with tiredness.

Carrie entered the empty kitchen. "Uh...Mom?"

Carrie searched the drafty corridor, the living room, the long halls with chipping paint. A flicker of unease crept across her chest. Why were the rooms hollow, barren? Why were her parents' offices deserted, all the computer monitors, paperwork and printers gone?

Carrie turned away from the eerily barren offices and ran to her parents' bedroom, swinging open the door. "Mom! Dad!"

Suddenly she froze in her tracks, her arms still gripping the sides of the walls. Everything - her parents' clothes, suits, jewelry, handbags, pictures, books, even her mother's make-up kit - was gone. Everything her parents owned had vanished into thin air.

Carrie tore away across the creepy halls, her heart thrashing wildly in her chest, her legs beating the floor, screaming, "MOM! DAD!" We have burglars, was her first thought. But why weren't her parents here yet? They usually finished their early morning work long before Carrie woke up, and went on to dealing with taxes and bills later. Where were they?

Carrie skidded on the floor, her clammy palms clenching into fists. She didn't dare to move as a horrible thought developed in her mind. Were..were they...abducted? Her head swam as a single thought now whirred in her mind. They could have been killed.

For a horrible, tense second, she stood there, hyperventilating. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a pile of unfinished paychecks scattered on a table, few of the only items that hadn't disappeared. Well, of course, Carrie thought dumbly. They wouldn't steal a paycheck.

That's when she heard, echoing through the rusty floorboards, two familiar voices. The voices of two people in particular.

Mom? Dad? Mindlessly Carrie took off down the stairs, her vision blurring.

. . .

Carrie nearly crashed into the door as she flew down the stairs and into her parents' bewildered arms. She wanted to sob with relief...until a firm hand grasped her shoulder, in a grip like iron.

Startled, Carrie glanced up into the furious brown eyes of her father. "Get back in there," he hissed sharply, thrusting Carrie away from him.

"What...?"

Her father shook her, more violently than she would have expected. He leaned in close, her gaze searing through her skin. She could feel his hot breath on her face. "When I tell you to get out, you get out, you hear?" he snarled.

Behind him, Carrie saw her mother, staring at her with fright as if she were a wild animal. Her father gripped her by the arm and wrenched her away from him, going back to doing whatever he'd been doing after casting a look like ice at her.

Carrie's head spun, her legs feeling like they would give out from under her. What had she done? Were her parents stressed because of bill day? What happened?

Suddenly, over he parents' shoulders, she could see huge packing boxes set around the driveway. Her father's old handmade car (she remembered him calling it the 'Vectormobile', although she'd had no idea how he'd been able to make a car on his own) sat in the middle of the myriad of packing boxes and clumpy packing bags, as if awaiting a long trip ahead.

Carrie swayed, the world swimming in her eyes. She gripped the side of the corridor for support as realization dawned on her. This was the explanation for the barren house. But why did they need ALL of their things?

With shaking hands, Carrie looked on at the formidable scene before her, dumbstruck. She knew the answer. But she would not let herself accept it.

Forcing a smile, she turned to her mother. "When are you coming back?" At this he mother whipped around, a pile of unpacked underclothes tumbling from her arms. She stared at Carrie with wide blue eyes, the same hideous-beast expression still frozen on her face.

"Um...Mom?" Timidly Carrie reached out a trembling hand and touched her mother's sleeve to get her attention.

At which she heard a roar, frenzied, inhumane, piercing the tense air. Time slowed as she was thrown off her feet, feeling a dull burn below her temple. She saw her father's frighteningly contorted face, flushed and narrowed, yelling at her in slow motion. She saw his clenched fist flying through the air, as if reflexing from striking someone. Dumbly she realized the someone was her.

A jumble of words fell to her muddled, tortured ears. She understood only one thing. "You aren't our child."

Then, as if lapsing back into the present, her senses returned. She was sprawled out on the stairs, a mess of fallen packing boxes and supplies scattered about her. A trail of blood was spattered on the stairs before her. The sound of terrified sobbing came to her ears.

"Vector, stop!" Her mother's shrill cry shot through the air. Carrie got to her feet shakily, her head stinging. What did I do?

Her father was gathering up all the scattered supplies and clothes and stuffing them into the bags. He glanced up sharply, glowering at Carrie. "Don't just stand there! Get lost! We don't want to see you, do you get that?"

Carrie stared, flabbergasted.

Her father exploded. "Look what you did to your mother! Look what you do to your grandmother every single day! And after all that, you have the nerve to get familiar with us? To touch us? To get in our way?" Her father was flushed, ranting. His limp brown hair fell into his glasses as he spat out curse after curse at the dumbstruck Carrie.

Behind him, Carrie's mother had grabbed onto his orange shirt sleeve and moved on to sobbing into his shoulder. Carrie felt, a searing jab through the blur of other emotions she felt, a stab of guilt. It startled her; she was sure she had done nothing to deserve this, but through the fog that covered her mind she felt she owed them something. It was a shadow at the back of her mind.

Carrie stared at the horrible scene unfurling in front of her, all her shock and disbelief seeming little compared what she was witnessing next. She saw her father shove the remaining boxes into the car, her mother collapsing into the shotgun seat. She saw her father open the car door, enter, and shut it with a slam. She heard, through the blood roaring in her ears, through her mother's broken sobs, her father's nasal voice shaping itself into terrifying words.

"We're done here, you've earned your share. We're leaving."

Carrie stared, unblinking. The bright orange zoomed across the street, its white license plate "DRCTION+MGNTUDE" the last Carrie saw of her parents before they vanished around the corner.

It was then that Carrie blacked out.

And that's all for today, folks. Yes, I know, I'm evil, for having a child abandoned like that (mwa ha ha). But don't worry, things'll get better for Carrie...as well as new characters, comin' up. (Of course, before things get better, they'll probably get way worse first.)

Well, anyway, this chapter is the rising action of the story. If it STILL seemed boring to you, the next chapter will be a real action break, (the climax). So don't worry! Anyhow, tell me how I did, thanks for reading and leave a review!

-Olivia