Nancy, Mike, and Carrie looked at each other for just a couple seconds, then came to a silent accord that it was best to just go out and get things over with. As they reached the top of the stairs, Carrie's mother was coming through the door, without an invitation judging by how Nancy's parents were reacting. She quickly looked up at them, and Nancy gasped at the sheer fury in that face.
"Carrie, you come down here this instant! You're never coming here again!"
Carrie silent looked at Nancy and Mike with tears starting to emerge, then turned and descended the staircase. Her mother wasn't even looking at her, still keeping her eyes unnervingly locked on Nancy. "You are never to go near my daughter again, you filthy trollop!"
For once, Ted actually seemed moved to an emotion, but Karen got their first. "All right, just who do you think you are?" Her husband was reduced to putting a hand on her shoulder in support.
That haughty gaze turned to them. "I am Margaret White, the mother of the girl your daughter has been trying to corrupt. Just look at her, with her dirty pillows practically swinging free!" Nancy flushed hot at that, and couldn't help a glance down at her shirt which wasn't nearly as flimsy as the woman was making out.
Carrie finally spoke up. "Mama, please, let's just go!"
Margaret's full wrath turned upon her daughter and she gave a hard slap to Carrie's face. "Don't you ever take that tone with me, young lady!"
The sudden violence seemed to break the spell that Margaret's sheer personality had put everyone under. Nancy and Mike raced down the stairs, and Karen and Ted took a step closer. With a nearly matching fury in her eyes, Karen said, "All right, that's it. In the last few minutes I've seen plenty to make me seriously question you as a parent, and now I'm sure. You've been abusing her, haven't you?"
Margaret gave a brief, shocked laugh. "What are you talking about? Anything I need to do to make sure my child is raised in the light of the Lord can only be the right thing to do."
Nancy took up the argument. "You're messed up, lady. I mean, seriously screwed in the head." She turned to Carrie. "It's not right, the way she treats you. You don't have to put up with it."
Margaret actually started advancing towards her, and Nancy feared she was about to get hit herself. But before anything could happen, Carrie shouted, "Mama, no!" Directly afterwards, Margaret herself jerked her head back as if she'd been slapped.
She turned to Carrie with a look of horror fighting her anger. "Did you do that? Even with everything you've done lately, I didn't dare to think…but it has to be. You're a witch!"
Of all people, it was Ted who spoke next. "I don't understand anything of what's going on here, but I do know you should leave. And your daughter shouldn't go with you." Nancy looked at her father in a whole new way, the steel in his eyes showing he was absolutely serious about this.
Margaret made a visible effort to shove down her temper before speaking again. "All right, I'll go. But this is far from over. The Bible is clear, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Even my own flesh and blood. I know what has to be done, and I'll do it somehow." With that, she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Carrie was staring around in shock. "What did I just do? What will I do?"
Nancy put a hand on his shoulder. "We can worry about that later. But for now, you just confirmed something I was starting to suspect: your powers only work when you're feeling emotional about something. It was like that in the bathroom, and with Tommy, and just now. And whatever that means, there's some more people you should meet."
It had no name of its own. There was no need of one. It did not ask to be known, or worshipped, or anything else that would require a name. All it wanted was life. The children it had fought called it the Mind Flayer, which fit as well as anything else.
It was not often roused to anger, as so often the worlds it conquered fell with barely a fight. What else could serve as proof that it deserved to destroy as many worlds as it had? But its defeat at the hands of these people raised up the nearly forgotten emotion again. It had only suffered such a loss once before, at the hands of a group of its former victims. It had learned a lesson from that loss, to stop bothering with disguises like a dancing clown. Just get the business done. And it had worked, until now.
After being locked back into this dead world it had already destroyed, it could have simply gone on to another. But it simply could not let go of its need for revenge. It had looked ceaselessly for a way back in, with no need to eat or sleep to distract it. And now, it may have just found one. The new arrival had abilities similar to the girl who had shoved it out of her world, but they didn't come from the same source. And that very difference in their nature could be the key to its return.
That song they had used to celebrate their victory was a subject of dark amusement. A soft, keening ballad whose tone disguised its content of an obsessive lust that demanded fulfillment by any means possible. And now, the Mind Flayer would make it come true.