A/N: Happy New Year, Everyone! May this year be merrier and better than the last. May we ride out the difficult times in which we live.

Disclaimer: Star Trek and all its characters belong to Paramount Pictures. Carrie belongs to author Stephen King but the words are mine. The characters of the Four Orders (FO*) are entirely my own.

Requested Story by T-Rex-1000

Part Two:

AU/Multiple Star Trek Shows/Carrie: Having become part of 24th century, Carrie White is enlisted in the clandestine organization Section 31 to help protect the Federation from a looming threat that has the power to change Starfleet's future forever.

Chapter 18

Holiday Special – Part Two

Stardate 45980.65 (24.12.2368)

Previously:

Carrie was given the task to obtain an important algorithm from the house of a reclusive hermit on the planet Christmas.

After arriving, she scouted her target and proceeded to extract the information she sought but entering the house had proven something of a challenge.

"She noticed a cord for the light. She pulled it and wished she did not as the cord fell light and quickly fell to the ground. While she wondered, she heard a strange noise and looked up. A rectangular shape occupied her vision and it was growing fast. While she did have the idea to step aside, she simply did not have the time. The brute force with which it hit her made her hit the ground and lose consciousness…"

And now:

Some time after she opened her eyes. She was certain seeing some stars dancing around her like in the old cartoons. She jerker her head and her eyes fell on the object that had fallen on her head – an iron. Wasn't this used to smooth clothes? Her head was most certainly not clothing.

She sat up. She took out a small mirror she had in her mobile purse. "MY GOD! I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD!" She yelled in frustration and pain. She calmed herself taking deep breaths. Part of the Iron had left quite the unpleasant marking on her forehead. She touched it and yelled some more. Angrily she jolted back to her feet.

"I'LL KILL HIM, SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY." It was more her frustration than anger speaking, mostly for falling for such simple trick.

She sought her torch that had fallen a few feet from her. Using it, she walked slowly. She did not want to fall for another trick. She noticed another rope. This time she pulled it briskly and jumped back. Nothing happened other than the light coming on.

"Finally, some light." She put away the torch and took a look at the area around her. It was your normal basement – cupboards with paint, deep sinks, place to cut wood or other things, boxes with unknown content, etc.

She moved to a sink to water her head. It was the wrong choice. The moment her fingers touched the hot and cold taps jolting current crossed her entire body. It intensified so much that she was shaking uncontrollably. All she could think of was – release. But her hands were petrified and like the dead gripped tightly at the taps.

She tried to focus and use her powers to pull away but the constant jolt of electricity coercing through her was making that very hard, nearly impossible. The only thing she had left was uncontrollable anger and shame. She let go and as her defenses melted away, the metal around the taps warped. As the pipes broke and water came into contact with surging electricity, she was propelled backwards with tremendous force where she hit the wall behind her and fell with a loud thud.

She groaned in pain. It was a different pain from the one before. Her body still shook violently, then it subsided to mere trembling. She noticed a mirror above the sink as she managed somehow to stagger back onto her feet, she stood stupefied at the sight. Her head depicted an explosion of hair in every direction. She felt the uncontrollable urge to smash something and that was the sink. It warped completely into a pile of erupting water, stone and smashed pipes.

She looked at the side of the sink where she noticed cables protruding from a generator. They most certainly had been hooked to the water pipes. While it was generally not safe to do such things, her anger took care of the generator as well.

She calmed her breath. "There is nothing but fear in…" She couldn't remember how the phrase ended or if it was the correct wording for it. But at least, she had a better understanding as to why the Starfleet officers did not include their escapades into their reports.

She looked again in the mirror and imagined Ella on the floor hitting the ground with her fists with joyful tears freely falling down her cheeks while she tried to control her laughter. Her hair made her positively look like a witch, an old witch.

This was not the house of a target but rather a monster, a tormentor, an insatiable prankster that felt nothing but the exalting joy of terrorizing the poor idiots that dared to enter his abode and though to a point he had every right to defend his home from trespassers that was pushing it.

She refocused. She had come here to do a job and she would. She tried to smooth her hair as much as possible, and sought the stairs that would lead her to the ground floor. Soon she located it.

"Finally…what now?" As she stepped onto the first step, she felt resistance. Looking down, she noticed blackish gooey surface. "What is that?" She took some and smelled it. "TAR?" She tried to pull her shoes away from that but it turned out the tar was too strong.

"Seriously?" The only option available was to remove her foot from her shoes.

Having no choice, she continued climbing with her socks only. Soon though, she had to leave them too. The tar was not that strong but it was still a painful experience. And just as she thought this nightmare was over, she felt a stabbing pain in her foot.

She removed her foot only to notice a stuck upwards nail, sorry, nails. She felt them under her other foot. Instinct took over and she grabbed her feet but by doing so, she lost balance and fell down the stairs.

"Seriously, I will kill that troll." She groaned in pain. She was very seriously considering murdering that bastard. Was there a place within this house of horrors that did not have any traps?

But Carrie was not the type to give up easily. She stood up. Going up the stairs was not an option. She retreated back to the door where she came in. Having completely forgotten about the slippery floor, she was quickly reminded of it.

Staggering she climbed up though it took her several attempts. Stepping onto the snow proved more painful than she originally anticipated. She was led by her anger that did not account for the cold.

As she made her way to the back of the house, she noticed an open window on the side of the house and without a second thought dashed to it. The window had no traps and feeling perfectly confident she jumped inside. She wished she actually thought this through. The moment she landed on the floor she heard glass crackling and breaking and then she felt it with her feet.

The sensation was definitely the one that is felt when walking on glass. With every step, a glass cracked and then broke to tinier pieces thus increasing maximally the sudden and sharp pain.

Feeling angry here was not of any help as there was nothing to smash. Actually, smashing now was a bad idea, a very bad one. Carrie found that the universe had a quirky sense of humor. While in one moment one can crash the object of one's frustration, the universe quickly found something as frustrating as the first experience but one that can't feel one's retaliation.

She finally managed to ditch the unpleasant glass. She took a look at the room. Right next to the window she entered, there was a lovely Christmas tree.

"Glass toys?" She reached the revelation what has caused her so much pain. "That's low."

She sat on a nearby chair to clean her feet of any glass that might have stuck. She looked around and found some socks that she promptly put on. She felt much better. Next to the tree, there was a large fireplace ornamented in ways she had not seen even in the books back home.

The ornaments seemed though out of place. There were representations of small women with wings. It remined her of fae. There were also lots of bells and trees.

She moved closer to examine it. Among the representations she could swear there were depictions of children. There was one that looked like an elf. So, it was possible this place was very Christmassy after all.

She moved out of this room and into the next. This one had one large rectangular table set for two. The plates and the silver cutlery were exquisite. The former had trees surrounded with garlands and looked friendly, even festive. The latter seemed to be pure silver. They were thin but definitely silver with bells on the end and in the middle, what appeared to be peaks.

The table cloth was most intriguing. It was a map of an island with little fluffy clouds flying over it. There was a bay that housed a wooden ship and a place where there were women with fish tails. She tried to remember what they were called but couldn't quite recall. Then, there was something written. She squinted – Tiger Lilly.

"What is Tiger Lilly?" She tried to recall if it was a flower or some kind of animal. She had missed nearly 3 centuries so it was possible it was something else entirely.

She moved away from the table. She had come to do a job. She took out her tricorder and began scanning. There had to be a console somewhere. Weirdly enough, the tricorder did not seem to work. It was lit but all functions seemed frozen.

"How weirder can this place get?" She was certain there was some kind of dampening field that prevented her from using her tool. That meant she had to locate the algorithm the old-fashioned way. Although the algorithm was a program, so, if the house was under a dampening field locating it would prove equally impossible.

"Perhaps it is on a disk," She reasoned. Yes, that must be it. But where to look? This house was not small. She wouldn't have the time to comb it properly. She now had a new revelation of the impossible task she was given.

Still most people kept their valuables in a safe. So, perhaps, this one was no different. She just needed to find the safe. Safes are usually behind paintings or false walls. Armed with new found hope, she started looking behind paintings and knock on the walls.

The house had many paintings. Some she imagined were from different worlds as the forms and shapes were drastically different. Of course, the most interesting side of things was the absence of pranks.

As she examined all the rooms on the ground floor, she set to go to the second floor. The moment she stepped on the first step of the stairs however she discovered that false sense of security is a false one. She felt a hit on the back of her head.

Naturally she jumped to the second step trying to escape whatever was hitting her from behind. While trying to evade the trouble behind, the surprise hit her straight in the face. It was in the form of a bucket, a paint bucket. Instinctively she climbed the third stair only to be hit by another bucket. This time she lost balance and fell backwards landing on the wooden floor right before the stairs.

"My back…" She groaned in pain. She staggered back to her feet rubbing her nose that had taken the bulk of the bucket's impact.

She examined carefully the stairs but could not locate the sensor that picked her up and thus loosened these buckets on her person. She took a leap and jumped on the fourth stair.

"Yes," She exclaimed victoriously. No surprises. But it was a short-lived victory as the next stair proved, as it practically ejected her in the air and out of nowhere came swinging a large metal pipe that propelled her back. She fell hard onto the floor.

The metal pipe continued swinging until its momentum came to a halt. Carrie looked up with frustration but stood up very gingerly as the pipe had hit her in the abdomen and it hurt a lot. The forgotten feeling and desire of tearing the owner of the house to pieces returned with great strength.

"First on the head, second – a bucket, third – a bucket, fourth – safe, fifth – a metal pipe, what's next you lunatic?" She was not talking to anyone but still wanted to let it out. And felt instantly better.

She reached the fourth stair. This time, she decided to use the railing to climb up. This exercise helped her climb though at a much slower pace than she wanted but it was safer. She pulled herself up to the landing.

Weirdly enough there was another flight of stairs but it ended nowhere. She wondered whether to go up but decided against it. She had more than enough of stairs and their little surprises.

She chose to go to the left. There were two rooms. She entered the first room. It appeared to be that of a boy judging by the toys, books and posters. The bed was small but comfy by the looks of it. She wondered whether to lay down for a bit but remained cautious and resisted the innate urge. She searched the room but did not find anything that could house what she looked for.

She moved onto the second room. Opening the door, she saw a giant mass heading for her and her instincts took over. She ran away hurrying down the stairs, which proved to be the wrong choice. A fleet of buckets and two pipes helped her reach the landing far quicker than her feet could.

Pain, terrible pain coerced through her. That is what woke her up. As when she fell, she briefly lost consciousness. The hits had taken their toll on her body. She cursed under breath for acting without thinking.

This time she returned to the room with the tree to relax before she stormed the second floor again. She found hot coco next to the chair and without thinking drank it. It was definitely the most delicious drink she had ever tasted. It did have a slightly bitter taste. She imagined it was from the cocoa.

She tried to stand up but discovered she could not. She felt groggy and lost her balance but hopefully back in the chair. She was now certain that the bitter taste contained some kind of sedative. But it was already too late. She pushed herself to resist its effects but to no avail. Her eyes felt heavy and she dozed off.

She did sense some movement around her though she could easily be dreaming it or it was the effect of the sedative. She could not believe that after all her revelations she did not develop any sense of the surrounding danger that filled this weird house. By now, she should have developed the necessary cautiousness when proceeding further. But every time she conquered an obstacle, she felt a sense of relief and felt safe, and that deterred her every time.

For a moment she thought seeing a shadow moving through her mind. But then again, she attributed that to the effect of the drug. She needed to push herself out of this dreamscape before the owner of the house returned.

With what seemed an eternity, she pushed her eyes open. She was still in the room with the tree and on the chair. She could not determine though how much time had passed as her tricorder did not work in here and she did not bring a watch with her.

The grogginess wore off and she was back on her feet. Again, she used the railing to climb up but this time she stood away from the left side. That was not a place she wanted to go to. So, she turned to the right. There was one room and one other door.

She first ventured into the room with all the due cautiousness. She did not want anymore surprises. This room was more of storage room than anything else. There were all kinds of furniture stacked over one another. She searched very thoroughly but did not find anything that could help her.

She exited the room and proceeded to the door. She tackled carefully the handle, and then grabbed more securely. It did not turn in any direction. She then used a bit more force and pulled it. From the hole where it is used to be there was rope.

"Now what…" Her voice trailed off as she heard a God-awful noise. She could describe it as something heavy coming down stairs. She instinctively moved back and she was right to do so as the door was pushed in her direction. She could not see what was behind it and she did not want to.

She ran away and as she reached the flight of stairs and climbed up. She looked back to see what it was and gaped. It was a big metal toolbox on rollers. As she turned her head back in the direction she had gone, she realized she was up the stairs, which was a relief though it led nowhere. But as she had done so in a hurry, she slipped and fell on the stairs.

"Well, you are not Wendy, but you will do."

She heard a voice. She lifted her head up and her jaw opened unable to close at the sight before her…

To be continued…

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Lordheaven