Chapter 33: Carrie's Horrible Nightmare (I)

(Monday, June 18th 2012 – 11:20pm; White Residence, Knapford Town)

Okay everyone, I intend for this chapter to be a fairly short one, and it's gonna be the first one in about two or three chapters where Carrie experiences a number of bad nightmares. But I promise that the next chapter that'll be uploaded after this one will be a much longer chapter and will focus on Carrie experiencing something of which I've had the pleasure to personally experience in my own life. Please enjoy!

Feeling quite exhausted after a long day of hard work, and very eager to get a really good night's sleep ready for more work taking place the next day, Carrie was almost finished getting ready for bed and was in her bathroom and brushing her teeth at the sink. She was in her pyjamas, which was a brand-new set of very nice silk pyjamas that she had bought from one of the larger shops in Sodor just recently, and she was feeling very comfortable wearing them.

For much of the day, Carrie had been working on the footplate of G.W.R. 28XX Class 2-8-0 No.2800 along with his driver and fireman, and they had spent much of the day going along the length of the Southern Main Line hauling very heavy, and often quite slow, loose-coupled freight trains that were very heavily laden down with all different sorts of goods. At times, some of the trucks had tried their tricks, but No.2800, being a highly experienced and capable locomotive with years of experience on the Great Western Main Lines, was easily able to keep all the trucks in order and the trains under control as they rolled along. Whenever they had to make stops, either at signals or before going into the yards they had to drop off or pick up trucks, Carrie was always amazed at how much noise the trucks made when their buffers closed up to each other, as well as the sounds made whenever they started off again as the trucks were picked up one by one.

At one point during the afternoon, as they were rolling along the main line from Vicarstown back to Knapford Station with another very long and heavy fully fitted freight train made up of a number of different vans and tankers, the driver asked Carrie if she'd like to try her hand at driving the train, to which Carrie enthusiastically agreed. Stepping into the driver's position, she put her left hand on the red-painted regulator handle and her right hand on top of the reversing lever. Opening up the regulator just a little more, she then reached up and pulled on the whistle cord, sounding No.2800's whistle loudly as they went along the line with the train following along smoothly behind the tender.

Feeling herself smile broadly, Carrie stood at the driver's position for a few minutes and drove the train, while looking out through the forward window or leaning her head out at times to look ahead along the track, and keeping her eyes out for the signals ahead. The driver stood behind her, and gave her directions on how to do things as they went along, including on when to shut the regulator, blow the whistle, as well as to adjust the reversing level when it was necessary to do so. The reversing handle wasn't the easiest thing to use, as it was difficult at the best of times to move back and forth when the regulator was opened to admit steam into the cylinders.

But regardless of how slow the trains they pulled behind them went, or even how difficult the reversing lever was to use at times, Carrie had a very good day working out on the main line, and was especially pleased that she had been given the chance to drive one of the locomotives of Sodor for the first time while she was on the apprenticeship scheme, even if it was only for a short period of about 10 minutes or so. She had enjoyed that experience so much in fact, that she really hoped that she could try her hand at driving another of the engines on Sodor at another point sometime in the near future.

However, for now though, it was time for her to turn in and get a good night's rest after a long day. Her father, Ralph White, was already fast asleep in his own bedroom further down the corridor, as he himself was quite tired after the long day of work that he had done too, and both he and Carrie were due to be up early in the morning for another day of work on the railway. After she finished brushing her teeth, Carrie stepped out from her ensuite bathroom, switched off the light, and then went over to her bed, got in under the covers, switched off the bedside lights, and, after placing her head down on one of the pillows, she fell into a deep sleep almost at once.

At one point, as the sounds of a slow-moving freight train went past outside on one of the lines that was on the other side of the garden fence, Carrie didn't even flinch as she was very used to such sounds of such trains by now. In fact, it was a very comforting thing to her by now, and it often helped her to get to sleep, particularly after a long day of hard work. Listening out, she could hear that it sounded like a slow-moving loose-coupled freight train being pulled by a very powerful freight engine.

(Start of dream sequence)

Carrie had no idea how long she slept for, but then, as she slept on in her warm and comfortable bed, she became aware of a very slight sound - a very low tapping sound as a matter of fact - coming from somewhere just outside the door to her bedroom. Slowly turning under the warm duvet, and then opening her eyes, Carrie sat up in bed and switched on one of the bedside lights. As she rubbed her eyes and got them adjusted to the light, she looked over towards her bedroom door, and then she noticed that there was a very thin pale light shining through the small crack at the bottom of the door, and then she heard the sounds of something from the other side of it. Then she also heard the sound of what sounded like someone walking on a wooden floor with floorboards that creaked.

But there was a problem with that; the upstairs floor of her father's house, with the exception of the bathroom floors, was covered with carpet, and there had never been any sounds of creaking floorboards in the house in all the time that Carrie had been staying here.

Curious as to what was going on outside her bedroom door, Carrie pushed the duvet aside and then slowly swung her feet out onto the floor. After getting her balance, she got out of bed, slipped her feet into her slippers, and then stepped, very quietly and carefully, over to the door, reached her hand very slowly and apprehensively forward, grabbed hold of the handle, and then quietly opened the door.

She at once regretted her decision on opening the door, as she saw that she was standing out in the gym hall at Ewen High School in Chamberlain, and she saw she was dressed in her gym clothes and taking part in a game of volleyball during a gym session. Among those she was with were some of those girls who had bullied her, including Chris Hargensen, Tina Blake, Donna Kellogg, Sue Snell, the Watson Twins, and quite a few other girls as well, and they were jumping around, and trying to keep their eyes on the ball, as one of the girls on the other side of the net tossed it into the air. Looking up, Carrie saw the ball come towards her and then, before she could do anything, the ball hit her right in the middle of her face, causing her to fall to the ground, and everything went black.

When the light came back a short while later, Carrie slowly opened her eyes, sat up and wondered where she was now. She found out soon enough; she saw that she was sitting right in the middle of a very familiar place. It was a campground, with a number of different sizes of log cabins very close to her, and then she suddenly realised that the campground she was in was the Christian Summer Camp, a place that she had gone to for a time during a summer quite a few years back when she was a much younger girl, and it was another place of very unpleasant memories for her because of what she went through. Standing up, she looked around and wondered what was going to happen next.

Then she heard the sounds of someone crying out for help, as well as the sounds of mocking laughter from a group of people from somewhere close by, and she saw it; right before her was a group of young kids in the water over by one of the jetties that stretched out into the lake. The group of young kids were dunking a young girl under the surface of the lake. The young girl was trying to fight against them, as she was desperate to take in a deep breath as the other kids were keeping her under the water for too long. And all the other kids were laughing at this girl in a very mocking way, and taunting her all the while.

It was there at that very moment that Carrie suddenly realised, with the greatest of horrors, that this young girl she could see and who was being dunked under the surface of the lake by this group of kids was her, as she clearly remembered being treated in the exactly the same way when she went to the Christian Summer Camp for a few days all those years ago. Almost all of the kids there had bullied her in this sort of way, and the camp counsellors had done nothing to stop at at all.

"Hey, all of you! Stop it! Leave that girl alone!" Carrie shouted out loudly, as she started running as quickly as her legs would carry her. At that moment, she was in a fury and determined to see if she could make a difference.

She rushed over towards these bullying kids, with a level of anger rising within herself, hoping that she could stop them all from bullying the younger version of herself. Yet despite her shouting out and running towards them, these kids didn't seem to hear her at all. However, before she could even get anywhere near the group of kids, the whole scene suddenly vanished into thin air right before her very eyes, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

For several moments, she stood where she had stopped, and wondered what other unpleasant scene would present itself before her. She found out soon enough, as the scene then changed again; she saw that now she was standing inside one of the corridors of Ewen High School again, only this time there were a lot of other students standing around her. It was then that she saw many of them were looking towards her and laughing mockingly at her, or else were just standing off to the side and smirking at her as she went on past them on her way to class. For Carrie, it was very embarrassing to have to go through all this again, especially as she had run as far away as she could to avoid this. Suddenly, her train of thought was interrupted as someone poked their food out and trip her up; as she fell to the ground, she heard the rapidly rising sounds of mocking laughter from all over the corridor, and all aimed towards her.

Then, as she pulled herself off the ground, the scene of the bullies laughing in a mocking way at her suddenly disappeared, and it then was replaced by an even worse sight, and something that almost made her own heart stop; it was the inside of Carrie's old house along Carlin Street. Looking around, she saw that she was standing by the kitchen and looking towards the open door of the prayer closet under the stairs. Now she was sweating very nervously, and looking all around in sheer panic; something deep inside her was telling her that her mentally unstable mother was somewhere very close by...and watching her.

With her eyes darting around all over the place and with every slight sound, including her own panicked breathing, slowly getting to her, Carrie suddenly became aware of someone standing very close to her. Slowly turning her head off to the right, she saw her mother, Margaret White, standing a few feet away, and on her face was a very cold, harsh, and emotionless look that seemed to indicate she was very displeased with Carrie again. Shocked by this sight, Carrie froze in sheer utter terror for several long moments, as she stared in fright at her mother for what seemed like an eternity.

"Sin never dies." Margaret said in a very cold and emotionless way, as she reached one of her hands out towards Carrie, with the intent of grabbing her and placing her into the prayer closet again. Automatically, Carrie turned round and ran through the house towards the front door, but as she got closer and closer to the front door it seemed to stretch out and get further and further away from her, as Margaret's hand got closer and closer to her shoulder.

Before Carrie could even get her hands on the door handle, she was grabbed very firmly by Margaret on both arms, and dragged back towards the dreaded closet, and then, with her resisting as much as she could, she was thrown inside the closet, as quick as a flash, and the door was securely closed and locked behind her. But before Carrie could even get to her feet and try and get out, the scene suddenly went black, which meant that things were gonna change again.

Suddenly, Carrie found herself standing in the middle of the street, and it appeared to be one that was somewhere in the town of Chamberlain, just like Carlin Street, but she wasn't too sure about that. It was in the middle of the night and all the street lights along the length of the road were on, but there was no one about; there weren't even any cars parked inside any of the driveways of any of the houses that were on both sides of the street. Now, Carrie was really afraid as she looked around in a silent panic, as she knew there was someone in the shadows, who was looking at her, and waiting for the opportunity to pounce on her when they got the chance. Then she heard a slight sound coming from off to her right side; turning her head slowly towards her right, she was presented with a sight that made her blood run cold. Standing there, right before her was her main arch-bully, Chris Hargensen, who was standing only a few feet from her, with the light of one of the street lights over here. Chris had an evil smile on her face, and tapping one of her feet on the ground every few seconds.

"Hello there…Christian freak! Did you miss me while you were away from here…you little squealer!" Chris said, rather viciously, as she slowly moved towards Carrie with a rather angry look on her face.

On seeing that, Carrie instinctively turned round and ran as fast as she could down the road to get away from her very angry bully, who she knew was after her for ratting her out with all the information about the bullying she had gone through before leaving Chamberlain for good. Carrie ran as fast as she could, going over fences into gardens, down lanes, and around corners. But suddenly, after going round another corner, she found herself confronted by a tall brick wall which stretched high above her; there was no way to get around this obstacle in her path. Turning round, Carrie saw that Chris had found her, and had now cornered her in this narrow alleyway, and she knew she was trapped.

"I'm gonna get even with you for ratting me and my friends out like that!" Chris said, as she slowly advanced upon Carrie, with the intend to get her revenge on her for the pain and suffering she had endured for her actions on the outcast of Ewen High School.

Carrie, her back against the brick wall and helpless, closed her eyes and waited for the fierce vengeful wrath that Chris was sure to bring upon her in a fury.

(End of dream sequence)

With a low gasp, Carrie suddenly sat up in her bed and, taking in several deep breaths in a hyperventilating way, tried to calm herself down from her nightmare. Reaching to her left, she switched on the bedside light before reaching for her watch and checking the time; it was 3:56am on the morning of Tuesday June 19th. Carefully placing her watch back down on the bedside table, Carrie rubbed down her forehead, which was sweating a little bit from that nightmare, and some of the horrible memories from her past, as she took in one deep breath at a time.

"Oh, that was a horrible dream…it was just a dream…it was just a dream." Carrie told herself, as she calmed down, grateful that she was no longer back in Chamberlain.

Wondering what was going on outside, she pulled the duvet aside and very slowly walked over to the window. Pulling one of the curtains aside a little, Carrie took a quick look outside; there wasn't much to see out there at this time of night, with only a few lights to be seen here and there amongst the houses on the other side of the double tracked railway line. The sky above was clear of any clouds, with plenty of bright, shining stars to be seen in the heavens high above her. There wasn't even the sounds of any trains to be heard, as many trains had already gone by earlier on in the night.

Deeply relieved that she had only had a nightmare, and hadn't been suddenly been brought all the way back to Chamberlain to face the wrath of her arch-bully or her abusive mother, Carrie went back to her bed, got back under the covers, switched the light off and tried to get back to sleep again.

(Later on, in the morning)

With her eyes slowly flickering open, Carrie woke up again, but this time not from a nightmare. She slowly sat up and looked towards the curtains; through the narrow gap between the two curtains, she could now see that it was much lighter outside. Getting out of bed, she went over to the window and pulled the curtains aside; Carrie could see the sun was slowly rising into the sky to the east and casting its light down upon the land below. There weren't too many clouds in the blue sky, and those she could see were only very thin ones in any case, and it looked like it would be a fine summer day.

The two railway lines on the other side of the garden fence were still quiet at the moment, though there was no doubt that trains would be going along both the lines along that stretch of line very soon this morning.

Carrie rubbed her forehead down in a deep sense of relief, took in a deep breath and smiled, feeling very pleased to see the sunny morning sky. Wondering what the time was, she went back over to the bedside table and checked her watch; it was 06:48am. After putting her phone on to charge up and taking in a deep breath, Carrie went straight into the bathroom and set about getting ready to start the day.

(Downstairs, a short while later)

After getting changed into her work-clothes and using the bathroom, including brushing her teeth, Carrie went downstairs to the kitchen and started having breakfast, which was a bowl of bran flakes in milk, with a glass of orange juice, and buttered toast with some strawberry jam spread on it.

As she made a start on consuming her breakfast, she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. A few moments later, her father stepped into the kitchen, and he was also in his work-clothes, ready for another long day of hard work out on the railway.

"Good morning, Carrie. Did you sleep well?" Ralph asked, as he went about getting his morning coffee ready.

"Morning, dad. Yes, I slept fine, nothing to report." Carrie said, deciding right there and then that it would probably be best not to mention the nightmare that she had gone through only the night before.

"That's good. Now best finished up your breakfast as soon as you possibly can, and then grab what you might need. There's gonna be another long day of hard work on the railway ahead." Ralph said, as he took a pack of coffee out from the cabinet over the kettle.

"Okay, dad." Carrie said, as she continued on with her breakfast, as Ralph filled up the kettle with water, and put it on to boil, and then he went and grabbed some bread from the bread-bin off to the side, and put two slices into the toaster. Taking a long sip of her glass of orange juice, Carrie wondered what the day would hold for her, and which engine she would get the chance to work on.

(Later on, at the Tidmouth Motive Power Depot)

Carrie was feeling somewhat better when she and her father arrived at Tidmouth Sheds, all dressed in their overalls and ready to start work. All the other engine crews and recruits on the apprenticeship scheme were there as well, and they seemed eager to start another day of hard work on the railway. Quite a few already had cups of tea or coffee, as well as a few pastries, in their hands, as they talked around and joked with each other as they waited to start work.#

The engines were all ready to go for their work, with their fires having been lit earlier on in the morning and steam having built up in their boilers.

In minutes, the recruits were assigned to work on their engines for the day; Carrie was assigned to work on the footplate of Gordon for the morning, and Sophie was with her as well. But Carrie and Sophie working with Gordon would only be for when they would take the morning express train from Knapford to Vicarstown. Once they had arrived at Vicarstown, Carrie and Sophie would be transferred over to work on the footplates of two other locomotives to help take whatever trains that needed to be brought back to Knapford.

By this time, Gordon's fire had already been lit and he had plenty of steam building up in his boiler, and so he and his crew were ready to set off for the morning run as soon as they were ready to go.

"Okay, and are we all ready to go?" Gordon asked proudly, as his driver and fireman, along with Carrie and Sophie, climbed onto his footplate with the things they would need for the day.

"Yes, Gordon! We're all ready to set off here!" Sophie said, as she leaned out from the cab.

"All set to go, Gordon!" Carrie said, as she also leaned out from the cab.

"All right, let's go then! The express mustn't be late!" Gordon said, as his driver blew his whistle loudly for a few seconds before he opened up the regulator a little. With a whoosh of steam, Gordon set off from Tidmouth Sheds to collect the morning express that was waiting for them over at Knapford Station. The train was due to leave Knapford at 8:00am precisely, and it was 7:39am on Carrie's watch. She hoped they would get over there in time and buffered up to the front of the train so they could be coupled on.

As they rolled along the line towards Knapford, Carrie couldn't help but cast her mind back to her nightmare she'd had the night before; it had all seemed so real, and so eerie in how it went that she wondered if it was something she should be worried about. But then after a few moments, her thoughts of her nightmare were interrupted when the driver blew Gordon's whistle loudly as they finally arrived at Knapford Station on the line adjacent to Platform 2. Looking out from the cab, Carrie could see a long line of coaches up against Platform 1, and the passengers were climbing aboard and taking their seats.

After being switched onto the adjacent track, they reversed slowly and backed down onto the train, where one of the shunters coupled Gordon to the train and connected up the brake pipes too. They didn't have to wait for very long, for soon, as the clock struck 8:00am, the signalman in the signal box set the signal to show the way was clear, and the guard for Gordon's train blew his whistle and waved his green flag.

"Okay, this is it! Off we go!" said the driver, as he blew Gordon's whistle and opened the regulator. With a loud whoosh of steam, and loud chuffs from the chimney, Gordon was on his way with his first train of the day. From the footplate, as Sophie took a go at the shovel, Carrie leaned out from the right-hand side of the cab and watched as they set off on their way; it was time to get to work, and so she could worry about her nightmare later on.

And that's the end of this chapter, everyone! Now, this won't be the first chapter titled Carrie's Horrible Nightmare; I am planning to add at least another two as the story goes on. I hope to have the next chapter up as soon as I possibly can, and I promise that it'll be a much longer one than this. Until next time, so long!