Chapter 57: Carrie's Horrible Nightmare (III)
(Monday, November 5th 2012 – 4:55pm, Anopha Quarry)
(Insert soundtrack – Mavis' Theme – Season 3)
Amidst the loud sounds of the different heavy machinery that was working away at the different rock faces, the last jobs of the day were being done within the quarry to load all the hopper wagons with stone to be delivered in the next shipments that were to leave the quarry in the next while. Work had been going at getting the job done pretty much all day long, with different shipments of stone being dispatched from the quarry in lines of heavily-laden hopper wagons that were to be delivered to different points around the Island of Sodor, either being sent down to the docks for export to other places on ships or else to various different building sites that were dotted around the island.
Mavis had been busy helping out with all the work that had been going on all day, and as a result of that, she was covered in a layer of stone dust from her front buffer-beam all the way to the back of her cab. The other two diesels that were helping her out with getting all the many heavily loaded hopper wagons ready to be dispatched during the day, Arry and Bert, were just as filthy as she was, being covered in dust and tiny bits of stone from front to back. It had been a hard day for all three diesels, but there was still quite a bit that needed to be done before the day ended, as there were still quite a number of steel hopper wagons that needed to be filled with lots more stone.
Due to the amount of dust that the intense quarrying generated, special sprinkler systems in the quarry were used pretty much all the time to help keep the dust down on the ground, but due to the cold winter temperatures that were already being experienced at this time, any water that was being used to dampen down the stone dust had frozen into different layers of ice and all over much of the floor of the quarry. This meant it was often difficult for anyone to go anywhere in the quarry where there was ice formed.
The weather for much of the day had been very heavily overcast, with very light winds and quite cold temperatures, all of which were clear signs that they were now into November and that even colder winter weather would be on its way in the very near future. So far, no snow had fallen yet, but each day was very cold with the temperatures often falling down to freezing point and even below that during the nights. But as the afternoon went on, the clouds started to break apart and spread, allowing the sun to shine through and patches of blue winter sky to be seen.
People everywhere were now dressed in warm winter clothing, including thick winter coats, warm woollen hats and scarfs, and earmuffs, in order to keep themselves warm. The engine crews who were out working on the engines that ran on the railways also had to don warmer clothing as well, with warm woollen hats replacing the peaked railway caps that they normally wore.
Frost was also forming on the roads during each night, and any puddles on the ground or in the fields froze to ice. The rails, especially on slopes, became very difficult for the engines and their trains to move along at times, and so very careful driving was needed by the crews in order to get the trains moving from a standing start. The Fat Controller was concerned about the arrival of winter, and so considerable preparations for it had been made well in advance, with snow ploughs placed where they could be put onto the engines in case they were needed, and plenty of shovels and spades had been made ready as well. Winters on the Island of Sodor could be very difficult at times, and so considerable preparations for whatever was to come in the near future were being made all over the island.
In Anopha Quarry, Mavis shunted the last of another line of fully loaded hopped wagons together in a long line near to the exit from the quarry, and with that another train had been fully assembled together and ready to be taken away. There was a second one that had already been shunted together on the adjacent track, ready to be taken away as well as soon as another engine arrived at the quarry.
"And there we are! All done at last!" Mavis said, as she moved off from the front of the train and over the points onto the adjacent line. She didn't have to wait for too long for the engine who was to take this train to arrive at the quarry. With a loud whistle in the distance, followed by the sounds of chuffing, W.D. Austerity Class 2-8-0 No.90500 reversed along the line into the quarry, ready to be coupled up to the train.
Carrie was standing on the footplate of No.90500, and had been working with him and his crew since this morning, and they had been constantly going back and forth along the western half of the Southern Main Line and doing whatever jobs needed to be done today. It included taking coal from the coal mines to the yards at Knapford, taking a delivery of vans from Knapford Yards down to Brendam Docks, and then taking a delivery of things that had arrived on a ship from the docks all the way over to Kirk Ronan Station. By this time of the day, she was feeling quite tired from her long day of work, having started at 7:00am that morning, and was looking forward to a good night's sleep when she got home later on. Due to the cold weather, Carrie had also put her peaked railway cap aside in favour of a warm woollen hat instead, which did a much better job of keeping her head warm.
Exhaling a breath, she watched as the breath came out in a white swirling cloud, which slowly dissipated within the confines of the cab. She had noticed the gradual drop in temperature over the previous few days, and knew full well that the much colder conditions of winter were on the way and getting closer and closer. The thought of what the previous winter had been like, with its freezing cold conditions, heavy snowfall, snowdrifts, icy rails, and very cold winds, did concern her somewhat.
Even though Carrie had experienced her share of bad winters back in Chamberlain, Maine, she hadn't had to have worked outside in such weather back home. However, over here it would be different, and she would have to go out and work each day that she was rostered to be out on duty on the railway. But regardless of that, she knew that when the snow would eventually start to fall, work on the railway had to continue, and snowdrifts that blocked the lines would need to be cleared.
Slowly, No.90500 backed up to the front of the train and then gently buffered up to the leading hopper wagon, and then the driver quickly put the brakes firmly on. As the shunter coupled No.90500 to the train and connected the brake pipes together, No.90500 stood in silence and waited for the time when they could leave with their latest train of the day. As the driver spoke with the quarry manager about where this train was going to be going, Carrie stayed on the footplate and helped the fireman keep an eye on the state of the fire, the pressure in the main steam pressure gauge, and the water level in the boiler. Taking the chance to top up the fuel already in the firebox, Carrie used the shovel to place more coal from the tender into the firebox, making sure to place the coal to where it was needed to make steam efficiently.
After placing six shovels of coal into the firebox, as well as using one of the fire-irons to make sure the fire-bed was kept as level as possible, Carrie heard the sounds of another whistle from another engine, along with chuffing sounds that seemed to be coming into the quarry. Standing up and then looking out from the driver's side of the cab, Carrie saw there was indeed another steam engine with a tender coupled to it slowly reversing into the quarry. At first, judging from the fact she saw that it had eight driving wheels underneath, she thought that it was L.N.E.R. Q7 Class 0-8-0 No.63470, but as this engine slowly reversed onto the line beside No.90500, she saw that it was actually a different engine; it was L.N.E.R. Q6 Class 0-8-0 No.63394, and he had been sent here to pick up the second waiting train of stone and take it away to where it would be needed (109).
"I'll be very glad to get all these heavy trucks out of this quarry, and then get them delivered too." No.63394 said, as he was coupled up to the train and got himself ready to leave the quarry when the time arrived.
"I know what you mean. I'm feeling quite tired after my long day as well. I've been going about so much and taking so many trucks about the line, I can't keep track of what's been going on all day." No.90500 said, as he thought about how his day had gone.
"You know, I'll be looking forward to getting a really good night's rest in my shed after how today has gone." No.63394 said.
"Me too. And I'll also be very glad to get out of this cold weather and wind as well tonight." No.90500 said, as another short gust of cold wind blew into his face.
(109): The North Eastern Railway's Class T2 (L.N.E.R. Class Q6) 0-8-0 heavy freight engines were designed by Sir Vincent Raven, with the intention of being used on the increasingly heavy freight and mineral trains that were being experienced on the N.E.R. system in the early part of the 20th century. This massive increase in freight and heavy mineral traffic, including the heavy coal trains from collieries in the north east of England, meant that more powerful engines were required to move it.
The new T2 Class that Raven designed was very similar in overall appearances to the earlier Q5 Class 0-8-0 engines that had been designed by Wilson Worsdell and introduced onto the N.E.R. system between 1901 and 1911, but had a larger boiler design fitted in order to provide more steam, with a saddle fitting for the smokebox, and also incorporated the best parts of the piston valve version of the Q5 Class design.
In total, 120 members of the N.E.R. T2 / L.N.E.R. Q6 Class 0-8-0 were built in six batches between February 1913 and March 1921, with 70 of them being built by Darlington Works and the remaining 50 engines being built by Armstrong Whitworth.
The class had two outside cylinders that were 20in in diameter with a 26in piston stroke which, combined with a boiler pressed to 180psi and fitted with superheating elements, and eight driving wheels that were 4ft 7.5in in diameter, gave the Q6 Class a maximum tractive effort of 28,800lbf. The tenders that the class were paired with ran on six wheels and could carry around 5.5 tons of coal and 4,125 gallons of water. The Q6 Class were fitted also with superheaters as standard, with a number of different types being experimented with, until they were fitted with the Schmidt superheater design by the time of the Grouping in 1923.
From 1930 onwards, the Schmidt superheaters were replaced by newer Robinson-type superheaters to bring them in line with L.N.E.R. practice. From 1938, the original boiler design was replaced by a newer identical design which had the domes a little over 1ft further back along the top of the boiler, along with a sloping firebox throatplate, and an increase in the number of boiler tubes from 144 to 156. The boilers were interchangeable with those used on the B15 Class 4-6-0s, and a number of Q6s were fitted with tenders from withdrawn B15 engines.
The Q6 Class were similar in overall appearances to the Q7 Class, but they could be quite easily distinguished by the fact the outside cylinders on the Q6 Class drove on the third set of driving wheels, while the cylinders of the Q7 Class drove onto the second set of driving wheels. The Q6 Class had no train-braking ability, but they did have a single brake cylinder which operated the brakes on both the tender and locomotive. The lack of train-braking ability meant that the Q6 Class engines couldn't be used for pulling passenger trains except under very unusual circumstances. One of these unusual occasions was in 1936, when a Q6 from Selby hauled a failed L.N.E.R. D20 Class (N.E.R. Class R) 4-4-0 into Leeds. The D20 braked the train and provided heating for the carriages whilst the Q6 provided the hauling power for the train.
In the time after the end of the Second World War, there was some anticipation that the Ministry of Transport would authorise the Q6 Class to be converted to oil firing, and in anticipation of this, shorter superheater elements were fitted to eight Q6s in 1947. However, for some unknown reason, the idea to concert the Q6 Class from coal firing to oil firing didn't take place and the engines remained coal-fired right to the end of their working lives.
During their time in service, the engines of the Q6 Class proved to be an unqualified success, and in them Raven had managed to create a very strong and reliable class of heavy freight locomotives that lasted almost right up until the end of steam on the British Railways network.
They were initially allocated to sheds in the North East of England in order to haul coal from collieries, but by 1920 they were displaced from the Shildon-Newport line. At Grouping in 1923, they were allocated to Tyne Dock, Borough Gardens, Carlisle, Stockton, Newport, Darlington, Leeds, Selby, and Springhead (Hull & Barnsley). As well as coal and mineral work, they would also be used occasionally on medium and long-distance freight trains.
Under the ownership of the L.N.E.R., the engines of the Q6 Class also ventured further afield, including on trips to Manchester via the Woodhead Tunnel, Doncaster, and after 1930 they ventured north of the Tyne River. In the 1940s, they also ventured south towards Peterborough and March.
After the railways were nationalised in January 1948, the entire Q6 Class was renumbered from No.63340 to No.63459, and they continued on their normal duties through the rest of the 1940's and into the 1950's. The first member of the class to be withdrawn was No.63372, who was withdrawn in May 1960 after suffering damage that had been sustained in an accident and was cut up a month later at Darlington Works. No.63457 was withdrawn in December 1961 and cut up for scrap not too long afterwards.
General withdrawals of the rest of the Q6 Class began in 1963, when 33 members of the class were removed from service in that year. Further withdrawals followed along over the next four years, until by the start of 1967 there were only 17 engines still running on the North Eastern Region of B.R. By September 1967, the final three members of the class that were still running at that time, No.63344, No.63387, and No.63395, had all been removed from service. By the time they were removed from every-day use, they, along with some J27 Class 0-6-0 engines, were some of the last Pre-Grouping steam engines that were still running on the B.R. network.
Thankfully, one example of the Q6 Class has survived into preservation; this engine is No.63395, one of the very last ones to be withdrawn. Built at Darlington in November 1918, she was withdrawn in September 1967 and was put in storage at Tyne Dock Shed before being bought by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (N.E.L.P.G.) in April 1968. She was taken to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in June 1970, where she's been a permanent resident of the railway ever since. She's had vacuum brake equipment fitted so she can pull passenger trains and, although she wasn't designed or intended to be used on passenger trains, she's proved very popular doing so, and more than capable of handling the steep gradients on the N.Y.M.R. As of 2024, No.63395 is out of service and in storage on the N.Y.M.R. having suffered cylinder damage while departing from Grosmont in May 2023. In February 2024, a brand new cylinder was ordered to replace the damaged one, with its delivery hoping to take place before the end of 2024.
They didn't have to wait for very long in the cold wind to set off, for soon the guard for the train coupled behind No.90500 blew his whistle loudly and waved his green flag. Feeling pleased to have been given the all-clear to be able to leave the quarry, No.90500 blew his whistle loudly and then slowly moved forwards out from the siding, taking up the weight of the train behind him, which slowly moved forwards behind me with clanking and squeaking from some of the wheels.
"I'll see you later, No.63394!" No.90500 said, as he moved forwards.
"Good luck, No.90500!" No.63394 said, as he watched the W.D. Austerity Class 2-8-0 make his way out. Slowly, No.90500 moved along the line out of the quarry, and past the siding where Mavis was standing and waiting for him to leave so she could go back to work.
"Best of luck with that train, No.90500!" Mavis said, as she watched the train approach her and then go past as she blew her horn.
"Thanks, Mavis!" No.90500 said, as he blew his whistle in greeting.
After leaving the quarry, No.90500 went past Ffarquhar Station and then back along the Harbour Line that went towards Knapford. The trip to Knapford Harbour went very smoothly and without incident, with the train following smoothly behind them. For much of the trip, Carrie took turns to keep the firebox stoked with fresh coal as they went along, as well as checking the two water gauge glasses to be sure that there was enough water in the boiler. She was feeling very glad to be close to the hot fire, which helped to keep the sheltered cab somewhat warm and cosy, and a major relief from the very cold weather they were travelling through. The freezing cold wind still blew into the cab at times during the trip, but the heat coming out from the firebox whenever the doors needed to be opened always helped to warm up the cab in no time. Feeling herself smile whenever she felt herself warm up from the fire's heat, as well as from doing the physical work she was doing in keeping the boiler stoked.
At one point as they went along the line, they went through the gorge with the sides towering over both sides of them, and coming along the other line in the other direction towards them was L.M.S. Black Five No.44752, equipped with Caprotti valve gear, and who was heading up towards Ffarquhar and Ulfstead with a lengthy coal train rattling along behind him.
"Hello, No.90500!" No.44752 called out, as he went by while blowing his whistle.
"Hello, No.44752!" No.90500 called back with a blast of his whistle, as he went past.
By the time they finally arrived at Knapford Harbour, the sun was setting and it was getting dark in the sky above. It also seemed to be getting much colder as well, as when Carrie leaned out to look ahead, she could see that the white clouds she exhaled from her mouth seemed to have gotten denser in the last while. She wondered how cold the next few weeks would bring as November went on, but there was no doubt it would get even colder.
As No.90500 arrived at Knapford Harbour, where there was still a lot of activity being done, he slowed down as he entered the harbour and then brought his train along the line and over the different sets of points to one of the quays, where the ship that was to take the stone away was secured to the dockside and waiting to be loaded up.
Soon, the train was pushed in reverse onto the quay with No.90500 keeping the train under control as he pushed it back, with a harbour foreman guiding the driver and letting him know when to put the brakes on. After coming to a halt, No.90500 was uncoupled from the train and waited for the time when he could go back to the sheds and rest for the evening. In the meantime, Carrie leaned out from the footplate and looked up to the darkening sky high above; it was getting darker and, as the clouds had spread out considerably in the last while, the first stars of the evening could be seen high above, and Carrie could also feel the wind speed drop off from what it had been earlier on in the day.
"What a day it's been. I wonder if we'll have similar work tomorrow like we did today." Carrie said quietly to herself. She was feeling somewhat tired from the work that had been done today, but she knew it was good exercise for her.
"Okay, we're all uncoupled! We can head back to the sheds now!" the driver said, as he leaned out from the cab and called ahead to No.90500.
"Thank goodness for that! I'm very tired after today!" No.90500 said, as he smiled. He was feeling very tired after such a long day of hard work and was really looking forward to a good night's rest in his shed.
"Me too!" Carrie said, as she looked at the driver.
"Okay! Let's get back to the sheds then!" the driver said with a chuckle, as he released the brakes, blew the whistle for a few seconds, and then opened the regulator. Slowly, with steam shooting out in front, No.90500 moved forwards out of the harbour and back towards Tidmouth Sheds, with the fireman taking another go at the shovel, while Carrie sat on the fireman's seat and rested.
(Back at Tidmouth Shed, a little while later)
As No.90500 reversed slowly into his shed in the motive power depot, Carrie was feeling very eager to stepping off and then getting over to the crew building where she would get herself cleaned up with a hot shower and then get dressed in clean clothes before clocking out and heading off home afterwards. Looking out from the driver's side of the cab, Carrie noticed six other engines that seemed eager to set off for their next jobs. The six engines were 9F Class 2-10-0 No.92099, L.M.S. Jubilee Class No.5664 Nelson, L.N.E.R. O3 Class 2-8-0 No.63475, L.M.S. 12F Class 4-8-4 No.46300, B.R. Standard Class 5MT No.73125, and S.R. un-rebuilt Battle of Britain Class No.34083 605 Squadron, and they had plenty of steam up in their boilers and seemed ready to leave the depot. Then, Carrie noticed the Fat Controller standing by the side of the line, and he appeared to have an anxious look on his face.
"Okay, you lot! You must all go down to Brendam Docks immediately! A number of ships have arrived that are filled with lots of different cargo, and it all needs to be taken away and delivered to where it all needs to be before morning!" the Fat Controller boomed to the six engines.
"Yes, sir!" the six engines said together, as they blew their whistles and then set out for Brendam Docks one at a time. Once they had left, the Fat Controller then turned his attention to three more engines who were standing close by; these three engines were W.D. Austerity Class 2-10-0s No.90766 and No.73650, and G.W.R. 28XX Class 2-8-0 No.2800, and they were waiting for instructions.
"You three had better go on down to the docks as well. After all, I'm going to need some more big engines to take all the delivered goods to where they need to be." boomed the Fat Controller.
"Yes, sir!" No.90766, No.73650, and No.2800 said, as they set off one at a time out of the depot and followed the others down the line. For them, as well as for many of the other engines on the island, it was going to be another long night of hard work.
From where she was standing, having just stepped off of No.90500 and about to make her way over towards the crew building, Carrie watched as the first six engines set out from the depot for their nocturnal duties, quickly followed by the other three engines. It was clear that things were getting quite busy down at Brendam Docks, with the fact that more ships had arrived there fully loaded, that more engines would be needed to help get the goods delivered. But Carrie wouldn't be doing any more such work like that for today; after all, it had been a very long day already, and Carrie was feeling very tired from all the work she had done today and wanted to get showered and changed before clocking out and heading on home.
"I'm glad that I'm not rostered for the night shift this evening." Carrie said quietly to herself, as she turned and headed to the crew building.
After entering the crew building, Carrie noticed that there was some activity taking place inside the cafeteria and looked inside to see what was going on; it turned out to be some of the engine crews, as well as some of the recruits on the apprenticeship scheme, getting hot drinks to warm up after their work out on the main line. Many of them had mugs full of hot liquid in their hands, whether it was tea, coffee, or hot cocoa, and they were chatting with each other about how their day out on the line had gone, the engines they had worked on, as well as what kinds of trains they had delivered.
"Hey there, Carrie." Simon said, as he watched Carrie stepped into the cafeteria.
"Hey, Simon." Carrie said, as she and Simon gave each other a hug and kiss.
"There's plenty of hot drinks here for the crews and recruits coming off duty. By request of the Fat Controller." Simon said.
"Oh, that sounds good to me! I think a hot drink would be good right about now! After all, it's getting colder outside right now!" Carrie said, as she went over to get a hot drink.
Re-joining up with Simon and the other a minute later, with a mug of hot cocoa in her hands, Carrie and her friends set about chatting for a while before they went up to get changed, as all of them were still in their overalls and work clothes. The hot cocoa really helped to warm her up, and the creamy sweetness of it also helped to bring a smile to her face.
"I'll be glad to get a good rest after all the work I've been doing today. I'm tired after shovelling all that coal from the tender of Henry into the firebox." Saoirse said, as she took a long sip of her mug of tea.
"Yeah, me too. And I'm still feeling very cold from it as well." Alice said. She had been working in Knapford Yards and harbour for much of the day on the footplate of L.N.E.R. S1 Class 0-8-4T No.9905, and the cold wind had blown into the cab through the sides. Even though the fire in the firebox had been kept burning bright and hot during the day, and kept Alice and the crew of No.9905 somewhat warm, the cold wind often blew the heat out at times, and so after that day, Alice was feeling chilled to the bone. Even though she had been wearing warm clothes, including a scarf under her overalls, a warm woollen hat on her head, and gloves on her hands, Alice was still shivering from the cold.
"And I've heard that it's still gonna be very cold tomorrow as well. I just hope that the snow holds off for a few more days, as it always makes things difficult for the trains." Sophie said, as she sipped her hot cocoa.
"Well, let's just hope that the cold tomorrow won't be as bad as it could be." Olivia said, taking a long sip from her mug of tea, feeling very grateful for its warming effect.
"Yeah, let's hope so." Carrie said, as she took in another long sip of her hot cocoa. Taking a look around the cafeteria, Carrie watched everything going on, with engine crews and other members of those on the apprenticeship scheme enjoying hot drinks as well as plates of hot food at some of the other tables, as well as chatting with each other and discussing how their day of hard work out on the railway had gone. However, there were some crews who had been assigned to work the night shift for this evening, and Carrie couldn't help but feel sorry for the crews who would have to work in the cold tonight.
Once Carrie and her friends had finished their hot drinks, they went upstairs to the changing rooms to shower and get changed into clean clothes. Carrie, after a quick shower, spent a few minutes relaxing in one of the hot tubs, allowing the warm bubbling water to flow around her tired muscles. After getting out from the hot tub, she went and dried off before changing into fresh clothes, and then she and the girls who had dressed into clean clothes left the changing room and made their way downstairs. When Simon came downstairs, the six of them clocked out for the day and then left the crew building, where after saying "Goodnight" and "See you in the morning" they went and headed on home for the evening.
(Later that night, with Carrie)
Feeling very tired after a long day of hard work on the railway, Carrie had enjoyed a good hot dinner with her father at home, and then she turned in for the night a little after 10:00pm, feeling grateful to be sleeping in a warm and comfortable bed on such a cold night. It was also much quieter tonight as well, as there were far fewer trains running about on the lines that were located on the other side of the garden fence, meaning that there would be less noise going past outside tonight.
Carrie had brought the thick, warm quilt up almost to her head, with the rest of her body being kept quite warm underneath the rest of the quilt. She was sleeping quietly, with no other sounds to be heard at all from anywhere, either from inside the house or outside the window. However, the appearances of Carrie sleeping quietly in her bed was misleading; deep within her mind, very disturbing and frightening visions were forming within Carrie's head, and sweat droplets could be seen forming on Carrie's forehead as she tried to sleep while the disturbing visions played within her mind…
(Start of Nightmare Sequence)
Carrie suddenly opened her eyes, sat up, and looked all round her room. Calming down, she listened out to hear what was happening, as well as looking round to see if anything was going on. She saw there was a very thin crack of white light shining from under the bedroom door, and she could also hear the sounds of what appeared to be movement and the low sounds of laughter coming from the other side of the door. She also heard the sound of floorboards creaking from somewhere, as well as a few other different sounds mixed together, one of which sounded like music being played at a party.
Curious as to what was going on, Carrie very cautiously and apprehensively pulled the duvet aside, swung her feet out of bed and into her slippers, and then stepped very slowly over towards the bedroom door. Slowly, she reached her hand forward and grabbed the door handle, before turning it and pulling the door open to see what was going on, with the white light flooding into her face.
When it cleared away, Carrie's eyes went wide open in shock and she gasped when she saw where she was; she was in the back garden of her old house back in Chamberlain, and it was a bright sunny day out, with no clouds to be seen in the sky at all. Looking down at herself, she realised that she was actually a young girl, at the time when she was around 4 years old, and wearing a cream-white summer dress that went past her knees. Walking through the garden, she approached the low wooden fence and looked into the neighbour's backyard. She could see a teen girl, who was about 16 or 17 years of age, wearing dark sunglasses and dressed in a crisp white bikini, sunning herself on a lounger in the warm early summer sunshine. The teen girl was one of her next door neighbours, Estelle "Stella" Horan. Stella, who had just been rubbing sunscreen lotion on herself, turned her head slowly to the left and saw Carrie standing there at the fence.
"Carrie? Oh,. you scared me. How long have you been standing there?" Stella said, as she stirred from dozing on the sun lounger and then began to sit up. Young Carrie then slowly lifted her right arm up and pointed at Stella, in a slightly confused way.
"You have dirty pillows..." Young Carrie said, as she pointed at Stella.
"Oh...you mean my breasts?" Stella asked, as she sorted herself out.
"I wish I had some." Young Carrie said.
"Oh, you will. When you're older." Stella said.
"No, I won't. Momma says only bad girls have dirty pillows." said Young Carrie.
"Well, I'm a good girl. And doesn't your mother have breasts?" asked Stella. But before Young Carrie could answer, the back door of the house and Margaret stepped outside, and then she ran towards her daughter.
"Carrie! Come here!" Margaret shouted, as she ran to her daughter and then picked her up. Then she gave Stella this seething look. "You! You stay away from my daughter!"
"Hey, we were just talking!" Stella snapped back.
"I warned you! I warned you about her! It's a sin to consort with her!" Margaret said to Carrie.
"I'm sorry, momma! I forgot!" Young Carrie whimpered. Meanwhile on the other side of the fence, as Stella stood up from the sun lounger, her mother appeared and then Margaret fixed her gaze on the older woman.
"You're daughter's a...you let her expose herself to the world like that!"
Get out of here, Margaret! And leave my daughter alone!" Mrs Horan snapped back at Margaret. But then, suddenly and out of nowhere, hail appears. First one piece, and then another, and then more come falling out of the sky. The Stella and Mrs Horan also watch in disbelief as more hail comes down hard on the White's property. Still holding onto Carrie, Margaret rushed into the house and took shelter as the hail comes down upon the roof of the house very loudly.
Then, suddenly the scene before Carrie changed again, and she found herself in the shower stalls back in Ewen High School and she was on her back, with a bloody towel barely covering her front. In front of her, she saw her fellow classmates and they were throwing sanitary napkins and tampons at her. She was pushing herself back with her feet to get away from them, while all the other girls laughed at her and chanted "Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!" at her over and over again. There were also other comments heard, including "You're gross!" and "You're a freak!" Carrie continued pushing herself away from them until she backed up against the wall of the shower stalls and couldn't go any further, so she crouched down to try and get away from the other girls.
The barrage of sanitary napkins and tampons continued on, with the chants of "Plug it up" continued on unceasing, and one of the girls, a very familiar one with raven-coloured hair and lightly tanned skin, who was standing in the front and centre of the group seemed to be leading on the chanting and throwing the tampons.
Then suddenly, the entire scene changed again…and this time, Carrie found herself standing in the middle of a very familiar space, and it was one that made her blood turn cold; she was standing inside the ground floor of the old house she lived in before she ran away from home, and the sight of it really frightened her. She easily recognized everything, and especially the repressive dullness of the interior, the smell of the talcum powder, and the sight of all the religious iconography mounted on the walls or sitting on shelves. The frightening sound of the cuckoo clock ticking away from the living room also put Carrie's nerves on edge, particularly as she knew that her abusive and mentally unstable mother was somewhere close by.
Then, she heard the sound of a low creaking from somewhere behind her. Slowly turning round, she saw her mother, Margaret White, standing in her usual black witch-like attire beside the open door of the prayer closet. The look on Margaret's face was blank and expression-less, as it almost always was, and there was a very hard, almost angry, look in her eyes as she stared at Carrie. Feeling very afraid now, Carrie slowly began to back away from where her mother was standing, knowing what was to come next.
"Get into your closet and pray." Margaret said, as she took hold of the closet door and kept it open. Not wanting to go back into the closet, Carrie began to take a few steps back, wanting to get as far away from it and her mother as possible. Suddenly, her mother rushed forward and grabbed her and then began to drag her back towards the closet. Carrie resisted furiously to avoid going into that dark oppressive room, but it was a futile exercise, for Margaret managed to throw her inside the closet, closed the door, and locked it. Having been thrown into the closet and impacting the back wall, Carrie turned round just in time to see the door close and the lock click, trapping her inside. Determined to get out, Carrie slammed on the door with her hands and feet, screaming all the while as she did so.
Suddenly, the entire scene went black as things changed again, and Carrie wondered where she would end up next. For several long moments, Carrie couldn't help but be afraid as the images in front of her shifted one way and then another, often so quickly and so blurry she wasn't able to keep track of what she had seen or what some of the smaller details in the images had been.
But slowly and gradually, the scene before her changed to one that was something that she hadn't been expecting; she found herself with a lot of other people who were her own age inside a large open hall space. And all of them were dressed up in really nice clothes, with all the girls dressed up in really nice evening gowns and dresses, while all the boys were dressed in their smart suits and well-turned-out tuxedos. The entire space was well-decorated for whatever special occasion that this event was, with bright decorations to be seen all over, and bright lights lighting up the space. The table that Carrie was sitting at was covered in really nice tablecloths with all sorts of nice table dressings, including place settings to eat at and electric candles in the middle. She smiled to herself as she looked all around at how nice everything was.
Carrie then looked down at herself, and saw that she was wearing a pretty dress that was pale pink in colour, and which seemed to suit her very well. Looking all round her, Carrie could see that everyone was having a really good time and dancing away to music that was being played by the D.J. sitting over at his station very near to the stage. She could also see that there were plenty of other teenagers her own age socialising together at the tables all round the dance floor in the middle of the space.
Then the scene suddenly changed again, and showed everyone having quietened down and looking up towards the stage at one end of the large space, where another boy, who was dressed in a very smart suit, stood in the middle behind the microphone with a piece of paper in his hands.
"Okay everyone! We have the results of the vote right here!" and then everyone quietened down and looked up to the stage to see who the winners of the vote were. "This year's King and Queen are…and Carrie White!" And on hearing that, everyone in the large space cheered out loudly for Carrie and the boy who she was with, as they stood from their table and made their way to the stage where everyone was still cheering out for them. People stood aside and allowed the pair through, with them clapping and cheering all the while.
On getting up to the stage, Carrie and the boy she was with had sashes placed over their right shoulders, while the boy was handed a sceptre with a crown put on his head while Carrie was crowned with tiara on her head and was also handed a beautiful bouquet of beautiful pink and red roses. For Carrie, it was a very happy moment and one where everything she had hoped for in her difficult life seemed to al last fall into place.
But suddenly, everything took a drastic and unwanted change of direction; at the moment when she was at her happiest, Carrie was suddenly covered from above by a very slimy and smelly red liquid that was dumped on top of her from a point above the stage, and covered her from head to toe in it. A few seconds after, almost everyone in the hall began to laugh at her in her awful predicament; among the laughter, Carrie could clearly hear the words "Plug it up!" being said over and over again over the sounds of the laughing, jeering crowd. Among the sounds that Carrie heard was a very familiar voice, and which seemed to be shouting out "Freak! Freak!" over the sounds of the laughing crowd.
Then over the sound of the laughing crowd, Carrie heard another voice speaking out...and this new voice she heard was very familiar as well...
"They're all gonna laugh at you! They're all gonna laugh at you!"
And then more voices were heard as well, and again these voices were very familiar as they mixed with the laughter.
"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"
Then the bucket that the red liquid had been put into fell down from above the stage and hit the boy who had been crowned with Carrie on the head, knocking him out and causing him to fall to the stage floor. Then Carrie, enraged to her core by what happened to her and the boy she was with, took her revenge out on the crowd before her. Using her telekinetic powers, she sent out an enraged shockwave over the entire crowd, which knocked over the entire crowd and caused tables, chairs, and everything else to fly back to the other side of the room. She then used her powers to shut all the windows and doors leading into the hall space, which trapped all the panicked partygoers inside, and they crowded round the doors desperate to escape from Carrie's enraged wrath.
Some people tried to escape by going up the bleachers to the windows above, but Carrie quickly collapsed those when she saw them, crushing several people in between the long benches in the process. At the same time, she also caused some of the tables and chairs to fly around the entire room, killing several people who happened to be in the way as a result. Turning her attention up towards the ceiling, she activated the fire sprinkler system, causing showers of icy cold water to spray everywhere within the space and ruining everyone's nice outfits in the process. Panicking even further at the fact that they were now trapped in here, the now unruly mob then stormed their way over to the doors, trying to get away from a vengeful Carrie.
Seeing the mob trying to escape, Carrie also used her telekinesis to force several people down onto the ground as they ran through the inside rain storm, which caused the rest of the panicking mob following along behind them to trample over them without stopping and kill them. Then, Carrie caused countless electrical cables to tear away from the walls and music equipment, as well as the decorations to fall from above, which caused a big fire to break out, causing all the backscenes on the walls to burn and the fire to spread. Using some of the cables as whips, Carrie whipped a few people with them, and then a few of those people caught fire with their screams of agony, pain, and panic spreading through the hall space as they burned to death.
The scene then changed again, with Carrie now standing outside the building where her hellish path of revenge against these people began and seeing the building completely engulfed in raging flames from one end to the other. The really intense fires could be seen shooting out from all the windows on each of its floors as everything and anything that could burn burned. From a few of the entrances where the hot flames weren't shooting out from, a few small groups of panicked partygoers were seen to be escaping in a few numbers, but not very many compared to the number of people who had been inside the building a few minutes before.
Then Carrie saw far more disturbing scenes take place before her as she went on her rampage of revenge, with incredible scenes of immense carnage, destruction, havoc, and mayhem being caused as she went through the different streets throughout the length and breadth of the town and inflicted her terrible wrath upon the town and its people; underground gas mains went up in really massive explosions with immense columns of bright yellow-orange flames shooting high into the sky and loud roars that could be heard from a great distance away; cars parked along the sidewalks were being thrown off to the sides of the roads and even into buildings or into tree trunks where they were crushed or burst into flames; many power lines being torn down from power poles, and hoses at some of the fuel stations were seen being torn out from their mounts which caused petrol to spill out over the streets in large amounts before being ignited in big balls of fire. Fire hydrants by the sides of some of the roads also suddenly exploded from their mounts, causing water to shoot up into the air from their pipes under immense high pressure.
A few more very big explosions took place all over town, sometimes being caused by gas mains and spilled fuel going up with load roars, and which set fire to the various buildings along the streets, and which began to rage out of control as the fires burned long and hard. Intense raging flames, which were completely out of control, could be seen shooting out from windows of different buildings, houses, and shops as the whole town burned.
Carrie could clearly hear the screams of countless helpless bystanders, who burned to death in the fires or who were electrocuted by the many fallen power lines which sparked out blue and yellow sparks from their snapped ends. Under the controls of her powers, Carrie caused a lot of loose debris to be lifted into the air and then, after flexing her mind, she caused all the loose debris to be thrown around in all directions like bomb shrapnel, causing a number of deaths to anyone who had been unlucky enough to be standing in the way. A number of burning buildings then collapsed, causing flames and smoke to rise into the sky with loud screams being heard.
Suddenly, the scene before Carrie changed yet again, and this time she found herself standing in the middle of a main road, with a number of burning buildings lined up on each side of it, and there was a sports car in the distance and it was charging directly towards her at speed. The car came on, going faster and faster, with the two occupants inside seeming determined to kill her. Thrusting her arms out forwards, Carrie activated her telekinetic powers and as the car came very close to her, it stopped very suddenly as though it had run into a solid brick wall. The driver was thrust into the steering wheel and dashboard, killing him instantly, while the woman inside the car was saved by her seatbelt. Then the woman pushed the dead driver aside and set about trying to kill Carrie with the car, but Carrie used her powers to lift the car up, making the wheels spin uselessly in the air. And then, Carrie threw the car into a gas station off to her right, and when the car was thrown into the fuel pumps, causing fuel to spill everywhere, and then sparks came from somewhere which caused the car and the entire fuel station to explode in a really massive fireball into the night sky, the light of which could be seen for miles in all directions.
Then, the scene changed yet again and this time Carrie found herself standing in the middle of a cemetery. This time it was very quiet, as she was standing there in the middle of the night for some strange reason. There were no other people around, nor was there anything else to be heard either. Looking around and down to the ground, Carrie could see that there were many fresh graves on the ground, due to the freshly dug brown earth that she could see all around her in the rows. She had stopped in front of one of these many freshly-dug graves, and she saw that she had a bouquet of flowers in her arms.
Knelling down slowly, Carrie carefully and respectfully placed the bouquet of flowers onto the grave of whoever this unfortunate person was. Then as she slowly stood back up again, she then became aware of someone standing near to her and became very tense due to that thought. Suddenly, she felt a hand come down very hard and firm upon her right shoulder and spin her round, and Carrie gasped out when she saw who had done it. Her blood ran cold when she saw that it was her mother, Margaret White. She was standing behind Carrie with the same blank, expressionless look on her face as she looked at her daughter.
"Sin never dies." Margaret said, as she stared blankly at Carrie. Frozen in complete shock and unable to move a muscle in response to her mother, Carrie waited for what was to come.
But then…everything suddenly went completely black…and then there came a small voice from somewhere, and it said the same thing to Carrie, over and over again.
"Don't go to the prom…don't go to the prom...don't go to the prom…don't go to the prom..."
(End of Nightmare Sequence)
With her eyes shooting open and her gasping in shock, Carrie then quickly sat up in her bed hyperventilating and unable to come to terms with what had just happened in her mind. But then, taking in a few deeper slower breaths, Carrie quickly calmed down from her horrible nightmare and realised where she was; she was still in her comfortable bed and safe in her father's home. Switching on the bedside light, Carrie checked her watch to see what the time was; it was 5:02am. Feeling deeply relieved that it was only a horrible nightmare, Carrie rested her head back on her pillow and took in a few more deep breaths.
But then, she noticed that her pyjama top was dampened with sweat, no doubt from the stress of the nightmare she had just experienced. Feeling a bit uncomfortable from that, especially that the room was very cold, Carrie stepped out of bed, opened the wardrobe, and took out a coat hanger. After removing her pyjama top, she hung it up on the hanger and placed it on the door handle outside the wardrobe to dry off. Then going into the ensuite bathroom, she used a small hand towel to dry off under her armpits and around her top to get rid of the damp spots, and then she put on her white bathrobe, tightening the sash around her waist. Feeling a little bit better from getting herself dried off, she went back to her room.
Going back out to her room, Carrie sat down on her bed and thought about how the disturbing nightmare she had just experienced had gone. She thought about what had happened in the nightmare after she had been covered in the red smelly liquid, as well as the laughter that she had heard afterwards; the laughter that had resulted after she had been covered in had been very mean, almost malicious in fact. And the fact that the laughter was directed at her showed that these people really didn't care for her at all.
But what was the most disturbing part of the nightmare was the results after the prank, with all the chaos being caused in the hall space, with people being killed, crushed, or burnt, followed by the sight of the building on fire caused her to shiver right down to her core. Yet, what really got Carrie curious about this nightmare was what happened just before the end of it. It was that little tiny voice in her head that kept saying to her "Don't go to the prom" over and over and over again.
Carrie got very curious about what that meant. "Don't go to the prom? What has the prom got to do about this? I'm no longer in Ewen High School, so I won't be able to go to the prom." Carrie said quietly to herself. For several more minutes, she thought about the nightmare and what she had seen in it, and many of those images she had seen in it really caused her to shiver quite a bit, right away down to her core. She looked down at her hands, and saw that they were shaking quite a bit. She gasped when she saw it, and so she balled her fists up and pushed them into her chest.
"Something bad is gonna happen. I can feel it." Carrie said quietly, as she thought about the really horrific nightmare she just had.
Getting back into bed and turning the light off, Carrie managed to get some more sleep in her bed for the next hour and a half or so, while the sounds of trains starting to pass by on the lines outside could be heard going past every now and then.
Eventually, at about 6:45am, Carrie decided to get up and start her day. Getting out of bed, she went over to the window and pulled the curtains aside and looked out. The sky was covered in grey clouds and it looked to be quite cold as well, and from seeing the branches on the trees she could see moving about, she could tell it was quite breezy as well. But even so, Carrie was very pleased to see that it was morning now, and that she would be able to try and forget about the nightmare she had experienced not too long before. Turning away from the window, she set about getting dressed for the day ahead.
(Later that day, 12:00pm, at Ffarquhar Station Yards)
Having been assigned to work with Thomas on his branch line for this morning, Carrie had spent the morning with Sodor's No.1 engine with his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel, going back and forth along the Ffarquhar branch line between Knapford and Kirk Machan. Despite the cold morning weather, grey cloudy skies, and cold wind, they made good progress going back and forth along the line, taking on and dropping off passengers at the different stations along the way.
By 12:00pm, with their lunch hour scheduled for that time, Thomas' driver drove them into the sidings at Ffarquhar and parked Annie and Clarabel into one of the sidings, while Thomas was parked in another siding, where he was right beside a platform at a loading shed.
At this time, Carrie was feeling hungry after the morning of hard work, and she was eager to have some lunch and rest for a while before going back to work again later in the afternoon. Yet, as Thomas came to a gentle stop in the siding he reversed into, Carrie couldn't help but cast her mind back to the nightmare she had very early that morning, where she had seen that big gathering with all those people turn into an enormous disaster, and caused by her with her telekinetic powers.
As Carrie stepped off of the footplate and walked along the short length of the platform, her mind was still on the nightmare she had earlier that morning. As Carrie walked along, Thomas noticed that Carrie didn't seem quite herself, judging from her concerned look that he saw on her face.
"Ah, Carrie…are you okay?" he asked. Carrie turned her head to look at Thomas, and paused for a few moments before she spoke to him.
"Well, to be honest…not really, Thomas. I didn't have a good sleep last night, and earlier this morning, I had a really terrible nightmare…" and Carrie spent two minutes telling Thomas about what the nightmare had been like and what she had experienced in it. When she finished telling him about it, Thomas couldn't help but gasp in some stunned shock.
"Wow, that sounds like a really bad nightmare, Carrie. I hope I never have to experience something like it." Thomas said, as he thought about how bad the nightmare Carrie had experienced had been.
"I know. And I just have a feeling like it's telling me that something bad is about to happen…but I don't know what it is." Carrie said.
"Well…try not to let it bother you too much, Carrie. After all, it's unlikely something like that will ever happen to you." Thomas said, as he tried to reassure Carrie.
"I really hope that you're right about that, Thomas. After all…what I experienced in that nightmare looked very real to me." Carrie said, still somewhat concerned.
"Why don't you go and get some lunch and have some rest? I think you'll feel better after it." Thomas said. And for the first time that day, Carrie smiled a little.
"Thanks, Thomas. I think I'll try and do just that." Carrie said, as she turned and walked off the platform, heading for the small building close by where she could get something to eat.
And here we are at the end of this chapter! As we've seen from the awful nightmare Carrie experienced, she had a preview of what the Black Prom would have been like if she had remained back in Chamberlain. But don't worry everyone! There's absolutely no chance of that happening at all, and so no-one will die in this story!
Now I hope to have the next chapter unloaded as soon as I possibly can, and as to what it'll be about…well, let's just say that things are going to start getting colder from a weather point of view. But until then, everyone…good reading!