CARRIE

Chapter Forty-One

We pulled into the driveway and I was already burning up. Leah must have noticed and told Barry because he ran to open the door. He must have been saying something because his mouth kept moving, I didn’t hear any. I was starting to lose consciousness. The last thing I remembered before passing out was him asking if I was okay.

I woke up on my bed, I looked around and saw Leah on the floor with her hands on the bed. She was holding my hands. Barry and my Mom were asleep on the chair in my room also. They really stayed in my room with me to make sure I was safe, I must have scared them a lot. I smiled as I looked at them, I didn’t want to wake them so I just adjusted Leah’s hands so she could sleep properly and went back to sleep too.

The next time I woke up, it was already morning. They were all still in the room, they must have been waiting for me to wake up. I stretched and yawned. “There she is, how are you feeling now?” Barry asked with a smile. “I’m better now, thank you”. I looked at Mom, “Mom, you’re supposed to be at work. What hapened?” I asked as I tried to sit up. “Don’t sit up, just stay as you are. I called and told them I wouldn’t be coming to work today, how would I leave my baby girl at a time like this” She tucked me back in. I can’t believe they all stayed up just so I wouldn’t be alone. My eyes welled up with tears, Leah wiped them off with the sleeve of her shirt, “Hey Hey, don’t even worry about that. Just focus on getting better”.

I told them I was feeling better, but I had to lie to them. After everything they went through staying up and not getting enough sleep, I didn’t want them to feel it was for nothing. I felt so sick and cold, I was so weak and hungry. “Can I have some water please?” I asked. I drank a bit, and immediately felt irritated. I don’t think I’d be able to eat anything or keep food down. “Do you want something to eat?” Barry asked and I shook my head. My Mom looked at me worriedly, “Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked. “Yeah I’m fine, I just want to sleep a bit” I smiled at her. I put the water on my table and Leah covered me with my duvet, she looked at me and I smiled at her. In a few minutes, I slept off.

I woke up screaming shortly after. They all ran to my bed side, “We’re here, We’re here. What’s wrong Carrie?” my Mom asked. She put her hand on my forehead and exclaimed, “You’re very cold Carrie. What’s going on please?” She was starting to tear up. I couldn’t remember what the nightmare was but I remembered bits and pieces of it, so I decided to tell them. “It was a nightmare. I was in a room, it was very dark. I tried to look for a light switch but I couldn’t move. It was like I was in quicksand. I tried calling for help, for you guys but no one answered, no one was there. All of a sudden, a hand grabbed my mouth from the darkness. The hand turned me around and I saw the face” I stopped. “Who did you see?” Barry urged. “It was Uncle Perry” I started crying and they all hugged me. I slept back and woke up hours later. I tried to walk downstairs by myself, I didn’t get past the stairs. I heard a deep voice call to me, “Carrie”. It was Uncle Perry’s, everything went dark and I think I fell off the stairs.

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BARRY’S POV

I swerved into the street at high speed. “Leah, how is she?” I asked. She didn’t answer, so I asked again, raising my voice this time. “She’s burning up. She has been slipping in and out of consciousness too” Leah was almost crying, her voice was breaking bad. I hit the gas and pulled into the driveway at high speed. I ran to open the back door for them. “Carrie stay with me, look at me. You’re okay” I tapped her face to keep her awake. Her eyes were going white and her skin pale. I was helpless for a minute, I just stood there with my hands on my head. I should get her inside first, that was the first thing I should have done. “Leah help me get her inside” I carried her inside as Leah held the door open. I put her on the couch and ran to the kithcen to get some hot water. I ran back to the couch and soaked a towel in hot water and put it on her forehead. In a while, her skin started regaining its color. I collapsed on the floor beside her, she was still unconscious but breathing steady. “Should we move her upstairs now?” Leah asked worriedly. “She will get enough sleep upstairs.” I agreed with her, but I wanted her to be conscious before I did that. That way, she could take the drugs.

After a while I decided to take her upstairs, “Let’s move her upstairs Leah”. Leah brough along some more hot water and a fresh towel. I tucked her in her bed with two thick blankets. She was sleeping properly already by this time. I looked at the time, I had to call Mom. “Can you watch her for a bit please, I have to call my Mom” I asked Leah. “Of course, I’m not leaving her side” She replied. She was a good friend, I wish I had a friend like that. I went to the stairs to call my Mom, I didn’t want to wake up Carrie.

She didn’t pick up the first time so I called again. “Mom, Are you really busy? You need to come home now if you can” I said as I panicked on the phone. Her voice was muffled, I could barely hear her, “What happened? I’ll be done with my shift soon”. I held the phone close to my ear, “No you don’t understand. We went to the castle this morning, and we discovered something. It knocked me out for some minutes but Carrie..” my voice trailed off as I started crying. “Carrie what? What happened to your sister?” Her voice was starting to shake as I started crying. “She just stood there, like she was frozen. I shook her hard before she came to. She was burning up when I brought her home Mom. Her eyes were white and everything, so I put a towel in some hot water and put it on her forehead” I explained tearfully. The tears just kept on streaming down my face, I don’t know how she made sense of what I was saying. “I told you to be careful, I told you to protect your sister. I’m on my way home now” She shouted and told me to keep the hot towel on her head.

I went back into her room and Leah was by the bed. I sat down by the door, looking at her on the bed. Some minutes later, I heard Mom pull into the driveway. “Barry!” She ran upstairs and into Carrie’s room. She stood by Carrie’s side and put her finger on her neck, and her forehead. She was checking her pulse and temperature. Carrie opened her eyes, they were back to normal. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Carrie” my Mom said softly. She groaned a little, “Hmm?” Her voice sounded sleepy, I think that was good. “How are you baby?” my Mom asked her. “I’m fine, you okay?” She asked. My Mom gave her some drugs and warm juice before placing another pillow at the back of her head. “You can sleep back now baby, regain your strength” My Mom said and Carrie fell asleep almost immediately. “She should be asleep for a couple of hours, maybe more. She’ll be fine” She smiled as she caressed her cheeks. She looked at me and pointed, “You, out now. Come explain exactly what happened to me”, “Leah please just monitor her” She said as I followed her outside.

We went downstairs into the kitchen and she got a bottle of water from the fridge, “Explain”. I sighed as I sat down, “We entered the castle and checked the rooms. They were empty until I discovered a secret room behind a large wardrobe in one of the rooms. The secret room had a lot of stuff. There was an iron table with different tools on it, there was a stone slab and then, there was a stone box. Me and Carrie tried to open the stone box. We used a wrench from the iron table. We got it open and a strong wind blew us away. Well, it blew me away. I was out for a few minutes until Leah woke me up, I looked over at Carrie and she just stood there. I rushed over to her side to wake her up, she regained consciousness and we left the castle immediately. Leah noticed she was burning up and told me, her eyes were white and her skin was pale. We put her on the couch at first to warm her up with the hot water and towel, then moved her up to her room so she could sleep better” I explained everything to my Mom and she listened attentively, she was quiet for a while after and I just kept looking at her. “No more going to storage rooms, or abandoned castles. I’m very serious Barry, I want you guys far from that”. “I promise, I said that myself when we left there. We’re done with that trust me” I put my head on the table. She held my hand, “I know you didn’t want any of that to happen, I know you. Now let’s go check on your sister” She held me by my hand as we went to Carrie’s room. I teared up a little bit, she noticed as we were about to enter Carrie’s room and wiped the tears, “I know you’re strong, so I need you to keep being strong for us” She hugged me and I nodded my head. We entered the room and saw Leah on the floor beside Carrie, she was asleep with her hand on Carrie’s hand. We both smiled and sat on the couch in Carrie’s room after making sure she was okay. After a while, we fell asleep ourselves.

I woke up and it must have been midnight. I stretched and went over to Carrie’s bed, she was still asleep. I looked over to Leah, she was asleep also, her hands were now on the floor with her. She curled into a ball on the floor, so I got a blanket and covered her with it. I covered Mom with one too, and slept back.

I woke up in the morning and Mom and Leah were already awake. Leah must have just woken up because she was still stretching. “How are you guys doing? Get enough sleep?” Mom asked. “I never thanked you properly yesterday Leah. Thank you very much” My Mom said. Leah smiled, “It’s no problem Mrs. Cook. Carrie is my sister so you don’t need to thank me”.

Carrie woke up minutes later and looked around for a while before yawning and stretching. She looked so much better, it made me smile. “There she is, how’re you feeling?” I asked her. She smiled at me, “I’m better now thank you”. I was so happy to see her smile. I was terrified last night. “Hey Sweetie,” Mom laughed. She looked over at Mom, “Mom you’re3 supposed to be at work right now, why are you not at work?” Carrie asked. She tried to sit up but Mom quickly held her back, “How would I leave my baby girl at a time like this, I already called them at work to inform them” She explained.

She asked for some water and I ran ownstairs to get one, of course She would be thirsty. She would be hungry too, she only drank the juice my Mom gave her with the drugs. “Do you7 want something to eaqt as well?” I asked her, thinking of what to cook for her. She shook her head, “No”. I looked at her, puzzled. How? Well maybe she was just tired and didn’t have an appetite. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Mom asked. “Yeah I’m fine Mom. I just want to sleep a bit, I’m just tired that’s all” She smiled. In a few minutes, she slept off. “Mom, Is that okay?” I asked my Mom. She scratched her head, “Yeah, it’s not uncommon. She’s probably just too tired to eat, like she said. She might wake up very hungry, we just need to be able to give her whatever she needs when she asks for it,” She answered.

We were still talking when Carrie woke up and screamed. We all rushed to her. “We’re here don’t worry. What happened?” My Mom asked as she put her hand on Carrie’s forehead. She shouted and tears were welling up in her eyes as she looked at Carrie, “you’re very cold Carrie. Please, what’s going on?” She asked. I put my hand on her forehead and it was very cold. It wasn’t normal to be that cold, so I understood her worry.l I looked, I was getting very worried. I looked around, I didn’t know what to do. Carrie opened her mouth, she wanted to talk. We all leaned forward to hear her properly, “It was a nightmare, I was in a very dark room. There was no light in the room, nothing. I couldn’t move, I tried to look for a light switch. I couldn’t move at all, It was like I was in quicksand. Just rooted to the spot. I tried calling for help, no one answered, no one was there. I was alone” She was starting to cry as she continued, “All of a sudden, a hand grabbed me from behind. It grabbed my outh and spun me around to face him” She stopped and we all looked at her to continue. “Who did you see?” I asked softly. “It was Uncle Perry” she shouted, tears streaming down her face. We all looked at each other, eyes opened wide. How? What exactly is going on. When you want them out of your life, they just keep coming back instead. We hugged and she slept back. We stayed up with her for about an hour and we decided to go to the kitchen to make something to eat.

In the kitchen, we were making toast and eggs. “Do you guys want it with extra cheese?” My Mom smiled. I loved extra cheesy eggs, She knew that. I laughed, “I know I do”. We were about to eat when I heard Carrie’s room door open. “I think Carrie is awake” I said. “She probably smelled the food and decided to come down herself to get some” Leah laughed and we all chuckled. Moments later we heard a loud thud. “What was that?” I asked as we ran to the stairs.

Carrie was at the foot of the stairs, she was unconscious. “Jesus!” My Mom screamed. I picked her up and put her gently on the couch. “Barry, go get my keys!” My Mom shouted. I ran upstairs to her room, grabbed the keys and ran back down. I was about to lift her from the couch when she grabbed my hand. She held it too tight. I cried out in pain, Carrie wasn’t this strong. She opened her eyes and they were white, she sprung up and looked around. “Carrie?” I looked at her and tried to touch her. She let out a loud screech and was about to run when I jumped on her. I held her down and shouted for Leah to bring a rope. “Get me something I can tie her down with, Quick” I shouted. She was scratching and taking digs at my face and hands. “Carrie what’s going on?” I asked as she kept clawing away. “LEAH!!” I shouted. “Hurry Up please”.

Leah came back to the living room with a rope and I held Carrie tighter, “Please bear with me, this will hurt” I begged as I tied her legs and her hands. After restraining her successfully, I looked over at my Mom. “What the hell just happened? What is happening” She asked me. “I don’t know, the first thing that just came to my mind was to restrain her. That way, she doesn’t get out” I explained. I looked at Carrie, it was like she lost all sense of self in her. She looked like a vicious animal.; She was clawing at the chair. I looked around puzzled, this was still looking like a bad joke or a bad dream to me. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Leah brought me back to life when I heard her shout, “Barry! The stone slab”. I understood immediately. I ran upstairs to get my phone, then ran back to the living room after taking it from my room. I checked my photos for the images of the stone slab and the stone box from the castle. I zoomed in on the inscriptions on them. I got a pen and paper and wrote down the inscriptions, I had no idea what they meant so I just wrote down the words. I thought they were the same words but as I wrote them down I found out they were not. They were the same language though. I looked it up and saw the language was Latin. “It’s Latin,” I shouted. “Well, What does it say? What does it mean?” Leah shouted back as she tried to keep Carrie on the couch.

I went to a latin translator website and typed in the words on the paper. I typed the one on the stone slab first. The latin translator website translated it as, “On this slab, souls are purified with fire and darkness manifested”. I read it out to Leah and My Mom shakingly. “What does that even mean?” I asked as I read it. “What of the one on the stone box, read that out” My Mom shouted. I typed in the words on the stone box and read the translation out loud. “Here lies the body of Perry Stevens, a dark lost soul”. I stopped as I read Uncle Perry’s name out. My God what did we do. What did we open? “What did you guys open? What did you find in the box when you opened it?” My Mom asked. I just stood there with my hands on my head, I knew what this meant. I messed up badly. “Talk Barry!!” Leah shouted and I looked at them. “Okay it was um, a book. And beside the book there was a skeleton”. Leah sighed and held on to the wall for balance while my Mom’s shoulders dropped. “So it was your uncle’s coffin we opened? God” Leah exclaimed. I was deep in my thoughts. It didn’t make any sense, Uncle Perry died just this year. How is his body a skeleton already? And what was it doing in that castle?

I was thinking about a lot of things but Leah and my Mom kept bringing me back to reality. Does that mean Carrie is possessed by Uncle Perry, I mean, I never read about a human possessing another human. A ghost would. That is what Uncle Perry was but I have not read about that yet. I’d have to read about that.

“You kids, what trouble have you gotten yourselves into this time.” My Mom said as she sat down. “Okay, so there was a skeleton in the box. You mentioned when you opened the box the wind blew you away, but Carrie didn’t. She was standing, like she was frozen. And when she had the nightmare, she said it was like she was frozen, and she saw Perry hold her mouth.” My Mom caught on quickly. It was definitely Uncle Perry that possessed her. My Mom was thinking the same thing, “That just means Perry did something to her. It doesn’t look like Carrie behind those eyes, so Perry possessed her. We just have to find a way to get rid of him , we need to get him out of her”. She continued, “Can you look up how to get rid of possession spirits. Read a bit on that” She asked me. I looked it up immediately, there were several articles with their own different ideas. I read three different articles and picked the method the three articles mentioned. I told my Mom and Leah about it, “The only method that is repeated in all the articles I read is exorcism..”, “We need to find someone that can exorcize spirits, a priest or something”. My Mom stopped me halfway, “That’s just what I wanted to confirm. That it can be removed that way. I know a priest, I’ll call him now” She said as she went to the kitchen to make a call.

“What are you thinking?” Leah asked. I looked at her, we found out about everything together so I decided to tell her. “I want to go back to the castle. I need to find out more about what happened. Something in that castle can help us”. She looked at me, “Are you crazy?!” She shouted, then controlled herself and reduced her voice, “Are you crazy? bAfter everything that has happened you still want to go back? Look at what happened to Carrie. What if the ame happens to you?” She shook her head and sat down. I appreciated her concern, but what she didn’t understand was that we have to go there to find out more. Someone had to, just in case exorcism didn’t work. We have to have a backup plan. I sat down beside her and tried to explain to her, “I understand you’re worried Leah, but this is important. We need to have a backup plan. What if exorcism doesn’t work, what then? We can’t wait until one plan fails before we come up with another. That castle looks like it has answers we need. And if I have to tear it down to find out what’s going on and how to save my sister then that is exactly what I’ll do”. She sighed and agreed, “You’re right.Okay no problem, just be careful. That place is no joke, we see that now. I’m coming with you, so when do you want to go?” She asked. I refused, I would not be able to live with myself if anything happened to Leah. Carrie would kill me. Besides, it’ll be safer for me if I went alone. If anything happens, I don’t have to worry about waiting for someone or protecting someone. I smiled at her, “No you can’t come with me. No. Carrie would kill me if anything happened to you. Besides, if you really want me to be safe, you’ll let me go alone. That way, if anything happens I can get out of there quickly. I promise I’ll be out of there immediately if I’m in danger, anything even remotely close to that”. She tried to protest but finally agreed with me.

My Mom came back from the kitchen, “I just got off the phone with the Priest.He says to get holy water if he can, and if we can’t, we should get some salt and form a circle with that then place her in the middle. He’s out of town now but he’ll be here first thing in the morning. “Well, we don’t have holy water but we have salt. Let’s get started on that” I got up and went to the kitchen. “Where should we put the salt? Here or the room?” I asked. “Let’s do that in the guest room, Leah will sleep in their room” My Mom replied, “Or which do you prefer, Leah?” She turned to Leah and asked. “Um, I think I’ll stay in the guest room so you can use the room”.

I understood where she was coming from. After what happened, staying in the room would be too much for her right now.

We went upstairs with the salt to get it ready for Carrie. “Let’s do it on the bed, that way she gets to be comfortable” I suggested. I poured the salt around the bed, and adjusted everything else.

I went back downstairs to get Carrie. She was silent, she started squirming as soon as I picked her up. She started scratching, but it wasn’t as painful as before. I carried her up the stairs and into her room, I put her on the bed. “Should we maybe tie her down?” Leah asked. I looked at her as I thought about it. My Mom answered before I could, “I don’t think we should. Let’s see if she can get out,” she said.

I left Carrie alone and we all hurried out of the circle. She got up immediately and tried to leave the circle, she bounced off the air and back onto the bed. I moved back a little, “I guess we have our answer now. Now we wait for the priest to come”. We went back downstairs and I signaled to Leah. I wanted to leave for the castle early, before the man in cap shows up. “Um Hey Mom, I want to get some things at the store. I’ll be back soon”. She looked at me and sighed, “Okay Okay, don’t stay long. Be safe and be back early”. I mouthed a thank you to Leah and left the house.