CARRIE

Chapter Forty-Two

I drove down to the castle and parked across the street. I got down and looked around before crossing to the castle. I took a deep breath before entering the castle through the hole. “Here goes nothing”.

I looked around as I entered. Nothing looks different, I walked to the window carefully. I tried to be as silent as I could. I stood in front of the window we got in through the last time. I was about to climb in when I noticed another window was open. I stopped and looked at the window. That window wasn’t open the last time, only one was. No use thinking about it, I wasn't getting an answer by standing here. I climbed in through the window and brought out my flashlight. I worked my way back to the stairs and went back to the room where we found the book with the star. I entered the room and it was scattered this time. There were books tossed around everywhere. That’s weird. I looked around and found the book among a pile of other books, I picked it up and hurried to the secret room. I opened the doorway and entered the secret room. It was almost empty. The book and glass containers had all been cleared out. I stood in shock as I wondered how that was possible. I walked over to the stone box, It was still open. The skeleton and book were still in there, I grabbed the book from the box and I was about to head back downstairs to check the places when I heard a voice behind me. “So It was you that broke in and opened the coffin”. I felt my knees go weak, but I couldn’t just give up without trying. Without looking back, I bolted out of the room. I jumped down the stairs, the only thought on my mind was RUN. I jumped out of the window, and looked back. Someone jumped out of the window behind me, it was the man with the cap that was chasing me. I ran out through the hole and crossed the street, I didn’t bother looking across before doing so. I got back inside the car and locked it before starting the car. I zoomed off immediately.

I looked in my mirror once I was sure I was far enough, no car was following me. I wanted to be sure I was right so I went round the street three times and parked across my house. I looked in my mirror again before getting down. I entered the house and locked all the doors.

“What happened? Why are you panting this much?” My Mom asked as I entered the house. “Nothing Mom, I was rushing home. I didn’t want to stay outside long” I hugged her. “How’s Carrie?” I asked. “She’s stable now, she has been silent for a while”. I entered the kitchen to drink water and Leah came in to join me. We sat down to talk. “How did it go? Did you finde anything?” She asked as she moved closer. “Not really. The whole place was scattered when I went back there. The rooms that were very neat and organized were now scattered all over the place. I found the empty book with a star on it among a heap of books and snack wrappers. I brought it along with me.”. She looked at me, “Go on”. I continued, “I went to the secret room, the books and glass containers were all cleared out”. Leah frowned as I said that. “What?” I asked her. “Nothing” was her reply.

I got to the highlight of my outing, “I checked the box and the skeleton and book were still intact. I grabbed the book and I heard a voice behind me asking if I was the one that opened the coffin. I ran outside, and when I looked back I saw that it was the man with cap chasing me. I got in the car and got out of there as fast as I could’. She looked at me, But I thought the man with the cap only came at night”. I was just as confused as she was. “I thought so too, obviously we were wrong’. “Alright you have the books with you right?” She asked. I brought out the books and put them on the table. She looked at me, “Earier when you mentioned the glass containers. The first time we went there, I and Carrie saw those glass containers, and they had a label on them. Holy Water”. My eyes widened, holy water. The priest said that would work if we could get our hands on it. But it’s gone now. The Priest will just bring his, all priests have holy water I’m sure.

We should focus on the books we have now for clues. I opened the book with the star on it, “Let’s focus on these for now. I’ll get the candle” I said as I got up. She stopped me, ‘Wait. Instead of using a candle, just use a hair dryer. I mean, we just need a heat source for it to show right, and they are both heat sources”. She was right. I went to the living room where Mom was seated watching Tv, “Mom can I borrow your hair dryer?”. She looked up at me, ‘What do you need it for?” She asked. “To reveal invisible ink. That’s what we’re doing in the kitchen. We need it to decode the books we found”. She sighed, ‘Alright you can take it”. I thanked her and ran upstairs to her room to get it. I came back downstairs shortly after and handed it to Leah. “Do your thing”.

Using the hair dryer was much faster than the candle. In no time at all, the entire page was visible. “Wow, that’s really good. Let’s just do it for all the pages now” I suggested. “Alright then”

About thirty minutes later we were done. We left the book for a few more minutes to cool down before picking it back up. When it was cool, I picked up the book and opened it, There were lots of incomplete pages in the book. It was a journal, It talked about a member of the society that connived with one of the leaders and ended up betraying the leader. It talked about the rebirth and possession spells, but the writer had no idea they were real. He talked about them like they were myths. For reasons best known to him, he stopped writing the journal. The last thing he wrote was “Everything is not as it seems”. “Whoever wrote this journal most likely is a new member of the society” Leah said as I closed the book. I figured that much, the writer probably joined the society, heard about different things going on in the society and how the society affects the normal human world. He probably found out he was on the wrong side of things hence why he said things are not as they seem. “You’re probably right. He seems like he was scared at some point, like he bit more than he could chew. But now the question is who is the owner of the journal” Leah asked. She was right, a name was not included in the journal. All other journals had the names of the writers on the front page, this one did not. “You’re right, there’s no name here” I flipped through the pages to make sure.

There was no use thinking about it for now, we had other things to worry about. “Let’s try to decode this other book” I raised the book we found in the coffin. The book looked heavier and thicker than the other journals. It had an inscription around it that was in latin also. I looked it up and it translated to “The Book Of Spells”. “What does it say, What does it mean?” Leah asked.

“It says here that it means the book of spells. I looked up the book of spells and according to a few articles, the book of spells has been lost in time. It is said to contain hundreds of spells, magic potion recipes and several magic.”, “Here and listen to this, The book of spells is the last remaining book or writing to contain the spell of rebirth and the spell of posession by demons”. Her eyes widened, “We need to get this book open now”. There was a lock by the side of the book, I’ve never seen anything like it before. I tried pulling hard on it, it didn’t work. I tried using pliers, spanners. Basically all the tools we had, it didn’t budge at all. Not even a scratch. “I guess it’s called the book of spells for a reason. They must have locked it away with a spell. “It won’t open. It was most likely sealed with magic. We can’t just open it. And it says online that only a spell can unlock a book that has been spelled shut. So if we don’t find someone that knows how we can open this book, we can’t access the contents”.

Carrie squeezed her face, “It won’t be easy to do that. I mean, how do we find someone that can open the book when basically everybody thinks the book doesn’t exist anymore?” She asked. She was right, getting this open would be a totally different chore itself.

We decided to leave the book as it was for now. We went upstairs to check on Carrie, she was asleep. “Can’t wait for the Priest to get here” Leah said as we watched her from outside the room. “You know, I blame myself for this. I should have never gotten you guys involved.”. She tried to cheer me up, “Don’t blame yourself, we all decided individually. You didn’t force us to come along, we made up our minds ourselves. And I’m sure Carrie wouldn’t blame you for it”. I appreciated her and all but I knew I was right, I could have done everything alone and they would just help when I came home. “You don’t understand, okay, what if you guys went to the castle today too and got chased by that man. Only one route of entry and exit to the main house and that’s the window. He would have caught at least one of us”. She was silent, She knew I was right. We went to bed pretty early that night.

The next morning, the priest came over. I opened the door for him and let him in, “Morning”. My Mom and Leah were upstairs in Carrie’s room, so I lead him upstairs. “This way”, I already got a look at him when I opened the door. He had a suitcase with him and beads in his hands. I think they were called rosary, He had a rosary in his left hand. We got to the room and the moment he stepped in the room, Carrie turned vicious. She was trying to get out of the room. I tried to move close to her but he stopped me, “I’m sorry young man but right now that is not your sister. If it has to, it will rip your face in half and will not show the tiniest bit of remorse”. I stopped and stepped back, he told my Mom and Leah to step back also. He stood in front of the circle and opened the suitcase, immediately Carrie jumped on the wall. My mouth hung open, she was on the wall like some sort of spider-man, snarling and all. I looked at the suitcase, In it was a bible, three glass containers of water, holy water most definitely. There were also some wodden crosses in it, and a second rosary. So this is a Priest, an exorcist. We all stood in anticipation. I folded my hands and said a little prayer. He sprinkled a bit of holy water around the room and at the entrance, “It won’t be able to get out this way. And it’ll help weaken it” The Priest explained. After sprinkling the holy water everywhere and on his body too, he kicked out a little bit of the salt around Carrie’s bed. He broke the circle and Carrie jumped straight at him. I was about to step in when Leah held my hand. "Just let him do what he needs to do, this is for Carrie too" She whispered to me and I waited. He poured the holy water on her just as she was about to pounce on him. She shrieked and I clenched my fists, I couldn't bear to watch this. He put the cross on her forehead and it started burning, I moved back. Her voice was starting to become deeper as she screamed. Few minutes in, what she was saying was starting to get clearer. She spoke a Latin word at first, It only made him intensify his prayers . He put the rosary on her neck and poured holy water on the cross before placing it on her head. She shrieked again, "Priest, this does not concern you", This wasn't Carrie's voice anymore, it has changed completely. It went on for several minutes, from threats to pleas and back to threats. I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go outside to get some fresh air, "I'm going to take a walk, I can't take anymore of this" I whispered to my Mom and Leah before running outside. I got outside and I sat down in my Car and cried. I still felt guilt for everything that was going on. The pain Carrie was feeling, and the hurt Leah, my Mom and myself were feeling. I felt responsible for all of it. Moments later, I got up and decided to walk down the street and back to clear my head. I was halfway down the street when I felt someone watching me. I looked around, and continued walking. I saw someone cross the road behind me with the corner of my eye. I just kept walking, at first I thought I was only imagining it. I crossed again and the person followed. This confirmed my doubt that someone was following me. I stopped, and I heard the person stop too. The person continued walking when I started walking too. I was about to make a run for it when I felt an arm around my shoulder, "why are you running, young Sir?". I felt my knees go weak, it was almost like someone removed them right from under me. The person had a thick accent. I tried to free myself and keep walking, but he just held on to me tighter. "No No, Don't do that. Why do you want to run now? You weren't running before" The person's breath smelled like warm chocolate bars. "Before? I don't know what you're talking about Sir. Please just let me go" I pleaded. For all this trouble I should've just stayed home, or taken the fresh air I wanted outside the house. The person smiled, it was a man. I felt his beards on my neck as he moved his face closer to my ear, "It was you that broke into the castle was it not? You opened the coffin. You opened the coffin, did you not? You had the guts to come back yesterday, I tried confronting you about it. When I did, you ran out didn’t you? I checked after you left, two of my books were missing. Did you take them?”. He had a menacing look about him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Sir. Please just let me go” He spun me around to face him, it was the man with the cap. “Do you think this is a joke!?” He shouted. People stopped to look at us and he smiled, put his arm around me and walked with me. “You have no idea what you took from that castle, it’s not a children’s story book. This is real life. Return it to me, or there will be consequences. Consequences you wouldn’t be able to handle. I’ll be in touch” Before I got a chance to ask what the consequences were, he disappeared. I walked hurriedly back home. I entered the house and my Mom and the Priest were in the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen to meet them, “Hey. Uh, how did it go? Did it work?” I asked both of them. Mom turned to me, with a smile on her face. “It did, She’s asleep now” She laughed and hugged me. Leah came downstairs too, I was so relieved. I put my head on the table and tried to catch my breath. I was very happy, but then I remembered the man that just threatened me and my heart started beating fast again. Leah entered the kitchen, “She’s definitely better now. She’s asleep, thank you so much Priest”. We all thanked him and he dropped a bottle of holy water and crosses with us, “Sprinkle this around your home, and keep the crosses with you. There are lots of things going on that we don’t see. Before we couldn’t see them, but now we are in the end times, they are everywhere and they aren’t hiding themselves anymore”. “I already prayed for her, she’s better now. She just has to regain her strength, she’ll be fine when she wakes up”, He shook my hand and left.

“Thank God that’s over now” Leah sighed. I looked at Leah and my Mom, they looked so relieved. Carrie was better now too. I shouldn’t burden them with what happened immediately, we deserve to enjoy our happiness. So instead of telling them what happened, I kept it to myself and we went to make dinner.