Reminder: this is a sequel to King's novel CARRIE, not to any of the movies (though this could be partially applied to the Kimberly Pierce adaptation).

If you haven't read the book, this won't make sense.

"Okay, Sue, now push!"

She pushed as hard as she could. She gathered up every ounce of might she could collect from inside, but it still wasn't enough.

"It's not coming out," she wept in heaving gasps, "It's not gonna come out."

"It's coming, sweetheart, it's coming," her mother crooned in her ear as she kept her grip on her daughter's hand.

"Push, Sue," the doctor continued to urge, "One more big push!"

"Come on, honey, just one more push, just one more big push! You can do it!"

"I ca…can't," she wheezed, "I can't!"

Still, she gave it her all. As she screamed with the agony of her effort, one of the fluorescent lights above surged, burning brighter and brighter, until the bulb finally shorted out and died.

The baby still hadn't come, and Sue had used up the last of her strength. Her eyes crossed and her vision faded into darkened blurs. In her last moment of coherence, she could feel a flex that pushed from inside her belly that gave her release as the head passed through at last.

It was a girl. The last thing she saw was her baby's beady blue eyes peaking open for the first time…

'Momma'

…before her own fell shut.

She dreamed then, dreamed of the nine months passed.

It began with the blood. It glowed a warm, almost orange color by the light of the fires that had taken down The Cavalier Roadhouse. Just a few yards away, crashed halfway through the crumbled down wall, was the flaming skeleton of Billy Nolan's Chevrolet. The corpses of Billy and Chris Hargensen roasted in the front seats. All around, power lines danced like snakes, shocking and burning people who tried to flee, trees and houses burned, dismantled fire hydrants showered the streets. It was chaos; bloody chaos.

Just at Sue's feet was the barely-living body of Carrie White. She laid across the asphalt on her side, still in her velvet prom dress, now tattered and dyed deep scarlet, same as every other inch of her body, with blood that was mostly not her own. The trail smeared along the ground showed she had dragged herself from the far end of the lot to this spot before she fell unconscious from her exsanguination. The hilt of the carving knife gleamed like a ruby from where it protruded from her shoulder.

She fell to her knees on the ground. She grabbed the knife by its handle to pull it free, but as soon as she touched it, a crippling pain suddenly crested through her entire body, starting inside her brain and rippling through her limbs.

'Ow! It hurts it hurts it hurts! Mommyyy!'

It was Carrie's voice crying out, even though she still laid out cold. It was not spoken vocally, but sounded with an echo through Sue's mind.

'Why couldn't you just leave me alone?' Carrie cried into Sue's head, 'Why? Your fault all your fault!'

'What happened Carrie?' Sue begged, using her own inner voice to speak back, 'Where's Tommy? What…'

A whole collage of images flooded Sue's mind.

'Tricked me. You tricked me, all of you!'

There was Tommy and Carrie at the dance, her looking and feeling beautiful and adored for the first time in her life, them going up the stage to be crowned King and Queen, the red splash, blood, the Lord visited Eve with a curse the curse of blood, Tommy sleeping, laughter, sprinklers, fire…

'Carrie stop, please it hurts!'

…the gas station exploding, poles toppling, broken hydrants, electricity, more fire, prayer, Daddy Ralph's knife, our Father, Momma's heart, Chris and Billy in Billy's car, roadhouses, whiskey, sulfur rain and brimstone, Angel's fiery sword of vengeance…

'They're all dead! Tommy's dead! My Momma's dead! It's all your fault! All your fault!'

'No Carrie, not my fault! I tried to help you. So sorry I'm so sorry, sorry, sorry…'

Sue crossed the bridge that connected their minds and projected her own film back for Carrie.

Flinging tampons, plug it up plug it up, hour of detention with Miss Desjardin, Tommy I want you to take Carrie White to the prom, decorations, Chris Hargensen's smug grin, home alone, late a whole week late, boom, red horizon, alarms blaring, take Mom's car, explosions, trail of blood… But there was nothing that proved that Sue was guilty of this grandest humiliation brought unto Carrie White.

'Momma's dead! My Momma's dead!'

'Carrie…'

'Momma where are you! I want my Momma! I hurt so bad it hurts so BAD! MOMMY HELP ME!'

'Carrie LET ME GO!'

The link remained. Sue wanted to pull back, free from Carrie grasp, but did not know how to cut loose from it, and Carrie's mental strength was far greater than hers.

'MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!'

Carrie unleashed a final howl of agony, much like an animal wounded and left to die after being shot. With their connection still intact, Sue could feel it inside herself, could feel the knife in her shoulder, the last of her blood draining out of her, her pulse slowing and slowing. Even while next to a burning building, she could feel herself going cold.

'So cold Momma I'm so cold'

'So sorry Carrie oh god so sorry so sorry so sorry…'

'Momma where are…'

And just like that, she dissolved into the blackness completely. Nothing. Crushing abyss.

Sue didn't know how long she sat there with her consciousness still lost in that same void Carrie was now in; even after death, the link held. She didn't remember having gotten to her feet, nor having traversed the mile of field beyond the burning roadhouse. All she knew was that her channel on Carrie's dead frequency had at last separated.

In that next moment, she could feel a soft twinge in her belly, like a cramp trying to burst its way out, and could feel the warm flow of blood running down her thighs. She screamed, a long, harsh, cheated scream, and she collapsed onto the bedewed grass, lying curled on her side as she listened to the sirens of fire trucks blare by.

She must have passed out, because the next thing she knew, a calloused palm was patting her cheek, bringing her to consciousness. The hand belonged to a man in a white EMT uniform, spotted with soot, same as his thinning scalp and hands.

"Miss," she heard him say, "Can you hear me?"

She shifted to push herself upright. With the EMT's assistance, she succeeded.

"Are you hurt?" he then asked, "Do you need us to take you to the hospital?"

From the distance of where she sat, Sue could see the remains of the Cavalier, the car, and Carrie White. Two ambulances and two police cars were parked alongside the curb a short distance from the destroyed building.

"Miss?" the paramedic spoke again, snapping his fingers in front of her face, but she remained unresponsive.

"Okay, I think we better take you in. Can you stand, miss?"

He took her by the hand and was easily able to bring her to her feet. Without any instruction, Sue began to walk forward, one foot in front of the other, with the medical officer beside her, until they made it to the rear of one of the ambulances. Just as she was being led up into the vehicle, she watched as the zipper was being drawn up and Carrie White's body was sealed in black plastic.