This was the third time an elderly woman stopped me so she could have a look on the baby. My baby.
"What's his name?"
"Christopher."
"Oh what a lovely name."
I smiled a fake smile. I don't think she would notice, who can?
"He must have his father's hair then" her giggled got replaced with a laugh. "Yours is too fair."
"Yes, he has his father's hair." I tried my best to keep smiling. My cheeks started to hurt a lot; I didn't know how long I could keep this up.
"How is the father?"
I looked at the woman for a few seconds. My smile faded away. It felt like I had a knot inside my stomach.
"Oh dear! Are you alright? You look like someone who has seen the Devil." She put a hand on my shoulder as she tried to calm me down. Someone who has seen the Devil. It echoed inside my head.
"O-oh yeah… yeah… I'm fine…" I looked down at Christopher inside his baby carriage. He smiled happily, made a tiny giggleish sound. I turned back to the woman and smiled nervously.
"I um… don't see his father anymore."
"Oh I see." She let go of my shoulder and took my hand instead. This woman sure hasn't heard about personal space.
"You don't need him, he's apparently not man enough to take his part of parenthood." She caressed the top of my hand gently and let go. "Oh youth. I was young too when I had my firstborn. I had to take care of the little one all by myself; my husband wasn't really… mentally presented." She sighed and chuckled. "I know you will be a great mother, I can see it in you."
I smiled at her. A real smile this time.
"Thank you."
She smiled back. "You are probably busy I won't hold you back any longer."
"Oh no no! You weren't, really!"
She chuckled once again. "I wish you the best… Oh I don't think I've caught your name."
"Carrie. Carrie White".
Her smiled got brighter. "I wish you the best Carrie, and Christopher." She looked at Christopher; he laughed right back at her. We said goodbye to each other and separated.
As we arrived home I put Christopher to sleep. I rocked his cradle carefully; I could hear his calm breathing as he slept. I couldn't stop thinking about what the woman said.
"You look like someone who has seen the Devil."
He might be some kind of a demon, but I won't say he is the Devil. I stopped rocking his cradle. I looked at Christopher. At his tiny hands, his little face, his freckles and his dark hair.
"I suppose I could tell you how I met your father. I won't expect you to listen to me, and you probably won't understand nor remember any word I say, but at least I can prepare myself to tell you the same story once you're ready."
I took a deep breath and sat down next to his cradle.
"I must warn you though; this isn't quite a traditional "love" story..."
You're probably too young to be aware of my "gift". You see, I was giving telekinetic powers; I got that from my father's side. My mother accused me for being a witch, even though grandma had them too. I wasn't aware of my ability, until I got older. I was shocked, but tried my best to handle it. At first I thought having telekinesis wasn't such a bad thing, but I quickly changed my mind due to one night.
It all started when I was heading home from school, the same day there was prom. I had a date with a boy named Tommy Ross, an actual date. To begin with I thought he was trying to trick me; there were a lot of people from my school who found it amusing to trick me, so I declined him. Tommy Ross was also dating a girl named Sue Snell, and I found it hard to believe that she didn't want to go to the prom with him. After he convinced me that Sue really didn't want to come, I accepted to go to the prom with him. In all honesty, I sort of had a crush on Tommy Ross. He was a smart and handsome boy, with the most beautiful blonde curls and he had the most beautiful dark eyes… Oh my, I got carried away, heh.
Anyway, as I was heading home a weird homeless man stopped me. I froze immediately and shook of terror, I didn't know if he was going to rob me, molest me or worst; kill me. Before I could open my mouth and scream with the full strength of my lungs, the homeless man offered me a strange rubric like box. He said the box would give me my deepest desire, that it would give me… pleasure. I was standing still and looked confusedly on the box. I didn't know how to react. A stranger just offered me a box, was I really just going to accept it like that? I knew for sure that mother would get a flip if she knew I had got something from a stranger, I knew I had to return it. As I was about to return the box to the homeless man, he was gone. Stressfully I was looking all around for him, but I couldn't find him. It was as if he had disappeared from the earth's surface. I was confused, I didn't know if I should throw the box out in the nearest trashcan, or if I should leave it. Before knowing it I put the box in my bag and went straight home. On my way I kept thinking about the homeless man and the box. Why would he hand me the box? What did he mean about it giving me my deepest desire? I didn't desire for pleasure! That was an absurd thought.
As I came home, I threw my bag near the front door and went right up to my room, to prepare myself for tonight. Mother tried her best to talk me off it, she told me my dirty pillo- I mean breasts were showing, and the whole school was going to laugh at me. I didn't listen to her, and as Tommy came by my house and picked me up, we went to the prom.
At first I was a bit nervous when we arrived at the prom. They all looked at us, as we were an odd match. I also felt we were a strange couple, Tommy and I. I was the school's "freak" and Tommy was one of the popular boys. But to be honest that night turned out to be great. I danced with Tommy and we both had such a great time, we were even nominated to be the prom queen and king. I found it weird that they would nominate us, especially me, but Tommy told me that we should just vote for ourselves, for fun. When they named the prom's queen and king, I was surprised to hear that Tommy and I won. It was so surreal. I remember we both went up to the stage, standing right next to each other, and I received my flowers and crown and the whole school cheered for us. It was one of the best nights I ever had, for the first time I felt like people appreciated me. I was no longer the school's freak. Well, that was until the incident happened.
Suddenly red liquid fell on me, and it turned out to be blood. I didn't know where the blood came from, but it was sticky and smelled awful. A bucket then fell down and knocked Tommy Ross off, and that was when they all started to laugh. All of them. Teachers, students, even Ms. Desjardin. They were all laughing at me, just like mother said. Remember when I told you about how I changed my mind about having telekinesis, this was exactly why. I was feeling confused, humiliated, sorrowful, but most of all: furious. With my telekinetic powers I managed to lock them all inside the hall, the place turned red, and I hurt one student after another. I hurt them all, the students, the teachers, and yeah, Ms. Desjardin too. I went berserk. I left the school in fire and bloodshed. As I was walking my way home, covered in blood, my bully Chris with her boyfriend Billy tried to drive me over, but again by using my telekinetic powers I managed to turn the car and set it on fire, where it later on exploded. After awhile of walking, I had finally returned home.
I knew from that moment if only I had listened to mother that night, all this wouldn't have happened. I was still feeling sorrowful, and as I thought my night couldn't get any worse, my own mother tried to stab me. I really didn't want to use my telekinesis on her after what happened at school, and she was my mother after all, I didn't want to hurt her no matter how abusive she was. She was the only one I had in my life. Mother kept trying to stab me, and in terror I used my telekinesis and "crucified" her by pinning her to the walls with various sharp objects, and finally stabbed her in the chest. After I realized what I had done, I cried. Out of despair I held my mother's corpse in my arms, as our house clashed. I remembered Sue Snell came to my house and tried to help me. With my telekinetic powers I pushed her out of our house and slammed the door, and that was when the box from earlier rolled out of my bag and down towards me. It opened. I took the box and put the pieces back together. I didn't know why I did that, my house was fallen apart and my mother was dead, and yet there I was solving a rubric like box. The last thing I remembered was a bright light as our house crashed.
I didn't know where I was, there was nothing but darkness and silence. At that moment I realized I could only have ended in one place: Hell.
Or that was what I thought. The place got lighter all of a sudden, and that was when I really could see how awful and scary it looked. I could hear the metallic click sound of the dangling hooks hitting each other, and the atmosphere was very gloomy. I was baffled and terrified. Where was I and importantly; where was mother?
The only thing there was, beside the dangling hooks, was the box. I picked up the box and slowly backed off till I hit a wall. My body was shaking, and that was when I met your father's "friends". Words could not describe how terrifying they looked, and out of pure terror my body stood still. I couldn't move an inch. Two of them were males, and the third one a female. She had two wires that opened up her throat and spread them widely. One of the males had no eyes, but wires that open his mouth wide open and he kept chattering. The other male wore sunglasses and was chubby. They were all bald and were wearing leather clothes. I had never seen anything like that.
They started to walk towards me, very threatening. I would have walked backwards, but the wall was blocking my way, and my body was still shaking. Without thinking I started to run to my left side and I thought I could run away from them, but then he appeared. He came from nowhere and stood right in front of me, blocking my escape. He looked at me with a cold glare; his face was emotionless and covered in pins. I backed off a little and realized they had surrounded me. He pointed at the box and said:
"The box… you opened it, we came."