The Blood Still Drips - Carrie White

Mama's Best Friend

Sue woke up on the couch, a cold cloth on her forehead. Carrie was leaning over her. Sue opened her eyes, seeing Carrie. She slowly shut her eyes again. 

"Please tell me that I was hallucinating."

"Sorry." Carrie said. 

Sue sat up, holding her stomach. "Where is-"

"I called the police. They'll be here any second." They both looked at the staircase. Carrie's mother was lying dead on the stairs. Sue couldn't help but focus on Carrie. 

"Why are you so calm?" She asked. 

Carrie started to slowly shake her head. "I thought that mama was sinless. That everyone but she and I were going straight to hell. But what kind of sinless person would try and kill a girl holding a baby in her stomach?" She looked back at Sue. "Everything that I believed, that she wanted me to believe, was wrong. Is there really a God? Is there really heaven, or are we all going to hell anyway? Is there a hell? When they put us in the ground, we don't go anywhere. We rot and die."

Sue pulled her knees to her chest, sitting curled up on the couch. "I'm so sorry." She said. 

"It wasn't your fault. She was crazy; not us." 

"Oh, I think I'm still crazy." Sue said. "Did I see you kill your mother with you mind?" Carrie nodded slowly. "Oh." Sue was in shock. She was so in shock that she found herself unable to be scared. She didn't know what to say. "I'll be your witness when the police come. It was self-defense." 

Carrie took Sue's hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, Sue." For an odd second, Carrie was silent, until she started to cry. "Dammit, Mama! Why!?" She screamed. "Why did you take my faith!? Why did you make me kill you!?" She was letting it all in. "Mama.... why didn't you protect me?" She cried, fat, ugly tears falling to the ground. "She was my best friend. She was my only friend." She mumbled, ranting under her breath. 

 Had Carrie been alone that night, the death of her Mama, her only friend, she would have lost it. But there was someone there. A real friend. She fell into Sue's chest, crying. Sue, a little shocked, let herself relax and started to pet Carrie's hair, like a mother. 

"It'll be okay. It'll be okay. No one will hurt you anymore. I'll protect you." She felt Carrie relax in her arms, crying into her shirt and making it damp. Sue removed a hand from her stomach and held Carrie's head tightly in a warm hug. Carrie was her daughter as much as this child was. And so was Tommy. And so was Chris. And so was Norma, and everyone else. Sue was a mother now. And she was going to protect her baby. 

Carrie felt at ease. She was in the arms of a real friend; her only friend. She didn't need Mama's ranting. She had a friend right there, holding her just like Mama used to. So she didn't need Mama, she didn't need Mama to be her "only friend." Not if someone else was there for her. And she hated her Mama hiding that from her. There so much beyond that stupid house, and so much more than just the bible. She wanted to yell at the sky and scream at her for being an awful mother; but she knew one better way. 

Carrie separated from Sue, and grabbed a pair of scissors. Not really looking at what she was doing, she cut off the bottom of her beautiful new dress, turning it into a mini-skirt. She cut out a hole around her belly button. "Carrie, what are you doing?" Sue asked. 

Carrie smoothed out the new, skimpy dress, and stared right at her Mama's body. "We're all going to hell in the end. Even Mama. So I want her to see this when I go see her." She let her down and shook it out. "Hear me, Mama? This is what your actions turned me into."

Sue cradled her stomach, then stood up, using her other arm to hold Carrie in a hug. But Carrie wasn't crying now. At that moment, Sue thought; She may never cry again. 

Sue was right.