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Mrs. White's eyes imdiately sharpened with suspicion.
Luke set his glass down and spoke in an even tone, starting to spin his story.
"I've visited a lot of devout believers, but your behavior confuses ."
Mrs. White bristled at the criticism.
"Confuses you? I pray every single day without fail. I follow the Lord's commandnts strictly and stay away from the filth of the world. What's wrong with that?"
"Plenty."
Luke leaned back on the couch and glanced around at the walls covered in religious paintings and strange decorations.
"Real believers go to church. They attend services. They talk to other believers. You've locked yourself in this house… and you've locked your daughter in with you."
Mrs. White's voice rose in a desperate shriek.
"I'm saving her! There's a demon inside Carrie! I have to use prayer and punishnt to drive it out!"
Luke turned to face her.
"A demon? How do you know there's a demon inside her?"
Mrs. White froze.
"Have you ever seen a demon? Heard its voice? Or did soone tell you?"
Her lips moved, but no words ca out.
Luke narrowed his eyes.
"Or maybe… you read it in so book?"
Mrs. White's pupils shrank.
Got her.
Luke knew imdiately—she had read sothing she never should have.
"Bring the book."
Her face went white. She backed away.
Luke didn't waste more words. He walked past her and headed up the stairs.
There were three rooms on the second floor.
The first was Carrie's bedroom. A bed, a desk, almost nothing else. A single cross on the wall, no other decorations.
The second was the bathroom.
The last was the master bedroom.
Luke pushed the door open. The heavy sll of candles hit him imdiately.
More religious paintings lined the walls. A stack of yellowed Bibles sat on the nightstand.
But Luke's eyes went straight to the bed.
He crouched down, reached underneath, and pulled out a wooden box.
He broke the latch and opened it. Inside lay a leather-bound book.
No title on the cover—just a blood-red cross.
Luke picked it up and flipped it open.
Mrs. White, who had followed him, let out a strangled cry and lunged forward to snatch it, but one hard look from Luke made her freeze.
"Don't move."
He looked down at the pages.
On the surface it appeared to be a guide on purifying unclean souls and resisting the devil's temptations.
But between the lines was pure, sickening fanaticism.
The book detailed how to identify people possessed by demons and how to "save" their souls through starvation, whipping, imprisonnt, and other forms of torture.
It was a spiritual abuse manual dressed up as religion.
Luke closed the book and turned to Mrs. White.
She had collapsed onto the floor, tears streaking her face.
"Where did this co from?"
Mrs. White clutched her head, curling into a ball.
"Who gave it to you?"
Luke stepped closer.
"I… I…"
"Talk."
Mrs. White's whole body shook. Finally, the words tumbled out in broken pieces.
"It… it was Carrie's father."
Carrie froze.
Luke's eyes narrowed.
"Carrie's father?"
Mrs. White lifted her head, her gaze distant.
"He… he was a missionary. He ca to this town eighteen years ago, saying he wanted to spread the Lord's word."
Her voice grew smaller.
"I was young and poor back then. He was kind to . He said I had a gift for faith, that I could beco one of the Lord's apostles. I believed him."
Mrs. White's eyes glazed over as she slipped into old mories.
"He was handso, educated, and understood the Bible better than any priest I'd ever t. He said I was chosen by God to give birth to the purest soul."
Her voice was hollow, almost dreamy.
"I believed him. I gave him everything. We never went to church. He said true faith was in the heart, not in rituals."
"Until the day Carrie was born."
Mrs. White started trembling. The old hatred returned to her face.
"The nurses brought her to … but he was gone. I couldn't reach him. The phone was disconnected. The address he gave was fake. It was like he vanished off the face of the earth."
She looked up and stared at Carrie with pure venom.
"He left with this… this cursed thing. The whole town looked at like I was trash. I lost my job. I lost everything. All because of her! She brought the sin! She drove her own father away!"
Luke's voice was cold with anger.
"So so con man ran off and you took it out on a baby? For eighteen years?"
Mrs. White scread back.
"I didn't!"
Luke held up the disturbing book.
"Then what about this? He left this too, didn't he?"
"He told you your daughter was a demon and left you a book teaching you how to torture her?"
Mrs. White had no answer. Luke had hit the truth dead center.
He tossed the book at her feet.
"Look in the eye and answer. Would any real father leave sothing like this? Teach his wife how to break their own child?"
The cruel reality finally shattered the self-delusion Mrs. White had built over eighteen years.
She stared at the book, then at her daughter's tear-streaked face, and broke down into loud, ugly sobs filled with regret.
Carrie stood frozen, her body shaking with emotion.
She had finally learned the truth about her birth. Finally understood why her mother had treated her this way for her entire life.
She was just a girl abandoned by her father and used as a punching bag by her mother.
She looked at the woman crying on the floor, a storm of feelings raging inside her—resentnt, hatred, and above all, a deep, aching sadness for the blood relative who had suffered so much.
After a long hesitation, Carrie slowly walked over, crouched down, and gently patted her mother's back.
"Mom…"
Mrs. White's crying stopped. She slowly lifted her head and looked at her daughter with sothing almost like a normal mother's eyes for the first ti.
She reached out, fingers trembling, but stopped short of touching Carrie's face, as if afraid she would contaminate her.
Luke watched the long-overdue mont of connection… and felt no joy at all.
He picked up the book again and opened it.
Sothing wasn't right.
A missionary. A twisted book. A daughter with special powers.
It was all too convenient.
If Carrie's father was just so deadbeat, why leave behind such a specific, dangerous book?
Wouldn't it have been cleaner to simply disappear?
Then a chilling thought hit Luke.
This might be part of an eighteen-year conspiracy. A cold, inhuman experint.
And the test subject was Carrie and her special abilities.
That so-called father had probably known exactly what would happen.
He had co to this isolated, deeply religious town looking for the right kind of mother—soone pure but extre. He had filled her head with twisted teachings and left her this sick manual.
Then, after Carrie was born, he vanished on schedule.
He had calculated that the abandoned Mrs. White would spiral into fear and bla everything on her daughter.
Then she would follow the book's instructions exactly—years of psychological tornt and physical punishnt—to "purify" Carrie and atone for her sins, all while desperately hoping he would return.
But the real purpose of that so-called purification was likely to stimulate and build up Carrie's powers.
Through years of constant pain and repression, Carrie's natural psychic abilities would be constantly provoked and stockpiled… until one day, they were finally pushed over the edge and fully unleashed.
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