Petals on the Wind (Dollanganger 2)

school, filed into Carrie's room, each bearing a single

candle held so her face was lit up under her chin. Such

lighting made their eyes appear sunken, dark hollows

and lent their youthful faces an eerie, ghoulish

appearance-- enough to terrify a little girl still

crouched in the corner, already in a trance of haunted

fear.

They came to form a semicircle around Carrie,

to stare down at her as each put over her head a

pillowcase with holes for eyes. Then came the ritual of

weaving the candles intricately in formalized patterns

as they chanted in the way of real witches. They

sought to drive the smallness out of Carrie. They

sought to set her "free" and themselves "free" from

whatever evil they were driven to do for selfprotection from someone so "unnaturally small and

strange."

One voice shrilled above all the others and

Carrie knew it was Sissy Towers. To Carrie, all those

shrouded girls in their long nightgowns with white

hoods over their heads and the black holes for eyes were devils straight from hell! She began to whimper, to tremble, and oh, she was so scared, as if once more the grandmother were in the room, only this time she

had multiplied until there were twelve of her! "Don't you cry, don't you fear," soothed the

nightmarish voice from a mouthless hood. "If you live

through this night, through this initiation, you, Carrie

Dollanganger, will become a member of our most

private and very exclusive society. If you succeed

from this night forward, you will share in our secret

rituals, our secret parties, our secret hoards of

goodies."

"Ohhh," moaned Carrie, "go away, leave me

alone, go away, leave me alone."