“Empty,” he said to Carrie. He laughed. “I’m all out. I had a bag full of ammo around here somewhere. But with all the confusion and killing people, I must have lost it.”

He dropped the rifle. It hit the gym floor with a terrible, echoing clatter.

He kept smiling at Carrie. The pain in her chest throbbed and pulsed. There were bodies everywhere. It was about the worst thing she’d ever seen.

He began walking toward her, his Nikes squeaking on the gym floor. Wade had dried blood on his face and shirt. Other than that, he was fine. Untouched.

Carrie was struck, for a moment, by how strange he suddenly seemed to her. He wore new, expensive clothes; that jacket had to cost hundreds of dollars. His dad was a lawyer, and had gotten him out of trouble every time Carrie caught him. He was rich, healthy, and loved.

And he’d done this anyway.

He was six feet away and she raised her gun.

“Stop,” she said. “Stop right there.”

He stopped.

“Would you shoot me, Carrie?” he asked, in a voice that sounded only mildly puzzled by the idea.

Carrie didn’t gesture at all of the carnage around them. She didn’t have to. “That is a stupid question.”

He wouldn’t stop smiling. “Come on. You’ve known me since kindergarten.”

“And you’ve never been anything but a pain in my ass. You’ve cheated and stolen and lied to everyone you’ve ever met.”

Wade had edged a few inches closer. He stopped again.

“Yeah, but I never hurt anyone.”

He must have seen the look on Carrie’s face because he added, with another laugh, “Well, not until now.”

He stepped toward her again.

“See, I don’t think you can do it,” he said, as Carrie brought her gun up to chest height. “I don’t think you can kill me.”

Carrie tried to think of something cold that would scare him. That would stop him. “You want to bet?” God. Lame.

It didn’t work. Obviously. He took another step closer.

“Yeah. I do,” he said. “I bet you can’t. You still think death is something special. Something evil. I know better. Death is just a door. I did all this. I know what it’s really like.”

For some reason, she kept thinking of Wade on the first day of school. Before he was a complete shit. How he cried during math and when he couldn’t get the right notes to come out of his recorder. He’d try to keep the tears in, but everyone knew, everyone could see. He’d put his hands over his face and his shoulders would shake.

Carrie heard the doors open behind her, but she didn’t turn.

“You can put the gun down, Carrie,” a strong voice said. In her peripheral vision, Carrie saw other people moving around. She didn’t take her eyes off Wade.