Carrie admits that she has not been entirely truthful in recounting her story in which she is the “savior of two needy younger sisters” (263). She admits that her sisters are, in fact, the ones who saved her. To defend herself, Carrie acknowledges that she did say at the very beginning of her tale that she is a liar.

In recounting what Yardley said to her in that phone call—that Carrie would never hurt anyone—she believes that her son’s death is punishment for her past deeds. Carrie brings up the fairy tales she told earlier, how the stepsisters in “Cinderella” committed violent acts out of jealousy, how in “The Stolen Pennies” a guilty child’s soul is unable to rest because of her guilty conscience, and how in “Mr. Fox,” someone who seems loveable and upstanding, who lives in a beautiful home, turns out to be a murderer. Carrie states that she will now tell the true story of what happened to Pfeff.

Carrie wakes up at one a.m., as she said earlier, but Bess does not come to her door asking for help. As Carrie gets up to get a glass of water, she hears a