X-Files

Harvester of Sorrows

October 25th 12:49 pm

A woman is frantically running through the forest, frightened and panicked. Someone or something is chasing her. Lights shine brightly behind her flashing through the trees. She makes her way into a foggy pumpkin patch full of scarecrows. Soon she hears voices and shouting. Dogs barking. She finds a bale of hay and hides behind it. The voices come and disappear just as quickly. The barking fades. She tries to calm herself and begins back the way she came, through the pumpkin patch. Except something isn't right. One of the scarecrow posts is now empty. She stares at the empty post trembling, backing slowly into the forest till she feels it. Arms of straw fold around her. She shrieks into the night. "Help me! Please. No!" But it's too late. She is held down to the ground by the throat, while a dark figure holding a long rusty sickle starts to brutally carve into her.

October 27th 6:39 am.
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Scully is walking down the hall towards Mulders office. She has been working with Mulder for a few months now and already knows something odd will be in store for her this morning. She received a message earlier from Mulder asking her to come by around 7am. This isn't a good sign for someone who doesn't usually come in to work till after noon. So far they have investigated cases with alien abductions, vampires, and ghosts. God only knows what he has in store for her today.

"Hey Scully." Mulder says, slouching over his computer, as she half way opens his door. "Come in. I have something I think will blow you away."

Oh great. She thinks to herself. What does he have for me now?

She takes a seat and quickly replies "Whatever you want to show me this time Mulder, I'm sure has a perfectly logical explanation. There are no such things as ghosts or werewolves or..."

"Right..." He says with a smirk. "You don't need to worry about anything like that. I want you to take a look at a homicide." Mulder stands for a moment flipping the switch to a low humming projector sitting on his desk. "This is the quaint town of Wilamena Arkansas." He says displaying an overhead picture of an old town buried in a thick forest. "Every year in October they have this festival called the Hallowed Harvest festival. They have your stereotypical pumpkin contests, pie eating competitions and hay rides. You know, all of that Mayberry stuff you see on TV."

"Okay.." Scully says being optimistic. "I'm assuming all is not well in Mayberry then?"

Mulder chuckles to himself and changes slides showing a body covered with a thinly laid white sheet. A couple of days ago this young girl, Amanda Woods, was found strung up in a field. She was found with a Jack-O'-lantern placed on her head, multiple slash wounds to the body, along with the letter H carved into her stomach.

"Why an H?" Scully asks lips curled.

Mulder clicks to the next slide depicting a massive skeleton man with a Jack-O'-lantern for a head holding a sickle. "H for the Harvester" Mulder answers. "It's an old town legend. A creature known as the Harvester rises from the pumpkin patches for the Halloween season. He harvests all of the misbehaving children in town who refuse to do their chores, go to sleep, etc."

"Well that's wonderful." Scully's manner sharpened. "Why would such a small town tell their children something like this?"

"Ah, but that's not all." Mulder says in a way like a magician ready to reveal a grand illusion. "You see, apparently this isn't the first time this has happened. Every few years or so someone like this is found strung up in the pumpkin fields. It's been going on since the town was founded two hundred years ago."

"That's horrible." Scully paused. "Obviously there is someone who is killing these people and using the legend as a way of getting away with it."

"Successfully too, until this time."

Mulder flips off the projector. He quickly grabs an evidence bag from his desk handing it to Scully. "Take a look at this. It was found clutched tightly in the victim's hand when she was found."

Scully examines the object in her hand before saying. "It's a piece of cloth, black and orange. Maybe a patch?"

"Now look at this." Mulder says while pulling out a picture from the town's pie eating contest. Scully scans the picture looking at several elderly men. "The Judges. They are all wearing black and orange robes."

Mulder reclines back in his chair hands cradled behind his head. "Those judges are from a local gentleman's lodge called the Order of the Hallowed Knights, and I believe that fabric belongs to one of those robes."

Scully closely examines the picture and cloth. The fabric does seem to match the robes. Mulder continues. "I booked us a room in Wilamena for a couple of days to investigate. We have the full cooperation of the local police. If we leave now, we can get there just in time for the annual pie eating contest."

"Charming." Scully smirks. "You did get us separate rooms I'm assuming?"

Mulder smiles. "Yeah, of course I did Scully."

Scully turns her glance away realizing how the question might be misinterpreted. Mulder doesn't let her off that easy. "What's wrong Dana. Afraid I might try to pull the old, only one room left trick on ya?"

Scully is unable to hide her grin and thinking fast replies. "I doubt you have any tricks that I haven't seen before."

Mulder puts his hands on his hips and looks to the sealing, seemingly lost in thought for a moment. "Hmm, well, I guess that means I won't be asking you for a night cap later tonight then?" Scully shoots him a glare that makes him look away awkwardly. "Okay then." He says, ego deflated before he darts out the door.

Once out the door, away from his partner, he shakes his head mumbling to himself. "Smooth Fox. Real smooth."

A few hours later they are on their way. Driving down a lone country highway. The road is surrounded by large trees of pine and oak. The foliage is shining its red and yellow fall colors. The definite sign of the changing season. Inside the car, Mulder is looking bored. The long drive taking its toll on the tired agent. On the other side of the car, in the passenger seat, Scully is looking through several different manila folders. Trying to find any overlooked clues to their case. She observes coroner reports of the victim and has a look on her face of bewilderment. "Mulder?" She begins to ask. "You said that the victim has the letter H carved into her stomach and that the H more than likely stands for Harvester right?"

"That's what I concluded from the reports." Mulder said reaffirming his theory.

"Okay, well why is it that this victim from seventeen years ago, Regina Lee, has a K instead of an H carved on her stomach."

Mulder gives Scully a look of one raised eyebrow. Reaching his hand over for the file, balancing the steering wheel with his knee, he takes a look at the photo in question. Scully sighs loudly. Unbuckling her seat belt she moves over close to Mulder and takes the wheel. As she does, her red hair grazes his face. The soft and sweet smell of her hair served as distraction for a moment, till he regained his frame of mind. He looked over the picture. Sure enough though, looking very similar, instead of an H there was a K carved on the victim's torso.

"Well, I'll be damned." He says under his breath, but just loud enough to make Dana grin. Mulder then pushes the folder back towards her grabbing the wheel.

Dana has to duck under his arm to get back her seat. As she does she can't help but notice how good his body smelled. Maybe his after shave she thought? Without realizing it she began to imagine Mulder in his bathroom this morning, giving himself a quick shave before work. Maybe he had just gotten out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Scully, hey Scully." He says snapping her out of her trance. She looked around not realizing that they were now stopped. "We're here." Mulder says a curious smirk settling on his face.

Dana was shocked by her own reaction and shook her head clearing the image of Mulder out of her mind. They both step out of the car. They were parked in a lonely main strip of down town Wilamena. The town was quaint looking. Old fashion trucks and cars were parked scarcely on a quiet street with old lamp posts and building of brick. There was a rather large white and orange banner on display stretched out above the street, proudly displaying Annual Hallowed Harvest Festival 25th-30th. They crossed the street, making their way into the local sheriff office.

It was a small dimly lit office with one sleeping officer reclining back at the front desk. Behind him was an office door and next to that a couple of jail cells. Mulder and Scully approach the desk and look at each other in part disbelief and part amusement.

"You can't be serious?" Scully says shaking her head in disbelief.

"Mulder laughs to himself then taps on the officers leg. "Excuse me? Officer?" The officer snorted loudly then jolted up in his seat.

"Huh? What's going on? What do you want?"

"Excuse me." Mulder started, reaching into his jacket for his I.D. "I'm agent Mulder with the F.B.I. This is my partner agent Scully. We are here investigating the death of Amanda Woods. Can we speak to the sheriff?"

The deputy wipes a thin layer of drool from his face and rubs his eyes. "T-The F.B.I? The sheriff?" He says still having trouble waking.

"Is he here?" Dana asks.

"The sheriff? No. H-he's at the festival judging the pie contest."

Mulder and Scully place their I.D's back into their trench coats and look at each other. "Your here to investigate the Amanda Woods murder?" The deputy asks still trying to wrap his head around the situation.

"Don't ya'll know about the Harvester?"

Scully crosses her arms. "Yeah, we've heard about it, but you don't really believe in something like that do you? I mean a ghost that appears and kills naughty children."

"Not a ghost!" The deputy says with a distressed look. "He's a demon. Straight from hell. He's been here since the time of the Quapaw Indians."

"So you believe that Amanda was killed by the Harvester a couple of days ago then?" Mulder asks.

"I know she was. I've seen him before." The deputy says standing up walking around the desk. "When I was a little boy. I would spend most nights hunting in the woods, looking for squirrels mostly. One night during the time of the festival I heard screaming. So, I hid behind a large oak stump. Then I saw him. The Harvester. A large, dark figure with a pumpkin head, holding a long bloodied sickle just walking through the woods.

I slumped down too scared to move. I got on my knees and started to crawl. Getting as close to the ground as I could. I heard the brushing of leaves behind me and couldn't help but look. When I did, I saw him, towering over me, carrying a body over one shoulder like some type of monster. He was snarling and wheezing. His eyes seemed to stare down straight into my soul."

"You saw this Harvester and lived?" Mulder asked in astonishment.

"After he saw me, he simply turned around and started walking the other way. The only thing I could figure out is that I wasn't a bad enough kid for him to want to kill. I always listened to my parents and never got into much trouble."

"So what did you do after that?" Scully asked.

"I told my parents about it, then the sheriff. A couple days later they found the body of Regina."

"That's the girl in the picture I showed you in the car." Scully says to Mulder.

Mulder nods to Scully and turns back to the deputy. "Thanks for the info deputy..."

"Neil, Coleman."

"Thanks for the info officer Coleman. We may talk to you again after we see the sheriff." They say their goodbyes and make their way out the door.

"This stuff is starting to get weird now Mulder. I thought this case was going be clearer cut then this."

Mulder chuckles. "Dana, you should know by now that I don't get cases like that."

Scully climbs back into the passenger seat fastening her seat belt. "Yeah." She says. "I guess I'm still getting used to all of this."

Mulder shuts the door and cranks the engine. "Don't worry about it Scully. You never get used to this."

End Chapter 1

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