At the hotel

"What do you say now, Scully?", Mulder asked with a smirk on his face.

"What can I say? The boy was in shock, Mulder. He might just have imagined what he claims he saw!" Scully was getting tired of Mulder's constant attempts to convince her of paranormal activities.

It did sound weird to her, but of course, she being herself, would first try explaining everything on a scientific background. Only.. and only if that would lead to no result, she would give in to agreeing with her partner. She knew that there were paranormal happenings. She knew that by now, after working with Fox Mulder for several years. And still she refused to immediately shift everything that looked inexplicable at first sight in the category of paranormal activities.

"Come on, Scully! You don't really believe that, do you?", Mulder jested. "And anyway, we're about to find out for ourselves."

"What do you mean we're going to find out?", Scully asked slightly alarmed.

"We're going in the moor tonight", Mulder simply stated.

"Mulder, are you out of your mind? Just because I think it's nothing paranormal doesn't mean that nothing is going on there!", she exclaimed exasperated.

"But I hope something will be going on", Mulder insisted like a stubborn child. "And... we won't be alone. I've asked Officer Hayes and he'll give us some of his people as backup."

"Very reassuring, Mulder", Scully shook her head, knowing she just wouldn't be able to talk him out of it.

"So if you don't mind Scully, lets go grab a bite to eat and then we can chase will-'o-the-wisps!", he awarded her with a broad smile which seemed to melt away all her resistance.

"Ok, let's go", and off they were.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The moor

Mulder parked the rental car on the big parking lot right on the edge of the moor, close to the house where Jarryd Spencer had found help after his ordeal.

As the agents left the car and met up with four local police officers, it was getting dark. Mulder checked his watch, it was just after 10pm.

"Agent Mulder? I'm Daniel Vaughan. We know about where that boy had the encounter with that thing so we're going to lead you there. Do you have flashlights?", one of the officers said.

"Yeah, we're all set", Mulder replied.

They followed the officers' lead and walked for about 15 minutes. With every step they took it was getting darker. After a few minutes fog started to build out of nowhere.

"We better stick close together", Vaughan said.

The light of the moon was dipping the moor in an eerie perspective. Darkness, fog, moonlight, the atmosphere was getting tense.

"Mulder", Scully almost whispered as not to disturb the quietness. "Mulder have you noticed that since a couple of minutes ago there are no more animal sounds audible? No crickets, no birds... nothing!"

"Maybe they all went to sleep", Mulder just shrugged.

"Very funny!", Scully wondered why she was even bothering to tell him her observations.

Two minutes later Vaughan turned and said: "This is the spot where he must have seen it. So what do you want to do next?"

"Observe", Mulder stated flatly.

They all looked about trying to pierce the fog and trying to see what could not be seen.

"Mulder, what's that over there?", Scully asked grabbing Mulder by his arm.

Mulder turned around looking into the direction Scully was pointing in. He could make out a dim light, vague... but he was sure he saw it. He must be seeing it, if even Scully saw it.

Then the light disappeared. With a look at Scully Mulder slowly took a few steps in the direction where they had seen the light.

"Mulder... we must stay together!", Scully called after him. She was reluctant to leave the group, but she also couldn't let him go alone.

"I can see it again", she heard Mulder's hushed voice. "It's starting to run!" And with that Mulder began to run after it.

"Mulder... wait up!", Scully called in vain. He ran and Scully tried to keep up with him.

After a minute she had to stop. She had no idea where he had gone. She strained her ears trying to pick up sounds, but heard nothing.

"Mulder?!", she called again. No reply.

"MULDER!!!"

TBC... feedback welcome as usual : - )