Chapter Eleven
Sarah Palmer screamed, suddenly reverting back to herself. She carried on screaming. People in the dark room were beginning to panic. Scully followed her line of sight to a window on the other side of the dining room. Something moved in the silver light, like a mane of hair, but nothing she could make out. Scully and Mulder whipped out torches, whirling them round the room.
"Sheriff, stay here," shouted Mulder, "I'm going to check on Albert."
Scully followed him, pushing through people stumbling blindly in the dark. They ran through the lobby and reached the ambulance outside. The doors were open and Albert sat inside, half propped up on the stretcher, holding a blood soaked bandage to a bleeding head wound.
"It was the damn Log Lady," he said. "She came round. Muttered something weird and Cooper just sprang up. Snapped the restraints and everything. Then she whacked me round the head with her log and I went down, well, like a log."
Car tyres spun in gravel, before a vehicle sped away from the Great Northern Lodge car park. Mulder and Scully turned to watch it leave.
"Dammit. Scully, grab the car. I'll get the Sheriff. Albert, I'll get someone to drive this thing, and you, to the hospital."
Mulder raced inside, nearly running into Sheriff Truman heading in the other direction. Over the Sheriff's shoulder he saw the lights were back on in the dining hall.
"Donna is missing," said the Sheriff, exasperated. "No one saw what happened." They jogged back into the hall. Audrey was crying. Sarah Palmer sat in a chair staring. Norma was pacing around, angrily tearing down the decorations. Audrey joined in, grabbing the table cloth next to her and pulling, scattering and smashing glasses on the floor. Truman grabbed Norma.
"Norma! I know you're upset but we need your help. There's an injured man in an ambulance outside. Can you drive him to the hospital?"
For a moment Norma seemed to hang in another world. Then she nodded, turned and asked Audrey to look after Sarah.
Scully was in the sheriff's car waiting as Truman and Mulder ran out of the building.
"Donna Haywood is missing. We need to get to Glastonbury Grove now."
The two men were flung back in their seats as Scully pulled away, sirens on, and accelerated down the driveway, headlights piercing into the dark of Ghost Wood.
Pookie, did I hear Norma's voice out there? What's she doing here? And Agent Rosenfield? Is something happening? Why isn't she at the pageant? Did the lights go out again? The lights must have gone out again. These drugs are making my head funny, there's a big white horse in the room, and a mean ol' owl.
They could hear shouting from further up the trail, towards Glastonbury Grove, as they stepped out of the car. Mulder led the way along the path. The trees blotted out the moonlight, leaving only the beams from their torches slipping between trunks to light the way. As they approached the clearing they saw a fire burning in its centre. The Log Lady stood behind it, Donna lay one side, and Agent Dale Cooper they either. Neither were moving. Mulder, Scully and Truman looked at each other in the shadows. The flames cracked and the Log Lady's voice drifted through the trees, speaking an unknown language. Another voice called out:a commanding tone above the chanting and crackle of the fire: "Margaret!"
The three looked on as Major Briggs stepped out of the shadows and into the circle of sycamore trees, next to Donna's body.
"Margaret, this is not the way," he said.
"Sacrifice a queen to save a knight," she replied. "Although she is a black queen indeed, and he is the whitest of knights. We have to return the balance."
"Margaret the imbalance has twisted you," shouted the Major. "I cannot allow this. You've become misguided. This sacrifice is an act of blood, not love, can't you see?"
He ran towards her and the two began to grapple over a jar carried by the Log Lady. Mulder ran into the circle of trees, closely followed by Scully and Truman. All three began shaking. They lost control of their limbs which flopped uselessly by their sides. They stared, paralysed at the shifting scene in front of them. Mulder's head shook violently, like strong hands were forcing him to look. He saw a great white horse lying on its side. In the centre of the fire lay a bearded lumberjack, but he wasn't burning: he seemed to be generating the flames. The hands of the Log Lady and the Major were moving faster, each trying to break the grip of the other. The motion began to blur. Donna and Agent Cooper sat upright and began to hum. Their eyes stayed shut. The humming got louder and the flames began to lick around the shifting hands of the Major and Log Lady. They continued to stare intently at one another as their hands blackened. The bodies of Cooper and Donna lifted their heads to the sky suddenly, emitting a scream, their eyes now wide open. Mulder winced. He wanted to turn away, but he could not move. He felt sick, and shook again. An owl burst from the wide open mouth of Dale Cooper.
Scully's head was twisted up, as if her hair had been pulled down. She could not see anything: no stars, no clouds, no moon: just black emptiness on the roof of the world.
Truman felt his eyes cast backwards and forwards in time. He saw the formation of the mountains that gave Twin Peaks its name. His vision sped through millions of years. He saw the end of the world and knew whether it was the fault of his namesake or not. Then he forgot.
The Major and the Log Lady dropped the jar and both vanished the moment it touched the floor. The fire rose up, off the ground pouring rapidly into space. Scully, Mulder, Truman, Cooper and Donna slumped heavily to the ground. An owl shrieked and swooped into the darkness.
Scully, Truman and Mulder awoke at the same time, staring up at a fat silver moon that hung right above the clearing. The Log Lady's log lay in the centre of the circle, Donna was sat up, weeping quietly. Agent Cooper was dead.
At the hospital Lucy Moran sighed with sore relief. Her two babies were healthy. After the miscarriage, just months after pageant incident, she and Deputy Andy Brennan now had two beautiful twins, a boy and a girl.
Agent Albert Rosenfield, a bandage around his head, shook Andy by the hand. "Congratulations deputy, on, um, breeding." Norma sat by Lucy, holding her hand. "What are their names Lucy?"
"Well, we both like the letter J, so the boy's name is Jean, and the girl's name is Judy."
Judy began to wail, her high pitched screech tearing at the ears of those present in the hospital room. Lucy smiled. "Judy, because she's singing like Judy Garland." The boy smiled serenely.