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Fox Mulder couldn't help but smile as he noticed the plastic alien on
the night table. 'Cute,' he said.

The woman in her late forties stared at him first as if she didn't
understand what he was on about. Then she looked down at the alien
and sighed, 'Oh yeah. She's always been nuts about aliens. I never
quite understood why. These rubbish things cost quite a bit of
money.'
'Does she believe in aliens?'

'What?' The woman looked up strange at the redhead agent that stood in
the doorway and had asked the question. 'I guess so. She loved shows
like Star Trek and The Outer Limits. I guess she must have believed
in them. I'm sorry, but what has that got to do with her
disappearance?'
'Nothing,' Mulder said, throwing questioning glances at his partner as
if wondering why in the world she would start talking about aliens at
a time like this. Scully just glanced back and raised her shoulders
slightly for only him to see.

In thoughts Mulder's finger touched the plastic alien and his eyes
explored the room to track down what was missing. There was nothing
here to indicate that the young woman had ran away from home, yet
everything in him said that this was the case. There were many young
women who couldn't find their place at home, and just took off.

But here Vickie Moss had just left with nothing on her. Her clothes
were all in the closet, her shoes were all there except for the pair
of boots that she wore, and all of her bags were still present. Her
diary lay on top of the night table, and her make-up was all there.
Nothing indicated that she had ran away.
'I don't understand why she took off,' Mrs. Moss said. 'She had a good
home. We got along even though there was a lot of discussion about
her father. She never told me she was in trouble. As far as I know
she didn't get herself knocked up. But she chose another sort of
life. Why in the world would she do that?'
'Teenagers often have a strange look to life, Mrs. Moss,' Scully said
politely. 'Vickie might have seem perfectly happy in your eyes but in
truth be a very unhappy young woman. Can I ask you why you are so
sure she ran away and wasn't kidnapped?'

'She has taken money out of her bank account yesterday afternoon. The
bank called me this morning because it was a large amount. They
didn't know of course she ran away.'

'Couldn't she have been forced to take off this money? Can it not be
that you will still be contacted for ransom? You are a wealthy widow,
Mrs. Moss. People have done stranger things for lesser money.'

'I'm not that rich,' Elaine Moss protested. 'Sure, my parents left me
some money but most of it has been spent when I bought this house
after my husband took off. Whoever took her, might not know this.
Still, I would have heard something by now, wouldn't I? It's been two
days. No, I know where she is.'
Mulder and Scully glanced at each other again, both expecting Elaine
to come up with the truth soon enough. The woman sighed and sat down,
rubbing her face. 'I cannot believe this is happening again,' she
whispered numb. 'I thought Vickie would be wiser. But no she had to
do it.'
'Do what, Mrs. Moss?' Mulder asked gently as he sat down beside her on
the bed. Elaine took a picture from the night table. It showed three
happy people with no care in the world.

'That picture was taken right before her father died and left me with
her,' Elaine Moss said. 'Of course I should mention that two days
before he croaked, he ran off with a blonde bimbo and dropped our
daughter off at my place after picking her up from school. Since
then, I saw a change in my girl that terrifies me.'

'Why did you wait this long to contact the FBI, Mrs. Moss?' Scully
asked.
'To be honest,' Elaine sighed, 'my daughter is not the easiest of
girls. She's been into some problem a few years ago, and she's got a
reputation of being difficult to handle. But I don't blame her for
that. I blame Henry.'
'Is she on medication or drugs?' Scully asked.

'Not that I know of, but I'm not sure.' Elaine Moss sunk on her
daughter's bed and stared at the picture in Mulder's hand. 'I know
you must think I'm crazy, but I knew she's living with the wrong
crowd at this moment. I know where she is at least I think I know
where she is.'
'Then why did you contact us?' Mulder asked. 'Instead of warning the
police, you called the Bureau and asked for me specifically. I don't
recall us meeting. How did you get my name?'

This time Elaine Moss looked up and said calmly, 'we have a mutual
acquaintance.'
'Who?'

She stood up and left the room, going to a small closet in her own
bedroom where she dug out a photo album that seemed to have been
gathering dust for some time now. She took out two articles and a set
of photos and handed the set to him.
'Your name was all over this case,' she said, as he read the articles
about the case they handled a few years ago. The Temple of the Seven
Stars. The name brought back a lot of memories for Mulder. They were
memories he had never dealt with. And now he stared at Melissa's
photo as it had appeared in the newspapers as one of the many
casualties of a mass suicide.
Mulder couldn't help but swallow away the pain and guilt he had felt
for so long now as he stared at the photos of Melissa and Ephesian.
It all seemed so long ago, yet it felt like it had happened
yesterday. He looked up at the woman, knowing he couldn't hide his
pain.
'Melissa was my niece,' she said softly as she gave him a picture of
the woman he had shared so many lives with. The one he couldn't save.
'My sister is ten years older than I am. She had a daughter way
before I did. Melissa took off to a cult, just like I am sure Vickie
did.'
'I can't help you,' he said, handing her the pictures back. 'Melissa
died and that case was closed two years ago. Cults is not my
jurisdiction. I cannot do this.'

'But you were there. I read about it in the papers. You tried to help
her and the others but couldn't. Now I fear that my daughter has
fallen into the same trap. I don't just fear it. I know it. I read
about it.'
Elaine Moss pointed at the diary on her daughter's night table that
had been left as evidence of her whereabouts. During the past few
days Elaine had wondered if her daughter had left it especially for
her to read, so that she could know where she was if she needed help.

'I remember so much about Melissa,' Elaine said softly. 'She was
everyone's favourite because she was the oldest. She used to come
here when she was little, long before my daughter was born. She
changed. She met Ephesian and she got hooked. He was like a drug to
her. He wheeled her in and kept her in that cage that he called a
Temple. It destroyed my sister. She had to watch in pain as
Melissa changed and eventually disappeared out of sight. When the
Bureau called her to say that Melissa was dead, she collapsed. I
don't want that sort of phone call, Agent Mulder.'

'What cult are you talking about, Mrs. Moss?' Scully asked gently.

'They call themselves Salvation Awaits and claim that they're a help
group for people with problems, issues, whatever. They hand out
flyers and promote their so-called yoga-sessions. You can read the
diary. She wrote about it. She met this man who calls himself
Dominique and got hooked instantly. She skipped school to attend one
of the sessions. Then they recruited her. And the last
passage in her diary says that she went to see them. She hasn't come
back since. Should I draw further conclusions here?'

Elaine continued as her eyes stared outside to the streets with people
that had no cares in the world. 'I know that she has changed. I know
she used to come home on time every night and now sometimes stayed
away for hours. I know she's been skipping classes. One of my friends
saw her wondering around the Square, talking with those people. He
warned me about them, and said that there was a large group of people
mostly women already living in an old school that they
renovated right outside of town.'

Mrs. Moss turned to Mulder and said, 'I heard rumours that there was
something going on between you and Melissa. I informed myself about
this case. I know you tried to help here and persuade her not to go
back to that ... nut. What I want from you now, is to stop this from
happening to my daughter as well. If and when she's in a cult, I want
her out of there before they decide to kill themselves
too.'

Mulder nodded slowly. Scully glanced at him. It was his call to make.
Then he simply nodded and said, 'We'll talk to our superior and see
what we can.'
Scully glanced at Mulder, speaking for the two of them as she said,
'Cults fall under the FBI's field of expertise. I'm sure we will have
no problem assigning ourselves to this case.'

'Thank you,' Elaine sighed. 'Thank you so much.'
She turned and left the room, leaving the two of them inside. Scully
looked at Mulder, walked over to him and put her hand on his arm.
'Mulder,' she said softly, forcing her partner to look at her. 'You
don't have to do this if you don't want to. There are enough
colleagues that can take over. I know how sensitive this lies '

'You know,' Mulder said, interrupting her before she could finish her
excuses, 'when Melissa died, I felt like I owed it to her to go to
the funeral, but I didn't. We didn't go. I know that to most of us
thought she was just a victim in a case that we couldn't help. So I
didn't go, and I felt regret afterwards that I let her be buried
without saying goodbye to her. But I knew we would meet
again not in this life but in our next. It seemed useless to mourn
her death.'
'I know ' Scully began, but Mulder raised his hand and looked at her.

'There's always been something missing in my life, Scully. It's like a
gap that only she could fill in. I know that now. She was supposed to
be part of my life. If only we had met under different circumstances,
she might still be alive and I might '

'- No, Mulder,' Scully interrupted. 'Melissa fell into the wrong hands
but that happened long before you met. Everyone makes his or her
choices early in life. You met, probably because you believe it was
destined. But you couldn't have saved her. For that, it was already
too late.'
Mulder sighed, looking aside. 'I shouldn't talk about this,' he said
quickly. 'It's been so long ago.'

'No,' she said, 'I want you to talk about it. You mourn her. You have
every right to.'
'It's been too long. I can hardly remember her face.'
'No, you remember every feature of it. But she rests in your heart,
Mulder. Like everyone that is dear to you, rests in your heart. She's
there with your sister with Samantha.'

He smiled. 'Thank you.'
She smiled back as her fingers lingered on the back of his hand and
they both felt the connection that had been established so long ago.