"He didn't seem like himself."

"We couldn't find him for hours.

"Did he hit his head?"

"He said it was a tree branch that scratched him."

"Agent Mulder? Can you hear me?"

"'Mulder? Can you hear me?"

"Always," he tried to say to Scully, hearing the worry in her voice, but his brain and mouth were having a hard time working together.

He felt light, confused, and tired. So very tired.

What had happened?

His eyes were heavy and felt nearly impossible to open, but he forced them to do so.

A hospital room, so brightly lit, he closed his eyes again.

Wrong. It was all wrong. There was something he was forgetting. Something important.

Stepping stones. A house. The sounds of crying.

Where was that little white house? How had he even found it?

"Mulder, can you hear me?"

Scully squeezed his hand, but he barely registered it, as the memories came rushing back to him…

A woman stepped through the door of the house, pausing to smile at the world around her as she closed the door. He watched her, in her light blue dress and basket of flowers on her arm, and knew immediately that it was Sarah Blackwell. The paintings and drawings had captured her likeness, but here she was softer, more vibrant.

She's alive, you idiot, he thought to himself and then shook his head. No. She wasn't, not really.

But she was, at least for that moment and he had no intention of missing a second with her.

She walked up the path, not seeing him, and the closer she got, the more he panicked, until she walked right through him and he felt it like an icy blast of air.

He turned around, but she did not seem to have noticed. Following her, they walked through the cemetery where she stopped to lay flowers on random graves until her basket was empty.

She continued on, walking to the edge of the cemetery, singing softly to herself. Stepping onto a dirt path, she disappeared from his sight.

He looked all around, but she was gone. He stepped to the edge of the cemetery, but stopped, somehow knowing that if he went further, he would never be able to get back to this place.

The sound of laughter behind him made him whirl around and he hurried through the cemetery to find her now sitting on a quilt with a man, a picnic lunch between them. She shook her head and he laughed, taking off his hat and placing it beside him.

Spotting a flower in the grass, he plucked it and offered it to her. She smiled, turning her head and he placed it behind her ear, tucking a piece of her long golden hair with it. His hand cupped her cheek and that simple gesture felt more intimate to Mulder than a kiss.

Coughing caused him to turn again and he saw the same man sitting in a chair where the picnic quilt had been, his health greatly diminished. Sarah came out of the house with said quilt and wrapped him in it as he coughed again, staring at her with sad eyes.

Obadiah, Mulder thought, as he watched Sarah press her forehead to his and hold his face tenderly.

"Please, Father," Sarah was pleading, standing on the stepping stone path, grabbing the arm of an older man. "There has to be something you can do for him."

"There is not, Sarah. I have done all that I can."

"But the book, you haven't tried-"

"Enough!" her father shouted and birds cried as they flew away. "You do not know of what you speak. You are only a woman and not learned in doctoring."

"He is my husband!"

"Yes, and you should be making arrangements for his service, not trying to change the inevitable. I am sorry, Sarah."

Her father walked away and when he was gone from her sight, she fell to her knees and cried.

A fire burned inside of a rock pit, a large hanging pot steaming above it. Sarah came out of the house, the sound of coughing following her.

"This one will work. I know it will."

Using a large spoon, she stirred the pot as she wiped her tears from her eyes.

Bottles were smashed to the ground and Sarah was held by two men as her father yelled at her for meddling and possibly poisoning her own husband. She was taken away, despite her loud cries and protests, her father firmly shutting the door to the little house.

In the cemetery, a small group stood by an open grave, a plain wooden casket beside it. Mulder walked over slowly, staring at Sarah as he got close, her face pale and sad.

The picnic quilt was out again, though no food was present. Sarah sat on her own with a flower tucked behind her ear, Obadiah's hat in her lap, as tears ran down her face.

Her father knocked at her door, calling for her to answer, but she kept the door locked, staring at the door angrily until he finally left.

She wore only black dresses, sitting in the cemetery at Obadiah's grave, in her small garden, in the forest, or cooking something over the outdoor rock pit.

Another funeral, but she did not join. She watched from her little house, laying white flowers on the grave only after everyone had finally gone.

"I'm sorry, Father. I failed you as well."

Children came and threw rocks at her home, breaking windows that she then repaired herself, eventually boarding them up completely. Women came to her in darkness, asking for help with their crying baby, or a feverish child. She never turned them away, always giving what she could, even if she knew the same women spoke ill of her after they had left.

She stood outside of her home as men and women set fire to it and Mulder realized with a start that she had died and what he was witnessing was her spirit remaining behind.

The house caught fire, the flames dancing high into the air and Sarah disappeared.

It was dark, the house long since gone. Grass grew over the remains, trees grew taller, and more headstones were added to the cemetery. No one ever lived in that area again, as stories whispered on the breeze that it was haunted.

"A witch lived there."

"The house was haunted."

"She drank her own poison by mistake."

Mulder heard the words, but did not know from where they came. Then he saw her again, emerging from the forest with her golden hair down her back, and a black cloak fastened around her neck and over her black dress.

She walked straight to the cemetery and laid white flowers upon the graves of Obadiah Blackwell and James Merchant, standing over her father's grave with a shake of her head.

Turning her head, she stared directly at Mulder, her expression unreadable, and then she was gone.

Time went by, how long he could not tell, but then he heard someone crying in the cemetery. He walked over and saw a young woman, crying at Sarah's grave, pleading and asking for guidance.

He heard what sounded like quiet footsteps and then he saw her again, coming to stand behind the crying woman. She knelt down and as he watched her lean down, embracing the woman from behind, he realized that the young woman was Fauna.

"I'm sorry," Sarah whispered, closing her eyes. "Please don't harm yourself. The world may always feel that it's against you, but the choice is yours to give it that power."

Fauna breathed deeply and her crying ceased. She touched her shoulder, her hand on Sarah's, though Mulder knew that Fauna could not actually feel her.

"Thank you," Fauna whispered, smiling as she wiped her tears.

Sarah stood to her feet and walked towards Mulder, her eyes hard as she stared at him.

"You can see me." he said incredulously, wanting to know everything.

"Yes."

"How are you-"

"Not yet," she whispered with a shake of her head. "It's not time yet. Get out of here. Go back."

"I don't want-"

"Did you hear me?! I said GO BACK!" she shouted, her hands raised up as if to push him.

Having never seen this side of her, it scared him and he stumbled backwards, falling out of her world and back into his own, landing hard onto his left side, his head connecting with something rough.

He sat up and looked around, not having any idea where he was, blood running down his face. Stumbling to his feet, he shuffle-walked until he hit a paved road and turned right, somehow knowing that would lead him where he needed to go.

The motel in sight, he let himself in and walked directly into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, forgetting everything that had happened.

"Agent Mulder," a man's voice said and Mulder opened his eyes immediately. Peter Blake stood before him, his expression serious. "It's time now. She's waiting."

Mulder sat up as if he had known this was going to happen and got out of the hospital bed. Peter handed him his clothes and waited as he dressed.

"Don't come with me," Mulder said to Peter as he opened the door. "Stay here. I want to know you're safe. For your sake and Gina's. She deserves that at the very least."

Peter nodded and Mulder nodded back, walking out the door, out of the hospital, and getting onto a bus that seemed to be waiting for him.