Part 31.
John jogged up the front steps of Monica's apartment building, with Scully and Mulder right behind him. He made mental notes of who he saw coming and going as he climbed the staircase up to her floor. Just in case.
When he reached the fourth floor, he found himself jogging to her apartment. But just as he reached her door, he halted to a stop with Scully and Mulder almost slamming into him. They had their guns drawn before John could signal to them what was wrong.
Monica's door was partially open.
John slowly, so very slowly, eased the door open with his foot and peered in. The apartment was dark but the sun streaming in through the French windows gave John enough light to scope the place out.
Not seeing anything, John slowly entered the apartment, his gun in his hands and in position. He went to the right and Mulder went to the left. Scully went straight toward the couch and the sliding doors leading to the balcony. Scully signaled that she saw nothing and John and Mulder also did the same. John then crept towards what looked like Monica's bedroom.
Seeing a light suddenly turned on though the doorway to the bedroom, John shoved the door open with a bang.
"Don't move! FBI!"
The man standing by Monica's bed dropped the flowers he had been holding and looked at John with total panic.
"Put your hands up where I can see them! Now!"
The man did as he was told and John slowly approached him. Scully and Mulder had entered the room by now and both pointed their guns at the guy. Mulder grabbed the telephone cord and tied it around the man's wrists as John grabbed him and shoved him out of the bedroom.
They went into the living room where John practically tossed the guy onto the couch and kept his gun trained on him.
"All right, start talking. Who are you and what the hell are you doing in this apartment?"
"FBI?" The man asked weakly and looked like he was going to throw up.
"I said what the hell are you doing here?"
The man just stared at him and looked green.
"Oh great." Scully went over to him and looked closer at his face.
Scully then stood up and yanked the guy up with surprising strength as she hauled him to the bathroom. Mulder could hear the guy throwing up and rolled his eyes as he flopped down onto a chair. John just stood there, frustrated that he was getting no where and that this guy was either hot for Monica or was working for the Red Guns.
John had a feeling it wasn't the latter as he remembered the flowers the guy had dropped.
Oh great.
A couple of minutes later, Scully marched the guy back into the room and pushed him onto the couch.
"Sorry. I've never been ambushed by the FBI before."
"Ever break in and enter before either?" John glared at him as he spoke.
The guy lowered his eyes sheepishly and shook his head.
"Look, I just think Monica is…you know…really beautiful and I've been wanting to ask her out for dinner all week. I live down the hall and met her the day she moved in. She's hot and you know…but she kept ignoring me and I never really saw her by the elevators much after that."
"I wonder why." Scully rolled her eyes and looked at her watch.
"Okay, so then what the hell are you doing in here?"
"Well, I haven't seen her around for awhile so I thought she might be sick. So I picked up some flowers and was going to bring them to her and then I saw her apartment door was open so I thought…that maybe…I'd leave them for her in here."
"And you ended up in her bedroom?"
"Well, can you blame me?"
John wanted to throttle him but instead shoved his gun into his holster and stuffed his hands into his jacket.
Mulder grabbed the guy, untied him, and shoved him out of the apartment with a warning.
Closing the door, Mulder chuckled and put his arm around Scully, who did not look amused.
"Even though the guy's a wimp, I feel for him. Imagine being that stupid."
Scully shoved his arm away and walked to the balcony. Mulder narrowed his eyes in confusion and turned toward John.
"So, what do you think the next step is?"
John turned around and looked at him. "You tell me, 'cause I got nothin'."
Mulder looked at him sympathetically and nodded.
"Lets go back to the motel and come up with a plan."
All three left and as they were walking down the street to where they had parked, Mulder remembered he had forgotten to get Monica's answering machine, which was the whole reason why they had gone to Monica's apartment in the first place.
John volunteered to go back and walked back up to Monica's apartment. As he reached the fourth floor he saw Agent Ryan opening Monica's apartment door.
"Hey, hold up!"
Agent Ryan looked at John and began running down the hallway. John chased him. Agent Ryan slammed into the stairway and ran up, with John at his heels.
They burst out onto the roof where Agent Ryan looked around in a panic for a way down.
John whipped out his gun and pointed it at Agent Ryan.
"What, aren't you guys suppose to never die? You're really afraid I might shoot you?"
Agent Ryan stared at John as he slowly back toward the edge of the roof. John felt dizzy under Agent Ryan's stare but forced himself to concentrate. He still didn't know very much about the Red Guns, but he knew enough to never let his guard down.
Suddenly, a sharp pain gripped his chest and John cried out in pain and dropped his gun. He collapsed onto the ground, his hands grasping at his heart. Then he felt himself being forced to look up at Agent Ryan, who was standing on the edge and smiling at John.
"You'll never see her again. Monica now belongs to the Red Guns. Your feelings for her, and her feelings for you…they are nothing. Nothing compared to what she will have with the Red Guns."
Agent Ryan turned around and jumped off the roof.
Part 32.
Monica stared into nothingness. The room was dark again and she had no idea what time it was, or even what day. She didn't even know how long she had been in the basement since she found herself rolling in and out of consciousness.
There were tears in her eyes. She didn't even know how she could have any more tears left. She was so drained of energy, of feeling. Her body was still numb, even her broken wrist felt numb and might as well be separate from her body.
Her only senses that seemed to be working were taste and smell. She could taste the blood in her mouth, and smell the copper smell of blood and filth all over herself. It had been easy to deal with before but now she felt like she was gagging in it.
Suddenly a door opened somewhere at the other end of the basement and the light bulb was flicked on. There was a string attached to the light bulb and Monica watched it, mesmerized.
Agent Ryan walked into the room and stared at her. This was the second time he had been in here and the third person she had seen since she was put down here. She couldn't identify the other two men and they hadn't said anything. They had just given her some crackers and water and then left.
Agent Ryan continued to stare at her and Monica stared at the light bulb that was still swinging. If this had been on some TV comedy show, Monica knew she would have found this hilarious.
Another man entered the room and slammed the door shut.
"What happened?"
Still staring at Monica, Agent Ryan replied, "I almost got it, but her stupid partners from DC stopped me."
Hearing this, Monica came out her daze and listened intently. Agent Ryan didn't really seem to see her, or care that she was listening. It seemed like he was staring right through her a he talked.
"What do you mean you don't have it?"
"One of the agents chased me away and up to the roof. He almost had me. I couldn't get him to stop chasing me until he had his gun pointed at me. I made him think he was having a heart attack so I could have a chance to escape."
"Imbecile! How could you lose your focus so fast? We have been given a task and we must go through with it. Nothing must get in the way, including your stupidity."
Agent Ryan met Monica's eyes briefly and then turned away.
"What about her? She's useless. Too weak. I knew humans would be too weak."
"We have to use her. It's the only way. But I agree that she is weak. Bring her upstairs. We will make her more alert.
Agent Ryan walked over to her and untied the rope on her feet and hands. Then he yanked her up and Monica collapsed when he tried to lead her away. Her wrist started to throb and her whole body was beginning to scream in pain. Red dots began to cloud her vision as her body protested movement.
But Agent Ryan had no sympathy when he saw the look of pained shock on her face. He dragged her up and marched her through the dim room.
At the door he lifted her by her elbows over the step and then set her down on tile floor.
They were in a narrow hallway and the bright light hurt Monica's eyes as she tried to shield them.
Holding her wrist to her chest, Monica hobbled next to Agent Ryan as he walked down the hallway. They reached a staircase and, impatient with her slow walk, he picked her up and carried her roughly up the stairs.
They reached the second floor and he carried her threw a doorway and into a sun filled room. The entire room was white, like the mansion Terrance Fisher owned. Or the Red Guns owned, she thought, and glared up at Agent Ryan. She hated referring to him as an agent but she didn't know what else to call him. Actually, she had a few names, but she couldn't say them with rubber over her mouth.
He set her down on a chair and didn't bother retying her. Probably because he knew she was too weak to even attempt to stand and escape.
Over confident bastard.
Agent Ryan left the room and Monica looked around. Nothing jumped out at her as a tool for escape. Looking over, she saw a door that might lead into a kitchen. Knives were in there, as well as other possible weapons.
First she had to get some strength before she attempted getting up. Looking out the windows, she saw that she was still in a forest. She had no way of knowing if she was still in the same one as before.
She watched the last rays of sun die out as it settled through the trees and darkness crept close.