Scully turned around upon hearing the door slam and click. She hadn't seen an indication of any kind of lock on the door. She began to jiggle the doorknob and pull on the door. "It won't open!"

"What?" Mulder asked turning toward her.

Scully gestured to the door as she sighed. "I said that its locked and it won't open!"

"That's impossible." Mulder replied walking over to the door. "It may be an old door, Scully but that doesn't mean it would lock on its own."

"Fine." Scully took a step back before gesturing to the door. "Be my guest."

Mulder gave her a look before pulling on the door handle. It barely moved at his touch. He tried again. "It's just...stuck or something." He let out a grunt as he attempted to move the door handle again. "See, the door handle I just need to..." He then pulled back as his hand slipped and scraped something sharp on the door. "Ah, shit!" He yelled as he flung out his hand.

"Now do you believe me?"

Mulder reached into his holster and pulled out his gun. "No locked door is full proof against me!" He used his uninjured hand and pointed his gun at the door, firing at it.

"Mulder..."

"I almost got it, Scully! Let me just get one more shot!" He stopped firing as he once again took aim.

"Mulder, stop!" Scully yelled her ears still ringing from the gunshots at the door. "Just put the gun away!"

"What? Scully I can get this door. We can..."

"Look, it's obvious that the door is locked and we can't get it open. And you firing at it, is just giving me a headache!" Scully replied rubbing her temple. "So, PLEASE stop."

Mulder put his gun back in his holster. "So, now what? We just...wander around here in the dark and hope to god someone finds us?!"

"Now just hold on there." Scully replied taking her hand away from her forehead. She looked Mulder straight in the eye. "It was your idea to come in here in the first place! You were the one that wanted to get warm! You were so afraid of catching pneumonia outside! Don't forget that! And now thanks to that decision we are stuck here. So my advice to you is don't complain or you'll get another wound to match your shoulder!"

Mulder was completely amazed by Scully's voracity. He knew better than to push his luck at this point. After all, they said there was nothing worse than a woman who was scorned! And it was true that he had talked her into coming into the house in the first place. "Ok, fine. What do you suggest?"

"You mean you're actually going to listen to me?"

"Yeah."

"I'll have to make sure to write that down in my book of thoughts when I get back." Scully smirked. "Dear, diary, today my partner Special Agent Fox Mulder actually listened to me!"

"Ha, ha, ha. So, seriously what are we going to do?"

Scully shined her flashlight around the room. She noticed there were several candelabras with candles unlit. She then noticed a large fireplace. "You want to ask me what I think we should do? I think we should light these candles and get a nice, warm, fire going. Then, when we get warmed up, I say we take a look at this place."

"Wait, you're suggesting that?"

"Well...yeah. I mean it's obvious we're going to be stuck here right? Might as well find out why this place is out in the middle of nowhere." She shined her flashlight on the walls which reflected several paintings." Why this place looks like it's out of the late 18th century."

"That sounds all good and all, Scully but there's one problem."

"And that would be?"

"Well, if this place is from the 18th century like you say it is....then how do you propose we light the candles? You don't happen to carry a rock and flint in your purse do you?"

"No." Scully replied going into her pocket. "But I have something better." She pulled out a thing of matches. "Ta da."

Mulder's eyes brightened. "You never cease to amaze me, Scully. Just too bad you didn't have a spare tire with you too."

"That's in my purse." She grinned before heading toward the candelabras. "Come on, Mulder. Let's shed some light in this place."

"So the easiest way to do this would be to light one candle and then use that one candle to light the rest, right?"

"Wow, that's pretty good, Mulder. No wonder you graduated top in your class at Quantico." She struck a match and watched as a flame resulted. "Ah, the wonders of the twentieth century." Taking the match, she placed the flame on the wick of a candle and watched as it lit. She then picked up the lit candle and used it to light the rest of the candelabras. She looked at Mulder as she blew out the match. "Not bad huh?" She threw him the matches. "Now, you go do some on your side. Just be careful that the wax doesn't drip down and burn you."

Mulder looked at the matches in his hand. "You remember how I feel about fire, right?"

"You want to be stuck in complete darkness all night? There's no telling what could be living in here over the past century or so. "

Mulder swallowed. "I'll light the candles."

Scully couldn't help but grin as she watched Mulder head toward the other side with his flashlight. "Yeah, I kind of thought you might see it my way." Picking up a candle she went about lighting several other candles in the room. As the room became more lit, she noticed how elaborate some of the architecture was. Whoever had owned this mansion had obviously taken great detail in its décor. Some of the faces in the stone on the fireplace seemed almost life like as the candles flickered on their shapes. They almost appeared to be smiling or even leering at her. Picking up a candle from its holder, she threw it into the fireplace onto the logs already in it. She was pretty sure that it would not light due to the age of the logs but was quite surprised when to her amazement it did. As the flames shot up into the fireplace emitting sparks, she noticed a large painting above it. It appeared to be an oil painting of a man and a young man by the looks of it. As the flames cast their light on it, she could see that the young man had dark hair and was wearing some kind of suit. Scully's eyes ran over the painting. "Boy, weren't you quite the looker back in the day. Hey there, handsome." As soon as she said that, the flames in the fireplace suddenly shot up to an unusual height. And as Scully looked, it appeared that the painting was smiling at her. She also felt a cold chill suddenly fill the room. She began to shiver as she rubbed her arms to keep warm. Even though she was standing in front of a fireplace, cold air came from her mouth as she breathed. She slowly started to back away as her heart beat rapidly. She then felt herself bump into something and turned around and screamed.

Mulder screamed back at her as he jumped.

Scully pushed him. "Dammit, Mulder! Don't do that to me again!" She closed her eyes as she tried to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry, Scully. I didn't mean to, I swear. I'm really...." He then noticed she was shaking. "Are you ok?"

"I'm....I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Mulder reached over and touched her. "Scully, you're freezing." He took her by the hand and led her over to the fire. "God, Scully your hands are like ice. What happened?"

"I...I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" He gently took her hands helping them to get warm by the fireplace. "Something must have happened?"

"Fine. I was....lighting the rest of the candles here in the room. I....went to light the fireplace when I noticed the painting above it."

Mulder glanced above the fireplace. "You mean this painting?"

Scully nodded as she continued to tremble. "And then...I was looking at it and the flames shot up really high in the fireplace. And then this....this strange chill started to fill the room. I got really cold and that's when I ran into you."

"Scully, you want my opinion on what I think happened?"

"Well, it was just a breeze from the outside that drifted in through a crack somewhere. This is an old place you know. It's bound to have plenty of holes and cracks. And it is windy outside."

"Right but if that were the case it would still be cold in here right now, right?"

"Huh?"

"If the wind is blowing outside like you said and it came in through a crack or hole somewhere then this room would still be cold from it. It's not. Not to mention that there is no indication of any wind coming from anywhere. The candles aren't flickering."

"Well....maybe it paused or something?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Come on, Scully! Wind doesn't just pause. Did that storm we were traveling through seem like a calm one to you?"

"Well....no."

"Ok, I know you don't want to hear my theory but here it is." Mulder put his hands on her shoulders. "I think...that while you were looking at the painting you were experiencing a supernatural presence. And that it's something that's linked to this house."

"So, you're basically telling me that I was visited by a ghost right?" Scully let out a chuckle. "Come on, Mulder! I mean I know it's Halloween but could you for once NOT think of anything in that realm?"

"The criteria were all there, Scully! The unexplainable burst of energy from the fireplace, the sudden drop of temperature in the room, the coldness you felt, the way you thought that the painting smiled at you."

"Wait, I didn't say that."

"Well, did it?"

"Well...maybe it did a little but my eyes could have been playing tricks."

Mulder sighed as he shook his head.

"And your....unexplainable burst of energy from the fireplace could just have easily been from the logs in it. I mean it's obvious that this fireplace has not been used in a long time."

"Why do I even try?"

"I'm sorry, Mulder. But I'm just trying to be rational here before I...start believing that that was a ghost! This is an old place and the human mind can play tricks. It can make us see or even feel things that aren't really there."

Mulder threw up his hands. "Oh here we go, again. Just like on Christmas Eve. After everything we experienced in that house you STILL refused to believe that they were ghosts!"

"Mulder that was never entirely proven. Neither one of us could explain what truly happened in there! Even you told me that!"

Mulder ran a hand through his hair. "Ok, fine. Look I don't want to argue about this ok? And aren't you even remotely interested to see what I came back here to tell you?"

"Yeah."

Mulder handed her a candleholder. "Well, for one thing, I found these so if we need to hold a candle we won't burn ourselves."

Scully took the candleholder and placed a lit candle in it. "And the other thing?"

"While I was lighting some other candles around here, I found some rooms upstairs."

"And?"

"And, I was thinking since we are going to be here for the rest of the night, we might as well take advantage of what we have here." He motioned to her with his head. "Come on, I'll show ya." He then started to walk out of the room.

Scully stood for a moment staring at the painting above the fireplace again. Had it all been in her imagination? Was she just being affected by it being Halloween night in a strange place?

"Hey, Scully!" Mulder whistled from across the room. "Ya comin' or what?"

Scully blinked her eyes before leaving the room and catching up to Mulder. "I'm not a dog you know!"

"I know that. I just wanted to make sure you heard me. You seemed absorbed in that painting again. Is that something you want to have in your apartment as a personal item or something?"

"No." Scully replied clearly annoyed. "Can we just forget about it please?"

"Sure thing." Mulder replied as he began leading them up the stairs slowly.

"Mulder, can I ask why you didn't just use your flashlight instead of a candle?"

"Sure, I can answer that easy. It's because for some strange reason, mine stopped working. That a good enough reason for you?"

"Yeah, I would say that just about covers it." Scully replied as she continued to follow Mulder up the winding stairs.

From below the staircase, the figure of a young woman watched as the two agents ventured up the stairs. Her eyes followed them until they were out of sight at the top of the stairs." Watch over and protect them from the evil in this house." She whispered before disappearing in a ball of light.