Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners, saints
As you hear this tale
Just call me Lucifer
Cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me have some courtesy,
Have some sympathy and some taste
Use all your well earned politics
Or I'll lay your soul to waste.
Rolling Stones
The girls eyed the three adults as if they were going to eat them alive. Frannie, Mulder knew, was gonna spill, and spill big time. She did not let him down.
"We met in a chat room" she began having acquired tissues from Agent Scully as Agent Starrling did her best to not reach across the room and kill the sniveling little brat. "At first it was just, well you know, we would all chat about usual stuff. Not one of us had an idea where this was gonna go..."
Reesa piped in here, the blonde turned her charm onto the male agent, as if appealing her case. "We just didn't want to end up like the other girls in our towns. They all got knocked up and never went anywhere. Then they would spend their time popping out snot nosed little Cretans and all the while complaining about how fucked up their lives were, when in all actuality it was their own faults."
Scully and Starrling exchanged almost knowing looks. They had known of girls like that, reaching for the wedding ring instead of the brass one. "So you took matters into your own hands?" Clarice asked to not one in particular.
"Jordy said that we were special, that we could choose our own destiny. She made us believe." Mulder noted how rare it was for a female character to display such traits; he was reminded vaguely of Jim Jones and spiked Kool-Aid.
"The first time we got together, we were just gonna have one of those chat room parties, you know? We were gonna all drive out to Pittsburg and have a little fun. Sixteen of us made it out there, not counting Jordy who already lived out there."
"Yeah, our Fearless Leader." Reesa huffed.
Frannie went on, unaffected by Reesa's sneer. "Jordy got us out there to this abandoned boarding school. It was kinda creepy and reminded us a little of Camp Crystal Lake. It kind of got us into the mood."
"Did you do anything that first night?" Mulder asked from his perch.
The two girls exchanged another series of glances before Reesa broke in. "She brought this cat, it was a black cat. She said it was a symbol of the evil in all of us."
"She said we were going to kill it with our minds, and then she began to chant. Next thing we were all chanting, holding hands, it was like a force had compelled us to go on. "Frannie was beet red now, and shaking bad enough to cause her speech to stutter.
"Ten minutes later, the cat in the cage keeled over dead. None of us knew what to do, Jordana whooped so loud we all thought we would get busted. She was always saying how we were above the law, how we wouldn't get caught, how we answered to know one but…" Reesa trailed off, afraid to mention the name, but everyone in that office knew what she would not speak.
They were Satan's special girls.
"Next thing we knew, no one could touch us, we were acing every class in school. There were a few odd side effects, but nothing none of us couldn't handle. It was such a fucking high. "Reesa's giddiness shook the three seasoned agents, and alerted Mulder to the fact that he was indeed looking into pure evil.
"Who was your first kill Frannie?" Mulder asked, he knew he would be able to get it out of her.
"We never killed anyone," Reesa defended. "We only used animals for our-"
"You forget Reesa; I read your little book." He waved in front of her.
"I never signed my name to it." She spoke up, nose in the air as if this were all far beneath her.
Starrling had had enough; in fact she had quite gotten to the point where she was ready to start using less the policy tactics on these girls, the kind that the brass pretended no to notice." All right then, that being said," she clapped her hands together, and walked over to the door, opening it for effect. "You two are free to go, we don't think there is anything any of you can help us with." she motioned for them to leave.
After yet another exchange of looks the two girls went bone pale, Frannie looked as if she were going to grovel, and Reesa had finally lost the smug tug of her mouth. "We came here to get your help." Reesa pouted at Mulder. She was the kind of girl used to be able to pull any man any age to get what she wanted.
"And we offered that help in the exchange of information, you two seem to believe this is all a game. " Mulder railed, surprising the smug blonde so much she jumped. "There are fourteen dead girls and a crazed maniac killing you off, and all you can do is sit there and whine about how you had nothing to do with this. Give me a break!" Mulder slid off the desk and joined Starrling by the door.
"That's just it." Frannie finally squeaked. "We think we know this guy."
"We aren't offering up nothing without some reassurances. " Reesa huffed, having watched too many episodes of Law and Order.
Starrling had moved so fast, that neither Mulder nor Scully had the chance to catch her; she scooped up the girl by her neck and slammed her against the closest wall. "Now you listen to me little girl." She hissed, as the other three in the room watched in disembodied fascination. "I don't have a whole lot of time or patience for your crap right now so I am going to make myself very clear very quickly.' Reesa's face was starting to lose color, and her breathing was coming at a clipped, tortured rate. And yet she wisely found the strength to nod in agreement.
"Starrling turned to the other girl, "Give me a name now." She said so authoritatively that Mulder almost snapped out an answer.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Neither one of them spoke as they suited up to ride over to the home of Howard Bearse. The name of the man that had for the last year tried to infiltrate the group that the girls had formed. He had first begun by dumping into their private chat rooms, no great offense over the internet, more of the work of an annoying little worm.
But, after a time he had become more insistent, the group had decided to change chat rooms, and after a time he had found them. They were sure they were being stalked, though no one had ever seen what he looked like, Reesa claimed that they felt him at the meetings.
After Starrling had released the elusive Reesa, she suddenly had become quite the little chatterbox, relating details of their cult behavior and readily answering every question they had. For a second, even just a split second while Starrling had the girl up against the wall, Mulder believed Starrling would take a bite.
Once information had been assessed, they gathered in the basement office checking their weapons and adjusting their gear. Starrling grinned as she watched Mulder strap in his second holster. "Hey Mulder," she grinned lifting up her left pant leg, revealing her own personal stash. "Separated at birth?"
Mulder grinned taking a good look at her holster, they were identical. "I'm starting to wonder Starrling," he smirked, "You sure you don't remember anything about a handsome dark haired big brother and a government conspiracy?"
"In your dreams Mulder,"
The three had sped off in different directions yet with the same mission, trying to nail down the current residence of the right Howard Bearse. There were twelve in the four state residences that the girls lived in, but Mulder and Starrling believed he was either from the Pittsburgh area, or recently moved there.
"Why?" Scully asked whipping her head back between the two.
"For one," Mulder began while checking the computer for the hundredth time, "The meetings took place in Pittsburgh, and he was present for all of them, or so the two girls believe."
"And Two," Starrling ticked off from the other side of Scully, "The leader of this little group was killed almost last, which tells us that this was too close to home that he was afraid of getting caught.'
Scully could not help but feel like they had accidentally stuck her in the gifted class. She resisted the urge to drag the two of them down into the Underworld and show them what feeling lost really felt like. Come into my realm, she giggled silently.
They were right, the address for the Howard Bearse was for Pittsburgh, PA. He fit the bill, twenty two, well built, menial job.
And a recent Seminary reject.
Mulder was in full gloat mode half of the way there, the other half he spent tryi9ng to get into Clarice Starrling's head, at least in the first foot hold.
"What went on back there Starrling?" he asked as gently as he could remember to be.
"She was rude Agent Mulder, and there is no excuse for rude behavior." She didn't meet his glare as they sat in the back of the transport van.
Mulder didn't like her too close semblance to Hannibal, but he left it alone in favor of discussing field tactics, she was a real whiz with that.
The run down residence of Howard Bearse was situated right next to the Potter's Field in a small suburb of Pittsburgh. The house looked like something off of a horror movie, and as they approached the crumbling front stairs, guns drawn and a fleet of agents behind them, Mulder wondered if the house would survive the raid.
Of course he wasn't there, they all figured he would have vacated the residence right before or right after the most recent murder. The house was not so bad inside, almost had a warm feel to it. Ancient furniture and paintings covered the layout, and they advanced through the house with a caution learned from countless numbers of similar raids.
When they arrived in the attic, all bets were off. The room upstairs was huge, and covered floors walls and ceilings with pages from the Bible.
"This guy has seen The Omen too many times." Scully sneered.
Mulder and Starrling snickered at her observation, then Mulder spoke up. "Actually Girls," Mulder spoke, ignoring the swats from both women on either side of him. "I think he is trying to insulate himself in here." He fingered the crinkly pages of the walls. "See? There is an altar over in the corner." He also pointed out the candles, and a brass bowl that looked as if it had held blood a few times. "I think this is where he worked; we need to get an investigative unit up here right away."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fox Mulder entered his apartment, having bid a temporary good night to the other agents accepting a ride from the FBI Transport. They had gone out to the house with some hopes, but this case was starting to really stretch Mulder's sense of reality. For one, these girls were not the innocent victims that they wanted people to believe, he had not gotten it out of them yet, but he was sure they were responsible for some deaths themselves, though not directly.
Secondly was the eroding mental state of Agent Starrling, he knew he did not know her all that well, but he had enough psychology degrees behind him to know when someone was buzzing the tower and not trying to miss it. She was shredding out and he wondered how long she had been going down hill. Had she always had a propensity for losing it? Or did Hannibal make off with a big chunk of her high functioning brain.
Mulder did not believe either; Mulder believed this had to do with the way the FBI was run. Clarice Starrling had stepped on a lot of toes when she, nothing more than a trainee not even out of Quantico yet, had hunted and found Buffalo Bill. Had she been a man, Mulder believed she would have Crawford's job in Behavioral Sciences. He himself had been dubbed a 'wunderkind', and had the Bureau on its knees to him. Too many 'good ole boys' didn't like the tone of her, she was brusque, tough, smart and didn't play patty cake with the brass. Not to mention the fact that she was a stunningly beautiful woman.
But, he was not only form a prominent background with friends in high places, he was also in possession of the one thing many in the FBI seemed to hold in high regard when it came to promotion and recognition—he had a penis.
He wasn't feeling right, and he had not been home in over three days, his first check of his fish proved that at least three of them had survived the most recent neglect. He walked over to the tank and kicked something that had not been there before.
The package was addressed to him, and had an odd return address. Absently he shook the box before attacking it with the letter opener from atop his desk. Brushing aside the Styrofoam peanuts, he shook free the deflated object and released it from the tangle.
"Damn It Scully," He breathed as he examined the anatomically correct, bikini clad, alien blow up doll. "You know as well as I do they are grey, not green."
This was war.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dana Scully ran her bath the minute she hit the front door, right after kicking her shoes across the living room floor and not caring where she would have to dig them out from later. As her bath collected, she collected her mail, and put on water for a cup of tea. In the kitchen, she eyes her super sized box of candy on the kitchen table. Grinning, she opened the box and popped one into her mouth.
At least he had good taste, she purred as the confection melted into her mouth, she turned off the kettle, grabbed the box and headed into the bathroom.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
She fumbled with the keys, trying to get into the duplex before the phone stopped ringing. Clarice Starrling could stare down any gun toting drug dealer and his cohorts, she could serve warrants to Mafioso in the middle of a Family meeting, hell she could even hunt down half crazed cannibalistic murderers. But just don't let that damn phone ring while she is trying to get in the front door.
"Damn it," she screamed as she dropped the keys. Taking a deep breath, she picked them up, casually opened the door, and strolled over to the still ringing phone.
"Hello," she panted into the phone.
"Clarice," he purred. "Did I catch you in the middle of something? Are you being a naughty girl with that new friend of yours?"
"Dr. Lector," She silently prayed her pounding heart was not audible through the phone, but knowing Lector the way she did, she was sure he could smell it.
"Don't bother trying to trace me Clarice," he went on in that fine metallic voice of his. "I'm on a disposable cell phone, I am sure you being the mighty huntress that I know you to be, you well understand the validity of my statement."
Oh yeah, she knew well.
"What do you want Dr. Lector?" She asked hitting the record button on her answering machine.
"Clarice, now that is not polite. I take great care for us to have a civilized conversation, and you try to brush me off. Is her there Clarice?"
"Who Dr. Lector?" she knew she should not encourage him, but on some level this was mildly intriguing.
"Clarice, I think you know that I am a relatively intelligent man, and one of quite impeccable intuition. "His voice, she fumed, damn his voice could race without picking up speed. "That Mulder you have become fond of. Are you close Clarice? Does he excite you? Does he want to fuck you?"
"Dr. Lector, I am surprised at your choice of words," she had found long ago that much like a child, it was usually good to try and redirect Lector.
"The FBI has no love for you Agent Starrling, you can pour your heart out to them, and they will serve it back to you still beating, still longing for some sort of cadence. This Mulder, tell me Agent Starrling, does he have your heart?"
"Dr. Lector, why don't you tell me where you are, we can meet, I can haul your ass in…"
"That's my girl," he went on, "Always thinking. No Clarice, it is not our time yet, but perhaps…. soon." He paused for a moment. "In the mean time, you are to behave yourself." He hung up then, leaving her feeling cold, and empty.
Oh yeah Lector, she mused dragging a load out of the washer, our time is coming.
Ahhh yes, you know his royal evilness had to be inthis...hmmm ownder who would win?
