Title: The Lost and Forgotten
Authors: Shadow's Echo (also known as Cindy from CindyandSandy)
Rating: PG-13 (some swearing!)
Disclaimer: You know what I own and what I do not own. If you cannot tell this with your intelligent little x-phile minds...then you are clearly dumb. But go ahead and read anyway...I like it.
Chapter 21 – Life and Death
Mulder watched Scully as she slept, her delicate skin illuminated by the small rectangles of light coming from the curtain-covered window. Her eyes fluttered every now and then, shortly after she would smile. He could only imagine what she was dreaming. His mind could only wander so far before it strayed into the mischievous. He couldn't help it. He was just like that. The phone jolted him out of his little daydream. Scully's eyes quickly opened, and Mulder's fun was gone. After finding his cell phone he flipped it open and placed it to his ear.
"Mulder," he said, as usual.
"Agent Mulder, this is Lyla, from the school." He glanced at the clock. It wasn't as early as he had thought it had been. 7:47.
"Yes, I remember. Did you find something out?" She sounded a little excited.
"Yes. Amelia came to me this morning and told me she had, well, spoken to a ghost. I'm not sure if I believe her, but she told me she knows who killed the children."
"All of them?" He himself was now excited. This is what they needed. He, unlike Lyla, believed that Amelia might have seen a ghost.
"Yes. Perhaps you should talk to her."
"We'll be there shortly. Thanks." He hung up without saying good-bye. It was like instinct to him now. He hated to get Scully up, but this was more important than naughty daydreams.
They met Lyla and Amelia in Lyla's classroom. They asked Lyla to leave and then began the questioning. They listened as Amelia told them much the same story that she had told Lyla. Mulder drank it all in. The girl looked genuinely scared, yet she seemed quite sure of herself at the same time. He knew she was telling the truth. He wasn't sure on Scully's thoughts, and he was curious to hear her opinion, although he was sure it would be much different from his. He looked back at her when Amelia was done speaking. She didn't seem impressed. It wasn't as if they hadn't heard the same from many other children. A lot of kids claimed to see this boy. But Amelia spoke to him; she even admitted breaking into the room, something Mulder believed anyone could've done from the beginning. He decided to question Patricia Michaels. After all, they hadn't even considered her a suspect, let alone someone to even question. He thanked Amelia for her time once again and told her, after Scully left the room, to tell him if she spoke to this ghost again. Amelia went to class and they listened to what Amelia had told Lyla. They heard the exact same story, which further proved Mulder's beliefs.
He headed to the front office where he found the smiling Patricia. He asked if he could question her and her smile instantly disappeared.
"I don't believe you have a reason to," she told him, matter-of-factly.
"If you would like to call your lawyer we can allow you to do so, although there really is no reason for such a thing unless you know something you don't want to tell us. Other than that, these are ordinary questions. No different from what everyone else has been asked."
"Fine. Go ahead." She looked annoyed.
"Have you heard of a room called the haunted room?"
"No."
"The children in this school talk about it quite frequently. I don't know how you could miss it. They claim the room where all the children were killed at is the haunted room. Now does it ring a bell?"
"Of course I know about that room, but no, I've never heard them talk about it."
"Have you ever been in that room?"
"No."
"Do you know of a boy named Cael?"
"No."
"Not at all?"
"No. Should I?" She now looked very pissed.
"Miss Michaels, how long have you worked here?"
"As long as it's been open. Why? What are you getting at?"
"Nothing, just needed to know. Do you know anything about these murders?"
"No."
"Nothing at all? You can't even tell me when any of them happened?"
"No. I don't keep up with them. I don't really care." Mulder could clearly see a newspaper clipping about the most recent murder by her computer. He chose not to say anything about it.
"Okay, well, thank you for your time." He turned around and Scully followed.
"Mulder why did you leave? She was clearly hiding something. You saw that newspaper clipping on her desk. She was obviously lying," Scully said.
"I know. We need to get more evidence on her. Little lies aren't going to get us anything." He wanted a lie detector test. He needed it.
And, after convincing the local cops that she was it, he got it.
The cops brought her in later that day for the test. She had fought them a little bit, but after convincing her that if she had nothing to hide then she would have no problem.
Apparently she had something to hide.
She failed miserably. After administering the test to her twice, as she asked, they had no doubt in their minds that she was lying. It was more than they could have hoped for. They held her there and further interrogated her. She confessed eventually, after they claimed to have evidence outside of the lie detecting test. They did in fact have a little evidence. They had looked through the room a little more and found evidence that she had been inside. But with her confession they needed little evidence.
The whole bit about the ghost caused her to decide to plea insanity. The jury didn't buy it, and she was put in jail for the rest of her life.
"Scully," Mulder said on their ride home, "Did you ever believe Amelia?"
"What do you mean? Are you asking if I believe in ghosts, Mulder?" she knew where he was going.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
"No, Mulder, I don't. I believe in angels. I believe there are demons who walk the earth. I don't believe that girl saw a ghost. I do believe, on the other hand, that those children were killed by Patricia Michaels which means this was never an X-file." She smiled.
"You always do that. Bring me up, then knock me down. That makes me unsure on why I'm so attracted to you." He looked over just in time to see the eyebrow go up. He realized he was screwed for the night. Then he saw her start to laugh and knew he was okay. Everything was good for once.
Everything was good.
A/N: Well, I hope you all liked it. I guess I can say THE END now. You can still reply if you want. I could make a sequel or something someday. Or I could go off to a different story. Either way review pleez!