The Thorn Residence
The Hallowed Compound
6:30 A.M. Thursday
In the past, Scully had thought nothing could bring upon a good night's sleep better than a silk pyjamas set or delving into a good book, but back then she had never experienced what it was like to sleep tucked against Mulder, his arms protectively wrapped around her like a cocoon. They must've shifted in their sleep, but she swore she had never been more comfortable in her life than she was right now with his body heat radiating against her, her body moving occasionally with the rise and fall of his chest.
However, unlike the gentle rhythm she'd fallen asleep to, his breaths were careful and measured - like he was afraid breathing wrong might wake her up. She smiled before pressing a sleepy kiss to his collarbone. "Good morning," she rasped.
"Good morning," he croaked, rubbing his hand up and down her back now that he knew she was awake. His hand shifted the silk of her nightgown against her back and the sensation felt heavenly. She nuzzled against him a bit in comfort, only to feel his own contentment with their position pressing against her abdomen.
"Sorry," he chuckled.
"Don't be. I like it," she replied boldly, shifting her hips against his with purpose.
He moved one hand to cup the base of her skull and tilted her head back by gently pulling on her hair. Mulder was still sleep-ruffled, his hair sticking out every which way while his eyes barely opened, but she could still see the desire written across his face. "I could get used to waking up like this," he murmured before kissing her.
She let her tongue slip out, greeting him eagerly. "Me too," she moaned into his mouth, sliding her top leg over his and coaxing him to roll over onto her. Mulder didn't need to be told twice as he settled comfortably into the vee of her thighs, his hardness pressing intimately against her as he rocked his hips purposefully against her cleft.
"Mulder," she gasped, arching her back as he kissed his way down her sternum. He dragged the thin straps of her dress down her shoulders until her breasts were bared to the morning air, causing her rosy nipples to harden even more.
He licked one nipple teasingly with his tongue before blowing a stream of cool air onto the wetness, causing her to shiver as arousal gushed between her folds. "M-more," she rasped, placing one hand onto the back of his neck encouragingly.
She looked at his face with a smile before watching his head descend to take her other nipple into his mouth. She gasped again for a different reason as her eyeline was filled with a dark figure standing in the doorway.
Mulder hummed against her, thinking it was a gasp of pleasure, but he presumably felt her body freeze and he backed off immediately. "Mu-Robert," she cried out, trying her best to scoot out from under him to cover herself as she motioned towards the door.
He turned his head over his shoulder before lurching into action, violently grabbing the bedspread and flinging it to cover her as he rolled off the bed. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Freddy?"
Scully grabbed the sheet and drew it up to her chin, desperately readjusting the straps of her dress and covertly trying to cover her breasts again while the man leered.
"Don't fucking look at her," Mulder snapped angrily, putting himself in the eyeline between Freddy and her and thus blocking her from the man's view.
Scully didn't know what she was supposed to do right now other than sit there in indignant shock, so that's what she did - just covering herself while watching Mulder loom over the shorter man. "How did you get in here? How long have you been watching us?"
"The front door with the master key, and I'm not entirely sure but long enough," Freddy shrugged, indifferent to Mulder's rage. Scully felt uneasy, both at the knowledge an intimate moment with Mulder had been observed without their knowing, but also at the newfound information that locking their doors had effectively meant nothing this whole time. They were privy to invasion at any time and had no idea.
Mulder took a step forward, looming even closer to the man and seethed, "I don't appreciate you breaking in here, and I don't want you to so much as look at my wife again."
Scully was a feminist by all definitions of the word, but she couldn't deny the flutter in her stomach at seeing Mulder be so overtly territorial over her. Not that she'd ever tell him that. The addition of hearing him refer to her possessively as his wife only heightened that sensation.
"I come with important news," Freddy declared in rebuttal.
"Apparently not important enough for you to just come out and say it instead of voyeuring like a pervert," Mulder spat.
"Everyone in the Hallowed is being called to a mandatory morning meeting," Freddy stated, not even pretending to feel shame about his actions.
"When? Where?" Mulder replied with a sigh.
"The Great Hall," he replied, then looking around Mulder towards the clock on the bedside table, "In twenty minutes."
Mulder apparently mistook the man's action as him trying to take another look at her, because Mulder shot out and grabbed the man by the shoulder, pushing him back so hard that Scully could see the muscles in Mulder's back clench.
"Hey, hey, hey," Freddy tsked. "Don't shoot the messenger."
"Don't make me," Mulder snapped back.
"Twenty minutes," was the only response Scully heard before she saw Mulder shut the bedroom door.
"Are you okay?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.
She loosened her grip on the blanket and let it fall into her lap. "Yeah, are you?" she asked. Now that she was looking at him with the light from the window on him, he looked exhausted. There were bags under his eyes she wasn't used to seeing on his face and he was a little paler than usual. He looked better than he did last night, but not by all that much. Suddenly, Norma's words about her own husband flashed in Scully's mind and her dread grew.
"I think whatever Victor does drains you a bit. As if you have to give away part of your soul every time you cross over to the other side. Alex got weaker and weaker every time he went, yet the other men who didn't go to the other side seemed stronger, like they stole his energy."
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied with a weak sigh.
"Are you sure, you don't look-"
"I think it's just from working in the fields every day. I'm not used to being in the sun that much, I guess," he replied.
It was a weak argument, but she knew they didn't have much time for an interrogation right now. Besides, if all went according to plan, they'd be going home today anyway. She just slid out of bed and went over to the wardrobe, easing the straps of her gown over her shoulders before letting it fall in a heap to the floor. As she was grabbing her day-dress, she heard a low whistle as he murmured, "You're going to kill me if you keep that up though."
She looked at him over her shoulder with a coy smile. He was standing just about a foot away from her, his eyes hungrily roaming over her back as his flagging erection started springing back to life. It thrilled her to know she had this influence over him. "I'll need you alive for what I have planned after we're out of here," she replied before turning her head away from him and slipping the dress over her head.
As she was adjusting the dress on herself, she felt his arms slide around her waist while pulling her closer to him. He pressed a firm kiss to the back of her neck, right over the pink little scar she knew resided there. "I look forward to it," he murmured against her skin, his words loaded with meaning.
She turned around in his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips. It was chaste, but still loving. As she pulled away she caught a look of bliss pass over his face before his eyes fluttered open. "Get dressed, I'll meet you downstairs," she whispered before sliding reluctantly out of his arms and making her way to the bathroom.
Scully still didn't feel great about how Mulder looked, so she quickly grabbed a banana for him and made some toast so he could try and get some for his energy up. He split everything in half, insisting she should eat too, and she did just to indulge him.
They didn't have much time, so after they both quickly used the bathroom they began to walk together to the Great Hall. As they made their way there, they ran into Randy and Laurie who began walking in tandem with them. "Morning," Laurie greeted sweetly.
"Morning," Scully replied kindly, offering the girl some of the banana she was eating.
"Are morning meetings commonplace?" Mulder asked while chewing on his food.
"No," Laurie replied through her own mouthful of food. "This is the first time I've ever heard of one."
Scully's brows furrowed at that. Laurie had been there longer than anyone else, so for her to never have experienced this raised warning bells in her head. "Do you think something's wrong?" Scully asked after taking a quick sweep around them. She knew she and Laurie were safe talking in front of Mulder and Randy, but she didn't want to put them in a bad situation if someone saw.
"I don't know ma'am, they seemed awfully excited about this meeting," Randy replied. "I know I am. Anything that can get me off of fence duty is a welcome occurrence."
"Who's they?" Mulder asked, bumping against her on accident from walking so close.
"I dunno their names, some of the older guys knocked on our door about it this morning. They said Victor was calling us all here," Randy shrugged.
Scully looked up at Mulder who was turning to look at her at the same time. Their home wasn't broken into. She wanted to hope it was just the different style of their messenger - Freddy was creepier than most - but something in her gut was telling her this was off. As if thinking the same thing, she felt Mulder's fingers interlace with her own so that they were holding hands.
Upon entering the Great Hall, nothing seemed all that different from when they were in there a few days ago during the welcome ceremony. The only difference was that it appeared a table had been overturned on the raised platform and a black cloth was draped over the table's legs. The pews were all pressed to the sides of the room, forcing everyone to crowd around the mock-stage like an old Shakepearian show.
Scully looked around and saw Ed was there alone, no Lorraine in sight. Squeezing Mulder's hand to get his attention, she gestured over to the man and tried to convey that she wanted Mulder to ask him about Annabelle. She wasn't sure if they'd managed to perfect their already impressive nonverbal communication skills or if he was just thinking the same thing as her, but he walked over to the man nonetheless.
"Hey, Ed. Is Lorraine with Annabelle?" Mulder asked.
The man looked at them before his gaze darted to the ground, as if too wrought with emotion to face them. "Yeah, um, the antibiotics seemed to work, but she just looks like she's staying stagnant rather than improving," he replied in a strained voice.
"Can you ask-" Mulder started, only for the man to cut him off while his eyes snapped back on them.
"I did. Last night when I knew the meeting was over I went to Victor's house and begged for him to grant us permission to take her to a hospital and he said no," Ed grumbled. "He seemed so excited and preoccupied that it felt like he wasn't even paying attention to what I was saying."
"Don't lose hope," Mulder replied, his true meaning unknown to the man.
"She's dying," Ed whispered, almost to himself. "And they don't care."
Scully felt a tug on her sleeve and she turned around to see Norma standing behind her. Scully smiled sweetly at the woman, thinking she was just being friendly, but then Norma pulled her back slightly so she could whisper in her ear. "Am I hearing correctly? Annabelle is gravely ill?"
Scully rotated her head so she was at Norma's ear and replied, "In my medical opinion, she has a severe case of pneumonia. She's needed to go to a hospital for days, but Victor refuses to let the Warrens take her." Then, for extra measure, she added, "My husband thinks Victor and some of the other men are prepared for her to die. There's a suspicious plot on the composting site."
Norma turned so that they were face to face, a line of confusion appearing on her forehead. "Composting?"
"Yeah, the plots on the side of the community. Robert said he had to dig a very small plot, about three by three feet, but they just told him it was for composting," Scully replied.
All the color drained from Norma's face as she confirmed her fears, "That's the community grave, Katherine."
"What did you say?" Ed whispered, drawing Scully's attention back to him.
She heard Norma slip away and turned to see she was going over to talk to a group of concerned-looking women. "Did she say you had to dig a grave for my little girl?" Ed asked, facing Mulder.
"They told me it was for composting," Mulder replied in a hushed tone. Scully could tell he was on the same page about trying to spread discontent within the community, and it was working. Ed looked about ready to riot, and there was a cacophony of frantic whispers behind her as the news of Annabelle's condition spread to the rest of the community.
"We don't compost," Ed spat as the sounds of men climbing to the stage boomed in the small hall.
"Thank you everyone for coming here this morning," Victor boomed, clasping his hands together dramatically.
The whispers hushed, but the overall agitation of the group was charging the room. Scully could feel that everyone was still on edge, but much like Pavlov's Dog, knew to be quiet while Victor was speaking.
"I'm sure you all are wondering why you're here," he stated with an unsettling smile. He looked like someone who never felt what it was like to smile authentically, instead replicating what he saw though never managing to get it quite right.
"I trust that all of you know how important our community is?" he posed. A few men replied with affirmative 'amen's', but other than that, the hall was silent. "We are our own little family here, and families should remain loyal to their own above all else," he explained.
He took large sweeping steps across the stage, crossing over the black tarp before standing on the other side of it. "That is why we take it seriously when attempts are made to break our family up," he lamented with feigned severity.
His speech was evocative of a sermon delivered on a pastor's pulpit, but with an added menacing undercurrent. "There was an attempt by someone last night to break us up," Victor stated, a glimmer shining in his eye when the community members started shifting uncomfortably.
Scully felt her throat go dry in fear, and from the way Mulder's hand tightened against hers, he was feeling the same. "However, some of our bravest and strongest men were able to reinforce all of your safety," he sighed in mock relief. "The reason I'm gathering you all here today, is to remind you how dedicated we are to keeping you all safe, and what we will do to any threats to our safety."
He didn't wait for a response before he gripped the black cloth in his fist, ripping it away with a grandiose gesture. Screams emitted alongside boastful cheers as Sheriff Halloran's mutilated corpse was revealed, sprawled out across the underside of the table surrounded by a pool of blood.
All of his limbs were twisted in the wrong direction, one of the bones of his arms completely visible. His face was beaten so badly that Scully could see where his skull had given way and his face was starting to concave inward into a bloody mess, his eyes bulging out of their broken sockets as he stared lifelessly into the crowd.
Mulder turned away in horror at the sight, putting the back of his free hand next to his mouth. She couldn't take her eyes away from the horrific sight, the screams of terror happening around her almost feeling miles away. He was dead because of them, and without him, they might be dead soon too.
"Hush now, hush," Victor demanded, his facade cracking lightly as true anger began to shine through.
"Oh my god," a woman from behind them screamed, beside herself in horror.
"Shut up," Victor yelled. "Don't you understand, this is for you! You have nothing without the Hallowed."
"I'm going to have nothing with the Hallowed! You might not be beating her to death, but you're killing my daughter," Ed screamed, reaching his breaking point.
Many voices from the crowd spoke out in agreement, male and female voices alike. Looking around, it appeared the women were in such abject horror they couldn't contain the illusion of docility anymore, and a few of the men who had always seemed less threatening looked furious.
"Annabelle's not getting better because your faith is wavering," Victor replied coolly. "But you should have no fear. You can always see her after," he replied, as if what he was offering was a completely valid solution.
"What are we supposed to have faith in?" another voice called out. "You?"
"You killed my husband!" Norma screamed.
"Your husband was weak," Victor replied, starting to appear overwhelmed by the amount of people lashing out. Scully watched as Mulder looked around quickly, noticing all these people in close proximity were starting an impromptu mutiny.
"You'd be weak without your cronies," Ed shouted before getting shoved to the ground by one of the men standing near him.
Ed kicked the man in the shin, causing him to fall on top of him. After that, everything just became a flurry of motion as men started piling on top of each other - some fighting for Ed and the others for Victor.
Scully looked around and noticed a lot of the women were fleeing the scene, running out of the Hall back towards their homes. Mulder broke away from Scully and kicked the man on top of Ed in the face, grabbing his hand and dragging him away from the group.
"Thanks," Ed rasped, his nose pouring with blood.
Mulder dragged the man away from the brawl towards the exit as Scully followed suit. "Do you know how to hotwire a car?" Mulder asked loudly, trying to be heard over the ruckus.
"Yeah," Ed nodded.
"I think it's best you get your family out of here," Mulder replied, shoving him out of the door.
"I'll send help," Ed replied, nodding firmly before running off towards his house.
Scully looked back at Mulder, noticing he was staring at something intently. Following his gaze, she saw he was looking at Victor being ushered away by Jason and Freddy. "Scully, go to the house, get the guns, and make sure no one stops Ed. Call for help too if you have time," he stated.
"Where are you going?" she asked, even though she had a sinking suspicion.
"I can't let him go," Mulder replied hurriedly. Under normal circumstances, she would have understood, but what he said next was exactly what she feared. "I have to know how he does it. We can't let him get away."
"Why don't I-" she began only to be cut off.
"There's no time," he rasped as Victor disappeared from sight. "Be careful," he pled before taking off, navigating his way around the violent brawl.
"Fuck," she muttered to herself before turning around and running as fast as she could back to their house. Her dress billowed around her as she listened to the sounds of the riot mute into the sounds of her steady breathing. This was not how this was supposed to go, and she was anxious at the thought of Mulder going after Victor without backup.
She needed to get back to him.
Along the way she passed by women who were standing shell-shocked in panic, both at what they saw and what was about to become of their lives. A few turned to look at her, but others stood motionless. Near one of the houses, she saw Randy trying to comfort a sobbing Laurie.
"H-his face," Laurie hiccuped to the man as she approached.
"Randy," Scully yelled, getting his attention.
"Katherine, where's Rob-" he asked, halting as she held her hand up.
"I need you to listen to me," she demanded, continuing upon his nod. "My name is Special Agent Dana Scully and I'm with the FBI. Robert is my partner, we were sent here to shut down the cult. That dead man was the Sheriff of the neighboring town, our connection to the police."
"Holy shit," Randy exhaled, overwhelmed.
"I don't know what Victor or any of these men might pull now that their plans are toppling down around them. I need you to round up all the women and get them inside a house. I don't care which one, but get them out of the way," she explained.
"O-okay," he nodded, before turning to the girl in his arms. "Laurie, I need your help. You know their names, they'll trust you."
"Laurie, you can do this. I need you to be strong," Scully replied softly but urgently.
Laurie looked up at Scully, her resolve strengthening from the connection alone. "Okay," she nodded, turning to Randy to nod again.
"I'm going to make sure you all get out of this safely, alright?" Scully said before taking off running.
In the distance, she could hear Laurie yelling in a strong, confident voice that mimicked Scully. "Rachel, Brigitte, Ginger, I need you to follow me, okay? You're okay. Be strong, ladies."
"I won't let anything happen to any of you, I promise," Randy added.
Who knew she would be relying on Randy after all? Scully thought to herself as she ran up the stairs to her place. This was the same kitchen where, less than an hour ago, she'd been rejoicing about their soon to be freedom. She all but jumped onto the counter, nearly falling from the force. She just needed to get the guns and call 911, she thought as she threw open the cabinet doors.
Only for the cabinet to be empty.
She placed her hand on the bottom of the shelf, grazing the cool wood frantically as if she might manage to make the objects appear from sheer will.
"Hey, girly girl," Tobe cooed lowly from behind her.
She felt her hackles raise as panic washed over her. Fuck.
She didn't have any time to even turn around when she was thrown off of the counter by his hand yanking on the back of her dress. Instead of falling to the floor, she was held in place mid-air by his strength alone. "I've been missing you," he taunted.
"Let me go," she seethed.
"Okay," he agreed, letting go of her roughly so that she fell onto her stomach on the floor.
Knowing that he was about to lunge at her, she rolled onto her back instead of trying to crawl away, bent her knee before jabbing her foot into his crotch as powerfully as she could.
His face contorted in pain as he fell, but he grabbed her ankle while she was trying to retract it, preventing her from getting away. "That wasn't nice, Katherine," he growled, pulling her towards him.
She fell onto her back as he let all his weight fall onto her shin, causing her to cry out in pain. He was trying to break her legs. Just like they did to Rosemary when Neil left. "You've been a fucking tease since you got here," he chuckled, his hands grabbing at her hips.
Looking around, she saw the cord to the toaster was hanging off the counter. Not wanting him to see her movement and stopping her, she tried to distract him. "I'm sorry," she panted, crying out in pain as he pressed his knee more directly onto her bone.
"Oh? Are you?" he asked, his hands slowly moving up her torso.
She laid there, not saying anything in order to give him a sense of false victory, then, as his fingertips barely grazed her breast, she punched him in the throat as quickly and with as much force as she could.
His eyes bulged out of his head as his hands reached up to cup his throat, too taken off guard to do anything but try and catch his breath. Taking this moment, she grabbed the cord as hard as she could, resulting in the toaster slamming across his head. She grabbed it by the middle column before smashing it against his face repeatedly until he fell off of her.
She scrambled to her feet to get away from him, watching as he struggled to gain his bearings. From the way he was fumbling and rolling on the ground, she could tell he didn't have either of the guns or the phone on him. Not wanting to risk him getting back up, nor having any capacity to restrain him, she grabbed a pan from the stove next to her and slammed it over his head for good measure before running out the door.
Scully didn't hear any sounds coming from the house behind her and figured that had been enough to knock him out. However, there was a litany of sounds coming from Randy's house and she figured everyone was safe in there. Moving around her house, she saw tire tracks had ripped up the gravel near Lorraine and Ed's house. They must be gone already.
Figuring there was nothing else she could do, she ran up the hill, being that was the last direction she'd seen Mulder going. Her lungs burned from all her moving and her shins were screaming for her to stop. A few times she even collapsed from the pain, but scrambled back up to her feet in fear that someone else might come and try to stop her.
As she approached the vineyard, she saw a metal flap amongst the green grass had been lifted. Knowing that must be what Mulder had been talking about when he mentioned the gathering point, she made her way to it, looking around cautiously. The place seemed deserted, some men she didn't know laying face down in the grass nearer to the Great Hall, but aside from that the place seemed devoid of any life.
"Mulder?" she called out hopefully.
She heard a muffled cry of pain and, in a fruitless attempt to have some method of protection, she picked up a nearby branch before making her way down the stairs. As she did, she was greeted with the sight of endless lit candles, the smell of soil making her feel like she was climbing into a fresh grave.
"Hello, Katherine," a voice called from a few yards away. She turned quickly and saw it was Victor standing over a prone Mulder.
"What did you do to him?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly.
"Let me show you," he smirked.
That was the last thing she saw before everything went black.
The Vineyard
The Hallowed Compound
7:42 A.M. Thursday
As soon as Mulder bolted out of the barn to follow Victor and the other two, he'd lost them. They theoretically should've only been a few meters away, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Shit," he mumbled under his breath.
He couldn't intake another breath because a strong arm wrapped around his throat, cutting off his air. ""You thought you were pretty clever didn't you, Mulder?" Freddy laughed, stepping in front of him.
Mulder reached up towards the arm cutting off his air and started scratching at it. "What kind of a name is Mulder after all?" Jason jeered, tightening his grip.
"H-how," Mulder sputtered.
"We caught that little piggy last night trying to leave a note by that tree you like to piss at," Jason replied, unaffected by Mulder's attempts to shuck him off.
Freddy pulled a piece of paper from his front pocket and read it: "Mulder and Scully, thanks so much for all you've done. We're so close. Stay strong."
He looked at Mulder before crumbling it up and tossing it on the ground. "We didn't know what it meant, and the sheriff in there wasn't willing to talk," Freddy explained. Jason laughed in response and his hot breath felt wet against the side of Mulder's face.
"But then Freddy here heard your hot little wife moan it this morning," Jason stated lewdly. "It's funny, I thought you were a little simp bitch, but it seems like there's a real man in there after all."
"Spending all day with such a hot slut like that, I would've fucked her until she was raw if I were you," Freddy laughed. "Scully? Is that her real name? I just want to know for later. I think I'll have to fight Tobe for her, but we can share."
"Only if I get a turn, she looks like a tight little thing," Jason chuckled.
Mulder blood was boiling and he only saw red as he raised his hand and grabbed Jason's face behind him. The man laughed until Mulder found what he was looking for. Using his pointer and middle finger, he pushed as hard as he could into Jason's eye sockets, trying to ignore the audible 'pop' and warm wetness coating his hand.
An animalistic scream tore from Jason's throat as he released him. Mulder didn't care to look back at him, instead, lunging at Freddy and tackling him to the ground. The old man wasn't much for a fight and Mulder had him pinned beneath him within a few seconds, but it didn't stop Mulder from punching the man in the face as hard as he could multiple times. "Where's Victor?" Mulder growled.
"You're never going to get out of here alive," Freddy wheezed, still laughing. Mulder punched him again before grabbing him by the shirt and lifting him closer to his face. "Neither will she," the man gargled.
"Is he in the gathering area?" Mulder yelled.
Freddy chuckled a few more times, a wince visible on his face with each inhale. "Why are you asking me if you already know?"
Mulder let Freddy fall back down, turning around and noting some of the other fed-up men had come out and were kicking Jason, who was just laying on the ground clutching his face. They looked like they were ready to have their turn with Freddy, so Mulder just left him where he was, taking off in the direction of the gathering pit.
His lungs were burning, he still hadn't recovered as much as he'd hoped from last night, but there wasn't time to deal with it. It seemed the threat of danger had lessened, the cultists were reclaiming their autonomy and fighting against the shitty people here, and he knew for a fact two of the worst were now out of commission - but he wasn't about to lull himself into a false sense of security.
The most dangerous man was still out there.
He threw open the metal hatch, wincing as his muscles protested against the weight, and all but bounded down the stairs. The candles were still lit, but the flickering of the flames appeared to be the only movement he could detect. His breathing was laboured as he walked around the room with trepidation. If Victor wasn't here, it was likely he'd fled, and even more likely that they'd lost their chance to apprehend him.
"Nice to see you, Robert," a voice greeted from directly behind him.
Mulder whipped around, but his movement was too quick and a surge of dizziness overtook him, causing him to stumble and knock some of the candles onto the floor. "Or should I call you, Mulder?"
"I'd be more interested in what to call you," Mulder rasped, standing up straight even though the world was spinning around him. "Or what you are, more specifically."
"What I am?" Victor laughed, genuinely appearing amused by the question. "What do you think I am?"
"What you do isn't normal," Mulder replied.
"What I do is give people abandoned by society a chance to find purpose again. I give people a chance to experience something bigger than themselves. A chance to go beyond the constraints of the mortal coil," Victor replied harshly.
"How?" Mulder replied.
"Because I'm one of God's chosen lucky ones. What I am is beyond your comprehension," he replied, glaring at Mulder.
"I've heard there are people who, when experiencing a certain level of pain, think they are somewhere else. A form of dissociation that-" Mulder explained, only to be cut off.
"You don't think that's true," Victor stated.
Mulder sighed, annoyed. "How else are you doing it? How else would you know who we want to see?"
"I told you, I don't control who you see on the other side. I just know if you have a desire to visit," he explained.
Mulder's jaw clenched at the futility of this, "So you're a glorified bus driver?"
Victor looked offended, and a sadistic smile spread across his face. There was something so unsettling about the sight that Mulder had to look away, as if he was staring into the face of pure evil. "Oh, I can do more than simply transport people. Why don't I show you?"
Mulder glanced up to look at the man, but as soon as his eyes locked with Victor's he couldn't see in front of himself, though everything else seemed normal. It wasn't the darkness that occurred on the other side, everything was just pitch black nothingness. He was blind. He could hear Victor laughing, he could smell the soot and musk of the basement. Mulder reached out a hand, only to retract it immediately upon burning himself on some candles.
Soothing the wound with his other hand, he asked, "What did you do to me?"
"I've always found death lore to be rather trite," Victor replied, ignoring his question. "Myths of the underworld so often define life and death as binary, that there can be such a thing as a singular transitory period between one to the other. The two are not mutually exclusive."
"What are you saying?" Mulder replied, rapidly blinking almost involuntarily as his body tried to surmise what happened.
"I'm saying life and death are one. The dead aren't gone, you just don't know how to see them like I do," Victor answered.
"Well you've made it a little hard for me to see anything right now," Mulder snapped. "But I still don't understand how you do this."
"Because I'm a-" he replied, but upon the last word Mulder's eyes flooded with light as everything went silent.
He watched as Victor's mouth closed, that sinister smile returning. "What?" Mulder asked. Only, nothing came out. His mouth moved, but he heard nothing, not even in his own head.
He was deaf. Victor was depriving him of his senses one sense at a time.
He raised his hand to his throat and repeated what he said. He felt the vibrations of his vocal chords, that the words were coming out, but he couldn't hear it.
"I'm sick of playing games," he hoped he said, not knowing if he truly was speaking.
He focused on the movement of Victor's lips, trying to latch onto any word. But the man was speaking too fast and Mulder couldn't keep up. From the way Victor appeared to be gloating, he knew it was what he wanted to hear. He was telling Mulder the truth. He just wouldn't let him hear it.
"This is ridiculous," Mulder yelled, his ears ringing with the sound as his sense came rushing back to him. He blinked rapidly in surprise, opening and closing his mouth while snapping his fingers next to his ears.
"No, it was ridiculous for you and that woman to come and assume you could make a difference," Victor seethed.
"You think we didn't make a difference? Then what the hell would you call your 'children' out their rioting over your mistreatment? A show of support?" he asked, on edge for what might happen to his body next.
Victor slapped him, but it didn't even register. He saw the room move as he fell, but he didn't feel the impact. "Knock it off," he said, only for it to come out as an anguished moan. He couldn't move his lips. Mulder tried to touch his hand to his mouth, but it didn't move. Or maybe it moved, but he couldn't feel it.
The room shifted and suddenly he was staring at the ceiling. From the sound of it, Victor had kicked him in the side with his shoe and rolled him onto his back. He tried to get up, but to the same effect. He couldn't feel a single thing.
"I would call it a momentary setback," Victor sighed, looking down at him like a disappointed parent.
"Mulder?" he heard Scully call out, fear evident in her breathless voice.
"Run!" he screamed. Tried to scream, more accurately.
She must've misunderstood it as a cry of pain, because he heard the sounds of her feet scrambling down the stairs. As she descended, all he could see was Victor's eyes light up. Mulder tried to beg with his eyes: Not her, not her, not her. But it was for naught as Victor stood up slowly.
"Hello, Katherine," he greeted cooly.
"What did you do to him?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly.
"Let me show you," he replied.
Mulder wanted to die as he heard the sound of her body crumple to the floor.
The Other Side
Elsewhere
Always
Scully couldn't see. Well, maybe she could, but there was nothing to see. She felt encased by darkness even though moments ago she'd been standing in the cellar with Victor and Mulder. She looked down at her hands, which had just been holding onto a branch, yet now they were empty. She felt like this was a dream, yet every cell in her body was screaming that she was awake. She even pinched herself for good measure and watched as her skin snapped into place, two white marks from the pressure of her fingers fading into a red mark on her skin.
Where the hell was she?
"What did you do to me?" she yelled, but her voice sounded distorted, as if she was screaming underwater, yet she was breathing.
"You're Fox's friend," a child's voice called out from behind her.
She turned around and felt her hair stand on end. Less than a foot in front of her, she saw the flesh and blood visage of a picture she'd spent years looking at.
"Samantha?" she whispered.
"You're… Scully, right?" she asked, playing with the ends of her hair shyly.
"I-I am," Scully whispered in awe, taking a step closer to her before easing herself on her knees so the little girl could look at her eye to eye.
"That's a weird name," she replied.
Scully smiled and nodded, silent for a moment as she looked at the girl. "You can call me Dana, okay?"
"Okay," she replied, smiling sweetly.
"Is your name Samantha?" Scully repeated. She nodded and Scully felt overwhelmed even though in her gut she already knew the answer.
She remembered the girl's recognition and was struck by the fear this was Victor trying to trick her. "How did you know who I was?"
"My brother's always with you," she answered. "I like your hair."
Scully couldn't help but smile at the child. She was sweet, and she was so starkly Mulder's sister, it was overwhelming. The eyes in particular were so similar she felt like she was staring at Mulder himself. "Thank you, I like yours. Did you do it yourself?"
She shook her head. "No, I got Buttmunch to do it," she said with a smile. "Mommy can't get the bows right."
"Buttmunch?" Scully asked with an exhalation of laughter.
Samantha laughed in response and clarified, "Fox. He's always teasing me 'cause he's older, so I like to call him Buttmunch.""
A small smile quirked Scully's lips at the silly familial fighting. She had spent so long thinking of Mulder's grief at the girl's absence that she hadn't spent as much time thinking about Mulder as an older brother with a little sister. It was sweet and it made her heart ache. "Fox loves you so much," she whispered.
"He's the best brother in the whole world," Samantha replied, accepting Scully's hand when she reached out.
"He's spent years looking for you," Scully replied. "Where'd you go?"
Samantha raised her free hand and touched Scully's sternum. She was about to look down when she felt the silver chain of her necklace tug on the back of her neck and she knew the girl was toying with her cross. "You already know," she replied quietly.
Scully reached up and brushed the girl's wavy hair behind her ear, causing her hazel eyes to look back at her. "I'm so sorry," Scully whispered. Sorry for what she couldn't specify because the things she was sorry for were too numerous. She was sorry a girl's life was taken too soon, that she never got to live, sorry for all the memories with her brother she never got.
"I'm not," she replied with a smile, letting go of Scully's cross. "I'm happy here."
"Are you lonely?" Scully asked, rubbing the girls hands to try to give her some of her own warmth to no avail.
"No, there's a lot of people here," Samantha said, looking up.
Scully looked up and only saw what looked like a bunch of stars twinkling in the sky. Even through the darkness, their illumination was bright and she realized that was what was casting light on them.
"But sometimes I know Fox is," she added.
"You can see him?" she asked. She was still confused about this whole thing, but it felt too real for her to discredit.
Samantha nodded, her pink little bows bouncing slightly. "Sometimes we check on him. I just don't want him to be sad anymore."
"Me either," Scully agreed quietly.
"But he's never sad or lonely when he's with you," Samantha replied with a hopeful intonation.
"That makes me happy," she replied sweetly to the girl.
Samantha shifted one foot from the other, an excitement lighting up in her eyes. "Can I tell you something?" she asked, whispering even though they were alone.
"Anything, sweetheart," Scully nodded.
The girl rested her free hand on Scully's shoulder and Scully leaned her head forward so the girl could whisper in her ear, "He loves you."
Scully let out a little exhalation of a laugh before pulling back and meeting the girl's bright and earnest stare. "Can I tell you a secret?" she asked.
Samantha looked honored to be asked and a beaming smile broke out on her face as she leaned towards Scully. "I love him too."
"I knew it!" the girl cried out, leaning away and causing Scully to laugh.
"Can you make me another promise?" Samantha asked, her face turning serious.
Scully nodded and looked as the girl held up her pinky. Oh it was serious. Scully interlocked her pinky with Samantha's tinier one. "Will you make sure he's happy?I don't want him to be sad about me anymore," she whispered guiltily.
"I can promise I'll try everything I can to make him happy, but I think he'll always be a little sad," she answered honestly.
"But I don't want him to be," she replied with a frown.
"He'll always miss you," Scully replied, caressing Samantha's hair. "It's not a bad sadness. Mul-Fox just loves you so much because you were such a good sister. He'll always wish you were here, but it doesn't mean he's unhappy," she explained.
Samantha seemed appeased by this knowledge and she nodded. Scully blinked and suddenly Samantha looked older. If it weren't for their hands remaining joined and those Mulder-eyes, she might've thought it was a different little girl altogether. "He'll see me again someday," she replied with a coy smile.
Scully was still shocked at the transformation, but leaned in as Samantha pressed a kiss to her cheek, her lips suddenly warm against her skin. She watched as Samantha pulled back, now appearing like she was glowing. Samantha squeezed Scully's hand, just like Mulder often did before looking up into the sky. She looked back at Scully with a beaming smile. "By the way, I've heard you're a great sister too."
Scully felt her breath catch in her throat. "Wh-" she began, only for her to have to avert her eyes as Samantha became too bright to look at before shooting up into the sky.
Scully stood up, shocked at what just happened. Looking up, she saw all the stars above her were glinting and shining, like a twinkling strand of Christmas lights.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Then suddenly she felt claustrophobic and immobile. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she saw she was back in the basement, laying on the floor with a weight sprawled haphazardly across her.
She looked down and saw Victor's lifeless eyes staring at her, a warm wetness coating her stomach. Scully gasped and scrambled away from the body, screaming when she felt a hand grab her elbow.
"Sorry," a familiar voice apologized.
Turning, she saw it was Rosemary, looking at her with wide eyes as she held a gun in her hand. Scully's gun. "I just saw you on the floor and shot him, I didn't mean for him to fall on you," she explained.
Scully gently touched the woman's hand, easing the gun from her trembling grasp before putting on the safety. "Where did you get this?" Scully asked, rubbing her hand on Rosemary's arm in an attempt to calm her down.
"I-I saw you, yesterday. I'm sorry. Jason forgot to lock the door so I wanted to come talk to you, but I saw you through the window. Then when all that shit went down at the Great Hall, I just ran so I could call 911," she explained.
"Did you?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, t-the police are all outside," she nodded.
"Where's the other gun?" Scully asked.
"I saw Laurie trying to herd everyone, and I know you like her, so I gave it to her and her husband to protect everyone," she replied. "I gave them the phone too, so they could be in contact with the police."
Scully felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders, "You did great, Rosemary."
"-cullee," a voice whined from behind them.
Scully turned around and saw Mulder was sitting up, clutching his head. "Mulder," she gasped, rushing to him and all but falling to her knees. "Are you okay?"
He looked up at her, one pupil blown out, and smiled weakly, "I'm so happy to see you."
Scully looked at Rosemary and pled, "Can you tell one of the policemen that we need emergency medical attention?"
Rosemary nodded and scrambled up the stairs. She turned her attention back to Mulder and smoothed his hair with her hand. "Scully," he groaned.
"I'm here, Mulder," she comforted, pulling him to her. She tried her best to shift them away from Victor's body and the still-expanding pool of blood. Mulder leaned his head slightly to look and let out a sigh of relief.
"D-Did you see?" he asked hopefully.
With a small smile she nodded. "Yes, Mulder. I saw."
"About damn time," he chuckled weakly as the paramedics bounded down the stairs.
"We're safe," she whispered, kissing his temple.