So shut up. I've hit not only a writer's block when it comes to my other story but a brick wall. So I haven't gotten on here to post anything for a while. So if you're waiting for Bright Sides - Sophie, sorry - then you're just going to have to wait because I can't seem to get it right.
Here it is. Chapter 5. And the rating is about to be bumped up to an M. This chapter it's for violence, next chapter we take a break, and then we get to the MSR.
READ AND REVIEW!
PS is anybody else following the progress of the next X-File movie? Gillean Anderson and David Duchovny keep posting stuff and mentioning it in their interviews. Sheesh.
Scully focused back on the screen and didn't move, even after Ethan had turned off the video and the television. She felt both men watching her, studying her.
Melinda stepped in front of Scully, blocking the view of the two men. Scully looked up into the woman's eyes and what she saw there surprised her. She saw understanding.
"Oh my God!" Ethan shrieked excitedly. "You've never told each other." He bent over at the waist in laughter. "How tragic..." His laughter amused him for a moment and then he straightened, dead serious once again. "And how perfect."
"Rupert..." Mulder began.
"Say it," Ethan challenged. "Say it. Let the last thing she hears from you be that you don't love her. Say it!"
Mulder was silent, damning him with his eyes. Ethan turned to Scully.
"Can you say it? Can you let the last words he hears from you be that you don't care? Come on. Say it!" He shouted at Scully.
"Ethan, that's enough. We have to get started." Melinda interrupted before Scully could offer a reply.
Ethan walked to where Scully was bound on the table. Melinda stepped around the table to Scully's other side.
She struggled against the restraints again and Melinda pushed her shoulder back onto the table.
"There's really nothing you can do."
"What happens next?" Scully asked, nervously looking from Ethan to Melinda.
"Next, Dana, I start with a low level of electrical stimulation. I record your response and Mulder's response. I slowly increase the level of stimulation and continue to record your individual responses." Ethan explained as he readied the equipment and calibrated the machines.
"Until what?" Scully asked. "You slowly increase the level of electrical stimulation until what happens?"
"For you, I continue until you beg me to stop."
"And then what? What happens when I beg you to stop?"
"Then you and your partner switch places."
Ethan leaned over her to check the position of the monitors, his face directly next to hers. She could feel his breath on her neck.
"What happens when he begs you to stop?" She whispered, not looking at him.
Ethan moved so that his mouth was directly next to her ear.
"When he begs me to stop -- I keep going," he whispered so that only she could hear him.
Ethan lingered for a moment next to her ear before moving to Mulder and checking the equipment there.
"Melinda," she called quietly to the woman next to her. "What happens to the one who's left?"
"What?"
"How does he kill the one who's left?"
"It's quick, painless. He uses an injection. You won't feel a thing." Melinda promised as she left Scully and walked to Mulder.
She looked down at her body. She felt the machines attached to her skin. She heard the heart monitor signaling her heart beat. She was aware of the restraints holding her wrists, ankles, and waist to the metal table.
She looked to Mulder, saw the same restraints binding his ankles and his waist. She saw the machines attached to his chest. Her eyes traveled up to the hand-cuffs holding his wrists above his head.
Her eyes moved down his arms and met his hazel gaze. His eyes moved to her hand where the restraint had once been loose. His eyes then hopefully moved back up to hers. She tried to move her hand again, it was held tightly. She shook her head. The hope that had been in his eyes died.
- - -
Scully took a deep measured breath and looked up to see Ethan walking back toward her. Melinda remained standing next to Mulder.
"Here we go. Ready or not." Ethan prompted as he set the dials on the machine next to her that she assumed controlled the electrical current.
Scully set her jaw and turned her head so that she saw neither Ethan nor Mulder. She closed her eyes and concentrated only on her breathing.
She heard the snick of the switch on the machine being thrown before she was aware of the current coursing through her body. She clenched her eyes tightly closed and her lips formed a thin line as she squeezed them together. Scully took two deep breaths through her nose, and then the sensation was over.
She let out a rush of breath from her mouth and unclenched her fists.
"Scully?" Mulder shouted from in front of her.
She turned, opened her eyes to him and nodded her head to tell him that she was fine. The printers and machines on both sides of the room were loudly recording their bodies' physical responses to the exercise.
"Going up." Ethan whispered in her ear as he turned the dials on the machine.
Scully took a deep breath, but was only able to get half the amount of oxygen she needed when her body arched off the table in a painful response to the electrical current. She heard Mulder scream her name as she bit tightly down on her lower lip to keep from crying out in agony. The waist restraint embedded into her skin and it wasn't until Ethan cut the power that her body fell back against the table.
A tear from her eye fell across her check disappearing into her hair as she tasted the slight metallic flavor of blood from the inside of her mouth where she had bit down. Her breathing was becoming labored and she fought to fill her lungs with short gasps.
"Anytime Scully." Ethan taunted, his mouth against her ear. "You have the power to end this. Just beg me to stop."
"Bastard," Scully spat before being thrown into another electrical seizure. Her body felt as if it were being pulled apart from the inside. Her teeth tore into the already ripped flesh of her inner lip and her fingernails dug into the palm of her hand. But still she fought him.
The siege upon her body again temporarily ended and she gasped for breath.
"Ethan, come here." Melinda called from where she stood next to Mulder.
Scully could still hear Mulder calling her name, so she knew for the moment he was fine. She focused on her breathing and slowly she heard the heart monitor next to her return to a steady regular beat.
She had to stay calm. She had to be ready when Mulder came up with a plan to get them out of here. Mulder always came up with a plan. He always saved her. She always saved him. From the very beginning they had saved each other.
How many times had he rushed in at the very last moment and rescued her. He had saved her from a town full of cannibals, Donnie Pfaster, an alien spaceship, even cancer. She had rescued him from the iron grip of a virtual reality nightmare, a sweeper team in Puerto Rico, and many times she had rescued him from himself. He would save her this time. They were not going to die in the crazed hands of this man. She would fight to hang on and he would save her.
Mulder urgently called her name again and with effort she opened her eyes. One look at him and she knew.
His eyes were ablaze with desperation. His body was covered with a fine layer of sweat from his struggle. Blood trickled down his arms from where he beat his wrists against the metal cuffs in trying to escape.
They were going to die.
She closed her eyes to him and let her head fall to the side. She needed to rest. She needed to think. She was going to die on this table. All she had to do to stop it was scream -- but then she would have to watch Mulder die. She knew, of the two of them, she was the strong one. She knew what it would do to Mulder if he was forced to watch her die. She knew what it was doing to him having to watch her suffer. She knew that he would willingly trade places with her in an instant. His eyes were begging her to scream out. But in her heart she knew that she couldn't.
She couldn't be the strong one this time. She couldn't watch Mulder die. She couldn't watch his body wracked with the kind of pain she was going to experience. She would be strong and let Rupert defeat her, but only because she was weak.
She heard Rupert return to the machine next to her and she heard him again adjust the dials.
"Come on Scully. Tell me to stop. No one's gone this far on the first trial. Tell me to stop and I won't flip the switch." Ethan coaxed.
Scully was silent, resigned to her fate.
The pain was everywhere all at once. She was being burned alive. Her jaw clamped shut, preventing the scream that began low in her throat from escaping. Bright colors and bursts of white exploded behind her eyes and she was unable to breathe. Pinpricks of pain tore at her skin and wounded her body. Her blood boiled in her veins and just as the darkness was about
to claim her, the torture ended.
"You're killing her!" Mulder screamed, metal battling metal as his cuffs scraped across the bed frame. "Scully, tell him to stop, for God's sake tell him to stop."
"Ethan," Melinda walked to stand next to him. "You have to switch them. She's going to die. The voltage and the amps are too high. You're going to kill her too soon."
"Shut up!" Ethan hissed shoving Melinda away from Scully. "She will beg for her life, or she will die."
"If she dies, you'll never finish your research. They will send people out looking for them. They're from the FBI. We'll get caught."
"She will beg me for her life, or she will die." Ethan repeated, his eyes glazed with madness.
Melinda walked back to Mulder. She busied herself checking the read-outs from the various printers he was attached to.
"She won't beg him," Mulder said in a quiet, desperate voice to Melinda. "Scully won't beg."
"Then she will die." Melinda answered simply.
"Scully," Mulder pleaded. "Scully, just scream out. Scream out my name and it will be over. Just scream out my name," he begged.
Ethan gave her a moment to respond to Mulder's plea. When she didn't, he turned the electrical current on.
Mulder closed his eyes and tears escaped out from under both lids. He couldn't watch. He couldn't stand to see her body convulsing in pain and not be able to do anything about it. He heard the current being turned off followed by the audible thump of her body falling back against the table.
Mulder opened his eyes. The sight of her made him wish that his own death would come sooner. Her skin was white. Her hair was matted against her head with sweat. Her eyes were still closed and her chest rose and fell unevenly as she tried to breathe.
"Help her." Mulder begged Melinda. "She doesn't deserve this. Why won't she stop him?"
"Because she knows that if she does, she'll have to watch you die."
"Scully," he yelled again. "Scully, open your eyes," he begged desperately. He couldn't let her die without her knowing the truth.
Her response was slow, but she opened her eyes and tried to focus them on him.
"Scully, I love you," he cried. "I should have told you long before this, but it's true. I need for you to make him stop hurting you. Make him stop, Scully."
Through the tears in his eyes he saw the small smile form on her lips and the tear run down her face. He was hopeful for an instant until he saw her turn her head away from him and close her eyes.
"Nice try," Ethan mocked, "but obviously not good enough."
He again adjusted the dials of the machine and threw the switch.
Mulder felt his throat constrict as he watched her body convulse once and then go still, the heart monitor next to her screaming a long steady, deadly wail.
"Scccullleee..." Mulder screamed out to her, begging her to return to him. Half his heart ripped out of his chest, half his mind left him and half his soul was replaced by a throbbing chasm filled only with anguish.
The skin ripped from his wrists, the metal tore into his flesh, as he tried to pull free. He didn't feel. He couldn't catch his breath, the air was being forcibly sucked from his lungs. He didn't think. He could only watch, more powerless than he had ever been before. His mind and mouth chanted her name in a desperate plea he believed she could still hear.
Scully's body stayed motionless on the exam table. Rupert struggled to get the table level. He opened her mouth and tried to blow life back into her body.
"What are you doing?" Melinda demanded.
She gave up trying to restrain Mulder and moved quickly to Ethan.
He worked frantically, performing CPR on Scully.
"Charge the defibrillator," he ordered her.
"Ethan, she's dead."
"That's why you need to charge the defibrillator," Rupert hissed.
"It's too late." Melinda insisted, trying to stop Ethan.
He reacted violently, pushing her to the floor and flipping the switch on the machine himself.
"If you're not going to help me, stay away from me." Rupert bellowed before returning to Scully. "This bitch is not going to beat me. She will beg me for her life. I'm not going to make this easy for her. I'm not going to just let her die. She's going to suffer before she dies."
Melinda watched him silently from where she lay on the floor. Standing, she walked to him and handed him the paddles he needed to save Scully's life. The paddles he needed to prolong her suffering.
The essence that was Scully joined and watched. Half rising from her, half rising from him. The body she knew was still as Rupert and Melinda worked over it. She was drawn not toward the body she needed to live, but toward the body that needed her to live. Mulder.
His eyes were filled with terror as he watched. His face wet with a combination of sweat and tears. His body bruised with the struggle of trying to free himself to save her.
She didn't want to leave him. She wasn't ready to leave him. She didn't understand why this time it had taken them so long to find each other. Why it had been so difficult. She wanted to comfort him. She wanted to promise him that next time it wouldn't be so hard. She wanted to tell him everything she felt for him now, while it was still clear.
She drifted toward him, wanting to soothe his suffering before she was forced to leave him. Suddenly, she was the one being ripped apart by the pain.
Rupert took the paddles from Melinda. Placing them on Scully's chest, he tried to start her heart. The monitor next to the bed ceased its long cadence and started a slow syncopated chirping.
Mulder watched her chest begin to rise and fall on its own. He closed his eyes and filled his own lungs with air. She was alive. Scully was alive.
It was hard for her to breathe, but she knew that she was lucky to be breathing. Her chest felt heavy and her skin stretched tightly over her bones, but she felt cold. There was no longer a hot stinging sensation over-coming her. Her body was trying to re-stabilize her temperature. She listened for a moment to the heart monitor. The beeps were getting stronger. Her breathing was becoming more regular, unlike the ragged intakes of breath she heard across from her.
She opened her eyes and saw...Mulder. The voice she heard, however, was Rupert's.
"Ready for round two?" He cackled with excitement.
She turned her face and met his gaze. Hate and loathing shot at him from her tired blue eyes.
"Now. Now." Rupert scolded. "Be grateful. I saved your life. But don't get too comfortable. I'm only going to take it again."
Melinda stepped between Ethan and Scully. She began to remove the restraints that were holding Scully to the table.
"What are you doing?" Ethan demanded.
"She needs to rest. You can't begin again right away. She has to get some of her strength back if she's going to be any good to us." Melinda explained, continuing to free Scully's wrists and ankles.
"Why are you letting her go?"
"Where's she going to go, Ethan? She's too weak to go anywhere." Melinda argued while she struggled to unfasten the waist restraint.
"What are you going to do with her?"
"I'm going to put her with him."
Rupert clamped his hands over Melinda's, effectively stopping her from completely freeing Scully.
"No you are not!" He shouted at her.
"Ethan. If you want her to beg for her life, which you obviously do, the only one who can get her to do that -- is him." Melinda gestured toward Mulder.
Rupert paused for a moment and then helped Melinda remove the restraint. Ethan grabbed Scully by the back of the neck and roughly pulled her off the table. Unable to get her balance, Scully crumpled to the floor.
"Dammit, Rupert! Haven't you done enough to her?" Mulder yelled.
"No Agent Mulder," Rupert snarled, literally stepping over Scully on the floor to get into Mulder's face. "I haven't done enough to her. I haven't done nearly enough to her." Rupert turned and grabbed Scully by the hair. She moaned as he pulled her to her feet. Melinda rushed to her and helped him to support her as Rupert pulled her to Mulder. "And if you do truly care about her, you'll use this time I'm giving you to teach her to beg," he spat.
Rupert pushed past Melinda and Scully and left the room, ripping the curtains down behind the now empty exam table.
Melinda waited until he was gone before lowering the bed Mulder was in to a horizontal position. Carefully, she helped a weakened Scully onto the bed with Mulder. Scully immediately curled her body around his, resting her head on his chest.
Melinda turned to leave the room.
"Melinda?" Mulder asked hopefully one last time.
She turned to him. Her face sorrowful, but her eyes empty. She shook her head and left the room.
Mulder ducked his head and rested his cheek on top of Scully's head.
"Scully," he whispered softly. "You are so stubborn. Why do you have to be so stubborn?" His voice broke on a half-choked sob. "Because if you weren't, you wouldn't be my Scully." Mulder said, answering his own question.
"Are they gone?" She asked, her voice so soft that he had to strain to hear her.
"Yes. It's just you and me."
Scully began to wiggle and squirm her way up Mulder's body and toward the top of the bed.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving your ass," she said directly into his ear. "So then maybe you can get me the hell out of here."
"How are you going to open the cuffs?" He asked, now eye level with her navel.
"The key," she answered, opening her hand and revealing the small metal key. "Melinda gave it to me."
Scully reached up and unlocked the cuffs binding his wrists. Mulder carefully shifted Scully lower on the bed and began to unbuckle the belt holding his waist. Next he un-strapped his ankles and climbed off the bed. Tenderly he lifted Scully off the bed. Pulling the sheet from the mattress, he wrapped it around her tiny frame.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so," she answered honestly.
"Let's see what you can do."
Mulder lowered her to the floor, keeping a strong grip around her waist. She put weight on her feet and was thankfully able to stand.
He released her briefly, only to duck behind the bed and grab the gun that was on the table. She reached out and grabbed their badges, steadying herself by gripping the table.
"Only one," he reported to her, snaking his arm around her again and leading her to the door. He stopped only once to grab her shoes and help her to put them on.
They had almost reached the back door when Scully stumbled over the fallen curtain. Mulder bent to help her up unaware of his approach until the madman's knee forcibly connected with his stomach. Getting the upper hand, Rupert grabbed the gun and shoved Mulder to the floor.
There. Ha. Is that a sufficient cliff hanger?
Deamon
