Patuxent River Park
Friday
31st December 10.15PM
David had arranged Scully on the floor and left her ankles and wrists tied. The cable ties were heavy duty plastic and he knew here was no way she would wriggle out of them if she was conscious, so he felt safe enough to leave her unsupervised in the beach hut near the shore line. He'd taken her gun, her shoes and her pants and had tossed them into the trunk of his car.
He was expecting Mulder any minute now, knowing it would take a little over an half an hour to make it from Scully's apartment to this place. And then he'd allow Mulder another 15 minutes to find this secluded spot. He was careful to gun his car on the snow sprinkled road to leave easily readable tracks for Mulder to follow, but he knew it wouldn't be long before their disappearance was noticed so he was eager to get this finished.
The sound of gravel crunching under car tires made him look up and he raced across the open field to wave Mulder down. He had deliberately scraped his face a bit to give the impression he'd been fighting and had even gone so far as to rip his shirt sleeve at the shoulder. Mulder killed the lights of his car and climbed out, meeting David by the hood of the car.
"Where is she?" he demanded crouching behind the car with David, his terrified eyes scanning the wooded area. There was a lake to the south of where he had parked and a thicket of trees lined the area east of that. To the west, the road he had driven on was secluded but lined with trees all the way and north of them was another wood.
"I followed them to this spot and by the time I managed to get here he was gone."
"You saw him turn in here?" The road was barely enough for one car and the dust trail had been dampened down with a light snowfall.
"Yeah." David pointed over towards the lake. "There's a small hut, probably for fishing equipment in the summer. I think he took her in there."
"Where is his car?" Mulder checked the grounds but couldn't see any signs of another vehicle. Even David's car was parked to the edge of the lot and there didn't seem to be any tire tracks apart from his own.
David seemed to ignore his question as he had his eyes focused on the small hut. Mulder guessed it was about 8ft square with an opening that faced the shoreline. He had often frequented these places in Seattle finding the quiet day of fishing more appealing than alone in his apartment. David raised his fingers to his lips and motioned for Mulder to follow him. Crouched low they hurried across the open ground and into the tree line. Mulder spotted David's gun hanging rigidly by his side and suddenly felt vulnerable.
Together they crept up to the hut and David leant his back against the wall before darting his head up to the window and glancing in. With silent hand gestures Mulder recognized he motioned for the ex FBI agent to do the same.
At the sight of Scully tied up Mulder could barely contain the rage that swelled up inside him. He couldn't really tell from his quick glance but she didn't seem to be injured and he took from that what solace he could to calm his heart. By the time he'd regained his composure he spotted David standing by the door with his gun aloft ready to shoot.
"Wait!" Mulder said as quietly as he could without shouting and he jumped up to stop him. "Don't shoot!" He stood in front of the door. "She's alone in there. There is no one else around."
"Get out of the damn way Mulder!"
"Just wait." Mulder pushed David to the side of the door and stood to the other side, each of them with their backs to the wall. He touched the door handle and slowly turned it. The lock slid back soundlessly and he opened the door a fraction. Then counting down silently, holding his fingers to David he prepared to push it open fully.
1…2…3…
With a loud bang the door slammed against the inside wall of the cabin as Mulder pushed it open and jumped aside. David jumped out of the side of the door jamb and aimed his gun into the hut but nothing happened. Mulder waited for the sharp pop of the gun and clenched his fists so tight he left small moon shaped cuts in his palms.
But when the silence expanded he turned into the door and rushed over to Scully. She was unconscious but her heart was beating strong and fast.
"Scully," Mulder soothed gently as he lifted her head up off the floor and rested it on his lap. "Hey Scully!"
She moaned softly and started to move her head towards his voice and his heart soared. His fingers fumbled with the cable ties that bound her so tightly but he couldn't loosen them.
"David…" she said, her voice raspy.
"Hey, it's Mulder," he said trying to diminish the pang of jealousy he felt as she muttered his name.
"David…" she said again then lolled her head to the side as she tried to concentrate. "He's…" Her head rolled over towards Mulder again but all she could see was David standing over them both, a malicious smile on his lips and another swab of ether in his hand. "No…David!"
"Scully, relax. Hey McLane," Mulder said as he turned to ask for something to cut the cable ties off her only to be met with a face full of cotton.
Mulder struggled against the hands that held it against him but he was powerless as the chemical took hold of his body, slackening his muscles and finally his mind.
Dana Scully woke slowly. Her ankles were no longer tied and she found herself sitting on a soft comfy chair. The room was dark but she could still make out a window to her left and a door to her right. It was a different room than the last one she woke up in and this time Mulder wasn't holding her. A cushion that had been placed under her head had fallen onto her lap and she noticed then that her pants were still missing but her blouse was intact. A moment of panic flittered away as she spotted Mulder lying on the ground by her feet. He was bound with cable, tied and gagged with Duct tape and still unconscious but on his shoulder where his wound was supposed to be healing was a growing dark patch of blood, soaking through his hoodie.
Across the room a flicker of movement caught her eye and she whipped her head around to see it fully, immediately regretting the quick shift as it made her head pound mercilessly.
"You're awake."
"David…what is going on?" she tried to sit up but the ether still had a hold of her so she slumped back into the seat.
"It wasn't supposed to end like this," he uttered and Scully's mind remembered the case in Seattle where Reverend Hank Pearson had muttered the same words before shooting his son in the head.
"What are you talking about?" she tried desperately to keep her voice calm as if this wasn't an unusual situation.
"Oh Please Dana. Don't try this shit with me." He laughed harshly and stood up. She watched the shadow cross the room towards the door and flick on a light. It was a weak bulb that didn't reach all corners of the room but was enough to see clearly by. "Don't try to be my friend, gain my trust or anything like that. We've moved onto a new level of FBI investigation here and I don't want you to ruin it."
"What do you want?" All traces of her FBI training were gone from her voice and she all but screamed at him. No more platitudes or comforts would come from her she decided.
"You had your chance to give me what I wanted," he said as he walked towards her and let his fingers trail a soft path from her shoulder to her wrist. "But you blew it." He circled her chair and walked to where Mulder was lying motionless on the floor. He lifted his leg and pressed one booted foot against the growing dark patch of blood on his shoulder. Then did it again but rougher. Mulder moaned in pain but he didn't wake up.
"This was you? All this? Those kids?"
"Oh boo fucking hoo!" he sneered whipping around to face her. "Those kids were criminals. Every single one of them."
"They were sick."
"So I just hurried the process along." He was stalking around the back of her chair now and she craned her neck to keep him in her sights. "Besides I didn't do anything they didn't want me to do."
"What did you do?" She said quietly noting that Mulder's fingers twitched as he started to come out of his chemically induced haze.
"I healed them." He said and he started to unbutton his shirt. "I took away their pain and then showed them the light."
"How did you…" she tried to concentrat on what he was saying but he eyes kept fluttering back to Mulder's who was moving more and more now.
"It was easy once you knew how." He pulled off his shirt and she saw with shock his chest and back were covered in a myriad of tattoos, she knew hadn't been there before. He reached his arms up into the air, curving his back and stretching as if fitting into a new tee shirt that was too tight.
"What happened to you?"
"What happened to me?" he laughed again but there was no mirth in his voice. "I thought you could be on this side with me when it all came to an end but instead you chose him." He gave Mulder a vicious kick as he stepped over him earning a groan from the fallen man. "But this works out just as well. And after that little display of violence he showed you the other day it will be easier to pin this on him than I thought."
David noticed Mulder stir and bent low to his face. He pulled a knife from the back of his pants and held it up to Mulder cheek, piercing the skin enough to draw blood.
"Decided to join the soiree Mr. Mulder?" he bellowed as he dragged the tip of the knife across Mulder's cheek. Mulder winced but refused to cry out even as the warm blood wet his face and trailed into his mouth. "Well you are just in time for Dana to try and stall the proceedings by keeping me talking, but I think instead of the oral we'll go directly to the practical."
David pushed away from him and approached Scully. She tried to melt into the back of her chair but it was no use. He grabbed her arm and wrenched her out of the seat then pushed her over to the table. He made her bend over and pushed her face into the cold wooden surface then lifted her shirt off her back. It bunched around her shoulders uncomfortably but Scully was waiting.
Waiting for what she wasn't sure but she knew it had to come. It had to stop him from doing what ever he was going to try. She couldn't let this be her final moment, or Mulder's.
She felt David's finger run along the rim of her panties and squeezed her eyes shut. Her arms and legs still felt heavy from the anesthesia and she couldn't fight him off.
"I've always wanted to touch this," he said as he leaned over her and kissed the Ouroboros tattoo at the base of her back. She shivered in revulsion then froze. A tingle of pain shimmered on her wrists and she turned her eyes towards her hands that were on the table forced above her head.
Just below the cable tie where her muscles stretched her skin, a small red line appeared. She watched it in awe as the line darkened and expanded then spilt her skin with a burning pain that shot up her arm. First it was just one wrist then the other and then she noticed her back was tingling too where he had kissed her.
"What are you doing?" she struggled to keep her eyes open and against the hand that was resting on her back, pressing her onto the table.
"Just relax," David's voice was soothing but his eyes were rolling towards the back of his head and he arched his back as the tingling caressed his own skin. "It will be over in a second."
"David…stop…" her head was spinning from the lack of blood and she tried to focus on the walls of the cabin. But they shimmered and moved and suddenly disappeared. She found herself walking along a beach, soft warm sand between her toes and a beautiful sunset over the horizon. She tried to remember what she was doing here and abruptly decided she needed to go into the water. The desire was so strong that she started to run towards the waves, letting them lap her legs and stomach before plunging below the icy surface.
She dove beneath the water and skimmed the sandy bottom for a moment then popped out with a gush of freezing water, panting for air. He was standing on the shore and she knew she had to go to him. Knew he was here for her and she didn't mind. She hurried as best she could through the crashing surf over to him and walked into his open embrace.
"I knew you would help me," she said as his arms moved away from her back and rested on her shoulders. His fingers pressed her shoulder blade reassuringly then moved to her neck and circled it. She knew it was going to happen and she welcomed it.
Mulder shook his head and tried to wake up but the drugs were very strong. They had hold of his muscles in a lethargic wave he couldn't shake off until he saw her. Her arms jerked on the table, the soft banging spreading the pool of blood that had gathered beneath her while David stood behind her. He seemed to be in a trance of his own, his head jerking a bit but it was his back that drew Mulder's attention. Low on his back was a shimmering patch of skin that seemed to move, ripple and change colors before Mulder's eyes. Then, just as the Ouroboros appeared on David, Mulder panicked.
He shuffled himself over to the side of the wall and pushed himself up, then made an almightily leap with his restrained legs and slammed into David's back. David fell forward onto Scully and Mulder slid sideways catching his shoulder on the edge of the table. He screamed in pain but with the duct tape still over his mouth it was muffled and low. Mulder wanted to stop, to lie down, close his eyes, sleep for eternity but the sight of the blood on Scully's arms and face was enough to spur another wave of adrenalin. He sat up and managed to roll over onto his knees then jumped up onto his feet. He was unsteady and he felt the room sway around him but fought the urge to collapse as he charged forward again and bounced off David as hard as he could.
They tumbled awkwardly to the ground and crashed into the door, making it fly open as they rolled onto the hard deck outside. The knife released from David's grasp and Mulder lunged towards it, scrambling away trying to cut the cables as he rolled.
David was stunned by the fall and took a moment to reorientate himself he spotted Mulder sitting up, his hands were free but he struggled with the ties on his ankles. David rushed Mulder and kicked Mulder in the chin snapping his head back and making him drop the knife, then straddled him and punched him again.
"You fucking idiot," he yelled as he punched Mulder again and again, punctuating each word with another pound of his fist. "What did you think was going to happen? Huh?" he said punching Mulder again and ignoring the pain in his hand. "Did you think I was going to lie down and let you get away with this?"
"Lie down?" Mulder coughed up a mouth full of blood as David gave him a reprieve while he shook some feeling back into his fist. "I'd settle for the fetal position." He lifted up both his knees and connected with David's back then as he lurched forward and Mulder raised his hips to get him to fall to the side. Then he lifted his legs up again and brought his feet down hard and heavy into David's crotch.
David roared out in pain and rolled away, his hands clutching himself between his legs as Mulder shuffled the other way to where the knife was lying. He grabbed it with a free hand and quickly snapped the cable tie that was holding his feet together. Once they were free he hurried into the cabin where Scully was still lying on the table and he gently carried her over to the chair, despite his own agony. Her carotid pulse was weak but it was something to feel it at all. He looked down at her wrists and winced at the sight of all that blood still dripping from her open wounds. He yanked off his sweater ignoring the chilly air, not bothering to mind his own wounded shoulder and tightly he wrapped a sleeve around each of her wrists, then wrapped them both in the body of his sweater.
As he turned to deal with David he was met by a smack of something hard in the face. Mulder felt something crack and fell to the floor, teeth falling out of his mouth even as his head connected with the wooden floorboards.
"Fuck you!" David was limping towards him hefting a large rock in one hand, spittle of blood on the corner of his mouth. He held the rock up high in both hands over his head and swung his arms to bring it down onto Mulder's head but before he could finish the motion, the former FBI agent had sat up, the knife in his hand and plunged it forward into David's chest.