Malice.

Glasgow, Kentucky.

May 20, 2010.

Scully gazed into the cave opening, chilled by the darkness below them. Her companions, the ranger and the scientist who had gotten them into this situation, were already climbing down into the hole. She lingered on the surface. Something felt strange about this whole situation.

Her mind went back to Iden and the terrible visions she had witnessed. She had insisted Mulder was fine, even when Scully got the call to come out here. Scully wished she could share her certainty about the situation.

She looked back at the woods, sighed, and started the descent, navigating the rocks slowly and carefully. She had two hands waiting for her as she came down, but she ignored them both, popping on her headlamp and going on without them. She hated the look of this cave. Everything was sharp, every corner was dark, and it was forty degrees cooler the moment they left the sunlight. She felt the weight of the world above bearing down on them as they walked.

"It should take about ten hours to get to the cavern," the ranger said, his voice barely rising above a whisper. "Just tell me if you need to take a break."

Scully did not answer him. She was irritated with both of them at the moment. She just wanted to find Mulder and put this whole mess behind her. She wouldn't even let herself consider that he might be dead. He couldn't be dead. She just kept walking, determined, and kept her mouth shut. She was going to banish him to the couch for months after this. She was going to forbid him from getting mail – she was going to take his tablet, his phone, and the dog away.

She kept those ideas in her mind, even though she knew exactly what would happen when she found him. She would embrace him, and get him to safety as quickly as she could. Losing him was not an option. It was not a reality she planned for.

It was a brisk walk through the cave. She learned to duck and dodge very early on, something the ranger mentioned had been a challenge for Mulder. She alternated between the middle and the back, never lagging behind, always urging them to go faster. When they came to a one-sided drop off, she almost slipped and plummeted into the water running beside them, but the ranger grabbed her and slammed her back against the left cave wall. Her ears rung, but she was alive.

When they came into a wider cabin, they walked in triangle formation, with Gene touching the walls as he passed. "Mulder and I photographed these petroglyphs. He sent you a picture of that nest of slugs right there. I guess we never got signal, though."

She refused to talk to the scientist. She was almost sure she would say something snarky. She focused on the path ahead, planning each step carefully.

"Mulder wanted to come down here, you know."

She turned on Gene, cocking an eyebrow. "What are you trying to say?"

"I didn't drag him down here and then abandon him."

"But you did abandon him," she said, her voice laced with venom. "You left him down here. He trusted you, and you left him down here!"

"I tried to find him! I searched for hours, but he was gone!"

"He is not gone!"

Gene shut his mouth, glancing away, and then his tone softened. "We're going to find him."

Scully broke off into a sort of half sob, putting her hand over her mouth. An unexpected wave of grief came over her and she had to look away. Her eyes welled up with tears. "I know that," she responded in a high pitched whisper.

"Scully…"

"Don't," she said, holding out her hand to him. She wiped her tears away, walking a little ahead of the ranger. "Let's just go. Let's keep moving."

She was aware of time passing, but the ache in her legs was at the very back of her mind. She thought of lying in bed with Mulder the night before he had gotten those emails from Gene Foster. She thought of his never ending monologue about a mythological killer bird bigger than a city bus. Now she wished she had listened. She wished she had kissed him again before letting him leave.

Without taking breaks or even slowing down, their little group made it to the chamber in just under nine hours. She was eager to search for Mulder, but as soon as she saw the ranger set his backpack down her legs started throbbing in protest. She set out her sleeping back, forcing her eyes to stay open, and sat up in the center. Gene set up a powerful lantern in the middle of the cavern, illuminating the walls and sending eerie shadows to the ceiling. He ended up in a similar position to hers, sitting up and looking at the wall of lichen, unwilling to sleep.

"It was near here," Gene said, glancing at her. "It was down one of those tunnels, back that way, and across a manmade bridge. He was on a landing on the other side of the river."

It was silent for some time. Scully kicked off her hiking boots and climbed into the sleeping bag, starting to shiver in this sunless place. When she breathed in, she experienced a wave of affection. It smelled like Mulder. He must have used this before her. Gene was letting her borrow it. She shut her eyes and imagined him zipped up beside her. He would probably be talking about mole people, or the ghostly boat steered by Hades. He had seemed so excited when he spoke of it earlier.

She thought the ranger was asleep until he rolled over in his sleeping bag and addressed Gene. His voice was rough. "Hey, you ever figure out what that stringy shit you found on the shore was?"

Gene shrugged. "I don't know. I thought it was excrement, but…"

"But what?" Scully interrupted.

He looked up, surprised that she was talking to him. "Uh, but Mulder thought it was… something else. He insisted, actually."

It sounded just like him. "What did he say it was?"

"He said it was ectoplasm. He was adamant about it. He said ghosts use it to interact with the corporeal world. He was really stuck on that ghost theory."

She held back her doubt. Mulder was not there, so she had to be the believer in his absence. If this was really something supernatural, she was his only chance. She could see doubt in the face of the ranger, to the point of irritation, and Gene seemed to be on the fence about the whole thing.

She decided to push him one way or the other.

"Did you really see him vanish?"

Gene cleared his throat, looking at the ground. He spoke softly. "I'm not sure what I saw."

"Did you see the ghost, or not?"

"I-I don't know."

"Trust your eyes," she said. "If you saw a ghost with Mulder in that chamber, then you know what it looks like. You know exactly what took him."

Gene finally looked up. "It was… she was glowing. She had her hand on his face, and he was just staring up at her. He said something… God, what did he say?"

"Just replay the scene in your head. It'll come to you."

He shut his eyes for a moment, and then he snapped his fingers. "He said… 'you're grieving.'"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, because I was thinking how strange it was for him to say that to a ghost – er, to whatever she was. Do you know why?"

"No… I have no idea."

She curled up into her sleeping bag, trying to picture what Gene had seen. She saw Mulder on his knees on the shore of a river, water rushing past him, and a spirit drifting toward him. She could hear Mulder saying those words over and over again, but they made no sense to her.

"Why would you say that, Mulder?" she murmured to herself. "Why would you say that to…?" Her eyes popped open. "He said that to a ghost."

Gene was still sitting up. He looked over when she spoke. "What was that?"

"He said the ghost was grieving. He thought she was grieving. He must have been trying to help her." She sat up, looking around, expecting the ghost to be hovering nearby. They were still alone in the cavern. "Mulder was probably trying to help. But why would she take him?"

"You actually believe in ghosts?" Gene asked.

"I believe in Mulder," she responded shortly, getting to her feet. "I can't sleep. Show me where he was when he disappeared. I need to see it."

Gene scrambled up, and the ranger groaned and crawled out of his sleeping bag, too. He glanced around to get his bearings, and then he pulled out a spotlight and led them into yet another tunnel. Scully was right behind him, looking around desperately for any signs of Mulder, or the ghost that had abducted him. She was disappointed every time they turned a corner and found only darkness.

When they came to the bridge, they had a good view of the shore he had vanished from. Gene pointed it out the moment they could see it. Scully rushed across the metal contraption, going ahead of their guide, and scanned the ground with the spotlight.

It was empty.

She walked toward the water, crouching down near a slick spot. It was like jelly, flattened by a shoeprint. She ran her own shoe through it, recoiling when a disgusting smell wafted toward her.

"Ectoplasm."

She looked up, finding Gene crouch beside her. "What?"

"It's the same stuff we found on the other side, near the camp. Ectoplasm."

Scully stared at it, momentarily afraid to have found tangible evidence of his disappearance. Something had taken him from here, and it had left this streak behind – something he had claimed was the product of spirits interacting with the world. He had been taken despite his knowledge of such things. He had been targeted despite his belief in this phenomena.

"So it was here, then," she murmured, pressing her hand flat to the ground. The stones were cold and lifeless. "Where are you, Mulder?"

She heard something and stood straight, turning the light in every direction. Her companions came a little closer, looking around rapidly. She focused on the river, and then pointed the light up, mesmerized because she could suddenly see her own breath. It was so cold that breathing created a sharp pain in her throat. Her skin prickled up and she had the sense that they were no longer alone. But it was not loneliness that struck her.

She felt something looming. It was angry. It produced a malice that she had never experienced, and she had spent her entire career dealing with a variety of monsters. This was something new. It was something she wanted to escape from.

"We need to leave," Gene whispered.

Scully froze up as the water started to shift. Something was stirring within it. She glanced at the others, getting the sense that she had brought them down here to their deaths.

"It's too late," she responded in a murmur.