At last, X-Files Episode 12x09: Eris
I procrastinated over this for a while; I got a bit stuck in the middle, and there are probably a few plot holes and continunity issues that need to be addressed, but there were a few things I knew I had to include:
1) A return appearance from Scully's godson, Trent, from the first season;
2) The return of - well, you'll see; I had the final plot twist in my head for a while; and
3) More Reyes (sorry, fanboys and fangirls; her inclusion probably won't please all of you).
Flagged for explicit adult content; some bits may be triggering.
Episode 12x09: Eris
FRANKENMUTH, MI
At the age of thirty-one, Trent Jenkins was very different to how he had been aged six all of those years ago; bigger, hairier, and married with a child.
He loved Florence very much, and they both loved their six year-old daughter, Hazel.
They had fallen in love with the town they had moved to; the architecture in some of the buildings could have been straight out of the Brothers Grimm.
He had received news through his mother, that his Godmother Dana had recently had another baby; he should get in touch with her sometime.
“Your turn to put Hazel to bed, darling” said Florence; she planted a kiss on the side of his bearded face.
Hazel was often difficult to put to bed, but she seemed excited about hearing one of her father’s bedtime stories.
After brushing her teeth, and getting into her pyjamas, she lay in her bed, looking expectantly at Trent. Her room was filled with decorations related to Frozen, including the duvet cover and the wallpaper.
“Do you want to hear the one about Rapunzel again?” Trent asked.
“Yes, Daddy!” Hazel said excitedly, “I want Monkey Daddy to read it to me”.
Hazel loved it when Trent put on his monkey mask; she was mesmerized by it. It was a little too small for his face, since he’d had it since his sixth birthday party, and he’d had to fit it with longer elastic. He remembered that party; Dana had been there, and Trent and his friends had run around the house in their monkey masks.
Trent walked into his bedroom, and grabbed the monkey mask from the the bedside; he came back in wearing it.
“Monkey Daddy” Hazel laughed.
Sitting down, Trent told Hazel: “Once upon a time, there was a girl called Rapunzel; she was nice and happy, but her parents were very poor. Her father had to steal vegetables from the garden of the old lady who lived nearby”.
“What kind of vegetables?”
“Cabbages, carrots, zucchini, eggplant; all kinds” Trent replied; “but what they didn’t know was that the old lady was a witch, and she decided to get revenge by kidnapping Rapunzel…”
He looked down; Hazel was asleep.
He quietly left the room, and walked downstairs.
“Hello, Monkey Daddy” Florence whispered; “I must say, I’m quite turned on”.
Trent pulled the mask off, and hung it back up. “It works like a charm every time; Hazel loves it when I turn into Monkey Daddy”.
“You should start that career as a children’s entertainer” laughed Florence.
Trent was looking at something outside.
“Earth to Trent” Florence laughed.
“Sorry, I got distracted” said Trent; he started walking towards the windows.
Florence looked at what he was seeing; there were some unusually bright lights.
“Fireflies?” she asked.
“They seem a bit big for fireflies” Trent replied.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he walked out into the garden; they were lucky to have such a large garden, with ornate bushes surrounding it.
The lights were getting brighter, and there were several of them; they seemed to dance around the garden, and Trent thought he heard faint laughter.
Trent pulled out his phone; he had to video this; maybe show it to Hazel in the morning.
He pointed his camera at the lights; he managed three seconds of video, before they abruptly disappeared, and the garden was plunged into darkness.
“Everything okay, Darling?” Florence asked.
Trent walked back into the house; all he could say was:
“Fairies!”
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
NEXT MORNING
“Who found the body?” Detective Julian Grimes asked. He was an older man, long due for retirement; he stroked his shaggy beard, as he looked down at the scene.
“A vagrant” replied his junior officer, Constable Julia Smitrovich; “stumbled across the body, and alerted the first patrol car he saw”.
Grimes looked down at the dead African-American boy, and shook his head. It was likely that the cause of death would be the same, and that there would be clear evidence of sexual assault. It was likely that the girl had died of multiple stab wounds.
“We’ve identified her as the missing boy, five year-old Danny Nesbit” added Constable Smitrovich.
“Such a young boy” muttered Grimes; “and this is the third death of this kind. Soon, families won’t want to come to Frankenmuth any more”.
It was the same modus operandi that they were familiar with; someone had broken into the family home, and murdered the parents, before abducting their children.
“Do you want me to notify the boy’s Mother?” asked Smitrovich “I understand she lives nearby in Flint”.
“I’ll do it myself” replied Grimes; this was always the hardest part of his job. “After the boy’s father was murdered on the night of the kidnap, losing her son is going to be very hard for her to accept”.
XXXXX
“You remember I mentioned Trent to you once or twice?” Scully asked Mulder.
They were driving along the freeway in their rental car; for once, Scully sat at the steering wheel.
“I remember you reneged on a case once so you could attend his birthday party” Mulder laughed, “so, what’s this case that he has for us again? You mentioned … fairies”.
“He claims to have seen them in the garden” Scully replied; “for once, we get a case that doesn’t involve brutal murders, or abductions”.
As Scully was to find out, this would prove to be a case of famous last words.
“When life makes you cry a hundred times, you have to smile a thousand times. This way, you will be able to overcome your sorrow and be happy forever” replied Mulder. “Tinkerbell”, he added.
Both agents had been watching old Disney films with little Tena.
In the back seat of the car, Tena woke up and started crying; Mulder and Scully had decided that this was a case that they could take her on.
“Don’t worry, sweetie” Scully replied; “we’re almost there”.
“What did you tell Kersh?” Scully asked.
“I didn’t need to say much” Mulder replied; “he said that anything that got us away from the F.B.I. HQ for a few days at least was good for him”.
“I do of course think there is a rational explanation for what Trent has seen” Scully added; “but haven’t seen him in years, and this seemed like a good excuse for a catch-up. I was very happy when he e-mailed me”.
“So, what do you think he saw, Scully?”
“Well, aside from the fact that there were those faked fairy pictures from many years ago” Scully replied; “the obvious explanation would be fireflies, but he seemed to dismiss that idea in his message”.
“Seems that he knows sceptical Dana Scully all too well” replied Mulder.
“Well, apparently larval gnats are known to glow when they are hungry” Scully replied; “but the glowing certainly isn’t coming from fairies”.
Tena started crying again.
“Maybe we should pull over and feed her” Scully suggested.
XXXXX
Yves Adele Harlow answered the phone; she was holding the fort at Lone Gunmen HQ. Jimmy had dragged Kimmy to a football match, insisting he get into watching the sport.
“Yves” said Mulder; he was sat in a layby, while Scully breast fed Tena, “what can you tell me about fairies?”
Yves sighed; she was glad that Jimmy wasn’t there for once.
“Well, there’s not much evidence of them existing” she replied.
“That’s not something you want to tell Spooky Mulder”.
“Did you hear of the Cottlingley fairies?” Yves asked.
“So, you’re saying they do exist now?” Mulder laughed.
“They were a hoax, and a convincing one” Yves replied; “Frances Griffiths and Elise Wright, two British girls with probably too much time on their hands faked pictures of fairies. The pictures were good enough to fool Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”.
“I expect Sherlock himself would have seen right through that hoax” Mulder laughed.
“I dare say he would” replied Yves; “Doyle used the picture to illustrate an article in Strand magazine. I can only imagine his embarrassment when the girls admitted the hoax”.
“How about little dancing lights appearing in the dark?” Mulder asked.
“Fireflies” Yves replied quickly, and hung up.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
“You must be Dana and Fox” said Florence opening the door.
“Nice to meet you at least” said Scully, extending her hand.
“Now, where’s this little boy who Scully … Dana’s been talking about before?” Mulder asked.
As if on cue, a bare-chested figure ran through the door from the adjacent playroom; apart from a pair of jeans, all he had on was a monkey mask. His chest was particularly hairy, and sweaty. On his shoulders was a young girl.
“Well, it certainly seems that you’re a bigger monkey than ever” Scully laughed.
“Auntie Dana” said Trent, putting Scully into an embrace.
“Can he do sign language like Sophie the Gorilla?” Mulder whispered.
“You must be Uncle Fox” said Trent, giving Mulder a fist pump, which was made slightly awkward as Mulder went to shake his hand.
“Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” Mulder laughed. Tena, in the papoose that Mulder was carrying, seemed to be laughing at that. It seemed that she already had her father’s taste in films.
“I’m still wearing my mask, aren’t I?” Trent replied, pulling it off, and revealing his even hairier, bearded face; “same mask from my sixth birthday, Auntie Dana; I kept it for sentimental reasons, and Hazel loves it. It’s always by my bedside, in case she wakes up and needs ‘Monkey Daddy’ to comfort her”.
“Trent’s heard all about the famous Fox Mulder” Florence laughed; “he managed to find a copy of that article you wrote, as M.F. Luder”.
“That’s me” Mulder replied, “a menace; a walking pestilence”.
“Excuse me being half-dressed” Trent added; “I only got up half an hour ago; I’ll go and shower, and make myself more presentable”.
XXXXX
FLINT, MI
Monica Reyes entered the seedy bar, and looked around. It definitely looked like a rough place; she didn’t like the look of the two tattooed men who were playing pool in the corner, but had got into an argument.
However, the trail of John Doggett had led her to this place, and she had to get some intel.
As she approached the bar, she heard the television blaring: “… and this has been the latest in a series of mysterious child killings that has taken place in the Frankenmuth area; police apparently have very little evidence to work with, and are appealing for witnesses”.
Reyes glanced at the African-American bartender, who had his back turned. He was wearing a baseball cap, with the bill facing backwards; on the crown, she could see the familiar old-English typeface “D” of the Detroit Tigers.
As he turned, and noticed Reyes, she smiled: “Fan of the Tigers, are you?”
“Yes, ma’am” he replied; “what can I be getting you?”
On the TV, a detective was being interviewed:
“Detective Grimes, what are the police doing about this?”
“We’re asking parents to be vigilant” the detective replied, “and keep a close eye on their kids”.
“Shocking, isn’t it?” the bartender said, noticing Reyes looking up at the television, “do you want a drink, though?”
Reyes produced a picture of Doggett: “First, I need to know if you’ve seen this man”.
The bartender barely looked at the picture: “If you’re not buying a drink, I’ll have to ask you to leave”.
For the first time in a while, Reyes snapped: “IS IT TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO ANSWER A SIMPLE QUESTION? LOOK AT THE PICTURE AND TELL ME IF YOU’VE SEEN HIM!”
Several other bar patrons turned in the direction of the commotion, either shocked or keen to see what violence was about to break out.
The barman was a bit taken aback: “Lady, I ain’t seen him; now…”
“Don’t worry, Wayne” a female voice interrupted; “I’m going to buy her a drink”.
A fortysomething African-American woman sat on a stool. at the end of the bar; she had frizzy hair, and a tattoo of a heart on her right arm. It seemed to have a name in the middle.
She turned to Reyes: “I might be able to help you, but you need to help me in return”.
Reyes turned to her.
“I figure you must be some kind of private detective; I’m guessing this man you’re looking for, maybe he’s someone’s no-good cheating husband. Maybe he’s your husband, even”.
“You’re kind of right” Reyes replied, sitting at a stool adjacent to the newcomer.
“Shawanda Nesbit” the other woman added, extending her hand.
“Jolene” Reyes replied, shaking the woman’s hand; she thought it best to give a fake name, just in case the wrong people were listening.
“Nice to meet you, Jolene; you see my tattoo?”
Reyes looked closer, and saw the name in the middle of the tattoo read DANNY.
“Danny was my boy; he got killed by the same person who killed that kid they’re reporting on the news; they also killed my ex-husband, who he was staying with in Frankenmuth. The cops aren’t going to do anything useful about it, they never do, ain’t that right, Wayne?”
“All I know is, they’ve never laid a finger to help me” replied Wayne.
“Also, get us two whiskies, and put them on my tab”.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Trent, now wearing a shirt, and without his mask, led Mulder and Scully out into his garden; they were both impressed at its size, although the grass looked like it needed mowing. Certainly Scully’s godson had fared better than she had ever expected him to while she supervised his childhood birthday parties.
It was Mulder’s turn to carry Tena, and thankfully she was asleep.
“The fairies were in this spot” said Trent; “they seemed to be hovering in this area”.
Scully was trying hard to hide how unimpressed she was.
“Do you have any hard evidence of this?” Mulder whispered.
“I did video them” Trent offered.
He got out his phone, and showed the agents the video; the light display certainly seemed impressive, but Scully wasn’t impressed.
“It looks like the lawn hasn’t been cut in a while?”
“We had to dismiss our grass cutter” Trent admitted; “I guess I should get out there and cut the grass”.
“What point are you making, Scully?” Mulder asked.
“Long grass attracts fireflies” Scully replied; “it could have been them, resting on the long, uncut grass”.
“I hope I can find some way to convince you otherwise, Auntie Dana” said Trent, looking downcast.
“We’ve still got time for that” Scully smiled; “Mulder, what are you looking at?”
Mulder was bending down, and pulling something out of the long grass; it looked like a cutting from a newspaper.
“Someone nearby is obsessed with collecting press cuttings” Trent muttered; “it must have blown over the fence”.
“You said the fairies were right here?” Mulder asked.
“Yes” said Trent.
“Scully, a quick word” said Mulder; “Trent, I’m sure you’d love to hold Tena for a moment”.
“Aww; Hi, Tena” Trent smiled, although the sleeping baby did not even notice what was going on, let alone respond.
“Even if you think the fairies aren’t real” said Mulder; “maybe I can offer my services to the local police force”.
“What is it this time, Mulder?”
“For once, not an X-File, but they might appreciate my profiling abilities”.
Mulder showed Scully the newspaper cutting, which showed an image of a young child; underneath was the text:
POLICE SEARCHING FOR LEADS IN LATEST KILLING
The latest victim of the child killer operating in the Frankenmuth area has been confirmed as Danny Nesbitt, who was staying overnight with his father, John. Mr. Nesbitt was found dead in his house, where Danny was taken from.
Police are urging witnesses to come forward, and for parents to be extra vigilant with their children.
“You have your catch up with Trent” said Mulder, “and I’ll pay a visit to the local police station”.
“So long as you don’t start suggesting the fairies did it” Scully said warningly.
“Scully” Mulder replied, mock-chidingly, “fairies never kill kids”.
Of course, Scully thought to herself; how foolish of me to suggest otherwise.
XXXXX
COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
“We have a Fox Mulder to see you, Sir” said Constable Smitrovich.
Detective Grimes looked up; the name “Fox Mulder” rang a bell.
“Aren’t you that paranormal investigator who thought his sister was abducted by aliens?” Grimes asked.
“I’m leaving all of my belief in the supernatural at the door” said Mulder; “I wondered if I could assist with the case you’re dealing with”.
“The child murders?” Grimes asked.
“You might also be familiar with my work in the F.B.I’s violent crimes unit” Mulder added; “I have some experience with pedophiles, like John Lee Roche”.
“The so-called Paper Hearts killer?” Grimes asked; “not the best of names, I’d have called it silk hearts myself. I did hear that you caught him, and later on you were the agent who killed him after he escaped from prison”.
Mulder nodded: “If you need any more references, I’d recommend speaking to a Walter Skinner, Assistant Director of the F.B.I.”. He chose not to mention Skinner’s recent retirement, or the man he did not wish Detective Grimes to speak to: Deputy Director Kersh.
“Julia, please could you call an Assistant Director Skinner?” Grimes called.
“I can give you his mobile number” Mulder smiled; “once you’re satisfied, maybe it would be worth visiting the crime scenes, and the locations where the bodies were found”.
“Let’s make one thing clear, though, Agent Mulder” said Grimes; “this is my case”.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Scully sat in the front room with Trent and Florence; Tena and Hazel played contentedly on the floor near them.
“So, it seems that you and Fox have made a good life for each other?” Florence asked.
“We had some difficult times” Scully admitted; “we had to give our first son up for adoption; it was just too difficult. The hardest thing will be when we decide to tell Tena”.
“Always a hard choice to make, Auntie Dana” Trent agreed; “a good friend of mine was adopted, he said he found out because he heard his parents discussing it when they thought he was asleep”.
Scully’s phone vibrated: a text; she quickly glanced at her phone, and saw a message from Skinner.
Make sure you keep Agent Mulder in line. I’ve heard he’s got involved in a case up in Michigan. PS Enjoy your trip, if possible.
Scully sighed; she agreed entirely with what Skinner was telling her. How did you prevent Mulder from causing problems, though?
“How’s your mother?” Scully asked.
Scully hadn’t seen her best friend Ellen Jenkins in many years, although the two women occasionally wrote to each other.
“Still living in England” Trent replied; “she seems to enjoy it over there”.
“I think she’s just glad she’s away from Trump” Florence added.
Scully laughed; she was no fan of their current president either.
“I’m just wondering if one day Mulder … Fox … will propose marriage” Scully added; “though I don’t look forward to seeing Bill’s reaction”.
Trent nodded; he had met Bill once, and Scully’s older brother had not been in a particularly good mood. Trent had been quite young at the time, and the fact that he had dropped his ice cream all down Bill’s trouser leg hadn’t helped.
“So, as I understand it, Fox believes in aliens, and UFOs” added Florence.
“Also, maybe fairies?” Trent added.
“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve investigated?” asked Florence; “you must have had some strange cases”.
“There’s the one that even Mulder struggles to believe” Scully replies; “a man was apparently able to turn his home into the Brady Bunch house with his mind alone. I think I may have inhaled some weed by accident when I investigated that one”.
She got another text; it was from Mulder.
Off to check a crime scene; see you at the motel.
“Shall I make another pot of tea?” Trent asked.
Scully felt Tena tug at her ankle; looking down, she saw her daughter was pointing at a picture on the wall. It was a photograph of a red car, which looked like it had been purchased at an overly high price from a fancy shop in New York City.
“I guess she likes cars” Florence laughed.
XXXXX
NESBIT HOUSE
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Mulder and Detective Grimes passed under the police tape as they approached the Nesbit house. It was similar in appearance to Trent’s house; it seemed likely that many of the residences in Frankenmuth looked similar to each other.
“This is where Darren Nesbit lived” Grimes explained.
“Where was Mr. Nesbit found?” Mulder asked.
“In the kitchen” said Grimes, opening the door and letting Mulder in.
The house was relatively tidy; certainly a lot of women would appreciate a husband who was as well house-trained as Darren Nesbit.
As the two men walked into the kitchen, Mulder could see a blood stain on the floor.
“The victim’s blood?” Mulder asked.
“Shot” Grimes explained; “we didn’t find any evidence of a struggle”.
“Was there anything else suspicious?” Mulder asked; “any kind of calling card?”
“None whatsoever” Grimes replied; “all we know is that Danny was probably in the nursery upstairs when he was abducted”.
Mulder walked upstairs, and looked at the nursery room; nothing much seemed to be out of place; it seemed that the killer had taken the boy away without drawing any blood. The wall was adorned with pictures of Spongebob Squarepants, and a mobile above the bed was adorned with effigies of the Bibble Tiggles. They seemed to be a creepy bootleg version of the Teletubbies, and Mulder and Scully had agreed never to show the programme to Tena, and had made the same decision about the bizarre “Mr. Chuckleteeth”.
The only thing that Mulder could see was a line of muddy boot prints; the kidnapper had been very careful. He took a picture with his phone.
XXXXX
Outside the Grimes House, Monica Reyes and Shawanda Nesbit sat in a blacked-out car; they had conveniently arrived just behind Mulder and Grimes.
“I can’t go in while the cops are there” Shawanda grumbled; “they’ve got someone new with them as well, as much good as that will do”.
“I recognize him” replied Reyes, before she’d thought about how to explain this.
Shawanda looked surprised.
“You do now, Jolene?”
“By reputation” Reyes improvised; “I hear his name is Special Agent Fox Mulder, and I also hear that he believes his sister was abducted by aliens”.
“So, he’s considered fit to help with my son’s case?” Shawanda grumbled.
“I also hear that he’s worked with the violent crimes unit” Reyes added.
“Well, it looks like you’ve got yourself some healthy competition” Shawanda grinned.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
FRANKENMUTH, MI
“How was your day?” Scully asked, after finally putting Tena to bed.
“I looked at all of the crime scenes” Mulder replied, staring at his phone as he did so; “there wasn’t much evidence to go on, whoever is doing these murders is being very careful”.
“I don’t think my parents would have liked you staring at your phone while you’re talking to me” Scully added.
“I managed to find the Twitter feed of one of the victim’s dad’s” Mulder replied; “I conveniently failed to tell the cops that part”.
“Okay” Scully replied, not sure where this was going.
“I thought I might be able to find out some more about him” added Mulder; “find out about who his associates were, people who I could speak to; and then I saw this”.
Scully looked at Mulder’s phone screen; there was a picture of similar lights to what Trent had filmed in his garden, with the caption.
Any1 know what these r? Fairy’s come to visit?
“Seems like a bit of a coincidence” Mulder added.
“Mulder, this has to be some kind of hoax” replied Scully.
“Well, can you explain why they appeared at two different houses?” Mulder asked.
“I’ll get back to you” Scully grumbled; “I’m tired”.
“Oh, and another thing” Mulder added; “I’ve convinced the local P.D. to let you autopsy the previous victim”.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Trent and Florence were more than happy to look after Tena the next day, while Scully did her autopsy and Mulder assisted the cops some more.
“We’ll make sure she is looked after” Trent beamed; “a good play date for Hazel”.
“I’ll be back to collect her after I’ve finished the autopsy” Scully replied.
“Have a good time, if you can” Florence smiled.
Tena started to cry as Scully moved off, but she waved to her daughter, adding: “I’ll be back to collect you soon, Sweetie”.
As they moved into the front room, they were unaware of the man who had crept into the back garden, and who was now shimmying up the drainpipe to the open upstairs window. The tall trees that surrounded the garden were good for privacy, but also good for stopping the neighbours seeing that the Jenkins family had an intruder.
“I’m going to take a shower” Florence told Trent; “you look after the kids”.
XXXXX
COUNTY MORGUE
Scully did not take long doing her autopsy on Danny; she pulled out her phone and called Mulder.
“What did you find?” Mulder asked, answering within the first few rings.
“No evidence of supernatural activity” Scully confirmed; “the mortician was not impressed at my barging in either. I don’t know what you were expecting to find”.
“So, the cause of death…?” Mulder replied.
“The boy had his throat slit, simple as that” Scully replied; “he would have bled to death, and I did find evidence of anal penetration, confirming that he was raped. No evidence of semen, though; it seems that our killer was very careful, and wore a condom”.
“So, fewer chances of doing a D.N.A. test, then” Mulder mused.
“I’ve found no evidence of any hair and fibre from our killer” Scully confirmed; “whoever did this is being very careful”.
Mulder nodded; the killer had probably watched all of Dexter, and made notes about how to create a sterile killing environment.
He glanced across at Detective Grimes, who looked back, impassively. It seemed that the man had lost all sensitivity, even to such a harrowing case as this one.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Steam filled the room as Florence stepped out of the shower; she pulled on her robe, and stepped out onto the landing.
She felt a lot better after showering, and hopefully Trent was having a good time with the kids.
Florence stepped into the master bedroom, and was startled by the figure standing by the bed, wearing a monkey mask.
“Trent” she said; “you surprised me. You went upstairs to get that mask, didn’t you?”
No answer.
“Is Monkey Daddy going to go and make sure the kids are okay?” Florence prompted the masked figure.
As the man moved towards Florence, she suddenly realised what was wrong.
“Why did you change your clothes?” she asked, before it finally dawned on her that this was not Trent, all too late as she was pushed down onto the bed, and felt a pillow shoved over her face.
The pillow did an effective job of silencing the gunshot that killed Florence; one clean shot to the head was all the intruder needed, before he began to walk downstairs.
Trent, downstairs, heard the footsteps and assumed that Florence was returning from her shower.
“Hi, Darling” he said, turning his head, only to see someone who he was fairly certain was not his wife.
Hazel and Tena screamed as the intruder raised his gun, and fired, hitting Trent in the temple.
Trent fell to the floor, and the intruder scooped up the two helpless children, and quickly pulled out a chloroform-soaked rag, putting them over the mouths of his new kidnap victims.
It wouldn’t do to draw the neighbours’ attention as he took the kids away, after all.
He glanced at the lights dancing around outside the window; they almost looked frantic, and then he took the children outside, and bundled them into his car.
He ignored the shouting of Trent’s neighbour, Mr. Sahota, who was running down his driveway, and drove away.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Frankenmuth PD responded swiftly to Mr. Sahota’s 911 call; Detective Grimes, Mulder and Scully, and several other law enforcement officials were on the scene quickly.
Mulder and Scully felt a cold dread as they ran into the house.
“Tena!” Scully shouted, feeling panicked. She could only hope that the man seen leaving the house did not have their daughter with them.
She saw the prone form of her Godson lying on the ground, a bullet wound in his temple.
No, she thought; please, no.
Scully felt Trent’s pulse; she felt a heartbeat, but she could see that he was unconscious.
She looked up at Mulder, who looked as much in shock as she was. She saw the paramedics running into the room.
“Get this man to a hospital, NOW!” she shouted.
As Trent was placed on a stretcher, Mulder grabbed Scully, to stop her falling.
“He took them both, didn’t he?” Scully sobbed.
Mulder remembered what had happened to Samantha all these years ago; he couldn’t let this happen to their daughter, too. He looked up at Detective Grimes, who was now entering the room.
“The neighbour tells me he saw a man getting into a car” Grimes confirmed; “he’s fairly certain the man was carrying two children”.
Mulder and Scullys’ worst fears had been realized.
“We found the wife” one of the officers called from upstairs; “shot in the head”.
Scully let go of Mulder, and ran upstairs. Agent Reyes had survived being shot in the head, so had Trent - for now; why not Florence?
Scully pushed the officer out of the way, and started to take Florence’s pulse.
“Ma’am, I don’t think…” the officer began.
“SHUT UP!” Scully snapped.
The officer tried to grab Scully, who turned around and punched the officer hard.
“GET OUT!!” she yelled, pushing him out of the room, “OUT!”
She continued to take Florence’s pulse, but realised very quickly that Trent’s wife was dead. She felt someone grab her, tried to resist them, and then heard Mulder’s voice.
“Scully” Mulder said; “we’ll find whoever did this”.
Detective Grimes walked into the room behind Mulder.
“Agents” he said; “maybe you should let us handle this from now on. Personal issues clouding your judgement, and all that”.
“SHE’S OUR DAUGHTER!” Mulder yelled, losing his temper now.
“We’ll do all we can to find her” Grimes replied.
XXXXX
Half an hour later, Mulder and Scully sat outside in their rental car; they had argued a lot with Grimes; he had told them he had lots of sympathy for both of them, but shouting at him wasn’t going to help matters.
“We couldn’t protect Tena” said Scully, through her tears; “we couldn’t even protect Hazel”.
Mulder put his arms around his partner: “I’ll tell you one thing” he replied; “we’re definitely not going to leave this case in the hands of Frankenmuth PD”.
Scully turned to him: “For once, I agree with you on this”.
She had lost her daughter Emily; she was certainly not going to lose Tena.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
FRANKENMUTH, MI
2AM
The first person Trent saw as he opened his eyes was his Godmother’s face.
“My fairy Godmother” he mumbled, “Dana; what happened?”
He reached up and felt the bandage on his head. He also became aware that underneath the sheets, he was wearing only his briefs. Attached to his bare chest was a heart rate monitor.
“Trent, you’ve been very lucky” Scully said, gasping back tears at seeing her Godson wake up.
“Where’s Florence?” Trent asked; “and Hazel?”
Scully put her hand on Trent’s bare shoulder: “There’s something you need to know: Florence is dead; she wasn’t quite so lucky”.
“What happened?”
“The same person who tried to kill you, we believe” Scully replied.
“What about Hazel?”
Scully couldn’t tell him the truth; she had to lie to her own Godson, but it was better than possibly worrying him unnecessarily. She had been told that the news channel were not allowed to give the identities of the kidnapped children.
“She’s safe” Scully lied; “she managed to escape from the house, and run to the neighbours; they were the ones who alerted the police”.
“That was very brave of her” Trent attempted to smile; “she’ll go far, that’s for certain”.
Scully stood up: “You take it easy” she smiled; “I’m just glad that you’re still alive”.
A baby-faced male nurse walked into the room; despite his boyish appearance, Scully suspected that he was a similar age to Trent.
“Time to change your sheets, Mr. Jenkins” the nurse said.
“Please let us know about his condition” Scully said, as she left the room.
“I take it you didn’t see who attacked you?” the nurse asked, helping Trent out of his bed, and easing him into a chair.
“No” Trent mumbled; “I don’t even remember what happened; I have a vague recollection of someone … he was wearing my monkey mask”.
The nurse smiled, and went about his job, then helped Trent into the bed.
“You get better now” he said, and left the room.
Trent thought he saw lights following the nurse as he left the room; maybe he was just imagining things.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
3AM
Mulder snuck under the police cordon after the forensics team had left the premises; he switched his torch on as he opened the front door; maybe he’d be able to spot something they had overlooked.
Mulder shone his torch around; he could see boot prints coming down the stairs, and into the living room. He carefully used his phone camera to take pictures of them. He compared them with the ones that he had taken in the Nesbit residence. There was no doubting it; the prints came from the same boot.
As Mulder moved through into the living area, he was startled by the bright flashes of light.
It appeared that Trent’s ‘fairies’ were back, and they were in the house now; getting bolder, perhaps.
The lights scattered as Mulder pointed his torch into the spot that they seemed to be gathered in.
Odd, he thought, as he saw Trent’s monkey mask lying on the floor, remembering that Scully’s Godson had mentioned keeping it by his bed.
He had noticed how tidy the house was when he and Scully first arrived; everything seemed to have been in its correct place; Trent and Florence hadn’t struck him as the sort of people who would leave anything lying around.
If these really were fairies, they might have been leading Mulder to a vital clue; pulling on his rubber gloves, he carefully picked up the mask.
Another light appearing at the far end of the room startled Mulder. He quickly realized it was a torch beam.; had the police discovered him? He could see a female figure at the other end of the room.
“You caught me” he sighed; “but you can’t blame me, I just want to find out what happened to my daughter”.
“Agent Mulder” said Monia Reyes, stepping closer to him; “are you sure you should be getting involved in this?”
“Agent Reyes” Mulder sighed; “so, this is where your search for Special Agent Doggett has taken you?”
“I’m going to find the kidnapper” Reyes scowled; “you and Agent Scully need to back off”.
“How did you find out about this?” Mulder asked.
“Your friend Danny let me know” Reyes smirked; “he’s a friend of anyone who’s worked on the X Files”.
“Maybe” Mulder suggested, “we could try to work together on this case”.
Reyes paused: “I trust you’re not going to start suggesting this was the work of aliens?”
“I’m fairly certain that whoever did this is human” Mulder replied; “but I’m starting to suspect that our fairy friends are trying to help us”.
“Descending into the realms of fantasy, Agent Mulder”.
“No, listen; at least two households who had their children kidnapped saw the same bright lights” Mulder said, insistently; “maybe they were trying to warn them?”
“That’s an interesting, but still crazy theory” Reyes answered.
“I just saw the same lights in this room” Mulder explained; “they drew me to this”.
He held up the monkey mask, Reyes looked confused.
“The last person to wear this” Mulder explained, “was almost certainly either Mr. Jenkins; or the kidnapper”.
“You’re suggesting we get it D.N.A. tested?” Reyes asked.
“Exactly” Mulder replied.
“I’ll cut you a deal” Reyes replied; “we search for this S.O.B. together, but I’m going to take credit for catching him, or her”.
Mulder had recently given two detectives credit for solving a case; he could probably do the same for Monica Reyes.
“I can’t really explain this” Reyes added, “but it will help me find John”.
Mulder nodded; he thought for a moment, then added: “What happened to you, Agent Reyes? The old Monica Reyes would have accepted the concept of fairies”.
“I’m a changed woman” replied Reyes, “no one has been putting a girdle around the earth in forty minutes”.
“Looks like we’re partners” Mulder added, and turned to go.
“One more thing” Reyes added; “and I’m not sure if you should tell Agent Scully”.
Mulder turned around: “What is it, Agent Reyes?”
“Several months ago” Reyes replied; “someone was following me; I believe he meant to kill me. I managed to get away, but …” she wasn’t sure what to say.
“Agent Reyes?”
“I recognized him as Agent Scully’s brother, Charles; he had followed me”.
“Are you sure?” Mulder asked.
“I’m good at remembering faces” Reyes replied; “I know it was him”.
Mulder hesitated, and then replied: “I won’t tell Agent Scully; not yet. I think she has enough to worry about at the moment”.
Reyes nodded in agreement.
The agents’ priority was to find Tena and Hazel alive.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
“Agent Reyes, what a surprise” said Scully.
“Agent Scully” replied Reyes.
“It seems that all three of us are going behind the backs of local law enforcement” replied Mulder.
“You have an interest in this case, Agent Reyes?” Scully asked.
“Personal reasons” Reyes explained.
Scully nodded; she was no stranger to keeping secrets; she had kept her pregnancy with William secret from John Doggett while they were partners. When she had cancer many years ago, she had kept that from most of her family.
“Have you found out anything else?” Mulder asked.
“I managed to find out that all of the dead kids attended the same kindergarden” Scully replied; “it seems that whoever killed them may have got access to the confidential records”.
“How?” Reyes asked.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH PD
Over, at the police department, local law enforcement were having the same conversation.
“From what we can gather” announced Detective Grimes; “someone was able to hack into the kindergarden’s database”.
He paused, looking around at the cops who stood before him, all hoping to get a promotion by catching this killer.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
“Are you saying that the killer was able to obtain the kids’ addresses from the database?” Mulder asked.
“Precisely” Scully replied; “the person I spoke to admitted that they had known about the incident, but hadn’t told parents”.
Mulder and Reyes nodded their heads.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH PD
“It seems that the school didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic” Detective Grimes continued.
“Seems a bit late for that” muttered one junior officer.
Detective Grimes ignored the interruption: “As well as finding these kids, I am going to deploy officers to the homes of the other kids, make sure they have round the clock protection. We have very little else to go by, except by appealing for witnesses who may have seen someone entering the Jenkins house”.
The whole room went silent.
“Officers” said Grimes; “by the end of tonight, each of you should be pulling your weight to help to solve this case; if you’re not up for it, then I suggest you hand in your badge right now”.
“Yes, Sir”, the room chorused.
“One more thing” added Detective Grimes; “watch out for two F.B.I. agents, the parents of the missing baby. Particularly the father, Fox Mulder; I’ve told him to back off this case, but I have some understanding of his reputation for interfering, and suggesting that everything was the work of aliens.
I have reason to believe he’s claiming the Sugar Plum Fairy had some involvement”.
A few people sniggered, but stopped when they saw the serious expression on Grimes’ face.
“I will assign each of you a task” replied Grimes; “come to me if you are unsure of anything”.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
Scully visited Trent the next day, carrying some flowers. She found a young woman in the room speaking to her godson. She had medium-length blonde hair, and wore round glasses. She was dressed in a knee-length skirt, and wore a yellow cardigan. She looked like she could be a librarian.
“Oh, hi” the visitor said; “I’m just visiting before I start work”.
“This is Helen” Trent murmured; “Hazel’s kindergarten teacher”.
Scully glanced at the police officer stationed outside Trent’s room, just in case the killer decided to return, and finish the job they had started.
“We need to speak, in private” Scully whispered; “do you have time?”
“I start work in 45 minutes” Helen replied.
“I’ll take up 15 minutes of your time” Scully whispered; “head to the canteen, and I’ll follow you in five minutes”.
Helen looked puzzled, but headed out of the room, smiling at the cop on the way.
Scully quickly texted Mulder: HOSPITAL CANTEEN ASAP.
She smiled at Trent: “I just wanted to see how you were”.
“Trying to trust the Police Department” Trent mumbled.
“You focus on getting better” Scully replied, leaving the flowers by his bed.
XXXXX
Mulder and Reyes arrived at the hospital canteen to find Scully and Helen talking over a cup of coffee. The room was free of cops, so they could speak freely. Reyes had jumped about three red lights in her to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Not only had she risked being pulled over by cops, she had risked them ending up in the hospital in a different way than intended, probably the morgue. This was a side to her that Mulder had never seen before; she had even given one irate driver the finger.
“This is Helen” Scully told them; she works at the kindergarten.
Helen smiled, nervously.
“It’s such shocking news about those kids” Reyes added, sympathetically.
“Your friend asked if I had seen anything suspicious around the school” Helen explained; “I’m not sure what help I can be, but I can tell you one thing that I found out”.
The agents nodded.
“I have repeatedly seen the same wagon parked near to the school; red, and with the windows blacked out. It usually only hung around for about half an hour at the time, but I recall often seeing it shortly before one of the kids went missing.”
“Did you get a license plate number?” Mulder asked.
“I memorized it” Helen replied; “do you have a pen?”
Mulder searched for his pen; it was missing. Maybe he needed an ankle-holstered pen now, but Scully conveniently had one.
Helen wrote on a napkin: “WLV 4VR”.
“Looks like a personalised numberplate” said Reyes, “I’m guessing a Michigan Wolverines fan?”
The numberplate was a vastly truncated “WOLVERINES FOR EVER”.
“Have you spoken to the police?” Mulder asked.
“They told me that the vehicle was reported stolen” Helen replied “the owner, a Gary Gilligan, was found dead at the place where it disappeared from”.
The agents looked at each other; this was not much to be going by.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
8PM
The three agents spent the whole day searching for possible leads, without much luck. Reyes had booked into a separate room at the same motel, and had gone to take a shower.
Mulder decided to go outside running; it was something he had got into habit of again, but wasn’t doing enough of. He grabbed his head-torch, since it was dark outside, and left Scully alone watching the television, trying to take her mind off other matters.
The motel was on the edge of Frankenmuth, and Mulder jogged along the sidewalk towards the open countryside. For this time of the evening, it was surprisingly quiet.
Mulder had only been jogging for ten minutes when he found himself surrounded by tiny, dazzling, lights. Could these be the fairies that Trent had been referring to?
He stopped, confused; why were they circling around him?
As he waited, the lights drifted off, and along a smaller road, little more than a dirt track. It seemed to Mulder that they were somehow beckoning to him to follow.
Was this why some of the other kidnap victims’ parents had seen the lights? Were they trying to warn them too?
Mulder knew little about fairies, and whether they even knew how to communicate with humans in their own language.
“Time to enter Pan’s Labyrinth” Mulder muttered to himself, and turned along the route that the lights seemed to be guiding him, making a note that the street was called “ANDERSEN LANE”.
He ran for another five minutes, and saw the lights again, outside a house that seemed deserted. The lights were switched off, and no one seemed at home. The place could almost have been a smaller version of Bates’ motel, it was so spooky, except without the guest bedrooms.
The fairies, as Mulder was certain they were, hovered outside the garage, as thought enticing him to get closer. He could see light from another house, which was close enough to be seen, but not close enough that the occupants would see him snooping around.
Mulder got bolder, and pulled on the garage door; locked. Not to worry though, as he was carrying his gun. His instincts told him that he should be looking inside.
Mulder pulled out his gun, and fired at the lock, breaking it, scattering fairies in all directions. It seemed that they had fast reflexes.
Opening the garage, Mulder could see only one thing; a vehicle covered with a tarpaulin. Mulder pulled the tarpaulin aside, to find a red wagon, bearing the numberplate: WLV 4VR.
Mulder had found the kidnapper’s house, and better still, it seemed to be empty, for the time being.
He pulled out his phone, and noticed one missed call. There was no time to check who it was from; he called Scully.
“Scully” he said, not giving his partner much time to answer. Get Reyes, and meet me at Andersen Lane; it’s a short drive just south of motel”.
“Huh?” was all Scully could reply.
“I think I may have found where our kidnapper lives”.
“Mulder?”
“Call it a hunch, Scully”.
XXXXX
Mulder’s gunshot had been loud enough to attract the attention of an older woman, who lived close by.
Nervously, she picked up the phone, and dialled Frankenmuth PD to explain exactly what she had heard.
XXXXX
Scully’s phone rang again and she and Reyes headed out of the motel. Reyes hadn’t been too impressed at having her time relaxing interrupted, but it seemed best to have both of them to rein Mulder’s wild ideas in.
“Mulder, what is it this time?”
“Am I speaking to Special Agent Dana Scully?” a woman’s voice answered.
“Yes?” Scully asked, as Reyes looked at her, seemingly urging her to hurry up and get in the car.
“We’ve been trying to get through to your partner, Special Agent Fox Mulder; luckily, he gave us your number too” the woman continued. “It’s about a D.N.A. sample he requested off a mask”.
“Did you get any results?” Scully asked.
“The D.N.A. was from two men” the woman replied; “one was from a Trent Jenkins”.
That made sense; Trent had been wearing the mask.
“The other is from a James Herschel”.
Scully thanked the woman, and got in the car.
“Our suspect is a James Herschel” she told Reyes, as the other woman started the car engine.
As they drove along, something started to bug Scully.
“Agent Reyes, do you ever get that feeling of déjà vu?”
“How do you mean”.
“The name James Herschel; I’m sure I’ve come across it, recently”.
Scully pondered; could it be some sort of variation on the so-called Mandela effect?
XXXXX
Mulder looked around the lonely house; was there something he was missing?
The so-called fairies seemed to have the answer, as they now floated above a gate that seemed to lead to the back garden of the property.
A hard kick to the gate was all it took to force it open, and Mulder ran through. The lights in front of him seemed to be getting brighter, as they led him through the large garden at the back, and along a path, before stopping.
Mulder saw them hovering over what looked like a sort of hatch, which looked like something off Lost. He remembered arguing about that show with Scully, who had given up after the first season and called it ‘one of the worst things she had ever seen’. He had inevitably kept watching until the end, and had enjoyed it all, although watching the finale with Jimmy Bond had been a mistake.
Jimmy had asked Mulder questions throughout, mostly about the character John Locke.
Mulder realized quickly that the hatch led to a nuclear bunker. The hatch had a small grille on it, which looked like it would be enough to provide some air to the room underneath.
His phone rang, and he answered it.
“Mulder, it’s me; we followed your directions. Where are you?”
“Follow the trail of destruction” replied Mulder.
XXXXX
Scully glanced at the gate, which was almost off its hinges. It was easy to tell where Mulder was.
As Reyes got up to follow, Scully turned: “I’ve just remembered” she said.
“What is it, Agent Scully?”
“James Herschel” Scully replied; “he’s a nurse at the hospital. He came into Trent’s room while I was in there, and I read his name badge”.
Scully heard the wail of a distant police siren, and had a sudden realization; women’s intuition, maybe. Could Mulder have been reported as an intruder?
“Mulder told me you want to bring this S.O.B. in” Scully added; “all I want is to get the kids back safely”.
Reyes nodded: “That does mean I’ll have to leave you and Agent Mulder here”.
“You should go, quickly, and speak to someone at the hospital!” Scully replied; “I don’t know what your motives are, but I’m starting to trust you again”.
Reyes didn’t hesitate to; she started the engine up, and drove back the way she had came. The fact that the house was empty suggested that perhaps their suspect was at his place of work, on night shift. Moments after she turned off the driveway, two police cars sped along from the other direction.
The officers inside made a quick decision over the radio; one turned round and followed Reyes’ car, just in case she was connected to the mysterious gunshot that had been reported by a neighbour, the other turned up the driveway. It seemed like the only way to ensure that no suspects were getting away.
Reyes sped the car up; it was something she was getting used to now.
XXXXX
Mulder head Scully running through the garden as he unbolted the hatch; at least there was no lock to have to shoot off this time.
“Mulder, where are you?” she called.
“Follow the lights, Scully” replied Mulder.
Scully could see Mulder’s headtorch in the distance, just before he started climbing down into the open hatch.
“Police, freeze!” a voice shouted.
Scully turned, and saw two lights approaching. She quickly realised they were torches, carried by two cops - one male, and one female.
“Put your hands where I can see them” the female cop ordered.
Scully put her hands up: “Listen, I’m with the F.B.I.” she said; “I can show you my badge”.
The cop approached Scully, and reached into her pocket.
“Special Agent Dana Scully” she growled; “hey, you’re the mother of one of those missing kids”.
“You really shouldn’t be getting involved at all” added her male colleague; “and now you’re getting involved in breaking and entering”.
“Scully!” Mulder’s voice echoed from inside the bunker.
“Is that the kid’s father?” the female cop asked.
“Sir” said the male cop; “I’m going to have to ask you to come out, with your hands up”.
“Putting my hands up might be difficult” Mulder called out.
Scully and the two cops could hear the sound of two children sobbing, and they shone their torches into the bunker.
The bunker wasn’t particularly deep, and they could see Mulder inside; in his arms, he was carrying Tena and Hazel.
“Maybe you should be calling Detective Julian Grimes?” Mulder suggested.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
Reyes had probably parked illegally, but she ran into the hospital.
“I’m looking for a James Herschel!” she shouted, brandishing her F.B.I. badge”.
“What’s he done this time?” grumbled the young woman who was on reception duty, looking bored.
Reyes felt herself losing her temper: “THERE’S NO TIME FOR MESSING AROUND!” she snapped; “IS HE ON DUTY TONIGHT?”
The two cops who had been tailing Reyes ran through the door, shouting: “POLICE! FREEZE, OR WE SHOOT!”
As Reyes turned, she saw a male nurse stop in his tracks; he was carrying a bag that appeared to be full of dirty linen. At the sight of the two cops, he dropped the bag and began to run.
Reyes, took her chance, and ran after the nurse, despite the protestations from the receptionist.
A gunshot missed Reyes by inches, as she ran after her quarry, who was a fast runner, but didn’t see a sign on the floor, warning that it had been recently cleaned, so he tripped over.
Reyes dived onto the floor after him, as another bullet ricocheted over her head. She had a sudden impulse to rough him up, but realized that in full sight of two armed cops, this was not a good idea.
She glanced at his name badge, which confirmed he was James Herschel.
“This is your last warning!” said one of the cops, “put your hands where we can see them”.
Reyes pulled out her F.B.I. ID and slid it over to the cops.
“I’m a Federal Agent” she said; “keeping hold of James’ collar. “Maybe you should check my ID before you shoot”.
Pandemonium seemed to be descending on Covenant Hospital, as another police car pulled up, and two more cops ran out, followed by Scully. Mulder stayed in the car, with the two kids on his lap.
Moments later, another car pulled up, and Detective Julian Grimes ran inside.
“Put your guns away!” he ordered; “I understand we’ve just caught our serial paedophile”.
“Agent Reyes has caught him” corrected Scully.
There was a moment of silence, followed by the receptionist interjecting with: “So, I don’t need to call security?”
XXXXX
CONVENANT HOSPITAL
Detective Grimes had been annoyed at not being the one to solve his case, but in the end he’d just been relieved a killer had been caught, and they might be able to return to some normality in Frankenmuth.
Trent was discharged from the hospital the next day, and reunited with Hazel.
“Thank you, Auntie Dana and Uncle Fox” he said as hobbled out into the reception on his crutches, “I never thought I’d see my daughter again”.
Mulder and Scully looked up at Reyes, who had come with them. For the first time in what felt like forever, she was smiling.
“Auntie Monica had a hand in this too” Scully replied.
“I have to leave” said Reyes; “places to go, people to see.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other again, Agent Reyes” said Mulder, clutching Tena to make sure they weren’t parted again.
Reyes smiled again; she turned and left the hospital.
Mulder turned to Scully: “I think we’ve had enough excitement for one vacation”.
XXXXX
FLINT, MI
“So, Jolene, you caught my son and husbands’ killer?”
Reyes and Shawanda sat together in the bar.
“So, you’re going to keep up your end of the bargain?” Reyes asked.
“First” Shawanda replied, “maybe you could tell me what you’re calling yourself ‘Jolene?”
She held up her phone, which showed a recent local news article, with Reyes’ picture on it. The article identified her by her real name.
Reyes sighed: “I know I lied, but…”
“I don’t care” Jolene replied; “I googled you, honey, and I saw that you were at some point assigned to something called ‘The X-Files’. I also read about some cases you were involved in, along with this missing agent, John Doggett. Some gruesome ones, too; people getting skinned alive”.
Reyes nodded, and didn’t say anything.
“Then, I realized” Jolene laughed; “you’re more than just work partners; am I right?”
Reyes didn’t say anything.
“He was here alright” Shawanda replied; “he trusted me enough to look after his bag while he went to the John. I had a sneak peek inside; I felt curious”.
“What did you find?” Reyes asked.
“He had booked a plane ticket to LA” Shawanda replied; “that’s where I figure he is now”.
“Thank you” Reyes replied, getting up to leave. As she began to leave the bar, she turned around and said: “John and I were partners”.
“What are you now?” Shawanda asked.
“That’s what I want to find out” Reyes replied; with that, she left.
From behind the bar, Wayne turned to Shawanda: “I have a good idea about what this John and Jolene, or whatever her name is now, are to each other”.
Shawanda smile: “So do I, Sugar!”
XXXXX
CENTRAL MICHIGAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
James Herschel was led into the sparsely-furnished room, filled with tables.
Most were empty, but a few had other prisoners talking to their loved ones.
He had been moved into a cell on his own, after his new roommate had attacked him. Paedophiles never fared well in jail, and he had been lucky to get away with a cut to the face before the female prison guard had stepped in.
James had heard later a rumour that she had beaten his assailant viciously, but the governor had turned a blind eye. It was like The Shawshank Redemption in here.
James felt his hands and feet being cuffed together, as he was sat down at the table, and his three visitors approached.
The two identical women reminded him of the twin girls from The Shining.
“Hello, Brother” said Teena Simmons, speaking first.
“Are you pleased to see us?” Cindy Reardon added.
Their male companion came closer; he was the spitting image of James, save for the fact that he did not have a permanent scar on his face.
“I am known as Adam 10” he announced; “but I’m prefer it if you called me by the name by so-called parents called me; before I killed them. Edward Koontz”.
“I understand that I am Adam 9” James replied, nodding his head, as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He looked up to see the older, female prison guard, and recognized her as his saviour from the previous attack.
Eve 8, more commonly known as Dori Pierson, smiled back at him.
“How did you know we’d come for you?” Cindy and Teena asked, in unison.
James paused, and then smiled.
“I just knew”, he replied.
THE END
1) A return appearance from Scully's godson, Trent, from the first season;
2) The return of - well, you'll see; I had the final plot twist in my head for a while; and
3) More Reyes (sorry, fanboys and fangirls; her inclusion probably won't please all of you).
Flagged for explicit adult content; some bits may be triggering.
Episode 12x09: Eris
FRANKENMUTH, MI
At the age of thirty-one, Trent Jenkins was very different to how he had been aged six all of those years ago; bigger, hairier, and married with a child.
He loved Florence very much, and they both loved their six year-old daughter, Hazel.
They had fallen in love with the town they had moved to; the architecture in some of the buildings could have been straight out of the Brothers Grimm.
He had received news through his mother, that his Godmother Dana had recently had another baby; he should get in touch with her sometime.
“Your turn to put Hazel to bed, darling” said Florence; she planted a kiss on the side of his bearded face.
Hazel was often difficult to put to bed, but she seemed excited about hearing one of her father’s bedtime stories.
After brushing her teeth, and getting into her pyjamas, she lay in her bed, looking expectantly at Trent. Her room was filled with decorations related to Frozen, including the duvet cover and the wallpaper.
“Do you want to hear the one about Rapunzel again?” Trent asked.
“Yes, Daddy!” Hazel said excitedly, “I want Monkey Daddy to read it to me”.
Hazel loved it when Trent put on his monkey mask; she was mesmerized by it. It was a little too small for his face, since he’d had it since his sixth birthday party, and he’d had to fit it with longer elastic. He remembered that party; Dana had been there, and Trent and his friends had run around the house in their monkey masks.
Trent walked into his bedroom, and grabbed the monkey mask from the the bedside; he came back in wearing it.
“Monkey Daddy” Hazel laughed.
Sitting down, Trent told Hazel: “Once upon a time, there was a girl called Rapunzel; she was nice and happy, but her parents were very poor. Her father had to steal vegetables from the garden of the old lady who lived nearby”.
“What kind of vegetables?”
“Cabbages, carrots, zucchini, eggplant; all kinds” Trent replied; “but what they didn’t know was that the old lady was a witch, and she decided to get revenge by kidnapping Rapunzel…”
He looked down; Hazel was asleep.
He quietly left the room, and walked downstairs.
“Hello, Monkey Daddy” Florence whispered; “I must say, I’m quite turned on”.
Trent pulled the mask off, and hung it back up. “It works like a charm every time; Hazel loves it when I turn into Monkey Daddy”.
“You should start that career as a children’s entertainer” laughed Florence.
Trent was looking at something outside.
“Earth to Trent” Florence laughed.
“Sorry, I got distracted” said Trent; he started walking towards the windows.
Florence looked at what he was seeing; there were some unusually bright lights.
“Fireflies?” she asked.
“They seem a bit big for fireflies” Trent replied.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he walked out into the garden; they were lucky to have such a large garden, with ornate bushes surrounding it.
The lights were getting brighter, and there were several of them; they seemed to dance around the garden, and Trent thought he heard faint laughter.
Trent pulled out his phone; he had to video this; maybe show it to Hazel in the morning.
He pointed his camera at the lights; he managed three seconds of video, before they abruptly disappeared, and the garden was plunged into darkness.
“Everything okay, Darling?” Florence asked.
Trent walked back into the house; all he could say was:
“Fairies!”
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
NEXT MORNING
“Who found the body?” Detective Julian Grimes asked. He was an older man, long due for retirement; he stroked his shaggy beard, as he looked down at the scene.
“A vagrant” replied his junior officer, Constable Julia Smitrovich; “stumbled across the body, and alerted the first patrol car he saw”.
Grimes looked down at the dead African-American boy, and shook his head. It was likely that the cause of death would be the same, and that there would be clear evidence of sexual assault. It was likely that the girl had died of multiple stab wounds.
“We’ve identified her as the missing boy, five year-old Danny Nesbit” added Constable Smitrovich.
“Such a young boy” muttered Grimes; “and this is the third death of this kind. Soon, families won’t want to come to Frankenmuth any more”.
It was the same modus operandi that they were familiar with; someone had broken into the family home, and murdered the parents, before abducting their children.
“Do you want me to notify the boy’s Mother?” asked Smitrovich “I understand she lives nearby in Flint”.
“I’ll do it myself” replied Grimes; this was always the hardest part of his job. “After the boy’s father was murdered on the night of the kidnap, losing her son is going to be very hard for her to accept”.
XXXXX
“You remember I mentioned Trent to you once or twice?” Scully asked Mulder.
They were driving along the freeway in their rental car; for once, Scully sat at the steering wheel.
“I remember you reneged on a case once so you could attend his birthday party” Mulder laughed, “so, what’s this case that he has for us again? You mentioned … fairies”.
“He claims to have seen them in the garden” Scully replied; “for once, we get a case that doesn’t involve brutal murders, or abductions”.
As Scully was to find out, this would prove to be a case of famous last words.
“When life makes you cry a hundred times, you have to smile a thousand times. This way, you will be able to overcome your sorrow and be happy forever” replied Mulder. “Tinkerbell”, he added.
Both agents had been watching old Disney films with little Tena.
In the back seat of the car, Tena woke up and started crying; Mulder and Scully had decided that this was a case that they could take her on.
“Don’t worry, sweetie” Scully replied; “we’re almost there”.
“What did you tell Kersh?” Scully asked.
“I didn’t need to say much” Mulder replied; “he said that anything that got us away from the F.B.I. HQ for a few days at least was good for him”.
“I do of course think there is a rational explanation for what Trent has seen” Scully added; “but haven’t seen him in years, and this seemed like a good excuse for a catch-up. I was very happy when he e-mailed me”.
“So, what do you think he saw, Scully?”
“Well, aside from the fact that there were those faked fairy pictures from many years ago” Scully replied; “the obvious explanation would be fireflies, but he seemed to dismiss that idea in his message”.
“Seems that he knows sceptical Dana Scully all too well” replied Mulder.
“Well, apparently larval gnats are known to glow when they are hungry” Scully replied; “but the glowing certainly isn’t coming from fairies”.
Tena started crying again.
“Maybe we should pull over and feed her” Scully suggested.
XXXXX
Yves Adele Harlow answered the phone; she was holding the fort at Lone Gunmen HQ. Jimmy had dragged Kimmy to a football match, insisting he get into watching the sport.
“Yves” said Mulder; he was sat in a layby, while Scully breast fed Tena, “what can you tell me about fairies?”
Yves sighed; she was glad that Jimmy wasn’t there for once.
“Well, there’s not much evidence of them existing” she replied.
“That’s not something you want to tell Spooky Mulder”.
“Did you hear of the Cottlingley fairies?” Yves asked.
“So, you’re saying they do exist now?” Mulder laughed.
“They were a hoax, and a convincing one” Yves replied; “Frances Griffiths and Elise Wright, two British girls with probably too much time on their hands faked pictures of fairies. The pictures were good enough to fool Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”.
“I expect Sherlock himself would have seen right through that hoax” Mulder laughed.
“I dare say he would” replied Yves; “Doyle used the picture to illustrate an article in Strand magazine. I can only imagine his embarrassment when the girls admitted the hoax”.
“How about little dancing lights appearing in the dark?” Mulder asked.
“Fireflies” Yves replied quickly, and hung up.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
“You must be Dana and Fox” said Florence opening the door.
“Nice to meet you at least” said Scully, extending her hand.
“Now, where’s this little boy who Scully … Dana’s been talking about before?” Mulder asked.
As if on cue, a bare-chested figure ran through the door from the adjacent playroom; apart from a pair of jeans, all he had on was a monkey mask. His chest was particularly hairy, and sweaty. On his shoulders was a young girl.
“Well, it certainly seems that you’re a bigger monkey than ever” Scully laughed.
“Auntie Dana” said Trent, putting Scully into an embrace.
“Can he do sign language like Sophie the Gorilla?” Mulder whispered.
“You must be Uncle Fox” said Trent, giving Mulder a fist pump, which was made slightly awkward as Mulder went to shake his hand.
“Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” Mulder laughed. Tena, in the papoose that Mulder was carrying, seemed to be laughing at that. It seemed that she already had her father’s taste in films.
“I’m still wearing my mask, aren’t I?” Trent replied, pulling it off, and revealing his even hairier, bearded face; “same mask from my sixth birthday, Auntie Dana; I kept it for sentimental reasons, and Hazel loves it. It’s always by my bedside, in case she wakes up and needs ‘Monkey Daddy’ to comfort her”.
“Trent’s heard all about the famous Fox Mulder” Florence laughed; “he managed to find a copy of that article you wrote, as M.F. Luder”.
“That’s me” Mulder replied, “a menace; a walking pestilence”.
“Excuse me being half-dressed” Trent added; “I only got up half an hour ago; I’ll go and shower, and make myself more presentable”.
XXXXX
FLINT, MI
Monica Reyes entered the seedy bar, and looked around. It definitely looked like a rough place; she didn’t like the look of the two tattooed men who were playing pool in the corner, but had got into an argument.
However, the trail of John Doggett had led her to this place, and she had to get some intel.
As she approached the bar, she heard the television blaring: “… and this has been the latest in a series of mysterious child killings that has taken place in the Frankenmuth area; police apparently have very little evidence to work with, and are appealing for witnesses”.
Reyes glanced at the African-American bartender, who had his back turned. He was wearing a baseball cap, with the bill facing backwards; on the crown, she could see the familiar old-English typeface “D” of the Detroit Tigers.
As he turned, and noticed Reyes, she smiled: “Fan of the Tigers, are you?”
“Yes, ma’am” he replied; “what can I be getting you?”
On the TV, a detective was being interviewed:
“Detective Grimes, what are the police doing about this?”
“We’re asking parents to be vigilant” the detective replied, “and keep a close eye on their kids”.
“Shocking, isn’t it?” the bartender said, noticing Reyes looking up at the television, “do you want a drink, though?”
Reyes produced a picture of Doggett: “First, I need to know if you’ve seen this man”.
The bartender barely looked at the picture: “If you’re not buying a drink, I’ll have to ask you to leave”.
For the first time in a while, Reyes snapped: “IS IT TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO ANSWER A SIMPLE QUESTION? LOOK AT THE PICTURE AND TELL ME IF YOU’VE SEEN HIM!”
Several other bar patrons turned in the direction of the commotion, either shocked or keen to see what violence was about to break out.
The barman was a bit taken aback: “Lady, I ain’t seen him; now…”
“Don’t worry, Wayne” a female voice interrupted; “I’m going to buy her a drink”.
A fortysomething African-American woman sat on a stool. at the end of the bar; she had frizzy hair, and a tattoo of a heart on her right arm. It seemed to have a name in the middle.
She turned to Reyes: “I might be able to help you, but you need to help me in return”.
Reyes turned to her.
“I figure you must be some kind of private detective; I’m guessing this man you’re looking for, maybe he’s someone’s no-good cheating husband. Maybe he’s your husband, even”.
“You’re kind of right” Reyes replied, sitting at a stool adjacent to the newcomer.
“Shawanda Nesbit” the other woman added, extending her hand.
“Jolene” Reyes replied, shaking the woman’s hand; she thought it best to give a fake name, just in case the wrong people were listening.
“Nice to meet you, Jolene; you see my tattoo?”
Reyes looked closer, and saw the name in the middle of the tattoo read DANNY.
“Danny was my boy; he got killed by the same person who killed that kid they’re reporting on the news; they also killed my ex-husband, who he was staying with in Frankenmuth. The cops aren’t going to do anything useful about it, they never do, ain’t that right, Wayne?”
“All I know is, they’ve never laid a finger to help me” replied Wayne.
“Also, get us two whiskies, and put them on my tab”.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Trent, now wearing a shirt, and without his mask, led Mulder and Scully out into his garden; they were both impressed at its size, although the grass looked like it needed mowing. Certainly Scully’s godson had fared better than she had ever expected him to while she supervised his childhood birthday parties.
It was Mulder’s turn to carry Tena, and thankfully she was asleep.
“The fairies were in this spot” said Trent; “they seemed to be hovering in this area”.
Scully was trying hard to hide how unimpressed she was.
“Do you have any hard evidence of this?” Mulder whispered.
“I did video them” Trent offered.
He got out his phone, and showed the agents the video; the light display certainly seemed impressive, but Scully wasn’t impressed.
“It looks like the lawn hasn’t been cut in a while?”
“We had to dismiss our grass cutter” Trent admitted; “I guess I should get out there and cut the grass”.
“What point are you making, Scully?” Mulder asked.
“Long grass attracts fireflies” Scully replied; “it could have been them, resting on the long, uncut grass”.
“I hope I can find some way to convince you otherwise, Auntie Dana” said Trent, looking downcast.
“We’ve still got time for that” Scully smiled; “Mulder, what are you looking at?”
Mulder was bending down, and pulling something out of the long grass; it looked like a cutting from a newspaper.
“Someone nearby is obsessed with collecting press cuttings” Trent muttered; “it must have blown over the fence”.
“You said the fairies were right here?” Mulder asked.
“Yes” said Trent.
“Scully, a quick word” said Mulder; “Trent, I’m sure you’d love to hold Tena for a moment”.
“Aww; Hi, Tena” Trent smiled, although the sleeping baby did not even notice what was going on, let alone respond.
“Even if you think the fairies aren’t real” said Mulder; “maybe I can offer my services to the local police force”.
“What is it this time, Mulder?”
“For once, not an X-File, but they might appreciate my profiling abilities”.
Mulder showed Scully the newspaper cutting, which showed an image of a young child; underneath was the text:
POLICE SEARCHING FOR LEADS IN LATEST KILLING
The latest victim of the child killer operating in the Frankenmuth area has been confirmed as Danny Nesbitt, who was staying overnight with his father, John. Mr. Nesbitt was found dead in his house, where Danny was taken from.
Police are urging witnesses to come forward, and for parents to be extra vigilant with their children.
“You have your catch up with Trent” said Mulder, “and I’ll pay a visit to the local police station”.
“So long as you don’t start suggesting the fairies did it” Scully said warningly.
“Scully” Mulder replied, mock-chidingly, “fairies never kill kids”.
Of course, Scully thought to herself; how foolish of me to suggest otherwise.
XXXXX
COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
“We have a Fox Mulder to see you, Sir” said Constable Smitrovich.
Detective Grimes looked up; the name “Fox Mulder” rang a bell.
“Aren’t you that paranormal investigator who thought his sister was abducted by aliens?” Grimes asked.
“I’m leaving all of my belief in the supernatural at the door” said Mulder; “I wondered if I could assist with the case you’re dealing with”.
“The child murders?” Grimes asked.
“You might also be familiar with my work in the F.B.I’s violent crimes unit” Mulder added; “I have some experience with pedophiles, like John Lee Roche”.
“The so-called Paper Hearts killer?” Grimes asked; “not the best of names, I’d have called it silk hearts myself. I did hear that you caught him, and later on you were the agent who killed him after he escaped from prison”.
Mulder nodded: “If you need any more references, I’d recommend speaking to a Walter Skinner, Assistant Director of the F.B.I.”. He chose not to mention Skinner’s recent retirement, or the man he did not wish Detective Grimes to speak to: Deputy Director Kersh.
“Julia, please could you call an Assistant Director Skinner?” Grimes called.
“I can give you his mobile number” Mulder smiled; “once you’re satisfied, maybe it would be worth visiting the crime scenes, and the locations where the bodies were found”.
“Let’s make one thing clear, though, Agent Mulder” said Grimes; “this is my case”.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Scully sat in the front room with Trent and Florence; Tena and Hazel played contentedly on the floor near them.
“So, it seems that you and Fox have made a good life for each other?” Florence asked.
“We had some difficult times” Scully admitted; “we had to give our first son up for adoption; it was just too difficult. The hardest thing will be when we decide to tell Tena”.
“Always a hard choice to make, Auntie Dana” Trent agreed; “a good friend of mine was adopted, he said he found out because he heard his parents discussing it when they thought he was asleep”.
Scully’s phone vibrated: a text; she quickly glanced at her phone, and saw a message from Skinner.
Make sure you keep Agent Mulder in line. I’ve heard he’s got involved in a case up in Michigan. PS Enjoy your trip, if possible.
Scully sighed; she agreed entirely with what Skinner was telling her. How did you prevent Mulder from causing problems, though?
“How’s your mother?” Scully asked.
Scully hadn’t seen her best friend Ellen Jenkins in many years, although the two women occasionally wrote to each other.
“Still living in England” Trent replied; “she seems to enjoy it over there”.
“I think she’s just glad she’s away from Trump” Florence added.
Scully laughed; she was no fan of their current president either.
“I’m just wondering if one day Mulder … Fox … will propose marriage” Scully added; “though I don’t look forward to seeing Bill’s reaction”.
Trent nodded; he had met Bill once, and Scully’s older brother had not been in a particularly good mood. Trent had been quite young at the time, and the fact that he had dropped his ice cream all down Bill’s trouser leg hadn’t helped.
“So, as I understand it, Fox believes in aliens, and UFOs” added Florence.
“Also, maybe fairies?” Trent added.
“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve investigated?” asked Florence; “you must have had some strange cases”.
“There’s the one that even Mulder struggles to believe” Scully replies; “a man was apparently able to turn his home into the Brady Bunch house with his mind alone. I think I may have inhaled some weed by accident when I investigated that one”.
She got another text; it was from Mulder.
Off to check a crime scene; see you at the motel.
“Shall I make another pot of tea?” Trent asked.
Scully felt Tena tug at her ankle; looking down, she saw her daughter was pointing at a picture on the wall. It was a photograph of a red car, which looked like it had been purchased at an overly high price from a fancy shop in New York City.
“I guess she likes cars” Florence laughed.
XXXXX
NESBIT HOUSE
FRANKENMUTH, MI
Mulder and Detective Grimes passed under the police tape as they approached the Nesbit house. It was similar in appearance to Trent’s house; it seemed likely that many of the residences in Frankenmuth looked similar to each other.
“This is where Darren Nesbit lived” Grimes explained.
“Where was Mr. Nesbit found?” Mulder asked.
“In the kitchen” said Grimes, opening the door and letting Mulder in.
The house was relatively tidy; certainly a lot of women would appreciate a husband who was as well house-trained as Darren Nesbit.
As the two men walked into the kitchen, Mulder could see a blood stain on the floor.
“The victim’s blood?” Mulder asked.
“Shot” Grimes explained; “we didn’t find any evidence of a struggle”.
“Was there anything else suspicious?” Mulder asked; “any kind of calling card?”
“None whatsoever” Grimes replied; “all we know is that Danny was probably in the nursery upstairs when he was abducted”.
Mulder walked upstairs, and looked at the nursery room; nothing much seemed to be out of place; it seemed that the killer had taken the boy away without drawing any blood. The wall was adorned with pictures of Spongebob Squarepants, and a mobile above the bed was adorned with effigies of the Bibble Tiggles. They seemed to be a creepy bootleg version of the Teletubbies, and Mulder and Scully had agreed never to show the programme to Tena, and had made the same decision about the bizarre “Mr. Chuckleteeth”.
The only thing that Mulder could see was a line of muddy boot prints; the kidnapper had been very careful. He took a picture with his phone.
XXXXX
Outside the Grimes House, Monica Reyes and Shawanda Nesbit sat in a blacked-out car; they had conveniently arrived just behind Mulder and Grimes.
“I can’t go in while the cops are there” Shawanda grumbled; “they’ve got someone new with them as well, as much good as that will do”.
“I recognize him” replied Reyes, before she’d thought about how to explain this.
Shawanda looked surprised.
“You do now, Jolene?”
“By reputation” Reyes improvised; “I hear his name is Special Agent Fox Mulder, and I also hear that he believes his sister was abducted by aliens”.
“So, he’s considered fit to help with my son’s case?” Shawanda grumbled.
“I also hear that he’s worked with the violent crimes unit” Reyes added.
“Well, it looks like you’ve got yourself some healthy competition” Shawanda grinned.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
FRANKENMUTH, MI
“How was your day?” Scully asked, after finally putting Tena to bed.
“I looked at all of the crime scenes” Mulder replied, staring at his phone as he did so; “there wasn’t much evidence to go on, whoever is doing these murders is being very careful”.
“I don’t think my parents would have liked you staring at your phone while you’re talking to me” Scully added.
“I managed to find the Twitter feed of one of the victim’s dad’s” Mulder replied; “I conveniently failed to tell the cops that part”.
“Okay” Scully replied, not sure where this was going.
“I thought I might be able to find out some more about him” added Mulder; “find out about who his associates were, people who I could speak to; and then I saw this”.
Scully looked at Mulder’s phone screen; there was a picture of similar lights to what Trent had filmed in his garden, with the caption.
Any1 know what these r? Fairy’s come to visit?
“Seems like a bit of a coincidence” Mulder added.
“Mulder, this has to be some kind of hoax” replied Scully.
“Well, can you explain why they appeared at two different houses?” Mulder asked.
“I’ll get back to you” Scully grumbled; “I’m tired”.
“Oh, and another thing” Mulder added; “I’ve convinced the local P.D. to let you autopsy the previous victim”.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Trent and Florence were more than happy to look after Tena the next day, while Scully did her autopsy and Mulder assisted the cops some more.
“We’ll make sure she is looked after” Trent beamed; “a good play date for Hazel”.
“I’ll be back to collect her after I’ve finished the autopsy” Scully replied.
“Have a good time, if you can” Florence smiled.
Tena started to cry as Scully moved off, but she waved to her daughter, adding: “I’ll be back to collect you soon, Sweetie”.
As they moved into the front room, they were unaware of the man who had crept into the back garden, and who was now shimmying up the drainpipe to the open upstairs window. The tall trees that surrounded the garden were good for privacy, but also good for stopping the neighbours seeing that the Jenkins family had an intruder.
“I’m going to take a shower” Florence told Trent; “you look after the kids”.
XXXXX
COUNTY MORGUE
Scully did not take long doing her autopsy on Danny; she pulled out her phone and called Mulder.
“What did you find?” Mulder asked, answering within the first few rings.
“No evidence of supernatural activity” Scully confirmed; “the mortician was not impressed at my barging in either. I don’t know what you were expecting to find”.
“So, the cause of death…?” Mulder replied.
“The boy had his throat slit, simple as that” Scully replied; “he would have bled to death, and I did find evidence of anal penetration, confirming that he was raped. No evidence of semen, though; it seems that our killer was very careful, and wore a condom”.
“So, fewer chances of doing a D.N.A. test, then” Mulder mused.
“I’ve found no evidence of any hair and fibre from our killer” Scully confirmed; “whoever did this is being very careful”.
Mulder nodded; the killer had probably watched all of Dexter, and made notes about how to create a sterile killing environment.
He glanced across at Detective Grimes, who looked back, impassively. It seemed that the man had lost all sensitivity, even to such a harrowing case as this one.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Steam filled the room as Florence stepped out of the shower; she pulled on her robe, and stepped out onto the landing.
She felt a lot better after showering, and hopefully Trent was having a good time with the kids.
Florence stepped into the master bedroom, and was startled by the figure standing by the bed, wearing a monkey mask.
“Trent” she said; “you surprised me. You went upstairs to get that mask, didn’t you?”
No answer.
“Is Monkey Daddy going to go and make sure the kids are okay?” Florence prompted the masked figure.
As the man moved towards Florence, she suddenly realised what was wrong.
“Why did you change your clothes?” she asked, before it finally dawned on her that this was not Trent, all too late as she was pushed down onto the bed, and felt a pillow shoved over her face.
The pillow did an effective job of silencing the gunshot that killed Florence; one clean shot to the head was all the intruder needed, before he began to walk downstairs.
Trent, downstairs, heard the footsteps and assumed that Florence was returning from her shower.
“Hi, Darling” he said, turning his head, only to see someone who he was fairly certain was not his wife.
Hazel and Tena screamed as the intruder raised his gun, and fired, hitting Trent in the temple.
Trent fell to the floor, and the intruder scooped up the two helpless children, and quickly pulled out a chloroform-soaked rag, putting them over the mouths of his new kidnap victims.
It wouldn’t do to draw the neighbours’ attention as he took the kids away, after all.
He glanced at the lights dancing around outside the window; they almost looked frantic, and then he took the children outside, and bundled them into his car.
He ignored the shouting of Trent’s neighbour, Mr. Sahota, who was running down his driveway, and drove away.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
Frankenmuth PD responded swiftly to Mr. Sahota’s 911 call; Detective Grimes, Mulder and Scully, and several other law enforcement officials were on the scene quickly.
Mulder and Scully felt a cold dread as they ran into the house.
“Tena!” Scully shouted, feeling panicked. She could only hope that the man seen leaving the house did not have their daughter with them.
She saw the prone form of her Godson lying on the ground, a bullet wound in his temple.
No, she thought; please, no.
Scully felt Trent’s pulse; she felt a heartbeat, but she could see that he was unconscious.
She looked up at Mulder, who looked as much in shock as she was. She saw the paramedics running into the room.
“Get this man to a hospital, NOW!” she shouted.
As Trent was placed on a stretcher, Mulder grabbed Scully, to stop her falling.
“He took them both, didn’t he?” Scully sobbed.
Mulder remembered what had happened to Samantha all these years ago; he couldn’t let this happen to their daughter, too. He looked up at Detective Grimes, who was now entering the room.
“The neighbour tells me he saw a man getting into a car” Grimes confirmed; “he’s fairly certain the man was carrying two children”.
Mulder and Scullys’ worst fears had been realized.
“We found the wife” one of the officers called from upstairs; “shot in the head”.
Scully let go of Mulder, and ran upstairs. Agent Reyes had survived being shot in the head, so had Trent - for now; why not Florence?
Scully pushed the officer out of the way, and started to take Florence’s pulse.
“Ma’am, I don’t think…” the officer began.
“SHUT UP!” Scully snapped.
The officer tried to grab Scully, who turned around and punched the officer hard.
“GET OUT!!” she yelled, pushing him out of the room, “OUT!”
She continued to take Florence’s pulse, but realised very quickly that Trent’s wife was dead. She felt someone grab her, tried to resist them, and then heard Mulder’s voice.
“Scully” Mulder said; “we’ll find whoever did this”.
Detective Grimes walked into the room behind Mulder.
“Agents” he said; “maybe you should let us handle this from now on. Personal issues clouding your judgement, and all that”.
“SHE’S OUR DAUGHTER!” Mulder yelled, losing his temper now.
“We’ll do all we can to find her” Grimes replied.
XXXXX
Half an hour later, Mulder and Scully sat outside in their rental car; they had argued a lot with Grimes; he had told them he had lots of sympathy for both of them, but shouting at him wasn’t going to help matters.
“We couldn’t protect Tena” said Scully, through her tears; “we couldn’t even protect Hazel”.
Mulder put his arms around his partner: “I’ll tell you one thing” he replied; “we’re definitely not going to leave this case in the hands of Frankenmuth PD”.
Scully turned to him: “For once, I agree with you on this”.
She had lost her daughter Emily; she was certainly not going to lose Tena.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
FRANKENMUTH, MI
2AM
The first person Trent saw as he opened his eyes was his Godmother’s face.
“My fairy Godmother” he mumbled, “Dana; what happened?”
He reached up and felt the bandage on his head. He also became aware that underneath the sheets, he was wearing only his briefs. Attached to his bare chest was a heart rate monitor.
“Trent, you’ve been very lucky” Scully said, gasping back tears at seeing her Godson wake up.
“Where’s Florence?” Trent asked; “and Hazel?”
Scully put her hand on Trent’s bare shoulder: “There’s something you need to know: Florence is dead; she wasn’t quite so lucky”.
“What happened?”
“The same person who tried to kill you, we believe” Scully replied.
“What about Hazel?”
Scully couldn’t tell him the truth; she had to lie to her own Godson, but it was better than possibly worrying him unnecessarily. She had been told that the news channel were not allowed to give the identities of the kidnapped children.
“She’s safe” Scully lied; “she managed to escape from the house, and run to the neighbours; they were the ones who alerted the police”.
“That was very brave of her” Trent attempted to smile; “she’ll go far, that’s for certain”.
Scully stood up: “You take it easy” she smiled; “I’m just glad that you’re still alive”.
A baby-faced male nurse walked into the room; despite his boyish appearance, Scully suspected that he was a similar age to Trent.
“Time to change your sheets, Mr. Jenkins” the nurse said.
“Please let us know about his condition” Scully said, as she left the room.
“I take it you didn’t see who attacked you?” the nurse asked, helping Trent out of his bed, and easing him into a chair.
“No” Trent mumbled; “I don’t even remember what happened; I have a vague recollection of someone … he was wearing my monkey mask”.
The nurse smiled, and went about his job, then helped Trent into the bed.
“You get better now” he said, and left the room.
Trent thought he saw lights following the nurse as he left the room; maybe he was just imagining things.
XXXXX
JENKINS RESIDENCE
3AM
Mulder snuck under the police cordon after the forensics team had left the premises; he switched his torch on as he opened the front door; maybe he’d be able to spot something they had overlooked.
Mulder shone his torch around; he could see boot prints coming down the stairs, and into the living room. He carefully used his phone camera to take pictures of them. He compared them with the ones that he had taken in the Nesbit residence. There was no doubting it; the prints came from the same boot.
As Mulder moved through into the living area, he was startled by the bright flashes of light.
It appeared that Trent’s ‘fairies’ were back, and they were in the house now; getting bolder, perhaps.
The lights scattered as Mulder pointed his torch into the spot that they seemed to be gathered in.
Odd, he thought, as he saw Trent’s monkey mask lying on the floor, remembering that Scully’s Godson had mentioned keeping it by his bed.
He had noticed how tidy the house was when he and Scully first arrived; everything seemed to have been in its correct place; Trent and Florence hadn’t struck him as the sort of people who would leave anything lying around.
If these really were fairies, they might have been leading Mulder to a vital clue; pulling on his rubber gloves, he carefully picked up the mask.
Another light appearing at the far end of the room startled Mulder. He quickly realized it was a torch beam.; had the police discovered him? He could see a female figure at the other end of the room.
“You caught me” he sighed; “but you can’t blame me, I just want to find out what happened to my daughter”.
“Agent Mulder” said Monia Reyes, stepping closer to him; “are you sure you should be getting involved in this?”
“Agent Reyes” Mulder sighed; “so, this is where your search for Special Agent Doggett has taken you?”
“I’m going to find the kidnapper” Reyes scowled; “you and Agent Scully need to back off”.
“How did you find out about this?” Mulder asked.
“Your friend Danny let me know” Reyes smirked; “he’s a friend of anyone who’s worked on the X Files”.
“Maybe” Mulder suggested, “we could try to work together on this case”.
Reyes paused: “I trust you’re not going to start suggesting this was the work of aliens?”
“I’m fairly certain that whoever did this is human” Mulder replied; “but I’m starting to suspect that our fairy friends are trying to help us”.
“Descending into the realms of fantasy, Agent Mulder”.
“No, listen; at least two households who had their children kidnapped saw the same bright lights” Mulder said, insistently; “maybe they were trying to warn them?”
“That’s an interesting, but still crazy theory” Reyes answered.
“I just saw the same lights in this room” Mulder explained; “they drew me to this”.
He held up the monkey mask, Reyes looked confused.
“The last person to wear this” Mulder explained, “was almost certainly either Mr. Jenkins; or the kidnapper”.
“You’re suggesting we get it D.N.A. tested?” Reyes asked.
“Exactly” Mulder replied.
“I’ll cut you a deal” Reyes replied; “we search for this S.O.B. together, but I’m going to take credit for catching him, or her”.
Mulder had recently given two detectives credit for solving a case; he could probably do the same for Monica Reyes.
“I can’t really explain this” Reyes added, “but it will help me find John”.
Mulder nodded; he thought for a moment, then added: “What happened to you, Agent Reyes? The old Monica Reyes would have accepted the concept of fairies”.
“I’m a changed woman” replied Reyes, “no one has been putting a girdle around the earth in forty minutes”.
“Looks like we’re partners” Mulder added, and turned to go.
“One more thing” Reyes added; “and I’m not sure if you should tell Agent Scully”.
Mulder turned around: “What is it, Agent Reyes?”
“Several months ago” Reyes replied; “someone was following me; I believe he meant to kill me. I managed to get away, but …” she wasn’t sure what to say.
“Agent Reyes?”
“I recognized him as Agent Scully’s brother, Charles; he had followed me”.
“Are you sure?” Mulder asked.
“I’m good at remembering faces” Reyes replied; “I know it was him”.
Mulder hesitated, and then replied: “I won’t tell Agent Scully; not yet. I think she has enough to worry about at the moment”.
Reyes nodded in agreement.
The agents’ priority was to find Tena and Hazel alive.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
“Agent Reyes, what a surprise” said Scully.
“Agent Scully” replied Reyes.
“It seems that all three of us are going behind the backs of local law enforcement” replied Mulder.
“You have an interest in this case, Agent Reyes?” Scully asked.
“Personal reasons” Reyes explained.
Scully nodded; she was no stranger to keeping secrets; she had kept her pregnancy with William secret from John Doggett while they were partners. When she had cancer many years ago, she had kept that from most of her family.
“Have you found out anything else?” Mulder asked.
“I managed to find out that all of the dead kids attended the same kindergarden” Scully replied; “it seems that whoever killed them may have got access to the confidential records”.
“How?” Reyes asked.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH PD
Over, at the police department, local law enforcement were having the same conversation.
“From what we can gather” announced Detective Grimes; “someone was able to hack into the kindergarden’s database”.
He paused, looking around at the cops who stood before him, all hoping to get a promotion by catching this killer.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
“Are you saying that the killer was able to obtain the kids’ addresses from the database?” Mulder asked.
“Precisely” Scully replied; “the person I spoke to admitted that they had known about the incident, but hadn’t told parents”.
Mulder and Reyes nodded their heads.
XXXXX
FRANKENMUTH PD
“It seems that the school didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic” Detective Grimes continued.
“Seems a bit late for that” muttered one junior officer.
Detective Grimes ignored the interruption: “As well as finding these kids, I am going to deploy officers to the homes of the other kids, make sure they have round the clock protection. We have very little else to go by, except by appealing for witnesses who may have seen someone entering the Jenkins house”.
The whole room went silent.
“Officers” said Grimes; “by the end of tonight, each of you should be pulling your weight to help to solve this case; if you’re not up for it, then I suggest you hand in your badge right now”.
“Yes, Sir”, the room chorused.
“One more thing” added Detective Grimes; “watch out for two F.B.I. agents, the parents of the missing baby. Particularly the father, Fox Mulder; I’ve told him to back off this case, but I have some understanding of his reputation for interfering, and suggesting that everything was the work of aliens.
I have reason to believe he’s claiming the Sugar Plum Fairy had some involvement”.
A few people sniggered, but stopped when they saw the serious expression on Grimes’ face.
“I will assign each of you a task” replied Grimes; “come to me if you are unsure of anything”.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
Scully visited Trent the next day, carrying some flowers. She found a young woman in the room speaking to her godson. She had medium-length blonde hair, and wore round glasses. She was dressed in a knee-length skirt, and wore a yellow cardigan. She looked like she could be a librarian.
“Oh, hi” the visitor said; “I’m just visiting before I start work”.
“This is Helen” Trent murmured; “Hazel’s kindergarten teacher”.
Scully glanced at the police officer stationed outside Trent’s room, just in case the killer decided to return, and finish the job they had started.
“We need to speak, in private” Scully whispered; “do you have time?”
“I start work in 45 minutes” Helen replied.
“I’ll take up 15 minutes of your time” Scully whispered; “head to the canteen, and I’ll follow you in five minutes”.
Helen looked puzzled, but headed out of the room, smiling at the cop on the way.
Scully quickly texted Mulder: HOSPITAL CANTEEN ASAP.
She smiled at Trent: “I just wanted to see how you were”.
“Trying to trust the Police Department” Trent mumbled.
“You focus on getting better” Scully replied, leaving the flowers by his bed.
XXXXX
Mulder and Reyes arrived at the hospital canteen to find Scully and Helen talking over a cup of coffee. The room was free of cops, so they could speak freely. Reyes had jumped about three red lights in her to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Not only had she risked being pulled over by cops, she had risked them ending up in the hospital in a different way than intended, probably the morgue. This was a side to her that Mulder had never seen before; she had even given one irate driver the finger.
“This is Helen” Scully told them; she works at the kindergarten.
Helen smiled, nervously.
“It’s such shocking news about those kids” Reyes added, sympathetically.
“Your friend asked if I had seen anything suspicious around the school” Helen explained; “I’m not sure what help I can be, but I can tell you one thing that I found out”.
The agents nodded.
“I have repeatedly seen the same wagon parked near to the school; red, and with the windows blacked out. It usually only hung around for about half an hour at the time, but I recall often seeing it shortly before one of the kids went missing.”
“Did you get a license plate number?” Mulder asked.
“I memorized it” Helen replied; “do you have a pen?”
Mulder searched for his pen; it was missing. Maybe he needed an ankle-holstered pen now, but Scully conveniently had one.
Helen wrote on a napkin: “WLV 4VR”.
“Looks like a personalised numberplate” said Reyes, “I’m guessing a Michigan Wolverines fan?”
The numberplate was a vastly truncated “WOLVERINES FOR EVER”.
“Have you spoken to the police?” Mulder asked.
“They told me that the vehicle was reported stolen” Helen replied “the owner, a Gary Gilligan, was found dead at the place where it disappeared from”.
The agents looked at each other; this was not much to be going by.
XXXXX
BARRIE MOTEL
8PM
The three agents spent the whole day searching for possible leads, without much luck. Reyes had booked into a separate room at the same motel, and had gone to take a shower.
Mulder decided to go outside running; it was something he had got into habit of again, but wasn’t doing enough of. He grabbed his head-torch, since it was dark outside, and left Scully alone watching the television, trying to take her mind off other matters.
The motel was on the edge of Frankenmuth, and Mulder jogged along the sidewalk towards the open countryside. For this time of the evening, it was surprisingly quiet.
Mulder had only been jogging for ten minutes when he found himself surrounded by tiny, dazzling, lights. Could these be the fairies that Trent had been referring to?
He stopped, confused; why were they circling around him?
As he waited, the lights drifted off, and along a smaller road, little more than a dirt track. It seemed to Mulder that they were somehow beckoning to him to follow.
Was this why some of the other kidnap victims’ parents had seen the lights? Were they trying to warn them too?
Mulder knew little about fairies, and whether they even knew how to communicate with humans in their own language.
“Time to enter Pan’s Labyrinth” Mulder muttered to himself, and turned along the route that the lights seemed to be guiding him, making a note that the street was called “ANDERSEN LANE”.
He ran for another five minutes, and saw the lights again, outside a house that seemed deserted. The lights were switched off, and no one seemed at home. The place could almost have been a smaller version of Bates’ motel, it was so spooky, except without the guest bedrooms.
The fairies, as Mulder was certain they were, hovered outside the garage, as thought enticing him to get closer. He could see light from another house, which was close enough to be seen, but not close enough that the occupants would see him snooping around.
Mulder got bolder, and pulled on the garage door; locked. Not to worry though, as he was carrying his gun. His instincts told him that he should be looking inside.
Mulder pulled out his gun, and fired at the lock, breaking it, scattering fairies in all directions. It seemed that they had fast reflexes.
Opening the garage, Mulder could see only one thing; a vehicle covered with a tarpaulin. Mulder pulled the tarpaulin aside, to find a red wagon, bearing the numberplate: WLV 4VR.
Mulder had found the kidnapper’s house, and better still, it seemed to be empty, for the time being.
He pulled out his phone, and noticed one missed call. There was no time to check who it was from; he called Scully.
“Scully” he said, not giving his partner much time to answer. Get Reyes, and meet me at Andersen Lane; it’s a short drive just south of motel”.
“Huh?” was all Scully could reply.
“I think I may have found where our kidnapper lives”.
“Mulder?”
“Call it a hunch, Scully”.
XXXXX
Mulder’s gunshot had been loud enough to attract the attention of an older woman, who lived close by.
Nervously, she picked up the phone, and dialled Frankenmuth PD to explain exactly what she had heard.
XXXXX
Scully’s phone rang again and she and Reyes headed out of the motel. Reyes hadn’t been too impressed at having her time relaxing interrupted, but it seemed best to have both of them to rein Mulder’s wild ideas in.
“Mulder, what is it this time?”
“Am I speaking to Special Agent Dana Scully?” a woman’s voice answered.
“Yes?” Scully asked, as Reyes looked at her, seemingly urging her to hurry up and get in the car.
“We’ve been trying to get through to your partner, Special Agent Fox Mulder; luckily, he gave us your number too” the woman continued. “It’s about a D.N.A. sample he requested off a mask”.
“Did you get any results?” Scully asked.
“The D.N.A. was from two men” the woman replied; “one was from a Trent Jenkins”.
That made sense; Trent had been wearing the mask.
“The other is from a James Herschel”.
Scully thanked the woman, and got in the car.
“Our suspect is a James Herschel” she told Reyes, as the other woman started the car engine.
As they drove along, something started to bug Scully.
“Agent Reyes, do you ever get that feeling of déjà vu?”
“How do you mean”.
“The name James Herschel; I’m sure I’ve come across it, recently”.
Scully pondered; could it be some sort of variation on the so-called Mandela effect?
XXXXX
Mulder looked around the lonely house; was there something he was missing?
The so-called fairies seemed to have the answer, as they now floated above a gate that seemed to lead to the back garden of the property.
A hard kick to the gate was all it took to force it open, and Mulder ran through. The lights in front of him seemed to be getting brighter, as they led him through the large garden at the back, and along a path, before stopping.
Mulder saw them hovering over what looked like a sort of hatch, which looked like something off Lost. He remembered arguing about that show with Scully, who had given up after the first season and called it ‘one of the worst things she had ever seen’. He had inevitably kept watching until the end, and had enjoyed it all, although watching the finale with Jimmy Bond had been a mistake.
Jimmy had asked Mulder questions throughout, mostly about the character John Locke.
Mulder realized quickly that the hatch led to a nuclear bunker. The hatch had a small grille on it, which looked like it would be enough to provide some air to the room underneath.
His phone rang, and he answered it.
“Mulder, it’s me; we followed your directions. Where are you?”
“Follow the trail of destruction” replied Mulder.
XXXXX
Scully glanced at the gate, which was almost off its hinges. It was easy to tell where Mulder was.
As Reyes got up to follow, Scully turned: “I’ve just remembered” she said.
“What is it, Agent Scully?”
“James Herschel” Scully replied; “he’s a nurse at the hospital. He came into Trent’s room while I was in there, and I read his name badge”.
Scully heard the wail of a distant police siren, and had a sudden realization; women’s intuition, maybe. Could Mulder have been reported as an intruder?
“Mulder told me you want to bring this S.O.B. in” Scully added; “all I want is to get the kids back safely”.
Reyes nodded: “That does mean I’ll have to leave you and Agent Mulder here”.
“You should go, quickly, and speak to someone at the hospital!” Scully replied; “I don’t know what your motives are, but I’m starting to trust you again”.
Reyes didn’t hesitate to; she started the engine up, and drove back the way she had came. The fact that the house was empty suggested that perhaps their suspect was at his place of work, on night shift. Moments after she turned off the driveway, two police cars sped along from the other direction.
The officers inside made a quick decision over the radio; one turned round and followed Reyes’ car, just in case she was connected to the mysterious gunshot that had been reported by a neighbour, the other turned up the driveway. It seemed like the only way to ensure that no suspects were getting away.
Reyes sped the car up; it was something she was getting used to now.
XXXXX
Mulder head Scully running through the garden as he unbolted the hatch; at least there was no lock to have to shoot off this time.
“Mulder, where are you?” she called.
“Follow the lights, Scully” replied Mulder.
Scully could see Mulder’s headtorch in the distance, just before he started climbing down into the open hatch.
“Police, freeze!” a voice shouted.
Scully turned, and saw two lights approaching. She quickly realised they were torches, carried by two cops - one male, and one female.
“Put your hands where I can see them” the female cop ordered.
Scully put her hands up: “Listen, I’m with the F.B.I.” she said; “I can show you my badge”.
The cop approached Scully, and reached into her pocket.
“Special Agent Dana Scully” she growled; “hey, you’re the mother of one of those missing kids”.
“You really shouldn’t be getting involved at all” added her male colleague; “and now you’re getting involved in breaking and entering”.
“Scully!” Mulder’s voice echoed from inside the bunker.
“Is that the kid’s father?” the female cop asked.
“Sir” said the male cop; “I’m going to have to ask you to come out, with your hands up”.
“Putting my hands up might be difficult” Mulder called out.
Scully and the two cops could hear the sound of two children sobbing, and they shone their torches into the bunker.
The bunker wasn’t particularly deep, and they could see Mulder inside; in his arms, he was carrying Tena and Hazel.
“Maybe you should be calling Detective Julian Grimes?” Mulder suggested.
XXXXX
COVENANT HOSPITAL
Reyes had probably parked illegally, but she ran into the hospital.
“I’m looking for a James Herschel!” she shouted, brandishing her F.B.I. badge”.
“What’s he done this time?” grumbled the young woman who was on reception duty, looking bored.
Reyes felt herself losing her temper: “THERE’S NO TIME FOR MESSING AROUND!” she snapped; “IS HE ON DUTY TONIGHT?”
The two cops who had been tailing Reyes ran through the door, shouting: “POLICE! FREEZE, OR WE SHOOT!”
As Reyes turned, she saw a male nurse stop in his tracks; he was carrying a bag that appeared to be full of dirty linen. At the sight of the two cops, he dropped the bag and began to run.
Reyes, took her chance, and ran after the nurse, despite the protestations from the receptionist.
A gunshot missed Reyes by inches, as she ran after her quarry, who was a fast runner, but didn’t see a sign on the floor, warning that it had been recently cleaned, so he tripped over.
Reyes dived onto the floor after him, as another bullet ricocheted over her head. She had a sudden impulse to rough him up, but realized that in full sight of two armed cops, this was not a good idea.
She glanced at his name badge, which confirmed he was James Herschel.
“This is your last warning!” said one of the cops, “put your hands where we can see them”.
Reyes pulled out her F.B.I. ID and slid it over to the cops.
“I’m a Federal Agent” she said; “keeping hold of James’ collar. “Maybe you should check my ID before you shoot”.
Pandemonium seemed to be descending on Covenant Hospital, as another police car pulled up, and two more cops ran out, followed by Scully. Mulder stayed in the car, with the two kids on his lap.
Moments later, another car pulled up, and Detective Julian Grimes ran inside.
“Put your guns away!” he ordered; “I understand we’ve just caught our serial paedophile”.
“Agent Reyes has caught him” corrected Scully.
There was a moment of silence, followed by the receptionist interjecting with: “So, I don’t need to call security?”
XXXXX
CONVENANT HOSPITAL
Detective Grimes had been annoyed at not being the one to solve his case, but in the end he’d just been relieved a killer had been caught, and they might be able to return to some normality in Frankenmuth.
Trent was discharged from the hospital the next day, and reunited with Hazel.
“Thank you, Auntie Dana and Uncle Fox” he said as hobbled out into the reception on his crutches, “I never thought I’d see my daughter again”.
Mulder and Scully looked up at Reyes, who had come with them. For the first time in what felt like forever, she was smiling.
“Auntie Monica had a hand in this too” Scully replied.
“I have to leave” said Reyes; “places to go, people to see.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other again, Agent Reyes” said Mulder, clutching Tena to make sure they weren’t parted again.
Reyes smiled again; she turned and left the hospital.
Mulder turned to Scully: “I think we’ve had enough excitement for one vacation”.
XXXXX
FLINT, MI
“So, Jolene, you caught my son and husbands’ killer?”
Reyes and Shawanda sat together in the bar.
“So, you’re going to keep up your end of the bargain?” Reyes asked.
“First” Shawanda replied, “maybe you could tell me what you’re calling yourself ‘Jolene?”
She held up her phone, which showed a recent local news article, with Reyes’ picture on it. The article identified her by her real name.
Reyes sighed: “I know I lied, but…”
“I don’t care” Jolene replied; “I googled you, honey, and I saw that you were at some point assigned to something called ‘The X-Files’. I also read about some cases you were involved in, along with this missing agent, John Doggett. Some gruesome ones, too; people getting skinned alive”.
Reyes nodded, and didn’t say anything.
“Then, I realized” Jolene laughed; “you’re more than just work partners; am I right?”
Reyes didn’t say anything.
“He was here alright” Shawanda replied; “he trusted me enough to look after his bag while he went to the John. I had a sneak peek inside; I felt curious”.
“What did you find?” Reyes asked.
“He had booked a plane ticket to LA” Shawanda replied; “that’s where I figure he is now”.
“Thank you” Reyes replied, getting up to leave. As she began to leave the bar, she turned around and said: “John and I were partners”.
“What are you now?” Shawanda asked.
“That’s what I want to find out” Reyes replied; with that, she left.
From behind the bar, Wayne turned to Shawanda: “I have a good idea about what this John and Jolene, or whatever her name is now, are to each other”.
Shawanda smile: “So do I, Sugar!”
XXXXX
CENTRAL MICHIGAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
James Herschel was led into the sparsely-furnished room, filled with tables.
Most were empty, but a few had other prisoners talking to their loved ones.
He had been moved into a cell on his own, after his new roommate had attacked him. Paedophiles never fared well in jail, and he had been lucky to get away with a cut to the face before the female prison guard had stepped in.
James had heard later a rumour that she had beaten his assailant viciously, but the governor had turned a blind eye. It was like The Shawshank Redemption in here.
James felt his hands and feet being cuffed together, as he was sat down at the table, and his three visitors approached.
The two identical women reminded him of the twin girls from The Shining.
“Hello, Brother” said Teena Simmons, speaking first.
“Are you pleased to see us?” Cindy Reardon added.
Their male companion came closer; he was the spitting image of James, save for the fact that he did not have a permanent scar on his face.
“I am known as Adam 10” he announced; “but I’m prefer it if you called me by the name by so-called parents called me; before I killed them. Edward Koontz”.
“I understand that I am Adam 9” James replied, nodding his head, as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He looked up to see the older, female prison guard, and recognized her as his saviour from the previous attack.
Eve 8, more commonly known as Dori Pierson, smiled back at him.
“How did you know we’d come for you?” Cindy and Teena asked, in unison.
James paused, and then smiled.
“I just knew”, he replied.
THE END