Story 132: "Falling Stars" by Julie Fortune
I have no idea why juliefortune isn't more widely recced or read. Her stories are professional caliber, not surprising given that she's a professional writer. She knows how to build suspense without wasting words, but just as on the series, there is a lot happening between the lines. Rarest of all, she writes stories with genuinely scary x-files at their center. Thanks to amyhit for reminding me of this excellent story.
Earlier this year when I recced this at crack_van, I had it taking place in season two, but I think now that I was wrong. "Falling Stars" actually takes place during season one, but I didn't figure this out until I'd re-watched "Eve," the episode it ties directly into.
The room is dark. A thin line of moonlight slices over an empty desk, cuts across a carpeted floor, stops abruptly, as if frightened, near a black corner. There are shapes in the darkness -- the humped back of a bed, the long reach of a couch -- but nothing moves except the lazy flashing of a red light near the door.
The red light blinks, like a sleepy eye, an instant before the telephone hums for attention. It goes neglected, and the red light blinks more rapidly, then brightens.
There is a man's voice in the room, disembodied and ghostly.
"This is Fox Mulder. Please leave a message."
The beep is long, shrill, painful. When it ends, there is another voice, a woman's, sharp and fast.
"Mulder, if you're there, call me back on my cell phone."
A click. The answering machine hums to itself for another few seconds and rewinds. The red light goes back to a slow, steady blink.
For a full minute, the room holds its silence, its darkness, its breath.
The door slams open, crashes loudly against the wall and bounces forward again, stopped by an outstretched hand still holding tight to a cellular phone. The hand searches for the light switch hiding coyly out of sight in the shadows.
The lights blaze on, erasing the shaft of moonlight, the red blink of the answering machine, revealing the woman who stands in the doorway. Special Agent Dana Scully holds an automatic pistol in the FBI-approved two-handed position and sweeps the room for a target. Finally, she relaxes.
Sounds of her light footsteps, muffled by the carpet, as she moves into the living room, then into the bedroom. She is methodical, quick, and practiced, but in the end she returns to the living room and examines the desk, gun still held forgotten in her right hand.
She touches the empty desktop with her fingertips, and for the first time since kicking the door open she seems uncertain of how to proceed.
Behind her, the red light stops blinking a second before the phone rings. She whirls and stares as Fox Mulder's voice enters the room again.
"This is Fox Mulder. Please leave a -- "
His voice is interrupted by a long electronic tone. The answering machine responds by whirring.
"You have sixteen messages," the machine says, in a too-precise voice. It starts the first message.
"Hi, Mulder, this is Scully -- "
Scully lunges for the phone, knocks it off the cradle and fumbles it to her ear. She shouts over her own voice.
"Mulder! Mulder, it's me. Where the hell are you?"
The answering machine stops in the middle of her message, chopping off her recorded voice with an electronic squeak. It clicks three times and begins to rewind.
She clutches the phone close, knuckles white around the receiver.
"Mulder?" she asks, and the uncertainty is as quiet and insidious in her voice as a shadow. "Are you there?"
After another few seconds she hangs up and stands there, eyes closed, one hand still touching the phone as if it might ring again.
It does not.
After a while, she turns the lights out, and the door closes quietly behind her.
The darkness is quiet, and breathless. Waiting.
The nomination post is open and awaiting your suggestions. I'd love to know what you thought of the story.
Read "Falling Stars".
Edit: here is a link to her old site, courtesy of the Internet Archive: Fanfiction for the Fearless.
Earlier this year when I recced this at crack_van, I had it taking place in season two, but I think now that I was wrong. "Falling Stars" actually takes place during season one, but I didn't figure this out until I'd re-watched "Eve," the episode it ties directly into.
The room is dark. A thin line of moonlight slices over an empty desk, cuts across a carpeted floor, stops abruptly, as if frightened, near a black corner. There are shapes in the darkness -- the humped back of a bed, the long reach of a couch -- but nothing moves except the lazy flashing of a red light near the door.
The red light blinks, like a sleepy eye, an instant before the telephone hums for attention. It goes neglected, and the red light blinks more rapidly, then brightens.
There is a man's voice in the room, disembodied and ghostly.
"This is Fox Mulder. Please leave a message."
The beep is long, shrill, painful. When it ends, there is another voice, a woman's, sharp and fast.
"Mulder, if you're there, call me back on my cell phone."
A click. The answering machine hums to itself for another few seconds and rewinds. The red light goes back to a slow, steady blink.
For a full minute, the room holds its silence, its darkness, its breath.
The door slams open, crashes loudly against the wall and bounces forward again, stopped by an outstretched hand still holding tight to a cellular phone. The hand searches for the light switch hiding coyly out of sight in the shadows.
The lights blaze on, erasing the shaft of moonlight, the red blink of the answering machine, revealing the woman who stands in the doorway. Special Agent Dana Scully holds an automatic pistol in the FBI-approved two-handed position and sweeps the room for a target. Finally, she relaxes.
Sounds of her light footsteps, muffled by the carpet, as she moves into the living room, then into the bedroom. She is methodical, quick, and practiced, but in the end she returns to the living room and examines the desk, gun still held forgotten in her right hand.
She touches the empty desktop with her fingertips, and for the first time since kicking the door open she seems uncertain of how to proceed.
Behind her, the red light stops blinking a second before the phone rings. She whirls and stares as Fox Mulder's voice enters the room again.
"This is Fox Mulder. Please leave a -- "
His voice is interrupted by a long electronic tone. The answering machine responds by whirring.
"You have sixteen messages," the machine says, in a too-precise voice. It starts the first message.
"Hi, Mulder, this is Scully -- "
Scully lunges for the phone, knocks it off the cradle and fumbles it to her ear. She shouts over her own voice.
"Mulder! Mulder, it's me. Where the hell are you?"
The answering machine stops in the middle of her message, chopping off her recorded voice with an electronic squeak. It clicks three times and begins to rewind.
She clutches the phone close, knuckles white around the receiver.
"Mulder?" she asks, and the uncertainty is as quiet and insidious in her voice as a shadow. "Are you there?"
After another few seconds she hangs up and stands there, eyes closed, one hand still touching the phone as if it might ring again.
It does not.
After a while, she turns the lights out, and the door closes quietly behind her.
The darkness is quiet, and breathless. Waiting.
The nomination post is open and awaiting your suggestions. I'd love to know what you thought of the story.
Read "Falling Stars".
Edit: here is a link to her old site, courtesy of the Internet Archive: Fanfiction for the Fearless.