Angelic Minds
by Miss Bit
The light was dancing around her, spinning in slow circles or just hovering
a moment before it would float away from her and then back towards her
again. Lily laughed as one of the lights rushed forward to touch her face,
its touch as warm as the rays of the sun and light as a feather. More
lights joined it, and soon Lily was covered by them, feeling all warm and
protected.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, the lights drifted away from her, one after the
other, resuming their delicate, intricate dance. Lily watched in silent awe
as she had done so many times before. They had always been there for her,
but it had not been until a few days ago that she had started to see them
so clearly. Before Lily's eyes had somehow adapted to the lights, they used
to be but a blur, something that could only be seen from the corner of her
eye and even then
only for the length of a heartbeat.
But now she could see them whenever she wanted to. And she wanted to see
them as often as she could, because they were all that kept her from being
afraid in this small, confining room. Lily tried to remember exactly when
she had seen the sun for the last time. It was no use. Time could not be
measured here, for it did not seem to pass at all. Every now and then she
would get something to eat, or be led away to a clammy bathroom into which
the lights refused to follow her. Between these events, nothing happened;
nothing at all. There was just silence, and loneliness, and fear.
As if sensing that her thoughts were saddening her, the lights came closer
to Lily again, tenderly caressing her cheeks, her eyes, her hair as they
passed her by. The sadness in her heart dispersed, and Lily began to laugh
again. She had no reason to be sad, not when her
Angels were dancing for her.
***
The yellow plastic band was rustling in the wind. It surrounded a fairly
large area, as the police did not want anyone to see what a jogger had
found early this morning. Special Agent Dana Scully tried to catch a
glimpse of the body that was lying about fifty yards away from her but
there were too many people huddling around it for her to see anything else
than a few strands of long, black hair. In addition to that, her vantage
point was not the best, either. She was standing on the top of a small hill
that stretched for about a mile in three directions, sloping gently down
towards a river in the fourth. The riverbank was covered with undergrowth,
and it was there that the body had been found. Scully tore her gaze away
from the men grouped around their horrible finding, looking at the sky
instead. It was an average autumnal day in Northern Pennsylvania, with
heavy clouds racing over an otherwise steel blue sky, allowing for the sun to
peek out every now and then. The wind was freshening up, and Scully
absent-mindedly tucked an auburn strand behind her left ear, as the wind
kept whipping at her hair.
With the slightest hint of impatience she cast a look at her partner. Fox
Mulder was standing next to their rental car, talking to a local police
officer. The young officer looked shaken, his skin pale and his eyes
darting around as if he loathed keeping them fixed on Mulder's face. Scully
supposed that he had been among the first officials who had been called to
this crime scene.
Just when she had decided to go and have a look at the body Mulder caught
her eyes, the hint of a smile flashing over his face as he silently asked
her to wait for him. She suppressed a smile of her own and nodded almost
imperceptibly. Mulder's attention returned to the officer, but Scully knew
that he would not keep her waiting much longer. He had not told her what
this case was all about, and when she had kept asking him his answers had
seemed somewhat evasive to
her. All he had eventually told her was that this case might be an X-File,
which is why the local authorities had contacted the FBI. It was what he
had not told her that was bothering her. She could tell that he was
withholding some piece of information from her, and she could only imagine
that he did it to protect her.
"Earth to Scully."
"Hm?"
Scully snapped out of her musings only to find Mulder standing right in
front of her, his hazel eyes betraying just the slightest hint of concern.
Angry with herself, Scully realized that Mulder must have come over to her,
saying something to her that she had completely missed.
"I'm sorry. What did you say?"
Mulder kept looking at her for a moment, and Scully felt herself becoming
slightly irritated.
"I just mentioned that Officer Keels over there wasn't that much of a
help", Mulder finally answered, nodding in the direction of the young
man he had been talking to a mere two minutes ago. "He said when they
arrived the jogger who found the body had disappeared, and until now they
couldn't find a trace of him."
"So he just called the police and then ran on?"
"Either that, or there never was a jogger."
There was something in Mulder's eyes that Scully knew all too well. It was
almost like a challenge to her, a signal that Mulder's mind was moving into
top gear.
"Are you saying that maybe the killer himself called the police?" She
asked, effortlessly following his line of thought.
Mulder shrugged. "Might be."
Scully nodded slowly. Then she turned her head to try and have a glimpse at
the body that was still surrounded by almost a dozen people.
"I'd like to have a look at the body", she informed her partner. Out of
the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Mulder flinch at her words. When
she turned to face him he looked as composed as ever.
"The local pathologist said he wouldn't mind doing the autopsy for us",
he said, an oddly soft expression in his eyes. Suddenly, all the pieces
fell into place and Scully knew why Mulder's behavior had seemed so
suspicious to her. She stared at him, both surprised and touched.
"It's a child", she said, matter-of-factly. "A girl. Mulder, is
this about Emily?"
"He offered it, Scully, and I don't see why we shouldn't accept it." His
tone was calm, but she suspected that he sounded much more defiant than he
had planned for.
Scully felt a surge of emotion wash through her. For a second or two, she
was angry with Mulder, no matter how good his intentions might have been.
"Emily died almost two years ago. It's... considerate of you to try and
spare me from something that might trigger a few bad memories - but I can
handle this, Mulder. I thought you knew that."
Without waiting for him to answer she turned to walk away but halted her
steps when she felt Mulder's hand on her arm.
"Scully."
In spite of herself, she turned her head and looked at him, allowed him to
lock eyes with her. Her anger had gone the moment he had touched her to
keep her from walking away like that. He did not want to conduct this
investigation with something as trivial as that standing between them, and
neither did she.
"I just thought it might be hard on you. It surely wouldn't be easy for
me. I never doubted your professionalism or your ability to handle this. I
thought *you* knew *that*."
Oddly enough, Scully felt herself reminded of a similar situation when she
had stood in the Lone Gunmen's lair and tried to keep Mulder from blindly
trusting Diana Fowley. Back then she would have given anything if he had
told her something like what he had just said, instead of accusing her of
'making it personal'.
"I do know that", she answered softly. 'Now', she added in the privacy
of her mind. She could still see the concern in Mulder's eyes, but somehow
she knew that he was no longer concerned about her reaction to the body but
about the damage he might have done to their relationship. The renewed
trust between them was still a little frail, even after all they had gone
through together shortly before and after Diana Fowley's death. Scully
forced herself to smile at him, though she did not really feel like it. The
thought kept nagging at her that Mulder might have been right, that the sight
of the murdered girl would be very hard on her.
Mulder kept searching her eyes, and Scully briefly wondered if he could see
her doubts in them. But then Mulder returned her smile, giving her arm an
affectionate squeeze before he let go of her.
"Let's go and have a look, then", he said, his voice even, his mind turning
back to their case. Or at least Scully thought that's what he did. But
then, she could not be sure.
'Oh, come on, Dana', she berated herself, 'stop acting like he's fussing
over you all the time. Give him an X-File, or something that looks remotely
like it, and he'll forget about anything else.'
A tiny part of her protested that he had just proven her wrong, but she
suppressed it as she followed Mulder down the small slope and into the
undergrowth that had kept the body hidden for at least a day. Whether or
not this case was affecting her, she had to try and keep her mind on the
facts.
"Excuse me. Special Agents Mulder and Scully", Mulder introduced them
to the group that was surrounding the body, indicating with a brief gesture
which of them was who. Scully briefly showed her badge, as did Mulder, and
the men reluctantly stepped aside to let them have a look at the body.
Scully noticed that all of the men were wearing police uniforms, except for
one, middle-aged man. This man stepped up to her before she got a chance to
look at the body.
"Agent Scully? Hi, I'm Dr. Fedson, the local pathologist", he introduced
himself. "Your partner there told me we were colleagues. Sad case,
this is."
His last words came out as a grieved murmur.
"Would you mind me lending you a hand with the autopsy, Dr. Fedson?" Scully
asked him. If he was surprised at her question he did not let it show.
"No, not at all. In fact", he said, giving her a hesitant smile, "I'd
be glad to have some professional company on this case."
"I'll join you in the morgue then, as soon as the body is released by
the police."
Fedson inclined his head to her and nodded. He cast a last, sad look at the
body, nodded his goodbye to Scully and began to climb up the slope of the
hill. Bracing herself, Scully turned to finally look at the body of the
murdered girl. Even though she was in the company of
about half a dozen men, Scully could feel Mulder's eyes on her. She squared
her shoulders and looked down onto the girl who was lying cold and still on
the ground. Years of professional practice helped her to see this as just
another case. It astonished her that it was so easy for her to keep her
emotions at bay, but then she was a trained pathologist who had seen her
share of violent crimes.
When she looked at the body, she felt a wave of nausea threatening to
overcome her. Scully fought it back, closing her eyes for the briefest of
moments. What a horrible sight. Who on earth would do something like that
to a little girl? Struggling to get a grip on herself, Scully forced her
eyes open again.
As she looked down on the body for the second time, Scully searched for any
obvious marks that would betray how this girl had died. The girl was about
the same age as Emily had been when she had died, but that's where the
resemblance ended. A tiny part of Scully noticed
that with relief as she continued her visual examination. For some reason
she was also relieved to see that the girl was fully clothed which made the
possibility of sexual abuse all that more improbable.
The first thing that struck her as unusual was the dried blood all over the
girl's face. It covered most of her pale skin and caked large portions of
her long, black hair that lay all tangled around
the poor thing's head. Her lips were a dark blue, as were her eyelids - at
least the parts of them that Scully could see. When she looked into the
girl's wide-open eyes, Scully let out a surprised
gasp.
"Scully?" She heard Mulder ask.
"Just look at her eyes, Mulder", she advised her partner, not even noticing
the concern in his voice.
"Jesus", he breathed out. "Do you have any idea what might have caused
this?"
"No", she answered immediately. She could not think of a single medical
explanation for what she saw when she looked into the dead girl's eyes. Her
eyes were bright, the white in it so brilliant it almost shone. The iris
was of a color that Scully had never seen in a human being before, a very
faint, yellowish brown that almost looked like gold. What was most haunting
about the eyes was the fact that they seemed to stare unseeingly into space
while - at the same time - they looked as though they were focused on
something. These did not look like the eyes of a dead person.
Scully leant down a bit to take a closer look at the eyes. It was then that
she noticed the scratch marks under the dried blood.
"There are scratch marks all around her eyes. It looks like they are self-inflicted,
but I'll be able to tell you more after the autopsy. My God, it almost
looks like she tried to scratch out her own eyes!"
Mulder looked at her, and in his eyes Scully read the same devastation she
felt.
"And her eyes... Mulder, I might be wrong about that, but I'd say she
must have been blind. Even for a dead person, these eyes just seem...
wrong", she continued.
"What about the cause of her death?" Her partner wanted to know.
"Hypothermia is my best guess right now", Scully offered, a bit surprised
at how calm and professional her voice sounded to her. "Her clothes
are wet, and if she was thrown into this river she was bound to cool out
rather quickly, even if she did make it to the bank within the first five
minutes. Which I doubt."
She shuddered internally at the thought of this girl desperately trying to
reach the riverbank only to freeze to death when she had finally made it.
"Scully."
Mulder pointed at the girl's lips, his face kept expressionless. Following
his gaze, Scully suddenly realized that the girl was smiling.
"Mulder, what on earth has happened to that girl?" she whispered, not
caring if her voice betrayed the horror she was feeling.
He shook his head, a mixture of sympathy and the very same horror in his
eyes. But Scully saw something else in his eyes; something that told her
Mulder was sporting a theory.
"Come on, Mulder, if you've got a theory I'd like to know it", Scully
said, impatience coloring her voice. Mulder seemed surprised, then shrugged
as if to say 'you've been warned'.
"Fallen Angels", he said. Scully's eyes grew wide.
"Aliens, Mulder?" she asked, incredulous. But he shook his head, smiling
ever so slightly.
"No, I'm not talking about crashed UFO's here. I mean Fallen Angels, as
in the Bible. It's an old legend I read about, what, last year? There's a
group of Angels that's said to take the souls of innocent children. But
since these Fallen Ones are so disgusting to the human eye they don't show
themselves to their victims. They use their angelic voices to talk them
into scratching out their eyes, for all their eyes will ever let them see
is evil. Once the victims are bereft of their sight the Angels appear and
take their souls."
"And that's what you think has happened here, Mulder?"
"It would be an explanation", Mulder replied.
Scully did not like his so-called explanation. It reminded her way too much
of the Kernoff case. Four innocent girls had died, because they were caught
up in a fight for their souls between God and the devil. She still had a
hard time believing what she had seen back then, and she was not going to
let Mulder turn this case into something similar.
"Then why are her eyes still there?"
"Well, as you said, it's possible that she was blind."
"Then why the scratch marks around her eyes? If she was blind there was
no reason to make her scratch her eyes out", Scully concluded, looking
sternly at Mulder. He did not answer her question, but shifted uneasily.
Something seemed to bother him. She was about to ask him about it when her
eyes were caught by a glimmer on the girl's body. Bending down a little
more she realized that it was a necklace that had reflected a ray of
sunlight.
Scully pulled out a glove from her pocket and put it on. Then, very carefully,
she reached down, around the girl's neck, until she found the lock and
unclasped it. A few moments later she held the necklace up for inspection.
It was a plain gold chain with a golden pendant in the form of a dove
spreading its wings. There was an inscription on the back.
"Unity MEP 01", Scully read out aloud. "Now what does that
mean?"
"It means we have our first real clue", Mulder said, determination evident
in his voice.
***
The lights were fading. Lily felt the Angels slip away and cried out in
anguish. Suddenly the door was opened and a dark clad man entered the room.
She tried to recoil from him, but he grabbed her arm and pressed a cold
injection pistol against it. There was a hissing sound, and the injection
was emptied into Lily's arm. The man looked at her but Lily could not make
out his face. It was just a bright blur to her. Opening her mouth, she
tried to force out some words,
but her tongue would not obey her. For a second, the man kept staring at
her, then he turned and left the room.
Lily felt tears running over her cheeks. She drew her knees up to her chin
and hugged herself. Why was she here? What had she done wrong? Her eyes
fell shut.
It was not until she felt a gentle touch, almost like a warm breeze caressing
her body, that she opened them again. The Angels had returned, but they
were not dancing. They just stood there, surrounding her in a loose circle,
their faces solemn and their eyes sad.
"Please don't leave me again", she whispered. Then, all of a sudden, a
scream pierced the silence. Lily flinched. She had heard that voice before,
screaming out in anguish and terror. Frightened, she squeezed her eyes
shut, feeling the Angels disappear one by one, leaving her alone in the
empty darkness of her nightmare.
***
...
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© 2001 by Miss Bit