| “I think I here something.” Trinity whispered, not wanting to disturb Mulder and Scully. She didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing. “What is it?” Piper whispered back. “I heard something in the woods. Maybe we should wake up Mulder and Scully.” Piper leaned over and tapped Mulder on the shoulder. Trinity did the same to Scully. They both woke up startled. “I heard something.” Trinity said. “In the woods. It was like someone was walking.” Mulder and Scully both un-zipped their sleeping bags and opened the tent. Piper and Trinity hurried to get on their shoes, and they followed. Mulder walked up to the edge of the woods, while Scully looked around the tents. Mulder heard a growl coming from the forest. Scully heard it too, so she took out her gun and walked over to Mulder. Trinity and Piper walked meekly behind them, afraid of what was going to happen. Mulder turned on his flashlight and shined it over the ground. He then saw something. It was a body. Mulder and Scully walked over to it Piper and Trinity hung back to where they were standing before. “Oh my God, Scully.” Mulder said. “Girls, I think you should come over here.” Scully said. “Someone else is dead.” Trinity and Piper walked slowly towards Scully and Mulder. They hesitated a few times, but knew they had to look at the body. Trinity and Piper looked down at the girl’s face and gasped. “That’s Shannon O’Keef.” Trinity said quietly. “She was in a tent with Ashley, Melissa, and Kristina.” Piper said. “But what was she doing out here?” Trinity wondered out loud. “That’s what we need to find out.” Scully said. “Where was Shannon sleeping?” Mulder asked. Piper and Trinity started walking to the tent where Shannon was. Mulder and Scully opened the door to the tent and saw three other girls sleeping inside. “Hey, guys.” Trinity called, waking the girls up. One of them rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Where’s Shannon?” She asked looking around. “She’s...sick.” Piper lied. We can’t keep lying, Scully thought. “Girls, Shannon is dead.” Suddenly the girls stopped laughing. They finally understood what had been happening. They finally realized what happened to the other girls. “Tomorrow we’re going to ask you girls some questions.” Scully commanded. “For now, you girls go to bed.” Mulder and Scully went back to the woods. Piper and Trinity followed them but not for long. Scully turned around and stopped them. “I think you girls need some sleep. We’ll find out what happened tomorrow.” Scully said. Trinity and Piper did as told, even though inside they wanted to help. They went back to their tent, and laid down but neither of them even tried to sleep. Trinity wanted to talk, but she knew that it would just make things worse. She still kept thinking about how little Trinity and Piper knew about each other, but something made her feel secure with Trinity. It was as if there was a special connection between the two of them and that they were meant to be friends from the start. Piper rolled over, thinking about the other tent. Those girls probably weren’t sleeping either. Piper was too afraid to close their eyes. She wanted Mulder and Scully to come back into the tent but she knew that was childish. She was old enough to take care of herself, even though she was terrified. Outside, Mulder and Scully covered the body with a nearby tarp that was covering a pile of wood. Scully began to collect rocks to surround the body. She wished she had police tape with her but that was one of the things that they didn’t carry around. After she had finished surrounding the body she put on a pair of latex gloves. Mulder shone his flashlight on the body and Scully rolled back the tarp slightly. She wanted to get a good look at the body before evidence disappeared. “Well whatever it is, it struck again.” Scully said after she had examined the body. She took off her gloves and shoved them back into her pocket. “We should take turns keeping watch. I’ll take first watch.” Mulder said. “I’m going to check on Trinity and Piper to see if I can get them to go to sleep.” Scully said. She walked back towards the tent and went inside. Trinity and Piper were lying down but Scully could tell neither of them was sleeping. “Girls, I know you’re afraid but Agent Mulder and I won’t let anything happen to you.” Scully said. Neither of the girls made a sound. “This killer will be caught, I can promise you that.” Even with Scully’s soothing words, Trinity and Piper didn’t sleep. They listened as Mulder and Scully switched positions every two hours. In a way, Piper wished that she could go outside. Anything would be better than sitting in the silent tent with nothing to do. Trinity lay on her stomach, not wanting to move or do anything. All she wanted to do was leave the camp but she knew she couldn’t desert Piper or the other campers. Chapter 7 6:34 A.M. July 22 The next morning Piglet unzipped Trinity and Piper’s tent and poked her head inside. She began to sing at the top of her lungs, using a fake voice. Piglet was always the funny one and could always bring a smile to anyone’s face. Trinity and Piper woke up, rather cranky. Piper looked down at her watch and she realized that she had only fallen asleep less than an hour ago. Trinity looked next to her, expecting to see either Mulder or Scully but neither of them were there. Trinity reached for her shoes, wanting to find out where Mulder and Scully had gone but she realized they were on her feet. She must have fallen asleep with her shoes on. Piper looked down at her own feet and realized she too had her shoes on. Piglet left the camp, realizing that Piper and Trinity were very much awake. Most of the other girls were awake but weren’t out of bed so Piglet had to go around again. Piper and Trinity scrambled out of the tent and to the woods where the body was. Sure enough, Mulder and Scully were there looking at the dead body. “Did she die of the same thing?” Trinity asked. “From loss of blood.” Piper restated. “Well, we can’t be positive but, I’m 99% sure.” Scully said. The coroner is coming down in a little bit. For now, if anyone asks what that is under the tarp tell them it’s…” “A science fair project.” Mulder finished. Scully looked up at him, wondering where he got such an idea. “You said they’d believe anything.” “Did you guys hear or see anything last night?” Trinity asked. Her eyes looked suspicious and Piper looked at her strangely. “No, nothing.” Scully said quickly. Piper could tell there was definitely something wrong. Trinity was trying to get at something and whatever it was, Scully knew it. Mulder must have noticed the tension in them, as well. He looked to Piper and she nodded her head, signifying she knew it as well. Piper looked to Trinity and then to Scully, realizing that they were staring at each other and neither of them was about to break the stare. “I think we should talk to the girls from Shannon’s tent.” Piper said. “Trinity and I will go down and tell the people at the lodge what happened. Piper, you and Agent Scully can interview the other girls.” Mulder said, wanting to separate Trinity and Scully. “Okay.” Piper said. “Fine with me.” Trinity said finally breaking the stare from Scully’s eyes. Piper looked at Mulder as a sigh of relief swept over her. Mulder began walking down the path towards the lodge, not wanting the tension to build again. Trinity followed him, after giving a last glare to Scully. Scully turned away from her and walked to where Star was standing. She was washing her face out of a cool whip container full of water. As Scully talked to Bubbles, Piper went to see what the other tent was up to. “You guys are in big trouble.” Piper said unzipping the tent where Shannon was supposed to have slept. “I guess that means you didn’t sleep much either.” One of the girls said from inside. She thought Piper was rather rude when she burst into the tent unannounced. “I just want to let you know that Special Agent Dana Scully from the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be coming in here to ask you guys questions about the murder of Shannon O’Keef. If I were you, which thank god I’m not, I would answer her questions to the best of your ability.” Piper said sternly. As she finished her last words, Scully poked her head into the tent. “Can we take this outside?” Scully asked realizing how cramped the tent was. It was only supposed to sleep three people and there were already four girls sitting inside. “We didn’t do anything.” One of the girls began as she crawled out of the tent. “It was just a joke.” Another said. “We didn’t kill her.” The last one said. |