| “Why are they so happy?” Scully asked, signifying Trinity and Piper. “Because they know that they’re fooling us because they murdered those girls and they’re laughing in our face for it.” Mulder said. Scully looked at him strangely, wondering if he got a confession from the girls. “You’re not serious.” She finally said. “No, I was kidding, but they do seem awfully happy for a pair of girls who found four dead bodies!” Mulder said. “Mulder, those girls are as harmless as a fly. They don’t seem like the type of girls that would kill someone, let alone kill 6 people! Besides Mulder, if those girls did killed Shannon O’Keef last night, we would have heard them get up and get out of the tent. Piper would have had to climb over both you and me, and we both know that we’re not heavy sleepers.” “I guess your right. I’d like to sleep over tonight, if possible. Maybe if we take shifts staying up all night, again. Whatever this thing is, it needs to feed on something. I think what we’re looking for is in the woods and it might need to come out and kill.” “Yes, but Mulder if the girls aren’t sleeping over, then the killer may not want to come out.” “I’m pretty sure we can get Piper and Trinity to stay over tonight.” Mulder said. “Do you plan on using them as bait? Mulder, you can’t just put their lives in danger, without them knowing about it.” “Then we’ll tell them. They keep saying how willing they are to help out, maybe we can test their willingness.” “We can try it, Mulder, but if anything happens to them, it will be our heads. We promised them that we would protect them…” “And we will.” Mulder said. Mulder and Scully stayed at Woodston for the rest of the day. A half hour before the closing flag ceremony began, Mulder and Scully arranged for Piper and Trinity to stay over that night. They still had their sleeping bags and as for clothes, they would just have to wear the same thing. Fortunately, Mulder and Scully still had their suitcases in the trunk of their car, so they too would have to wear the same clothes. After all the buses left, Mulder, Scully, Trinity, and Piper re-pitched two tents. Piper and Trinity would sleep inside one and Mulder and Scully would be in another. As they were setting up their sleeping bags, Scully needed to warn the girls that their lives could be in danger. “Mulder, we have to tell them.” She said. Mulder nodded and the two of them crawled out of the tent. They walked to Piper and Trinity’s tent and unzipped the outside. Inside, the girls laying out their sleeping bags. Their backpacks were all on one side of the tent while their sleeping bags were side by side. “You know, this is a lot more comfortable with just two people.” Trinity said, noticing how much more room she had. “Girls, we need to talk to you about something.” Scully said. “Let’s go outside.” Immediately, piper thought someone else had died. She followed Mulder and Scully outside, looking at Trinity. Piper knew that Trinity was thinking the same thing. “Who’s dead?” Trinity finally asked. “No one.” Mulder said. “It’s just that, Agent Mulder and I have a theory. We need you girls to stay with us tonight as…bait.” Scully explained. “Bait?” Piper questioned, not understanding what Scully was talking about. “We think that if girls from Woodston stay overnight, than the killer might want to come back to murder again.” Mulder said. “Wait a minute, so you’re going to wait for that thing to kill us, too?” Trinity asked. “No, of course not, but we do need your help. We’re going to protect you, but we need you to be brave.” Scully said. The two girls nodded, signifying that they would help. “Well, since we have a few hours to night fall, does anyone care for a swim?” Piper asked. Mulder and Scully looked at each other. Scully wasn’t going to be the first one to admit that she wanted to play around in the lake. It just so happened that she had a bathing suit in a compartment in her trunk. FBI agents were supposed to come prepared for anything, and Scully was constantly prepared. “Okay.” Mulder said. Scully looked at him, not believing that he would say yes. “Scully?” Trinity asked. “Well…” Scully began. “Please.” The two girls said together. “Sure.” Scully said. The four of them changed inside their tents and began walking down to the waterfront. Trinity and Piper walked a little ways ahead, whispering to each other. Piper had a blue and white striped towel slung over her shoulder while Trinity had one over her arm. “So, what do you think of Mulder and Scully as a couple?” Trinity whispered to Piper. “Well, the thought had crossed my mind. I mean, they’re sleeping in the same tent unchaperoned. This could get…” Piper began. “Not Piper appropriate.” Trinity finished. The two girls began laughing. Behind them, Mulder and Scully were walking. As usual, they thought Trinity and Piper were talking about Celine Dion, but they were horribly mistaken. The four of them walked down to the edge of the water. Piper dove in, swimming under a rope strung with flotation devices. She came up and spit water from her mouth. “Come on in, it’s great.” Piper said. Trinity put her towel on the sand, and walked into the water slowly. She held her nose and put her head under water. She swam to where Piper was standing. Piper dove under water and put her hands on the wet sand beneath her. She stuck her feet together and her legs were straight in the air. She began walking but then she flipped her body over and came up for air. “How did you learn how to do that?” Scully asked. “My sisters taught me. I say I was born in the water. I can do a lot of tricks and things. Hey, do you want to swim out to the dock?” Piper asked Trinity. “I can’t.” Trinity said. “You can if Mulder and Scully go with you, they’re adults and CPR trained.” “Would you come?” Trinity asked them. “Please, so we can go diving.” “Sure.” Scully answered. Mulder and Scully went into the water. Piper began to swim to the dock. Her strokes were strong and she swam like a fish. Mulder was surprised that she was such a good swimmer. Trinity swam just as strong, as the four of them went to the dock. They all climbed on and let the warm sun beat down on them. “I’m going to get burned.” Piper said. She went into a diving position and she dove into the lake below her. The entire dock shook and Trinity almost fell off backwards. Piper came back up a few feet away from the dock. As soon as she was out of the way, Trinity also jumped off. The two of them took turns, jumping and doing twists off the dock. Scully was amazed at how many different things they could do. Scully just stayed on the dock, letting her hair blow in the warm breeze. Mulder took a few dives but then decided to stay on the dock with Scully. He looked her, realizing how little time she had to herself. He felt like he owed her something after all that they had been through. She didn’t have to stay with him if she didn’t want to, but she chose to because there were more than friends. As it got darker they got out of the water and changed into their pajamas. They had grinders for dinner and for the rest of the night they sat around a warm campfire. Piper tried to dry her wet hair using the fire, but it wasn’t working. “I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun camping.” Trinity said. “I’m so afraid of this two weeks coming to end. I mean, it’s already Wednesday and in another two hours, it will be Thursday. I don’t mind leaving the camp, but Trinity, we’ll never see each other again.” “Don’t think like that.” Trinity said. “We’ll call and we don’t live that far away. We’ll definitely visit.” “Yea, guys, it’s not the end of a great summer.” Mulder said. “But what about you guys. We’ll never see you, either.” Piper said. “We’ll keep in touch.” Scully said. About an hour later, Mulder and Scully decided that it was time for Piper and Trinity to go to bed. They went to their tent but they didn’t want to sleep. Mulder and Scully also retreated to their tent, but Scully was keeping first watch. She sat outside on the ground with her gun in her lap. Inside their tent, Piper turned on her lantern flashlight and hung it to a string at the top of the tent. Both of them were lying on top of their sleeping bag. The air outside was hot and muggy, not cool like most nights were. Piper was thinking about telling Trinity about Thumper. It took her a while, but then she decided to tell her. “Trinity, I have something to tell you.” Piper said. “Something about the murders.” “What is it?” Trinity asked. “I think I know who did it. I think I know who murdered those six girls.” “Who?” “Remember right after we got Mulder and Scully to look at Jill and Eileen’s body?” “Yea.” “Well, right after that. The reason I was staring into the woods was because I thought I saw someone. Then I realized it was Thumper. You remember the old camp director. Anyway, after that I thought harder and harder and realized I had seen her near every crime scene. I didn’t want to tell anyone, because I couldn’t believe it was her.” |