| Mulder looked at his desk and sat down. He placed his head in his hand and sighed. He thought about what the Cigarette Smoking Man had told him. None of what he said made sense. Could the entire world be made up of a conspiracy or was there truth in it somewhere? Mulder picked up his telephone and dialed Scully’s cellular phone number. “Scully.” She said, answering her phone. “Scully, it’s me. Where are you?” Mulder asked. “Piper and I are at Erin’s house. Where are you, Mulder?” “I’m in our office. The Cigarette Smoking Man was here to meet me when I came in. He told me that he has Erin.” “What?” Scully asked. “Scully, I want you and Piper to go to her house and sit there until I can get there. Don’t answer any phone but your cellular phone and don’t let Piper answer the door.” “What are you doing, Mulder?” “Just do it until I can get there.” Mulder hung up the phone and ran out of his office. In Erin’s house, Scully looked towards Piper. “What was that all about?” Piper asked. “Come on, let’s go.” Scully said. She walked out of the bedroom and up the stairs to Erin’s living room. Piper sighed and took one last look around. She could see trophies from various dance recitals and one from the school talent show, which they called the Gong show. “Piper!” Scully yelled from upstairs. Piper looked back towards the window, closed it, and then walked upstairs. She met Scully outside in the car. As soon as Piper shut the passenger door of the car, Scully turned the ignition and drove away from Erin’s house. Three hours later, Piper and Scully were sitting in Piper’s basement, playing a game of spit. Lynn was still sleeping in her bedroom and Suzanne had gone to the movies with her friends. Piper’s parents were invited to a lunch with some colleagues and though they hesitated to leave Piper and Lynn with Scully, they decided to go. “I win again.” Piper said, gathering the cards and shuffling them. “Okay, so after three hours of playing Scategories, Solitaire, Gin, and Up Words, are you going to tell me why we’ve been sitting here?” “I’m waiting for…” Scully was cut off as the doorbell rang. “Mulder.” Piper shot up from the floor and ran upstairs. She went to the front door and smiled as she saw Mulder at the step. “You know, I should get you guys a key to the house.” She joked. Mulder cracked a smile as the two of them walked down to Piper’s basement where Scully was picking up the cards that Piper had dropped on the ground. “What, were you guys playing 52 pick up?” Mulder asked. “No, but we should have been since we played every other game imaginable.” Piper explained. She paused. “Now, I’ve been locked in this house for three hours. Would someone please tell me what’s going on.” Mulder took a seat on one of the couches. “Piper, Agent Scully and I already expressed to you about the man who we think is behind all this.” “Yea, the Cigarette Smoking Man.” Piper said. “Yes, well, he confronted me in my office today and told me that he was the one who took the alien body because the public wasn’t ready to know about it. He also kidnapped Erin because it diverted Agent Scully and myself so that he had time to destroy the evidence.” Mulder explained. “I don’t think I understand.” Piper said. “That makes two of us.” Scully said. “These men don’t work so that we’ll understand their deeper motives. They do what they think is right, even though the rest of the world finds them wrong.” “So let me guess this straight, what you’re saying is that they took Erin so they could destroy the evidence. Basically they’re saying we have to choose between an alien and Erin. So the question still remains, where is Erin and how do we find her?” Piper asked. “That’s something that he didn’t answer.” Mulder said. “They’ve done this to us before, Mulder. They make us choose something fake so that they have time to destroy the real evidence. That ba….” Scully began “Bad word.” Piper butted in. Everyone was silent. Piper looked at the floor and sighed. All of a sudden a rumbling sound filled the basement. It began to shake and thing started falling off shelves. Scully ran to catch a ceramic Blue’s Clue’s while Piper climbed onto the other couch. She looked out the window that was above the couch and gasped. Piper jumped off the couch and began running upstairs. “Piper, what is it?” Mulder yelled after her as he tried to hold up a shelf of books. Piper didn’t stop so Mulder released his hands from the shelf and ran after her. The books fell to the ground. Scully was going to pick them up when she realized it would do no good. The rumbling continued and more things just fell off the shelf. Scully ran up the stairs after Piper and Mulder. Scully followed them through the kitchen, dining room, and sun room. The three of them ran outside as Scully noticed what Piper was staring at. Even the outside shook. Scully had to try to stand without being tossed around and knocked over. Piper tripped a few times but picked herself back up. She made her way to the playhouse. The ground shook more as she approached it. Piper went to the door of the playhouse and it swung open. A bright light came from inside. Piper ignored it and walked inside the small house. “Piper, no!” Scully screamed. She shaded her eyes from the bright light. She fell over as the ground shook more profusely. Mulder leaned down and helped her up. He tried to reach for his gun but his hand was to shaky to get it out of its holster. “Piper!” Mulder screamed, hoping she would respond. He and Scully kept their distance from the playhouse mesmerized by what was going on. Scully looked to Piper’s neighbor’s houses. Theirs seemed normal and not shaken like Pipers. Branches and leaves cluttered the ground as trees limbs fell. Scully peered into the playhouse as she saw an object exiting it. Scully motioned for Mulder to come to her and he did. The two stood side by side as a heavy breeze blew past them. It tried to knock them over but they clung to each other. A burning heat came from below the ground. Scully hopped from foot to foot as the burning sensation went through her shoe into her foot. Mulder did the same thing, not knowing if he believed what they were experiencing. The object moved from the playhouse and stepped onto the hot ground below. Scully recognized it as Piper but she held something in her arms. Mulder desperately wanted to help Piper but he couldn’t. Piper fell to the ground. Scully was about to rush to her side when the playhouse began to lift up from the ground. It lifted slightly at first but then high and higher until it appeared to be a spec in the sky. When it was out of sight, the shaking had stopped, the heat was gone, and the wind had died down to a gentle breeze. Scully looked to Mulder who was on the ground. He nodded to signify he was okay and Scully ran to Piper. “Piper, Piper.” Scully said over and over. She rolled Piper’s body over and noticed Erin was in her arms. Mulder quickly stood and picked Erin up and brought her a few feet away from Piper. Both Mulder and Scully checked for a pulse and fortunately, they both found one. Erin began to cough and Mulder pushed her body up. She began to throw up onto the ground. Mulder got out of the way and watched Scully and Piper. Scully was saying Piper’s name over and over. A few moments passed and Erin had laid back down. Piper sat up and looked at Scully. “What’s going on?” She asked quietly. She looked over to Erin who had a wide smile on her face. “Erin, are you okay?” “Yea, but what happened?” Erin asked. Erin looked to Mulder and Piper looked to Scully. Neither of the two agents could answer the question, though. Though they had just witnessed a phenomenal event, neither of them could explain it. Piper looked around. “Where’s my playhouse?” She asked. “It flew away.” Mulder answered. Piper looked at him strangely. “Girls, you don’t remember anything?” Scully questioned. “The last thing I remember is being in the basement and talking about the Cigarette Smoking Man.” Piper answered. “I remember sleeping in my bed.” Erin explained. Mulder looked from Scully to the girls. The two girls stood up and looked around Piper’s back yard. One of the trees had fallen down and branches were everywhere. “Okay, my dad is going to want to know what happened here. What am I supposed to tell him?” Piper asked. She folded her arms and turned to Mulder and Scully. “The truth.” Mulder said. “Which is what?” Erin asked. “That there is a government conspiracy that covered up the fact that there was an alien being behind your playhouse which allegedly took off.” Scully explained. “Why do I have the feeling that people are going to have problems believing that story?” Erin asked, laughing. No one spoke. Neither of them knew what to say or how to say it. What they had just seen couldn’t be explained nor could it be denied. Inside, though Piper couldn’t remember, she knew what had happened. She had felt it inside her from the beginning of the case. |