| Hannah glanced over at her and glared. All three girls were wearing their pajamas. Katie wore a dark blue tank top with red and white boxer shorts. She spread a blanket over her goose-bumped legs, and rubbed her cold hands. “Okay, dare.” Hannah finally answered. They were playing the usual teenage game of Truth or Dare. The game had been played so many times that questions for truths and obnoxious things to do to give someone for a dare were running out. Erin thought for a minute before deciding what to dare Hannah to do. “Hannah Barnabee, I dare you to…” Erin began. “Answer the doorbell.” Piper said finishing Erin’s words. The familiar sound of the doorbell filled the house again. Below, Piper could hear her dog barking at whoever was at the door. Piper flipped backwards off the bed and landed hard on the floor. Hannah jumped up onto her feet and jumped off the bed. Below, Mulder and Scully were standing outside Piper’s house. They heard the thumps from upstairs. They both drew their guns when they heard the noise. Mulder opened the outside screen door and then kicked in the wooden door. They ran into the house with their guns pointed outward. “Oh my God!” Piper exclaimed stepping backwards. She had just reached the bottom of the stairs to answer the door. Erin was behind her with Hannah close behind. Piper sat on the bottom stair and panted deeply. “I think I just got the scare of my life.” She said. “You say that every day.” Erin said. She was scared herself after seeing the FBI Agents holding guns at their heads. Erin sat down a few steps up the stairs and Hannah sat next to her. “We heard the noise, are you girls okay?” Mulder asked putting his gun back in his holster. Scully did the same and pushed a strand of red hair behind her ear. “We just jumped off Piper’s bed.” Hannah explained. Scully sighed deeply. “Where are your parents, Piper?” Mulder asked wondering why there were no cars in the driveway. The entire house was dark beside a small light in the kitchen. “My Uncle was just hit by a car so they went out to Maine to visit him.” Piper responded. “I called Erin and Hannah because neither of my sisters could come home and they didn’t want me sleeping home alone.” “Is your Uncle okay?” Scully asked. “As far as I know, he just has a broken leg.” Piper responded. Scully looked over at Erin and smiled. She was wearing a bright yellow hat with purple buffalo years. Her eyes were covered with a black, shimmery face mask, with a bright pink background. She wore a multi-colored wig covering her light brown hair. Her fingernails were painted in various colors with a different print on each nail. Her face was covered in makeup that didn’t match nor did it make her look better, like music was supposed to. “So, it looks like you girls had a very colorful night of Truth or Dare.” Scully said. Erin quickly reached up and took her mask off her face. Beneath the black mask was another pink one and she took that off as well. She slid the wig off her head and it fell backwards onto the stairs. She hid her hands behind her back and blushed. “Um…is there a reason you guys are here?” Piper asked. Though she loved seeing the agents as much as she could, she liked having nights with her friends. “Actually, we have some information about the case.” Scully said. She tried to hold back her smile of Erin’s appearance but it was hard. Erin reminded her of when she was a teenager and they hung out playing obscene games. “Can we sit down and talk?” Mulder asked. “Well, we’re set upstairs. You guys are welcome to come upstairs with us and we can talk in my room.” Piper offered. Hannah took in the offer she had just extended to Mulder and Scully. Hannah wasn’t allowed in Piper’s room until three years after she met her and Erin had never seen it before that night even though they had known each other since first grade. When Hannah had first had met Mulder and Scully they had scared her. Piper trusted them with too much but now Hannah knew why. They were trustworthy but they had earned the trust. The girls walked upstairs with the agents close behind. Piper led them into her bedroom. Piper hesitated at the door before entering her room. She remembered what her mom told her about not having anyone else over except Hannah and Erin, but she knew Mulder and Scully were and exception. Piper hopped onto her bed and slid backwards until her back was leaning against the headboard. Mulder lingered outside the doorway staring at the pictures on Piper’s door. Large letters said Sailor Moon along with a quote saying “Eat the Corn” was going down the side of the door. A postcard of Wonder Women was tacked onto the door as well as a picture from the movie the Matrix. “What does Eat the Corn mean?” Mulder asked Piper as he entered the room. Hannah had jumped on the bed as, well but she was lying across the middle horizontally. Erin had taken a seat on a sleeping bag that was laid out on the floor next to the bed. Mulder looked down and saw another sleeping bag at the foot of the bed. It was bright pink and smaller than the other. “I just randomly made it up one day.” Piper explained. Scully took a seat on Piper’s bed and dangled her feet off the edge. Mulder looked at Scully who motioned for him to leave her alone with the girls. He left the room and walked down the stairs. “What did you find out about the case?” Erin asked. The case began to get more appealing to her by the minute. Forensic science was her main goal in life and she thought the FBI could help her get where she wanted to be. “Actually, we need to know some information from you first.” Scully said. “Girls, we talked to Nick’s mom, Juliet Rosalini. “She claims there’s such a creature as an Onomatopoeia.” Scully continued. “You mean the word that you learn about in English. It means a word that sounds the same as it’s spelled.” Hannah explained. “Like pop.” Piper said. “She claims it’s a monster that visits her. She thinks it’s the one that killed Nick.” Scully said. “You said her name was Juliet, right?” Erin asked. Scully nodded for an answer wondering why her name could be significant. “Well, Nick’s mom is an English teacher. You know, Romeo and Juliet and onomatopoeia, the English word.” “She did mention how Nick’s death was like Romeo and Juliet.” Scully said. “Now why would she jump to the conclusion that it was a monster in the first place?” Piper wondered. Scully put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the evidence bag. She handed it to Piper who stared at it and then passed it on to Hannah. They remembered finding it below the snow. Hannah handed it down to Erin, who was mesmerized by the object. “We showed her this.” Scully said. “We found that under the snow where Nick was murdered.” Hannah said. “We know, but we’re trying to figure out what it was left from. I’m assuming you girls have no ideas where it came from.” Scully said. “I’m clueless.” Erin said. “Yea, like usual.” Hannah added in sarcastically. Erin smiled at the lame joke but ignored it. “Nick died from loss of blood. Actually, his entire body was drained of it. Now if you happen to think like Agent Mulder does you might feel that this was the work of a vampire, but it wasn’t. There were no puncture wounds on the side of the neck to suggest such an event.” “So another words, you guys don’t have any leads or suspects. Sounds like a really interesting case. But, as always, we’re all eager to help solve it.” Piper said. “And as always, you’re help is greatly appreciated.” Scully said. Below, Mulder was walking through Piper’s house. He thought about everything he had been through with the teenage girl. On their first case together, when unexplained murders happened at Katie’s Girl Scout camp, they had to work together. Piper and Samantha were the only two girls who weren’t deathly afraid of the truth. Piper was willing to walk through fire to uncover the truth and expose the conspiracy. Mulder knew that the cases they had gone on, had changed her life forever. The dead bodies she had seen and the unexplained phenomenon was things no one should have to see. The pictures of UFO’s and conspiracies from Piper’s basement proved her passion for the truth. But Mulder also knew her passion came from Mulder and Scully’s persistence to find out the what was truly going on inside the government. Piper had seen classmates die in front of her eyes. She had found fellow peer’s bodies in the strangest places. Friends were pronounced dead in front of her eyes. Now the only people she trusted was herself and her close friends. Any other teenager would end up crazy or dead but Piper held on for her own personal reasons. “Mulder, we’re going to check into a hotel and tomorrow I’m going to have this analyzed.” Scully said coming down the stairs. Piper, Erin, and Hannah followed close behind. “Oh no, you’re not staying in a hotel when the three of us are stuck here home alone. You guys can stay here.” Piper offered. “Piper, I don’t know…” Scully began. “Come on, Scully you could stay in Suzanne’s room and Mulder you can have Lynn’s room.” Piper said. “Well…” Mulder began. “Please.” The three girls begged together. Staying home alone, especially at night, would be kind of scary. “Okay.” Scully said. Mulder rolled his eyes unaware of how Scully might act with the three teenage girls. There were rules about not becoming personal with the case but Mulder knew this case was already way behind personal. |