| “Agent Scully…it’s always a pleasure.” Piper said as they shook hands. Piper looked beyond Scully’s shoulder and saw the outline of the body drawn onto the ground below. Scully turned as she noticed what Piper was looking at. “The victim was a 32 year old construction worker named Moyo Jones. He was sent out here three days with a crew of ten other men to start construction on the woods.” Scully said. “Construction for what?” Piper asked. “Apparently they’re going to be building paths through the woods to enable a wider range of traffic to have easier access to the beach.” Scully explained. “Anyway, we spoke to some members of the construction team that day and they said that he left with the rest of them and then wasn’t seen sense.” “So, how did he get up a tree and happen to fall in front of me and Max?” Piper questioned. “That’s something we don’t know but I talked to a pathologist who said that the body’s been out here for at least three days.” “He’s been hanging out here since he disappeared?” Piper asked disgusted. “I don’t even wanna think about that.” She paused. “So what killed him?” “That is something we don’t know.” Mulder said, stepping up. “And that’s why I’m going to performing an autopsy.” Scully said. “Something tells me that while you go down and cut up human flesh, I’m going to have to risk being killed by Max who is not going to be happy when I try to wake her so that we can tell Agent Mulder everything we know. Am I right?” Piper said. No one responded. “Well, let’s go then.” Piper stood at the doorstep of Max’s house. She rang the doorbell for the second time. By the lack of cars in the driveway, Piper figured that Max’s parents were out but knowing Max, she was still in bed. “Think she’s home?” Mulder asked looking through one of the windows. “Oh, she’s home.” Piper responded. She pounded no the door and rang the doorbell another two times. “And I will get her out of bed.” Mulder walked back over to her, giving up. “We’ll just come back later.” He said. “Do you have your cell-phone?” Piper asked him. “Yes.” Mulder answered, unaware of why she was asking. “Let me see it.” Piper said. “What for?” “Just hand it over.” Piper demanded. Mulder pulled his cell-phone out of his pocket and handed it to Piper. She took it, turned it on, and dialed Max’s phone number. “Who are you calling?” “Max.” “Piper, give it up. She’s not home.” Piper rolled her eyes at him as he walked back to the car. Piper was about to listen to Mulder and hang up the phone when she heard the sound of a groggy hello coming from the other line. “Max, it’s Piper….” Piper began. “Piper! Do you have any idea what time it is? I know that you might be upset about what we saw but we were talking for hours last night and…” Max rambled on. “Open the door.” Piper said, cutting her off. “What?” “I’m outside your house. Now please open the door. Mulder’s here and he wants to talk to us.” Piper said. She heard Max grumble slightly before hanging up the phone. In return, Piper also hung up her phone and then looked at Mulder. He sighed before getting out of the car and walking over to Piper. “Told you she was home.” Mulder didn’t respond. A few moments later, Max opened the door. “Okay, so what’s up?” She asked, stifling a yawn. “Max, I want to ask you and Piper some questions about what you saw yesterday.” “Hold on.” Max said. She grabbed Piper’s arm and took her into the house, closing the door slightly. “I thought you said you weren’t going to call them.” She hissed. “First of all!” Piper shouted. Max glared at her and Piper lowered her voice. “First of all, I did not ever say that I was not gonna call them. I just said that I wouldn’t get involved because you didn’t want me to.” She whispered. “But here you are testifying and getting involved.” Max said quietly. “Look, I did not call them. I don’t know how they found out. All I know is that they did and if we don’t want more people to die than we have to tell them what we saw.” “But you don’t seem to remember that I didn’t see anything! All I can remember is a dead body crashing down on the ground and you standing there in front of me. I don’t know how I got there.” “Then that’s what you tell Mulder, Max. But I do know what I saw. And I saw you…possessed by something. You were in a trance!” Piper explained but she knew that Max wasn’t buying it. “Look, if you’re not going to do this for that dead man in the woods, at least do it for me.” Max sighed. “Fine. I’ll tell him what I know.” “That’s all I ask.” Piper said. Max turned and opened the door. Mulder stood outside, somewhat perturbed. “Were you guys having a tea party in here or something?” Mulder asked angrily with a hint of sarcasm. Max walked off towards her living room. “I wouldn’t tick her off.” Piper warned Mulder. “You’re lucky I’m getting her to talk at all.” Piper walked off towards the living room and Mulder followed. “All I want to do is ask you what happened. Start from the beginning.” Mulder said, taking a seat on a rocking chair. Piper sat down next to Max on the couch. They looked at each other, trying to decide exactly where to begin. “Well, we were just hanging out in the park. Listening to music, having a picnic. Just chilling.” Piper explained. “And then all of a sudden Max stood up and said ‘squirrels!’” “Do you remember saying that, Max?” Mulder asked. “No.” Max answered. “And then we all just kind of laughed at her until she shouted ‘long live the squirrels’ and ran out towards the woods. I decided to follow her and I ran after her and found myself…just lost in the woods. I didn’t know where to go. And then I heard something. Something was moving so I looked to see what it was and it turned out to be a squirrel. He walked a little ways away, stopped and started at me. He did it again and that’s when I realized that I should follow him and he brought me to Max.” “What happened next?” Mulder asked. “Well, Max was just standing there. She didn’t blink she didn’t move. She was in some kind of trance. Like something had taken possession over her body. I was scared. I was praying that nothing was seriously wrong. And then heard something coming from above me and I realized that there was a dead body hanging from the tree.” “Hanging?” Mulder asked. “Yeah…hanging. It was as if it was like olden times. Like they would hang people. He had a noose around his neck and he was just hanging. But I noticed that the rope was severing and I knew that it was going to fall. So, I dove to the side into some brush. When I got up, after the body had fallen, I realized that Max was out of her trance. And we started just freaking out and then everyone else showed up and we decided to leave.” Piper said. “Okay. And Max, you don’t remember any of this?” Mulder questioned. “All I can remember is being in the park, listening and dancing to Cotton Eye Jo and then being in the woods with a dead body at my feet.” Max answered. “So, what did you do after you left the woods?” Mulder asked. “We left the woods in silence. I think we were all kind of spooked. But we just got back to the meadow where we were hanging out, we gathered our things, and we started walking home. Um…Erin brought Jo to her house and Candy brought Daria to hers so it was just me, Max, and Kyla and then Kyla went to her own house and was just me and Max.” Piper said. “Did you guys talk about what you saw?” Mulder asked. “Is there a crime against talking to others?” Piper retorted. Max ignored her. “We talked about not calling you guys and Piper’s told me that she didn’t’ call you. So who did call you because I know for a fact that the FBI won’t just drop everything and come down here for one murder case the day after it happened.” Mulder sighed. “Suzanne called us.” “She what?!” Piper exclaimed. “She left a message on Agent Scully’s home answering machine last night telling us that you had found another body. She said we didn’t have to come down but that she just wanted us to talk to you and find out what was going on.” Mulder explained. |