Dreamcatcher 21
Ally

Dreamcatcher. May 5th 1999. Time unknown

Scully recoiled as the child's words sunk in, subconsciously taking a step back as though to distance herself from her. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean...are you telling me that you *killed* your own father?"

Felicia nodded miserably. "Yes," she whispered. "But I didn't mean to do it. I didn't."

Scully shook her head. "Then how?..."

"There was a fire. We were here in the Dreamcatcher. My father was burned. He couldn't get out."

Scully glanced around, fearful suddenly as she narrowed her eyes. What was that she heard far in the distance? A sound that she wondered was a result of her own imagination. The crackling, spitting sound of wood and fire. And with it, the faintest odor of hickory-scented smoke seemed to swirl around her senses for a second.

But there *was* no smoke. As far as the eye could see the woods were quiet. Undisturbed.

She sighed heavily and turned her attention back to Felicia. "There was a fire? How did it start?"

"I don't know. They never told me."

"Who never told you?"

Felicia frowned. "The police, of course. I tried to find out but I guess they didn't want me to know."

Scully wiped the perspiration from her eyes as she regarded the child before her quizzically. She was hot, she was tired, she was hungry, and right now she had not the slightest inkling as to what Felicia was trying to say.

"The police were *here*?" she queried uncertainly, stepping away from Felicia as the child's face once again contorted in to an expression of sheer rage. She opened her mouth in an attempt to find some way to soothe the girl but Felicia beat her to it. Her tone was ugly. Belligerent. Frustrated.

"No! Why don't you listen? No one ever listens and soon it'll be too late! It didn't happen *here.*"

Scully folded her arms over her chest, aware for the first time not only of the chill that had invaded the air around her but also of the storm clouds that were gathering far in the distance. Rolling and boiling they almost matched the expression on Felicia's face, and it suddenly struck her that the last time this child had become angry the world around them had suddenly become dark.

"Okay, Felicia. I'm listening. I'm right here and I have nowhere else to go. Where did it happen?"

The child's face once more relaxed slightly and to Scully's amazement, the breeze around her once again warmed perceptibly, playing with the errant strands of her hair which tickled her face pleasantly.

Felicia pulled on Scully's hand as she began to sit on the soft cushion of grass. Scully resisted for a beat before allowing herself to be dragged down.

They faced each other, Scully with her arms clasped around her knees, Felicia cross-legged with all the easy agility of a twelve year old. She was regarding the older woman thoughtfully, as though trying to decide whether to share a secret with her.

"What?"

Felicia shrugged. "I didn't think you would be the one. I mean I thought it would be your partner who would be here. That he would be the one."

"The one to do what?"

Felicia began to pull at the long grass in front of her absentmindedly before turning clear, blue eyes on Scully. "To save us. But it was you. All the time it was you. There was a fire, you see. It started at home when my dad was here with me. He used to bring me here all the time when I was little."

She raised a hand and pointed to a mountain far off in the distance. It loomed blue-grey against the sky, its peak topped with snow that sparkled in the sunlight.

"You see that mountain?"

Scully nodded slightly.

"Well, my dad used to take me there. We'd saddle up the horses and ride for miles. It's the most beautiful place. It was all beautiful then. The sea, the meadows, the animals, all of it beautiful. My dad said that I would always have this place. That no matter how hard things got I could always come here."

Felicia's voice had dropped to just a little above a whisper and Scully had to strain to hear her.

"And then I ruined it all. I made it dark."

Her eyes once again filled with tears, but this time she made no attempt to rid herself of them, just sat and watched them drip steadily onto the ground beneath her.

Opposite her, Scully reached out and grasped her hand. "How could you ruin it? Because of the fire?"

Felicia sniffed, choking back the sobs. "Yes. He hadn't wanted to come here that night. He had work to do, he said. He was a scientist. But I wouldn't quit. I kept on and on at him until he agreed."

A small smile appeared and then was gone. So fleeting that Scully wasn't sure she'd even seen it at all.

"He always said I could wrap him around my little finger. So he came. And while we were here there was a fire back home. I didn't know until it was too late. We were riding the horses and he just...he just...oh God, he began to burn...but the horse didn't. It just kept on going with him on top. He was screaming..."

Scully watched in horror as the child buried her face in her palms, shaking with the force of her sobs, her words almost lost as she struggled to breathe through the pain.

"He was screaming my name...but I couldn't reach him. I couldn't save him. I tried but I couldn't. I felt myself being taken away, back to the house, back to my bed and when I got there it was so dark. I couldn't breathe but I could *still* hear him screaming in my head. I tried to get back to him. I tried so hard, but the smoke was too much and I think I passed out. When I woke up it was too late."

"Too late?" Scully swallowed. "Too late for what?"

Felicia shrugged. "Too late for me to get him out of here. He died, you see. But only on the outside."

She finally dropped her hands away from her eyes and Scully watched carefully until the child was able to continue.

"Don't you understand yet? He died out there. But here he's still alive. He's trapped here for ever. *I* trapped him here. It's all my fault and he hates me for it."

"No...Felicia, that's not..."

Felicia pounded the ground with her fist. "Yes it is! He hates me now. That's why he does the things he does. I thought if I brought my friends here it would make him happy...but it didn't. They just scream and scream when they first see him and that makes him so angry."

Scully shivered. That breeze again. Gathering storm clouds in the distance. The scent of burning wood. The scent of death. "Why have you brought *me* here?"

The child's next words chilled her to her very core, not just for their content but also in the way they were delivered. Scully would swear that for a moment, the child's very soul deserted her body. As though the horror had bled her of every human emotion possible.

"Because I want you to kill him for me. I want you to stop him before he hurts someone else. Before he hurts *you*."

And then once more, the darkness came.

*********

Eeazy sleep Motel. May 5th 1999. 9:12p.m.

"So what do you want me to do?"

Skinner regarded the man before him as Mulder removed his weapon, checking the magazine as he did so. Satisfied, he replaced the gun in the holster that he had earlier secured to his right side. Skinner's eyes had widened slightly a few minutes before as Mulder had performed a similar check on a smaller weapon that magically appeared from a leather casing wrapped around his ankle. He was damn sure it wasn't FBI issue but he had let it pass for the moment.

He still didn't really understand what Mulder hoped to achieve with all this. What his exact plan - if one could call it that - was.

Mulder had showered and changed. Picked at the take-out meal that Skinner had grabbed for them both and then had simply sat, staring into space for what had seemed like hours. The air between them was charged with electricity and neither man had spoken during the wait. It had almost seemed to him that Mulder was actually trying to relax. That in the midst of all this madness he was attempting to clear his head.

Until finally, he had risen from his position on the bed and began to check that his weapons were in place and ready for use.

"Mulder?"

Mulder dropped back onto the bed, crossing his arms behind his head as he regarded his superior through narrowed eyes. "I want you to watch over me as I sleep..."

"What? Mulder, what.."

"I mean it. Don't question it, just do it. The first sign that I'm in trouble you wake me up. You wake me up using whatever means you think necessary."

Skinner shook his head as he recalled his earlier 'Nightmare on Elm Street' jibe and wondered for a minute if he had truly fallen into the alternate universe that was Mulder's mind. What the other man was suggesting bordered on the idiotic and it took a few seconds for Mulder's words to sink in.

"You mean you're going to *sleep*? Now?"

Mulder shook his head. "No. I'm going to get Scully."

"Okay, now you've lost me. You're going to get Scully *how* exactly? By sleeping? That's crazy."

"Probably." Mulder laughed, the sound totally without mirth. "I might be wrong. I might fall asleep and dream the dreams of the innocent. But then again I might not. That's why I need you here."

"To wake you up?"

Mulder smiled softly as he closed his eyes.

"No. To bring me back."

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