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Part 8

Gary Winter's Office
March 15, 9:45 AM

"Power? Candi? Are you saying she's somehow sending 
these women into a coma?"

Gary seemed to have some emotion in him after all, 
Mulder thought. He was seated behind his rather large 
desk in his spacious office. Nice set up. No hole in the 
basement for him.

"We are not suggesting anything of the kind, Mr. 
Winters. We are just looking into the backgrounds of 
anyone who might know anything about what happened to 
the coma victims. There has been a suggestion that your 
ex-wife might have had some interests in the paranormal, 
for lack of a better term."

"Candi had interests in homemaking. That was it. She was 
the quintessential homemaker. If she had money, backing 
and five years lead time, she would be making just as 
much as Martha Stewart and wouldn't be so damned 
annoying in those commercials."

Mulder smiled a bit. 

"She never had outside employment since your marriage?"

"I believe she does now. Hell, I know she does now. She 
works as a receptionist for a hairdresser in town. She's 
good with people and while I pay her alimony, she really 
didn't take everything she could have in terms of 
support, so I imagine the extra cash is helpful."

"But while you were married. . ."

"No. She didn't work outside of the home."

"Did she belong to any groups, clubs. . .that type of 
thing?"

"Just the alumni association at our old high school. She 
loved high school."

"Did she attend college?"

"Junior college for two years after we were married."

"And she didn't feel strong ties toward that school?"

"No."

"Her home life? Before you got married."

"Look. I'm really not comfortable answering these 
questions. She hasn't done anything wrong so I don't see 
a need to tell you things she should be choosing to tell 
you, or not tell you, herself."

Mulder couldn't exactly argue with that.

"This is an ongoing investigation into the unexplained 
illness of three women. Your ex-wife does not know us as 
investigators. She knows us as people who are trying to 
raise funds for the victims, which we are. I cannot 
order you to keep this under your hat, but I really wish 
you would. You don't know what possible reaction she may 
have had to your divorce and we need to step back and 
observe in as unhindered a way as possible. She is not 
about to be arrested because, to our knowledge, no 
prosecutable crime has been committed."

Gary looked at Mulder suspiciously.

"I haven't been in contact with Candi much since the 
divorce. Phone calls on birthdays, that's about it. My 
birthday is in September and hers is just before 
Christmas. You're safe till then."

Mulder nodded in acknowledgment. 

"Candi is an only child of a single mother. They got 
along just fine, as far as I could tell. Her mother 
would come over from time to time. She was nice. Little 
odd, perhaps--very old country in spite of the fact that 
she's not that old herself. Still, it was tough on a 
little girl not to know her father at all. I think she 
desperately wanted to have a strong family life."

"And your breakup. . ."

"Was a surprise to her. She didn't see it coming. I'm 
not sure I even saw it coming. Janet came back into my 
life and I became disenchanted with what I had. The 
unknown is always more appealing than the tried and 
true, you know. Until you experience it and want what 
you had back. Well, actually. . .I don't know that's 
what I want but I do acknowledge that my second marriage 
has been much more difficult than anything I ever 
experienced with Candi. Much more work."

Mulder watched as Gary seemed lost in his own little 
world. He felt a lot of sympathy for him. It was all too 
easy to make mistakes in any relationship and it took a 
lot of conscious effort to keep things going in the 
right direction. Somewhere, Gary made a very wrong turn.

Agnes Zleinek's home
2 PM

Agnes was troubled. Dana Scully was sitting in her 
living room telling her the truth. She was looking into 
possible connections between the coma victims and her 
daughter. Agnes knew that she was not a very convincing 
liar but when Dana sat back and told her about what 
almost happened to her, in graphic detail, she gave up 
the pretense.

"It was me," the doe-eyed woman said, sadly.

"You? You did this?"

"In a way, I guess I did. It's a long story."

"I have time."

"I didn't grow up in America. I guess you can tell from 
my accent. I grew up in a very tiny town in a very small 
country in Europe. You grew up being taught more about 
superstitions than about actual facts and figures. My 
mother and father were very strict. Very. I was wild. A 
wild teenager. Not very unusual. . .even for my country. 
I snuck out to meet my boyfriend. He was older than me. 
By five years. He worked in a store in the city. When I 
told him, one day, that I was having a baby. . .he told 
me the truth. He was married already, and had two 
children by his wife. He wanted nothing to do with me 
and said he would only pay for an abortion. They were, 
of course, illegal and done by someone with a coat 
hanger, probably. I don't know--I wasn't interested. I 
wanted a little baby. 

But, I also wanted this man punished. And no man would 
punish him. And I didn't believe God would either. God 
judges at the end of men's lives. . .not in the 
beginning. I was young. So young. So stupid. 16 years 
old. So. . .I turned to the dark. I didn't know what I 
was doing. I took books on spells and mixed it with 
superstitions and stories I had grown up with and tried 
to summon the darkness and hurt this man. Send him to 
hell. 

I performed this big ritual and felt very proud of 
myself. The next day, I heard he was in a coma. I was so 
scared and so sorry. I didn't really want this. I was 
angry. Nothing more. He came out a few months later and 
went straight to me. I cowered in the corner, thinking 
he would kill me. . .would kill my baby. But, he thanked 
me and begged forgiveness. He told me he was in 
purgatory and his sins had been forgiven by God and he 
forgave himself. . .now, he only needed to make amends 
to me. I was so shocked and glad he was alive, I forgave 
him. He paid for passage to America and I thought I 
would start over, as a 'widow,' in a new country and 
forget what I had done."

"But you couldn't?"

"No. The first few years of CJ's life, we lived in a 
tenement building in New York. It was fine. People were 
a little crude, I think you call it. Used curses all the 
time--always "go to hell," "shit" "damn." CJ heard it 
all but knew she wasn't allowed to use such language. 
One time, a little boy knocked her over during play time 
at school. She told him to "go to hell." The teacher 
told me when I came to pick her up. She was just four. 
This was not the language that she wanted the whole 
class to be using. I talked to her and told her not to 
use the language but she said that she was doing more 
than that--she wanted this child to go to hell. 
Literally. I actually didn't think much about it because 
I know children get angry and I had no idea that my 
dabbling in whatever I had dabbled in could be passed on 
to her."

"And it was?"

"The child went into a coma that night. He came out 
within twenty four hours and they said it was probably 
due to some concussion that no one realized he had but I 
knew. I knew. I told her that this is what happened when 
she said things like that and that no one but God could 
judge. It just wasn't right. Even if I had started it. . 
.no one but God should do it. . ."

"And she didn't do it again."

"Until now. She's obsessed. Gary was her whole life. She 
never wanted more than to be his wife and keep a good 
home for him. When it fell apart, she was so angry. And 
when I heard about this happening--I've tried to stop 
her, I really have. . ."

"It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is. God forgave me enough to make sure that 
what I was experimenting with didn't go through 
completely but what I ended up with is still more power 
than any human being should have. It's a curse, and one 
I have to live with as penance. The fact that my 
daughter has to live with it as well. . .well, that is 
the true trial in my life."

San Diego, CA
3PM

Candi was feeling better. The phone call made her feel a 
bit better.

The events of the morning swirled through her mind. Gary 
had driven past her, stopped his car and got out.  
was in the passengers seat.

"Hey, Candi," he called out to her.

She still got a small rush at the sound of his voice. 
Amazing. After everything that had gone before.

"How are you?"

He looked like her really wanted to know. She could bet 
that Janet was busy shooting daggers at her from the 
car, but she was enjoying the moment too much to look at 
her and confirm that suspicion.

"I'm fine. You look tired." 

"Yeah, well, you know. Work and all. Listen--I'm not 
supposed to be saying anything to you and I--well, the 
thing is, we have history and my loyalty has to lie with 
you."

Her blood started rushing in a nice sort of way at the 
introduction of his statement but turned ugly mid-way.

The lying bitch.

Dana. Miss Goody-two-shoes-out-to-save-a-friend. No, she 
was really out here to get Candi in trouble.

She had gone straight home in a daze and started her 
meditations. She could feel herself entering the 
darkness and it, in turn, blackened her soul.

She picked up the phone. There was more than one way to 
play the revenge game.


St. Clare's Gymnasium
4:30 PM

Scully decided to head over to Saint Clare's and see if 
the chairs and tables had all been set up. It wasn't 
going to be a massive event. About a hundred and seventy 
five people were due to show up for the actual 
fundraiser. More had agreed to simply send in a 
contribution. Still, it wasn't bad considering the 
extremely short lead time.

Scully got the keys to the gym from Sister Aggie. There 
were no more extra curricular activities planned for the 
week so the gym was all theirs to work with. One more 
day until the benefit.

She heard her heels as they clicked against the floors. 
She supposed she should have removed her shoes. 
Actually, her heels were out of place in this town 
anyway. The order of the day seemed to be some sports 
shoe but Scully still couldn't quite get used to the 
idea of losing her extra few inches of height. She sat 
on one of the lower levels of the one set of bleachers 
that was opened, trying to picture some way of making 
the place look a little less like a gym.

"We have a disco ball that we'll put up." The voice 
startled Scully from her thoughts. Candi came in and sat 
down beside her. "It will look nicer."

"I guess if the lights are turned down low enough. . ." 
Scully said.

Candi mirrored Scully's position. . .sitting forward 
slightly with her hands clasped lightly over her knees.

"It wasn't nice of you to lie, Dana."

Scully immediately went on alert. She didn't think Candi 
was dangerous, face to face, but frankly, whether she 
believed she had this power or not; or believed in where 
the power sent people--she didn't want to take a chance.

"Lie about what?"

"Your FBI job. Your asking my ex-husband questions. 
Well, actually--your partner asking questions. It's two-
facey. I almost believed you weren't like the others."

"Because I was trying to find out why three innocent 
women were put into comas?"

"They were not innocent. Well, maybe Vicky was. . .but, 
not in high school. She laughed at me in high school. 
And, well--Elaine stole her husband away from another 
woman. He was married to the other woman first. That was 
not right. It just wasn't. And Crystal and that poor 
man. She just told him, bold as brass, to leave her 
alone after she probably enticed him into writing to 
her."

Scully looked at her. Candi was working herself up into 
a state but it seemed like the type of tantrum a child 
might throw.

"Do you believe what you are saying, Candi?"

"What? Of course I do." She seemed startled by the 
question.

"I don't think so. I think you are mad at one person and 
taking it out on others. Others who have nothing to do 
with the real issue. The fact is, we all got laughed at 
in high school, Candi. I only got here at the end of 
junior year and I joined the science club, of all 
things. Just how popular did that make me?"

"You smirked at me in the ladies room one day. Looked at 
me applying my makeup and smirked."

Candi was actually pouting. Scully looked at her 
incredulously.

"If I did anything of the kind, I was probably smirking 
to myself because no matter how much makeup I could use, 
I'd never look half as good as you did without it. 
Candi. . .you have no idea what you've done."

"I just. . .got revenge. It needed to be done."

"These women, Candi--they have all had their problems. 
You have no idea what another person has been through 
and you had no right to punish them. It's not your 
place."

"Then why do I have this gift, huh? And, they come out 
better people. Vicky has a regular cleaned out liver 
now, and is not drinking. She's going around town happy 
as a clam. Well, I'm sure the other two will do the same 
thing."

"And, in the meantime--you've taken away 9 months of 
Elaine's life. During which time she could have 
conceived and been close to delivering a baby. You're 
sending Crystal away as punishment for what she said to 
a stranger. A stranger to herself and you. You are not 
God, Candi. You can't do this. Be mad at who you have to 
be mad at. Yell, scream, get therapy. I have no idea why 
you were given this 'power' or 'gift' or whatever you 
want to call it but you've got to stop--now. "

Candi looked down at her hands. She was wavering.

"Maybe I should. But, I did something you should 
probably know about."

Three minutes later, Scully's car was tearing out of the 
school parking lot.

End of Part 8