THREE
Scully's Apartment
10:05 P.M., Friday
Scully stood in front of the bathroom mirror. She washed her face of the little makeup she wore, so it wouldn't stay on overnight. She brushed out her auburn hair. She changed into her light yellow satin nightgown. Her conservative style carried over from her day wear to her night wear. The light yellow pants covered her ankles and the light yellow top buttoned at the front in a high V-neck. Almost like a jacket.
She rubbed the small gold cross that hung around her neck at all times and checked her watch. 10:09:11. She was very obsessive that her watch be correct down to the second. She was never late, unless it was her partner's fault, but she never blamed him. She blamed herself for going with him.
Her partner, Mulder, was never on time, unless he was meeting one of his many sources, or Scully. He was always late for the frequent meetings with his superiors.
Scully walked slowly into the bedroom and stretched. She grabbed the remote on the bedside table and clicked on the 10 o'clock news. She waited a second to see what the story the anchor-woman was telling was about. It was about illegalizing smoking at bus stops. Scully sat down on the floral print bed spread and looked skeptically at the T.V.
"Bus stops?" she rolled her eyes.
She looked down onto the floral print, glad that she could sleep at home instead of some hotel, which she frequently had to do because she was sent all over the globe to do FBI field work. She rubbed one of the flowers and examined her fingers. They were covered in a light coating of dust. She patted the sheets and watched the light covering of dust swirl up into the air. She sneezed. She stood up and set the remote down on her dresser. She went to the closet, looking for her hand held vacuum, but didn't find it. She pulled out the big upright vacuum and unwrapped the cord from around the handle. She leaned over and plugged in the vacuum. She lifted it up on top of the bed and flipped the switch to the 'on' position. The loud hum drowned out the T.V. interview of the bus driver and his position on the matter.
She ran it across the light colors a few times and flipped the switch to 'off'. She pulled the vacuum off the bed and it thumped onto the beige carpet. She unplugged the cord and wrapped it around the handle again. She rolled it into the closet and shut the door, which she most likely wouldn't open again for a long time.
She folded over all the sheets but one thin, soft blue one, down to the foot of the bed. She sat down on top of the soft, comforting blue and waited for the weather report to come on. Finally the anchor-woman thanked the bus driver for his view on the matter and introduced 'Marty' to give the weather report. She saw bright computer-generated weather maps pop up behind the phony weather man.
Scully silently wished for a sudden weather front that brought the temperature down to about 70.
Just as Marty began to speak the T.V. screen went black. Scully reached back and grabbed the remote from her dresser and clicked power twice. She shook the remote and clicked it two more times.
The windows flew open silently and Scully looked over, her eyes wide. A bright light blinded her, and paralyzed her with fear. She was slowly drawn up into the light and everything went black.