Chapter 2: Burn Baby
Scully’s Apartment
08:01
Mulder didn’t bother knocking, he just let himself in.
“Scully?” He called as he closed the door after himself. There was no answer. “Scully?” He called, walking through the quiet apartment.
“Kieron!” Scully’s voice suddenly screamed. “Kieron! Help me!” Mulder drew his Glock and placed the sound as coming from the bedroom. He crept around the door to find Scully lying naked on the bed with hideous burns covering her body. “Kieron!” She murmured as she writhed against the pain. “Kieron!” Over and over the word was torn from her.
Mulder placed the gun on the table and went over to Scully. Her face was the only part of her that didn’t have any burns and so he touched a hand to her cheek.
“Scully? Scully, can you hear me?” He asked and her eyes snapped open. They were clear and sparkling, brimming with recognition and yet there was something strange in those depths.
“Kieron, don’t let them kill me.” She begged reaching for him.
“Scully, who’s Kieron?” He asked, trying not to touch her anywhere that might hurt her. Tears formed in the azure blue eyes.
“You’re denying me!” She sobbed. “I expected it of the others, but never you…” He almost had the feeling that he wasn’t talking to Scully anymore, but to someone else. He placed a hand to her forehead hunting for a fever but, while she was warm, there was no sign of a fever to warrant her behaviour. He looked down her body at the burns, forcing himself to ignore the fact that she was naked and concentrate on the painful wounds instead. They actually seemed to be diminishing in scale – disappearing rather than appearing – but he was no doctor. She needed a doctor.
“How did this happen to you?” He asked her desperately, as he began hunting in his pockets for his cell-phone.
“They burnt me Kieron. They burnt me.” Those eyes were too much for his sanity. It was a relief that he seemed to have forgotten his phone and would have to leave to use hers. He stood up and turned his back on the scene.
“I’ll get a doctor.” He murmured and left the room.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Northeast Georgetown Medical Centre
10:58
Mulder sat on the plastic chair with his head in his hands.
“Mr Mulder…?” A voice said from above him and he looked up at a middle-aged woman in a white coat. “I’m Doctor Thorley.” She told him.
“How is she?” Mulder demanded, standing up.
“Miss Scully is in remarkably good health, considering her condition…” She answered.
“How bad are the burns…?” He asked. Doctor Thorley shrugged.
“Right, the burns.” She paused to draw a long breath. “I observed Miss Scully’s burns when she was brought in, my diagnosis was that they were first degree, although the paramedics described them as second degree. However…” She broke off and shrugged. “I have no explanation for it. All the burns appear to have healed in the last two hours. I’ll be discharging her later today as there’s now no reason to keep her in.”
“Healed?” Mulder asked with a frown. “What do you mean, healed?”
“Exactly that. Miss Scully has no burns on her body at the present time. Now, I have not the slightest idea how that can be. If you can offer any explanation I, for one, would be glad to hear it.”
Mulder rubbed at his nose in confusion.
“Can I see her?” He asked.
“Yeah sure. Your name wouldn’t be Kieron, would it?”
“No, why?”
“She’s been asking for this Kieron ever since she was brought in.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mulder pulled aside the blue curtain, walked through and immediately closed it behind him.
“Hi there.” Her voice said from the bed. As soon as he looked at her he could see that what the doctor said was true. There was not a mark on her skin. He smiled in response to her smile.
“How you feeling?” He asked as he sat on the bed next to her.
“Foolish.” She replied. “What am I doing here?”
“You don’t remember?” She shook her head. “You called me this morning, when I got to your apartment you were in bed covered in burns.
“Burns? But I’m not burnt.”
“You also kept asking for someone called Kieron.” He stated flatly, upset that she hadn’t mentioned someone who was obviously important to her.
“I don’t know any Kieron.” She answered with a frown. “I was burnt?”
“You really don’t know a Kieron?” Jealously was eating him badly.
“No, I really don’t know a Kieron.” She countered making eye contact. “I really don’t.” She insisted.
“You’ve been calling for him for hours.”
“According to you, I’ve also been burnt but I’m not now.” She said sarcastically.
“You *were* burnt, the doctor will back me up on that.” He paused to chew on his lip. “What do you remember happening last night?”
Scully broke eye contact and shrugged against the pillow.
“I watched TV, tried to read a book, then went to bed. I think I took a shower at some point…”
“Any dreams? Nightmares?” Mulder cut in.
“Are you trying to analyze me?” She asked, eyeing him warily.
“Just trying to help.” He responded with a laconic smile.
“Ok-a-a-y,” She drew the word out. “I did have a dream as it happens, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Dreams always mean something Scully.” Mulder countered with a broadening of the smile. “Even if it’s only your subconscious working itself out.”
“This one is pretty weird…”
“Ooooh Good!” Mulder commented, rubbing his hands together with exaggerated glee.
“…You’re gonna take this the wrong way. I know it.”
“I promise I wont.” He put his hand on his heart and put on the ‘puppy-face’. “Promise.” Scully didn’t buy it because of that.
“I’m burning.” She stated, her trust in him was more than that silly face he pulled.
“What?” His interest was piqued.
“In the dreams, I’m burning.”
“You’ve had more than one of these dreams?” He asked thoughtfully and she nodded. “Define burning.”
“Burning, how many ways can you burn? There’s flames and smoke. My legs burn first, I remember that. Oh yeah, I’m tied to something, something pretty solid.” Her speech stilled as she contemplated what she could remember. “There was a voice in the last one.”
“Male? Female?” He prompted.
“Male.” She answered. “It screamed out a word, over and over, but I can’t remember the word.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Scully’s Apartment
16:36
“There’s no clear definition of what something seen in a dream may actually mean…”
“Darn, you mean I spent $14:95 on ‘Dreams: A Practical Guide To Interpreting Your Soul’ for nothing.” Scully told him sardonically.
“There’s several ways to approach it Scully.” Mulder replied with a smile. “You’re tied up in the dream, which removes your ability to control the situation. That could relate to a personal fear of not being in control. Then there’s the fire, which can be positive or negative, a cleansing influence or symbolic of a fear of something unknown.” He paused to shrug and smile. “Or we could take your dream literally.”
“Literally?” She questioned with a worried expression.
“You wont like my suggestion.” He said with a grin. She raised a skeptical eyebrow in anticipation. “Past life memory manifesting itself as a dream having been triggered by a traumatic event in this lifetime.” He replied. Scully sucked her breath in over her teeth.
“You’re right. I don’t like it.” She broke the eye contact.
“Come on…” He began.
“So how do you explain the amazing appearing/disappearing burns?” She asked instead.
“Psychosomatic.” He stated.
“Second degrees burns? Psychosomatic?” She was incredulous.
“Like stigmata.” He answered nodding.
“I thought you didn’t believe in stigmata.”
“With regard to their religious significance, I don’t, but I believe that some people can bring the wounds on with the power of belief.” He replied laconically.
“And you think that I might have brought these burns on myself by believing in my dream?” The skepticism was like acid.
“Yeah, remember that case with those Vietnam vets who hadn’t slept in 24 years. They had internal wounds with no external source. One of the men was *making* the others believe and their beliefs were killing them.”
“I never completely bought that explaination Mulder.” Scully commented. “And what about this Kieron person?”
“He could have been responsible whatever happened to you in the past life you’re remembering.” Mulder suggested.
“Mulder, it’s impossible.” She enunciated the words at him.
“You want your medical records from the hospital. You were admitted with first degree burns and discharged four hours later without a mark on you. The paramedics told me here that they were *second* degree burns. It doesn’t sound possible, but it happened and the sooner you face up to it, the sooner we can sort it out.”
“You want me to subscribe to any crackpot theory just to reassure myself!” Their eyes locked into battle.
“Why can’t you just believe in this? Even when it happens to you, you still refuse to believe.” He sounded tired suddenly.
“I’m gonna go get some sleep.” She said dismissively. “If you wanna stay you know where everything is.” She left.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Avicia!” The voice called out desperately. “Avicia!”
The fire licked around her thighs now. The heat was intense. Unbelievably intense. She struggled, still attempting to free herself. Her flesh was burning. Unpleasant tinglings spread all over her body. She was scalding hot. She was shivering. Gasping for breath, but each inhalation was greasy with her own burning flesh. A familiar voice, different from the one yelling ‘Avicia’, asked her a question. She couldn’t hear it for the roar of the flames. The answer was yes.
“Yes!” She yelled at the man, who was a dim grey silhouette beyond the brightness of the red, gold and orange of the fire. He asked the same question again and again, each time she knew the answer had to be yes. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She repeated endlessly. “Kieron!” She called to another figure she could see now. He was being held back from the fire by two other men.
“Avicia!” The voice called and she knew it was him calling.
“Kieron!” She called back. The fire was so hot and the pain so constant that she felt detached from it. In an abstract way she could feel it eating through the lower half of her body, sucking the life out of her limbs. Then a sliver of fire jumped up and caught her hair. The new pain was different to before. More real. The thought finally took shape. Death by burning. Eternal damnation. She would never see Kieron or the others again. The shadow man repeated his question. She knew that the answer should be yes.
“No!” She screamed instead. “No! I repent! I do not believe! I do not believe!” The sound broke from her throat in harsh sobs as the fire in her hair spread to her scorch a trail across her face and her neck.
“Avicia!” The man she knew was Kieron screamed as he fell to his knees, dragging his captors with him. He was crying.
“Kieron.” She whispered before the fire began to burn away her throat. “I do not believe. I do not believe.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Scully’s Apartment
22:13
Mulder stared at the tape recorder lying on the table. It was exactly what he’d remembered as being on the tape and it scared him more than he’d ever been scared before. Even more than in the box car when the fire was behind him threatening to consume him. Even more than when Scully had been missing. Even more than when he’d found out about Melissa, only to have her kill herself. Even more than remembering the night Samantha was taken. *This* was scarier.
“Kieron!” Scully screamed from the bedroom and Mulder’s head snapped up. “No! No! I repent! I do not believe! I do not believe!”
The harshly shrieked words were the greatest torture and sent him running into the bedroom.
Inside the room was dimly lit, the drapes closed shut blocking out the moonlight. The only light came from out in the hallway and it meant that Mulder’s shadow was cast across the room and across the figure lying on the bed. She held her hands behind her back as if they were tied that way and struggled weakly as if to free them.
“I don’t believe.” She was saying. “I don’t believe. I don’t believe. I don’t believe.” Softly whispered over and over as she moved. As he got closer to the bed, Mulder could see the redness spreading across her visible body – she was wearing pajamas this time – and in particular a nasty patch across her throat. He sat next to her and touched her forehead to wake her. She whimpered.
“I don’t believe.” She muttered as he ran a gentle hand over her skin.
“Scully?” He said softly to wake her. “Scul…” He paused and thought of the tape. “Avicia?” He said instead. She whimpered once more. “Avicia?” He repeated. The eyes slowly opened and focused on him.
“Mulder, what…?” She huskily demanded, sitting up. As she did so she realised the pain she was in trying to speak and clasped a hand to her throat. Mulder’s faint intake of breath caused her to look at her hand. Her wrist was encircled with a deep red gash as if her hands had been tied with abrasive rope. The other was the same. “I had the dream.” She said flatly. Mulder nodded. “What was I saying?” She asked, although she already thought she knew. He looked away.
“You were saying ‘I don’t believe’.” He replied, his hands apparently had become very interesting to stare at. “I think I know what’s happening.” He said and started to stand up. “I’ll be right back.” He left.
Scully sat against the headboard staring at the open doorway Mulder had walked out of. She remembered the dream. She remembered all of it this time. The fire. The Shadow Man. Kieron. Her throat was still sore and the abrasions on her wrists were throbbing as if to prove that they were real and not figments of the imagination. She already knew that, she just didn’t want to believe it. Suddenly the light in the doorway was blocked off. Scully wasn’t scared or surprised to look up and see Mulder towering over her. He sat down again and placed a cassette recorder between them.
“There’s no easy way to do this.” He said regretfully and sighed deeply. “I want you to listen to this.” Scully frowned at him but he didn’t look at her. He pressed the button on the tape player.
For a few seconds there was silence. Then came the voice of man she didn’t recognise.
“What year is it?”
“By the imposed calendar,” Mulder’s voice replied steadily. “It is eleven-hundred and twenty-one years after the death of their Christ.”
“What is your name?” The man asked and there was a long pause.
“By my Christian name, I am Kieron.” Mulder’s voice replied and Scully surpressed a gasp but it wasn’t as much of a shock as she pretended. “But in the other language I am the Black Fox, the Merlin of the Circle of Truth.” In the room Scully listened intently as the breathing on the tape became ragged. He gasped. “No. No!”
“What’s happening?” The calm therapist’s voice had risen a little.
“Avicia!” Mulder’s voice gasped and Scully’s eyes flew to the Mulder in the room to find him looking at her. Their eyes locked. “Avicia!” The voice on the tape said.
“Calm down, you’re safe.” The soothing voice attempted. “Return to your…”
“They’re burning her!” Mulder’s voice gasped on the tape. Scully’s eyes held Mulder’s in the dim bedroom. “No! Avicia!” Then there was a single intake of breath, an unsteady gasp of shock. “Scully!” Then there was just the ragged breathing and an attempt to control it.
“Are you alright?” The therapist asked.
“I…uh…” Came Mulder’s voice at length. “I can’t…can we stop? I can’t do this anymore.” The tape ended and Mulder broke the eye contact with Scully to turn it off.