Disclaimer: CC (Carter not DeVil), FOX (sans Hound), and 10/13 (desperately
missing 11 and 12 - if you've seen them they're offering a reward) own them.
I've just molded them to my own demented world born of too much coffee, too
little sleep, way too many re-runs of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and a need
for personal vindication.

The song "Silent Lucidity" quoted before each part belongs to Queensryche.

Rating: Strong R, maybe NC-17. Definite violence and darkness. Bad language.
And of course, sex.

WARNING!!!: This story deals with child abuse in many forms. Including
sexual abuse. This kind of abuse is NOT described. I can't make myself
describe it. But it is not for the weak of heart all the same. Again, child
abuse is a central theme here, including sexual abuse. You have been warned.

Category: X, MSR, A

Summary: Sequel to "Covenant". While exploring all the levels of their 'new'
partnership Scully takes on a case involving deaths strange enough no one
can deny they are X-Files. Their only link, abused children. Their only
lead. A child who can see Mulder. Not all Monsters live in closets.

Reading Covenant prior to this story might be a good idea.

Thanks to the Beta Readers on the Beta Readers Circle. They were an enormous
help. They provide free Beta Reading and editing to any and all authors. You
can avail yourself of this service by writing to klietz@ford.com.

Also thanks to the Rhino Readers, once again you girls are the best.

Dedication: I don't often do this but this story is personal. This story is
dedicated to my sister, Megan Carson, who is the strongest person I know. I
may be the eldest, but she will always be the strongest and the one who kept
me sane. This story is dedicated to the survivors. To Nancy, who listens.
And lastly, this story is dedicated to 100 feet of lilac bramble that once
stood a block from my house. This place had many forms, but the most
important was sanctuary. Everyone deserves a lilac bramble of their own.

Covenant: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 1/8)

Hush now don't you cry
Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream
Spinning in your head
-------------------------------

102 VALENTINE ST
HADLEY, PA
OCTOBER 20
8:30 P.M.

Eight-year-old Kally Carlson curled herself into a tight ball in the middle
of her bed. She didn't know which she feared more, the soft scratching
coming from her closet or the sound of her father's footfalls on the stairs.

::Scritch, Scritch::

Her eyes darted to the closed closet door. In the darkness of her room the
shadows seemed to move. And they seemed to converge and pool before her
closet. The soft scraping sound wasn't quite as soft any more. Too loud for
mice or rats. 

::Thump, Thump::

No, not Daddy. If she closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep he'd only
hurt her more for not waiting up for him. She wanted to run away. She wanted
to hide in the bramble. But she couldn't. Daddy stood between her and that
escape. She couldn't even hide in her closet.

::Scritch, Scritch, SKreeeeeeek::

Kally began to shake. Her silent tears were absorbed by her pillow. Ever
since Mommy died there had been no hope. No light. No release. 

::Thump, Thump::

The door handle turned and Kally sat upright in bed, clutching her sheets to
her chest with knuckles gone white.

Daddy was here. 

Suddenly the closet seemed a safe place.

"You ready for me, bitch? Just like your whore momma, ain't ya?" He reached
for the buckle of his belt and Kally swallowed around the lump in her
throat, closing her eyes.

She was going away again. Into that beautiful place where the unicorns
played by the stream. The sun always shone brightly in that place. There was
no fear. No pain. Just her and the unicorns and the gentle water.

The last thing she felt before jumping onto the unicorn's back for a ride
was the heavy weight that settled onto the side of the bed. 

The last thing she heard was the closet doors splinter open and then the
screaming started.

                                      X

J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
WASHINGTON, D.C.
OCTOBER 21
8:10 A.M.

Dana Scully was worried. She was afraid she was going insane. If she was,
how would she know? The nature of her doubts was such that talking to anyone
about them would only serve to make the listener certain she was insane.
Trying to prove one's sanity to oneself was NOT an easy proposition.

She couldn't even tell Mulder about her doubts. Mainly because he was the
cause of them, and if she were not insane, he didn't need any more guilt on
his plate. The guilt of making her doubt her own mind.

The cause of her self doubt, her perceived possible insanity was currently
sitting on the corner of his desk, reading through an X-File. He appeared to
be unaware of the havoc he was wrecking on her mental well being.

Why would her own partner, best friend, and - for the past month - lover
make her doubt her sanity? It was very simple. 

He insisted on coming in to work every day like a good little FBI agent. He
insisted on talking to her, on running surveillance on their enemies, and on
spending four nights out of seven making her scream. Not with fear or anger,
although sometimes with frustration, but with pleasure such as she'd never
known. 

Which would be all very well and good if Fox William Mulder hadn't died in a
car crash four months ago. 

Dana Scully was not only seeing a ghost on a regular basis, she was working
with one, talking to one, and making love to one. And she was the only one
who could see him. He claimed someone else once had, but that tenuous proof
of her mental health was snatched away the very morning after she first saw
him. Her eighty-three year old neighbor had died of a heart attack, and was
unable to confirm or deny that Fox Mulder had ever talked to her from beyond
the grave.

All in all it was very disconcerting and enough to make her doubt her
perceptions and mental health.

And self doubt was not something Dana Scully was familiar with. She'd always
been very strong in her convictions. Her view was that everything could be
explained by science if one tried hard enough. She's once said that nothing
existed outside of nature, only outside of what we know of it.

Having a ghost for a partner was really pushing the envelope. She needed her
scientific proof. Because without it she was left adrift with only her faith
to hold her. And that was tenuous at best at the moment.

Which is why they ran the tests. 

She might not be able to talk to Mulder about her personal fears, but he
seemed to perceive them anyway. He kept assuring her that he was as
telepathic as her coffee table, and so couldn't read minds -- hers or anyone
else's. His perceptions were simply based on how well he knew her.

Scully looked down at the list of physical proof: solid empirical evidence
that she was indeed of sound mind.

They'd used equipment both ordinary and strange, Mulder telling her how to
obtain some of the more unusual items. 

The first proof was that a barometer registered a one to two point increase
in pressure whenever Mulder was in a room, or within a fifty foot radius
outdoors. The second was that infrared scanning picked him up. Sort of. Just
barely. His presence was a cool spot, about five degrees cooler than
whatever he was around. The image was faint, but there. And that fact she
found odd as he felt warm to her touch. 

On this point she wanted outside assurance that her mind wasn't tricking
her, so they shot a few infrared pictures. She presented the photos to the
Gunmen telling them they were for a case she was working on. 

The three men had been wonderful in the past four months. They accepted her
as Mulder's heir, and had tried to offer what comfort they could. So far the
best comfort they had offered was noticing the cooler image in a roughly
human form right away. They saw it. Thus, in a way, they saw Mulder. It was
the best proof she had as of yet. 

Other tests produced varying results. Mulder found electromagnetic emissions
ticklish. But for her he'd stood in the way of various people and allowed
them to pass right through him. She'd noticed that many of them shivered as
they passed some even stopping and taking a look back. She'd stopped those
tests though, since they created some side effects Mulder could only
describe as nausea. But all over.

They'd also learned the hard way that if he passed any part of himself
through electronic equipment it went haywire. Her VCR threw sparks and had
to be replaced, while her TV only became snowy and flickered. The office
computer sparked and sizzled and had to be replaced because its memory was
erased. He had similar erasing effects on audio and video tapes as well as
computer disks. They were fine if she was around and he only touched the
outside to manipulate them, but if he concentrated and passed THROUGH them,
poof. Major damage.

And he could manipulate physical objects, but only when she was around.
Mulder's theories were either that he was somehow tapping into a latent
telekinetic ability within her, or her ability to see him made some sort of
bridge between the physical world and the non physical. She, frankly, didn't
believe she had any telekinetic abilities so if she had to choose she'd go
with the second theory. As yet unproven.

She had a bunch of pictures of him moving physical objects. But she couldn't
show them to anyone. Partly because she didn't want to draw too much
attention to Mulder, if he was real. He wasn't a performing monkey, knocking
on walls to impress the easily impressible. And partly because she didn't
want to damage her own credibility.

So far she had been able to act somewhat normal when around others. She
didn't tune Mulder out, but she'd managed to not look at him, to focus on
the real world where people didn't glow with a faint blue light or walk
through walls. She had so far managed to ask him questions veiled in
conversation with other, living, people. The only thing she hadn't been able
to disguise was her inability to sustain her grief. Her mother was worried,
and Skinner seemed to watch her closely. Maybe they were afraid she was
locking it in and letting it fester. She could hardly explain why she didn't
grieve anymore, why she was able to put Mulder's death behind her. That it
was almost like nothing had happened. He was still there. 

She hoped he was still there. 

She glanced down at her list. Actual proof. Solid, empirical evidence. She
was NOT insane. 

The phone ringing startled her and she jumped a bit.

"Want me to get that?" Mulder grinned at her from his perch on the desk.

She just glared as she snatched the receiver up. "Scully."

She nodded. "Yes, sir. Right away." 

Hanging up she turned to her late partner. "Skinner. I...we...have an
assignment."

102 VALENTINE ST
HADLEY, PA
OCTOBER 21
5:00 P.M.

An officer was waiting for her outside of the house. If he hadn't been
there, she still would have known it to be the right place. The yellow
police tape decorated it in bright ribbons. All done up for a party. Or the
dance macabre.

"Be good," were the last words she spoke directly to Mulder before getting
out of the car. She had received no pictures of the crime scene, only a very
strange report. The body had not yet been removed from the house for one
simple reason, they had spent most of the day trying to find a contractor to
do it. 

"Dana Scully. I'm with the Bureau." She held up her badge.

"Donald Flowers. I'm from the State Police. They aren't equipped to handle
homicide out here." He led her up the porch stairs and through the front
door, which opened into a neatly ordered kitchen. "And while I worked three
homicides in the city there is no way I can handle this. I called a friend
who called some friends. Eventually I heard about you and the cases you
handle. Watch it." He pointed to a puddle of dried blood under the doorway
to the stairs. She could see the small, dark stained footprints of a child
across the rug. She stepped over the puddle and followed the cop up the stairs.

There were sounds of a buzz saw coming from one of the bedrooms. 

"Something doesn't feel right here, Scully." She cast a very quick glance at
Mulder in the guise of surveying the hallway. He stood next to her, frowning
at the room the noise was coming from. "It's...cold. Weird. Like I just
stepped out of the sewer after that flukeman thing only worse. Something
happened here. Something so terrible it leaves an impression I can pick up."

She raised an eyebrow in his direction. It was both questioning and mocking.
She followed the cop into a bedroom. Stuffed animals were piled in one
corner. Clothing and hangers were scattered about. Her immediate reaction
was to marvel at the lack of blood. If this was where the murder had taken
place, then why was the blood pooled downstairs, albeit directly under this
room?

There were two men working in the closet, where the smell of blood and
sawdust was strong. One of the men in the closet jumped back and moved
quickly away, pushing past her to get to the bathroom across the hall. He
was immediately  noisily sick into the toilet.

"Mike, move outta the way, let the lady see." Don Flowers gestured the other
man back.

"Are you sure man? I mean this isn't something a lady SHOULD see." The man
Flowers had called Mike set down his buzz saw and blocked the view.

"I'm with the FBI and a trained pathologist. Why hasn't the body been moved
already?" 

Mike moved out of the way and a startled gasp came involuntarily from
Scully's lips. She'd seen death in many forms. Plenty of them violent and
gruesome. Nothing she'd seen before could prepare her for this.

The body was half submerged in the back wall of the closet. Mike and his
companion had been attempting to cut out the wall surrounding it. The
corpse's face was contorted into a silent scream up to the point where it
merged with the cheap wood panel. Half an arm emerged from the wood
paneling, reaching for help. A knee poked out below it. It looked as if the
man were caught trying to escape the wall itself. Everywhere the body merged
with the wall, there was dried blood.

The closet was directly over the pooled blood downstairs.

"Looks like a bad Han Solo imitation." Mulder moved past her to peer at the
body.

She fought down the urge to jump when Mulder stuck his whole head through
the back wall. Damn. She wished he wouldn't do that. It was...spooky.

He pulled his head back and looked at her. She moved next to him and made a
show of examining the corpse.

"Um... Scully, he's all in there. You should have them check the back of the
house, his foot is sticking out in the back. But he wasn't shoved into the
wall. He's become part of it. As far as I can see the beams pass through
him, so does the insulation and the siding in the back."

"Has anyone checked the back of the house. The walls aren't that thick."
Scully looked at Flowers and he shook his head. 

"Hey Mike, go take a look. If there's anything there, give me a holler and
I'll have a team come back and give it the treatment."

Mike nodded and seemed happy to leave the room.

"You ever see anything like this before, Agent Scully?" Flowers looked over
her shoulder.

"No. Never. I'd like to do the autopsy though."

"Fine by me." Flowers shrugged and dug out a cigarette. "Hope you don't mind
if I skip it. This is gonna give me enough nightmares."

"I think we can agree whatever did this was NOT human." Mulder moved away to
survey the room. "It might be what's giving me the willies about this room,
but it feels, I dunno, older than the body. Something really bad's happened
here, and it wasn't this guy getting eaten by the house."

"You said there was a witness?" Scully looked only at Flowers.

"Yeah. A little girl. She wandered out of the house around ten last night
and walked barefoot down the street in her nightgown. Neighbors saw her and
one lady followed her. Found her curled up in a large bramble of lilac
bushes 'bout a block away. She was white as a sheet and shocky. She had
blood on the shoulder of her nightgown and blood on her feet. They have her
at the Community Medical Center. She is mostly unresponsive. What she does
respond to is men. She shrinks away from them. They have all female docs and
nurses on her." He shook his head. "I'll give you the report on her
physical, but I hope you gotta strong stomach. If that bastard weren't
dead...I'd most likely shoot him myself."

Scully looked back at the imbedded corpse. 

"I knew it felt older. Repetitive abuse took place in this room. Over a long
period of time." Mulder muttered. "Shit." He didn't bother to use the door.
He just walked through the side wall, leaving Scully alone with the cop and
a hundred questions of her own.

end part 1....


Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 2/8)

Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day
Your dream is over...or has it just begun?
--------------------------------------------------------

Scully found Mulder on the front porch, waiting. He'd been good to his
promise. He didn't ditch her anymore. He hadn't let death separate them, and
he wouldn't let being upset push him into breaking his vow, either. 

"So what now?" Flowers tossed away his cigarette and stood with his hands on
his hips.

Scully handed him her card. "You call me as soon as the body is cut free and
brought to the morgue. I want to do the autopsy as soon as possible. Now,
I'm going to go talk to the witness. I have a feeling I'd better do that
alone." She inclined her head to Flowers. "You said men make her nervous."

She ignored Mulder until they were away from the house and on the road to
the hospital.

"So now you're telling me you can feel things, that you're psychic. You told
me you couldn't read minds." Her hands tightened on the wheel. She was
having a hard enough time dealing with a ghost only she could see, a psychic
ghost was just too much.

"No. I still can't read minds. I couldn't tell what had happened in that
room. Only that it was bad. Sick. Vile. No visual images, no insight other
than a filthy feeling. A build up of some sort. Maybe places where evil
happens can hold some sort of residual memory. A lasting stain or
something." Mulder pinched his bottom lip between his thumb and forefinger,
tugging at it as he thought. 

"I don't know how else to describe it, Scully. Maybe I am more sensitive to
things than I was when I was...I mean I'm no longer strictly in the physical
world. Even you have to admit that. I mean, face it, Scully...I AM a
paranormal experience right now. If a person can defy death, just refuse to
move on, isn't it possible strong emotions can do the same? Leave their mark."

Scully licked her lips. "Love never dies."

"Poetic, Scully, but true." He smiled at her.

"Not poetic. It was the catch phrase for the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula."
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "So, following your theory
the emotions involved in this abuse scenario were trapped in that room. And
you could feel that?"

"Love isn't the only thing that never dies. Anger, hate, fear, all are
strong motivators. And since I'm at least partially in that...plane of
existence... sharing paranormal space with such a strong impression, it
isn't unreasonable that I would be able to perceive it."

"Ok, great swami, why did our witness leave the house and walk to a lilac
bramble?" Scully turned off the highway when she saw the signs for the hospital.

"Maybe it's where she escaped. Her father abused her, so she needed a
sanctuary. Maybe she hid there. She was in shock, so she headed for her safe
place." Mulder looked out the window, lost in his own contemplations.

That he had felt anything was unsettling. But what he felt...made him sick.
The very familiarity of it. The way it pulled it him and forced him to
remember a long ago time. He knew a variation of that feeling. He didn't
ever want to feel it again. The helplessness. The fear. The pain. 

Part of him already strongly sympathized with the little girl involved here.
He felt absolutely no sympathy for the murder victim. Which, from a
profiling viewpoint, was very bad indeed. 

If he couldn't regain his perspective he might be useless here.

                                  XXX

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER
SCRANTON, PA
6:38 P.M.

Kally had her arms wrapped around her legs and her head resting on her
knees. Her eyes were riveted on the little boy in the crib at the far end of
the pediatrics ward.

He was three or so, and slept fitfully. When awake his eyes were dull. There
was a bruise on his cheek and a matched pair on his arms. His mommy had
gotten fed up when he wouldn't stop crying. She had hit him. Kally sighed.
Even she knew hitting a baby wasn't going to make them STOP crying. 

Kally was bright. She could read beyond her own third grade level. She'd
snuck out of bed and looked at the little boy's chart. Most of it was
confusing. Big words of big people.

She did understand brain damage. She understood the words scrawled followed
by a question mark. Shaken Baby Syndrome. His mommy had shaken him so hard
his brain got bruised.

She didn't know how she knew that. She just did. 

She looked around. She shared this room with six others, including the
little boy. Mostly because the hospital people didn't know who was going to
pay for her staying there. Right now the other five kids were with their
families in visiting rooms or having tests done.

She unfolded herself and walked silently to the crib. She had to climb up,
balancing herself on the base of the rails, in order to reach over and
stroke the little boy's bruised cheek. His hair was fluffy white and full of
big curls. She smiled. 

"If your mommy doesn't love you, I will. My mommy would have loved you." She
whispered, so as not to alert the nurse with the pills. "When the grown ups
hurt us, sometimes all we have is each other."


Kally heard the nurse coming, talking with someone. She jumped down from the
crib and ran to her funny bed. The one with sides on it like the baby's crib.

The nurse came to the door followed by a pretty lady and... someone else.

Kally's eyes got wide as she looked. It was a man. But he was glowing. Like
an angel.

                                      *

Scully's heart went out to the little girl sitting on her hospital bed. She
was thin, and had dark circles under her large, blue eyes. Her dark hair was
pulled back in a thick braid. She looked terrified. Dana felt her gut clench
in anger as she recalled what she'd seen on this child's medical files. The
worst of it wasn't the right arm that had been broken three times in as many
years, or the signs of mended ribs. Where HAD the doctors been when she was
brought in for those, anyway? Asleep? The symptoms of abuse were easy enough
to see.

No, the worst of it was from an exam prompted by the child's fear of men,
and evidence of spotting on her panties.

This little girl, this tiny human being so dependent on the world of adults,
might never have children of her own. 

Scully hoped and prayed that Barry Carlson was just starting his eternity in
Hell for what he had done. To his own child. 

Just reading that chart had shaken Scully to the core. If Mulder hadn't been
there, putting a supporting hand on her shoulder, she might have run off
somewhere to cry in privacy. As it was that would come later. She might be
strong and professional, but she was only human, for Christ's sakes. And
what she had read made her sick. Made her want to hug this child so tightly
she'd never let go. Wanted to protect her from a past that was immutable.

"Can I talk to her alone?" Scully asked the nurse beside her.

"Kally, honey, this is Special Agent Dana Scully. She's with the FBI. She's
like the nice police ladies you talked to. Would you mind talking to her?"

Kally shrugged but remained silent.

"Just call me if you need me, or ring the buzzer, okay?" The nurse stepped
forward to place the oblong button unit in the child's hand.

As the nurse left, Scully crossed the room slowly and sat on the end of
Kally's bed. Giving her distance, yet close enough for confiding.

"Kally, do you know why you're in the hospital?" Scully started out slowly.
If the child couldn't recall then the questions ended here. She wasn't going
to push. The poor thing didn't need any more trauma in her life.

Kally nodded. "Because the monster ate my daddy." Her voice was small,
barely a whisper.

"The monster?" Scully cocked her head to one side, trying to understand.

"Are you an Angel?" The child looked right past Scully.

Dana turned to see an empty room...and Mulder. He was frowning and had that
little line between his brows.

"Can you see me?" he asked. Scully knew he wasn't talking to her.

"Uh-huh. Are you? An Angel?" Kally didn't seem to be afraid.

Scully was lost. Oh Lord. Son of a bitch. Christ. Her sanity had just been
confirmed by an eight year old. She could see Mulder. Somehow, someway, she
could see Mulder.

Then the absurdity of the child's question hit her, mixed with the stunned,
hit-in-the-back-of-the-head-with-a-brick expression on Mulder's face, she
felt the laugh bubble up before she could catch it. Too many emotions. She'd
run the gauntlet of them today. The relief and joy raced through her.

A small laugh escaped her and Mulder and Kally both looked at her like she
had just eaten a cricket.

"Kally, I seriously doubt he's anything as divine as an Angel," Scully
explained with a grin.

"Go ahead, boost my ego, Scully." Mulder muttered.

"You really can see him?" Scully asked, trying to...no, NEEDING to confirm it.

"Yes. He's right behind you." Kally frowned, not understanding the reason
for the question.

"Can you describe him?" Scully pressed. This, at least, was safe ground. The
harder questions needed to be asked yet. But for now this might draw Kally
out as well as take a four-month-long burden off Scully's mind.

"He's tall, dark hair, kinda big nose, square face and he has a dot on his
cheek. He's wearing blue jeans and a black V-necked sweater over a white
T-shirt."

Scully really wanted to hug this remarkable child. That was exactly what
Mulder looked like right now.

"Kally, it may not be a good idea for you to tell people you can see me.
It's your choice. I know you've kept too many secrets. Ones that shouldn't
have been kept. So it's your call." Mulder stepped a little closer to the
bed and the girl did not back away.

She nodded. "Because you glow. Other people don't see you, right? Nurse
Majors didn't talk to you or look at you."

Mulder smiled encouragingly. "That's right. Now...you said a monster ate
your father? Did you see it?"

"No." Her voice became small again. "I had my eyes closed. I was...There
were noises from the closet. Scratches. It scared me. Daddy came to my room
to...say goodnight. I had my eyes closed, but I heard the door's smash open
and Daddy screaming. Then...I don't remember until Mrs. Chisdok woke me up."

Mulder felt what passed for his body clench up. Say goodnight my ass.

Scully looked quickly at Mulder and met his eyes. Silently they agreed a lot
was going unsaid here. Mulder turned his attention back to Kally. He seemed
pleased that she not only saw him, but had no fear of him.

"You had your eyes closed, but you weren't asleep. Were you pretending to be
asleep? Playing a joke, maybe?" Mulder knelt by the side of the bed, so
Kally became the taller one. Giving her the height advantage could help her
feel more secure.

She shook her head quickly. "No, no. I wouldn't pretend to be asleep." Her
eyes were big again.

Scully felt a knot tighten in her stomach. Were any of those broken arms
from pretending to be asleep?

"Then why were your eyes closed? Was it because you were afraid of the thing
making the noises in the closet? Or something else? It's okay, Kally...I can
keep your secrets, just like you can keep mine." Mulder smiled softly but
made no move to touch the child.

Kally looked quickly at Scully.

"Agent Scully can keep secrets too. She's kept mine for a long time. She's a
very nice lady." Mulder assured the young girl.

Kally looked down at her hands. Hand that were twisting the bed sheet. "I
was going away." Her voice was just audible. Barely.

"Going away? To a safe place. To someplace where nothing could hurt you,
right? Somewhere sunny and bright." Mulder cocked his head to the side.

"Have you been there?" Kally's head snapped up and she looked at him with shock.

Now it was Mulder's turn to look down. He inhaled deeply and gripped the
side bars tighter. Scully felt her breath catch. Oh dear Lord.... There was
a whole huge chunk of his childhood they'd never talked about. She knew him
better than anyone, yet she realized, she barely knew his past at all. 

He looked back up. "I know ABOUT the safe place. It's beautiful. Did you go
there a lot?" 

Kally bit her lip and she didn't meet either agent's eyes. "I don't wanna
talk any more. I'm tired."

Any protest was cut off by Scully's cell phone. She extracted it from her
jacket and answered it.

"Scully." She looked at Mulder and nodded. "Good. I'll be right down and
waiting for it."

She tucked the cell phone away and smiled at Kally. "I have to go now. Would
it be okay if we came back to talk to you some other time? We can talk about
whatever you want."

Kally continued to chew her lip but nodded.

Mulder followed Scully into the hall. "I'm assuming that was Flowers on the
phone."

Scully didn't say anything until they were alone in the elevator. "They got
Barry Carlson cut loose and are bringing him to the morgue in this hospital."

"I just hope they got ALL of him. That house is gonna be drafty for a
while." Mulder leaned against the elevator's rail.

"Something tells me it needed airing out anyway." Scully didn't look at him.

                                    XXX

1112 SPRING STREET
SCRANTON, PA
11:32 P.M.

Michael Dodson removed his headphones and kicked off his sneakers before
laying back on his bed. To his left, beyond the thin chipboard walls, the
furnace clicked on. 

Michael hated living in the cellar. But since momma had Chucky and Billy,
he'd been kicked out to stay down here. He hated his brothers, almost as
much as he hated his momma and old man.

They were most likely upstairs griping that child welfare services didn't
haul him away like they had taken Chucky after Billy got admitted to the
hospital. 

But he'd said he wanted to stay. He was sixteen, and the case worker decided
he was old enough to make up his own mind.

Bet that fucked up his 'rent's plans. It was their own damn fault they got
caught. Billy would most likely be shit stupid for the rest of his life
because of momma. With any luck they'd haul him into an institution and keep
Chucky in foster care and Michael could get his old room back.

He turned off the light and closed his eyes. 

::Scritch, Scritch::

There was a rolling sound.

Michael switched the light back on and looked around his room. All he needed
was goddamn rats.

His baseball finished rolling across the floor to rock gently against the
wall for a second. His baseball had been shoved under his bed.

::Scritch, Scritch::

The sound was coming from under his bed. A rat. Big sucker, most likely. It
must have bumped the ball as it scurried around. Shit. He wasn't gonna sleep
in a room with no fucking rats.

He jumped out of bed and took one step toward the door when something
grabbed his ankle and gave a hard pull.

The floor rushed up to meet him.

Michael looked back. Whatever had his leg was under the bed. In the dark. It
started to pull him. He kicked at it. Whatever it was it was no fucking rat.
It was STRONG.

"Oh God! HELP!" He clawed at the concrete floor, trying to find purchase and
only finding a magazine and a sneaker.

"HELP!"

He thought he heard footsteps descending the cellar stairs. He wasn't sure
though. He was too busy screaming.

end part 2...


Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(Part 3/8)

There's a place I like to hide
A doorway that I run to in the night
Relax child, you were there
But only didn't realize it and you were scared
------------------------------------------------------------

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER MORGUE
SCRANTON, PA
11:30 P.M.

"Agent Scully, there's a problem."

Scully finished tucking her hair up into her cap. She stepped through the
doors of the autopsy suite and looked questioningly at Henry, the hospital's
diener. His job was to remove bodies from storage and prepare them for the
pathologist. He was supposed to make the opening incisions and stay there to
assist. 

Henry gestured to the body on the autopsy table. Barry Carlson's body still
had an inch of wall encasing it. 

"Want me to find a hacksaw?" Henry's tone was light but his eyes were nervous. 

This was the first time Scully had seen the body since it had been freed
from the wall. Figuratively. She approached it, unsure for a moment WHAT to do.

"Now there is an interesting exhibit for the museum of medical oddities."
Mulder was suddenly beside her. She congratulated herself. In a month she'd
trained herself not to jump from his sudden appearances.

"Couldn't they cut any closer?" Henry seemed to sense that the question was
rhetorical, but he felt obliged to point to the corpse's side. A disgusting
fusion of flesh and wood, blood-soaked pink insulation, more wood, then
blood infused styrofoam insulation. 

When he had been cut loose they had tried to get in close and sliced into
his side by accident, unknowing until he was extricated.

"My God... it's like he became part of the wall," she muttered.

"I just got the X-Ray film back." Henry lit up the display board and tucked
the film into the pins. The material ran throughout the body. "Um... ma'am,
I don't want to seem presumptuous, but it might be a good idea to get a few
other doctors down here. Witnesses. Because I don't think anyone is gonna
believe this." Henry moved to the head of the autopsy table.

Scully nodded. He was right. SHE wouldn't believe this if she read a single
report from a single pathologist on it. "Yeah, yeah, get at least two
witnesses, and find a video camera. I want video on top of the standard
photographic record."

"Are you all right, Scully?" Mulder had remained at her side.

Scully watched Henry exit the autopsy suite before answering.

"I'm fine. Just a little unsure how to proceed. I think a hacksaw might
actually be in order here. I have never seen anything LIKE this. He's...
he's FUSED with the wall. Possibly on a cellular level. WHAT could have done
this?"

"Good question. And I'm proud to hear you ask what, not who." Mulder leaned
in to get a closer look. 

"No person could have done this, Mulder. This is... this is incredible.
Please, just toss a theory at me. I don't think I'd laugh right now if you
theorized Captain Kirk tried to beam him up and something went wrong with
the transporter."

Mulder shook his head. "No. I don't know what could have done this. No
theories yet. But I'm working on it. I have the feeling the aura of that
room is somehow connected."

"Mulder, I don't think phantom emotions did this. What am I saying? I don't
know WHAT could do THIS."

She fell silent as the doors swung open and Henry reappeared.

"I have Doctors Reedy and Druffner on their way. Dr. Reedy has a really
advanced video camera they've used to film surgical procedures for education
and review. He's gonna bring it down."

"Thanks Henry," Dana rolled out the stool and waited.

                                XXX

PEDIATRIC WARD 2

Kally clasped at the sheets. Her eyes moved rapidly under their lids. A low
moan escaped her lips as she tossed her head. 

The nurse on duty, Nichole Spencer, noticed this as she passed through the
ward. She leaned close to the troubled little girl and made shushing sounds,
taking the tiny hand in her own. Grinning at the contrast of the little
girl's hand and her own, adorned with green nail polish. She began to sing a
soft song. While not quite lullaby material, "I had a Dream" from Les Mis
did seem to calm the child. When Kally stilled, the nurse smiled and let go
of the girl's hand.

Kally moaned again at the loss of human contact. Nichole bit her lip,
fearing the girl's nightmare would return. But, sensing no further disquiet,
she took a step back and away.

The doors at the far end of the ward blew open with a sudden force. Nichole
jumped. A great howling wind ripped through the pediatrics group ward,
sending papers flying, making machinery clamor with a hundred alarms, waking
the children and making them scream with fear.

Nichole let out a short cry of fear as the wind tore through. The windows
were closed; the night had been calm when she had looked only minutes
before. She backed up to brace herself against the wind's force, hooking her
arms back around little Billy Dodson's crib, the top rail biting into her back.

The cries of the children were drowned out by the howling of the wind.

Kally sat upright in her bed and screamed. 

The wind ended as abruptly as it began. The other children began sobbing
over the loud beeping and clamoring of the medical equipment in the room.

Kally Carlson continued to scream. A high-pitched wail that rivaled that of
the previous wind. Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, her small hands
clutching the sheets in a death grip.

Doctors and nurses came pouring in from all over to see what the uproar was
about.

Nichole Spencer peeled herself away from the crib and rushed to Kally's side
and did her best to soothe the terrified child. Cooing soft reassurances she
herself didn't quite believe.

                                    XXX

M0RGUE

They had tried just about everything. The truth was, there was no way to
separate the body and the material from the wall. The fusing made an
ordinary autopsy impossible.

Dr. Reedy held the video camera steady only by practice. Dr. Druffner
assisted Dana, and Henry took the photographic records. In the end they had
to use a circular saw. 

"Cause of death?" Dr. Druffner asked as they peered into the chest cavity,
witnessing the human heart half made of wood.

"I don't suppose 'becoming architecture' would be acceptable?" Scully looked up.

"Well, was he murdered?" Dr. Reedy's voice was not as steady as his camera hand.

"Would you call this natural?" Scully alone heard Mulder's voice ask the
same question at the same time and she valiantly fought the urge to smile.

"He was killed," she continued, "but the definition of murder is the willful
taking of a life by another person. Do you think SOME*ONE* is capable of this?"

"Agent Scully, I have no desire, whatsoever to find what is capable of
THIS." Dr. Reedy assured her.

Scully noticed Mulder tense out of the corner of her eye. 

"Oh shit," he looked at her, "I gotta go back to pediatrics. Something's
really wrong up there. And before you ask, I don't know. If you're finished
before I am you'll find me there."

He simply blinked away. There one second, not the next.

Scully licked her lips. "Well, let's see about bagging Mr. Carlson. I think
this warrants polymerization and a closer examination then we can preform here."

Henry put down the camera he was using and moved in to clean up as Scully
and the other two doctors moved to exit the autopsy suite.

                                XXX

PEDIATRIC WARD 2

Nichole sat on the bed next to Kally, holding the child close and rocking
her back and forth. Kally just stared off into space as far as the nurse
could tell. Clean up was going on around them. Other nurses were tending to
the frightened children.

Kally was suddenly aware of the blue man. The man with the blue glow who had
come in with Agent Scully. Her eyes focused on his glow.

He looked around him in confusion, then appeared to stare at the floor
between Kally's bed and the crib. 

He walked to some spot she couldn't see and knelt down, running his hand
over the floor. He looked up and his eyes met hers.

"Are you all right, Kally?" He stood again and approached her. 

She shook her head and the nurse only held her tighter.

"It's back. The monster from my closet is back. I think... I think it's mad.
It's... hungry. Don't let it get me." She began to weep softly.

Unable to see or hear Mulder, nurse Spencer didn't know what the child was
talking about, only that she was afraid and spoke of monsters.

"Oh, honey. Monsters aren't real. They're just make believe. It was just the
wind in here. Someone opened a window or something."

Kally pushed away from the kindhearted nurse, but it wasn't her she was
looking at.

"They are too real. Monsters are real. One was here tonight."

Mulder could only nod. There was a cold spot on the floor. It wasn't a
physical cold. It was an emotional chilling. A darkness. Something dark and
evil had passed through the floor there. It hadn't been human, of that much
he was certain. And if it was a ghost, it was unlike any of the few others
he had met in the past four months.

If he had to choose one word for what he felt here it would be... malevolent.

"I believe you, Kally. But it isn't here now. I think... I think I'd know."
He met her eyes solemnly, and there was a spark of understanding between
them. Shared experiences, shared pain others couldn't fathom. It was like
the bond she had felt with little Billy Dodson.

"Where was your safe place?" Kally looked at Mulder.

Nurse Spencer shushed her and stroked her hair, oblivious to the second
conversation taking place around her. "I didn't have one, honey. Where's yours?"

"A spaceship. I used to pretend I was on one of the Apollo missions, or in a
space suit taking a spacewalk. I always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid.
So... my safe place was in the silent calm of space. Just me floating among
all the stars." Mulder knelt before the girl as she was rocked in the
nurse's embrace. There were bright tears in his eyes. Kally understood at
once that she'd been told a secret. Just between him and her. Because he
knew she needed to know. 

She nodded, understanding. They were the same, yet different.

"Did your daddy hurt you, too?"

"No, darling. My daddy was a good man." Nurse Spencer smiled into Kally's
hair. "Not all Daddy's are bad."

Mulder swallowed hard and he looked away from Kally. "Not like... not like
your father hurt you. But sometimes I'd make him mad. Very mad. And
sometimes he'd hit. I was hurt pretty bad a few times. It didn't happen a
lot, but when it did, I'd go to my safe place. He always seemed to feel bad
about it later. Sometimes... sometimes I'd get mad at him and make him mad,
just so he'd hit me and feel bad later." He met her eyes again. "I was a
pretty screwed up kid."

Kally smiled. "Is there a club? Where was your mommy?"

Nurse Spencer looked at her strangely. "A club for what? My mom is still
around. She's a great lady." She looked into Kally's eyes, checking for
pupil dilation.

"A lot of things had happened." Mulder looked away, unable to meet Kally's
eyes. "She didn't want to see what was going on. She was dealing with too
much of her own pain. It was... it was hard for her, too. So she just...,"
he shrugged, "just convinced herself it was normal."

"Did you get away?" Kally wouldn't let him off that easily.

"Are you ok, honey?" Nurse Spencer looked carefully into Kally's face. The
child seemed...disassociative.

"Yeah. I got away. Long ago. My dad died two years ago. You know, I still
wish he would have been proud of me. I...I loved him anyway." Mulder's small
smile was sad, without humor.

Kally just nodded. Her attention then focused on the nurse. "I'm okay, now.
Thank you." Kally scootched to the side and lay back down. She looked beyond
Nurse Spencer once more. "Will you stay here until I go to sleep?"

"Sure." Mulder sat on the side of her bed.

"Of course I will, honey." Nurse Spencer pulled over a plastic chair and sat
down, holding Kally's right hand, unaware that someone else held the child's
left. Nurse Spencer serenaded the girl with "The Magical Mister
Mistopholese" from Cats, much to Mulder's amusement.

end part 3...

Warning: This story deals with child abuse of all kinds. It also contains
some graphic descriptions of an autopsy. Not for the weak at heart.

This section contains NC-17 sexual material.

Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 4/8)

It's a place where you will learn
To face your fears, retrace the tears
And ride the whims of your mind
Commanding in another world
Suddenly, you hear and see
This magic new dimension
-----------------------------------

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER
PEDIATRICS WARD 2
SCRANTON, PA
2:18 A.M.

Scully peered into the room. She'd been informed of the freak wind earlier.
The mess had been cleaned up. Now the ward held only the neat rows of beds
and the cradle at the end near the door. The children were all sleeping. The
staff had left.

Mulder sat on the side of Kally Carlson's bed, leaning on the side rail,
holding her hand. The child was sound asleep. There was an empty chair next
to the bed suggesting a living visitor earlier.

Mulder was studying the girl intently, his eyes seemingly glued to her face. 

Scully frowned. He claimed he was not telepathic, yet he'd known about the
trouble up here as it happened. He'd left the morgue at the same time the
disturbance was reported. Could he see Kally dream? Could he watch those
dreams? Why was he watching her so intently?

"Why can she see me, Scully?" His sudden question let her know he was not as
totally absorbed as she had thought. His eyes didn't leave the child though.

"I don't know. Maybe children are more open, perceptive, than adults. They
haven't learned they can't see spirits yet." She stepped closer and looked
at the girl herself. In sleep the child was angelic. A beautiful innocent.
Tiny and frail. Scully felt another surge of maternal protectiveness
entwined with rage at what this child had endured.

"I can't accept that theory. I've been around kids before. In the park, all
these kids in this ward, and Kally is the only one to see me." He released
the child's hand and looked up at Scully. "Not that I'm complaining. I mean
you're a wonderful conversationist, Scully, but it's nice to have someone
else acknowledge me. Makes me feel real. Sometimes I worry that I'm not.
That I'm just a random thought, not a person at all. Never was. It's scary,
sometimes."

Scully blinked. She hadn't realized, with all her concern over her own
sanity, that Mulder might have similar concerns. Jesus, not knowing if you
were real was just as bad as not knowing if you were sane. She just hadn't
thought... Shit. Usually Mulder was the self-absorbed, insensitive one.
Death seemed to have handed him a clue along those lines, but she'd picked
up the habit.

"All those tests were for your benefit as well as mine, huh?" She touched
his shoulder, reassuring both of them. 

"Mostly for you. I'm not a COMPLETE prick. I saw the doubts creeping in."

"What happened in here, Mulder?" Scully changed tack, not wanting to discuss
her fears, not now. Later. Later they'd have a long talk.

"Something big, mean, and angry as hell swept through. It shifted into...
another place I guess you'd call it, there." He stood and pointed to the
floor between Kally's bed and the crib.

"Something?" She arched a brow at him in a familiar expression.

"Kally said it was the Monster from her closet." He nodded when he noticed
Scully's eyes dart to the spot on the floor again, a slight tensing of her
posture the only sign that she was actually taking this seriously.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son. The Jaws that bite, the claws that catch.
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch." Mulder placed
his hand at the small of Scully's back, guiding her from the room.

Scully remained silent until they were once more in the privacy of the
elevator. "So you think Berry Carlson tried to follow a white rabbit down
the rabbit hole?"

"Well if he did we're screwed, Scully. I left my vorpal sword in my other coat."

They got into the elevator once more. Scully kept looking at him, staring.

"What is it, Scully?"

"You knew about this 'Safe Place'. And don't hand me a line about it being
in a psychology text somewhere. You knew about it. Like you had been there."
She wanted his confidence, his trust. That he had gone through something
like this as a child tore at her.

Mulder clenched his fists. "I...I can't. Not now. I just can't. Don't try to
make me, Scully. You can't possibly understand. Only sympathize, only pity.
And I don't want or need your pity. It's over. In the past. Let it rest
there."  His voice was broken, ragged.

Her heart went out to him.

"I...I love you, Mulder. I don't pity you. But I want to understand. When
you're ready I'm here. I won't judge. I won't push, either. It's just that -
is it really left in the past? Is anything?"

The doors opened and she stepped out, sparing him the need to answer.

                                  *

SCRANTON MOTOR INN
2:42 A.M.

Scully locked the door behind her and peeled off her suitcoat, heading for
the bathroom. Mulder sat on the bed, giving her some privacy. If she had
asked him to take a hike he would have gone exploring, as he had in the
past. But both of them were upset by this case on many levels. Enough so
that they seemed to sense it in each other and respond in kind.

Mulder stared blankly at the hotel room wall; his thoughts returning to a
dark time he'd forced into a pocket of his mind, not to be dwelled on. Kally
had brought all of it to the forefront. In order to reassure her, to really
gain her trust, he had to empathize, to make a connection. He had, at his
own peril.

He smelled whisky, and he couldn't tell if it was from the former occupants
of this room or his own memory.

//"Why not you? Why didn't you do anything? Useless. That's all you ever
were. Nothing but trouble from day one. Too many questions, sticking your
damn fool nose where it never belonged. It shoulda been you."

Keep quiet. Keep still. If you were very quiet, very still he might forget
you were there at all. He was a coward, and he knew it. At thirteen he was
almost as tall as the man pacing the room before him, though nowhere near
his equal in weight. Why did he always let this happen? Why did he stand
there like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming freight train,
just waiting for the carnage? Because he deserved it. He was terrified of
it, but at the same time something deep down felt it was justified.

The sound of shattering glass. The first blow connecting with an arm raised
in feeble self defense. Another blow following after, words of rage tumbling
out into a cacophony of unintelligible blame and hatred. Agony flowing up
the right arm, the feeling of grating accompanied by the sound of a twig
breaking somewhere far off. And the stars. Always the comforting stars.
Floating among welcoming stars....//

"Mulder?"

Her voice called him back from the memory of a pain deeper than any physical
blow. He looked up at her.

Scully had changed into a pair of baggy shorts and a tee shirt for bed.

"What happened? You were...fading out. I could actually see through you."
She sounded...scared.

"Lost in thought. I guess I forgot where I really was for a moment." He
stood and embraced her, holding her close. Drawing comfort and strength from
her presence. 

She made him feel worthwhile. She made him strong. Hers was the voice that
called to him in the darkness. He was someone because of her, for her.

He bent to trace her ear with his lips. He needed to feel worthwhile. He
needed to feel loved. He needed to feel.

"Mulder?"

"Are you exhausted? Do you need to sleep right now?" He had to ask, because
while in life he had been an insomniac, now he had no need whatsoever for
sleep. He had to keep in mind that she did.

"I'm tired, but not THAT tired. I slept on the plane." She pulled back a
little. "Talk to me, Mulder."

"I don't want to talk. Not right now. I want to feel. I want to make you
feel. I want to try something." He kissed her deeply, stifling any argument.
Luxuriating in the taste and feel of her.

He stripped off her tee shirt. His lips skimmed over her body as he peeled
away her shorts.

"Mulder? What are you doing?" She stood before him, naked, unashamed, and
giving him the same eyebrow arch she'd given him in the hospital.

"I thought it was rather obvious." He swept her up and laid her on the bed,
on top of the covers. 

"Hold on," he whispered against her ear, "I'm gonna try something new."

She looked at him quizzically when he suddenly disappeared. 

Scully groaned and smacked the mattress. She really hated it when he did that.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she felt lips graze her shoulder. She gasped at
the unexpected sensation. Lips brushed over her ribs, along her thighs.
Three, four, five pair of lips she could feel -- kissing her, teasing her.
Then came the hands. Stroking her arms, her legs, massaging her breasts,
running through her hair. A dozen hands and all those lips, touching,
tormenting, exciting. It was turning her bones to water and her blood to
fire. Yet, through it all she couldn't see him. She appeared to be alone in
the room.

No part of her went untouched. Phantom hands caressed her thighs as unseen
mouths closed over her nipples, teasing them before gently suckling. Even as
this was happening she felt a mouth press a kiss at the juncture of her
thighs. The hands on her legs drew them apart, lifting slightly, exposing her. 

She was writhing, lost in a cloud of sensation when she felt the mouth down
there close over her.

It was too much. Everything happening at once. Sensory overload. She was
going to short circuit. 

The mouth below sucked on the center of her pleasure as those on her
breasts, arms and throat continued their own onslaught. She cried out as a
powerful orgasm shook her. She was helpless against it. Tears fell from the
corners of her eyes. It was so intense it was close to pain.

And then he was there. Holding her. Stroking her hair. Murmuring in her ear.
Pressing kisses against her temple, her cheek, kissing away the tears.

"What... what was that?" She found her voice again and curled into him,
accepting the comfort he offered. The Haven in his arms.

"A hell of a lot of concentration. Did you like it?" His fingertips flowed
up her hip, her side, the backs of his fingers brushing her breast.

"That was... incredible. Where did you learn that?"

He smiled softly and kissed her again. The feel of his tongue sweeping her
mouth was familiar and comforting. She ran her hands over his arms, feeling
the smooth definition of muscle under flesh. Real, solid, warm. She could
even feel the hairs on his arms against her palms.

She broke the kiss. "You're being evasive."

"It was an experiment. To see if I could. But it's tiring." His hand
feathered over her stomach, threading through the springy hairs covering her
center.

"How tiring?" Her own hand smoothed over his hip and she noticed the blue
glow that usually surrounded him was...dimmer. A brief flash of worry shot
through her before his fingers found her, circled her, teasing and coaxing
her back into a fever pitch.

"Not THAT tiring." He growled before attacking her throat. Nipping the flesh
there, then laving it with his tongue. Her hand found him. He was hard and
heavy. Ready for her as she was for him.

He'd told her from the start he could feel her, he could experience
everything a living man could. He derived as much pleasure from sex as she did. 

She could believe it from the throbbing pulse she felt in her hand.

"Show me." 

He moved over her and she ran her hands down his back, to curve over his
ass. He was in her with one deep thrust. Her legs wrapped around him, urging
him on. Needing him to give her this, to give her himself. To erase the
horrors of the day. 

In a world where fathers raped their daughters, where cruelty was so
prevalent, they needed this. This proof that there was good in the world.
Love in the world. That there was something worth fighting for.

When the wave crashed over her again she wasn't alone. 

Complete, satiated, she nestled against Mulder's side. Sleep descended quickly.
              
                                      *

The ringing of a phone woke her. She was surprised to feel Mulder's arms
tighten around her. He rarely spent the night in her bed. He tended to go
off and run surveillance or follow leads while she slept. It felt good to
wake in his arms.

"This is nice. But what are you still doing here? Watching me sleep can
hardly be very entertaining."

Mulder smiled slightly. "Recharging the batteries. Last night...um...drained
a lot of power. It was the equivalent of a marathon. I had to rest. I guess
even Casper has his limits."

"Recharge? How?" 

"Pretty much by osmosis, I think. I just take it in. It's a sort of waking
sleep. Will you answer that?" Mulder gestured to the pile of clothes
currently ringing.

The phone wasn't going to put up with being ignored. Her cell phone. She
looked at her watch on the nightstand and groaned. Eight in the morning. Not
even five hours' rest. Whose fault was that, she scolded herself as she slid
out of Mulder's embrace. 

Naked, she crossed the room to her discarded clothes from last night.
Digging out her cell phone, she answered it and looked at Mulder. He was
watching her with a look that was part amusement and part arousal. Sure
enough, his aura was back at full force. She winked at him teasingly. 

"Scully." She spoke into the phone. Her expression immediately became
serious. "When? Yeah, I'll be right there. Give me the address." She pulled
a pad of hotel stationary from the desk and quickly scribbled down
information. "No! Don't do that. From the last body we have discovered the
corpses are fused with the material they are embedded in. If you try that
you'll destroy the bodies and possible evidence." She rolled her eyes. "Try
finding an archeologist or paleontologist. Because they may have some idea
on how to extract the wanted material from rock. Just do it."

She hung up and turned to Mulder. "They found more bodies. Three of them.
Two of them are half embedded in cement."

Mulder ran a hand through his hair. "Want me to meet you there?"

Scully considered. He could be looking over the premises, even searching for
more 'bad vibes' while she showered and dressed. It was silly for him to
wait here, really.

"Yeah. Go ahead. I'll be there as soon as I can."

He was dressed even as he slid out of the bed. Jeans and a gray tee with the
arms ripped off. "Don't take too long."

"Get lost, Mulder." 

He looked at the address she'd scrawled and simply blinked away.

end part 4...

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 19:28:04 -0400
From: Rhondda Lake <rhonilak@icontech.com>
Subject: NEW:(5/8)Covenant II: Monsters X,MSR,A

Disclaimed in part 1.

Warning: This story deals with child abuse in many forms. It also gets into
some rather gruesome descriptions of an autopsy. It isn't for the squeamish.

Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 5/8)

I will be watching over you
I am gonna help you see it through
I will protect you in the night
I am smiling next to you, in Silent Lucidity
------------------------------------------------------

Mulder loved the freedom of movement his new state of being afforded him.
Walking through walls was interesting, even if it did make him feel like he
was encased in ice while he passed through anything solid, but teleportation
was the best. He only had to visualize a place he'd seen and will himself
there. In an eye blink he was there. George Hagenboum, a fellow spirit with
a bit more practice at being dead, had taught him the basics of spiritual
transportation. Mulder had been enraptured from the first jump, and spent a
week jumping back and forth from place to place just for the exhilarating
JOY of it. 

He had spent his life investigating the paranormal, and now, in death, he
was having much more fun BEING the paranormal.

The only drawback was you had to have BEEN to the place you were jumping to.
In order to get somewhere he had never been he had to fly, or float. That
was cool too. Floating reminded him of childhood escapes. And who never
dreamed of flying? He had no physical form when he did this, and it took
longer, as he had to follow a route, streets or whatever. 

Immediately on leaving Scully to shower and change he blinked into the local
Police station's lobby. Scully had gone there first thing yesterday to get
directions to the crime scene and report her presence. On the wall of the
lobby was a map of the city and it's suburbs. He now focused on that. He
found the street he was looking for and traced the route mentally. Locking
it into his memory he floated off.

It took him five minutes to get there. 

He walked past the uniformed police crawling all over the house like a swarm
of mad ants. 

The house was cold. Not as cold as Kally's room had been, but there WAS a...
wrongness here.

He ignored the feeling when he saw the first body. A man. All that was
visible was the top of his legs, his groin and one arm still clutching at
the arm of his chair, still fighting against whatever had pulled him back
INTO the lazy-boy. 

He wandered upstairs to find two bedrooms. One held a crib and a twin bed.
It didn't look like the mother was much into housekeeping if the unmade
beds, strewn toys and dirty laundry were any indication. 

There were only two cops upstairs, cataloguing and taking pictures. There no
concentrated feeling of evil here, although a light film of anger and fear
was there. It wasn't as if he were swimming through a soup of filth so much
as walking through cobwebs of it. He went back downstairs and followed the
police activity into the cellar. There was a semi-finished room down there.
It was also where the other two bodies were. 

The boy looked to be fifteen or sixteen, and he was submerged to his chest
in the concrete floor. It didn't look like the floor was freshly poured
around him either. The bed had been shoved to the side to reveal him.

The other body appeared to be a woman. She was laying face down in the
floor, reaching for the stairs. Lovely. He could see why Scully called for
an archeologist or paleontologist. If these two followed the pattern of the
first body then the parts in the concrete had merged with the floor, meaning
a jackhammer would break up the bodies as much as the material.

Detective Flowers was there. Mulder recognized him immediately and moved to
his side, to listen in to his conversations.

"Didja get hold of Children's services? These folks were under investigation
and had two kids taken out of this place three days ago." Flowers spoke to a
uniformed man. 

"Yeah, first thing. The middle kid, Charles, age seven, is safe and sound in
foster care. The youngest, Billy, was just checked on at CMC. He's sleeping
and as well as can be." The uniformed cop consulted a clipboard.

Mulder frowned. There were four hospitals in the city. It seemed more than
coincidence that the youngest child from this house was in the same one as
Kally Carlson. 

Child and Welfare Services meant there were at least suspicions of abuse or
neglect here. That would explain the cobwebby feeling. Two crime scenes. Two
differing cases of child abuse. One hospital. There was a pattern forming here.

                                   XXX

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER
PEDIATRICS WARD 2
8:36 A.M.

"Hello Kally, how are you today?" Nurse Spencer swept into the Pediatrics
ward and deposited a pink teddy bear on the child's bed.

Kally shrugged. "I'm ok, I guess. Thank you for being nice to me last night."

Nichole smiled. "Think nothing of it. If I didn't love kids I wouldn't be a
pediatric nurse. I'm off duty in a few minutes. I just wanted to check up on
you."

Kally looked at the tall, slender woman before her. "Why?"

"Because you were pretty scared last night." Nichole pulled out a fresh
hospital gown for Kally.

"Because you feel sorry for me. I don't have anybody but police come visit
me." Kally pointed out with a small voice.

The nurse froze and held the gown to her chest, closing her eyes. "Everyone
should have someone to check on them once in a while, Kally."

"Do you have any kids?" Kally picked up the bear and examined its little face. 

Nichole placed the gown at the end of the bed. "No. I don't. I can't have
children of my own, but my husband and I are candidates for adoption. Maybe
someday we'll have a baby to raise."

Kally chewed on her bottom lip. "Maybe you can take Billy." She looked at
the crib not far from her bed. "He's gonna need a nice mommy, now."

Nichole frowned. "What do you know about Billy?"

"His mommy hurt him and put him here. His older brother put the burns on his
back with a lighter. He called them happy faces, but it hurt Billy and he
didn't know why. Now he's gonna need a new mom and dad." Kally looked at the
floor, suddenly afraid she'd said too much.

Nichole went to the chart by the crib and looked at it. Her frown deepened.
"The SBS is listed here, and the burn scars, but no mention is made of an
older brother causing the burns. Kally... why did you say that? How did you
know about him being taken away from his parents?"

Kally flushed and shook her head. "I jus' guessed. Why are your nails green?"

Nikki looked at her hands and grinned. "Because I'm a boring person, truth
be told. So I like to use out of the ordinary nail polish to spice myself
up. You like? I have purple, blue and safety orange at home. Once I even
painted each nail a different color, but the Charge Nurse gave me a lecture
on professionalism for that idea."

"Can I take a shower now?" Kally seemed to jump from one subject to another
faster then a ping pong ball.

Nichole replaced the chart and nodded. "Go ahead. Do you want me to help you?"

"No. I can do it myself." Kally jumped off the bed and retrieved the new
hospital gown as she went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Nichole sat down to wait. Just to make sure the little girl was ok.

                                  XXX

1112 SPRING STREET
SCRANTON, PA
8:43 A.M.

Scully had arrived quietly and allowed Flowers to give her the guided tour. 

"Looks like he got the chair, Scully." Mulder whispered in her ear as she
viewed what was visible of Gary Dodson. 

She looked like she wished she could stomp his foot and not look like she
was beginning some odd dance. 'The annoyance dance of the modern FBI agent',
enacted every summer to chase away malicious spirits. Mulder smirked.
Sometimes it was just too amusing to be invisible to most people.

Mulder hung back as Flowers gave her a pretty thorough run down. He included
the report from Child and Welfare Services. At least he seemed to know his
job. For that Mulder was thankful.

An hour later Scully left the house, Mulder in tow.

"Any suggestions yet, Scully?" He passed through the car door to sit in the
passenger seat.

Scully buckled in and started the engine. "Is this a test for some sort of
advanced weapon?" She was reaching and she knew it. The look Mulder shot her
told her he knew it, too.

"I don't think so. You know of anything capable of doing that?" He jerked
his thumb back at the house as she pulled away.

"No, which is why we... I was called in. Maybe the child in foster care
knows something."

Mulder nodded. "Can we check someplace else out first?"

"Where?" Scully looked at him with a confused expression.

                                      *

The fragrance of lilacs was so thick it stuck to the back of her throat. 

Scully ducked under a low hanging branch and followed a well-used trail
through the bramble. She was surrounded on two sides and above by twisting
limbs and green leaves, few blossoms actually bloomed inside the tunnel-like
path.

There were ROOMS in here. Clearings actually, but canopied by greenery.
Deciding to try a cross path, she found it led to another 'room'. This one
sported a worn cushion from a piece of patio furniture and a broken plastic
tea set missing more pieces than were present.

Mulder looked over her shoulder. "It's a natural playground. Neverland." He
looked around in wonder.

The bramble itself was huge. It was a half a block long and a quarter block
wide. Wild and uncontrolled. Yet inside the beautiful, yet untamed, exterior
was a child's fantasy.

They'd found a naked fashion doll prior to the partial tea set in here, an
earlier clearing had two 'sit-upons' commonly made by Girl Scouts as Scully
had informed Mulder. The consisted of two place mats sewn together with
twine and stuffed with newspaper. Bright ribbons and feathers were tied to
overhead branches at random. A wind chime, bearing only two remaining
chimes, served this room as a childish chandelier. A beer can held wilted
wildflowers in its mouth.

"So that's why Kally came here after her father's death?" Scully touched the
wind chime with her fingertips. The lonely chimes tinkled softly together.

"This was her physical safe place, Scully. I bet she came here a lot. To
escape her life. To pretend she was someone else, to just BE." Mulder
reached down and pried a dirt-encrusted Raggedy Ann doll from the ground. It
was missing half its yarn hair and one foot, the stump of which had been
closed by a rubber band mostly gone to dry rot now.

"So after what happened she slipped into a catatonic trance and retreated to
the place she felt safe and secure." She took the doll from him.

The next clearing held beer bottles and cans, stubs of cigarettes. Older
kids evidently frequented this place as well. The perfect hide away for
sneaking drinks and smokes. Yet, oddly, there was some sort of unspoken
truce here. The only invasion of stubs and beer containers into the other
clearings had been the can confiscated to serve as a vase. 

Like the watering hole on the African plains, this was a sanctuary to all.
Some primal understanding that no fighting or belittling of those who shared
this hideaway was in place. 

It was at once childishly innocent and heartbreakingly sad that the children
had to come here. Certainly most just came for the wonderful playground
atmosphere. The feeling of freedom from the adult world. But had Kally been
the only one to escape a harsher reality here?

"There was a sand pit not far from one of the bases we lived on when I was
ten or so. All the kids used to go there. It was a giant sandbox to us. Now
I know how unsafe it was, the sides could have come down and killed any of
us. Yet, somehow, that never happened. I used to think the sand pit was the
best place in the world." Scully spoke wistfully as she replaced the rag
doll on the ground with surprising gentleness.

Mulder nodded but remained silent.

"Didn't you have anyplace you escaped to to play?" She looked at him.

"When Sam was around there was a field a couple of blocks from our house.
The one we played baseball in. But after... it wasn't much of a refuge." He
shrugged.

Scully just nodded, understanding.

"Why did you want to see this place?" She started back and something brushed
against her head. She looked up to see a cheap necklace. It was plastic cut
to look like crystal with a unicorn etched into one side so it looked three
dimensional from the other. The rusting chain was looped over a branch.

"I wanted to see what drew Kally to it. Why here of all places?"

"And did you?" Scully tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

Mulder touched the necklace and it swung gently. "Yeah. I think I did. This
place feels... good. Safe. Like the bramble itself is protective. Maybe
enough kids feel that way about it that it lingers. I don't know. But I can
understand the draw now."

Together they headed back to the car.

end part 5...


Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 6/8)

[Visualize your dream]
[Record it in the present tense]
[Put it into a permanent form]
[If you persist in your efforts]
[You can achieve dream control]
[Dream control]
[How's that then, better?]
[Help me]
-----------------------------------------

COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER
SCRANTON, PA
9:00 A.M.

Nichole was humming "That's All I ask of You" under her breath as she signed
herself out in the break room. Then she noticed her friend, Adrian, talking
to some people in suits. She knew the people. They had answered the call
when Billy Dodson was brought in. Child and Welfare Services.

"Can I help with anything?" Nichole offered as she reached to retrieve her
purse from her locker.

"Hey, Nikki. This is Ms. Simms and Ms. Killian from CWS. They were just
checking on Kally Carlson. The doctor cleared her, so they'll be placing her
in foster care by tonight."

"Tonight?" Nichole's eyes widened. "Isn't that a bit soon?"

"It isn't good for her to remain in the hospital for too long, Ms..."

"Spencer. Um... can I talk to you for a minute?" Nikki steered the
Children's Services workers to a waiting room with a hand on their arms. She
ignored the questioning look they both gave her choice in nail adornment.

                                   XXX


The interview with Charles Dodson hadn't gone very well. The child was
extremely distraught over the death of his parents. The depth of his grief,
while intellectually understood, was still basically confusing to Scully.
The boy's medical file listed a series of injuries most likely abuse
related, yet he seemed devoted to the ones who had abused him. She knew the
scenario, even if she couldn't understand it in her heart.

Mulder later reminded her that this was a very common, basic response. That
children often loved and craved the attention of their abusers. They often
felt they deserved the abuse, and that the pain was just a facet of being loved.

Scully had swallowed hard at that. She didn't know if he spoke from a
psychologist's viewpoint or not. It chilled her.

They had learned a few things from Charles, or Chucky as he preferred. The
death of his parents may have been a hard blow, but it seemed to free him to
talk a bit more openly.

First, while his older brother had been in need of as many 'whuppens' as
Chucky and the baby, Billy, he had found an outlet for his own anger and
humiliation in tormenting his younger brothers. Not the usual
'pick-on-your-kid-brothers' kind of torment either. He had learned his
lessons from his parents. Chucky had scars on his shoulders from being
beaten with a wire hanger, and he told them Billy had burn scars on his back
from a cigarette lighter.

After that Scully and Mulder returned to the Dodson house to see the
progress being made with the bodies. They had an archeologist on hand who
had been violently ill after seeing what he was going to be helping with.
But with the help of chisels and patience they had managed to free the
mother. There was no way an autopsy was possible. You can't CUT stone with
anything less than a stone saw or a jackhammer. 

Scully had grabbed a quick dinner and sat reviewing the crime scene pictures
and the backgrounds of the victims. Finally she admitted the only
commonality was the abused children and the hospital.

Now, in the solitude of the car, Mulder toyed with his bottom lip as he
often did when thinking.

"You're putting together a theory. I can tell. So spill."

Mulder shook his head. "It's a theory all right, and not one I want to
believe, myself. I'll reserve my judgment until we see the youngest Dodson boy."

Scully pulled into the hospital parking lot shortly after seven in the evening.

She felt Mulder's hand on her back as she navigated the sterile halls to the
Pediatrics ward. A nurse directed her to Billy Dodson's crib.

Scully frowned. "Where's Kally Carlson?"

The nurse smiled. "Child and Welfare were going to put her in foster care.
But Nikki Spencer, one of the night shift nurses, took her home with her. It
took a lot of fast talking and endless meetings, but Nikki wants to adopt
Kally if the kid doesn't have any family willing to take her in. She and her
husband had already had background checks and half the red tape done as they
were on a waiting list to become adoptive parents."

"Adopt her? That was fast." Mulder frowned. He looked into the crib to see
the two year old sleeping fitfully. "Ask her if Kally was ever seen with
Billy Dodson."

Scully tore her own eyes from the crib. "Was Kally ever seen playing with
Billy Dodson?"

The nurse nodded. "Yeah. She took an instant liking to him. I saw her
peeking in the crib quite a bit. She'd hold his hand or touch his cheek.
She's such a sweet, sensitive kid. I guess she saw him as a kindred spirit
or something."

Scully noticed Mulder move to crouch on the floor between the crib and what
had been Kally's bed. "Dead center. The thing that tore through here last
night went into another place dead center between Kally and Billy Dodson. It
came HERE after killing the Dodsons. It's a projection. A psychic projection."

Scully thanked the nurse and picked up Billy's chart when the woman left.

"Damn. He was shaken very hard, Mulder. I doubt this poor baby could do
anything. The gauze wrapping his head is to keep the incision clean, but
look at all the monitors, and the drain. They had to release some brain
swelling. He might suffer permanent brain damage." Scully reached in and
gently stroked the child's cheek.

"Not Billy. Kally." Mulder had moved to her side and gripped the rails of
the crib.

"What? Mulder, an eight-year-old girl is merging people's cells with foreign
materials? Isn't that a bit far fetched, even for you?"

"The first death was Kally's father. I'd bet anything he was in the middle
of, or about to, rape her again when he was killed. She goes away to a safe
place when threatened. Think about it, Scully.  The constant abuse; the
strain on her mind. If she had latent psychic abilities something may have
snapped. We KNOW she has latent psychic abilities because SHE can SEE me.
She comes here after the first death and meets Billy. She sees more abuse.
Someone else in need of rescuing..."

Scully held up her hand. "Mulder, she was terrified of this thing. If it is
a thing. The windstorm sent her into a screaming fit."

"I don't think she can control it, Scully. She probably doesn't even know
it's part of her. It's her rage and hate and fear, way too much for an
eight-year-old. It needed someplace to go, so it became this monster. The
Dodsons were killed last night, while Kally slept. I think that freed it.
When it came back, not knowing it was part of herself, it terrified her.
Waking up banished it."

Scully shook her head again. "But she would have been awake during her
father's death."

"Not really. She was in a way, but in another she was lost in a dream. Not
really in the here and now. Didn't you ever see 'The Forbidden Planet',
Scully? Monsters from the Id. The subconscious mind. We have to find out
where this Nurse Spencer lives." Mulder clenched and unclenched his fists,
his speech getting more and more rapid as he spoke.

"Mulder, even if by some chance you are right, then it should be over. No
more abused children here. She wouldn't have another target for her anger."

Mulder shook his head and pinned her with his eyes. There was fear there.
"No, she has. Scully, I have to talk to her before she goes to sleep. I have
to explain something to her, to make her understand even on a subconscious
level."

"What? Mulder, what's wrong?" Scully put a hand on his arm.

"I think she may have subconsciously targeted my mother next."

"WHAT?" 

Mulder was already heading out the door. "Come on."

Scully already had her cell phone out and had dialed the proper numbers. She
winced and held the phone away from her ear as electronic feedback shrieked
over the line.

"Your mother's line is screwed up."

"It might be the thing...Kally's Jabberwocky." Mulder's jaw twitched and his
movements became agitated.

In the elevator Scully bit on her lip. "Mulder, go. Check on your mother.
You can explain later. But I'm not about to hold you here when you're this
worried and might be able to do something about it."

He looked at her with such relief on his face. "Thanks, Scully." Then he was
gone.

                                   XXX

It had been a long day. Nikki brushed the dark hair from Kally's forehead
and kissed her temple. "Sweet dreams, little one." 

Kally was asleep on the sofa bed. Nikki looked up at her husband, Simon. He
had agreed to her crazy, frantic pleas to take in this child. He was a
little upset that Kally shrank from him, but he was kindhearted enough to
understand and give her space.

Nikki stood and crossed the room into her husband's arms. "She needs
healing, Simon. Not the kind doctors can give."

"I know, sweetheart. And I'm not upset with her. When she flinched I was
hurt, but mostly I was hurt FOR her. If her father weren't already dead..."

Nikki smiled and kissed him. "I know. But if he weren't she'd still be in
her own private hell. Come on. It's early and I have to go to work in a
while, but there's plenty of time to...fool around." She grinned. "And I'm
feeling particularly grateful that you are such a wonderful husband."

Simon chuckled and steered Nikki back to their bedroom. "You know having a
kid around is gonna mean you, my dear, are finally going to have to learn
how to cook."

                                    XXX

2790 VINE STREET
CHILMARK, MA
8:05 P.M.

Teena Mulder closed the volume in her hands. Pictures. Moments in time
trapped forever. Memories. All she had left now. 

She'd thought she could protect her only remaining child by keeping silent.
She distanced herself from him out of the need to keep him safe. What a
pathetic waste. 

All that time wasted, all the secrets kept, for nothing. Her son had been
taken from her as cruelly as her daughter had been.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Life was now a burden to be
borne. She had no one. She was alone, but for her house girl, and the
occasional short calls from her Fox's partner, Dana. 

Those calls she kept short on purpose. Because they hurt. Because they
reminded her he was gone and the only person who gave a damn was a woman
she'd met three or four times. A woman who had lived while her son died.

Teena Mulder placed the album back on the book case and took her teacup into
the kitchen. She'd leave it in the sink. She was tired. She got tired so
quickly recently.

As she was about to climb the stair she cocked her head to the side. There
was something... a faint scratching. Something scurrying... in the cellar.

Mice, no doubt, or squirrels. She'd have to call an exterminator in the morning.

::Scritch. Scritch::

end part 6...


Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 7/8)

If you open your mind for me
You won't rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin
Living twice at once you learn
You're safe from the pain in the dream domain
-----------------------------------------------------

2790 VINE STREET
CHILMARK, MASS
8:30 P.M.

The kitchen. The kitchen? Why the hell had he visualized the kitchen for
crying out loud? Why not the living room or her bedroom? 

Mulder looked around. The house was dark. He looked at the wall clock in the
kitchen as he cocked his head to the side and listened. It was only eight
thirty and the place was quiet as a tomb. 

He shivered at that last thought. He WAS dead, after all. He almost called
out to his mother, then realized she wouldn't hear him anyway. 

Then he knew. He could FEEL it. His hunch had been right. God, he hated
being right most of the time. He didn't know WHERE it was, but it was in the
house. The Jabberwocky. The Monster from the Id. Kally's subconscious demon.

He blinked into the master bedroom.

It was dark, but he could see her curled up on the bed, a thin cotton sheet
over her. Lost in her own sleep, it was she who looked like a child, despite
the steely gray of her hair. The shadows hid the lines on her face. 

Mulder stepped up to the bed and reached out to touch her cheek, only to
have his hand pass through her. He drew his hand back as a clenched fist. It
was unfair. She couldn't see him, so he couldn't touch her. He couldn't
reassure her. His own mother.

She stirred in her sleep and a soft smile touched her face. 

"Fox." 

Funny how one word can shatter the human heart. His name. On her lips. He
closed his eyes against the pain. Perhaps on some deep level she knew that
he was there after all.

He heard it then. 

::Scritch. Scritch::

The wall. It was in the wall.

His eyes riveted on the spot covered with wallpaper. He knew, somehow he
knew it was there. He was all that stood between it and his mother and he
didn't even have a way to warn her. 

"One, two. One, two. And through and through...," he muttered into the darkness.

A horrific vision of razor teeth and slavering jaws, hooked talons and soul
devouring eyes ripped through the fabric of the wall in a frenzy of fury.

                                XXX

Nichole threw a nightgown on and was still pulling on a robe as she stomped
out into the kitchen. Someone had the nerve to be pounding on her door at
eight thirty at night, uninvited. After all, there was now a child here in
need of sleep.

She yanked the door open, ready to give the interloper a piece of her mind
when a badge was shoved up under her nose.

"Mrs. Nichole Spencer? I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI. I need to
talk to Kally Carlson right away, and I understand you have taken her in."

Nikki moved back a step to get a better look. She recognized the small woman
at her door from the hospital.

"Yes, I have. But Kally's sleeping right now. Can't this wait till morning?"

Nikki heard Simon come into the kitchen and caught sight of him cinching his
own robe.

"I'm afraid not. I think it's very important we wake her up."

Nikki gestured to a door opening to a darkened living room. She flipped on
the table lamp to reveal a sofa bed. An empty sofa bed.

"Kally?"

Nikki rushed to the cellar steps and started down them. "Kally, are you down
there, honey?" 

Simon Spencer looked distraught. "I'll get dressed. Do you think she ran away?"

Scully shook her head. Mulder's theory aside, they now had a missing child.
A very troubled missing child.

"Does she sleepwalk? When her neighbors found her...I think I know where she
might be." Scully turned back to the door.

"Not without us. Let us get some shoes on, ma'am. She's our responsibility
now. She's been let down way too much already."

Nikki had returned from the cellar to hear this and nodded. "Oh God, please
let her be all right." She prayed aloud.

                                  XXX

It hit him like a freight train. Not a very original analogy but an apt one.
It had mass to him, and it slammed him against the wall, through the wall,
through the adjoining room, through another wall and right out into the back
yard. If he hadn't been dead already that would most likely have killed him.
But being incorporeal both he, and it, left no sign of their passing.

He held on for dear...life? 

It reared back its hideous head and roared. He knew that sound from
somewhere. Then he remembered, and it brought to mind exactly what this
thing was. It roared exactly like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. It was an
amalgamation of childhood fears and terrors made real.

His grip was on smooth, solid neck-ridges; they cut into his palms from some
sort of spikey protrusion on its tough exoskeleton. He didn't bleed, but the
way they cut was a icy pain through him. The thing was bipedal and about two
feet taller than him. Its head was lumpish, malformed, and it had eight sets
of flat, black eyes. That feature no doubt stolen from a spider even as its
double, slobbering mouth was torn right from the set of 'Aliens'. It's gait
was balanced by a reptilian tail.

"No. She was scared. She had lost too much. She didn't want to acknowledge
what was going on." He was practically shouting as the thing tried to shake
him loose. It twisted its body. Unable to shed Mulder it simply turned back
to the house. 

Mulder felt its intent, its vicious need to shred and kill, to unleash its rage.

He twisted to get a better grip, locking his arms around the short, thick
neck. Placing it in a headlock and pulling back with all he had.

"She wasn't the one who hurt me. She didn't. When she couldn't just pass it
off as just overly enthusiastic punishment, she took me away. She SAVED me,
damnit." He felt it give way and stumble back a bit. Maybe he was getting
through. Getting through to the scared little girl who was behind this. "She
divorced him and took me away. She wasn't perfect, but no one is. No one.
She did the best she could under the circumstances. And I'm not going to let
you, or anyone, hurt her. She's suffered enough."

Then it was writhing. He clung to it, reminded of those mechanical bucking
broncos. It was trying to shake him off.

Why wasn't it attacking him? That little trip through the architecture of
the house COULD have been considered an attack, but it had done very little
damage in actuality.

The anger and the rage were there, but it was being overwhelmed by fear. The
thing was afraid. Afraid of him? Afraid of being held down, hurt, abused....
And it didn't want to hurt him, because it had designated itself his champion. 

"I don't need you. I don't need your protection. The one who hurt me can't
hurt me any more. The one who hurt Kally can't hurt her anymore, either. Let
it go. Let her go."

It howled again, but this time it sounded...lost. A lost child. Lost innocence. 

Then it broke loose. The monster turned to look at him with a snarl. He felt
it. Anger, rage, hate, fear, vengeance...self loathing. The self loathing
rose up around the rest and it started to step into the between place.

"No!" Afraid he knew its plan, he managed to throw himself at it and just
grab onto its tail. Then he was pulled after it, into the blinking of
transition. 

                                    XXX

Scully got out of the car and was briefly illuminated by the lights of the
car behind her. They cut off as Nikki and Simon Spencer emerged, in
nightclothes, robes and sneakers.

"What is this place?" Simon played his flashlight over the woven branches.

Scully flicked on hers as well, searching for, and finding, the entrance.
She breathed in the heady smell.

"Neverland." She answered. "It's less than a mile from your house. She could
have made it here."

Scully stepped into the path, weaving her way through the lilac bramble. The
wind was picking up, and clouds blocked the stars and moon. The night was
pitch dark. If Kally had found her way here, in some sleepwalking trance,
how had she kept from falling on her face?

"Why here?" Nikki was right behind Scully.

"It's her safe place. She escaped here." Scully held up her hand as she
heard a soft whimper to her right.

They picked their way over roots and fallen branches to find the entrance to
the biggest clearing, in the heart of the bramble. Kally Carlson lay on the
ground, curled up into a ball.

"Kally!" Nikki stumbled to her while Simon held the flashlight up to
illuminate the area. 

Scully bent close to the girl and checked her thready pulse before checking
her eyes. Kally was shaking and crying, but she wasn't completely -- how had
Mulder put it? In the here and now.

"Kally, I need you to wake up. Come on, Kally. You're safe here. Nothing can
hurt you. It's ok to come back." Scully removed her jacket and placed it
around the child's frail shoulders.

"It's coming." The words were barely a whisper.

"What? What's coming?" Scully noted her pupils were reacting properly, at least.

"I'm the last. It's hungry, and I'm the last. The last one it wants." Kally
was still shaking. 

"I think we'd better take her back to the hospital." Scully stood and helped
Nikki up. 

The wind tore through the bramble with no warning. The woven, twig-like
walls offered no protection as it roared through.

Kally screamed as the earth erupted around them, knocking Simon down. His
flashlight dropped, illuminating the ground.

"NO! Don't let it take me!" Kally twisted away from Nikki and started to run
when the ground before her erupted in a spray of dirt. 

Nikki was screaming as well, now. 

There was a hint of something...twisted hands, long talons, reaching for the
little girl.

Then Scully saw what Nikki couldn't. Mulder rushed past the reaching thing
and knocked the child to the ground, covering her tiny frame with his own.

"It's not you. You didn't do anything wrong. You are not a bad person. You
didn't deserve what happened to you. No matter what he said. He was the
monster, Kally, not you. You are just a little girl. You are not to blame."

Scully could hear his chanted litany as the thing from a nightmare reared
again, coming straight at Mulder and the child.

She brought her gun out and aimed just as the roots and branches seemed to
come alive around her. They snaked forward with the sound of whipping trees
in a harsh storm. They coiled and looped around Kally and Mulder, as he
crouched over her. They kept winding and building a impenetrable cage as
Nikki continued to scream.

end part 7...

Covenant II: Monsters
by Rhondda Lake
(part 8/8)

A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream's alive, you can be the guide but...
I-- will be watching over you
I-- am gonna help to see it through
I-- will protect you in the night
I-- am smiling next to you....
---------------------------------------------

Scully squeezed off two shots to no effect. The thing paid no attention to
her, or to Nikki and Simon Spencer. It was trying to pry open the network of
roots and branches encasing Kally and Mulder.

Scully brought her gun to a safety position as she realized this. Something
was wrong here. If this was the thing killing people... then why didn't it
just reach right through the plant matter? If it could merge human cells
into wood and concrete, why not into a few roots and leaves?

It was clawing at it, scraping at it, trying to pry the cocoon open. But it
was unable to penetrate the protective mass. Yes, that's what it was, some
sort of protection.

Before Scully realized the other woman had moved, Nichole Spencer had taken
up her husband's flashlight and was CHARGING the creature. Screaming some
primal cry. She brought the light down against the back of it's head.

It didn't even seem to notice her.

Scully rushed in to save the woman from herself...

                                   *

Mulder could feel the child shaking beneath him. He hoped to God she wasn't
claustrophobic. He didn't know exactly what was going on here. What he did
know was the sudden attack of foliage was not an attack at all. The womb of
roots and vines, branches and flowers currently encasing them was... warm,
welcoming, safe.

He stroked Kally's hair in the confining space and continued to speak to her.

"What happened to you was a bad thing. But it wasn't your fault. You did
nothing to deserve it, and you couldn't have done anything to stop it. You
are a very brave, strong, loving girl. You survived it. It was unfair.
Completely unfair. But it wasn't your fault. Kally, you have to let it go.
The monster out there is all the bad things you were made to feel. That it
was made isn't your fault, but right now you have to decide to stop it. You
are so brave and strong, I know you can do it. Allow yourself to be
forgiven. Accept that you were a victim. It's not your fault, Kally. None of
it was ever your fault."

He heard a sniffle then a small gasp. "That's me? I did that? I made this?"

Mulder would have laughed at the amazement in her voice, overriding the
fear, if the danger to the people out there hadn't been so real.

"Yes, Kally. But that doesn't make you bad either. It makes you hurt. Hurt
and alone and in need of something to save you. So you saved yourself. That
isn't bad, Kally. That's self preservation. Everyone wants to stay alive."
He reached out and touched the woven wall surrounding them. Was that what
this was? Her will to live battling her wish to die?

"But you don't need the monster anymore, Kally. You saved yourself. You
saved Billy Dodson. Now you have to let the people who want to help you in.
There are people who want to love you. You have to let them." Could she do
it? How long did it take HIM to learn that lesson? Hell, he'd had to die
first. He hoped she wouldn't.

                                  *

Scully and Simon had each grabbed one of Nichole's arms and hauled her back,
away from the nightmare. 

"NO! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" Nikki twisted in their grip, seemingly set on suicide.

Then, as abruptly as it started, the wind stopped. The thing, the monster,
was gone. Nothing there but a pile of dirt and leaves. But the strangeness
had not yet ended.

The large knotwork mass began to unwind. The lilac bramble settled back into
its original shape. The cage opened to reveal Kally Carlson curled up in the
fetal position. Released from a womb of vegetation. Born again.

Scully saw Mulder unwrap himself from the little girl and sit up. He looked
horrible. His glow, his aura, was faded again. Whatever battles he'd fought
tonight had taken a lot out of him.

Nikki, tearing herself away from Simon and Scully, rushed to the shaken child. 

As soon as Nikki's arms enfolded Kally there was a burst of light. A flash,
so fast it might not have been there at all. 

Nikki had her eyes closed as she rocked Kally, crooning some soft, wordless
song. When she opened her eyes she jumped back and stared right at Fox Mulder.

"Ohmygod! Who.... what are you?" 

Mulder looked shocked for a moment, but managed to gather his scattered
wits. "I'm a friend. It's a long story. But I think she'll be all right
now." He reached out to stroke Kally's hair.

"Nikki?" Simon Spencer approached slowly then knelt beside his wife. "Who
are you talking to?"

Mulder grinned. "I have a feeling all of us are gonna need to have a LONG talk."

                                    XXX


SCRANTON MOTOR INN
8:34 A.M.

Dana Scully sat hunched over her laptop.

   //It remains to be proven if the inexplicable rash of deaths in Scranton,
Pennsylvania has stopped. Other than circumstantial connections, no evidence
exists to link Kally Carlson to the death. How the victims merged with the
foreign materials remains unexplained.

   There is no evidence to support the existance of the creature witnessed
by     the Spencers and myself. Only our own testimony.

   Adoption proceedings are to continue for Kally Carlson. The Spencers are
more committed than ever to giving her a loving, normal home.

   Of one thing I am certain. Humanity creates its own monsters, through our
own passivity. That which we find vile, corrupt and evil will continue to
invade our homes, our lives and our world as long as we willingly turn a
blind eye to the evils around us. As long as we pretend it does not affect
us, we allow it to thrive. Monsters are real, they are human predators.  We
are the Frankensteins who bring these creatures to life. They propagate
themselves through their own acts of violence, and nurture themselves on
pain and suffering.//

"Poetic, Scully." Mulder's voice sounded close to her ear.

"It's rude to read over someone's shoulder." She muttered as she hit save.

"Yeah, and I'm Mr. Manners. I checked out the lilac bramble. It's exactly
like it was before last night."

Scully looked at him. "So you have no idea what happened. There are as many
unanswered questions here as you propose there are answers. Did Kally
somehow manipulate the bramble to protect herself?"

"I have no proof, but if you want my opinion... No. I think the lilac
bramble protected Kally of its own free will." 

Scully arched a brow. "Mulder, it's an overgrown bush. Not a person."

"Yes, but it's also the repository of all the good feelings, all the joy and
abandon of every child who ever played there. It was the safe haven of more
than just Kally. I think on an elemental level, that stored trust and love
reached out when it was most needed. But... that's just my opinion."

Scully tapped a pen against the hotel stationary. "And what's your theory on
Nikki Spencer's sudden ability to see ghosts?"

"That, I think, WAS Kally. Let's face it, Scully, that kid has one hell of a
psychic punch, and she hasn't reached puberty yet. With luck, as she's
treated to a normal life, her need for that wellspring of psychic energy
will die down and she'll never have to use it again. But if that isn't the
case, she's going to need someone who can sense what's going on. An equal to
counteract it. A... mother figure to guide her. She subconsciously gave that
job to Nurse Spencer. She... opened Mrs. Spencer's psychic door, as it were,
and allowed her to tap into her own abilities." Mulder sat on the bed,
looking at her.

"So you think Nichole Spencer can now... just know things? Merge people's
genetic material with something else? What?" 

"I don't know what she can do now. But I do know she's more perceptive. She
probably has some form of psychometry, which is how I think Kally homed in
on her victims, by the way. One touch and she knew where they lived.
Including my mother. I held her hand the other night. She didn't even
realize what she was doing."

"Even if all this is true...then there is no guarantee that she won't go off
again. That she won't be able to control her...monster. That anyone who
yells at her, or tries to control another child throwing a tantrum, won't
set her off. That isn't very comforting." Scully closed her laptop and put
it in it's case.

"Afraid of being relegated to the cornfield, Scully? I think that's why she
gave Nikki Spencer this thing. To keep that from happening. A more mature,
grounded counter to her abilities. It isn't a perfect solution, but I don't
think it would serve any purpose to have Kally institutionalized for her
life. She's been through enough." Mulder got off the bed and knelt beside
Scully, running his hand along her leg.

Her expression was dead serious as she met his gaze. "I just hope you're
right, Mulder."

He nodded. He did too.

-------------------------------------------------------

end Covenant II: Monsters.

Final Author's Note: One of my usual editors made a passing comment on how a
happier ending would have been better. Perhaps showing Kally smiling in a
playground or something.  This comment brought to light something I felt
must be said. (I am not in any way maligning this editor, who is a wonderful
beta reader and caring person. After all, everyone likes happy endings, right?)

Since I decided to tackle the issue of child abuse, specifically child
sexual abuse, I felt I HAD to be open and honest. There are rarely instant
happy endings. Any person who survived this faces YEARS, most often a
LIFETIME of therapy and/or counseling. In Kally's case she would most likely
feel intimidated by 80% of the male population for her entire life. This
story dealt with the immediate danger of her 'abilities'. But for her, and
any victim like her, this is only the barest beginning of recovery. There is
a very long, HARD road ahead of her and the Spencers. In choosing to take on
a child with this amount of psychological damage, they are volunteering to
suffer with her. That takes the rarest and most special kind of person on
this planet. I salute each and every survivor, and the families and friends
who support and weather the storms with them.

By the way, Nikki Spencer is a real person. The mother of two adopted
children and foster mother to an abused toddler. There are angels out there,
as well as devils.

And on a final note. If anyone sees abuse of any kind going on around them,
don't look away. Don't close your eyes and lie to yourself that it isn't
your business. It is. Today's victims, sadly, often become tomorrow's
abusers. You never know if it will be someone you know and love who become
TOMORROW'S victims. 

::The Purple Rhino dismounts her soapbox and tucks it away.::