IMAGERY, part 2/2
By Jody (E-Mail Jody0042@aol.com)

Disclaimer and junk in part 1

***

Scully knocked on the door to Mulder's room.  She had been able to 
talk the paramedics out of taking them to a hospital and had talked 
Fransen into going to the alley for them instead.  It had turned out to 
be a complete waste of time.  Rain had washed every indication of the 
murders away, he'd said.  Fransen had then decided to get them rooms 
in a Minneapolis hotel and they had gone to their rooms half an hour 
ago.  The door opened.  Mulder appeared, looking just as weary and 
fatigued as she was.  "You all right?" she asked as she stepped inside, 
frowning at the bandage on his right cheek.

"Yeah, you?"

"I'm okay.  I sent those hairs, the ones we found on the car, to the 
Bureau Field Office Lab here in town.  I just got this back.  They said 
exactly what the lab in Washington said.  Nothing but almost 
undetectable traces of human DNA."  Mulder nodded.  He didn't look 
surprised at all.  "And I wondered if you were ready to fill me in on 
what these are."  Mulder shrugged.

"There's got to be some kind of scientific explanation, right?"  She 
could tell already he wasn't in a fantastic mood.

"And also what significance you think that totem has."

"You heard what Kim said."

"About the totem protecting her?  So the totem killed those men? And 
it rolled us down the hill?  Hey, maybe I should get one.  Could use 
some protection from ghosties," she grumbled.

"What else could have done it?  You still think that she killed those 
guys?"

"I still think Kim killed those men."

"What about what happened today?"

"As for today, I think the car was perhaps just parked to close to the 
hill and it became unbalanced.  Just a bad accident."  She shivered.  
Mulder stared at her.  She knew what he thought of that.  Neither one 
talked.  The room was quiet.  The phone ringing broke a long silence.  
Mulder answered it.

"Mulder."  He paused and put a hand to his forehead.  "Okay.  No no.  
Yeah, I'll tell her."

"Tell who?" Scully asked as Mulder hung up the phone.

"You.  There's been another death.  Agent Fransen."

***

"There were two witnesses.  Angie and Kim Harrison.  Fransen didn't 
take too long to die.  Around fifteen seconds."

"Guess she was more upset than I thought," Scully said.  Mulder 
nodded and continued.

"Angie saw Kim race past her and up to her room where she dialed 
911.  It didn't last very long.  It happened so fast and the attack was so 
fierce they don't think he had time to get a good look at the killer.  
The hairs all over him again.  St. Paul police were called in on this 
one, also."  Mulder sounded tired, burnt out.

"Want me to take the wheel?" Scully asked.  He shook his head,

"No, I got it."  Neither of them said anything more until they reached 
the Harrisons' home.

It was marked off with yellow crime scene tape.  Mulder and Scully 
showed their ID's to a policeman.  He took a good, long look at them 
and then showed them to where Fransen was killed.  

"Apparently Kim called Fransen at his house outside of Amalie," the 
officer said, "She wanted to talk to him, as we gather, about you two.  
She answered the front door and was talking to him about getting you 
to leave her alone and not arrest her.  Angie, Kim's mother, heard 
Fransen talking to Kim.  The conversation was a little more than 
heated.  Then Kim yelled at him.  A second later she heard Kim 
scream.  Kim says she saw 'the black blur' knock Fransen over.  Rapid 
loss of fluid and his windpipe ripped open is the initial report."  

Scully asked them to flip him over.  He looked just like the men in the 
other photos.  His neck slashed open, cuts and bruises on his hands 
and arms and several other areas had deep gashes.  Scully put on a 
pair of plastic gloves and probed the area around the neck wound.  Just 
as the first report.  The skin had been shredded around the cut.  She 
looked up at Mulder and nodded.  She stood and told them where she 
wanted to perform the autopsy and when.  Scully noticed Mulder 
looking around.

"What is it?" she asked.  Mulder pointed and Scully saw a policeman 
talking with Kim.  When Scully was close enough she heard Kim 
telling him what happened.  Kim stopped when she saw Mulder and 
Scully.

"Y...you aren't arresting me, are you?" she asked in a quavering voice.

"No, Kimmy.  We aren't."  Kim turned to the officer.

"Are you?" he opened his mouth to answer when another police officer 
approached them.  He turned to Mulder and Scully, his eyes 
demanding an explanation.

"We're FBI.  I'm Special Agent Scully, this is Special Agent Mulder."  
He looked at their ID's and turned to Kim.

"Now, Kim, I have orders to take you into custody.  This isn't an 
arrest, I just have to take you in."  Kim glared at the man, her eyes 
burning.

"No, I don't want to."

"I'm sorry, but it's not my choice."

"No!  I don't want to!"  She got up and tried to run but several of the 
cops grabbed her and started pulling her towards a car.  She struggled 
to break away.  Just then three patrol cars burst into flames in the 
street below.  The police exploded into action.  Scully gasped and 
brought a hand up to shield her eyes.  The noise around her was 
deafening.  Mulder also turned from the fire.  Then he saw Kim.

"The totem!" he yelled to Scully above the confusion.  An officer 
screamed and slumped to the ground off to the right.  Mulder and 
Scully ran after Kim.  Scully stopped a few yards away and watched.  
She heard Mulder yelling to Kim.  "Take it off!"  She shook her head, 
screaming something.  Mulder grabbed for it, but suddenly gasped.  He 
yelled once and fell to his knees.  Scully ran over and got down by 
him.

"What's wrong?" she yelled.  Mulder indicated that he couldn't 
breathe.  Coughing, he clutched his chest.  She pounded on his back 
but he shook his head.  Then he stopped coughing.  His eyes squeezed 
shut and his mouth gaped wide open.  It looked as if he would 
suffocate.  Then the shocked officers let Kim go.  They ran off towards 
another man that had gone down.  Mulder fell to his hands and knees 
abruptly.  He began coughing again.  Finally he stopped and sat up, 
breathing hard and still gasping terribly.  "Mulder, are you okay?"  He 
nodded.  "What happened?"

"I, I'm not sure.  I tried to, I," he inhaled sharply, "it hurt, I
couldn't 
breathe."  He looked at the ground surrounding him and picked up one 
of the hairs.  Scully heard a man yelling about getting the paramedics.  
She told Mulder to not move and ran off to see the fallen officer.

When she arrived, she found him on his back, his neck ripped wide 
open.  His mouth was open, trying for air.  A second later, it closed.  
He was dead, the black hairs covering his body.

***

Keeping one hand on the wheel, Scully held up a bag of the hairs she 
had picked up.  The ones that had been around Mulder.  "You want 
me to take these in?"

"No." Mulder said, his voice still a bit hoarse.  His breathing was still 
rasping a little, too.

"You sure you don't want to go to the hospital and get checked out?"

"I -told- you, Scully, I'm fine."  Scully shrugged.

She pulled up in front of the hotel.  Mulder jumped out.  "Be right 
back," he said.

"What?"

"Stay there, I'll be right back."  He went inside the hotel.  Scully 
sighed, exasperated, and strided after him.

"What do you mean?  Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get my gun, then we're both going back to Amalie."

***

Scully leaned forward against the seat belt.  "Mulder, slow down.  
You're fifteen above the limit.  Now tell me, why are we going back to 
Amalie?"

"Kim."

"What will talking to Kim do?"

"Maybe give us the totem."  Scully sighed.

"Why?  You're still on that whole Indian totem spirit idea?"

"That's the only explanation, the only thing that makes sense.  We 
need to get it from her.  Getting it is the only way to stop these 
killings."

"And if she doesn't give it to us?"

"Just grab it. If you get it, destroy it.  A bullet in it."

"The last time you tried by force you stopped breathing.  You could 
have died."

"We can't both suffocate."  Scully looked at him and knew he wasn't 
kidding.

***

"Okay, your father and I are going to run a few errands.  We'll be back 
in about forty-five minutes."  Angie pulled the covers a little farther 
over Kim.  Kim wished her clock worked.  The electricity had been out 
ever since those cars blew the power lines.  She closed her eyes as her 
mother went down the dark stairs.  But she just couldn't get to sleep.  
She listened to her parents start up and drive off in the blue station 
wagon.

***

Mulder passed a blue station wagon on the road just before the turn.  It 
honked at him, telling him to slow down.

"I agree with them," Scully said.  She saw Mulder smile out of the 
corner of her eye.  They both knew she was the only one who ever 
drove at a reasonable speed, or at least below too fast.  He parked 
across the street from the Harrisons.  Scully looked out her window at 
the hillside.  An awful feeling arose in her stomach.

"Come on," he said, closing the door behind him.  They started 
silently up the driveway.

"Mulder?"  He looked at her.  "What's the worst possible thing that 
could happen?"

"She knows right now."

***

Kim slowly pulled back the curtains and watched them coming up the 
driveway.

***

"I don't see any lights on.  She could be asleep."

"I hope so."  Scully looked at the garage, it had no cars in it.  She put 
her hand on Mulder's shoulder and pointed.  He stopped and his head 
hung down, disappointed.  Mulder looked up again and she heard him 
draw in his breath.  "Don't look, Scully."

"What?"

"She's watching us from a window upstairs."

***

The front door was unlocked.  No lights were on inside the house.  
"Scully, tell her we want to just talk with her and we don't want to 
arrest her." Mulder whispered.  They were in the front hall.

"Kimmy?  It's us.  We don't want to arrest you or take you anywhere."  
She knew the girl wouldn't listen.  "We just want to talk to you."  
Scully looked around and saw the stairs leading up.  She grabbed 
Mulder's arm and pointed.  He nodded.  They started up.  "Kimmy, we 
know how scared you are and we want to make sure that you're always 
protected."  They reached the top and looked around.  It was one long 
hallway with rooms in both directions.  Mulder spread his two fingers 
apart.  Scully shook her head.  He shrugged slightly and started 
moving down the right hallway.  She followed him.  Her heart was 
pounding fast.  All that weird stuff Mulder talked about, ghosts and 
spirits. It had gotten to her, racked her nerves.  Don't believe him, she 
told herself.  Then she stepped into the first room, he went into one 
across the hallway.  She saw nothing but darkness and the light from 
the hallway.  Then she softly gasped when a shadow blocked the light.  
The door closed behind her.

Mulder stepped quietly into the room.  He couldn't see a thing.  He 
flipped a switch, but there was no light, no power.  He wished that 
he'd brought a flashlight.  A little bit came in through a single 
window.  Then the clouds covered the moon and everything became 
dark.  He heard small thumps across the hallway.  Then a loud one 
followed by a small cry.  Scully, he thought, and went to the room she 
was in.  He opened the door.  He couldn't hear or see anything.  
"Scully?" he whispered.  It thought is was a bedroom, but he couldn't 
see anything.  Scully wasn't anywhere.  He whispered loudly.  
"Scully!"  No answer.  She was gone.  Then he heard breathing to his 
right.  He ran his hands along the wall and came to a door.  He opened 
it slowly and stepped in.  Something somewhere was trying to control 
hard breathing.  "Scully?"  He heard her breathe out in relief.  "Scully, 
you okay?"

"Mulder?  Yeah, I'm fine, I, I'm..." her voice was soft and shaky.  She 
really sounded scared.

"Why didn't you answer me?"

"It was here.  I came in and the door closed and it was there, it jumped 
on me and tried to bite my neck.  It, it threw me against the wall, I 
went in here and closed the door.  I heard footsteps and your voice, I 
thought I was imagining it."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay."  He heard her stand up.

"I can't see you."  Scully touched his right shoulder.  

"Here.  I think this is a washroom.  There's a door that way."

"Scully, I can't see."  She took his arm and led him to the opposite 
side of the room.  She put his hand on a door.  

"There.  I don't know what...I didn't open it."

"I'm opening it up."  He took out his gun and paused as he waited for 
her to do the same.

"I dropped mine when I hit the wall," she said.  They both stood back 
and he opened the door.  "I don't hear anything."

"Let me see."  His eyes need to adjust, she thought.  Scully silently 
stepped in front of the open door.  "I don't see anything."  Mulder 
stepped up next to her and entered the room.  Another step forward.  
He exhaled slowly.

Then yelled when it leaped on him and he blindly fired a shot.  He fell 
to the floor and stood up again.  It seemed to have vanished.  
"Mulder!" she shouted before it hit him again, slamming him against 
the wall.  She saw him on the floor, the dark, blurry, shadowy thing 
over him.  She saw movement in the bed.  She dove for it, and heard 
Kim shriek.  Then Scully was pinned to the ground.  She thought she 
saw Mulder stand as she shielded her face and neck.  Mulder fired a 
shot at it and it vanished.  Scully stood shakily and was attacked again.  
She caught brief glimpses its gleaming golden eyes.  She tried 
shouting a warning to him again before it whacked her in the side of 
the head.  Then it growled again and leapt for Mulder.  It almost hit 
him before disappearing.  Scully got up and saw Mulder bending over, 
shielding himself from an attack.  He held fragments of shattered stone 
in his hand and was holding his breath.

Kim stared at the remains of the totem.  "It's gone," she said.

***

"I told you, I'm fine.  Scratches and bruises, my life isn't danger," 
Scully snapped.  The paramedic paid no attention.  Scully was sitting 
in the grass outside of Kim's house.  He continued putting band-aids 
on the side of her neck.

"Looks almost like you were bitten."

"I have little scratches and I can take care of them on my own.  What 
about Mulder?  Is he all right?"

"He looked like you.  He says he's fine."

"Can I please go now?"

"I'm supposed to make sure you're okay before letting you leave.  I 
guess you can go when I'm done with this."

"I can put on band-aids at my room."  The man sighed and she got up 
and walked around into the house, to the bottom of the stairs.

"They checked you out?"

"I'm a free person.  You?" she replied.

"Almost."  Mulder rolled his eyes at a paramedic looking at his arm.  
"You okay?" she asked.

"If somebody would listen, yes, I'm fine."  He looked at the paramedic 
with disgust.  She smiled.

"Mulder?"  He looked up at her.  "Did you see what it was?"  Mulder 
nodded and reached into his trench coat pocket.  He pulled out a shard 
of stone and handed it to her.  It had a crack through the middle of it.  
Except for the legs and part of the tail, it was all there.  The wolf.

"It was the evil side of Kim, Scully.  That's what this is, or does.  
Awakens your evil when the need is there and gives it a form.  The 
personality the Navajo man was looking for was the evil.  Then he 
matched it with an animal of equal viciousness.  Guess he must of seen 
something pretty nasty," he said, rubbing his head and wincing.  
Scully nodded and glanced at the splits in her coat where Kim had 
tried and failed to slash her.

"Also, while were in there having fun, Kim rolled our car down the 
hillside.  She didn't want us getting away."  Scully groaned.  "The 
local Bureau should get us another rental car."

"All we're gonna use it for is pick up our luggage and drive us to the 
airport, right?"  Mulder smiled and nodded.

"Just one thing.  If this Navajo guy's been selling all these things how 
come this is the only time it's come up?"

"I thought about that.  I think it may not be just the one man.  
Remember, there was a case in Colorado about 40 years ago.  Hoke 
must have gotten one of these from somewhere, too.  As to why these 
are the only times it's come up, I don't know.  I've seen people with 
these things before but none of them had blood streaks on them.  I 
think maybe the blood unites the evil and the person.  Or identifies 
them."  Scully frowned.  "All I could come up with."

"Just have to hope."

The paramedic released Mulder's arm.  "Nothing near serious.  Lots of 
slight cuts and bruises."  Mulder stood, still rubbing his forehead.

"Gave me a good bump."

"Me too.  Pretty strong for fourteen." Scully said.  They walked down 
the driveway.

***

"The strange case of Kim Harrison," Mulder's report read, "has not 
been closed, for the attacker involved has yet to be fully explained.  
Both Agent Scully and myself have made quick and full recoveries 
from the strange attacks, but the attacker has yet to be identified.  It 
seems clear to me that the Navajo totem played a major part in the 
attacks as well as the deaths of the two street thieves, Agent William 
Fransen and police officers Tom Baxton and Chris Nelson, who was 
caught in the fire.  For although the totem could distinguish, separate 
and give form to the human personality, it is clear that nothing is 
capable of controlling the evil in the minds of man."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Okey-dokey.  This is based in part upon my own experience.  Just hear 
me out.  I did travel to the Southwest as Kim did in this story and, as 
Kim did, I met an old Navajo man by the road through a reservation.  
He stared at me for a couple minutes before announcing that my spirit 
is that of a wolf.  He showed me a totem -- a rock with the symbol for 
the wolf painted on it hanging from a strip of buckskin and decorated 
with beads and feathers.  The man said that when I wore it, the wolf 
spirit would guide and protect me.

That's where the truth ends.  I twisted the totem around and gave it an 
evil side. (hey, this IS The X-Files)  A real Navajo totem has nothing 
to do with blood or the evil side of a person's soul.  A totem is made to 
do good, I warped it a bit to make it do evil as well.  I apologize to the 
Navajo people and culture.  Keep in mind that this is only fiction and 
keep repeating to yourself, "Suspension of disbelief."  =)
  -Jody

Begun June 25, 1995
Finished December 15, 1995