It Hurts to Win // An X-Files Au // 👽

♡ Brusies to your Beauty Pt. 1

⚠️ implied illegal s*x work, torture/physical assault, and a Cult like group (Gang) ⚠️

It's about noon on a sunny Thursday. Mulder and Scully sat on the bleak leather chairs in front of their superior, Assistant Director Skinner, who sat behind his desk.

Sunlight poured through the open blinds, warm and bright. A.D. Skinner flipped through a folder before handing it over to Mulder.

Mulder took it reluctantly and scanned over the pages before looking up, waiting for an assignment.

"I want you two to look into this. It's a case from a few days ago." He started, "a young man claiming to be an escapee from a gang operation came to the police station and uncovered the events happening in these alleyways off of the main road. He's staying with family now but is willing to answer questions if you feel the need to ask them." He paused. "We believe this Gang is forcing their victims to do prostitution work as well."

Mulder shifted in his seat after handing the folder to Scully.
"Okay..is this related to the x-files in any way?" Fox asked, trying his best not to have an attitude.

"The friends and families of dozens of the victims claim to not know they were missing, some being gone for years." The Assistant Director replied, satisfied with his choice to assign the two to this case. Believing they know exactly what to do.

Twenty minutes later, Mulder and Scully sat in Mulder's office, going over the file. "I have absolutely no clue what to do Scully," Mulder began as he got up, starting to flip through his filling cabinet of cases.

"I mean, I've never heard of a Gang operation as an x-file. Besides the memory of these families, just forgetting their relatives, children, and siblings even exist is unheard of."

He rubbed the back of his head, trying his best to make sense of it. Usually, he had a knack for the unusual.

"Well, I don't know Mulder, we could start by joining the local police in the alleyways or asking the kid what happened." Scully suggested, wandering casually around the strange memory loss as she pursed her lips in thought.

He grabbed a notepad and started walking as he shoved it into the inside pocket of his suit, "Alright, let's go."

Scully followed him out to the car, getting into the passenger seat. Mulder sitting on the driver side, starting the car, and swiftly backing up out of the parking space and into the road.

"Mulder, do you have a plan?" Scully asked curiously while looking out the window. "Yeah, I mean kinda following my gut." He confessed, still looking forward, right hand on the wheel.

"Isn't that what you always do?" She humored him now, looking in his direction. He scoffed, "I, I don't know. This is less of an educated guess than I usually have, so.." He trailed off.

Scully only replied with a nod and continued letting her mind wander, looking out the window again.
They forgot? How could they forget?

A forty minute drive later, they arrived at the first alleyway. Getting out of the car and observing the officers and other workers who were walking around.

"A lot of attention to a single statement." Scully thought aloud.

"Well, it was a pretty big statement, so it better not be nothing." Mulder responded rhetorically, side eyeing his partner.

They stepped onto the cracked asphalt and went separate ways. Scully marched over to an evidence specialist, scanning over the little bit they found.

A purple broken acrylic nail, clumps of fur or matted hair, and a grocery bag of nails. "That's it?" Dana asked, raising her eyebrow.

"That's all so far." The man replied before walking away with the evidence.

She sighed, looking around for Mulder, who was crouched down and looking intently on the ground near a dumpster. She walked over to him, curious about his thoughts.

"What did you find, Mulder?" Scully asked once she crouched down beside him. He kept his eyes on the ground, still inspecting it as he spoke, "Do you think this could be blood, Scully?"

She frowned faintly and eyed the subtly orange tinted patch of asphalt herself, "Possibly, I mean the discoloration could be from anything, sundamage, paint, fluids leaking from the dumpster.."

"Hey, we're moving everything to the next alleyway!" Someone called out to the agents. They slowly got up and followed.

Nothing much was found in the next three alleyways; stray cats, ripped up lottery tickets, liter, and a few tossed school bags.

They went back to the office but only to put back the file and clock out.
Mulder went to his apartment, and Scully went to hers.

They thought about the case for the next two hours, but only Mulder decided to go out and look again.

He drove back to the first alleyway, in the dark, all by himself. He eagerly got out of the car and walked over to the stained ground. He looked for any shape, a hand print, a face, anything.

He sighed, finding nothing there. He stood looking around, further down the alleyway. Scully, and I didn't even go all the way down there.

He shrugged and ventured down the narrow plain. Almost tripping on a crack, he noticed something three quarters of the way down.

A cloth hanging from a wire of some kind, near an old window. He looked at it and tried to grab it, but it was just out of his reach. He examined it the best he could all angles but above.

It was a small white cloth, ripped up, and had a redish brown substance on the end. Is it blood? Why is all the evidence here just a guess..

Then suddenly his cellphone rang loudly startling him. He grabbed it out of his pocket and answered the call, "H- ehm Hey, Mulder." He cleared his throat.

"Mulder, it's me." Scully said.
"Oh hi, Scully. What's up?" He casually responded.

"I was just thinking, what if the gang goes back to the alley tonight? They might leave more evidence for us tomorrow morning." She pondered.

"True.." He replied hesitantly, looking around him suddenly, unsure it was a good idea to come alone.

"Mulder?" She started.
"Yeah?"
"Where are you?"
"Um..in the first alleyway."

"Mulder! Why would you go alone? It could be extremely dangerous!" She nearly shouted through the speaker.

"Ugh, I'm sorry, Scully. I just thought I missed something, and by the way we did, it's small, but.." He wanted to keep explaining, but she interrupted him,"Mulder, if you don't go back home yourself, I'm going over there to you." She warned.

"Scullyy..." He whined.

Thirty minutes later, she arrived, pulling up her car into the alleyway a bit. And then stomping over to Mulder.

She definitely speeded a little..
He thought.

"This is the only thing I found." He said, pointing to the rag above him.

"Huh." She looked up, suddenly not as mad. Observing the object.

Out of nowhere, a small group of people approached them quickly, like they just appeared out of thin air.

"Woah!" Mulder exclaimed innocently, backing up and grabbing Scully's arm since she was closer to them.

She looked at them irritated and confused. "Who are you people?!"
Then they knocked both Scully and Mulder out by chucking large rocks.

Ouch.