The Loop

Chapter Six

There's a blinding white light shining right in Scully's face. She brings her hand up to shield her eyes, letting its shadow help them to adjust. As she regains her vision, she begins to looks around. All she really notices is a race track, a set of tall bleachers, and a few concession stands. Confused, Scully looks at the few people walking around, who don't seem to be taking any notice of her. Just then, she remembers Mulder.

"Mulder?" she begins to shout. "Mulder!" she turns around, looking everywhere for him, when she spots him a few yards away. She begins to make her way over to him, walking quickly to where he was standing. "Mulder," she says as she reaches him. He isn't paying attention to her though. He seems to be deep in thought.

"Mulder?" she asks. He continues to stare intently at the ground, his left arm crossed tightly across his torso as his right hand held his chin in a tight grasp. His eyes were narrowed and casting a hard glare. He was very deep in thought indeed, and it began to panic Scully a bit. She decided to continue talking. Maybe it would break him from his trance.

"Um, we appear to be at the horse racing track. How do you think we got here? Because I have no idea." Scully starts, and as she says this, Mulder's head begins to slowly lift up as he brings his gaze to her. He begins to look her over, up and down, his eyes eventually landing on her arm.

"How did you get that tear?" he asked. Confused, Scully furrowed her eyebrows.

"Tear? What do you mean? This is new." she answered. Since she failed to find the tear, Mulder asked her again.

"Right there on your elbow, that small tear. How did you get it?" he asked. Still confused, Scully checked both of her elbows, finally finding the tear that Mulder was talking about. It was a sort of ragged tear, about an inch long, on the left elbow of her blazer.

"Huh, I didn't notice that." she said as she began to inspect it. By the jaggedness of the tear, it seemed as though she had gotten caught on something, but Scully had just bought this blazer a few days ago and worn it for the first time today. She couldn't recall ever getting caught on anything to cause the tear.

"But how did you get it?" Mulder asked once again, more insistent. Scully drew back a bit.

"Jeez Mulder, I don't know. And who knows? I could have gotten briefly caught on something without knowing." she replied, though she wasn't too sure of the last part. Mulder fell silent once again as he went back to thinking. Unknowingly toying with the tear, Scully spoke up, trying to change the subject. "So, I don't see any police. Maybe we should try to find someone?" she tried. Mulder didn't budge. Feeling a slight bit of deja vu at what she said, Scully decided to note that. "This feels a bit like deja vu, huh?" she asked. Suddenly, Mulder's head shot up, catching Scully a bit by surprise.

"Say that again." he asked. A bit weirded out, Scully finally did as he said.

"This feels a bit like deja vu." she hesitantly repeated. Mulder stared at her, glancing between her and the tear. Then, out of nowhere, his face began to light up as he came to a sudden realization. He had thought of something. Something had finally clicked for him.

"Scully, do you remember how we got here?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No."

"Okay. But think. How were we getting here?"

"Well, by car, I would presume."

"Right. Okay, so, what's the last thing you remember from before we got here?" he asked. Scully began to think. She remembered this morning, waking up and getting dressed, eating a light breakfast with Mulder, suddenly receiving the case, the two of them getting into the car to leave for the day... and that seemed to be it.

"I just remember us getting ready this morning, receiving the case, and then getting into the car to leave."

"Yes, but what happened while we were in the car?" he asked. Scully tried to think harder. They had stopped to pick up the case file, and then they began their four hour long drive to the horse racing track. Suddenly, more prominent memories began to pop into her head. They were driving. She was reading. Mulder seemed a bit off. They began to talk. They were staring at each other. And then...

"Oh my god." Scully said aloud, as realization dawned over her as well. She remembered it. Memories began to flood into her mind like a tidal wave.

"You remember?" Mulder asked. He was now standing in front of her, gripping her shoulders and staring down at her intensely. Finally, she looked back up at him, a look of horror on her face, terror in her eyes. Mulder looked a bit crazed. "You remember what happened?"

"Yes, I remember the crash." Scully choked out. She gulped, trying to get the lump of fear that had formed in her throat to go down, but it wouldn't budge. "Our crash."