Shorts

Te Duem - Part 1 (Mulder×Scully)

Fox Mulder (The X-Files) × Dana Scully (The X-Files)
Contains no spoilers to The X-Files series

Mulder pov

May 28th, 1998, Lansing, Michigan, 10:27 a.m.

"Mulder, you're being ridiculous. We're supposed to be looking for mutilated body parts, and be-"

FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder cut his partner, Dana Scully, off abruptly. "I know, I know. But what better place to hide an arm and a leg than an uninhabited house at the dead end of a sub?"

Scully rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, "This trip is costing me an arm and a leg."

Mulder, pretending not to hear her, turned and called over his shoulder, "What was that?"

"Nothing," Scully quickly stated. "Just hurry up and check the house out already. We have places to be, you know, and personally, I'm a little hungry." She sidestepped a small hole in the overgrown grass to stand beside her partner.

Mulder toyed with the handle on the front door, giving it a light jiggle. "Locked," he huffed, digging in his pockets for the lock pick his father had given him. His fingers brushed the surface of the slim metal object, and he pulled it out of his pocket. He unclasped the lock pick from the device, inserting its small, pointy end into the lock on the front door. After a few jiggles and turns going this way and that, the lock clicked out of place.

Mulder clamped his hand around the rough and uneven door handle. Scully peered over his shoulder as he gave it a twist, pusing it open. The door creaked eerily as it swung inward, opening up to a dark, unlit interior.

The house itself was still in decent condition. It was one story, and a simple Ranch style. The furniture had remained untouched and had a relatively modern look to it. Windows with drawn Victorian curtains provided only ample amounts of sunlight, and after trying a few, none of the light switches seemed to be working. It wasn't entirely dark, however, just dark enough to be somewhat uncomfortable. Scully pulled the curtains open, flooding the room in the warm afternoon sunlight.

Mulder brushed his fingertips along the surface of a countertop as he and Scully glanced about and, to his surprise, not even a thin layer of dust laced his fingers. "No dust. Someone's been in here recently, Scully," he said. "I doubt anyone would pay for housekeeping, after all."

"That's odd," Scully said, furrowing her brow and stepping back beside Mulder. "The door was even locked. Someone somewhere would have to have a key to get in. And being that this house is uninhabited it's highly unlikely that someone would still have a key, especially after moving out."

Mulder nodded in agreement. Something was very off. "I'm going to check out the next room over," he said, glancing down towards his redhead partner. "You check around out here."

Scully nodded, somewhat uncertainly. "Okay, uh, just a minute." Scully reached into her pocket. She turned and handed Mulder a pair of blue latex gloves. "Just in case you happen to find something."

Mulder quickly slipped on the latex gloves. Scully had already busied herself checking underneath the sofa cushion, so Mulder headed onward to the next room over.

The room happened to be a bedroom. A boy's bedroom. It was rather bare, its only three furniture items being a bed, a mirror, and a dresser. The bed had been made, its navy blue sheets tucked neatly under the two black pillows. Posters of sparingly dressed women littered the walls and a 1995 calendar featuring women dressed in lingerie hung over the wooden dresser. The calendar was flipped to May, and featured a blonde woman in dark red, lacey lingerie. Mulder tore his eyes from the calendar and fought the urge to flip through it some more, instead averting his gaze to the dresser.