The Loop

Chapter Three

There's a blinding white light. It takes Scully a moment to open her eyes because of it, the light being so harsh that she has to stare at the ground. She uses her hand as a shield and begins to look around. She sees people walking all around, not really taking any notice of her. She then notices a racing track, some tall bleachers, and a few concession stands. Though confused, Scully quickly notices that Mulder isn't next to her. She begins to call out for him, receiving an answer from behind a few moments later.

"Scully!" Mulder calls out. She turns around to see that he is only a few yards away and rushes over to him.

"Mulder, where are we?" Scully asks as she reaches him.

"I think we're at the racing track."

"How did we get here?" she asks, slightly shaking her head in confusion. Mulder pauses and looks around as if searching for the answer.

"I don't know." he finally responds.

"Well then, that makes two of us." Looking around once more, Scully turned her gaze back to Mulder, who was staring at her, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Are you picking up a faint deja vu vibe? Because I am." Mulder stated. Scully just continued to look around.

"I don't see any police." She noted. Mulder realized that fact as well, nodding his head.

"Maybe we should go look for someone. I mean, they knew we were coming."

"Okay." Scully agreed, and then they set off to find someone they could talk to. "Don't you think it's kind of weird? I mean, there was a suicide committed only a few hours ago, which they think may have more to it, yet there are no police around still investigating, and there are just people walking around as if nothing ever happened." Scully said as they walked, when suddenly she began to feel a tickle in her nose as they walked past the racing track, the dust that was being kicked up bothering her sinus. She screwed her eyes shut as she began to draw in a deep breath, and finally, she sneezed.

"Bless you." Mulder said as Scully reached into her pocket to pull out a tissue. It got caught on something, and with a tug, she finally got it loose. She proceeded to wipe her nose and then throw away the tissue as they walked by a garbage can.

"Thanks." she replied, scrunching her nose a bit.

"Mmhm. And maybe they cleaned up quickly and decided to take whatever they found back to the station." Mulder said in response to her earlier statement.

"True, but shouldn't they have at least notified one of us?" Scully asked. Mulder frowned as he thought about the question. It did seem a bit odd. He shook it off though as they approached the back of bleachers.

"Here we are, the scene of the crime." he stated, gesturing his hands towards the ground as if he were a tour guide. They began to look around for any little piece evidence that may have been left behind, but came up with nothing.

"Mulder, I don't see anything. Not even a stain from where the blood had pooled. How is that possible? You can't just wash away a liquid from dirt, not without leaving a muddy puddle, and even then you don't know if that'll work. The sand could've soaked up the blood and been permanently stained." Scully noted, but Mulder wasn't listening. "Mulder?" she asked, turning to him, but noticed that he wasn't paying attention to her. He was instead staring up at the bleachers with a look of slight terror. She followed his gaze, a bit confused, then gasped as she saw what had caught Mulder's stare. A man was standing on the outer railing at the top of the bleachers, looking down at the ground right in front of him as he held on, a look of terror on his face.

Suddenly, Mulder was running to the other side of the bleachers, which pulled Scully from her trance, and she began to run after him. He was a bit ahead of her, but she nearly caught up to him as she began sprinting up the steps. The two agents ran as quickly as they could, shouting out to the man, but to no avail. The man let go of the railing just as they reached the top, and they watched as he fell, soon hitting the ground with a hard thud, blood quickly beginning to seep out from underneath him. They looked upon the sight in horror, shocked at what they had just witnessed, when suddenly, everything went black.