The Loop

Chapter Five

There's a blinding white light. It takes Scully a minute, but eventually her eyes adjust, and she takes a look around. She sees a racing track, tall bleachers, and a few concession stands. Confused, Scully tries to think of how she got there, when suddenly, she is reminded of her partner. Panic beginning to fill her, Scully calls out his name.

"Mulder?" she calls. Looking around, she doesn't see him. A jolt of fear jumping through her, she tries again. "Mulder!"

"Behind you!" she suddenly hears. She then turns around to see Mulder standing a few yards away. She quickly walks over to him, beginning to bombard him with questions.

"Where are we? The racing track? How did we even get here? Do you remember? Hey, are you listening?" she asks, once she notices that he hasn't said anything. She looks over his features. He is standing in front of her, staring intently at the ground with narrowed eyes. His jaw was clenched tightly. She could tell he was thinking, and hard. Finally, he senses her staring at him, and looks up at her, shaking his head.

"I don't know how we got here." he states.

"Well then, that makes two of us."

"I feel a bit of deja vu though." he adds. Scully nods in agreement.

"Me too. I didn't see any police, which is weird. Maybe we should go and try to find someone." she suggests.

"Yeah." Mulder replies, and then they begin to walk towards the bleachers.

Just as they were about to reach the back of the bleachers, where the man who had committed suicide ultimately died, Mulder stopped walking, looking like he was trying to decide on something.

"What is it?" Scully asked, a bit concerned. As Mulder looked at her, he seemed to make his decision.

"Why don't we try the front?"

"The front? The man didn't die in the front."

"I know, just - trust me?" he asked. He seemed very keen about it, which seemed a bit weird to Scully, but she decided to go along with it.

"Alright." she said, then they began to head to the front of the bleachers.

Once they arrived to the front, they both looked up, surveying the small crowd, when suddenly Mulder yelled out "Hey!" and began to sprint up the stairs. The yell startled Scully a bit, and as she looked to see what Mulder was running towards, she began to make her way quickly up the stairs as well. What they were hurrying towards was a man, who was standing on the outer side of the bleachers. He seemed as though he was about to jump.

Scully nearly caught up to Mulder, who was now only two steps away from the top. As soon as he got to there, he reached out towards the man, but it was too late. The man had let go of the railing just a second before Mulder could grab him, and as Scully arrived, the two look down, watching as the man fell quickly towards the ground, eventually landing with a sickening thud, and it was over. He was dead.

Scully and Mulder stared down at the man's body in horror. They had been so close to saving him. Scully drew her gaze to Mulder, who continued to stare down at the man's lifeless body. He had the look again where he seemed to be thinking very intensely. She continued to stare at him, wanting very much to know what he was thinking, when suddenly, everything went black.