Title: Nightmare I Author: RM >lebontrager@harding.edu< Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. No fringe is intended. Sumamry: This will start a series based on nightmares Scully has after each episode. This one comes after the Pilot and of course, has such spoilers. ~~~~~ Nightmare I ~~~~~ She blinked. Nothing changed. ~~~~~ The grass was wet. Things were too bright to see. But long, looming shapes rose before her. Things she could see in the relief of black on white. Trees? Or maybe . . . maybe the skinny, grey fleshed creatures she didn't want to admit were real. Maybe Mulder was right and they were here. No. Just trees. Trees with a bright, blinding light spilling into every part of her vision, casting faint afterimages as the rods and cones in her eyes fired chemicals. She shook her head. Blinked. Nothing changed. ~~~~~ There was a whirlwind of leaves, swirling, sucking her hair up and into the massive attack of air. Too much light, all around, making her dizzy. Dizzy. She twisted, tried to move, but found she was in the center, the very middle, and no matter where she turned, the walls of rushing air blocked her. Faces screamed at her from the wind, howled with frightening voice that sounded animal in nature. She could catalog these things in a relatively cold manner: these things she did not believe as real; they could not hurt her. She rubbed her eyes, determined to make it go away. She blinked. Everything changed. ~~~~~ She screamed. Oh GOD No prayers were heard. There was nothing but nothing. Emptiness reaching straight into her and ripping out every essence of herself. She could not move except when They commanded. Could not breathe until They gave permission. She had lost control. She was sacrificing others to the howling mass of wind, letting them *die* and she could do nothing but scream inside. Scream into nothing that there was nothing left. And then there was Agent Mulder. Her partner. The man she most wanted to trust her. Horror etched his face. Horror for her acts, for her loss of control. No prayers were heard, but, Oh GOD, let this stop, let me have control. She had disappointed him, become the enemy he longed to strangle with his bare hands. She had turned against him. She was the spy. She was destined to cater to Their agenda. Destined to hide the truth from him, destined to fail him. She had failed him. She screamed. No prayers were heard. ~~~~~ end adios RM