Scully was distracted as she drove home. Her thoughts went back toBriggs. She remembered his talking about how he could usually forget acase when he went home. How that was essential if you were going to dopolice work and not go mad. Tonight, though, that was impossible. This casestayed with her every second of the day.
Scully parked in front of her building and walked towards the lit entryway.
What she couldn't know was that this case had come home with her.
Eugene Tooms hid behind the car that was parked in front of hers,watching her every movement.
Darkness covered the city. Rush hour was almost over. The downtownsidewalks were empty. Mulder found himself returning to 66 Exeter Street.
He'd been nervous all day. He hadn't been able to eat or sleep.
Scully went into her apartment and resolved to take a hot bath. Shewent into the bathroom and turned on the hot and cold taps, adjusting themuntil the water was the right temperature. She wished Mulder would callback. She couldn't really relax until she talked to him.
She was about to pin up her hair when she realized that her hairbrush wasin her purse. And her purse was in her bedroom. She went into thebedroom to get the brush. That was why she didn't see the outline of aman's body pressed against her bathroom window.
At Sixty-six Exeter Street Mulder pushed through the broken door ofapartment 103. As soon as he entered the apartment his heart began to race .
He had never been so sure that Evil was a living, breathing presence. Therewas no doubt in his mind. Tooms had been back.
The old mattress was precisely where he and Scully had left it. He wentthrough the hole in the wall. He then climbed down the ladder into the coalcellar.
He cast the beam of his flashlight onto the wooden crate. Tooms'strophies shone back at him. Mulder recognized the pipe and cigarette lighter.
But this time there was a new trophy too. One that sent ice throughMulder's veins. Hanging from the trophy crate was Scully's necklace.
Scully stood in her bedroom, facing her mirror. She was pinning up herhair for her bath. Her mind was still on the case. She knew they'd got closerto finding Tooms. And what they'd found made her agitated. Could Mulderpossibly be right? she wondered. Is Tooms some kind of mutant whohibernates for thirty years and then keeps himself alive by murdering peopleand eating their livers? Has he really been alive since the beginning of thecentury?
Scully shook her head. Until she saw medical tests that proved otherwise,she'd deal with Tooms as a human. A very dangerous human.
She went back into the bathroom just in time to shut off the water. The tubwas nearly full. She reached over to one of the shelves and chose a bottle ofblue bath oil, and then she poured it into the steaming tub. The smell ofrosemary filled the room.
She started to undress, but she stopped as she realised she'd forgotten tobring in her robe from the bedroom. The case definitely had her distracted,she told herself. She returned to the bedroom.
That was when she felt it. Something damp on her wrist . She held it upto the light and saw two drops of clear greenish-yellow liquid.
It doesn't make sense, she thought. The bath oil was blue. Andfurthermore, she hadn't spilled any. She thought for a second. The buildingwas an old one. Maybe there was a leak in the ceiling from the apartmentabove her.
She looked up at the ceiling and felt the muscles in her chest tightenwith fear. Right above her was a heating grate. A thick greenish-yellowliquid was pooling in the corner of the grate.
No, Scully thought. She fought down a surge of panic. She lifted herhand and smelt the fluid on her wrist. Her body froze with terror as sherecognised the smell.
She was suddenly horribly aware of how alone she was. and of how manyhiding places there were in her apartment.
Especially for someone who could squeeze himself inside a pipe. Orunder a counter. Or into the air vent above her.
She touched the greenish-yellow substance. She had to be sure. And shewas. There was no mistaking it. It could only be bile from a human liver.
“Oh, my god ,”she said quietly.
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