Hush

ONE

"Let me out of here you son of a bitch....LET ME OUT!"

I slump down against the door, I can here myself whimpering. "Please...please, don't leave me here... not alone..."

I can hear the whine in my voice and I despise myself for my weakness. Spender is probably on the other side of the thick metal door listening to my helpless pleas right now. Would he be smiling, amused at my predicament. Would he feel some sympathy for me...ha that would be the day.

Spender has always been a ruthless cold blooded evil hearted bastard that would whore his own mother if it gave him an inch of power.

"Spender." I can hear myself whisper. "Spender...are you out there, please just let me out, I'll do whatever you want. Please just don't leave me here. Not in the dark, not alone."

No answer, only silence. The kind of silence that throbs in your ears that beats against your very mind and soul until you feel like opening your mouth and screaming just so there is a sound to break up the godawful silence.

"Is there anyone there? Still no answer. I am alone.

TWO

How long have I been here for? A day, a week, a century?God I am so thirsty. I run my tongue over my parched lips. I can here the crackle of dry cracked skin.

Oh what I would give for a glass of water. I close my eyes, don't think about your thirst, I tell myself. Don't think about how your throat aches how it hurts to swallow.

A tall cool glass of water, the sides of the glass speckled with condensation, a drop of moisture running down the side of the glass, leaving a clear trail.

I can almost see the glass, can almost touch it.

STOP IT!

Don't think about the thirst and it will go away.

I lean against the not quite warm metal of the alien ship, the ship that I had knelt on while the black oil had expelled itself from every orifice in my body, it had poured back into the ship, through the slits and folds, seeping away like an evil dream.

They'll come and let me out, I know they will. They can't just leave me here...can they?

THREE

*//Hush Lexi hush. Don't cry my little one...shhh, he'll hear you.//*

*//Mama, please I don't like it down here, please let me out. It's dark, it's cold, I'm scared, please...I'll be good. I promise.//*

I awake with a jerk, god had I been asleep? I can feel myself trembling, cold sweat slicks my body, I shiver.

How long now. I look at my watch, but it had stopped hours ago. Funny how watches and things don't seem to work around these alien ships. It's as though they have their own set of rules in the greater fabric of reality.

I stare out into the dimly lit silo, at least there's a tiny bit of light, not enough to really let me see my surroundings but enough that I can see the things in the immediate vicinity.

Like the ship, and the walls closest to me. High metal walls, cold to the touch. Walls that block noise. Like screaming, and weeping.

Is this what is was like for Elizabeth Bathory? I can feel the ironic smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Walled up in her own dungeon for three and a half years. Bitch deserved it though. Did she really believe that bathing in the blood of young virgins would keep her young?

Not as bad as Gille de Rietz though. Now there was a true psycho. Tortured and murdered children. Finally caught and burned at the stake, he was dead though when the flames got to him. Strangled because he recanted his crimes.

Should have burned him alive, child murdering bastard.

Anyone that could hurt a child...I let the thought wander away. I have no desire to go down that road. Not now.

God I am so thirsty.

FOUR

*//Hush my Lexi, don't you cry, Mama's here, she won't leave you. Shhh, do you want him to hear you crying again. You don't want him to be angry with. Go to sleep, Mama's here...//*

I open my eyes, must have nodded off again. How long has it been now? How long in the dark.

I get up and wander around, more to relieve the cramp in my legs more than anything else.

The thirst is gone, my mouth is still dry, but the raging monster that made my throat ache seems to have subsided...for the present.

I reached out and touch the walls. Cold, hard, unyielding. Nothing new there.

Bored now, I start to hum a tune, an old tune from my childhood. My mother always sang it too me when I was upset or cranky, when she wanted me to go to sleep.

I hum the old tune as I wander around the room, not that there's a great deal of room to move around.

The ship takes up most of it.

What's it like on the outside? Is the sun shining? Or is it cloudy. Blue sky....oh sweet Jesus how I crave for the sight of clear open sky, and fields... yeah, fields would be good right now. With flowers...red, yellow pink, I don't give a shit just colour any colour than black and steel gray and nothing at all but the FUCKING GODDAMMED DARK!

I draw a shaky breath. Something whimpers inside me...please let me out, I promise I'll be good, please... "Spender....I'm in here...Spender. Come on, you can't keep me locked up in here. SPENDERRR!"

I bang on the door with my fists until I can feel the blood running down from the splits in my knuckles. All to no avail. There's no one out there. Let's face it boys and girls, they have left me here to die.

I should be panicked by the realization, but instead I greet it with numbed acceptance.

I have been thrown into an oubliette, a place where they can forget about me.

Betrayal, I should be used to it by now after all did he betray me? I laugh but there's no humour in the sound.

To think that I once respected Spender, admired him, believed in what he was doing. Fuck I even trusted the motherfucker and he does this to me.

Wasn't it enough that I get punched out by Mulder, he even managed to get in a headbutt. Then that bitch infected with the black oil, then I wind up here.

I believe I have just had an epiphany...life sucks.

FIVE

I try pressing my lips to the walls, after all there could be moisture there, anything to quench this Christless thirst.

Nothing, not a drop. The walls are as dry as the desert.

Suddenly my stomach growls, Ah hunger, I was wondering when you were going to show up.

Hi thirst, meet your little brother, hunger. You see he's visiting because he senses a change in my diet. Namely lack of food. So nice of you to show up.

Suddenly I'm overwhelmed and tears start to roll down my unshaven face.

"No." I hear myself whimper. I try to catch the tears as they fall, I lift my fingers to my mouth, licking the salt water of them.

Mustn't lose moisture. Not now. Desperately I try to catch all the tears, drinking them. God they taste bitter.

SIX

*//Papa, can I come out now?//*

*//Shhh Lexi, don't wake him...hush.//*

*//But I'm cold and scared. I don't like it down here.//*

*//Be quiet my little one and I shall sing to you.//*

*//No, tell me a story Mama//*

*//Very well my baby boy, I'll tell you a story of a far away prince and a wounded wolf...//*

I sit, head down, exhausted, defeated. Sure knowledge of my imminent death in front of me.

I should be frightened, but for some reason I'm not. I feel peaceful. Calm. I know that this is not natural, but this is the way I feel.

An old memory suddenly surfaces. The story my mother used to tell me about a wolf, wild and dangerous. One day he suffers a terrible injury from a huntsman, he manages to escape, limping, bleeding, knowing that he's going to die. The a prince finds him and takes him back to his castle and heals him.

After a while the wolf is healed, the expensive medicines and ointments having saved him.

The wolf turns to leave the lavish chamber that he was kept in, the forest calling to his wild heart, but something stops him. The prince.

The door is open, but the wolf can no longer leave, for with all the kindness and care that the prince lavished on the wild animal had done something that no bullet could. It had tamed him.

And the wolf stayed with the price, eating from a golden bowl, drinking from a silver fountain, and spent his days at the prince's feet in front of the huge fireplace, fat and contented, a wild beast no longer.

*//Hush Lexi, don't cry, I know the cellar frightens you, but you should not have been naughty, Papa will let you out soon, now sing with me and forget about the dark, it can't hurt you...//*

But it did Mama, I think bitterly. But it did.

SEVEN

*//Hush, hush, shhh...//*

My eyes open, what was that?

Quickly I get to my feet, ignoring how shaky my legs are.

I heard something. I'm certain.

Suddenly my legs give out from under me, the dehydration and lack of nourishment have taken their toll.

I see a crack of light as the doors open. A tall figure stands in the doorway.

Light from a torch washes over my emaciated body.

"What the fuck..."

I know that voice, I try to sit up but I suffer a last betrayal as my body refuses to respond.

"Alex!"

He bends over me, his face twisting with shock, to be replaced by horror and finally rage.

"How long have you been locked in here?"

"Hi Mulder." I manage, my voice a croak. Then I pass out.

EIGHT

I awake briefly to find myself slung over Mulder's shoulder, my head bouncing as his long purposeful strides carry me out of the silo, out of the dark, to the outside.

"Mulder..."

"Shh Alex, don't try to talk." He tells me, his voice kind.

"But how did you know...?"

"Someone sent me an email, telling me that I would find something interesting in here." Mulder tells me.

"The ship." I whisper.

"Never mind the ship, it's you I'm worried about." He says. Why do I feel a thrill at his words?

"It's all right Alex, I'll take care of you."

It hurts my cracked dry lips to smile but I do anyway, my prince has saved me, I think as he carries me out of the dark, into the light.