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Syzygy

3.13 Syzygy

German title: Energie
translation: Energy

French title: Âmes damnées
translation: Cursed Souls

Italian title: Congiunzione astrale

US Airdate: January 26, 1996

writer: Chris Carter

director: Rob Bowman

SCENE 1

(It’s dark, a group of children are holding candles.)

JAY "BOOM" DeBOOM: I remember me and him all the way back to kindergarten. He was, eh, I dunno. He was like a brother or something. And we had some good times. Good times that I’ll never forget. Junk like that. (louder) Right now we all gotta stick together and protect each other, that’s what Bruno would’ve wanted. ‘Cuz they say the cult is gonna come and try and get some more of us and, we can’t let that happen. So we gotta kick some butt. We gotta kick some butt, like I’m sure Bruno’s doing in heaven right now. (walks away crying, two blonde girls, Terri and Margi, who have been looking very bored during his speech follow him.)

TERRI: Boom, are you okay?

BOOM: Yeah.

MARGI: That was beautiful.

BOOM: Yep.

TERRI: So did you hear who the cult is supposed to be coming after next?

MARGI: A blonde virgin.

BOOM: (looks at Terri and Margi) C’mon, I’ll give you guys a ride home.

(In the car)

TERRI: (To Margi) Your mom is always saying ‘wait until you’re married, don’t just give it away’.

MARGI: Yeah, and then some cult member wants to kidnap you and sacrifice you because you are a virgin. Oh, God. I mean, how do they even know if you really are a virgin?

TERRI: I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about it.

MARGI: You’re not a virgin, are you, Boom?

BOOM: Eh, no.

TERRI: You know, maybe if we weren’t virgins, we wouldn’t be so scared.

(The car suddenly pulls off the road. We see a full moon with two planets.

SCENE 2

(Two police cars marked Caryl County arrive and policemen start searching the rocks. There already is a blue car standing with its doors open.)

POLICEMAN: Over here!

POLICEWOMAN: Is he dead?

POLICEMAN: Yeah, it looks like he hung himself.

(The camera follows the rope from the body (no head visible) up to the top of the hill, voices start)

MARGI: He loves me.

TERRI: He loves me not.

MARGI: He loves me.

TERRI: He loves me not.

MARGI: He loves me.

TERRI: He loves me not.

MARGI: He loves me.

TERRI: He loves me not.

MARGI: He loves me.

TERRI: Not.

(They giggle as they pull the last leaf off a white flower.)

SCENE 3

(A car approaching an intersection. View of a sign saying "Leaving COMITY The Perfect Harmony City".)

SCULLY: The map says to turn right at the intersection.

MULDER: The detective who contacted me told me to turn left.

SCULLY: At the intersection?

MULDER: Stoplight.

SCULLY: This isn’t a stoplight, it’s a stop sign.

MULDER: Well, I’m sure she meant stop sign.

SCULLY: A turn right.

(Mulder turns right, for a few seconds we see the empty intersection, then Mulder comes racing back to the left.)

SCENE 4

(At a funeral)

MINISTER: What more can I say about the loss of a young man like Jay Deboom, that the sadness in each of our own hearts does not express more poignantly. A few people have asked if they might come up and share some of their own personal remembrances of Jay. And I’d like to invite them to come forward at this time and share some of those thoughts.

(A blonde woman, Detective White, walks to Mulder and Scully.)

DETECTIVE WHITE: (softly) His friends called him ‘Boom’, quarterback in the football team, he was well liked, a leader and he was looking forward to college until he was found hanging in the woods two days ago, the third high school boy in as many months.

MULDER: And your fact sheet said that there’s strong suspicions of a satanic cult at work?

DET. WHITE: That’s the popular opinion around here. Wildly popular, actually.

SCULLY: Based on what evidence?

DET. WHITE: Various eye-witness accounts of satanic rituals being conducted.

SPEAKER: I remember me and Boom back at kindergarten, he was, I dunno, like a brother, or something.

SCULLY: And you have physical evidence of these rituals being conducted?

DET. WHITE: No. No, just the murder victims.

SCULLY: So you have nothing concrete to connect these things to Satanists.

DET. WHITE: (affirms)

MULDER: If, eh, you detect a hint of skepticism or incredulity in Agent Scully’s voice, that’s because of the overwhelming evidence gathered by the FBI debunking virtually all claims of ritual abuse by satanic cults.

DET. WHITE: Is that true?

MULDER: Don’t ask me.

SCULLY: (irritated) Our research has proven that most of these accounts are false or imagined. That, eh, the trauma or mental illness that is often linked to satanic cults is a result of denial, hysteria and misplaced blame.

DET. WHITE: Well, you’re gonna have a hard time convincing the locals of that, especially after hearing the stories of two girls that were there the night Boom died.

SCULLY: Who interviewed them?

DET. WHITE: I did.

SCULLY: Together or separate?

DET. WHITE: Together. Why?

SCULLY: Well, then you have no way of determining whether or not the stories are fabricated.

DET. WHITE: No, no, these are good kids we’re talking about. Outstanding students, and the details they gave, I doubt they could have made them up.

SCULLY: Let me guess, they told you about a wild beast entering in on a black mass, the drinking of blood, the sacrifice of an infant … or a blonde virgin.

DET. WHITE: Yeah, that’s right, excuse me. (walks away)

SCULLY: Where is she going?

MULDER: You don’t suppose she’s a virgin, do you?

SCULLY: I doubt she’s even a blonde.

(A man, Bob, enters the room, even though Agent White and some others tried to stop him.)

BOB: How long are we going to stand by and watch our children die, while Satan’s soldiers run free in this city?

DET. WHITE: Bob, this is no time to…

BOB: No time? No time?

DET. WHITE: Hé, Bob, this is not the place for this.

BOB: My wife can’t sleep at night, my kids say they can feel Satan’s presence.

(Terri and Margi hold each other’s hand.)

BOB: (continues) We gotta, we gotta ... wake up and take action, people, we gotta cast the Devil out of our community.

(Smoke starts coming from Boom’s coffin, then flames, people panic.)

DET. WHITE: All right, everybody, stay calm.

(Mulder and Scully look at the burning coffin.)

MULDER: (to Scully) Maybe we’re just imagining that.

(Mulder walks out, followed, at distance, by Scully. Terri and Margi are the only ones left in the room.)

SCENE 5 Caryl County Sheriff’s station

(In an interrogation room.)

TERRI: My name is Terri Roberts, I go to Grover Cleveland Alexander High School, I’m a senior with a 3.98 grade point average.

(Other interrogation room, with Mulder.)

MARGI: I’m Margi Kleinjan, I go to Grover Cleveland Alexander High School, I’m a senior with 3.75 grade point average. I’m on the cheerleading yell squad with my best friend Terri.

TERRI: I’m on the cheerleading yell squad with my best friend Margi and we plan to go to college together in the fall.

SCULLY: Yeah, could you tell me again exactly what happened the night of Jay Deboom’s death?

TERRI: Boom, Jay, was giving us a ride home in his truck, when all of a sudden he swerved off the road.

MARGI: Like, he had been possessed or something. And he made us get out of the car, and walk to a clearing, where, people were wearing black robes and holding black candles. I couldn’t see their faces underneath their hoods, but, I knew they up to no good.

SCULLY: How did you know they were up to no good?

TERRI: Well, they were all standing around this altar, and one of them had a long knife, with a snake’s head on the handle, ruby eyes. And I thought first we were dead, because we’d heard that they were gonna sacrifice a blonde virgin ...

MARGI: But instead they just pulled out this little crying baby, and put it on the altar, and the man with the knife started saying some kind of prayer. (starts crying)

TERRI: He was chanting (starts crying) and he was saying stuff about how they were gonna sacrifice the baby, because it hadn’t been christened yet. And how they were gonna bury it in a mass grave on the outskirts of town, with all the other babies that they’d killed, and…

SCENE 6

TERRI'S VOICE ON TAPE: And, the whole group was chanting and saying things. And the man with the knife ...

MARGI'S VOICE ON TAPE: ... raised the knife up over the baby, and that’s when Terri and I just ran for our lives.

(White stops the tape.)

DET. WHITE: The two stories are virtually identical, the one corroborates the other.

SCULLY: I don’t suppose there have been any actual reports of stolen infants, or mass graves being uncovered anywhere in town, or that you found an alter, or any other evidence of a black mass?

DET. WHITE: No, no, in fact, we haven’t.

SCULLY: The problem is, that the details of these accounts could have been taken from any newspaper or magazine. As horrific as they sound, the stories that these girls told are common, even cliché.

MULDER: If you detect a hint of impatience in Agent Scully’s voice, that’s because the FBI’s study also found that in most cases, like the McWarren preschool trial, witnesses were often prompted in their statements by rumors of stories that were being circulated and that there was in fact nothing to support them.

DET. WHITE: How do you explain the burning coffin at the funeral?

MULDER: Don’t ask me.

SCENE 7

(At the morgue, Scully removes the plastic cover and opens the half-burned coffin.)

SCULLY: There have been incidents where the embalming fluid used to preserve the body have caused chemical reactions and produced heat and burning, I, I see nothing here that would suggest otherwise.

DET. WHITE: (pointing at a V-shaped burn on the body’s chest) What is that?

SCULLY: What’s what?

DET. WHITE: That pattern, here, on his chest.

MULDER: Yeah, I see it, it looks like a, eh, goat, some kinda horned beast.

SCULLY: A horned beast?

MULDER: (Pointing at burning that indeed looks kinda like a horned beast.) Yeah, right here, in this circle.

SCULLY: I think you guys are seeing something that isn’t there.

DET. WHITE: No, no, right here, look, you see, the horns are right there.

SCULLY: No, I don’t see the horns right there. (Snaps on surgical glove)

DET. WHITE: (After looking at Mulder.) I assume you’ll call me if you need anything further. (leaves)

MULDER: (To Scully) If it’s no bother, if it’s not too big a deal, maybe you can get me a few photographs of that thing which bears absolutely no resemblance to a horned beast.

SCULLY: Sure, fine. (Snaps on other glove.) Whatever.

SCENE 8

(A cat’s head fills the screen, then we see Mulder, he’s sitting on someone’s front steps. Agent White opens the door.)

MULDER: Oh, hi.

DET. WHITE: Eh, hi. What are you doing with my cat?

MULDER: He was scratching to get in and I thought, with the threat of satanic animal sacrifices looming, maybe you should keep him inside. (Hands over cat.)

DET. WHITE: (Puts cat down.) I thought the FBI’s research would’ve debunked that theory.

MULDER: Eh, first off, I’d like to apologize for my partner’s rude behavior, she tends to be rather rigid, but, but rigid in a wonderful way, not like she was today. Personally, I’d like to try to keep a more open mind.

DET. WHITE: So, what are you doing at my house?

MULDER: I was hoping you could help me solve the mystery of the horny beast.

SCENE 9

(We see a neon sign saying: ZIRINKA: astrology, readings, numerology, runes. Inside: )

ZIRINKA: (Looking at picture of burn) Let me make sure I heard you right, you say you see horns.

MULDER: Do you see a, a goat here, some kinda beast?

ZIRINKA: This is a trick, right, to try and entrap me.

DET. WHITE: Nobody is trying to entrap you.

ZIRINKA: Eh, yeah, right. There are a lot of loonies running around this town that like to think that I’m a Satanist. But the truth is, I’m just a number cruncher, trying to make an honest living.

MULDER: Well, what do you think is going on, if I may ask?

ZIRINKA: Well, I think the whole town’s lost its marbles. I should’ve been the first to see it coming, but, it’s hard being a small business owner, I mean, you should see the paperwork.

MULDER: What do you mean ‘seen it coming’?

ZIRINKA: Well, we’re heading into a rare planetary alignment, where Mercury, Mars and Uranus are extreme influences.

MULDER: On what?

ZIRINKA: (Hands over her business card.) Office hours are nine to five, all major credit cards accepted.

SCENE 10

(view of a horned animal (goat?) on the floor of a gym. There’s a basketball practice, Terri and Margi are sitting behind a table with sodas.)

TERRI: (pointing at one of the boys.) Craig Wilmore.

MARGI: Hate him, roger.

TERRI: Points up for his dermatology gene.

(players start fighting)

MARGI: Can it be true that these people will soon be adults bringing new life into this world?

TERRI: I’m so depressed.

(one of the boys picks up a cup from the table.)

TERRI: Hi, Scott. (to MARGI: ) Scott Simic, babe-a-licious in [overtime seeing].

(Scott walks to his girlfriend.)

MARGI: Minus the Brenda-appendage.

TERRI: Hate her.

MARGI: Hate her, wouldn’t wanna date her.

(Brenda, practicing some cheerleading, falls. One of the players bumps into the table with sodas and spills the drinks all over Terri and Margi.)

BOY: Oh, hey, sorry. (Walks away.)

TERRI: Hate him!

MARGI: Hate him, wouldn’t wanna date him!

(The boy gets hit on the head with a ball, the ball rolls on under the bleachers, he follows it. Suddenly the lights fail and the bleachers start retreating, trapping the boy.)

SCENE 11, January 12, 5:10 AM

(In the gym, Mulder and White looking at the bleachers.)

SCULLY: What happened?

DET. WHITE: Another young man has died.

MULDER: An electrical surge caused a power failure, but somehow activated the motor that retracts the bleachers and he got caught inside of them.

AN AGENT: Detective White, can I see you?

DET. WHITE: (To Mulder and Scully.) Excuse me.

(Scully looks around and sees Terri and Margi making statements to the local cops.)

SCULLY: (To MULDER: ) You weren’t in your motel room.

MULDER: I went to follow up a lead with Detective White.

SCULLY: I see.

MULDER: You see what?

SCULLY: Look, we’ve been working together for, what, two years now? We have different opinions, but I didn’t expect you to ditch me.

MULDER: I didn’t ditch you!

SCULLY: Fine, whatever.

DET. WHITE: (returning) We got more trouble; a mob has gathered on the south side of town.

SCENE 12

(Locals, led by Bob, are digging in a field when Mulder, White and Scully arrive.)

DET. WHITE: What’s going on here, Bob?

BOB: George Huntacker’s little boy got a phone call from someone who said they knew the location of the mass grave.

DET. WHITE: You’re destroying private property, Bob, you’re gonna have to stop digging.

BOB: Our children are dying!

DET. WHITE: Well, that does not give you the right to come out here and tear up Harvey Molage’s back yard.

BOB: Maybe Harvey’s got something to hide. We’ve got two kids who’re prepared to say he took them on a camping trip and made them play naked movie star games! (leaves)

MULDER: That man, is he always that hysterical?

DET. WHITE: No, Bob’s our high school principal, I’ve never heard him say a bad word about anyone.

SCULLY: This is called ‘rumor panic’. It’s when XXX that links up with a popular satanic cult myth and an increase of attention in a community. A villain or villains are singled out as the focus of the community’s confusion and angst about unexplained events, like the death of the high school boys. There have been at least twenty incidents since 1983 from upstate New York to Reno, Nevada and not one of them has turned up a single shred of evidence to support the wild allegations.

A WOMAN: (Screaming) I found bones!

BOB: She found bones!

(Commotion, everybody goes to the woman.)

Scully (?): Allright, everybody, stay back!

WOMAN: They’re in the bag.

(Mulder and Scully both get down and start to put on surgical gloves, then they look at each other.)

MULDER: Go ahead…

SCULLY: No, you go ahead.

MULDER: No, no, be my guest. I know how much you like snapping on the latex.

(Scully snaps on the glove and opens the bag; there are small bones in it.)

BOB: They’re child’s bones!

MULDER: (Pointing at a tag) What’s that, what is that, right there, that some kind of lettering there?

SCULLY: (reads) R. W. G.

BOB: Dick Godfrey. That bag belongs to Doctor Godfrey. He’s the baby killer!

(Everyone leaves, led by Bob.)

MULDER: Who’s Doctor Godfrey?

DET. WHITE: He’s a town pediatrician.

(Scully sighs, looks up, probably thinking: ‘I’m tired of all this’/’not again’.)

SCENE 13

(Mob comes to Dr. Godfrey’s house, Bob bangs on the door.)

BOB: Come on out, Godfrey!

(In the house, Dr. Godfrey comes down the stairs, wearing very high heels, a (silk?) peignoir and make-up, he briefly looks out of the window, then runs.)

BOB: He’s home, he’s in there!

(Mob start banging on the door and windows, yelling.)

SCENE 14

(At the precinct)

DET. WHITE: Let me get this straight, for the record; you haven’t seen the bag in a year and you sold it at a garage sale.

DR. GODFREY: To a young girl, one of the Roberts family. They live a few doors down.

DET. WHITE: Why was it filled with bones and buried in the middle of a field?

DR. GODFREY: I have no idea.

DET. WHITE: Well, the people of this town seem to think you do. Would you be willing to take a lie detector test?

DR. GODFREY: Eh…

(Scully enters.)

SCULLY: You can go now, Dr. Godfrey, I don’t think we’ll be needing you any further. Your story checked out.

DR. GODFREY: Thank God. (Gets up and puts on jacket, standing behind Mulder.)

SCULLY: The bones, turned out to be the skeletal remains not of an infant, but of a beloved, fourteen year old [lasa apso], formerly known as: (holds out collar) Mr. Tippy.

(Terri enters the room.)

TERRI: Mr. Tippy…

MULDER: This may not be any time to mention it, but someone is wearing my favorite perfume.

(Everyone looks at him.)

SCULLY: Can I have a word with you?

(They go out into the hall.)

SCULLY: This has gone on far enough.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: I am not going to be humiliated by you, in front of you, or by having to bring a teenage girl in, on her birthday of all days, to identify the bones of her dead dog, Mr. Tippy!

(Mulder loses interest, starts sniffling the air, closing in around Scully’s head.)

SCULLY: I see no reason to pursue this case any further and not only that, I find your conduct and comportment in this investigation not just alarming, but highly objectionable. What are you doing?!

MULDER: (slightly distracted.) Must be Detective White…

SCULLY: If that’s the reason we’re sticking around, that’s your business. (Walks away.)

MULDER: What? (surprised/incredulous) What are you talking about?

SCULLY: Detective White.

MULDER: We came down here because of three unexplained deaths, Detective White is just trying to solve them. She could use our help.

SCULLY: Well, you two seem to have a certain … simpatico. I’m going back to Washington in the morning.

(Mulder slowly sinks to the wall while Scully leaves.)

SCENE 15

(Full moon, two planets vertically align under it. View of a street, sounds of a party. Inside a house a party is going on, we see a balloon saying ‘Happy birthday Terri & Margi', a table with cake and presents. There’s loud music and some people are dancing. In another room, in silence, a group of children is playing with an Ouija-board.)

BRENDA: Who am I gonna marry?

(The pointer on the board slowly moves to the S, then almost reaches C, but quickly bends off to A and continues to T, A, and N. The group of children spells every letter out loud and gradually becomes more frightened.)

ALL: Satan?!

(Brenda runs to the bathroom, enters, sees Terri and Margi standing in front of the mirror, there are also some candles burning.)

TERRI AND MARGI: One Bloody Mary, two Bloody Mary, three Bloody Mary, four Bloody Mary…

BRENDA: What are you guys doing?

MARGI: You just close your eyes and count to thirteen and Bloody Mary appears in the mirror.

TERRI: Come on in, Brenda.

BRENDA: No. Thank you.

(Brenda tries to leave, but the door closes in front of her.)

TERRI AND MARGI: Five Bloody Mary, six Bloody Mary, seven Bloody Mary…

(Downstairs the children hear a scream, they turn off the radio, the scream continues.)

SCENE 16, 8:25 PM

(Comity Motel.)

(Mulder is putting half - frozen orange juice in a half - full bottle of vodka, (TD NOTE: a rather crude version of a screwdriver, which is vodka and orange juice) shakes it and drinks some. The top two buttons of his shirt are open and his tie is hanging untied on his shoulders. He turns on the TV, a black-and-white movie is playing (music: Sabre Dance), it’s on every channel.)

(The camera turns away to Scully’s room. She is sitting on the bed, smoking, surfing the channels; the same movie everywhere. Scully switches off the TV, throws the remote next to her on the bed and gets up. She starts to walk towards the window, saying to herself: “Detective White could use our help.” She looks briefly out of the window, then continues pacing the room, mumbling things like “Just here to solve this case” and “Detective White”)

(Mulder is still trying to get something else from the TV, he’s trying the remote from every possible angle. Then someone knocks on the door, he opens.)

DET. WHITE: Can I come in? (Comes in and takes coat off.)

MULDER: What happened?

DET. WHITE: (Points at shoe box she brought in.) I found that on my front doorstep.

(Mulder opens the box, in it is the collar of Det. Angela White’s cat (tel. nr. 555-0114).)

DET. WHITE: (upset) If they’re not Satanists, who are they?

(Mulder walks to her and embraces her comfortingly, then starts sniffling her perfume.)

DET. WHITE: (pushing him away.) What are you doing?

MULDER: Nothing.

DET. WHITE: You’ve been drinking.

MULDER: Yes, I, I have, which is funny, because I usually, I normally never, I don’t drink.

(White nods a bit, then walks to the bottle of vodka, picks it up and looks at Mulder, who, somewhat apologizing, shrugs. She looks at the bottle and then drinks some herself.)

DET. WHITE: You know, I don’t feel like going home. Do you mind if I slept here? (Kicks off her shoes and takes off her jacket.)

MULDER: (Kinda fuzzy) Actually, I’m sure I could eh, get you another room.

(Mulder goes to the phone, tries to get the operator, but White throws him on the bed and positions herself over him so he can’t get up.)

DET. WHITE: Maybe we can solve the mystery of the horny beast.

MULDER: Maybe we should just watch some television. There’s a movie on TV, actually, it’s the same movie on every channel.

DET. WHITE: Weird. I like weird, I feel weird. (Starts kissing Mulder)

(Suddenly Scully comes in.)

SCULLY: Mu… (sees them). There’s been another death.

SCENE 17

(Scully walks to the car, hastily followed by Mulder and White.)

MULDER: Was it a murder?

SCULLY: A high school girl was impaled by flying glass from a bathroom mirror. (Opens door on driver’s side)

MULDER: Let me drive…

SCULLY: I’m driving.

MULDER: Scully, it’s not what you think…

SCULLY: I didn’t see anything anyway. (Sits down.)

MULDER: Will you let me drive!?

SCULLY: I’m driv… Why do you always have to drive? Because you’re the guy? Because you’re the big macho-man?

MULDER: No. I was just never sure your little feet could reach the pedals. (Closes Scully’s door, then to DET. WHITE: ) Will you go with her, please? Thank you. (To himself: ) “Big macho-man”

SCENE 18, 10:01 PM

(Somewhere at a diner. Scott is staring over his burger. Terri and Margi enter, sit down at his table, they’re dressed in black and wearing much make-up).

MARGI: Hey.

TERRI: Loss of appetite, that’s not a good sign.

SCOTT: I’d like to be alone.

TERRI: Well, you got your wish.

SCOTT: What happened to you guys. You used to be…

TERRI: Look, Scott, we’re not dressed like this for the funeral. We’re here to make you feel better tonight. Carpe PM

SCOTT: Oh… (leaves).

TERRI: Hate him.

MARGI: (no reaction)

TERRI: Hate him!

MARGI: (looks at Terri, then leaves)

SCENE 19

(at Zirinka’s. Zirinka is checking Mulder’s credit card(s))

MULDER: When we were here before you s……

ZIRINKA: I’m just waiting for authorization.

MULDER: I’m a federal agent.

ZIRINKA: Last I heard, the federal government couldn’t pay its bills. Okay, you’re good for up to 300 bucks. How can I help you?

MULDER: You said that you knew why people are behaving so strangely around here.

ZIRINKA: Well, the same reason that my dog’s been trying to mate with the gas barbecue for the last two months.

MULDER: You said it was planetary?

ZIRINKA: Once every eighty-four years Mercury, Mars and Uranus come into conjunction. Only this year Uranus is in the house of Aquarius.

MULDER: That’s a bad thing?

ZIRINKA: Bad like an Irwin Allan movie. I mean, things are gonna fall outta the sky, disaster lies await, especially around here.

MULDER: Why here?

ZIRINKA: We’re in a geological vortex, a high-intensity meridian.

(Mulder looks confused.)

ZIRINKA: A cosmic G-spot? All combinating on January 12th when they come into perfect alignment. Which would be ... (looks at watch) today. Hey.

MULDER: Why is this affecting everyone?

ZIRINKA: Well, some people more than others. Relationships are gonna suck, significant dates can exaggerate the effects.

MULDER: What if today was my birthday?

ZIRINKA: Then I’d say happy birthday. Unless of course you were born in 1979, and then I’d call the police.

(Mulder's confused again.)

ZIRINKA: You’d have a Jupiter-Uranus opposition, forming what’s called a grand square, where all the planets align into a cross. All the energy of the cosmos would be focused on you.

SCENE 20

(Scott puts his pick-up in the garage, when he gets out, Margi rises from the back)

MARGI: You don’t have to be alone tonight.

SCOTT: What are you doing?

MARGI: (closing in on Scott) The insensitivity to your pain way too much for me to bear. So I ...

(Scott closes garage door, just after Terri enters)

TERRI: What? So you, what? So you blew me off so you could snatch same shoulder-time with rude-boy?

MARGI: (looks at spring) Back off Terri!

TERRI: Happy birthday, bitch. (spring flies to Scott)

MARGI: Right back at you! (other spring flies through garage)

TERRI: You’re bleeding.

MARGI: So are you.

(they both look at the back of the garage, where Scott sinks to the floor, being pierced by the spring that still sticks in the wall)

MARGI: You killed him.

TERRI: What d’you mean, I killed him? You killed him.

MARGI: I didn’t kill him.

(Terri has left, Margi kneels down besides Scott’s body)

SCENE 21

(a dark road with a car, inside Scully and White, silent, suddenly they both gasp; a complete bird has splashed on the windshield. Scully stops, the road is filled with dead birds, people with lights are coming from the other direction)

SCENE 22

ZIRINKA: I’ll let you fill in the amount.

MULDER: (filling in check when his phone rings) Mulder.

MARGI: I know who the killer is. I know who did it all.

MULDER: Who is this?

MARGI: Margi Kleinjan.

MULDER: Where are you, Margi? Just tell me where you are.

SCENE 21B

(the people with the light are much closer now, Scully and White look at them, Bob leads)

SCULLY: I dunno what you think you’re doing, but I suggest you put that gun down, sir, or I’m gonna have to arrest you.

BOB: We’re not standing around anymore, waiting for answers. We’re taking this situation into our own hands.

SCULLY: You can’t go walking down the middle of a street carrying a loaded weapon, it is against the law.

BOB: Not if I’m hunting, it’s not. Hunting Satanists.

SCULLY: There are no Satanists here.

BOB: Then who killed those kids, and who killed all these birds.

TERRI: (comes running from behind Scully and White) Somebody, help me! I know who the killer is. I know who did it all. All the murders.

SCENE 23

(Mulder enters Scott’s garage, sees Margi and Scott and the spring in the wall)

MULDER: Come on, Margi, let’s get you out of here.

MARGI: She killed him.

MULDER: Who?

MARGI: Terri, she killed all of them.

MULDER: She killed all the high school boys.

MARGI: And Brenda Summerfield.

MULDER: How did she do it?

SCENE 21C

TERRI: I think she’s possessed or something. She killed Scott Simic with a garage door spring. I dunno how she does it, I think she..

MARGI: I think she’s evil. She tricked Boom into going up on that cliff, and then she pushed him off. And laughed about it, just like she did Eric Fowler the other night in the gym.

TERRI: When all the lights went out, and she knew that he was trapped under the bleachers, she could hear him screaming and she wouldn’t make it stop.

SCULLY: Why didn’t you stop her Terri, why didn’t you tell anybody?

TERRI: Because, because I was afraid of her, because she was my best friend. Best friends are supposed together, right?

SCULLY: (phone rings) Scully.

MULDER: Scully, it’s me.

SCULLY: (‘oh great’ look on her face, gets in car) Where are you?

MULDER: I’m at a crime scene, a new one. I think I have a solid lead on these deaths.

SCULLY: I’m way ahead of you, Mulder. I’ve got a suspect I wanna bring in.

MULDER: Who’s that?

SCULLY: Margi Kleinjan.

MULDER: (walking out of Margi’s hearing range) (to Margi) Hold on a second (to Scully) Margi Kleinjan?

SCULLY: That’s right, her friend just gave us a statement.

MULDER: Actually, I’m way ahead of you, Scully, because I’m standing here with Margi Kleinjan and she just gave me a statement implicating her friend.

SCULLY: Who?

MULDER: Terri.

SCULLY: Well, actually I’m way ahead of you, Mulder, because I’m with Terri right now.

MULDER: You what?

SCULLY: I’ve got your suspect and you’ve got mine. Why does that make sense to me at this point?

MULDER: Look, Scully, I don’t think this has anything to do with any cult. I wanna get them both in and get a formal statement and clear this thing up, okay?

SCULLY: (no reaction)

MULDER: Scully?

SCULLY: Sure, fine, whatever. (turns phone off)

SCENE 24, 11:48 PM

(At the precinct, Mulder brings Margi in)

MULDER: Wait right here (starts walking away, then turns to ask: ) Detective White’s cat?

MARGI: (affirms)

MULDER: (sighs and walks away, then hears ‘sabre dance’ and looks at tv: the movie from the other night in the motel)

(Everything starts shaking, movie on every computer screen, furniture moves. Terri enters, followed by Scully.)

TERRI: Hey, girlfriend.

MARGI: Hey. (silence, shaking continues)

MULDER: (points at Margi) Get her outta here.

(all weapons fire, music continues, light fails. Mulder grabs Margi and takes her away, the further away she is the calmer the room gets. Mulder throws Margi in the first cell he can find. Terri follows)

TERRI: Out of my way!

(Mulder and Scully (who followed Terri) throw her with Margi in the cell, everything starts shaking.)

SCULLY: What the hell is going on here?

MULDER: Something cosmic.

(more shaking, Mulder looks at wall clock; at exactly 24:00 hours the shaking stops, Bob and group enter.)

MULDER AND SCULLY: Put that gun down!

BOB: Where is she?

MULDER: Who?

BOB: The girl, the guilty one.

MULDER: They’re both in here.

BOB: Well, I think we’d like to see for ourselves. (Mulder stops him) (points gun at Mulder) I think we’re all tired of waiting for law-enforcement to bring about justice in our city.

DET. WHITE: (works her way up front, stops Bob) Open the door.

MULDER: You don’t wanna go in there.

DET. WHITE: (walks to door, comes face-to-face with Scully.) Excuse me.

SCULLY: Gladly. (steps aside)

(White opens the door. Terri and Margi are sitting in a corner, crying. They all look at them)

MULDER'S VOICEOVER: We are but visitors on this rock, hurling through time and space at sixty-six thousand miles an hour. Tethered to a burning sphere by an invisible force and an unfathomable universe. This most of us take for granted while refusing to believe these forces have any more effect on us than a butterfly beating its wings halfway around the world. Or that two girls, born on the same date, the same time and the same place, might not find themselves the unfortunate focus of similar unseen forces. Converging like the planets themselves into burning pinpoints of cosmic energy, whose absolute gravity would threaten to swallow and consume everything in its path. Or maybe the answer lies even further from our grasp.

BOB: I think it was Satan.

(Mulder and Scully look at each other)

BOB: Yes, sir, Satan it was.

GROUP: Oh..

SCENE 25

(Mulder puts the bags in the trunk of the car. Scully is sitting in the driver’s seat, adjusting the chair. Mulder gets in.)

SCULLY: You ready?

MULDER: You’re the driver.

(The car squeaks away)

(reaching the intersection, we see the sign: entering COMITY ... the Perfect Harmony City ... pop. 38.825)

MULDER: Eh, Scully, if I’m not mistaking, we’re gonna be taking a left up here.

SCULLY: (no reaction)