From: Katvictory57@aol.com   
      
   TITLE: This Could Be Heaven Or This Could Be Hell Post 2 of 6   
   AUTHOR: Katvictory   
   RATING: I'd go NC17. Some nasty words. Violence.   
   CATEGORY: X-File, Angst, Alternate Universe, MT   
   SPOILERS: Clear up to "The Unnatural."   
   SUMMARY: Set in the "Into The Mystic" universe. Mulder's and Scully's   
   manhunt for a body swapping serial killer leads them to El Cajon,   
   California and a whole lotta trouble.   
   DISCLAIMERS: You know the drill -- Mr. Carter owns these people. He   
   owns the universe where they live. I expect no money. The song lyrics   
   quoted by Mulder ad nauseam are from "Hotel California" by Eagles   
   Frye and Henley. The lyrics Mulder sings to Scully are from "Only The   
   Good Die Young" by Billy Joel. I offer these artists the same   
   assurances I do Mr. Carter. I make no claim of ownership and expect   
   no money.   
   THANK YOU: So many to thank: Roda93, Idigomuse & Mori who rolled up   
   their sleeves and got their hands dirty doing the hard part, making   
   me a little less ignorant. And again, to Amy, Indi, Mori, Rae,   
   Laurie -- special people who encourage, badger, read, edit, burp me,   
   change me, and are my friends. Thank you!   
   This story is dedicated to Wong and Morgan, El Cajon Valley High   
   School Class of 1979. That's what hooked me on X-Files, learning that   
   we all attended ECVHS. The El Cajon, CA portrayed in this story is   
   pure fantasy, memories of a misspent youth. No relation to any town,   
   living or dead.   
   FEEDBACK: Please! Katvictory57@aol.com   
   Katvictory ECVHS Class of 1975   
   Go Braves!!!   
      
   "Up Ahead In The Distance, I Saw A Shimmering Light"   
      
   The car made its way down the twisting highway, its headlights   
   cutting through the warm, smothering darkness. Detective Kirchman's   
   emissary briefed the two agents on what he knew so far about the   
   latest victims of the "El Cajon Slasher."   
   "Hiker found the two bodies this afternoon," the young detective,   
   Alex Kolb, explained as he guided the car to follow the dark,   
   twisting road. Kolb looked to be twenty if he was a day. "Took him   
   four hours to get to a phone, so in this heat, they oughta just be   
   getting ripe," Alex quipped.   
   Mulder rolled his eyes and focused on the dim shadows that passed his   
   window. It seemed as if they had been driving for hours. He shifted   
   in the seat, trying to find a comfortable position for his aching   
   knee. Scully stirred behind him, and he knew she was well aware that   
   his leg was paining him tonight, so he turned and offered her a smile   
   of reassurance that he would be fine.   
   "I know Otay is near the border, but is it much further?" Scully   
   asked, hoping they'd soon make it to the scene so her partner could   
   stretch his leg some.   
   "Almost there," Detective Kolb replied, peering ahead. "Look we can   
   see the scene now -- up ahead in the distance."   
   "I saw a shimmering light..." Mulder murmured to himself.   
   "Yeah, they do have a lot of candle power there." The young man   
   nodded, indicating the large klieg lights used to do night   
   investigations.   
   Mulder sighed and shook his head. God, he felt old.   
   They pulled off, parking beside the road. Alex led the way as they   
   walked over to the site where the victims had been dumped. A forty   
   square foot area had been cordoned off. Mulder and Scully looked   
   around, searching for a familiar face among the thirty or so people   
   milling busily about the outskirts of the area.   
   "We get a lotta bodies dumped here," Detective Kolb informed the   
   partners. "It's right on the border. Spend a lotta time up here,   
   don't we, John?"   
   The young man appeared to be talking to a sheriff who was standing   
   nearby. The older uniformed officer seemed to consider the over-eager   
   detective a pain and continued to watch the milling crowd, allowing   
   Alex only a disinterested nod. Kolb took the brush off with a grain   
   of salt, and continued to rattle on. "Oh, lord, back in Otay again,"   
   he quipped.   
   "That's Lodi, Junior," Sheriff John Stone said in disgust at Alex's   
   misquotation of the classic lyric.   
   "Whatever," the young detective shrugged. "I wasn't even born yet."   
   Mulder sighed, shifting his weight off of his bad leg. It was going   
   to be a long night.   
      
   ***************   
      
   Mulder asked to have the back seat on the long ride north to El   
   Cajon, in order to be able to stretch out and attempt to get some   
   sleep. Scully agreed, and by the time the sun cut through the early   
   morning fog, she was asleep. Mulder used the time to study the notes   
   he had taken at the scene. It was clear from the dry, desiccated look   
   of the bodies, that these were not slasher victims 8 and 9, more like   
   1 and 2. Several things puzzled Mulder as he had stood beside Scully   
   and the ME and watched them do a cursory examination of the bodies.   
   The people had been killed by someone knowing Nix's methods and   
   wanting to broadcast this fact.   
   Tentative IDs had been established for the couple through a search of   
   the male victim's wallet, which had been left on his body. His   
   Virginia driver's license showed he was Art Letourneau. A quick check   
   of missing persons in the El Cajon area had ascertained that while   
   Art's name was not listed, the person he had written as next of kin,   
   his mother, was listed as missing. So it appeared, barring dental   
   records ruling them out, that Ruby Letourneau and her son Art were   
   laying dead at the scene.   
   Mulder speculated that Ruby was killed first. Even with decomposition   
   and near mummification, her body showed clear signs that she had been   
   tied hand and foot with nylon rope. The slit on the stomach where Nix   
   made his incision, as was his mode, was hideously apparent, as was   
   the dried-out strand of intestines that had been brought up around   
   Ruby's neck and tied in a bow. The woman's ears and ring finger were   
   missing, still staying with Nix's habit of removing his victims'   
   jewelry. The amputated finger was found near the body but not the   
   ears. All classic Nix mutilations. He kept the ears. He had a   
   fixation with body piercing, but only wanted the rings, not the   
   fingers they were placed on. Mulder noticed one oddity that he   
   mentioned to Detective Kirchman at the scene. Nix, a huge, strong   
   monster of a man, had always pulled the fingers out of joint, making   
   amputation easier. Ruby's fingers had been cut off by sawing through   
   the bone.   
   Art, at first glance, was defiled in much the same way, but Mulder   
   knew he had been killed in an entirely different manner. Art's skull   
   had been cracked open by a blunt object, which appeared to be the   
   cause of death. Mulder speculated that the mutilations were post   
   mortem. Someone had deliberately cut up a dead man to make it look   
   like Nix had done it. It was Mulder's guess that Art had surprised   
   the killer in the act of murdering Ruby and had been killed in a   
   struggle, perhaps trying to stop the madman.   
   He thought he knew who was doing this, and he thought he knew why.   
   Somehow, Nix had found a way to take possession of another body and   
   was killing again, using the exact same signature to lure Mulder to   
   him. *Well, so far it's working,* Mulder thought with a sigh. *He's   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)