Chapter Text
Scully walked into the basement and noticed Mulder at his desk with the lamp on, absorbed in a Greek and Latin dictionary.
“Good morning, Mulder.” He looked up, nodding in greeting but clearly still lost in thought.“What would you call the fear of owls, Scully? Orinthobia or strigiformaphobia?”
“I don’t know, that second one is a mouthful though. My Latin and Greek are a little rusty from med school days, Mulder. Isn’t that more your area of expertise?” the redheaded agent replied, thinking of his undergrad degree as she hung up her coat
“I don’t know if it is specific enough to qualify as separate from the main, Orinthobia, fear of birds.”
“Are you looking for killer owls now? How much sleep did you get last night?” Scully asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Goblins, actually. What do you know about them?” Mulder asked, pointedly ignoring the last question, although Scully spotted several coffee cups scattered around him already.
“Aside from Tolkien and classical music? I suppose that they like to leave changelings or go after milk. They are a common fairytale that may have been used to explain childhood illness or other unexplained events in European culture. Usually connected with magic and dark places or caves in some way. More of a concern for settled people groups in villages or towns. Possibly fear of the dark and nightmares. The usual boogeyman parts of the psyche,” she grabbed her own coffee, taking a sip.
“Yes, it appears that many European cultures have their own version of the goblin myth, some dating back thousands of years. Funny thing is, similar creatures can be found in the folklore of other continents, in the Wampanoag and Zulu cultures for instance." -Mulder indicated the books on his desk, a selection from his folklore books that he kept in the office- “Goblins are primarily described as ugly, greedy creatures with intents ranging from mischievous and gift granters to evil. They are associated with kidnapping children and playing tricks on humans, sometimes even killing them. But in some places like Korea they can also act as guardians and give good luck or advice, and be formed from everyday objects imbued with a life of their own”.
“While that is fascinating from a literary and historical perspective Mulder, I am still not seeing the connection fairytales have with owls or the FBI.”
“I’m getting there, Scully. Agent Bianchi stopped by yesterday evening to ask for help for a case he is working on.”
“That’s unusual, isn’t it? We hardly exist to many of the other agents other than as a way to warn interns” Scully remarked in surprise.
“Well, it depends on the case, doesn’t it? I think Skinner probably told him it was worth asking though.” Mulder lifted a folder slightly from the messy stack squeezed in among the books and papers on the desk. “This past Friday a 5 year old child was abducted, Emily Ross. Her parents reported her missing after coming home from a night out and finding her older sister, Charlotte Ross, distraught. She has since been admitted for psychiatric evaluation after suffering an apparent psychotic episode when questioned by the police. Her initial statement was she had wished aloud that Emily was gone, and a strange man had shown up and taken her and wouldn’t give her back. She didn't want to give more detail. After being pressed by officers she finally broke down and told them she had wished her sister to, get this, goblins. Then a strangely dressed man who claimed to be their king, had shown up after Emily disappeared.” Scully raised her brows again but didn’t interrupt.
“She says she asked for her sister back but was told if she wanted her she would have to complete a challenge, which she failed. This was all within three hours that her parents were gone. Before you ask”-Mulder raised a hand-” she and her parents agreed to a drug test and she came back negative for all the usual substances.”
“Even if normal psychoactive substances were ruled out, the trauma of her sister being taken could have caused her mind to create a fantasy to help her cope with it,” Scully rationalized.
Mulder inclined his head. “Possible, but her statement actually matched some accounts that stood out in abduction cases in the X-files, as well as some regular cases I pulled from Johnson upstairs when following up on the profile. Before she stopped talking she mentioned an owl being a spy for the goblins, and she said a girl tried to help her. Apparently her parents had seen her scream at a nearby bird when they got back. Which is where- ”
“Mulder…” Scully said in a long-suffering tone.
“No really, there was a missing persons case in the X-files here, a 2 year old in the late 70’s. The father, who was the main suspect and later tried for murder, had some mental disturbance; became irrational around owls, simply hated the creatures and would scream at them, ended up diagnosed with ornithophobia, but it was filed here because he claimed goblins took the child. No body was found to prove he had murdered them, so he wasn’t convicted.” Mulder pulled out another file from the stack.
“Which leads us to more recent cases. Apparently just 3 years ago, a boy Max Baker started showing similar phobias and became very protective of his little brother Jimmy. His parents dismissed it at first, but took him to a therapist who believed that Max had experienced something traumatic given his symptoms. They believe that he had created his delusions to cope with some trauma, for which they were exploring further therapy to identify.
Something strange happened when his parents were watching the news covering a missing child case. He reacted and said that the girl on the television was the one who helped him get Jimmy back. His parents thought he was making it up until he said her name was Sarah, which the TV had been muted and the case was an older one not on the news recently. The police suspected that whoever had kidnapped the girl may have been after Jimmy and Max, possibly using her to lure them or she was able to help distract the kidnapper in some way. They filed a report with the girl's hometown police and with us, and as it happens the Bureau are monitoring the case” Mulder grabbed yet another file with a slightly dramatic flourish, and handed it to Scully , “take a look at this” he said, excitement barely hidden.
Scully took the file, intrigued, and began to scan through it. She noted the similar symptoms and fear of birds and obsession with folklore creatures and superstitions to ward them off, and protectiveness of her younger sibling.
“Mulder, this says that she was 15 when she went missing in 1986. So not even a ‘tender years’ case at the time, and possibly a runaway. If we are working with a child predator of some sort, you know better than I from your time in VCS that that is towards the upper end of the rest of his victims and it is unlikely that she would still be- well, alive anymore. Maybe we should be trying to find some other perps that match in the database of cases or our files. Look, it even says they had a suspect in the girls case”.
“That they dismissed. Even if the likelihood is low it doesn’t mean it is impossible, and with this lead it is at least worth investigating, Scully. Besides, she had a little brother, which does match with the rest of the profile. I don’t think this is our ordinary serial killer or child abductor, though I suspect that is what the rest of the investigation team thinks. Especially with the supernatural aspects of this case, it should have been in the X-Files before now.”
“Why wasn’t it then? This is about as spooky as it gets” Scully asked, intrigued despite herself.
“Initially the Williams case was kept higher priority because of her parents, a rather well known stage actress, and her ex, the father, who is a lawyer, they had enough connections to keep it from going cold. All I had was Max’s case, and a few other abduction or runaway accounts with less detail here in the X-Files, going back to the 1930’s.” Mulder gestured to the mess of files spread over his desk amidst the books.
“So how did you connect all this?”
“The Ross case was already taken by Agent Bianchi, he came last night to consult about it given the similarities, and wondered if I had seen anything else turn up. Initially Max Baker's information was just an addendum to the Williams case, but the rest of it was sent here as its own and filed away, under psychic sightings. But now with a potential serial offender and a current missing child's case he was interested in the connections and we managed to dig up the Williams case and those old X-files. Between that and Max’s case alone, it is a bit much for coincidence to also be happening with the missing Ross girl. Anything we have to go on, he wants to explore. Said he’d be happy to collaborate”
“What is our plan then, Mulder?”
“How do you feel about a trip to New York? We can stop for the thin crust pizza on the way.”
***
Scully was driving on I95, watching the road. Low scrubby trees typical of the bay area were starting to bud along the roadside, the occasional hawk in their branches searching for prey. They had just passed through Baltimore. Mulder was munching on sunflower seeds and reading one of the folklore books while she concentrated on the road. She glanced over at him, now that traffic had died down a little she wanted to straighten out their plan.
“This is a nice change for once, usually it is easier to schedule a meeting with the local detectives on a case than the loved ones. I am still surprised the Williamses agreed to speak to us so easily, you know sometimes families in these cases get burnt out.”
Mulder closed his book and turned his attention to her, frowning slightly, “Some of us don’t give up. It may mean we need to adjust our parameters of what could have happened, but if you are driven to keep searching, any clue is welcome.”
Scully felt a pang of remorse, she had forgotten for a moment how personal this was for Mulder. She quickly shifted focus.
“So what is your theory, these goblins exist and ancient people were trying to warn us?”
“Well something they perceived as these creatures. The abductions don't fit the normal profile but we could be dealing with a new one from another group or even species we haven’t documented before as they were dismissed as folktales. Still, some match other cases, harming livestock, strange grey skin and eyes,-that was mentioned in a 1962 case-, usually coming at night, mass delusions shared by victims,”
“Aliens.” Scully said in a resigned tone.
“I thought you’d like that Scully. Seems like the more logical and reasonable explanation than magical creatures.” A quick glance showed a hint of a smile on his face.
“Mulder” she began more gently “I know how much this may mean to you personally. But I don’t really see how this fits with the other ‘close encounters’ we’ve investigated. We need to consider that this may be just coincidence here or a predator with a unusual MO. Sarah Williams could well be a runaway unrelated to it all, she had a strained relationship with her stepmother according to the copies of police records attached there. It's also possible if she was particularly fanciful or struggling with mental illness at the time a predator could have used that to draw her in and isolate her" she suggested cautiously.
Scully knew that child victims evoked strong response from Mulder and often took an emotional toll.
“Well I guess we will see when we investigate. If it is a run of the mill monster, I hope we can nail the sick bastard” Mulder's tone was grim, no hint of the earlier playfulness.