From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: 23 Jun 2001 15:17:18 -0000 Subject: Martyr or Misguided 1/1 by Aranea Mayfly Source: direct Reply To: mayfly1013@aol.com MARTYR OR MISGUIDED By Aranea Mayfly DISCLAIMER: Not mine, never will be. So please don't sue me, you'd be fighting for pennies. ARCHIVE: sure, just let me know where. SPOILERS: This is Not Happening RATING: PG CATEGORY: Mythology. A journalistic take on Mulder's disappearance and supposed death. Assume DeadAlive still has not occurred. This was written for the Time Magazine Mulder Project (On Hold) FEEDBACK: would love to hear from y'all at mayfly1013@aol.com SUMMARY: A murder swept under the carpet, why do we know so little about the final days of Fox Mulder's life? MARTYR OR MISGUIDED By Aranea Mayfly Mayfly1013@aol.com Four months ago the FBI buried one of its own, thus ending the final chapter of Agent Fox Mulder's life. Laid to rest beside his parents in a North Carolina cemetery, the 39-year-old federal agent has paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. But did the secrets of his mysterious disappearance and untimely death go with him to the grave? Mulder's naked body was discovered last October outside Helena, Montana. Discarded amidst the muted tapestry of the autumn western landscape, his body was riddled with numerous bruises and scars that screamed of inhumane brutality. Someone had not just injured the fallen agent. Rather someone had violently tortured and dissected him like a frog in a high school biology class then dumped him in the wilderness hoping the evidence would be erased by nature. Although painfully obvious that foul play was involved, no autopsy was ever performed, and the FBI files regarding his demise remain sealed. Since when were autopsies optional in homicide cases? What little is known comes from Helena police reports in the days leading up to the recovery of the agent's body. He wasn't the only victim of this bizarre brutality. In this capital city of 25,000 known for its frontier charm and ties to Lewis and Clark, the community was shocked when a young woman turned up at St. Jean Community Hospital with similar injuries to that of Mulder's. Her name was Teresa Hoese, 28, a young mother from Bellefleur, Oregon. "She's a sweet girl, the type you'd be proud to have in your family," Dorothy Nemman, Hoese's aunt commented. "Why would anyone ever want to hurt her?" Near death, she was found in a pasture fifteen miles from Helena by an amateur astronomer. Dr. Prakash Desai held little hope for her survival. Others called into her case agreed. "It was nothing short of a miracle," the Montana internist said in a recent interview following Hoese's astonishing recovery. "I was certain that Teresa's injuries were fatal. She had sustained damage to her soft palate, and it appeared that someone had actually performed a bizarre surgery, scooping out segments of her internal organs. These injuries were certainly not compatible with life. In my twelve years of practice, I have never seen anything as horrific." But the body count did not stop there. She was not the only victim found that week. Unfortunately, Gary Edward Cory was not so lucky. Two days after Hoese was found, his cold, lifeless body was discovered in a field outside Helena. He too appeared to have been the victim of the same macabre procedures. Like Hoese and Mulder, he bore a healing scar that ran from stem to stern. All three victims appear to have been opened and gutted like dressed game then deposited in the unforgiving wilderness to die. Unlike Mulder, Cory's body was meticulously autopsied. Reports from a federal pathologist cataloged a laundry list of abuses. The young man's body was covered with "cuts and abrasions from ligature or binding devices," the report stated. These injuries were coupled with bruising patterns around ankles, wrists, and face. Had Cory, Hoese, and Mulder been restrained - perhaps physically pinned in place - as they were tortured? Within a week, the tiny Montana capital had sported three dead or dying victims of unspeakable crimes - two from the same coastal town of Bellefleur, Oregon, the same town where Agent Mulder had vanished this previous May. See a pattern forming here? In fact, it was the disappearances of many of Bellefleur's citizens including Hoese and Cory initially drew Mulder and his partner Special Agent Dana Scully to Oregon last spring. The two headed up the small FBI investigative unit known as the X-files specializing in unsolved cases that fell beyond the realm of logical explanation. The scientist and the ghost-chaser, as they were known in FBI inner circles, started their investigation in Bellefleur after nearly a dozen of its citizens had vanished without a trace. Rumors of serial killers, mass suicide, and even alien abduction began to circulate as soon as the first person disappeared. The tight-lipped community was hesitant to allow Mulder and Scully to probe deeper. That is, until Fox Mulder ended up on the list of the missing. His boss, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner has refused to comment on the events surrounding his agent's disappearance. But others in Bellefleur remember that evening all too well. The culmination of eyewitness accounts lead to the following speculation: Director Skinner and Agent Mulder had set up some sort of surveillance in the forest that night. To this day, only Skinner knows the nature of the investigation, and he's not talking. Numerous townspeople recall bright lights over the hills surrounding the town shortly after dark. Streaming across the night sky, they vanished as quickly as they had appeared taking with them a handful of Bellefleur residents and Agent Mulder. "I'd seen the lights before," a Bellefleur waitress said while pouring a cup of coffee at a local diner. "Nothing good ever comes from them. They say those lights are from a UFO. That is if you believe that sort of thing." Apparently Mulder did. Never one to hide his beliefs, he has many times asserted the existence of extraterrestrial life including a now infamous outburst before a congressional subcommittee. Some say that he even thought that aliens had abducted his younger sister. But he wasn't the only one in Bellefleur to hold such outlandish beliefs. Many have believed for years that this tiny village has been the target of repeated alien abductions dating back to 1989. Yet not everyone is ready to jump on the ET bandwagon. Although it is easy to get swept up in the fervor over little green men, some investigating these events have a more logical explanation. Shortly after Hoese and Cory's body were found, more abductees were discovered hiding in a run-down ranch outside Helena during a federal raid. Many of these individuals appeared to be unharmed while others bore similar markings to that of Mulder and the other recovered victims. Surveillance cameras appeared to document their every move. Despite Big Brother's presence, they all seemed to place their complete trust in a man they called Absalom, a convicted petty thief that has been spouting doomsday rhetoric for years. Was this Absalom a messiah that had led his followers to a promised land or a madman who had ushered them to their own slaughter? Monica Reyes, an FBI expert on the occult and ritualistic crime, has been quick to point out that these murders and mutilations may have a less celestial origin. "[Their injuries] are peculiar," Reyes explained, "but not altogether different from your typical cult ritualistic abuse." In short, it may have not been little green men who had harmed these individuals, but rather these victims may have been drawn into cult much like Heaven's Gate that preyed on their fears and beliefs of alien abductions. It is in these fanatical viewpoints that Reyes believes that Mulder and the others met their untimely end. In a telephone conversation from her New Orleans office, Reyes matter-of-factly explained, "Each of these victims were what are known as true believers. They were all 100 percent certain of the abduction phenomenon. Unfortunately their desire to believe in this is what likely led to their deaths. Like other cult followers, individuals like these are so desperate to hold fast to their beliefs that they are easy targets by hucksters that use repeated psychological and physical abuse to entrap and enslave them to the point of no return." Yet it seems odd that an Oxford-trained psychologist such as Mulder would fall prey to a suicide cult that conjures up such ghastly images of David Koresh or Jim Jones. Even after his death, Mulder's former partner Dana Scully has never swayed in her faith in him or his quest, and she remains one of his most staunch defenders. Though she declined to be interviewed for this article, she did issue a brief statement in response: "Fox Mulder was man of integrity and a thorough and reliable agent. To think otherwise would libel his name. I am saddened by the loss of such a dedicated partner and friend. I hope that others would remember him for what he truly was and not the posthumous caricature that so many are determined to construe." While some experts are quick to conclude that the maverick agent's demise was the result of a tragic cult ritual taken too far, others still maintain that his suffering may not have been at the hands of sadistic humans at all. Yes, it would very easy to write off survivor Teresa Hoese as a brainwashed nut, but she speaks with a calmness and eloquence that hints at an inner strength not forged by mind-controlling doctrine but rather an endurance from facing unspeakable horror head on and living to tell about it. Initially she was reluctant to sit down and discuss her experiences. Even months later, the emotional wounds were still too fresh, she explained. But with a little coaxing, she finally agreed to answer some questions. Hiding the faint scars on either side of her face behind a dark veil of hair, she spoke not of mind manipulation but of torture and medical experimentation that make Josef Mengele look like a saint. "I don't remember much," Hoese conceded, her eyes turned downward and her voice barely above a whisper. "But what I do recall, I wouldn't wish on anyone." She paused to roll up the cuff of her sweater revealing a gaping scar on either side of her wrist. "I know this sounds crazy, but this is how they kept me in place. A bolt went right through my wrist and held me to the chair. There are marks just like them on my ankles." Yet when asked to describe more, Hoese grew more guarded, often gazing out the window as though someone or something was watching her. "There were tests after tests," she explained. "Sometimes drugs were injected into me. They made me feel sick and dizzy. Other times they drew my blood." To this day she does not recall the faces of her captors but can describe in great detail their instruments of torture. "There were these blades that would come down from the ceiling, and they would cut into me. I was always awake for the procedures." It was obvious this was one of the first times Hoese had ever spoken about her nightmarish memories. She did little to hide the tears that began to well beneath her eyes. "They cut into my chest and opened my ribcage. My doctor says you need wires to close the breastbone after surgery. But there are no wires in my chest." While captive, Hoese did not recall seeing any of the other victims. Throughout her ordeal, she was held in maddening solitude. The blinding lights from above and the whir of unseen machinery were her only companions. "I can still remember the sound of the drills that made holes in my teeth. I don't know if I could ever go to a dentist again without thinking about them." As for Mulder, the last time she recalled seeing him was shortly before her own disappearance. "I think I saw him standing in the woods. But that's when my memory gets a bit fuzzy. He could have been there, but there was no way of knowing. One thing's for certain - we weren't part of any cult, and we certainly didn't ask for this fate. They took us. None of us chose it. Agent Mulder wasn't a part of some sick ritual. They killed him, and they nearly killed me." Cult rituals, alien abduction in the middle of the night - both sound like fodder for a dime store mystery novel. But without more tangible evidence, we are left with nothing more than the testimony of woman with holes in her memory as large as the scars that mar her once beautiful features. Unfortunately, those who can corroborate Hoese's story are either dead or too scared to talk. In closing, we may never know how Fox Mulder met his end. Too many questions remain unanswered. Was he the tortured soul that wanted to believe so badly in life beyond this planet that his own misguided quest made him vulnerable to the whims of others? Or was he truly the victim of unethical medical experimentation by forces outside our planet? Regardless, one thing remains - someone or something killed Agent Mulder. But in light of what has been learned, perhaps his search for the truth warrants further investigation. Perhaps the question really begs to be asked, "Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?"