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truthsower · 4 years ago

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WHAT IS FAITH?

CHECK OUT THIS INSPIRING VIDEO ABOUT FAITH: https://bit.ly/3rHPu1p

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)

On the island state of Tasmania there used to be a native dog, called a thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, because of the black and white stripes on the back half of the animal. The last known specimen died in captivity more than fifty years ago. However, there is now talk of cloning more Tasmanian tigers through DNA taken from a preserved specimen. Embryos could be implanted in other dogs, until a pack of Tasmanian tigers could be produced. The film Jurassic Park was based on a similar concept for bringing dinosaurs back. Whether or not such a feat is a realistic scientific possibility, there is no doubt that the only way to bring back an extinct species would be to have some reliable specimen or other link with the original, from which you could make copies. Unfortunately, the world today is going through a time when genuine faith is going the way of the dinosaur. People have something which they call faith today, but it is almost universally a counterfeit of the real thing. Because of that, we are going to try to give a description in this article of what genuine faith is like, so that the world will not be without a link to the real thing, even if all genuine possessors of faith die out.

(The most amazing thing about faith is just how simple it is. Unlike currency or great works of art, which are very hard to duplicate, it is the various forms of counterfeit faith which are complicated, while the genuine article is really quite simple. To understand the difference between the genuine and the counterfeits, think of the difference between the words "believe" and "belief". When you use the word "belief" it conjures up a picture of a formal statement, usually one that has been well thought out, which states, often in legal jargon, exactly what someone believes on a particular subject. That pretty well describes the counterfeits. The world is cluttered with various "belief systems", but they tell us very little about genuine faith. In fact, our experience has been that the bottom line to all the so-called Christian belief systems is that they invariably oppose genuine faith in Jesus Christ. We will explain more about that in a moment. But first, consider the word "believe". We use it all the time, with very little confusion about what it means. It is amazingly simple. Whenever someone says something, you either believe it or you do not. Jesus described faith as a tiny seed which grows into a huge tree. He was saying that simply believing the things that he said seems so insignificant that most people are inclined to overlook it in favour of something more complicated to describe faith in Jesus. But if we would simply "believe" him when he says something, out of that would grow everything that God really wants to see in his followers. It is unfortunate that most translations of John 3:16 say, "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." I have strong suspicions about that word "in" having been placed there by a zealous scribe who took exception to the word "believe" on its own. The word "in" gives the impression that we need only believe in the existence of Jesus and we will have everlasting life. (See this 1-minute video about John 3:16 meaning).

James wrote that even the devils have that kind of faith. (James 2:19) He argued, instead, in favour of faith that "works". (James 2:18) Sadly, the people who preach John 3:16 most strongly also argue most strongly against just about everything that James wrote, and against the whole concept of "good works" having anything to do with salvation. Their counterfeit belief system systematically attacks the idea of simply "believing" Jesus, and then acting in accordance with what he has said. As we said above, the counterfeit belief systems which are supposedly built on believing "in" Jesus all seem to oppose "believing" Jesus. They have elaborate ways of justifying their traditions, but none of them come from the teachings of Jesus himself. Did Jesus tell us to build huge cathedrals, to recite prayers, asking him into our hearts, to bless bombs and become involved in world politics? What exists today in the name of Christianity bears very little resemblance to the early Christians. Of course, if the Bible really does teach that faith is a belief system more than childlike faith in the things that Jesus said, then who are we to argue against it? But take another look at the third chapter of John's gospel, to see if that is what it really teaches. The last verse of the chapter (John 3:36) more or less repeats what the 16th verse says. But in the second half of that verse, the infamous little word "in" (or "on" as used in the first half of this verse) does not appear. It merely says, "He that does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Believe in Jesus if you like. Believe on him too if you like. But unless you simply believe him, you are lost. And how can we say that we believe the things he says, when our belief system says that we must not try to obey the things he says, or we will lose our salvation? You are going to have to throw out the counterfeit in order to find the real thing. (NOTE: Some translations actually have the word "obey" in the second half of John 3:36, in the place of "believe", which further supports what we have been saying. Whosoever does not "obey" the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on them.) True faith in Jesus means believing everything that Jesus said. And true faith in God is believing everything that God says. As the words to the song go, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." True faith just naturally leads to obedience. If I say that there is a bomb in the room and it will explode in ten seconds, you do not sit down and have a discussion about it. Your faith in what I have said will instantly be transformed into action. You will race out of the room. One could say that your faith in what I said is what saved you. But there would be very little difference between saying that and saying that your action (i.e. the act of leaving the room) saved you too. It was an action based on faith. Martin Luther once said, "Faith and works are two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate one from the other any more than you can separate the ability to give light from the flame on a candle." As James put it, if there are no works (or obedience), it is evidence that there is no faith. And as Paul put it, in Ephesians 2:8-9, if there is no faith, there is no grace, for God's grace is only available "through faith". When you remember these two points, it becomes easy to see that any teaching about grace without works (or worse still, any teaching about grace which opposes works) is based on a counterfeit belief system, and has not come from genuine faith in Jesus. That really is about all you need to know about faith. Faith in Jesus Christ means believing everything that Jesus Christ said. At the moment there are still Bibles around, if people would only open them and turn to the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) to read the things that Jesus said. Over and over he said things that require genuine faith in God for people to literally do them, which is why counterfeit faith is so much

more popular. What Jesus said is so simple and so clear that we do not even need to elaborate on most of his teachings. We have the confidence to tell you to just open the book, read it, and then do it. It is the counterfeits who must give you complicated explanations about how the teachings of Jesus don't really mean what they clearly say. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies," it is the counterfeits who must explain how that means we should have strong armies who are prepared to kill our enemies. We have often quoted Luke 14:33 ("Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.") just as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible, only to have people respond with, "Well, that's your opinion." No, it's not our opinion. It's the opinion of Almighty God, as expressed through his Son. It is his unconditional requirement for anyone who wishes to follow him. It contains the same "whosoever" that appears in John 3:16. Whosoever believes it (and acts accordingly, of course) will not perish. But if you do not believe the Son, you shall not see life, and the wrath of God abides on you. This article is being sent out like a message in a bottle to a world that has been almost totally stripped of genuine faith. If you find it, and if you believe what it is saying, it can bring you new life. We are praying that you will find it, and that you will believe what it is saying. The rest is already programmed into the tiny seed of faith.

#faith #jesus #god #faithfulness #prayer #love #hope #inspiration #motivation #spiritualawareness #spiritualjourney #holy spirit #spiritualgrowth #spiritualguidance #spiritual insight #spiritualinspiration #spiritualawakening #spiritual development #spiritualwisdom

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banduckoot · 5 years ago

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Thank you so much for the compliment!

So, you wanna know how the mutants react to becoming first time fathers? This sort of thing is very much up my alley, so this is gonna be a blast to write.

Before I get into each individual mutant, I'd like to note that because they are almost all different species, and evolved versions of said species at that, their babies might be born in ways far different than that of a human baby. So this might get a bit out there! Okay, here we go...

RIPPER ROO

When Ripper is told he's going to be a dad, he's stunned by the news, and for once, he's not laughing. For once, the mad kangaroo has a moment of lucidity. He leans onto his S/O, head on their shoulder, and starts crying a little. While he can't quite put it into words, he's unsure of the whole situation, even a bit afraid. How is someone as crazy as he is supposed to be a good parent? He doesn't want to hurt his baby with his antics.

Ripper voluntarily starts undergoing therapy again. As his sanity returns to him, he starts researching on how to be a good parent. He wants to make himself better, as well as knowledgeable, for the sake of his child.

By the time Ripper first meets the baby, he's no Dr. Roo, but he's just confident enough that he's got a handle on his sanity. His straitjacket is untied just long enough to let him hold the baby for the first – and hopefully not the last – time. He cries again as he holds the little bundle to his face, this time from happiness. He resists the urge to lick the baby out of affection, instead opting to nuzzle it gently.

Ripper continues therapy long after the baby arrives, never wanting to go back to the way he was before. He's going to be a good dad, no matter how much work it takes. And one day soon, that straitjacket is coming off completely so he can hold his baby properly.

KOALA KONG

Kong doesn't believe it at first when he's told he's going to be a father. He thinks S/O is joking with him. But when it finally sinks in, he's excited at the news! He gives S/O a big hug and a kiss, and swears he's going to be the best dad ever!

Kong bends over backwards preparing for the baby's arrival, and taking care of and pampering his S/O. It's exhausting, but it turns out to be worth it once the baby is born.

Kong is emotional about the birth of his child, more than he's ever been in his life, and after he gets the tears out his system, he happily shows the baby off to everyone else. He's proud, he's happy, and he's going to give his kid the best life he can offer it. With lots and lots of piggyback rides included.

PINSTRIPE

Pinstripe is blown away by the news that he's gonna be a dad. He cheers, he jumps up and down with joy, he nearly fires victory rounds from his gun before deciding that's too risky for once. He showers his S/O with kisses and tells them he's gonna make sure their baby has the best, happiest life imaginable. He's beyond excited, and quite pleased with himself that he got S/O pregnant.

Pinstripe holds a party to announce the pregnancy, and pretty much everyone he knows is invited, including all his henchmen, who are almost as excited as he is! They congratulate their boss and S/O, and start placing bets on the baby's gender.

Pinstripe goes all out in preparation for the baby's arrival, spending money on the best baby supplies he can afford. Everything is designer and top of the line. He also has his henchmen build a nursery, yelling at them for getting even the slightest thing wrong; it has to be perfect for his child!

When the baby arrives, Pinstripe is more emotional than he's ever been in his whole life. He coos over the baby, kisses their forehead, and even tries singing softly to them in both English and Italian. He's overjoyed, and he proudly shows the baby off to everyone. He and his henchmen share cigars in celebration of the baby's arrival, being careful not to smoke anywhere near the baby, of course.

KOMODO JOE

Komodo Joe discovers he's going to be a dad when his S/O shows him an egg they've laid, or perhaps a whole clutch of them, up to 30 at most! Either way, Joe is shocked, but happy! He gives his S/O lots of affection before turning his attention to the egg(s) and talking to it/them softly, saying hello to his child/children for the first time and telling them he loves them already.

Joe secures as many baby supplies as he can find, and helps his S/O by helping them make a better nest, as well as taking turns incubating the egg(s) over the coming weeks. Incubating the egg(s) is kind of boring and tedious – not to mention hard on Joe's spine – but fortunately, Joe has books to read, soft music to listen to, and his phone to browse the internet.

When the egg(s) hatch, Joe is a very proud and happy daddy... but because Komodo dragon babies are natural-born climbers from birth, taking care of one or more is truly exhausting. He has to recruit Moe to help him out once in a while, which thankfully Moe is happy to do.

KOMODO MOE

Moe's experience with becoming a father is more or less the same as Joe's. He's happy, celebrating the news much more loudly than Joe with his baby/babies. He is more meticulous about preparing for his babies, his parental instincts coming in full swing! And he's very, VERY careful about incubating the egg(s), since he's kinda heavy. If he's truly paranoid, he might have to resort to using blankets instead.

When Moe's babies are born, he gushes over them and snuggles them and basically acts like a huge teddy bear towards them. Moe is, surprisingly, a natural with babies, and has far less trouble with his kids than Joe does with his.

TINY TIGER

Being the only thylacine left, Tiny never thought he'd end up becoming a dad. So when his S/O tells him the big news? His jaw drops. He stares into space, trying to process this information. Then, he cries. He's happy. He's never been this happy in his whole life. When he stops crying, he hugs S/O and snuggles them, purring away happily.

After that, Tiny becomes very, VERY protective of S/O while they're pregnant. He doesn't want to leave them out of his sight because of the baby. He growls when people get too close; he even tries to bite once in a while. S/O often has to tell him to calm down and reassure him that it's safe.

Tiny tries to read up on parenting, but his limited smarts make it difficult. He instead opts to take parenting classes, and though he suffers some difficulties – and a few temper tantrums – he gets better with practice. He becomes a favorite among his female classmates, impressed by how devoted he is.

Finally, the baby is born. Tiny can't believe how... well, TINY the baby is! He's so incredibly gentle with his new child that it's a sight to behold. He becomes the most doting father ever, taking care of them, playing peekaboo with them, singing to them... and being very protective of them, threatening to snap at anyone he deems a threat. He can't wait for the baby to grow older, because he wants to teach them how to be big, strong, and dangerous like he is!

DINGODILE

Dingodile is incredibly shocked when he's told he's gonna be a dad. This is because he's not an ordinary mutant; he's a hybrid of two very different animals, so he was certain that he'd be sterile or something, you know, like a mule? However, when it's confirmed that he is in fact capable of having kids, he gets worried. What is this baby going to be like? What if it isn't healthy? What if he's not a good dad? He never expected to become a father, so the thought of raising a family never crossed his mind.

Dingodile spends a good deal of his S/O's pregnancy scared to death of what the future is going to bring. It's only when S/O sits him down and talks to him that he reveals the full extent of his fears. It takes a lot of reassuring, but in the end, Dingodile agrees to take it easy and not let his worries get to him. Whatever happens, happens. The rest of the pregnancy is spent doing preparations and research, as well as taking care of S/O.

When the baby finally arrives, happy and healthy, Dingodile is beyond relieved. He can't believe this is real. He can't believe he's a dad now! He's so happy! He's so proud! He eagerly shows off his baby to everyone. It's the most excited anyone's ever seen him, and it's a little jarring to those who know him. But Dingodile doesn't care. He spends a lot of time bonding with his new baby, taking them on his usual activities to teach them everything he knows about being a dingodile. He's protective of the little tyke, threatening to roast anyone who tries to hurt them. This baby is now the most important thing in the world to him. God help anyone who comes between them.

#Crash Bandicoot #Headcanon #babies #ripper roo #koala kong #pinstripe potoroo #komodo joe #komodo moe #tiny tiger #dingodile #i feel like this could be been better and cuter but i did my best i swear

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frangipanidownunder · 6 years ago

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Returning the Past: Part 5

Mulder and Scully are honeymooning in Far North Queensland. Much to Scully’s chagrin, Mulder has delved headlong into a mysterious case of strange lights, Tasmanian tiger sightings and abductions. It’s not long, before they run into trouble…

Read part 1, part 2 part 3 and part 4.

The facility ‘Eddie Romero House’ was ensconced behind a security fence. She frowned at the recurrence of the name. Years of being an investigator made it impossible to think of coincidences and serendipitous happenstance. Years of being an investigator on The X-Files showed her that even the smallest of coincidences was likely to be anything bug.

Sunlight filtered through menacing clouds and pinged off the metal pickets. Mulder buzzed the intercom and itched at the skin on his arms. A security guard walked from the main building to stand outside the gate.

“We’re looking to talk to somebody in charge,” Mulder said.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“It’s urgent we speak to somebody. It could be a matter of life and death.”

Scully looked at the ground, impacted red dirt crumbling at her footfalls. Mulder’s flair for the dramatic, coupled with this dogged insistence often got them entry into secure facilities but the guard didn’t seem impressed. They had no badges to flash, they had American accents, they had no jurisdiction.

“Professor Callow is in meetings. He won’t be available until tomorrow.”

“Callow?” Scully said, looking at Mulder. He did the customary slow blink that told her he was on the same page as her. “We’re friends of his daughter’s. Please tell him it’s urgent that he speak with us.”

The guard lifted the radio to his mouth and static crackled. She rubbed the back of her neck and Mulder paced. A pair of green and red parrots screeched past. A vehicle reversed from a steel shed to the left of the main facility, stirring up a plume of dust.

“He says he’ll see you. Follow me.”

Professor Callow was seated behind a wooden desk bearing all the hallmarks of an office that hadn’t seen a change in twenty years. A Rolodex next to a rotary dial phone, a blotter pad, a stationery holder filled with Biros, pencils, a plastic ruler, Tippex. There was a framed photo of two men, one a younger Callow, rifle propped against his shoulder, standing over the corpse of a large animal that Scully couldn’t make out. She peered at its familiarity, then recalled the crumpled version of the photo on Steph Callow’s living room floor. There were glass cabinets along each wall, containing skeletal remains and stuffed animals with blank eyes and dull fur. Faded posters on the wall depicted a variety of Australian marsupials, and directly behind the Professor’s chair was a map of Queensland.

“You know my daughter somehow?” he said, his accent clear-cut English.

“She took us on a walk through the Daintree.” Scully looked at a poster of endangered and extinct animals. Toolache wallaby – bearing similar markings to the kangaroos they’d seen that first morning, broad faced bandicoot, lesser bilby. She checked out the small signs propped up against the stuffed creatures, Eastern hare wallaby, brush-tailed bettong.

“She was a promising zoologist, she had a knack for research. Stephanie studied hard. It’s a shame.”

There was something tight about the older man, Scully thought. Something closed off. She’d seen the same thing when Mulder was returned. An outward show of vagueness that really just covered up an inability to articulate the heart of the issue. He was scared.

“What’s a shame?” Mulder asked, picking up a jar from a shelf. He held the jar out as he continued to challenge the professor, rattling the brown seed pod inside it so that it drummed with each word he spoke. “That Steph became a tour guide and not a Professor, like you?”

“No, no. It’s…her mother…the family. It was difficult. For all of us, but for Stephanie, a teenager at the time, it was. Well, she struggled.” Callow took the jar from him and set it back on the desk. His hands trembled.

“Your wife, Steph’s mother, what happened to her?” Scully watched the way he sucked in a deep, long breath, chest puffing out. The seed inside the jar, labelled Idiospermum australiense was pale yellow on the outside and a ridged red inside, reminded her of a golden apricot and she kept her eyes on it while Callow sunk back into his chair.

“She disappeared. Just vanished.” Callow’s voice was shallow, like he’d told the story so many times it was just a rote response.

She looked back at Mulder, pressing her teeth into her lower lip. She wondered if they would ever relate any of their own history like that, without the passion, without the fire needed to continually reach for justice.

“Miriam went out to buy milk and never came back. We…just carried on. You do, don’t you? But Stephanie was never the same. Went to university in Tasmania, as far away from here as she could get. She worked hard but the spark, the passion for it had gone. After she graduated she went on a gap year to South America and when she came back she couldn’t settle. She told me once that being a tour guide was a way of always looking for her mother. As though she might just find her out there in the bush somewhere all these years later,” he smiled sadly. “She likes being outdoors. Just like her mother.”

“Have you heard from her recently, Stephanie?” Scully stepped towards him. “She’s missing, Professor Callow.”

Callow shook his head, an absent expression clouding his eyes. “I’m afraid that Stephanie has often gone ‘walkabout’ as they say in these parts.”

“We were with her when a group of men dragged her into a four-wheel-drive and we haven’t seen her since. The police don’t seem interested. Her house…there was a disturbance there.”

The old man pushed himself up from his desk, knuckles turning white. “She kept some strange company too. Abductees, she called them. She was adamant she’d been abducted too. Told me fantastic tales of being on board UFOs and lights in the forest. Crazy stuff. Nobody believes that kind of thing, do they?” Callow looked at Mulder and Scully lowered her gaze, breathing through the awkward silence.

“What did you make of her company? TasTiger Tours,” Mulder said, not rising to the bait.

“Taking tourists to see thylacines in the Daintree? When she told me what she was doing I told her that people would either see her as a lunatic or a scam artist. But it seems I was wrong. There are plenty of fools…” He stopped and Mulder offered him a accepting grin. “Sorry. You are entitled to spend your dollars any way you see fit, but Tasmanian tigers have been extinct for decades and most certainly did not inhabit tropical rainforest.”

“And yet both Dr Scully and I have seen thylacines in recent days. One was inside your daughter’s home.”

Professor Callow blanched and held on to the edge of the desk. “In Stephanie’s house? That’s impossible.”

“It wasn’t so long ago that this facility was being funded to research thylacine DNA with a view to potentially reviving the species. It’s not much of a stretch to consider that the animals might have escaped and thrived in the wild.”

Callow sighed and shook his head. “You sound like Stephanie. She had a penchant for the arcane. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d faked her own abduction by this group of men, simply to get my attention. I’ve suggested she see someone, you know, a psychiatrist to help her with her troubles, but she wouldn’t be told. She seems to be a lost cause.”

Mulder continued to talk, despite the old man walking past him to the door. “There are precedents where animals have created their own enclaves in non-native regions. The fabled big cat stories around the world can be explained in this way.”

Callow opened the office door. “What you say is true, Mr Mulder. And I may agree, except for the fact that my project never created a single live specimen. The trials all failed.”

Mulder swigged from the water bottle as she drove. The light outside was weak and grey. “What do you think, Scully. Is he involved?”

“He was frightened, Mulder. I saw a man cowed not just by the weight of his wife and daughter being missing, but by fear.”

“He certainly knows more than he was letting on, Scully.”

She watched him lean his head against the window. “You need to rest, Mulder. You still look like you’re running a fever.”

“I’m fine. I just need to clear my head to think. Callow’s experiments didn’t yield a live thylacine, according to him. Yet we know they exist. What would be the purpose of recreating extinct animal lines, Scully? Where does that fit in with the abductions, the lights? And why would the police dismiss the case? Even if Steph was well known in these parts as someone with a psychiatric history, why deny she even existed?”

“I’ve been thinking about that too, Mulder. And did you notice the name of the guard at the front gate?”

He turned to her, cheeks flaming. “No, what was it?”

“Galea. Same as the police officer.”

They drove to the police station. The car park was deserted. Grey clouds pushed low over their heads and Scully scratched at the back of her neck. Mulder was slow to get out of the car. A sheen of sweat sparkled across his brow. She walked up the steps and rapped at the door. No answer.

“Do you get a weird feeling, Mulder?”

He didn’t answer but mopped at his forehead with the back of his hand. His chest rose and fell laboriously. She twisted the handle and pushed at the door. It didn’t budge. “If this is a joke, I don’t like the Australian sense of humour. Mulder,” she said, stepping back down to where he was leaning against the car door. “Get back in the car, out of the heat. Drink the water. I’m going around the back.”

She knew he was sick when he complied without complaint. There were garden beds either side of the building, leaf litter piled high. Tall palms swayed on the increasing breeze and a pair of bird of paradise plants pecked at the empty air with their resplendent bronze beaks. The windows of the house were covered in cobwebs and the side door was locked. How had they not noticed the state of the place when they spoke with Officer Galea? Who were the other people in the building? Were there other people? She peered through the dirty glass of the back door but saw nothing but the marks of a building that hadn’t been inhabited for a while.

A car engine caught her attention and she hurried back round. A small blue SUV swung into the gravelled space next to their hire car and a middle-aged couple got out.

“If you’re looking for the police station, you need to head back that way, to Port Douglas. This one hasn’t been used for a few years now.”

“We were looking for Officer Galea,” Scully said, keeping an eye on Mulder, who was leaning his face against the window.

The woman shrugged. “The last copper here was Sergeant Blythman and she left to have a baby. That baby’s at primary school now. We just tidy up the yard. Len, give me that fertiliser. Those plants need a good feed.”

Scully opened the driver’s side door, but turned back to the couple. “Have you ever seen strange lights in this area? Blue lights?”

“You’re Americans.” Len joined his wife.

“We’re here on our honeymoon,” Scully said, as much to remind herself as to inform the couple. “We came here to report a crime here just the other day. Now it’s empty.”

The couple continued to remove gardening equipment from the back of the car.

“Who is Eddie Romero?” Scully asked. “It’s the name of a local research facility. It’s the name of one of the forest tracks. Our accommodation is Romero Sands.”

“He’s no-one special,” the woman said. “Enjoy your honeymoon. Go swimming. Do some bushwalking, but don’t stray off the tourist tracks. Have a nice time. Go home to your families.”

“Do you know Steph Callow?”

The woman exchanged looks with her husband. “Who are you?”

Mulder got out of the car, his body sagging. “What’s going on in this town? What are you afraid of?”

“We’re not scared,” the woman said, straightening up. “We’re just invisible. Nobody listens to us. They just want people to come here, spend their money. The tourist dollars rule. It’s like that film with the sharks, isn’t it, Len? You know the one, where the mayor of the island won’t shut the beaches down for the long weekend.”

“Jaws,” Scully said, looking over at Mulder. “Have people been hurt here? Killed?”

The woman looked at Len. “They’ve disappeared. But the government people say that they just lost their way, the forest is dangerous if you’re not careful.” She walked up to Scully and took her hand. “You two look like lovely young people. You don’t need anything like that happening to you. It’s the worst thing. People go missing and you never know what’s happened. You live every day like they might just come home and fling their coat across the hall and sit on their favourite chair and ask for a cup of tea, you know? It’s cruel, is what it is. Hope and dreams. It’s just cruel.” She rolled her lips together and took a long, slow breath. “You take care now. Come on, Len. It’s going to rain soon. Let’s spread this stuff and get home.”

Mulder groaned in his sleep, deep guttural sounds that held fear. She often wondered how he processed all that happened to him. Besides the abject terror of the abduction, he had faced the death penalty. They had spent months on the run, looking over their shoulders, living out of cheap motels and even cheaper cars. He held it in, he held it together, mostly. She knew he thought he had to be strong for her, as she did for him. They both drove for days wearing their stoicism like armour. Back then, she knew the day would come where one of them would crack. She lay odds that it would be her first. That she would flip tables and throw away the hair dye and the Walmart underwear. That she would call her mother and write her brother. That she would tell Mulder she didn’t really love him and that she was leaving. That she would lie to save him. To save them both.

But in a long-forgotten town, in a long forgotten state, she returned with two bags of groceries and found him balled up in the corner of the darkened room, furniture broken around him, sobbing. The bags dropped to the floor and split open spilling the tins and packets in front of her. She let him cry against her chest until his tears soaked her vest. He didn’t talk, didn’t need to. She was grateful for that desolate place, grateful for the onerous skies and the stares of the townsfolk, grateful for the one store and flickering neon motel sign, grateful for the gritty coffee and the faulty ice machine. It drew out his sorrow and suffering and pushed hers down. She would never leave him. She would never lie to him.

Now, she dabbed his brow with a cool washcloth, then pressed it around the back of her neck, easing the itch there. Wherever Steph Callow had gone, the dark forces in the forest were responsible. But with Mulder tossing fitfully by her side, there was no way they could go forward with any kind of investigation. She’d have to find a doctor’s surgery in the morning. He needed treatment.

“The light was so bright, Scully. It was so bright it felt like my eyes had been sliced open and silver was poured inside.” He pushed himself up and bunched the sheet across his lap. His voice was groggy, his skin tacky to touch. She gave him water. “I dreamt that Steph Callow was there with me, on that ship, Scully. She was trapped too, helpless and that bright light burned her and she burst into flames.”

While Scully made tea, he played with the remote, and a news anchor read out details of a mysterious death locally.

A member of the public called in the discovery of the body. At this stage, the police have not issued any details of the circumstances or the victim but there is a presence at Eddie Romero House.

“It’s Professor Callow,” Mulder said, calling her back to the bedroom. “He’s been killed.”

#txf fanfic #my fanfiction #returning the past #aussie casefile #to be continued #getting this thing uploaded so i can forget about it #if the ratio of notes gets any lower it'll be in the negatives #is that a thing?#negative notes #maybe i can be the first writer to go minus notes

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