TITLE: Eve AUTHOR: Annette Gisby EMAIL: annette.gisby@which.net CATEGORY: AU/story/pre xf RATED: R for mature themes SUMMARY: Mulder comes across one of the Eves before he and Scully deal with them in the X-files ARCHIVE: Yes, as long as my name and email stay attached. EVE Mulder glanced at the case notes in front of him and shuddered. He had no love of snakes himself, and so he could well understand Eve's revulsion. What he couldn't understand was why it was so bad that she was spending time in an institution for a crime that Mulder was becoming increasingly sure she didn't actually commit. She'd had a bad experience with snakes when she was fourteen years old, but other than that the notes didn't elaborate. Eve hadn't spoken a word to anyone since her incarceration ten years ago, and Mulder wondered why they thought he would have better luck in getting her to talk. Eve was already there, seated in one of the hard plastic chairs that seemed to proliferate in any public institution. The grey hospital robes she wore seemed to drain any colour from her face. Her long black hair was shining and tied back with a blue ribbon. Behind her was a painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the snake on Eve's shoulder. Eve was proffering Adam a shiny red apple. Mulder made a mental note, although there were two chairs in the room, Eve always picked the one facing away from the picture, the one where she wouldn't have to look at the snake. As Mulder sat down and shuffled his papers on the desk, she pulled her chair out from under the table so that she was as far away from him as the layout of the small room would allow. "So, Eve," began Mulder. "Why don't you tell me about the snake?" She shook her head violently and tugged out her ribbon, letting her hair fall around her face. Hiding behind it. Mulder glanced at the doctor's notes again. Every time the snake was mentioned, Eve always undid her hair. None of them could figure out why. "Do you want to talk about your parents?" Another shake of the head. "What about Adam?" asked Mulder Eve's head snapped up and she looked like a deer caught in the head- lights of a car. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she managed to speak. "Brother. He's my brother." But she refused to say any more. Eve glanced behind her and stared at the painting. "It's wrong." "What was that, Eve, I didn't quite hear you?" "The painting. It's wrong. Eve never tempted Adam. She never!" As her eyes brimmed up with tears, Eve began pulling at her hair until clumps of it fell into her lap. Mulder jumped up and tried to restrain her, but she was stronger than she looked and struggled against him. "Ssh, Eve, It's only a painting. It can't hurt you. Sit down, sit down, that's it." Eve obeyed, but her eyes were blank again and Mulder knew he wasn't going to find out anything more today. He sighed and got up, going over to the window. It was raining, the water splattering against the window. "It's wet," said Eve. He almost jumped out of his skin, Eve was right beside him and he hadn't heard her move. "Do you like the rain?" asked Mulder. "It's okay," replied Eve, twirling a lock of hair around her little finger. For some reason, Mulder found it immensely irritating. It was like something a little girl would do. "Don't do that, Eve, it's childish," said Mulder. She obeyed quickly, but retreated again to wherever it was she went when her eyes had that blank look. He couldn't help her any further today, so he pressed the buzzer by the door. Two orderlies came in, and took Eve back to her room. Mulder sat on the chair, thumping his hand on the desk. How was he going to get through to her? ***** The next day, Eve didn't turn up for her session at all. Mulder kept looking at his watch, wondering if he'd got the time wrong. After a wait of half an hour he walked out to the corridor and went hunting for Eve's room. He knew it was on this floor, and when he heard the commotion from down the hall, he knew the exact room as well. As he entered the room, he could see that Eve was pinned to the bed by two burly female orderlies, and a doctor was hovering over her with a hypodermic needle in his hand. Mulder knocked the needle out of the doctor's hand, the needle cracked under his feet and the liquid seeped out. "You idiot!" roared the doctor. "I told you, no drugs or I can't help her," said Mulder quietly. "She is under my care." "And I have to care for my staff," said Dr. Stanton. His face was drawn and haggard, as though he hadn't had much sleep. "She attacked one of the nurses last night." "Which nurse?" asked Mulder, staring at the two women who were still pinning Eve to the bed. They let her go, aware of Mulder's scrutiny. "Which nurse?" repeated Mulder. "Mike Harris," said Dr. Stanton. "Was he the only one?" "I think one nurse being attacked is quite enough. She almost strangled him with the bedsheet." Mulder glanced at the cowering form on the bed and found it hard to believe that she was capable of overpowering a grown man. "What I meant was, has she attacked any other nurses? Female nurses or was it only the male one?" "I don't like what you're suggesting," said Dr. Stanton. "Nothing of that sort happens in my ward. The woman's insane, she's capable of anything!" He stalked out, the two orderlies following him. Eve sat up on the bed, hugging her knees. "I'm not insane! I'm not!" Mulder wanted to comfort her, but he didn't dare touch her for fear it might be misconstrued, by Dr. Stanton if not by Eve herself. "You want to get out of here, don't you?" asked Mulder gently. "Yes. Please. Please help me!" she sobbed. "Those were the words I wanted to hear." ***** From then on, Eve was a model patient. There were no more incidents like the one involving Mike Harris, and Mulder guessed that was because Dr. Stanton had issued orders that aside from Mulder, Eve was only to have contact with the female staff. However, she still edged around the questions about Adam and the snake. Again and again she would avoid answering, just untying her hair and letting it fall loose around her shoulders. "Eve, why do you let your down whenever I mention the snake?" "Because Adam said the snake preferred it that way." Mulder was careful about pushing any further, but she had mentioned the snake once. "So the snake belonged to Adam?" Silence. "Did you like the snake?" Silence again, but then, just under her breath, she spoke. "No. I didn't like the snake." "Why didn't you like it?" "It hurt me. Adam made it hurt me." "And Adam. Did Adam hurt you?" Eve didn't respond. She stared for a long time at the floor and Mulder feared he pushed her too far, too soon. "The snake belonged to Adam. Surely it must be Adam's fault that the snake hurt me if the snake belonged to him?" "Maybe," said Mulder, wondering if Eve had done anything to provoke the snake into biting her or something. "Adam said the snake wanted to be my friend, but if it hurt me, it couldn't have been my friend, could it?" "I suppose not," replied Mulder. "How did the snake hurt you? Did it bite you?" "It didn't hurt me at first. Adam just made me touch it. It was horrible and it jumped a lot." Mulder tried not to squirm. He'd never touched a live snake before and he had no intention of trying. "Adam said that Eve had tempted Adam in the Garden with an apple, and that I had tempted him. But I never! I never!" She was sobbing now, great big choking sobs that made her breath hitch in her throat. "It's okay, Eve, I believe you." He was hoping to soothe her, to let her continue her story. He knew what she was going to say, but she needed to say, to get it out in the open and out there where it couldn't hurt her anymore. "It was cold that night. I was wearing my fluffy pyjamas, the ones with the teddy bears on. Adam came into my room when my parents were asleep and he woke me up. He made me touch the snake again, so I did, hoping he'd leave soon and I could go back to sleep. He wanted me to take my pyjamas off, but I said no, I was too cold. "He said that if I didn't do what he said, he would make the snake hurt me. He knew I was scared of the snake." Eve's eyes were filled with tears and Mulder nodded to let her continue. He knew what was coming next. He'd dealt with enough Adams in his time with the violent crimes section. "He made me take off my underwear. I was shivering with cold. He said he'd soon warm me up. He undid my hair, I'd always worn it in a plait in bed so that it wouldn't get tangled. He pushed me onto my back and then he put the snake inside me. It hurt so much I screamed. My mother came in and chased him away. She stayed with me all that night. "But she never came again, no matter how hard I screamed, no matter how many nightmares I had. They pretended it wasn't happening because they loved Adam more than me!" She was hysterical now, holding her head in her hands as the tears flowed. "It's over now, Eve. Now that you've faced up to it, you'll get better. You won't have to stay here any more." She stood up and looked at him, as though she could see right down into his soul. Mulder shuddered, wondering how he could get it so wrong. He remembered the crime scene photos. Three bodies, two male, one female. They had all been strangled, each of them had a black and green diamond patterned scarf around their necks. The scarves looked remarkably like snakes coiled around a tree... "You," said Mulder. Eve just smiled and bared her teeth. THE END feedback at penguin2@cableinet.co.uk or annette.gisby@which.net Silent Screams: The Novel www.greatunpublished.com/authors/annette_gisby.htm check out my x-files fanficiton at http://homepages.which.net/~annette.gisby/index.htm