(Night. A full moon is reflected in a still puddle of water. Suddenly it is disturbed. A white pick-up truck pulls up on some dirt, it's red brake lights glowing in the dark. We see two men inside. They looks over towards a rural house in the middle of a field. We hear a dog barking in the distance.)

CUT TO:

(Inside the house. The dog is barking loudly, rearing up on its hind legs scratching at the door.)

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: (To the dog) Happy, stop that.

(We see the woman, EVELYN MOUNTJOY, is sat at a table with her husband DARREN. They are playing Scrabble.

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: Hap. (To her husband) What's with her all of a sudden?

(The woman gets to to check the dog.)

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: Don't you look at my letters.

DARREN MOUNTJOY: For God's sake.

(EVELYN walks over to the dog. With her back to him, DARREN MOUNTJOY quickly turns her letter tray around to see her letters. She lets the dog out of the door, which then races across the field towards some foliage in the distance. She closes the door and comes back to the table. DARREN has just taken his turn to place a word on the Scrabble board. We see he has put down the word "TRIUMPHS", using the "S" from the start of another word, probably "SANDBOX".)

DARREN MOUNTJOY: Read 'em and weep my dear!

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: Seven letters. 50 bonus points.

(We suddenly hear the dog barking in the distance. The barking turns to yelping. The dog sounds in distress. The couple look worried.)

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: Darren ...

(Suddenly the lights go out.)

DARREN MOUNTJOY: (To his wife) Get in the basement.

EVELYN MOUNTJOY: What are you going to do?

DARREN MOUNTJOY: Just do what I say.

(DARREN MOUNTJOY races upstairs to get his handgun. Meanwhile, downstairs in the kitchen, EVELYN is suddenly surprised from behind, as a hand is placed over her mouth. We do not see the assailant, who is in shadow. Upstairs, DARREN is loading bullets into his handgun as fast as he can. He starts to descend the stairs, slowly, with his gun raised to one side. As he nears the middle of the stairway, he sees a shadowy figure moving slowly towards him downstairs. He holds his gun out in front of him, aiming at the figure.)

DARREN MOUNTJOY: (Towards the figure) I got a gun!

(The figure continues to move towards him in the dark.)

DARREN MOUNTJOY: Stop!

(He fires two shots at the figure, which falls to the ground, lifeless. He races over to the figure, and finds the victim's hands bound behind the back. He checks further and sees the victim has adhesive tape over their mouth. He pulls it off. He recognises the victim. It is his wife, EVELYN.)

(DARREN stands motionless in shock, not believing what he is seeing. Suddenly, ghostly, ethereal voices fill the house. DARREN turns towards them. We see two large shadowy figures moving towards him. As they emerge from the shadows, we see they have evil, demonic faces.)

[Fade to black]

(The next morning. REYES is driving across the field in a car. She holds up her FBI ID to a police officer who lets her pass. The parks behind another car and gets out. She surveys the scene, looking apprehensive.)

CUT TO:

(Inside the MOUNTJOY residence. A police photographer is taking crimescene photos for evidence. REYES is walking around the kitchen and living room. We see the bodies of EVELYN and DARREN MOUNTJOY seated at their Scrabble table. EVELYN is holding the handgun in her right hand, which is resting on the table. DARREN is seated opposite her, and appears to have been shot in the head. We hear the squeaking of the ceiling fan, and see the shadow of it turning on the table below. REYES looks down at the Scrabble board. There is a single word on the board - DAEMONICUS, which runs through the centre square. She touches the "D". She then looks up towards the fan hanging from the ceiling. It isn't moving. DOGGETT enters.)

DOGGETT: Reyes! (REYES turns around abruptly) Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.

(The ceiling fan is now turning slowly, squeaking as it turns.)

REYES: They told me I'd find you inside.

DOGGETT: I was out back talking to the Detective in charge. You're the expert here, Monica. Everyone's waiting to hear what you have to say on this.

REYES: What do we know?

DOGGETT: Darren and Evelyn Mountjoy, married thirty-two years, three kids, five grand-kids. Not an enemy in the world. Just that dog out front. Neck's broken. Footprints in the mud. We're looking for two perps.

REYES: Nothing's soiled in the house, nothing at all to suggest motive.

DOGGETT: Well, it all fits the profile, right? This thing is staged to look like some kind of Satanic ritual.

REYES: Placing victims in a suicide posture is ritualistic. And this word is undoubtedly Satanic.

(The camera focuses on the Scrabble board.)

DOGGETT: Daemonicus.

REYES: It means Satan in Latin, or Daemonicus - Demon Possession.

DOGGETT: (Deadpan) And it's worth 50 extra points. That's why they were posed like this. You think these folks were possessed, right?

REYES: That would be the textbook explanation

(DOGGETT turns to leave.)

DOGGETT: Then I'll let 'em know.

REYES: This may be something else.

DOGGETT: Which is what?

(An officer wheels in a gurney for one of the bodies. REYES and DOGGETT turn away.)

DOGGETT: Hey, you say anything you want about Satanic ritual, but don't tell me you think the Devil did this, because we've got prints from out there. This case ain't even close to being an X-File.

REYES: Something strange happened in here just before you came in. I can't explain it.

(Suddenly, the MEDICAL OFFICER jumps up and shouts out in pain.)

OFFICER: Arghh!

DOGGETT: What?

(DOGGETT looks down at the body of EVELYN MOUNTJOY. He pulls open her cardigan, to reveal a bloodsoaked jumper. Suddenly, we see two small snakes writhe out of her jumper. REYES and DOGGETT stand back, surprised and shocked.)

(We see the name Dr. Dana Scully being written with chalk onto a blackboard. We see SCULLY standing in front of a large group of FBI training cadets, situated in a large lecture theatre. )

SCULLY: Dr. Dana Scully. I have just been assigned to the Academy as a forensic investigator. For the past eight years I was part of a unit known as the X-Files. (There is muffled laughter.) Some of you may have heard of it.

(We see DOGGETT enter the lecture theatre through an entrance at back of the hall.)

CADET: Ever slay a vampire? (This is met with more laughter from the cadets.)

SCULLY: Sorry to disappoint you, but this is a course in forensic pathology. Hard science. An X-File is a case that has been deemed unsolvable by the Bureau, because such a case cannot be solved it may beg other explanations... a vampire, perhaps. Science, however, tells us that evil comes not from monsters, but from men. It offers us the methodology to catch these men, and only after we have exhausted these methods should we leave science behind to consider more (pause) extreme possibilities.

(We see DOGGETT obviously waiting to talk to SCULLY after the lecture.)

(REYES is walking along a corridor in the FBI building. She arrives at the morgue. We see SCULLY and DOGGETT talking inside one of the autopsy rooms, a body under a white sheet beside them. REYES stops outside the door and watches them. SCULLY notices REYES waiting and mentions this to DOGGETT, who turns around. REYES then enters.)

REYES: What did you find?

DOGGETT: I asked Agent Scully for expertise on this. Looks like we can rule out the Exorcist after all.

REYES: And why is that?

SCULLY: There is adhesive residue on Mrs. Mountjoy's wrists and face. (SCULLY uses a UV lamp to show REYES the residue.) Do you see that? She was taped and bound and then shot at a range of ten to twelve feet with her husband's handgun.

REYES: The husband shot her.

(REYES has a vision. We see a flash at the husband fires his gun.)

REYES: He was tricked into it.

DOGGETT: That's what we're thinking. Some kind of sick game.

SCULLY: Well, there's also evidence of fingerprint bruising along his collarbone.

(SCULLY shows DOGGETT and REYES on the body of DARREN MOUNTJOY.)

REYES: They held him down. (REYES has another vision, we see the husband shot) Shot him in his chair.

DOGGETT: Again, we're looking for two guys.

(SCULLY picks up a perspex box containing the snakes extracted from the body of EVELYN MOUNTJOY.)

SCULLY: Snakes appeared to be purely symbolic. They're non-venomous species collected locally. They were sewn post-mortem into the body cavity with household thread, by someone who appears to have surgical skill.

REYES: You've made a lot of headway.

SCULLY: But there's something else. There's something that you're not saying.

REYES: When I was alone in that house this morning I had the strong feeling I was in the presence of evil.

DOGGETT: Look, Monica, the only reason you were called in on this thing is you've investigated hundreds of these kinds of cases.

REYES: And not once did I find anything to support evidence of genuine Satanic activity.

DOGGETT: I'm saying...

REYES: I've never felt this before.

(DOGGETT's cell phone rings. He reaches into his pocket and answers it.)

DOGGETT: Excuse me. (He turns away.) John Doggett (His voice fades into the distance.)

REYES: Agent Scully, have you ever sensed what I'm talking about?

SCULLY: I've felt things that I couldn't understand. Things that I was afraid to admit even to myself.

REYES: And what did you do?

SCULLY: I learned not to ignore it... to trust my instincts.

DOGGETT:

(DOGGETT ends his call and turns back towards SCULLY and REYES.)

REYES: What is it?

DOGGETT: Mental hospital, 100 miles from here. They think one of their patients did this.

(We see a very rugged landscape. Clouds are moving at a very high speed. We hear thunder rolling overhead. We see a car away in the distance moving in front of a line of trees.)

CUT TO:

(The white pickup from earlier is driving through dense undergrowth. It comes to a halt on a dirt track running through the trees. Inside the truck, we see two demonic masks lying in the middle of the front seat. Two men are sitting either side. They pick up the masks and get out. One of the men is carrying some rope. They walk off into the undergrowth.)

(We are in a large, atrium area, the floor covered in with a chessboard design. DOGGETT and REYES are talking to one of the female doctors, DR. MONIQUE SAMPSON.)

DR. SAMPSON: We're pretty shaken up. We're still trying to figure out how he could have escaped.

DOGGETT: Why do you think this escaped patient Dr. Richmond was involved in these murders?

DR. SAMPSON: Dr. Richmond was committed here because he killed three patients. He'd sewn strychnine tablets in their stomach lining in. And I heard about the snakes.

REYES: The police believe two men committed this crime, Dr. Sampson.

DR. SAMPSON: Two men?

DOGGETT: Do you have any idea who the second man might be?

DR. SAMPSON: No, he didn't exactly keep pen-pals.

REYES: Did Dr. Richmond display any knowledge of Satanic lure, or speak of demonic possession?

DR. SAMPSON: No, he was perfectly cogent. He didn't suffer from those kinds of delusions.

REYES: I'm not really asking about delusions.

REYES: When you last spoke to him did he seem himself?

DR. SAMPSON: Seem himself?

REYES: I mean did he display personality other than his own? Speaking tongues or in any language which he didn't know?

DR. SAMPSON: You're asking me if he was possessed? This is the 21th century, Miss Reyes. We stopped looking a long time ago to demons to explain mental illness.

REYES: I'm not really talking about mental illness.

(REYES smiles, believing DR. SAMPSON is not taking her seriously. DOGGETT is trying very hard to avoid eye contact. DR. SAMPSON really doesn't know what to say. She excuses herself.)

DR. SAMPSON: Excuse me a moment.

DOGGETT: You know, Monica, a room here just came open.

REYES: You heard what she said. Dr. Richmond didn't know anything about Satanic ritual.

DOGGETT: And that proves he was possessed?

REYES: You explain to me how else he commits a crime that's a perfect example of it?

DOGGETT: Well let's try the obvious - it was his accomplice.

DR. SAMPSON: Agents... I, uh, think the man you're looking for might be Paul Gerlach.

DOGGETT: Is he a patient here?

DR. SAMPSON: No, he's a guard. He's been here for 12 years and no one can find him.

REYES: Who would be the last person who saw them together?

(The camera looks down on the chessboard design floor from high above. DOGGETT, REYES and DR. SAMPSON walk off. The game has started.)

(Two men are seen walking through some marsh. They come across a dry are and one of the men stops, dropping the rope he was carrying. The other man continues walking ahead. He is wearing the demonic mask from earlier. He stops and turns, finding the other man standing facing him about 20 metres away. The other man then reaches into a coat pocket and pulls out a handgun, aiming it at the man standing in front of him. He too is wearing a demonic mask. The eyes of his victim stare straight towards him. He pulls the trigger. A shot rings out.)

[Fade to black]

(A padded cell in the hospital. A patient is sitting on his knees, staring at the wall in front of him. It is JOSEF KOBOLD, a former professor. DOGGETT and REYES enter.)

DOGGETT: Mr. Kobold? My name is John Doggett, this is Monica Reyes. We're with the FBI.

(KOBOLD doesn't move.)

REYES: The patient in the cell next to you escaped last night. Did you see or hear anything? You share the same guard, Mr. Kobold. Do you know anything about their relationship? Why he would have helped him to escape?

KOBOLD: You mean than the guard forced a patient to escape, or did the patient force the guard? Or are they both of one mind, like a snake, eating its own tail? (DrWeesh: A reference to the ouroboros, the symbol of the Millennium Group.)

DOGGETT: You know something about this, Mr. Kobold? If you do we need your help. To stop them before they hurt more people.

KOBOLD: You're too late for that.

DOGGETT: If you're afraid to help us, Mr. Kobold, we can protect you. No harm will come to you.

KOBOLD: Do you believe in the power of the Devil, Mr. Doggett?

DOGGETT: I believe that the Devil's a story made up to scare people.

(KOBOLD's face tightens up, DOGGETT having not reassured him.)

KOBOLD: Then how can you possibly protect me?

(DOGGETT looks troubled.)

(DOGGETT and REYES are walking along a corridor.)

DOGGETT: Consider the source, Monica.

(They walk out of shot.)

(Back in the woods. A man is cleaning his bloodstained hands in the headlights of the white pickup truck. He hear an owl. He drops the rag on the ground. Inside the truck, we see he is wearing one of the demonic masks. It is the killer from earlier. The ethereal, ghostly voices suddenly start. The man stares ahead.)

CUT TO:

(JOSEF KOBOLD is sitting on his knees in his cell. We hear the voices here too. They seem to be coming from him. He is uttering words quietly.)

KOBOLD: Daemonicus. Daemonicus. Dae...

[Fade to black]

(In the mental hospital. DR. SAMPSON is walking quickly down a corridor with DOGGETT and REYES.)

DR. SAMPSON: He's been calling for Agent Doggett for the past hour. He's extremely agitated.

REYES: Has he said why?

DR. SAMPSON: He keeps saying "Prince of the Apostles" over and over again. I don't know what it means. I had to restrain him for his own safety and I thought it was best not to sedate him until you speak to him.

(They enter a padded cell. There is a gurney in the cell, with JOSEF KOBOLD lying restrained on it.)

DOGGETT: Mr. Kobold, it's John Doggett.

(KOBOLD is restrained by his wrists and ankles. There is also a restraint running across his forehead, making it nearly impossible for him to look at DOGGETT and REYES.)

KOBOLD: He's speaking to me. Whispering in my ear.

REYES: What's he saying to you, Mr. Kobold?

KOBOLD: He's... killed again.

REYES: Who?

(Turning his head slightly to make eye contact with the agents.)

KOBOLD: I don't know. But I can show you.

(Day. A wooded area with a dirt track running through it. Three cars pull up. 2 police cars escorting DOGGETT's hire car, one in front and one behind. DOGGETT opens the back door. A manacled JOSEF KOBOLD gets out, taking in the air.)

KOBOLD: You can't know what it feels like, being free of that cage, and to see the sky above me.

DOGGETT: Right, where is he, Mr. Kobold?

(KOBOLD signals somewhere up ahead to DOGGETT.)

KOBOLD: There, I can take you.

(KOBOLD tries to move off, but DOGGETT stops him.)

DOGGETT: That's far enough. Take him back to his cage now. Agent Reyes?

(DOGGETT and REYES are now walking down the dirt track.)

REYES: You think he's making it up?

DOGGETT: Yeah.

REYES: That was a pretty convincing show back there.

DOGGETT: He's play-acting, Monica. Just because he's good at it doesn't make it true.

REYES: Why do it?

DOGGETT: He wanted some fresh air. Maybe he gets off sending the FBI on snipe hunts.

(REYES has stopped, and it looking over at something.

REYES: I don't think that's it.

(DOGGETT stops and looks over. He see a blood stained hand hanging down from a tree. We see it is the demonic killer's victim, hanging upside down high up in a tree, silhouetted against the bright sun.)

(Autopsy room. The demonic mask of the victim is being cut off by SCULLY using a scalpel. She exposes his face.)

DOGGETT: This is the security guard, Paul Gerlach.

SCULLY: It appears he was shot in the chest. His body was staged post-mortem, just like the others.

DOGGETT: Someone wants to play games.

REYES: Or not. Prince of the Apostles. Kobold kept repeating it in his cell.

SCULLY: Saint Peter. He was said to have been crucified upside down.

REYES: A symbol later adopted by the Satanists to mark the power of Antichrist.

DOGGETT: Which you take as proof that the Devil possessed the surgeon who somehow put him in contact with Kobold.

REYES: It's part of the literature. He could be a medium. A willing host for Satan. May be communicating with Kobold.

DOGGETT: Well that's convenient.

REYES: He brought up the Devil and the snakes. No one told him the details of the crime and yet he knew.

DOGGETT: That's 'cause he planned it. I pulled his file. This guy's a master manipulator. He was a history Professor at the University of Miami, committed for grinding up six coeds, that he tricked into his basement. He used their flesh as fertiliser in his garden.

REYES: If Kobold's part of this then why is he still behind bars? Why not escape when he had the chance?

DOGGETT: I don't know yet. You believe this guy, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: I haven't formed an opinion about it yet, actually.

DOGGETT: That's great. That's great.

DOGGETT: Where are you going, Monica?

REYES: This man Kobold can help us, John. I'm going to prove it to you.

(REYSE leaves the room. DOGGETT looks over at SCULLY.)

(Fast moving clouds. We hear thunder. We fade in to see the face of JOSEF KOBOLD, kneeling in his cell as before. A guard unlocks the cell door. REYES enters the cell, DOGGETT stands in the doorway.)

REYES: Professor.

KOBOLD: You found the body.

REYES: Yes. Professor Kobold, we need your help. To find him before anyone else gets hurt.

KOBOLD: I can't.

DOGGETT: You can't or you won't?

KOBOLD: I can't. In here. He whispers to me in a thousand voices. (Pained) But they're so hard to hear.

REYES: What can we do, to help you here?

KOBOLD: I need a larger room. One with space. And windows. To see the sky.

(DOGGETT sees through this straight away. REYES appears to be ready to help KOBOLD with his wishes. DOGGETT and REYES turn and leave the cell. In the corridor leading from the cell, DOGGETT questions REYES.)

DOGGETT: You're not going along with this are you? Giving this guy what he wants?

REYES: That's my general idea, yeah.

DOGGETT: You're making a mistake.

REYES: Look, even if you're right, even if this man is faking it, he can help us. I'm not willing to turn my back on that. Are you?

(DOGGETT stands for a moment, assessing her point.)

(Day. Outside the hospital on a street. DR. SAMPSON unlocks her black estate car gets in. She drives off. We see the white pickup truck on the opposite side of the street. It pulls off, following DR. SAMPSON.)

(A plain white room, much larger than KOBOLD's old cell. KOBOLD is sitting on a stool in front of one of the large windows. The room is bathed in sunlight. DOGGETT and a guard enter the room.)

DOGGETT: That's Officer Custer. He's going to keep an eye on you.

KOBOLD: I'm familiar with Officer Custer.

OFFICER CUSTER: I'm outside the door if you need anything, Professor.

KOBOLD: Agent Reyes believes me. But you don't, Mr. Doggett.

DOGGETT: It doesn't matter what I believe.

KOBOLD: I'm wondering, why a sceptic such as yourself would accept an assignment to an obscure unit of the FBI devoted exclusively to the investigating of paranormal phenomena.

DOGGETT: You been checking up on me, Professor?

KOBOLD: Ordinarily men do not pursue occupations against their own inclinations unless there's some strong countervailing reason. Seeking the love or approval of a woman, perhaps? Agent Reyes may have affection for you, but you for her? Of course it could be someone else. Or something else. Some... dark secret from your past.

DOGGETT: That's enough.

KOBOLD: An unsolved tragedy for which you feel responsible. In some morbid way you haven't even admitted to yourself, perhaps you feel that... chasing ghosts will answer the questions which damn you.

(DOGGETT looks troubled by this insight.)

DOGGETT: I don't have time for this. Tell me if he says anything.

OFFICER CUSTER: Agent Doggett?

(The ghostly voices suddenly start in the cell. KOBOLD's head starts moving quickly. He looks possessed. DOGGETT needs some extra help.)

DOGGETT: Agent Reyes! Get Agent Reyes!

(The voices continue. The guard leaves the cell to find REYES.)

(DR. SAMPSON arrives at her house. She takes some mail from the mailbox and opens her front door. She walks through the hallway, passing a large window. As she passes the window, we see the white pickup track slowly moving across the lawn beside her house.)

(Back at the mental hospital. REYES enters KOBOLD's cell to find DOGGETT restraining him on a gurney as a nurse injects something in his arm to sedate him. KOBOLD is muttering still. REYES gets closer to try to understand what he is saying.)

KOBOLD: Me-di-cus, me-diii-cuss.

REYES: He's saying something. Medicus... a physician.

(We cut back to outside DR. SAMPSON's residence. We see the white pickup driving off from the kerbside. Just it leaves the roadside we see 5 or 6 police cars rapidly approaching the house, sirens wailing. They all pull up at the kerb, and perhaps a dozen officers get out. REYES and DOGGETT are also present. They burst through the front door of DR. SAMPSON's house.

DOGGETT: (Shouting) Dr. Sampson?

(REYES enters a room of the hallway with her gun aimed in front of her. She looks around, and her gaze stops on something to the side of her. She stops and moves towards it slowly, her gun lowered. She calls to DOGGETT.)

REYES: John.

(DOGGETT hears her voice and moves towards it, holding his gun in front of him. He enters the room where REYES is standing. We see DR. SAMPSON sitting at a desk in front of a window, the blinds drawn. She is motionless.)

DOGGETT: Dr. Sampson?

(No response. DOGGETT moves closer to her. He stops, and, turning the chair around, reveals DR. SAMPSON, her face stabbed with a dozen hypodermic syringes, firmly embedded in her skin and pointing in all directions. She's dead. REYES looks perturbed.)

[Fade to black]

(Day. Outside DR. SAMPSON's house. Her body is led away on a gurney, uncovered. The needles have been removed, and we can see the puncture marks in her skin. REYES walks past DOGGETT, and they exchange a glance. SCULLY then appears.)

SCULLY: The syringes contained roperidol, that's the same anti-psychotic medication that she was giving to Dr. Richmond.

DOGGETT: He's not the one calling the shots.

(We see JOSEF KOBOLD seated in the back of a car parked at the kerbside.)

SCULLY: You still think that it was Kobold?

DOGGETT: This is not about demons, it's not about demonic possession, it's about men.

SCULLY: Agent Doggett, have you considered that something else might be going on here?

DOGGETT: I heard you say, Agent Scully, I heard you tell a classroom full of FBI cadets - most evil in the world comes from men.

SCULLY: But I also said that once science fails, we have to consider extreme possibilities.

(DOGGETT and DR RICHMOND glance at each other. DOGGETT looks wound up. We see SCULLY reassuring him.)

SCULLY: I know what you're feeling. I know your frustration. But you can't let it cloud your objectivity.

DOGGETT: Agent Reyes is thinking just what this guy Kobold wants her to think, and now you are too.

(DOGGETT walks off, leaving SCULLY looking frustrated. She looks over to the car. The demonic voices become audible. We see KOBOLD staring at SCULLY )

(The mental hospital. KOBOLD's room. OFFICER CUSTER enters and walks over to a tray sitting on a chair.)

OFFICER CUSTER: Professor, you done with this meal?

(KOBOLD does answer. He is motionless, staring out of the window. DOGGETT enters the room carrying a report.)

DOGGETT: I brought something, Professor. Something to read. It's a monograph you wrote six years ago. Know the one I'm talking about, Professor? It's about the influence of Satan in Renaissance thinking.

(KOBOLD slowly gets up from the floor, stretching upwards as he stands.)

KOBOLD: So, you found your proof. Circumstantial though it may be.

DOGGETT: You planned this whole thing. I want to know why.

KOBOLD: I've been thinking a lot about you, Agent Doggett.

(KOBOLD walks slowly around the room.)

DOGGETT: You're not answering my question, Professor.

KOBOLD: About why someone so ill-suited would draw this duty. Clearly, you have feelings for her.

DOGGETT: You ordered Dr. Richmond to kill these people, didn't you?

KOBOLD: But you can't compete with the long-lost Agent Mulder. With his easy good looks, his Oxford education.

(DOGGETT is getting agitated by these remarks. His face gets more and more angry.)

DOGGETT: This is about you, Professor.

KOBOLD: Mulder has what you can't have. What you stumble for. The flat-footed cop, thinking he could put handcuffs on a demon.

(DOGGETT's pent up anger at KOBOLD is beginning to surface.)

DOGGETT: Answer the question!

KOBOLD: You want her, but she feels sorry for you. They both do.

(DOGGETT grabs KOBOLD around the shoulders, gripping his t-shirt. Suddenly, a thick liquid orange substance comes rushing out of KOBOLD's mouth, covering DOGGETT's jacket and shirt. DOGGETT jumps back. The liquid continues to emerge from his mouth as he stands there. He drops to his hands and knees, the liquid pooling on the floor in front of him. KOBOLD then slips sideways and lands in the pool of goo on the floor. DOGGETT bangs frantically on the door.)

DOGGETT: Guard! We need a medic! Guard! We need a medic! Guard!

(SCULLY is examining KOBOLD in the presence of CUSTER. She has just finished her examination. REYES is standing outside the room, and notices this. She walks off along a corridor, meeting DOGGETT.)

REYES: She's coming.

(SCULLY appears a few seconds later.)

SCULLY: As far as I can tell physically he's fine.

DOGGETT: Of course he is.

SCULLY: What brought this on?

DOGGETT: The guy's an expert on Satanic history, I, I confronted him on it.

REYES: Which proves what?

DOGGETT: Come on, Monica, y-you wanted to know who could stage a textbook example. This guy wrote the damn book!

REYES: I can't explain those voices we heard in his room... or this.

(REYES holds up a small sample bottle of the mysterious orange liquid.)

DOGGETT: It's a trick.

REYES: What if it's ectoplasm?

DOGGETT: Ectoplasm?

REYES: You've heard of it, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: Agent Mulder used to refer to it as psychic plasma - a residual by-product of telepathic communication. In theory it would have inorganic properties that couldn't be explained otherwise.

DOGGETT: So what are we talking now? The Ghostbusters?

REYES: If I'm right an analysis of this sample could prove whether he's telling the truth or faking it.

DOGGETT: Well, you can throw that crap away because I can tell you right now that this guy's liar. He's playing a game.

SCULLY: Well, then let's just see how well he plays that game.

DOGGETT: Why? So you can get suckered in even more? Listen to you two!

SCULLY: Agent Doggett.

DOGGETT: Listen, I'm telling ya. This guy threw this up for our benefit. He knew exactly what you'd say, he knew exactly what I'd say. He even knew that the two of you would be so blinded by this hocus pocus that you wouldn't see what's in front of your faces.

SCULLY: Agent Reyes is just trying to get to the truth, okay? What are you doing?

REYES: Maybe this is a hoax. Maybe you're right. But now you're saying we should turn away from evidence? It's not like you, John. I don't understand why.

DOGGETT: I already told you why.

(DOGGETT turns and leaves. REYES looks surprised and lost for words. DOGGETT continues down the corridor. He stops outside KOBOLD's cell, and peers in through the security glass window. He sees KOBOLD, motionless as ever, kneeling in front of the window.)

(Night. The mental hospital. The main atrium with the chessboard floor is dimly lit by lights hanging from the ceiling. Outside it is thundering, and flashes of lightning briefly light up the floor. OFFICER CUSTER is sat a desk to one side of the hallway reading a comic book. The demonic voices start. He puts down the magazine and gets up. We hear a loud crash and suddenly the lights go out. He moves towards KOBOLD's cell door, and looks through the windows. He sees KOBOLD standing up, arms at his side, in the near darkness. He is illuminated every few seconds by the lightning flashes from outside. KOBOLD's face suddenly turns demonic, and CUSTER is left staring at him.)

(Night. A car is driving along a road in the dark. We hear a cell phone ring. We see that it is SCULLY's car. She stops and answers the phone.)

SCULLY: Scully.

DOGGETT: Agent Scully, I tried to reach you at Quantico.

SCULLY: I'm on my way back to DC. What is it?

DOGGETT: Kobold. He told the guard he knows where we can find Dr. Richmond.

SCULLY: Where?

DOGGETT: Well, let's just say it sounds like a joke. Another game. It's a place called Happy Landing.

(SCULLY thinks about this.)

DOGGETT: Scully?

SCULLY: On state road 710, near Annandale.

DOGGETT: What are you talking about?

SCULLY: There-there's old marina there. I passed it on my way home, in fact I'm almost there right now.

DOGGETT: (To REYES) State road 710 near Annandale. (To SCULLY) All right, we're going to meet you there.

(Night. We see a sign decorated "Happy Landing". A car pulls up at the marina. SCULLY gets out cautiously. She looks around. The wooden boards under her feet creak as she walks along them. She draws her gun. She hears a noise and turns around quickly. Nothing. We see a shadowy figure approaching her from behind. She turns to see him as he lunges at her. SCULLY screams in horror.)

[Fade to black]

(Later. A stream of police cars pull up at the marina, their lights flashing and sirens wailing into the night. The second car to arrive is DOGGETT and REYES, which quickly get out and go to SCULLY's car.)

REYES: Where is she?

DOGGETT: I don't know. But I know who does.

(DOGGETT races over towards KOBOLD, who is seated in the back of one of the cars.)

DOGGETT: Where is she, Professor?

KOBOLD: Game's over, Mr. Doggett.

DOGGETT: Tell me where she is right now, you son of a bitch, I swear to God I'll kill you where you sit!

REYES: (Shocked) John ...

KOBOLD: You lost.

DOGGETT: (Shouting in KOBOLD's face) Where is she!!??

(KOBOLD looks at DOGGETT and laughs. Suddenly, we hear a gunshot ring out. DOGGETT and REYES look over to where the gunshot sounded. They race away from the car. OFFICER CUSTER then approaches the car, looking down at KOBOLD. DOGGETT and REYES are running through the marina, and enter a building. They stop and look around. They see some guard standing in a group over to one side. DOGGETT walks over, looking down to the ground. We see a body lying on the ground, still wearing a demonic mask. A pool of blood surrounds his head. DOGGETT calls out.)

DOGGETT: Agent Scully?

SCULLY: Agent Doggett, over here.

DOGGETT: I don't understand.

SCULLY: He held me at gunpoint until you arrived and then he shot himself.

REYES: It doesn't make sense.

DOGGETT: (Nodding) Yes, it does. Game's over.

(DOGGETT races back outside. He sees the car door open, and the manacles lying on the ground. He sees a man running away. Believing him to be KOBOLD, DOGGETT raises his gun and holds aim.)

DOGGETT: Josef Kobold! Stop there! I'm armed! I will shoot!

(The figure carries on running, and DOGGETT fires twice. The figure falls off the side of the quayside and into the water. We do not see who it is. DOGGETT races to the quayside. REYES and SCULLY follow. The body does not resurface.)

(Back at the Training Centre in Quantico. SCULLY is writing on the blackboard in front of the class of FBI cadets.)

SCULLY: Uncertainty. Not matter how thorough the investigation, some doubts inevitably remain. Just as juries seek to convict beyond reasonable doubt, the forensic investigator will seek conclusions supported by a preponderance of evidence. Rarely will you encounter a case where all of the variables, all of the open questions, are fully answered.

(The bell rings. The class all stand and get ready to leave the auditorium.

SCULLY: (To herself, light-heartedly) I'll see you Monday.

(DOGGETT and REYES walk down the steps to the front of the auditorium to meet SCULLY.)

REYES: Have you filed your report on the case yet?

SCULLY: (Sounding exhausted) I was going to do it on my way home.

REYES: We'd rather you didn't.

DOGGETT: We haven't accounted to Kobold's actions. Not all of them.

SCULLY: But Agent Reyes told me that Kobold accessed information about all of us over the Internet. About Mulder too.

DOGGETT: Well, that explains how he knew how we'd respond to the first killings. Why he staged them to look like Satanic ritual, to make sure that we would.

SCULLY: He wanted us on the case, we know that.

DOGGETT: He bent everyone to think and do whatever he wanted.

SCULLY: But we know all this already. It was a game, every move was played out perfectly. Except the last one.

REYES: Not unless that was part of the game, too.

SCULLY: What, to get shot in the back?

REYES: No. Kobold's body still hasn't been found.

SCULLY: Kobold's dead. Agent Doggett shot him. We all saw that.

(DOGGETT picks up a piece of chalk and writes DAEMONICUS on the blackboard.)

DOGGETT: Did we? Think back to Agent Reyes' question - why didn't Kobold escape with the others when he had the chance? Why? Because he wanted to escape without anyone knowing he'd escaped, so that by the time it was discovered, he'd be too far away for anyone to find him.

SCULLY: Satan.

(We see the original padded cell of KOBOLD. The door opens. DOGGETT enters the cell and looks around for clues.)

DOGGETT: Daemonicus. The beginning and the end of our case. The snake eating its own tail. We lost. Kobold told me so. He wanted us to see how brilliantly he played the game.

(DOGGETT reaches behind some loose padding and pulls out a clipping from a phonebook. The names of Darren and Evelyn Mountjoy are circled. We see their address as 41 Palm Road.)

DOGGETT: How thoroughly we lost. The first victims, Darren and Evelyn Mountjoy.

(SCULLY is holding the clipping in her hands.)

SCULLY: Chosen from the phone book. For what reason?

DOGGETT: No reason. Other than their names.

(DOGGETT underlines the letters DAE on the blackboard.)

SCULLY: And the third victim?

DOGGETT: The doctor. Monique Sampson. (DOGGETT underlines the letters MONI on the blackboard.) And the last. The man whose body is at the bottom of that river.

(We see a body being lifted from the water using a crane and a stretcher.)

SCULLY: (Moving closer) It's not Kobold.

DOGGETT: The guard we assigned to him. The guard he knew he'd have when we transferred him.)

SCULLY: Custer.

DOGGETT: Checkmate.

(The three agents stand in silence, comprehending DOGGETT's proposed MO. DOGGETT leaves the auditorium via the stairs.)

SCULLY: Something still bothering you, Agent Reyes? You don't believe this explanation?

(REYES looks troubled.)

REYES: It all makes sense to me as far as it goes. But there's something else, something he's afraid to explain.

SCULLY: You mean that you felt the presence of evil?

REYES: No, I mean that he felt it, too.

(SCULLY thinks about this.

CUT TO:

(The screen dissolves to clouds moving at speed across the sky. The demonic voices are heard once again.)

[Fade to black]

[THE END]