It was only a matter of time before Belle was back down the stairs and hugging her mother goodbye. They took her outside into the fog and watched her get in the back seat of the economy sized rental Ford Taurus. The drove fairly slowly through the thicket of white fog to the Angel of the Sea. When they pulled up to it, Belle seemed comfortable in her surroundings as she approached the door.

"This was my daddy's house," she told the agents as she walked to the front door. "He said it was pretty, but he'd never want to live there again. He says this is why we have no family."

"He told you that?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, but he went to Heaven a little while after," she walked into the grand foyer.

Scully looked at Mulder as if in disbelief that the child remembered what her dad told her. Belle put her duffel bag down by the stairs and headed to the back of the house and stood out on a large immaculate balcony that looked out over the cliffs and the sea lapping violently against the rocks raised in the sea. She raised her hand to wave out to the ocean, promoting Mulder to ask, "Who are you waving at?"

"That man out there," she told him. "He seems a bit grumpy, he never waves back."

Belle turned around and walked back inside sitting herself down on a plush couch left behind by the family.

"There was a man out there?" Scully asked her as she sat down in a poet's chair across from the sofa.

"Yeah, he's got a white beard, he's wearing a uniform. Like my daddy's," she spoke as she backed herself up on the stripped seat. "It's that old man in that picture book you showed me."

Mulder looked at Scully, then she asked, "Then why didn't we see him?"

"You didn't?" the girl was stunned.

"No," replied Scully.

"But he was right there," Belle frantically stood up and ran to the balcony again, Mulder and Scully trailing behind. "See! He's right there! He's always there, he walks but he doesn't move."

Mulder and Scully peered out into the vast fog laying softly over the ocean to find a man in a Navy Captain's uniform and couldn't locate anyone, not even a ship. "Belle," Scully looked down. "There's no one out there."

"Yes there is! He's right there!" she panicked. "Why can't you see him?!"

The took her inside as she pointed repeatedly at the man standing between the sea and fog. "Why don't we get something to eat?" Scully suggested.

Belle remained silent noting the change in subject and watched Scully look around for food, "There's no food here, you know," the child chimed in. "Whenever mom and me are here for a long time we have to go out or order it."

Scully nodded then cocked her head to the side indicating that she and Mulder should get up and they'd go somewhere to eat. When they returned Mulder began working on his files again and Belle wandered through the house in sections her mother had told her to stay away from. She slid some sliding doors open wide that opened up to a room of shining hardwood floors and paintings of famous ships and navy men. Bookshelves lined the perimiter of the immaculate room with a large chrystal chandelier hanging down from the middle. A fire place sat straight across the room with burnt logs still inside and ashes scattered at the bottom. A constructed model of a large ship with sails sat on the mantel with a tarnished brass plate holding it's illegeble name.

This was a room that the men of the family used to smoke their cigars and drink their brandy no doubt. It was a room that once sparkled with elegant beauty but was now hidden but dust and cobwebs. She entered the room fully and examined the names of the books on the shelves, "Moby Dick"; "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", and many other titles by authors that she'd heard were classics. They would have been new in the era this house lived in. She felt a breeze blow through and heard Scully calling her name so she rushed out of the room leaving the doors open.

"Yes?" she called as she ran down a hallway.

"We're getting ready to go to bed, so you should too," Scully told her as she made her way up the stairs.

"K," she responded following her upstairs with her small bag. "What room am I sleeping in?"

"Any one you want," Scully looked back. "Just try to pick one close to ours."

30 Minutes later, they were all ready and eager to get to bed. Belle had chosen to stay in the room Scully abandoned to stay in Mulder's room, and although Scully had her reservations on letting her sleep in there, she figured the child seemed more stable then herself.

At 3:34AM, Belle found herself sitting up in bed having heard music. She got up and left her room quietly as not to wake Mulder and Scully from their sleep - they had guns. She ever so swiftly made herway down the long, tall, winding staircase to the first floor. The musical noise grew louder in her small ears, so she followed the vibrations the sound gave off. She found herself in front of a door that lead to a room she was never allowed to explore, and in hearing the music she was too curious not to disobey her mother that once.

She twisted the knob and pulled then stepping inside. She walked down a long corridor with high ceilings and walls with columns decorated in victorian molding. She reached the end and found herself standing on a balcony, gripping brass railing as she looked out over a crowd of transparent people that glittered in the night as they came from the walls and floated to the floor with their dancing partners in hand. The music was playing loudly through the ball room, echoing in her ears.

Belle looked to either side of her and saw that the blood red carpet she stood on lead, in both directions, to an embracing arms staircase with railing the same golden brass color that she'd been holding. She took the right staircase down and gazed around at the dancing people, most men in navy uniforms dancing with their spouses in their elegant gowns.

Suddenly, the music stopped and everyone dancing came to an abrupt halt all starring at a family in the middle. A tall, sturdy man, a beautiful wife, and 5 children surrounding them. A baby was in the woman's arms as she wrapped her free arm around a young blonde boy. The father stood in front of a young girl with curly brown hair who stood next to a shorter boy. And finally, a growing young man stood next to the Captain in his brand new sailor's uniform.

Belle recognized this family that stared eerily back at her just as she eyed them. The more she looked at them, the creepier they became. The oldest boy and the captian went blue in the face and looked as if submerged in liquid; the mother looked battered and bloody; the 2 girls' mouths began to bleed profusely whereas a one of the younger boys skully cracked and bled among many other cuts on his body; yet the last boy grew into a man and a woman appeared next to him, seemingly both normal until imprints of hooves appeared on their transperant bodies.

Being young, her eyebrows raised in fear then she darted up the red carpeted stairs. Her hair flew wildly behind her as she dashed down the long hall and through the heavy wooden doors. She found her way through winding cooridors to the mail circle of the house where she knew how to find the stairs that lead to the 2nd floor and to her bedroom. She got to the top and scrambled down the hallway to Scully and Mulder's room, no longer able to avoid rousing them from their slumber.

She scurried over to Scully's bed and shook her gently, "Ms. Scully...Ms. Scully, please wake up."

Scully moaned and turned over to face Belle who was urgently nudging her.

"Ms. Scully please wake up!" she said just above a whisper.

"What is it?" she asked suddenly alert. "Is something wrong?"

"There are people," she said. "Lots of them! They're all downstairs dancing!"

The girl was clearly petrified so Scully sat up immediately, "Where, show me where they are."

Belle took her hand and seemingly drug her out of bed as she called for Mulder to awaken. They ran down the hall and back to the place where Belle had seen the figures dancing gracefully and of course they couldn't see anything when they got there - only Belle.

"See! Don't you seem them?" she asked as she leaned over the shining brass rail pointing. "They're all down there, can't you see them?"

Mulder and Scully's eyes combed the immense ball room but saw no one.

"Please! They're there! I promise! They're all down there!"

Mulder and Scully leaned over the balcony that Belle was and looked once again trying to find ANYTHING. "No, I don't see anything," Scully looked at Belle in sorrow.

"But they're there! Right there! There's that family we saw in that book! Right down there! They're all looking up at us!"

"Are you sure you see them?" Scully asked.

"YES! But they're not normal, they're messed up. All beat up and blue and they look weird, but they're all there!"

Mulder and Scully back away from the balcony as the suffering child began to cry while still leaning over the edge. Suddenly the balcony disappeared - it didn't just fall off or tip, it vanished into thin air - and it would have sent Belle plummiting to her death if Mulder hadn't caught her left index finger.

Out of anxious nervousness, Mulder and Belle's hands were both sweaty and slippery, and just as Scully brushed the girl's hand with her own she fell.

"Belle!" Scully and Mulder screamed in unison.

Just as they closed their eyes and expected to hear a thud, they heard the wind blow loudly then lights pop on showing people dancing on air as if they were air themselves. They all looked like royalty as they spun to the ground, dancing every so gracefully. They looked in a terrified type of awe, wondering where Belle was and why she hadn't hit the ground. They looked through the people dancing and finally found a group of people of all ages standing in a group, and recognized each and everyone from the pictures they'd been studying. The family stared back at them for a moment before turning around and walking towards a large wall with a giant mural painted across the whole thing.

Scully was utterly speechless as Mulder stared in awe. Just before the family disappeared behind the wall, a blond slender woman turned around to them and waved - she looked uncannily like Cory, the same features and everything. Mulder and Scully exchanged shocked glances and when they looked back at the ball room the music was gone and the see-through doll-like figures had disappeared with the Franklin family.

Now that every ghostly configuration that once occupied the dance floor disappeared they could see Belle lying limply and lifelessly on her back and her head rolled over to the side. The agents raced down both sides of the stairs and rushed to the girl's side, but when they got there, there was nothing they could do. Scully lifted her head to look sorrowfully at Mulder, then as he met her gaze she closed her eyes and lowered it again.

They made a call to the local police and waited until they got to the scene to take Belle away before they went over to Cory's.

They thought they were through with seeing "ghosts" or the umbra's of the phantom family, but as they walked outside to get in their car parked close to the edge of the cliff, Scully said, "Do you see that?"

Mulder took his eyes of his keys opening the lock and looked out into the lifting fog. What he and Scully couldn't deny seeing was the entire family walking in a horizontal row in their gowns and tuxedos away from the Angel of the Sea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the arrived at the dark house they parked recklessly and bolted for the door. When no one answered to their repeated knocks and endless rings of the doorbell, they took it upon themselves to enter.

They searched around the house with a fine tooth comb and found nothing until they came upon the dining room. There was an empty latter, so Mulder and Scully walked over to it as it was behind the table and blocking the view of anything beneath it. When the floor below the latter came into full view they saw what they'd dreaded since seeing the apparition at the Angel of the Sea house - Cory lie on the floor with a gash across her forehead. The blood swarmed around in her hair and seeped into the light colored carpet.

One the plane back, Scully was still unsure what to think about the situation, and Mulder respected her enough to leave her be.

"I still don't understand," she said out of no where as they passed over New York City in the plane.

"Don't understand what?" he turned his head.

"Why when Belle fell that we saw what she'd been seeing."

Mulder felt as if it were some kind of transferance through death, Belle having touched them both before falling to her doom and in essence sending her visions to them. But he couldn't bring himself to put that upon Scully, so he said, "I don't know. Whatever it is, it's over."

THE END