CENE 18

(POLLY is in bed sleeping with the doll. MELISSA looks in the room, then goes to a cabinet and gets a hammer and a handful of nails. Later, MELISSA is frantically hammering nails into all the door frames and windows.)

POLLY: (calling from upstairs) Mommy ... I can't sleep.

MELISSA: You go back to bed, Polly. It's way past your bedtime.

POLLY: No more pounding.

MELISSA: Go back to bed, sweetheart.

(Doll's eyes pop open.)

DOLL: Let's have fun.

(MELISSA sees her own image in the window, a hammer stuck in her bloody forehead.)

MELISSA'S IMAGE: Help me ...

MELISSA: Everything's going to be all right, Sweetie. Just go back to bed.

(Outside, BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up. They see a car parked close by.)

BONSAINT: That's Buddy's car.

(Inside, MELISSA closes the door to POLLY'S bedroom. She puts the hammer back in the cabinet and padlocks it. Then she goes to the kitchen and tips a portable heater over, spilling kerosene on the floor next to the dead body of BUDDY RIGGS. She gets a box of matches then hears BONSAINT and SCULLY outside knocking.)

BONSAINT: Melissa!

(SCULLY looks in a window.)

BONSAINT: You see anything?

SCULLY: Unh-uh.

BONSAINT: (knocking) Melissa.

(Inside, Melissa tries to strike a match. She is shaking.

Finally, the third match lights)

BONSAINT: (outside) Melissa!

POLLY: (watching MELISSA, frightened) Mommy?!

(Doll's eyes open. Match goes out.)

DOLL: Don't play with matches.

MELISSA: (crying, and trying to strike another match)

You go back to bed, Polly!

(MELISSA strikes more matches. They each get blown out.)

BONSAINT: (outside knocking) Melissa?!

MELISSA: Go on now.

(Outside, SCULLY sees the nails holding the door closed. As

BONSAINT continues to knock on the door, SCULLY looks in

the window again and sees MELISSA striking matches.

SCULLY begins knocking on the window.)

SCULLY: Melissa? Melissa? Bonsaint!

(MELISSA gives up on the matches and begins trying to open drawers.

They snap back closed.)

DOLL: Don't play with knives.

POLLY: Mommy!

SCULLY: (outside) She's got the door nailed shut. She's trying to kill herself.

(BONSAINT begins breaking down the door.

SCULLY keeps knocking on the window.)

SCULLY: Melissa! Melissa!

POLLY: Mommy! Mommy, no more pounding!

(Hardware cabinet bursts open on its own.)

DOLL: Let's play with the hammer.

(SCULLY and BONSAINT take turns hitting the door.)

SCULLY: Melissa!

(Door finally crashes open. BONSAINT and SCULLY enter.

MELISSA is holding the hammer in front of her face.)

MELISSA: Get away from me!

SCULLY: Put it down, Melissa.

DOLL: I don't like you anymore.

(MELISSA hits herself on the forehead with the hammer.)

SCULLY: (kneels next to POLLY) Give me the doll, Polly.

DOLL: I want to play.

(POLLY shakes her head and holds onto the doll. MELISSA hits herself again. Her head is now bloody.)

SCULLY: Polly, give me the doll.

DOLL: I want to play.

(MELISSA hits herself again. POLLY watches in horror. SCULLY takes the doll which keeps re-peating "I want to play." She takes it down to the kitchen and stuffs the doll into the microwave and turns it on. Doll catches fire. Must be one of those oxygenated microwaves. POLLY walks over to MELISSA who is bloody and crying. SCULLY and BONSAINT watch the doll burn.)

SCENE 19

(X-Files office. Mulder finishes sharpening a pencil in an electric sharpener, and delicately blows the dust off the tip. He places it on the desk and carefully lines it up with about 20 more sharpened pencils. Door opens and SCULLY enters.)

MULDER: Oh, hey, Scully. How you doing? (Laces his fingers together smoothly to hide the row of pencils) How are you feeling? Rested?

SCULLY: I feel fine.

(SCULLY is focused on the I Want to Believe Poster behind MULDER.)

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: That poster ... Where'd you get it?

MULDER: Oh, I got it down on "M" Street at some head shop

about five years ago.

SCULLY: Hmm.

MULDER: Why?

SCULLY: No. I just ... wanted to send one to somebody.

MULDER: You do?

SCULLY: Mm-hmm.

MULDER: Who?

(As SCULLY passes him, MULDER opens his desk drawer and coughs to cover the sound of the pencils being pushed into the drawer and the drawer being closed.)

MULDER: Who?

SCULLY: Oh, just ... some guy. (pause) Jack. "M" Street?

MULDER: Yeah. Hey, does this have something to do with that case you were working on?

SCULLY: What case? Uh, yeah. Yes it does.

MULDER: Did you solve it?

SCULLY: Me? No. No. I was, uh, I was on vacation. Just ...

getting out of my own head for a few days. What about you?

Did you, uh, did you get anything done while I was gone?

MULDER: Oh, God. It's amazing what I can accomplish without

incessant meddling or questioning into everything I do. It's just ...

(MULDER is interrupted by a pencil dropping down on him. He looks up and another falls on him. SCULLY slowly raises her eyes to the ceiling. About thirty pencils are stuck into the ceiling tiles above MULDER'S desk.)

MULDER: (embarrassed, but charming) There's ... got to be an explanation.

SCULLY: Oh, I don't know. I think some things are better left unexplained.

(Another pencil falls and hits MULDER on the top of the head. He looks innocently at SCULLY. She looks at him with exasperation.)

SCENE 20

(Night. Fishing boat in Maine. Fisherman pulls a lobster out of a trap.)

FISHERMAN: Ah.

(He pulls the burned doll out of the trap. Doll's eyes open.)

DOLL: I want to play.

The End

US Airdate: February 8, 1998

Writers: Stephen King and Chris Carter

Director: Kim Manners

Starring:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

Susannah Hoffman as Melissa Turner

Jenny Lynn Hutcheson as Polly Turner

Carolyn Tweedle as Jane Froelich

Gordon Tipple as Assistant Manager

Harrison R. Coe as Dave the Butcher

Larry Musser as Jack Bonsaint

William MacDonald as Buddy Riggs

Dean Wray as Rich Turner