A/N: I don't own anything.

I know that Tony wasn't a detective in Philly but there's always much focus on Baltimore so let's pretend or call it AU. Enjoy :)

Philadelphia 1998

The smell struck his face as he walked into the room. The victim was tied to a chair in the middle of the room and there were blood and bruises all over the body. A single light-bulb hung from the ceiling providing the room with only a dim light. It was a typical basement with no windows and one another rat lurking in a corner. Detectives Adrian Quinn and Anthony DiNozzo had seen this kind of scene before, a couple of murders similar to this had occurred over the past six months. Those who had been killed had been cops. They had been working hard trying to find this bastard which had meant too little sleep and too much frustration.

It was late and Tony had no time for pleasantries, he wanted to get out of here as soon as he could.

"What do we have here?" Tony asked no one in particular and squatted down next to the dead man in the chair. A woman that Tony had failed to notice earlier as they walked in to the room started reading from a notebook:

"Unidentified male, approximately in his mid-fifties, severe contusions all over the body as far as we can see. It looks like he's sustained the same torment as the previous victims of this particular killer." She stopped and looked up and explained that they didn't have much at this time.

Tony held up his hand signaling to the coroner to enter. They wouldn't know everything for sure until they had gotten the full autopsy report but Tony was certain they were dealing with the same killer and same M.O. The man's face was swollen and covered in blood and it was hard to make out any of the man's features. The young detective's stomach turned a little and a strange feeling grew larger inside of him. He thought the person sitting in the chair looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He noticed that Quinn was watching him with a slightly bewildered look on his face.

"What clue did he leave to mock us with this time?" Tony sounded a bit agitated as he said it.

"Well…Except for the obvious writing in blood all over the wall over here, it seems like the victim's stomach has been cut open and then sowed back together and we don't know if that has any meaning but he haven't done that to any of the previous victims." Quinn said and handed over the camera he was holding to Tony so he could take pictures of the wall with the writing on it.

"What the hell does momento mori mean? Tony asked while taking several photos of the wall where the phrase was written in blood. "What, you missed all the Latin lectures?" Quinn asked with a smirk. Tony laughed sarcastically and snapped a photo of Quinn's face so he flinched.

"Wouldn't want to forget this moment when you finally start to loosen up" he said and then continued: "and no, some people and then I mean most people were interested in other things when they were young rather than learning a language no one speaks" Tony said with a smile.

"I didn't have time for that and my father wouldn't allow it either way, he wanted me to stay sharp. Oh, and by the way it means remember your mortality if I'm not mistaking, Mr. I-partied-my-way-through-college" Quinn shot back. He expected a reaction or response from his partner but got nothing. They usually went on way too long with these little feuds against each other but it wasn't like Tony to surrender before they'd even got started.

"Why would he write that on the wall?" he asked almost robotic, ignoring the rest of what Quinn had said. That strange feeling he had had earlier started to some back and he definitely didn't like this. He told Quinn to take the video camera and start recording the scene. In the mean time, the coroner and his assistant had finished with removing the body from the chair and had laid it down on the floor, ready to transport it out of there in the body bag.

"Go get the gurney, please" the medical examiner said to the assistant who instantly made her way out of the room.

"Well, I can tell you now that it seems like the killer have some medical experience based on these sutures here on the victim's stomach, he's definitely not an amateur at this and the "X" painted in red over the stomach most definitely has a meaning. " the medical examiner stated. Tony took a note of what the medical examiner had said but was too busy ponder about this whole situation to reply. He was also aware of the killer's abilities, since there had been a couple of bodies before this one.

"X marks the spot…" he whispered to himself and made his way over to Quinn who was standing by the entrance to the room, still recording the scene.

"This one feels different from the others; do you think he is up to something special, I mean what does he want?" Quinn wondered. Tony was just about to answer that when the light bulb in the ceiling and the extra lamps that had been brought in to provide extra light went out.

"Well this was spooky…" Tony said pensive.

The door suddenly shut close behind them and they all drew their guns. There were four people in the room, Tony, his partner, the coroner and a patrolling officer that had been first man on scene. Tony tried to open the door but it was locked.

"Well at least there are people outside that will soon come down here and discover that the door shut close and they will open it, so we can be on our way away from here." Tony assured the others but was concerned about what it was that had made the door close. Everything seemed too weird.

"What if those people out there aren't able to come down here and open the door, what if something happened? It's in the middle of the night so there are only like three or four policemen out there and considering the situation, that strikes as possible to me" Quinn said with a strangely calm voice.

Tony just stared at him, didn't say anything nor even flinched. It was like his mind was struggling whether to admit to himself that something was up or to keep the idea of that this was just another coincidence.

"Uhm, fellas… you should come take a look at this." the coroner said to the three men in the room who all directed the light from their flashlights straight at him. They all came closer to the coroner and the dead body and saw that the coroner was holding in a small plastic bag with an object in it that he had taken out from the victim's stomach. Tony took on a pair of gloves to inspect the finding. It was a tape recorder. After a minute of consideration, he pressed play.

"For your own good, you should not have done that. [Pause…] The darkness is coming... I suggest you prepare yourselves. You will get what is coming for you..."

Everyone was quiet. No one knew what to say. Tony was beginning to feel lightheaded. There was a strange smell in the air, but it was hard to make out since the whole room stank of dead guy. He tried to stand up but his body didn't allow it. A wave of coldness washed over him and it felt as if he was being dragged down to the bottom of the sea, weighed down, hands tied. There was nothing he could do. The others in the room had already passed out and it wasn't long now until he had to give in to the darkness. His head fell to the ground. In his last seconds of consciousness he could hear the door being open. It was too dark to see anything and all he could make out before everything went dark was a blurry shape of a man standing in the doorway.

Did you like it? This is my first fic so bare with me, I'm taking baby steps in getting a hang of this... I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible but since it's usually not that realistic on tv,so I will use that trick to make it more nerve wracking. Mwahah...

Please review, it really helps my creative flow! :)