Title: Red Riding Hood
Author: Sara Nublas
Characters: Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, all team involved
Rating: T
Warning: violence and creepy scenes
Disclaimer: I don't own the show 'Criminal Minds', its characters or the tale of Little Red Riding Hood
A/N: Many people to thank for this story: withouttracelover996 for the prompt, Nix1978 for patiently listening to my ideas, freddlerabbit for the beta reading! Thank you!
Reviews will be very appreciated, they'll make my day and will soothe my anxiety about my stories being boring and ugly rants :)
"Once upon a time there was a happy family living in the middle of the forest," a woman sitting on a rocking chair near the fireplace starts the story, while two children, a boy and a girl, are looking at her intently. "They lived out of the products of the land, protected by the Gods of the woods. In change for the hospitality they had made a deal with the Gods: to protect their land from the visitors and to keep them safe from the people from the Outside."
"The people from the Outside?" the boy asks curious.
"Yes, Kyle" the woman replies, "Outside of the woods there is a dangerous scary world. The people living there rejected the power of the Gods and rebelled against nature a long time ago. Those people are greedy, evil and vicious. Don't trust them for any reason if you encounter them. If you did, I cannot even think of the horrible things they would do to you" she stops, her voice cracked, on the verge of tears.
The little girl, who has been silent so far, gets closer and hugs her, "Don't worry, mom. We will never trust anybody but you and dad."
The woman seems to calm down hearing the promise of the little girl, "I know Sylvia, but sometimes it's easy to believe their lies and think they are actually good people."
Right then, a desperate cry comes out of the basement, causing all of them to turn suddenly toward of the source of the noise.
In absolute silence, they listen.
The woman swallows and wipes the tears from her face, a new determination arising in her eyes. She takes the kids close to her and searches their gaze, "Listen to me carefully, you two. There's something really important you have to know and to remember, always. Your dad and I won't always be able to protect you. If something happens to us, you'll have to remember how to stay safe…"
Tears immediately fill the children's eyes, as soon as their mother's hard words sink in.
Then Kyle sobers up, remembering a speech about being a man his father gave him a few weeks before, in the woods. A man never cries; he makes sure his family is fine and does everything necessary to protect them.
"What do we do if we meet the people from the Outside?" he asks with resolution, raising his chest and pushing back the tears.
His mother looks at him and at the young girl with an afflicted yet serious expression, remembering that she was the same age when she was taught the rule.
"If you meet someone from the Outside, you can't just avoid them. They crossed a line and they invaded sacred territory. Since it is our duty to protect these woods, you'll have to offer the Gods a tribute to calm their fury, otherwise they'll punish you and you will be exiled forever, never to return." The woman warns them, her eyes wide and her voice stern.
"What do we have to do, mother?" Sylvia asks, now trying to be as brave as her brother is proving to be.
The woman opens her mouth to speak, when a last, desperate, almost inhuman scream comes from the basement, interrupting her.
This time the kids don't turn toward the source of the noise; they willingly avoid staring at the trap door on the floor, that so many times prodded their fantasies and appeared in their nightmares. They just get closer to their mom and entwine their hands together with hers. Waiting for something to happen.
They startle a little when the noise of a dead weight thumping on the floor breaks the stillness of the moment.
The three slowly move their gaze to that dreaded spot on the floor, without a move, holding their breath; the logs sparking in the fire being the only noise in the room.
Their heartbeats increase a little as a sound of approaching steps on the stairs is followed by a click in the lock of the trap door. The hinges squeal and the door noisily falls on the wooden floor, making the two kids jump.
A well-built man, with red stained clothes and surly demeanor, comes out of the hole and looks at his wife with an expression between exhausted and relieved. The two kids jump up, hands in the air, running toward their dad and hugging him around the waist. He places one hand on each of kids' shoulders and looks at them, hinting at a tired smile; then he turns to his wife, saying "take their coats, the kids are coming with us".
The woman, for a moment thinks of objecting to that decision, knowing that after this lesson everything will be different and her children will lose a part of their innocence forever, but then a pang of pain on her shoulder, reminds her of how unfortunate an idea it is to contradict her husband. She nods and complies quickly.
The kids, quickly forget the fear of the previous moments and get all excited at the idea of a trip in the woods, in the middle of the night, "Where! Daddy where are you taking us?" Kyle demands.
"A night in the woods," Sylvia squeals, excited.
"It's not a fun trip, kids" the man calms them down; "We're taking you to learn what happens to the people from the Outside when they cross the line. One day you'll be taking care of this personally."
As they walk silently into the woods, a mixture of fear and anticipation steals words from both the kids; they follow silently their parents who are dragging a wheelbarrow.
When a wheel bumps on a rock, they catch a glimpse of what's inside, covered by a canvas.
Eyes. A pair of opened, terrified, lifeless eyes, peeping at them.
It's not an animal that their parents are carrying. It's a person. The people from the Outside, they both silently realize holding each other's hands even tighter.
Their father looks back at them and starts explaining quietly, turning his head to the road again, "When the people form the Outside trespass, you have to beg the Gods for forgiveness and show them your loyalty. To do so you will need two people, a man and a woman…"
The two kids swallow hard, as their father goes on explaining the details of the sacrifice.
Emily sighs, looking at the lush, yet troubled landscape in front of her. Acres and acres of untouched woods; a number of unexplained deaths, leaving a trace at least forty years old, and no tangible clues to profile the unsub. It's the third day the team is stuck in a little town in the middle of nowhere, where six days ago the bodies of two hikers, a man and a woman, were found, horribly beaten to death and mutilated. Two days after they got there, another couple was found, same MO, again a man and a woman.
"Any thought you want to share?" Rossi approaches Prentiss with a tired smile.
"Nothing useful to the case" she mutters back, raising her head toward the leaden sky, as a fine drizzle starts falling on them.
"I'm open to any sort of topic," he continues, driven more by the need to have some sort of conversation, than by an actual worry about his colleague.
Emily finally turns her gaze to him, "Are you exasperated as much as I am?"
At the horizon a team of searchers led by Morgan, is returning from the woods, as the rest of the team just did. The disappointment on their faces suggests they were not more successful than the others.
"Why?" Rossi carries on, focusing his attention on the tops of the trees merging with the gray sky until the eye can reach, "You're not enjoying this treasure hunting?" he snaps sarcastically. God, how much would he give for a whiskey and a dry change of clothes.
"That's your thing, isn't it?" she carries on tiredly, "you, your gun, your dog, the nature…"
"I thought you appreciated the outdoors too…" he prompts.
"Not when people are dropping dead with a cooling off period of 1 day, after 40 years of silence. And we don't have a profile yet. And the officer in charge has never dealt with anything bigger than a kitten stuck on a tree..." she counters despondently.
Emily pauses a second and then turns to Rossi, now silently inviting her to let out all her frustration.
"I mean, what the hell do we have aside from a pile of deaths that happened 20 years ago, in all cases a man and a woman, all killed with the same MO, and suddenly interrupted just to resurface now?" She raises her hands in defeat.
Morgan climbs up the little hill where the two profilers are standing, just in time to hear Emily's tirade.
"We don't have any preference in terms of age, race, features, social level." The exasperation is now clear in her voice, "It seems the victims were chosen randomly and used as part of a ritualistic murder. And what kind of person can kill for twenty years, then stop, and start again twenty years later?"
"Maybe he just moved somewhere else, and now is back." Morgan offers, standing few meters away, arms folded and sunglasses on, hiding his dejected expression.
"Even so, where are the traces of similar murders in other areas? Garcia ran an extensive search on similar crimes and found nothing." She counters, "And let's say he started killing when he was twenty, this now makes him sixty. How can he abduct and torture two people single handedly?"
"He could have a partner…" Morgan suggests, scrutinizing her with a frown and then exchanging a look with Rossi.
"And they could be held captive until exhaustion. The coroner reported signs of dehydration and starvation on the bodies" Rossi adds.
"He kills random people, at irregular intervals. When he was active the first time, there were in all 20 victims, which means ten killings. The only fixed element is the MO." She numbers on her fingers the list of all the information gathered so far. Information that they have processed over and over again.
"We've been over this at least a dozen time already, Prentiss," Morgan points out, taking a few nervous steps and gazing at the searchers' defeated expressions.
"But we never asked why?" Emily reinforces; more because she's desperate to find a viable lead than because she believes this path is promising.
"What do you mean?" Hotch asks, catching up with them. The sheriff, Reid and JJ are following.
"This is not the pattern of an unsub hunting his prey. It seems more like he's hiding and when someone invades his space, he attacks them…"
"Then why the pairing man and woman?" Rossi asks.
"He seems to follow a pagan ritual, the sexual component could be part of it" Morgan advances, the chance of a new lead giving him a bit of hope.
"This is a theory that we could verify if we had a precise location of the abductions" Hotch counters.
"Sheriff, some of the previous victims were hikers." Reid has an idea, "If you had the itinerary that the victims planned to follow, we could find some common tracks they walked and locate the abductions along their itinerary. Maybe we could find a pattern" his enthusiasm floats in the air with no response from the officer, who seems lost in other thoughts.
'Sheriff?" Hotch prompts impatiently. He's exhausted, as well as his team. The investigation has been handled haphazardly, and the BAU was called in to be welcomed by the typical hostility of little town's people, not used to asking for help or to share their dirty laundry with suits coming from Washington.
"There's an old story. More of a fairy tale for kids actually…." The sheriff starts, grazing his chin with one hand, "It says that once upon a time these woods were the kingdom of Gods…"
Rossi drops his heads on one side shooting a skeptical gaze to the officer; Hotch's eyes narrow a bit more, his patience wearing off; whereas the rest of the team give each other dumbfounded looks, preparing for a paranormal twist of the case.
The sheriff continues, "When the people from the Outside arrived and started stealing the sacred land, a man and a woman were designated by the divinity to protect the last outpost of the original woods. Their job was to keep away people from the sacred land and offer a man and a woman as a sacrifice to the Gods, in case any outsider trespassed. As reward they could live on God's land"
"And you think somebody is killing these people because he's convinced to follow the Gods' will?" Hotch shifts on his feet, uncomfortably.
"It would fit the temporal pattern…" Reid suggests while the rest of the team shoots surprised looks, "This reprise could be carried on by the children of the first unsubs…And the presence of a team well suits the victimology".
"Reid, are you seriously considering the theory of a fairy tale?" Morgan voices the obvious skepticism of the team.
Reid is about to answer when a sudden commotion at the edge of the woods attracts their attention.
A young woman is running and screaming toward the search teams.
The profilers run down the hill together with the sheriff to understand what's happening. When they arrive, a helpless volunteer is trying her best to calm down the young woman and to understand her mumblings. Half of the volunteers are instead staring at a beautiful young woman wearing a white dress and a red cloak. She must not be more than 25 years old; she has blond, long hair, fair complexion and dark blue eyes. She looks terrified and several scratches on her legs and arms suggest she's been running away from something.
When she turns her eyes to the newly arrived agents, she freezes for a second, then quickly throws herself in Morgan's arms, sobbing desperately.
Emily and JJ exchange a dumbfounded look, while Morgan, as surprised as his colleagues, tries to calm the woman down.
Once the woman stops sobbing and finally releases her hold on Morgan's chest, she looks around disoriented, as if she's seeing other humans for the first time in her life.
"Ma'am?" Morgan, who seems to be the only one she's willing to establish any contact with, questions gently, "can you tell us what happened?"
She sobs again, "I was walking in the woods, when a man came out of nowhere and tried to grab me. Then I ran and ran, until I found you" again eyes on Morgan.
"Can you describe the man who attacked you?" Hotch asks, seemingly unbothered by her preference for the colleague.
"Tall, well built, dark…" then the sobs come in the way again…
"Can you tell us what were you doing in the woods all alone?" Prentiss asks, something about this witness is not convincing her.
The girl looks at her as if she has just posed the most ridiculous question "I was bringing some jam and bread to my grandmother," then she pauses, her face horrified in realization, "Oh my god, she's old and alone. I have to go and make sure she's alright!" she starts crying in despair.
"Ma'am, don't worry" the Sheriff soothes her "I will send one of my men to check personally on her, just give us the address of the house"
"My grandmother is an old woman, she's not at ease with men…" the woman explains in sobs.
"I'll go with him" Emily offers, "What's your name?"
"Sylvia" the woman manages before finding again comfort in Derek's arms.
Emily exchanges a look with Rossi and JJ, while they take a few steps away and leave Morgan dealing with her, "We just need a big scary wolf and we're right into a fairy tale" Emily comments harshly, gaining a chuckle from Rossi.
"She really likes Morgan…" JJ comments, looking back at her colleague.
"Who also incredibly resembles her aggressor…" Emily points out.
"What?" JJ is lost for explanation.
"She described her aggressor as tall, well built and dark; and of all the people around she threw herself in the arms of the one person who resembles most the man she was running away from," Emily explains.
Rossi nods at his colleague's explanation and wonders if the source of her skepticism is just Sylvia's bizarre behavior or if her clear preference for Morgan is bugging her in a different kind of way.
"I get it," victims of assault usually refuse to be touched, especially by men. Go figure by men resembling their attacker" JJ completes the reasoning, gaining Emily's nod.
"Do you think it's wise to go in there alone?" Rossi finally asks.
"I won't be alone… an officer is going to be with me," Prentiss quickly resolves, "and I'm sick and tired of this unsub."
"Be careful" JJ places a hand on her colleague's shoulder.
"You too" Prentiss smiles back briefly.
"Hey Prentiss, sure you wanna go into the woods alone?" Morgan offers while she walks past him.
Emily shoots back a cold look, "I'm not going to be alone," she looks at the rookie who's going to walk with her, "and it's seems your hands are already full anyway…"
Morgan looks back at Sylvia, now in the hands of the paramedics and looking at him with Bambi eyes.
"Do you think she's faking it?" he asks Emily.
"I don't know… but definitely there's something off about her. Maybe you can make her talk, she likes you," she suggests bitterly and gets in reward a death glare from Morgan.
"Seriously? Do you think I would flirt with her?" he counters resentfully.
"No!" Emily gives him an abashed look, "I'm just saying that she seems to prefer you and it's more likely to understand the truth if we play her game."
Morgan searches her big brown eyes for a moment, then he gives up frowning," Alright, Stay safe" is the last thing he tells her, before he walks back to Sylvia.
To be continued...