This takes place a while after Haley has died. I hope you enjoy. This is my first story. I do not own anything of criminal minds! Enjoy!
The screams and cries of the victims were embedded in her memory. Nothing she said or did could stop it, she couldn't make it go away. Her attempt to rationalize with him or draw the attention of the victims away from him had failed. She broke and lost all composure unable to compartmentalize the horrors taking place right in front of her and suddenly found herself screaming in a fit of uncontrolled rage for him to stop.
Beads of sweat formed on Emily's head as she kept a hard pace running against the red morning sky. Just a 100 more yards to go and she came to a stop trying to catch her breath. The chill of an early fall swept past her, tousling lose strands of hair across her face. She looked up at the sky and said to herself, "Red sky in the morning sailor take warning." Goosebumps canvassed her entire body accompanied with a feeling of dread. She looked at her watch and hurried to her apartment to get ready to go into work.
When Emily made it to work she went straight for the coffee where she saw Morgan. Morgan took a sip of his coffee and asked, "Did you see that red sky this morning?"
Reid heard the question as he came in walking over to his desk and jumped in to say, "Did you know that a red sky in the morning is actually reflecting dust particles from a storm that just passed from the west and that indicates that a storm may be moving in from the east and it also is a sign that there is a high water content in the air…"
Emily and Derek, followed him to his desk as he rambled and Morgan interrupted him, "So basically what your saying is we could get bad weather today?"
"Yes, and it might not necessarily be bad weather it could be just a simple rain or nothing at all." Reid finished with a grin on his face.
Morgan looked at him, "So basically were back where we started?"
Emily just laughed and said, "No we've went way past where we started we now know the red sky is reflecting dust particles from a storm that just passed."
Derek and Emily both laughed and Reid looked at them from his desk with a confusing look on his face. The moment then was interrupted by JJ walking hurriedly into the bull pen area, she swept pass the team without giving them a glance and went straight into Hotch's office. Derek looked towards his office, "That can't be good."
That sense of dread swept over Emily again. She just couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was going to happen and goose bumps ran over her whole body. She looked towards Hotch's office he walked out and ordered, "Round table now." JJ followed swiftly behind and went in while Hotch continued and went to get Rossi.
They were all seated when JJ pressed a button and a picture popped up on the screen. With the exception of Hotch and Rossi because they already knew, Derek, Reid, and Emily squinted and leaned forward towards the screen, "What is that?" Reid asked
JJ explained, "This is a mass grave that was discovered in Bitter Springs, Arizona."
"Those are bodies?" Morgan asked
JJ continued, "These are the remains of 32 different bodies at all levels of decomposition the freshest being on top. Judging by what they found all of the victims recovered from the grave were killed this year, and there is something else." JJ hit a button that brought up a picture she grimaced and turned her head away from it. "Pieces of skin were missing from their bodies in different locations on their bodies."
"That is strange." Reid stood up and walked over to the board. "From this victim he took the skin of her forearm, on this one he took the skin off the face, and here he took the skin off the knee cap."
"Your point?" Morgan said.
"Cutting someone's skin off would be extremely painful but in these three victims none of these wounds are life threatening so how are they being killed?"
"That's what we got to figure out." Rossi said.
Hotch stood up, "Wheels up in ten we will have time to brief more on the plane."
On the plane everyone was sitting with the case file open when Garcia buzzed in on the computer, "Okay so some of the bodies have been identified, 6 to be exact, I'm sending the victims information and pictures to your tablet right…now."
"Thanks Garcia." Emily said
Garcia smiled, "Over and out."
Rossi looked at his tablet and said, "So he definitely has a type, at least to a certain extent."
"He seems to like young dark hair, fair skinned beauties for sure, but what about the boy? It doesn't make sense. He can't be more than 20 years old. He's just a kid."
"The taking of the skin puts you in mind of Ed Gein who took the skin off his victims and wore it on his body as a way to change his gender. This un-sub could be making a jumpsuit like Ed Gein did and wear it on his body to try to transform himself into a woman."
"That would make sense if he was killing only women but the un-sub has at least killed one man." Morgan replied
"If he is making jumpsuits for himself of both men and women he may be having an identity crisis or he may be a transsexual who is suffering from a psychotic break."
Rossi looked at Emily, "Emily what's on your mind?" Hotch looked up from his file to look at the confused and concerning look on her face.
She looked up and tried to play off that sense of dread she had about the case and said, "Seeing that he does have a type at least for the women, what if the killings were triggered by a death or deaths. When we figure out how long the most decomposed body has been in there maybe we can get Garcia to go back and do a check on any deaths or accidents in the area during that time."
"That sounds like a plan." Rossi said.
Hotch looked back down at his file and then back up and said, "When we land Prentiss and I will go to the dump site, Rossi and Morgan work victimology, Reid you'll start a geographical profile and JJ you'll work with the media."
Emily looked back down at the pictures and she had this feeling that something bad was going to happen, she just couldn't put her finger on it. She looked out the window and thought to herself, fair skin, and dark hair.
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