Title: Crime Scream Investigation
Author: Aspen's Dark Twilight and eleen
Rating: M for future gore.
Pairing: If you consider stabbing romantic--then various pairings.
Spoilers: through to A La Cart, after that AU
Summary: Parody. Slasher movie-CSI style. Remember, the red herring is the first to die and whatever you do-don't go anywhere alone. Happy Halloween!
A/N: This is part 1 of 3, maybe 4. This first chapter is the lead in, so don't worry, it will really pick up in the second.
It's close to midnight
And something evil's lurking in the dark
under the moonlight
You see A sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed
-Thriller, Michael Jackson
Prologue
Detective Jim Brass carefully treaded down the halls of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, he had never before seen so much blood. It ran in streams down the corridors, pulled by the gravity of the unleveled building. The blood pooled from lifeless bodies whose arms and legs stuck out of slab doorways, lying at awkward angles.
After a quick survey of the scene which had shaken Brass visibly, despite being a seasoned veteran of observing such grizzly scene, he returned to the exterior of the lab. The pavement outside the building was being sectioned off with yellow crime scene tape and the scene was abuzz with the police department, the fire department, the press and a crowd of locals and tourists alike; was this some kind of Halloween prank gone wrong?
Sofia Curtis was approaching him, ducking under the crime scene tape and pulling her jacket close around her.
"What happened, Jim?" she asked.
"I'm not sure."
"Is it true… Are they all…?" she trailed off, afraid to hear his answer.
"Some made it out…but most weren't so lucky."
"Do we know how this happened? Any witnesses?"
Brass nodded towards a lone figure huddled on the curb wrapped in a department issue blanket.
Sofia's eyes filled with tears, "He's the only…the rest?"
Brass shook his head and Sofia sniffled.
"Have you talked to him yet?" She asked, her voice hoarse, and Brass realized that she cared just as much for the victims as he did himself.
"No yet, listen Sofia, why don't you go get some coffee, I'll take his statement."
"Okay, I'm sorry...it's just… How did this happen?" She hugged herself and excepted the handkerchief Brass passed her and used it to dab her eyes.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
Part 1
Nick looked up as Brass approached him, carrying a notepad and a pen.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Brass asked gently. He winced at Nick's blank stare and the dried blood on his face, wondering whom it belonged to.
Nick didn't respond.
"I have to take your statement."
Nick began to rock back and forth slightly and he began to mutter. "All of them…so much blood…"
"You saw all of them?"
"All of them." he nodded.
"Just start at the beginning, it'll be easier that way."
Nick looked up.
"Catherine was trapped…Sara couldn't get her free…Grissom was trying to get everyone out…Warrick was trying to get into the security room…Someone stole Grissom's keys…Ecklie was trying to call the Sheriff…Phones were down because of the storm…"
"Why don't you write it down, Nicky, maybe it'll help." Brass handed him his notebook and pen. Nick hesitated before taking it and sighed before placing the pen to the pad and beginning to carve red words into it. He dropped the pen upon realizing it's color, but dutifully picked it up again, attempting to put the horror that had befallen the LV Crime Lab into words.
I was logging evidence when I heard the fire alarm. It screamed through the lab overpowering the thunder that crashed outside and the rain the pounded on the walls and roof.
Panic had consumed the lab, people were running everywhere, and I didn't understand what was wrong, fire drills were never this dramatic.
Sara ran by, her hands were saturated with something sticky.
"Nick! Catherine's trapped in a window!" She screamed. Possibly too stressed to make note of her adhesive-like hands she grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet and then proceeded to half-drag me out of the evidence locker and down the hall.
"What's on your hands?" I asked, disgusted.
She didn't respond and as I let her lead me I took in the pandemonium around me: lab employees were fleeing towards the nearest exits as windows to the outside we locking automatically. The siren-like sound waxed and waned as they passed different alarms, slowly the number of people in the lab lessened.
As I was drug through hallway after hallway, I caught a glimpse of Ecklie standing in his office, the phone up against his ear. His frantic whispering flooded through the open doorway.
"Sheriff? Sheriff Atwater? Are you there?"
Apparently, he was trying to contact the Sheriff.
Sara rounded a corner and pulled me into, of all places, the women's bathroom.
"Oh my God!" I yelled at the sight before me.
Catherine had got caught in the lock down with her arm out the window, Sara had run over and continued to apply copious amounts of hand soap to try and slip her free.
"Why did you leave me?"
"I went to get help! Look, I found Nick! Nick-" She addressed me, hysterically. "Help!"
I started at Sara's hysterics for a moment before approaching Catherine to examine the situation, her arm was pinned at the forearm, from what I could see under the layers of soap and bubbles.
"Okay," I said calmly, "Do you have some lotion in your locker? Stuff you use in the shower?"
Sara nodded and bolted out the door, I took over the soap operation. She returned moments later and threw me a bottle of red shower gel and a tube of mint jelly toothpaste.
"Fuck, this hurts," Catherine groaned, and I realized her arm is probably broken. We made her a sling later. "Sara, this isn't working we need more lubrication!"
"I'm going to check the fridge." She informed them before dashing off.
"Check Grissom's!" I yelled at her retreating back, remembering the boss's private fridge for experiment.
Sara returned a few minutes later with a bottle of ketchup Grissom used for Blood Spatter experiments (6x03-it's canon).
"Perfect!" I exclaimed, Catherine winced as I applied it to her arm.
"Guys, this isn't working!" Sara cried, she looked around the bathroom and I knew her brain was trying to conjure a plan. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "I'll go get a crowbar!"
Sara ran off, presumably to the garage. I stayed and attempted to wiggle a moaning Catherine's fractured arm free using the soap-toothpaste-gel-ketchup paste.
"How did you get yourself into this mess?" I asked the normally intelligent Catherine.
"My scarf blew out the window and I had to get it before I left, it was designer." She added like it explained everything. " I went to grab it when this thing-" She glared at the metal shield, "-darn near took my arm off! Thank God Sara was here…"
Abandoning the paste, I braced myself against the wall and pushed against the jammed window. The lockdown had triggered a bulletproof metal shield to slide down to reinforce the window. I pushed, pulled, and pried it, but the shied refused to budge.
I was about to go find another guy to help me when the power went out.
"I'm going to go see what's going on," I volunteered and started to move towards the door.
"No!" Catherine grabbed my arm with her good hand. "You can't leave me like this!"
"I got the crowbar, but the power's out." Sara entered at that time, she felt her way towards us and palmed me the crowbar.
We heard a hum and the single safety light in the washroom flickered on signaling the emergency power kicking into action.
Catherine closed her eyes as I, with great difficulty, slowly pried the metal shield up using the crowbar. Sara helped extract her arm.
"Oh thank god, finally…" Catherine groaned as she slumped against Sara in agony, free at last. The window clanged shut and I could feel the claustrophobia slowly setting in.
"Let me see your arm," Sara asked Catherine.
Catherine ignored her and headed straight out the door to see the state of the lab. Sara and I looked at each other, then followed our colleague.
Outside was desolate and dimly lit, we called out for others but no one answered. I left the girls in a nearby lab while I ran to check the exits and for other people.
The doors and windows were locked. Catherine's arm had provided a space for the crowbar to fit in between the shield and the window ledge, so even with the crowbar I was unable to pry any window or doors open. I had to return to the others with the bad news.
"Locked?" Sara gasped from her and Catherine's position seated at a table, "What do you mean locked?"
"I mean locked as in not going to open." I deadpanned.
"As in trapped?" Sara asked.
I nodded.
"Did you see anyone else?" Catherine asked.
"No," I stated, my eyes scanning the lab through the glass windows, "I think everyone else got out."
"What do we think happened?" Sara asked, "what kind of incident would cause the Lab's top-of-the-line security system to activate?"
"Drill? Terrorist threat? Someone bumped into a switch?" I fired off suggestions.
"We won't know till the situation is deemed safe and the system is deactivated from outside." Catherine informed us.
"Great," Sara groaned, "were stuck. Grissom's probably tearing his hair out." She let her head drop onto the table.
I don't think I've ever seen Grissom lose it, but I realized that Sara probably knew him better that I do -- maybe better than Catherine, as well.
"Are we sure we're the only ones here? We should probably split-" Catherine began.
Someone screamed.
"Is that-" Catherine began.
"Hodges?" We said in unison.
TBC...