Author's Notes: Okay so it's been a VERY long time since I've written anything. Since my wife is currently employed and I'm waiting to hear from the Police Department about my new job which gives me AMPLE time around the house and frankly is fabulous for my little Pomeranian but is rather boring for me. It's way too hot to be exercising as heavily as I like so I wanted to try and find something else I could do while I'm at home so much by myself. So really I would like some opinions on this piece. I don't know if I should continue it or not. Also I don't have a beta since my wife isn't a fan of my favorite show so if there's any mistakes please forgive me.

Decadence Masquerade

By: Isabella

"Morning." Elliot Stabler greeted rather wryly as he looked at his partner of three years. Olivia nodded back in greeting trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"Why the hell are you so chipper this morning?"

"I got to spend most of the night with my wife."

"And now you're out here with me." Olivia grumbled.

Elliot shook his head but didn't reply as they made their way through the yellow crime scene tape that blocked off the back alley the body had been found in. At 3 AM in not the best neighborhood it was a strange

sight to see it flooded with police lights. Illuminated in front of them behind the tape was a large green dumpster in betweentwo large brick buildings. One or two older rusted out cars were parked out front along with

various police cars with their lights flashing blue and red reflecting off the broken windows of the two derelict buildings that stood like tombstones of what used to be a very upscale neighborhood that had fallen to

ruin.

Stabler and Benson both flashed their badges and pulled the tape up walking underneath and towards the dumpster that blocked the body from view. CSU was currently working their magic giving the detectives time

to ask questions.

"Detective Benson Special Victims Unit can you tell me why we were called in?"

"I asked for you to take this one." Melinda Warner answered from her place kneeling near the body.

"What have you got?" Elliot asked as he moved to stand before the medical examiner.

"Jane Doe twenty to thirty. Rigor has fully set in. She's been dead at least twelve hours. Lack of blood on the scene says it's a dump job."

Olivia glanced the body over as the medical examiner wrote on her silver clipboard. The girl was beautiful, she found herself thinking. Long dark brown hair, pretty full lips that now were blue. Big brown eyes and full

lashes. Her skin was flawless other than the ligature marks around her neck.

"Do you think she was strangled?"

"I'm not sure what to think Detective." Melinda answered softly. "I'll know more when I get her back to the morgue."

Around the girl's dainty wrists and ankles were a pair of leather cuffs buckled together. Olivia sighed softly as she shook her head looking at her partner grimly who looked back.

"So what have we got?" Captain Cragen asked.

"Nothing. Victim is maybe in her early to mid-twenties. No one has reported anyone matching her description missing. No ID was found with the body."

"Someone must know who she is." Cragen looked at his two best detectives. Elliot rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head.

"Uniforms are canvassing the area but so far nothing. No one knows who she is." Fin shook his head as he set the phone back in its cradle. "ME called. Says there's something you two should see about your Jane Doe there."

Olivia grabbed her leather jacket pulling it on as he Elliot stood up grabbing for his own jacket to join Olivia in the bitter cold that was Manhattan in the winter.

When the two detectives made it to the morgue, they walked up to the silver table as their medical examiner Melinda Warner had her back to them writing something down. She turned greeting the two detectives

with a nod of her head. "Good morning Detectives."

"Morning. Fin told us you had something for us?"

"Well she's got many bruises and cuts some healed and some more fresh. Fits with the BDSM scene gone wrong at the very least but when I turned her over, I found this." Melinda pulled the sheet from the body showing off what appeared to be a large burned portion into her shoulder.

"That's a pretty nasty looking burn." Elliot remarked softly it even made him want to cringe a bit as he looked at it.

Olivia cocked her head studying it for a moment. "I thought so too until I took a few photos of it and realized it wasn't your average burn. This was burned into her flesh intentionally. And long before she died."

"It's a mask." Olivia said softly.

"Yes. Someone burned a mask into her skin. Looks like it was done with a metal object heated up to enough to scald the flesh."

"Do you think our killer did this to her?"

"I can't say seeing as it was done before she died. It's maybe a few weeks old at best." "Do you have any idea what sort of metal was used or anything?"

"No. Because its a few weeks old it's all ready had time to start healing. My guess is though it was some sort of ceremonial type thing."

"Like a cult?"

"Possibly. I've never seen a mark like this before so I couldn't tell I'll call you if I find anything else."

EDIT: Fixed some formatting issues here. Should make it much easier to read.