disinter

1 : to take out of the grave or tomb
2 : to bring back into awareness or prominence

Oh boy here we go. Disinterred is multi-chapter fic based on my two-shot Unearthed. It follows a similar storyline and setting, but expands on the concept, and continues beyond Unearthed. You don't need to read Unearthed to understand Disinterred, it's a stand-alone story.

Disinterred is set mid-way through season 3, after Forever Phantom. Until that point, it follows all canon episodes. After that, however, it's canon divergent.
Every season is a separate school year, so Disinterred is set some 2 - 2.5 years after the Accident. Danny&Co are 16, Jazz is 18 and in college (but she'll be around, no worries).

Also yes some of the (early) chapters will contain OCs. I kinda needed them to get the story going, but no worries, they'll be phased out soon enough.

Updates for Disinterred will be weekly, with a chapter posted on every Wednesday. If I don't post one (and I don't make a post explaining it), kick me because I've probably forgotten. (preferably over on Tumblr, where I can be found as inky-interest)

(and yes the first chapter is pretty short. More of an introduction to the story than a proper chapter, but pacing. I might upload the next one later today to make up for it, although you're technically getting this a month early either way)

Content warning: swearing, mildly graphic descriptions of corpses, implied/referenced character death

Chapter 1: The Ones Who Died Without A Name

It had been such an ordinary morning, he thought. He had hiked in the woods around Amity Park for years, and despite the presence of ghosts, he had never run into trouble. The forest was quiet and peaceful, as always. The birds sang, and as he left the set paths, he thought nothing could possibly ruin the moment.

Until he tripped and fell flat on his face.

He grumbled, cursing to himself, and pushed himself up again. Luckily no one had been around, so he could hold on to the last shreds of his dignity.

Brushing the leaves and pine needles off of his clothes, he carefully rotated his feet to ensure he hadn't rolled his ankles. Reassured that the only thing injured was his dignity, he looked back at the root that he had tripped over.

It wasn't a root.

He grimaced, hesitating. He didn't think that roots could look so much like human limbs, but he was in no way an expert. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

Sighing, he moved over and knelt next to the hopefully-a-root, intend on brushing away some of the leaves to reassure himself.

But looking at it from this close, it was clear that his first thought had been correct. This wasn't a piece of nature that just happened to resemble a human limb, it was a limb. Just looking at it made his stomach turn, and he looked away, gagging.

He glanced back, but took in little more than the horrible blend of red and black formed in the shape of a leg, with a strip of gleaming white where the kneecap was poking out, before he forced his eyes closed again. He turned away, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself.

He had never seen death. Not really. And even on television, in movies, it was never like this. Not this… this graphic. It was horrible, awful, he had no words that could describe how he felt.

Forcing his eyes open again, he looked around, making sure to avoid the leg. He wanted to get away from his find as fast as possible. However, he couldn't see anything in the area that could help him track down this place again if he left, no identifying marks of any kind. He couldn't even remember the way he walked from the path.

He cursed, then pulled out his phone. He would have to call the cops from here, and they could tell him what he was supposed to do next.

Unfortunately, he was told to wait with the body until the cops arrived. They couldn't track his exact location, so he would have to call them over when they got close. A dreadfully long time later, he could hear them yelling in the distance, and beckoned them over.

One of the officers crouched next to the leg and whistled. He was promptly elbowed by one of the other officers, but her glare silenced any protests the man might've made.

His attention was drawn towards the officer who stepped towards him, however. The cop nodded towards him, beckoning him over. He gladly complied.

"I'm detective Payton, I'm leading this investigation. You're the one who called us, yes?"

He nodded, focusing on the man instead of the body. Not that he could see the body, as a crowd of officers had formed around it, but still.

The detective cleared his throat, and he snapped back to attention. "So, why don't you tell me what happened?"

"I, uh." He licked his lips and tried again. "I was walking in the woods, which I do pretty often. Have done for years, y'know? Nothing ever happens, don't ever run into ghosts or anything." Seeing the officer nod, he continued. "So I was just walking, and I… I tripped. Thought it was a root, but then I looked and I saw..." He made a vague arm movement towards the still-growing crowd of police. "Well, I saw a leg."

"So you didn't touch anything?"

He shook his head. "No. Well, except for the part where I tripped over it."

Detective Payton stared at him, expressionlessly. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that the man was trying to read his mind. Whatever Payton was looking at, he must have found it, because he gave a curt nod and turned back to the other officers.

He hesitated, unsure of what he should do next. One of the officers clearly saw his confusion, as she came towards him. "Sir, we'll need you to come with us to the station to give us an official statement. After that, you're free to go."

She whirled around and stormed off, and he obediently followed her. The confusing cocktail of emotions he had been feeling ever since he stumbled across the body had disappeared, leaving him rather numb. He wondered if that was normal. He also wondered when he would have to deal with the inevitable emotional backlash of this whole thing.

He shoved the thought away. It was a problem for another time, he decided. He would give his statement to the police, and they would figure the whole thing out, and he wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.

And that, he did. His statement was taken, he was released by the cops, and he vowed to never return to those accursed woods again. Next time he would take a walk through the park, ghosts be damned.

Detective Payton watched the man leave with officer Carver, and turned back to the corpse.

While only the leg had been visible, the rest hadn't been buried much deeper. They had successfully unearthed the entire body, which followed the same trend as the leg.

From top the bottom, the entire body was scorched, an unappealing mix of red and black and white. The flesh was completely burned away in many places, revealing shiny white bones. Patches of the clothes could be made out in places, white and black fused with the torn skin, but not nearly enough to tell what kind of clothing the victim had been wearing.

The body was far beyond recognition, but the small posture and slight build suggested that the victim had been a mere child. A teenager at most.

The overall picture was grizzly, and while Payton was one of the most experienced officers in Amity Park, even he had little experience with corpses so heavily mutilated. Especially if this victim had indeed been a child.

He studiously ignored the sounds of one of his officers vomiting in the trees (probably Milligan, he thought to himself, the poor boy was one of the newer policemen of Amity Park) and turned to his medical examiner.

"Doctor Beckett, what can you tell me?"

She hummed to acknowledge him, but didn't look away from the body. "Well Matthias, there isn't much I can tell you that you can't see for yourself. The body was burned beyond recognition, but I can't say if it was the cause of death or if it happened afterwards. Must have been buried for a while though, since it looks like it's decaying already, which means that we can't confirm or deny the involvement of ghosts. No traces of ectoplasm, y'know?"

Payton grimaced. "You're right, that isn't much to go off of. Better get this back to the station so you can start your autopsy."

Beckett nodded, finally turning to look at him, a teasing smile on her face. "Aww, Payton, you know just the right things to say to me."

He rolled his eyes but didn't dignify her with an answer. He knew she wasn't expecting one anyway.

The corpse was bagged and carried off by Beckett and her assistant, and Payton called Milligan back over. The officer still looked somewhat sick, but was quick to assure Payton that he was fine. Or he would be, at least.

The ride back to the police station was uncharacteristically quiet. And so was the station, once the team had been informed about the case.

It was a gruesome case, but not unheard of. Most experienced police officers would know stories like it.

Unfortunately, Amity Park's police officers weren't like most other officers. The involvement of ghosts meant that the police had to be prepared to deal with bizarre and unexpected situations. As a result, they tended to attract not strict, highly experienced police officers, but the adaptable younger officers with less field experience. And none of them had expected to stumble across a case like this in Amity Park.

Crime in Amity Park, real actual crime, committed by humans, was exceedingly rare. Robberies and muggings were practically unheard of, never mind murders. And while ghosts attacked the city almost constantly, physical injuries were very rare. Sometimes people got injured in the general chaos, hit by debris during a ghost fight, or got threatened, but no one ever gets killed.

So yes, the new case caused quite a stir.

Unfortunately, this also made it nigh impossible to keep it quiet. The public was told nothing, all knowledge of the case was denied, but somehow word spread anyway. Before long, everyone in Amity Park knew that a body was found in the woods. And so the town became abuzz with rumors and gossip, the wildest theories spreading.

People suspected the ghosts, of course, who wouldn't? But most people were quick to dismiss them as responsible. Amity Park is home to several ghost hunters, after all, and even if Phantom or the Red Huntress hadn't been able to stop a ghost from killing someone, they certainly would have informed the police about the death.

No, it was considered far more likely that a human was responsible for this heinous crime. But who, in their right mind, would turn on their own kind in a city like this? An outsider, perhaps? Or someone from the city itself, who hoped that the presence of ghosts would cover their tracks?

Yes, there were theories aplenty, both among the citizens of Amity Park and among the officers working the case, but more proof was needed.