Hey all!
Hope you all liked my Prologue. Hope you guys found it suspenseful, at least a little bit…
So, this is my first FanFic, and I'm really hoping for some feedback because, believe it or not, I would love to keep writing, and it makes me feel pretty demoralized when nobody cares enough to write a little something. So, good, bad, or ugly, if you have a comment, I wanna hear it. Cool?
Disclaimer: I'm going to assume that you all know that I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters, in part or in full. I do, however own the story, the victims, and the unsub, and at least I can claim that much.
So, read and review, and most definitely enjoy!
Chapter 1
One day earlier…
"Reid?" Morgan snapped his fingers several times in Reid's face. "Wake up, there, Pretty Boy."
"Mmh?"
"You alright?"
Reid lifted his head from his desk and stifled a yawn behind his hand. "Is it morning?"
"Yeah." Morgan set a full cup of coffee on the desk in front of Reid and glanced into Reid's trash can. "Jeez, kid, were you here all night?"
Reid rubbed his eyes and looked blearily into the trash can, where five or six coffee cups rested at the bottom. "I guess so. I didn't mean to be."
"What in the world were you doing so late?" Prentiss asked from her desk, where she'd been listening.
"Mmm…" Reid looked down at his desk, at the notepad he'd been previously using as an impromptu pillow. "Research?" He lifted the notes and spotted the previous case's file open underneath. "Paperwork?"
Morgan rolled his eyes and wandered back to his desk, where he opened the first file on the top of a stack. He groaned. "Reid, could you…"
He glanced over to Reid, whose head was resting on his palm. Reid glanced over at him tiredly and raised an eyebrow.
"Right. Prentiss, w—" He turned to her, and she silenced him with a glare across the bullpen. "Never mind."
Picking up a pen, Morgan began to scrawl across the top page, filling out names, dates, and occurrences of their last case. It was only a minute or so later that Rossi appeared on the catwalk overlooking the bullpen.
"Got a case, conference room in five," he said loudly so that the three of them could hear, and he disappeared again.
Morgan immediately threw his pen down and stood. "Thank God," he said, and he thought twice. "Of course, now the work won't get done, but—"
"That's because you didn't bother to do anything last night," Reid accused as he closed his file and stood. He picked up his satchel-like shoulder bag.
"What, like you?" Morgan taunted. "I don't function well without my sleep. Reminds me of someone I know."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Reid groaned thickly as he yawned again on cue. He ran his fingers through his hair as he left the bullpen, closely followed by Prentiss, who rolled her eyes in clear irritation to their arguing.
Morgan scratched his head absentmindedly as he flipped through the remaining pages in the folder. He flipped through them again. "What the…"
Gratitude for Reid's sleepless night dawned on him as he realized that except for the lines requiring signatures, all of his paperwork was finished. Reminding himself the thank Reid later, he left the bullpen quickly and climbed the stairs onto the catwalk. Entering the conference room and closing the door, he took the open seat right in front of him between Prentiss and JJ.
"We all here?" Hotch asked as he glanced around. "Good, then, to business. JJ?"
Agent Jennifer Jareau stood and opened a file. "There have been a series of murders in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts in the past week. The victims," she pointed at the board behind her, "are all high school students. They are all male, ranging from thirteen to nineteen in age, and have varying physical features. All were stabbed to death."
"Mark Pollard was the first victim," she continued, pointing to a picture of a boy with moderate acne and short, dark brown hair, "killed on the 19th during the day. He was a fourteen-year-old freshman at Franklin High School. He was stabbed to death and his eyes were gouged."
JJ pointed to a picture briefly to show them before moving on to the next victim, whose picture was of a young-looking black boy with short—almost shaved—hair. "The second victim was Kenneth Masters. He was a junior at Tri-County High School and had just turned eighteen. He played the Cello. In addition to being stabbed to death, his lips were removed. He was killed on the 21st."
"Are you sure he was eighteen?" Morgan asked, pointing vaguely to the picture. "He doesn't look that old in the least. I'd have guessed fifteen."
"Yeah, and a junior that turned eighteen?" Reid added.
JJ explained, "According to his mother, he was a very late bloomer, and his physician recommended when he was five that his mother hold him out of school for a year, for fear that his mind wasn't fully developed. He excelled in school, sports, and music. Until his junior year, he had been a varsity wrestler."
Morgan nodded slowly. JJ continued. "The third victim, killed on the 23rd, was Kyle Wilkes. He was nineteen years old and a senior, though at Franklin High School. According to his principal, he was a B and C student who was constantly in trouble. He was also a varsity soccer player and the kicker on the varsity football team." She pointed to the picture. He was handsome, with long, golden brown hair and dark brown eyes. She then pointed to the crime scene pictures, which showed that his hands had been cut off.
"The last victim was found on the 25th." JJ pointed to the picture of the last victim, a not-so-good-looking boy with short black hair and acne. "This is Dillon Sanders, a junior at Tri-County High school. He is the first-chair trumpet in the symphonic band and marching band. He is otherwise an average student. His school record was completely clean. His hands were also cut off."
JJ turned back to face the group. "All of the victims, excepting Kyle Wilkes, attended Horrace Mann Middle School. Wilkes moved to Franklin from Minnesota between eighth grade and his freshman year."
"So…" Reid started, looking at all of the photographs carefully, "what exactly is the connection between these boys? Other than the fact that they attended the same middle school?"
The room was silent. JJ shrugged. "Not all of them did, so there doesn't appear to be any connection."
"Well, then, why is the Franklin Police Department assuming that it is the work of a serial killer?" Rossi asked.
"The MO's." JJ pointed to the photographs of the boys' wounds. "They were all stabbed to death and left in places on Tri-County High School's campus. Each of the boys would fail to attend school that day, then be found dead when school let out."
"Do the places they were dropped vary?" Reid asked.
JJ turned to the board. "Mark Pollard was found beneath the football stadium bleachers on the visitors' side, Kenneth Masters was in the football and soccer practice field, Kyle Wilkes was discovered at the top of the stadium on the home side in front of the concessions, and Dillon Sanders was outside behind the cafeteria." She looked back and crossed her arms. "Each of their respective, removed body parts were left beside them where they were found."
"What is the difference between these two schools?" Morgan asked. "They all went to the same middle school, but why were they split up between different high schools?"
"Franklin High School is a public high school serving only the students that attended Horrace Mann Middle school," Hotch filled in, "while Tri-County High School is a charter school that serves three counties. Acceptance is by application and interview only. The two schools are approximately a mile from each other."
Reid and Morgan looked at each other.
"The unsub appears to be killing every other day, so this is a case that needs to be settled quickly."
"Well, then," Morgan said, "I say that we get the heck out of here so that we can go catch ourselves yet another serial killer."
Hotch nodded. "Go get your bags, wheels up in an hour."
Okay, so there you have it: the basis of the investigation.
Be sure to review!