Chapter 10:
"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God."
Only thing was running through his mind as he saw a familiar adult whom he vaguely remembered was from the CSI approach him. He randomly wondered if he'll end up in prison, juvenile jail or the mental hospital once he was accused of first-degree murder. Worst, his parents get told he's half-ghosts and he'll get dissected molecule-by-molecule... He suspected the last one. One more look at the guy and a name finally clicked, Grissom. The bug-guy who apparently is the leader of the best of CSI team in United States, yup, he was so doom.
"Danny? What are you doing here?" the man looked surveyed the scene, his eyes widening at the sight of a mutilated body in a wrecked alley plus a visible shaking teen.
"I-I..." the trembling halfa for once, was scared shitless... His secret was out.
"Danny, take my hand," his voice was gently but silently commanding like a parent's.
Numbly, the teenager went in autopilot mode as he wordlessly followed every command. Grissom pulled the boy to his side, making sure the teenager was completely unharmed, save the fact Danny looked like he was in shock. Taking out his cell phone, he called Warrick.
"Yes he's here, I found him at the alley between the Richmond building and the Fifth Avenue; he's fine but you'll have come here with Brass, there's another body."
The man calmly steered the teenager out the alley and into his car which was right at the sidewalk. Big blue eyes were visibly terrified, no surprise there. The kid managed to get out the building guarded by cops, and find another body that was violently mutilated as the last one. Did the kid know the killer? And he was carrying the thermos again, Grissom observed. Either Danny managed to predict the killer's next move or the killer managed to make contact with the teenager somehow.
"Danny, I'm going to the scene, stay put till Warrick gets here alright?" the halfa nodded, starting to slowly getting his bearings back. "He didn't see me go ghost?"
"Alright, Danny, I need you to tell me how you got here." The man was wondering how on earth the teenager managed to evade the guards, was security getting that poor in the labs. How Danny even find the body in the first place suggests the boy had either predicted it or was told by the killer himself somehow.
"Umm... I was just going to sneak out and walk for a bit, it was getting a little dull in there and I just wanted walk around... then I heard a scream, I didn't think when I ran to it..." Danny's voice didn't waver, to his relief.
Grissom just nodded before leaving the teenager to rest in his car and heading straight back to the scene. Something was missing in the puzzle, and the bug expert knew it.
In the end, Warrick had been the one who drove a sleeping Danny back at the motel. Carefully carrying the surprisingly light teenager up to their room, the man wondered if Danny had a poor diet or had a fast metabolism that that got rid of all that junk food. Relieved that boy was still asleep; he quickly took a look under the boy's shirt. Sure enough, the scars were still there and the burn was practically invisible. He knew what he saw, and there was definitely a bad burn on the Danny's shoulder that night. Those things normally do not heal over night.
Then again, Danny hadn't been showing any signs of being normal in the first place.
Mature and fast detective skills, apparently quick healing abilities, paranoia, many old scars littering his body... not at all normal.
It wasn't very reassuring to think the kid found another fresh body and murder scene. The guards had admitted they had left their post for few minutes, so Danny sneaking out was very plausible. It was also not very comforting to know that said kid would instinctively run straight at danger, whenever possible. In fact, it was downright terrifying to think his temporary ward would be that reckless.
He felt sort of terrified to think kids would be running AT the screams, rather than away from them. Maybe he should ask Catherine if it was teen thing.
He should probably look up Danny's background, if the kid had record, which he doubt and he might find other clues to explain his strange ward. Gently, he pulled off the teen's shoes and tucked him into bed. It had been a long night. A quick knock was heard before Greg entered the room. They had shifts at work and at the motel, and Greg and Warrick were up first.
"Hey Warrick, I brought some pizza and the files you asked for." He precariously balanced the pizza box over a stack of files and laptop. "It's not much, and the envelope has most of these are fresh photos from the latest scene."
Both sat down together in the separate living room, rifling through the files.
"Warrick, this is all pretty normal stuff for a kid, his grades had dropped over the pass month from B's to C's but that kinda thing always happens in school... teacher's comments say he's 'lazy' and 'irresponsible'..." Greg whispered. Not good to get caught by a teenager with their private files.
"Right, they must either be blind, or Danny's not acting like himself when he's in school... in the first place, how does the kid act when no one's around?" Warrick asked.
"Surveillance tapes." Greg showed a small thumbdrive. "The kid's sharp, when he left the building, he made sure to be in ALL the blindspots, none of the tapes caught him except for the one in the room."
They viewed the video in Greg's laptop. Unfortunately, it didn't have audio. At least they could clearly see what the teenager was browsing through in the net. To their surprise, every twenty to thirty minutes, he would delete the history. It was just luck that gave Greg the leeway to even have gotten the latest history when Danny fell asleep. Danny was writing anything he thought important in small notebook. Nodding and shaking his head as he muttered to himself in the video. After a while, he returns to searching online and kept his notebook in his back pocket. That was when the exhausted teen finally dozed off (forgetting to delete the history) and allowing Greg to sneak in to take the laptop.
A few minutes after that, Danny suddenly wakes up gasping. He moves out from the camera's view and disappears completely after that. Stopping the video, Greg turns to Warrick.
"He's got a notebook aside from the weird thermos." Greg suggested. "So do we take it while he's asleep or ask?"
"... I think he keeps it in his pockets, and hugs the damn thermos in his sleep, not a good idea if he wakes up." Warrick shakes his head, adding. "It doesn't help that the kid will completely paranoid and jumpy since the last crime."
Both decided to keep an eye out for the notebook, just in case Danny lowered his guard. They called Grissom, hoping for more details on the new case.
"The body was badly disfigured, and most of the organs had been ripped apart, actually the correct word is eaten. Doc says he can't locate any of the missing chunks of flesh, might be a case for cannibalism... But there was an usually cold area near the body, it was almost at freezing point when Sarah checked its temperature, we haven't identified the victim though." Grissom concluded.
"Did you find anything unusual with Danny when you found him?" Warrick asked over the phone.
"Trauma was normal, but I highly suspect he was hiding something in his statement, maybe he's protecting someone? A suspect?"
"Maybe... but he doesn't have any record of leaving his hometown aside from Las Vegas, and this was his first trip. He might have made digital buddies online, but how close can you get to a person over the web? To the extent of allowing them to commit murder?"
"Too many questions Warrick, and we don't have any answers, for now. It is rather disturbing how Danny seems to be running into so many scenes."
"Right, a kid being involved in one of our most gruesome cases is not at all appealing... especially now that Danny seems to be such a good and sweet kid."
"We'll figure things out, get some rest, we've got a lot of answers to find tomorrow."
Warrick sighed before hanging up. Greg had gone to the bathroom half way through the conversation, getting ready for bed. Suddenly, he hears a small cry from Danny's room. Rushing to the room, he sees the small teenagers writhing and whimpering under the blankets.
A nightmare, he deduced.
He sees tears streaking the boy's pale soft cheeks. A very bad nightmare.
He quickly wraps his arms around the lithe body, getting an instant hug back from the unconscious teen. Finally, he sighed again for the day. Removing his shoes and jacket, he slips in beside the boy who still held onto him like a lifeline. The nightmare seems to have passed as Danny was silently slumbering away in the man's arms. But he still didn't let his hug go.
Gently, Warrick wipes away the tears and sweat on the halfa's face.
He looks up to see Greg grinning madly as he quickly takes a shot of Warrick and Danny, knowing full well that older CSI wouldn't dare move lest waking up Danny.
The darkness was everywhere. The blood was never ending. Danny kept slipping in the river of blood, pouring from the mountain of bodies. The ghosts, no, they were more like demons were coming. Something woke them up. They were here for revenge. Blood. He was drowning in it.
His eyes burned, his tongue felt the coppery taste fill his mouth. It was sickening, and he felt like hurling.
Suddenly, someone grabbed him out, enveloping him in warm and safe arms.