I do not own…
To Newguy21 the song from the first chapter is called God and Monster from Lana Del Rey.
Jack and his team were on the case right away that morning. When the bodies were taken down Will had showed up and looked at the scene. They saw the 12 bodies and all of them were carved up in different ways. After the team had finished up taking pictures and gathering samples they stepped away for Will to do his thing. Will took off his glasses and closed his eyes as he saw how they were killed. This was strange to him as he noticed they were all killed by different unsubs, not just one person. Not only that, he could feel their excitement, eagerness, worry and pressure, as if this was their first time.
"They weren't just killed by one person." Will said
"What do you mean?" Jack asked
"All 12 of them were killed by 12 different killers. They had their own different designs." Will explained
"Halloween. Serial killers favorite time of the year." Zeller scoffed
"It's more than that." Will said as placed his glasses on. "I've seen this before."
The owner and his wife came over as Jack wanted to ask them some questions. He wanted to know who had access to the maze and the owner explained that all his staff did. The owner didn't believe again that none of his staff would do any of this but the wife says differently.
"Well, there's Jacob Tyler." The wife muttered
"Oliva, stop it." The owner said annoyance.
"No, Bob. I still couldn't believe that you hired him after seeing his record." Oliva glared
"I believe in giving people that second chance in life. You should know, after forgiving you that one time." Bob argued
Oliva was beat red and about to tear him up until Jack interfered.
"Who is Jacob Tyler?" Jack asked
"I hired him three weeks ago. He helped out a lot. Hard worker. Shows up on time. Doesn't cause any trouble." Bob explained. "Everyone loves him...well except for my wife."
"He almost killed a guy." Oliva glared
"Almost Oliva." Bob glared at her before looking back at Jack. "He did his time and he's trying to turn his life around. And I know what that's like. He is a good man."
"I'm gonna need an address just to ask him some questions."Jack said
Once everyone was done they headed back to Headquarters to examine the bodies. While this was happening Jack and Will went to get Hannibal so they could talk to Jacob Tyler. Jimmy had called them with information about the man and turns out he was in juvie at the age of 15 for nearly killing his step-father who raped his 12 year old sister. He got out on parole when he turned 18.
When they got to the house Will was surprised the suspect lived near his neighborhood. Turns out the man lived a few miles away from Will's house. It was a small two-story house with a shed behind the place. When they parked in the lot a man came out of the house and waited by the porched. He was about 6'8 tall, a little heavy with a trimmed beard.
"Jacob Tyler?" Jack asked
The man nodded.
"Mr. Morgan told me that you'd be coming." Jacob said "Please come inside."
The three men followed him inside his house. Will kept to himself while Hannibal looked around to profile this man. The place was homey with a mixture of modern and hunting furniture. Hannibal noticed a few pictures of Jacob and a young woman that had long blonde hair and the same green-blue eyes. He saw a few similarities of heredity between the two so he believed they were related somehow.
"I am Jack Crawford, we're with the FBI. These are my associates, Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter." Jack said
"How can I help you, gentlemen?" Jacob asked
"Where were you last night between the hours of 11pm and 1am?" Jack asked
"Work, I was one of the zombies to scare the customers that paid to go in the maze. My shift didn't end until 12. Then I had to pick up my sister from her work. I picked her up around an hour later. When I picked her up I brought her home." Jacob said
"Is your sister here?" Jack asked
"No, she's out, getting gorcey. Look I don't know how those bodies got in the corn maze but it's not hard to get in and out." Jacob said "You're just looking at me because Oliva had to mention that I had a Juvy record. So until you have something that proves that it was me, you can leave."
He led them out the door but before he could shut the door on them Jack gave him his card in case he knew anything. Hannibal looked back at the house as he knew the man was hiding something.
Back headquarters Will was in his office searching through old cases that's either solved or cold. It took some time but he found the case files he was looking for. He placed them in a box before showing them to Jack and the team. This was the doing of a cult that the FBI have been trying to capture but they never got close. Every year, in different cities, bodies of 12 appeared in places on Halloween night. With all the victims there would be carvings on one of their ribs with a Roman/Greek pegan god/goddess. After checking the bodies Kat and Jimmy confirmed to Jack and Will that it was the cult as all the victims had the same pegan carvings on their ribs. Kat looked over at Will when he noticed his silence and confused look on his face.
"What's wrong Will?" Kat asked
"This cult normally goes after the worse of the worst. Rapist, child molsters, abuses, ect. The six people in the last few weeks matched that list. They were all killed in different ways but they were killed by the same person. That person was experienced." Will explained and looked at the bodies. "These killers aren't. This is their first time killing an actual person."
"What are you saying, Will?" Jack asked
"The person that killed the six are showing the others how to kill." Will said "He's teaching them how to be killers."
"There's something else, isn't there?" Jack asked
"The 12 killers just feel a little off. They don't feel like adults. Some were impatient in their kills as they couldn't wait to cut them up. Sounds more like a teenager."
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Parking in the lot of a private elementary school Annabelle got out of her car and walked inside. She went to the kindergarten room first to pick up her youngest daughter. The kids were in the middle of cleaning up and Annabelle just waited till her daughter was done. One of the young but nice teachers Emily Thomas noticed Annabelle and went over to talk to her. She was annoying at times but Annabelle found her usefully as she loved to gossip.
"Ms. Watson, hi." Emily smiled
"Hello, Mrs. Thomas. How has Penelope been doing?" Annabelle asked
"She is an angel as always." Emily said
She looked over to make sure that the older teacher Katherine Copper wasn't watching them.
"Have you heard about Mr. Willkens?" Emily whispered
"The sixth grade teacher? No, what happened?" Annabelle asked
"From what I heard he was killed last night. Hanged up like a scarecrow in some corn maze." Emily said, still whispering.
"Oh my stars, how horrible?" Annabelle said with fake fear.
"I know, right. Why would anyone kill him? He was always a nice man." Emily said
Penelope was done cleaning up and quickly grabbed her jacket before running into her mother's arms. Annabelle picked her up before saying good-bye to Emily and headed out to pick up Mischa. She found her daughter coming out of the classroom with her two of her friends Jeremy and Kat.
"Honey, it's time to go home." Annabelle said
"Coming." Mischa smiled before waving good-bye to her friends. "Bye guys. See you later."
"Bye Mischa." Kat and Jeremy said
They knew that they'd see her again as they were neighbors, just a few miles down from each other. The little girl hurried over to her mother and soon the three left.
When they got home they were greeted by their three guard dogs, Cerberus, Minotaur, and Medusa. They were long hair, all black German Shepherds. They were very protective and loyal to their mistresses. With so many slizzy reporters trying to get pictures of the famous rockstar and her family the guard/attack dogs were ready to chase them away. It's a shame that the reporters never read the signs that said "Warning. Guard Dogs Will Attack If Trespassed."
Annabelle had Mischa do her homework while she fixed the kids a snack. When Mischa was done with her homework she saw four of her friends outside, riding their bikes to the house. After her mother said it was okay for her to go play the young girl ran outside to play with her friends. Right now they are playing in the treehouse that was built in the front yard when Annabelle got a call. She smiled when she saw that it was Hannibal.
"Hello, this is Annabelle Watson." She greeted
"Hello, Annabelle. It's Hannibal Lecter." He said
"Nice to hear from you again. What do I owe the pleasure for the call?" She smiled
"I hoped that we could catch up over dinner tomorrow evening. If you are free, of course." He said
Annabelle looked where Mischa was playing before saying. "I would love to. We have much to talk about."
"Excellent. I'll see you tomorrow my dear." He said
"See you tomorrow Hannibal. Have a wonderful day." She smiled before hanging up.
Mischa came back inside to ask her mother if she and her friends could play in the woods. Annabelle didn't mind as long as one of the dogs went with them. The young girl nodded and took her favorite one, Cerberus, with her and her friends.
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In the middle of the lake a lone fisherman was on his motorboat trying to catch some fish when he heard his car alarm blaring. Not wanting anything to happen to his car he quickly turned on the motor and drove his boat to land. When got to his car he saw his headlights were broken and had a few dents on the hood. The man cussed out loud as he reached into his pocket for his keys. He took a few steps as he pressed the button to stop the alarm but without looking he ended up stepping on a well hidden bear trap. The man yelled from the pain but then someone came from behind him and started hitting him with a tree branch. The person whacked him again and again until the man couldn't move anymore.
After a couple of minutes the man woke up and found himself with his arms and legs spread out and tied to trees with his fishing line. He couldn't yell as his mouth was stuffed with something and tape. Footsteps were heard and the man stopped struggling, hoping it was someone that could help him. Mischa, Kat, Jermey, Author and Amy came back as they each had medical bags in hand. The man looked at them confused as they surrounded him while giving him a sinister smile. The next thing he knew they opened their medical bags and placed their medical gloves on before putting on their leather aprons.
"Alright, guys, this is called operation. Does everyone know how to play?" Mischa said
"We cut him open and try to find the objects on our list." Amy replied
"That's right. Let's begin, doctors." Mischa smiled
With that said they all took out their scalpel and started dissecting his arms, legs and his stomach. One by one they were able to find what they were looking for before placing them in jars. Author had gotten bored as he liked hearing the victim scream from pain. So for fun he took out the man's fish hooks and started placing them on a few places on the mans' face. Then the boy started slicing around the man's face and started pulling the hooks to peel the flesh off. Some of the kids just laughed while Mischa and Amy just rolled their eyes as they knew Author liked to get carried away at times. The man cried and screamed from the pain the whole time but in the end he ended up dying from blood loss and when his kidneys were taken. The kidneys were given to Cerberus as a treat. The guard dog was watching from the sides as he kept watch. When they were done they packed up their stuff before cutting the fishing line and dragged the man back to his boat. When they were able to get him the boat Mischa told everyone to grab a lot of rocks and to place them inside the man's stomach. After they were done Mischa sewed his stomach up while Jeremy looked through the mans' car. He was able to find gasoline in the car and started pouring it on the corpse and the boat. Kat managed to poke a little hole in the boat with her knife and Author took out a match and lit it before tossing it in the boat. The boat lit up fast and the kids pushed it in the lake without getting burned. After a few minutes the boat started to sink down and thanks to the rocks the man started to sink as well.
It wasn't long till it started getting dark when the kids returned. They all went home and Mischa headed inside where Annabelle was finishing dinner.
"Mischa, go wash up, dinner is almost ready." Annabelle said
"Yes mama." Mischa nodded
Before she could go upstairs Annabelle noticed that her daughter was hiding something from her sight.
"Mischa." Annabelle said and motioned for the girl to come back.
The little girl did as she said, still with her hands behind her.
"What are you hiding?" Annabelle asked and held out her hand. "Come on, show me."
The little girl pouted and held up a jar that had the mans' heart. Annabelle raised a brow before letting out a chuckle and took the jar from her.
"I see you and your friends have been playing operation again." She smiled "You know you're not supposed to do that outside of the classroom."
"But I wanted to dissect the heart and see what's inside so I can draw it." Mischa said
"I know sweety, but you know Professor Alister's rules. So where's the body?" Annabelle asked
"In the bottom of the lake. I remember reading it in a book. We stuffed the man's stomach with rocks and I sewed it shut. He sank, along with the boat." Mischa said "It's just his car that's still at the sight."
"That was creative of you Mischa. I'm proud of you." Annabelle smiled "I'll call Apollo and tell him about the truck. He'll deal with it." Then she went to kiss her daughter's head. "Now go clean up. Dinner will be ready in a bit."
"Yes, mama." Mischa nodded
Mischa hurried upstairs to wash her hands while Annabelle looked at the jar with a dark smirk. She walked over to her wine room and took out the heart before placing it in a zip bag. Once the air was taken out she placed it inside her locket freezer where she had other human organs inside. Looking inside, a loving smile appeared as she couldn't believe how big her eldest was getting.
"She takes so much after you, Hannibal. Bright and curious as ever." Annabelle whispered before closing the freezer.
When dinner was ready Mischa and Penelope helped set up the table while their mother brought in the food. Once everything was set the three sat at the tables and held each other's hands to pray.
"Dear Hades and Persephone, we thank you for this meal that's prepared for us tonight. Please continue to guide and protect this family as we give our offerings to you." Annabelle said
"Amen." Mischa, Penelope and Annabelle said together.
Once their prayers were done the two girls started eating. Annabelle paused for a moment as she looked at her daughter with pride and love. Everything was almost perfect.