Hello everyone! I haven't updated for soooo long, I'm sorry. I've been crazy busy lately but here's the next chapter today. Enjoy your reading and thank you so much for the feedbacks on the last chapter. I'll do my best to update soon! Stay tuned! :)

[n/a: RainyMood is good :) ]

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Rick Castle had felt a wave of nausea as soon as the corpse had appeared to him. He had been leaning over the pale and lifeless body for long minutes now, full of blood and deep cuts and he definitely wanted to throw up. That body…His ex-wife's body. He was shivering, trembling. He couldn't believe it. He tried to study the wounds in detail, but that was too hard to believe. No, he couldn't believe she was dead. According to her wounds, she had been murdered. Maybe even more. Raped, tortured…until she bled until death. That was too unreal. Rick was in shock, lost, devastated. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe Gina was dead. In atrocious conditions. No, he just couldn't.

The beautiful blond woman's eyes were still open, and her mouth was half open as well. A blood line had escaped from the corner of her mouth and slipped down to her cheek. Some flies were turning around her split lip, but Rick didn't even try to brush them off as he knew they would come back anyway. The writer stared at her eyes. They were fixed and without any expression. Her ex-wife had always been the opposite though; she always had that special way of looking at him, even after they got divorced, even when things turned bad between them professionally speaking.

And her body. It was lacerated in various parts, half naked…Rick couldn't imagine what she had to endure. It had some mud and leaves in some parts, but the most evident wounds were visible. She had been…well, it was hard to tell. Her belly had been stabbed, more than once. The skin on this body part was full of holes. Maybe it was a screwdriver. He wasn't a medical examiner after all, but he couldn't help imagining murder weapons – a professional old habit.

Gina was laying on the floor, in a mix of mud, blood, rain, and the sound of the raindrops falling on her body was becoming unbearable for the writer. It was only a detail, nothing relevant, but he couldn't help imagining the rain would wake her up, and she would complain about how cold it was. She would get up, replace her hair behind her ears, and she would order Rick to go home and stay warm, away from the storm.

But it was only his imagination. The rain kept falling on her body…and she remained inert.

When the blood, the wounds, all this was too much for him and he had to stop overthinking about it, Rick started to speak, worn out.

"I shouldn't have let her go last night…It was late, I shouldn't…" he whispered as he shook his head in a desperate tone.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to blame yourself, Castle. Gina wasn't the only one to take her car last night. It's just something horrible that could have happened to anyone else…" Ryan whispered as he squatted next to him.

"Can you believe it? Can you believe somebody's been murdered right next to where you are? And that we didn't hear anything?"

"No. But these woods are isolated. Maybe she met a drunken guy, or…"

"Or a maniac, the very same one who slashed my electric wires", Rick said. Ryan stared at him. He didn't finish his sentence but Rick had talked for him.

"You're right, it's terrible," Ryan sighed as he patted his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he added then, studying his look. Rick shrugged.

"Yeah…I mean, no…I don't know. I don't get it. We were all having fun, enjoying the party last night, and…it just cannot be," Rick stammered, still in shock.

"I know, Castle. This kind of things are always hard to believe", the Irish said. He couldn't realize himself. But in front of Castle's despair, facing her ex-wife's mutilated body, he tried not to show he was worried too.

Behind them, Javier Esposito was cursing Spanish words, his phone glued to his ear. He was glancing at the woods around them, nervously. The forest seemed more and more threatening, as the night was falling. The wind was blowing hard, making the bushes and branches balance all around, and the rain couldn't stop falling, making his vision blurry. That wasn't reassuring at all after they found the body. Of course he knew war. Of course he was a cop, an adult and so on. But, deep inside him, he was afraid.

"Dammit, still no signal", he growled as he hung up the phone.

Ryan stood up and walked towards him.

"We really have a problem, Javier. Because we had one, yesterday. Do you think it's the storm, or…"

"I think nothing at all", Javier interrupted him, almost aggressively but it was not against him. "What I think, is the girls are home, and I can't reach them. And it scares me", he said as he rubbed his cheeks.

Ryan nodded.

"Yeah, me too. We should go home," he said as he turned to Rick who just stood up, his legs shaking.

"Castle, we better go home…"

"What are we going to do with the body?" the writer interrupted, searching for their gaze.

Esposito and Ryan glanced at Gina's lifeless body. They didn't know what to respond.

"I don't know who did this, but it's a maniac for sure," Esposito sighed before he swallowed hard.

"There's a maniac around, great," Ryan said despite the gravity of the situation.

"Yes there is. We have to find out how she's been killed", Rick said suddenly, as he regained courage.

"What we have to do right now, is calling for help, Castle", Esposito corrected.

"Oh yeah? You're gonna tell me you have a signal, after trying for twenty minutes?" Rick said irritated.

"No", Esposito replied. "But if a maniac is around, if he's able to do this, we can't do anything by ourselves."

"Dammit, are you the police or not?" Rick barked, losing his temper.

"Calm down", the latino replied, deciding not to start stressing out. Rick ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He needed to get a grip. But even if his eyes were shut, he could still see the haunting vision of Gina's body.

"You're right," he added then. "I am sorry for yelling at you."

"Apologies accepted. I understand what you're going through", Javier replied with a sympathetic smile.

"All right, we need to find some help, but let me remind you we don't have any electricity, car, nor phone signals", Rick said.

Esposito and Ryan shared a look. He was right.

"And I'm really starting to think that a maniac I don't even know slashed my house wiring, the cars' tires, and tortured my ex-wife…and…I'm really starting to freak out, guys", Castle said, feeling a shiver down his spine as he summed up the situation.

"Are you sure you don't know who it is?" Esposito asked. Rick's eyes widened.

"Are you seriously asking me this?" Rick said offended.

"No, I'm sorry, that was stupid", Esposito sighed. "Sorry bro, job habit."

"I can assure you I don't know who killed Gina and why. I don't know why all those things have been happening to us since this afternoon. Our phones out of service, the cars, the electricity, Kate who saw somebody run away in the garden…but all things considered, it's really, really terrifying", Rick said as he couldn't hide his fear anymore.

"You're right", Ryan admitted as he glanced at Gina's body once again.

"So I think we have no choice." Castle said. "We need to find out what is going on here. At least, until we find a way to get some help. There's no way I'm gonna wait and do nothing whereas my ex-wife was tortured to death by a wacko for no reason. Who knows? He might want to hurt my daughter, my mother, Kate…anyone", he said as he pointed at Gina's body.

"He's right, Javier. We have to do something." Ryan nodded as he thought of Jenny. Esposito sighed heavily, almost convinced. It was the only thing to do anyway, instead of panicking. After all, it might be their only chance to stay alive…

"Yeah, we need to find that bastard", Javier said, feeling anger at the thought of this crime and the fact he didn't want anyone else to get hurt. Rick sighed in relief, as he managed to convince him.

"All right. But for this, we need Lanie to check on the body, in details", Rick added as he glanced at Gina's body. "So we're going to carry her home and…"

"We can't carry her home, Rick, because of the prints. Well, if there's some…" Esposito interrupted him.

"So we leave her here?!" Rick said, widening his eyes.

Espo and Ryan shared a questioning look.

"We leave her here, but we go back with Lanie?" Ryan offered as he kept looking at his buddy. After a few seconds, Esposito spoke again.

"I definitely hate the idea…but I guess we have no choice," he said determined, as he glanced at Gina's body one last time.

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to be continued...