Chapter Text
The last few days have been hell for the killers of the forest. Why? Well, as if their job wasn't hard enough already, they now found themselves with cops crawling through the whole forest and apparently the F.B.I. sticking their noses somewhere they definitely shouldn't be. None of them really thought it would ever happen, that someone would be dumb enough to investigate the forest where countless people never returned from.
Unfortunately, at least from what little information they got, someone found the dumb site. Yeah, because a mythical woodland creature who possessed inhuman abilities couldn't actually make the bodies disappear, so they were all just dumped into a deep part of the forest where no one was supposed to ever come across them. Well, someone did. And they alerted the police and soon enough, the whole forest infested with the authorities.
So they had to be careful. The mansion was hidden well enough, somehow. And even if someone came across it, even if a whole army came to that massive building, they wouldn't stand a chance against all of the psychopathic children together, since many of them possessed special abilities too.
But who didn't possess any special abilities and were first in the line of fire were the so-called proxies. They were the ones constantly patrolling while everyone else stayed in the mansion because the faceless creature commanded so. Yeah, they were expandable, it could always go and affect more people. But those kids were special.
Their cabin where they stayed, because there was no way they were going to live with all that screaming and stabbing, was pretty remote too. No one has gotten too close yet. Though in the past few days, things have gotten tense.
Kate lacked her usual enthusiasm and Toby seemed pretty down too. Brian, Tim and Jay were the ones who took most of the responsibilities so far. In all the chaos, they all couldn't stop thinking about Alex, who was out there somewhere. They knew it, they were positive that he was still wandering the forest, unable to stop. They all knew the feeling. Yet now he was in so much more danger than before. As much as they all hated Alex, they only hated the monster he's become, not the man he used to be. So it felt a little unnerving, the thought that he was out there, at the mercy of those people.
During their patrols around the forest, all three of them always kept an eye out. They knew that Alex wasn't the same and would never see them the same before. But that didn't mean that he should be left to be devoured by people who didn't know what he truly was. It was too damn dangerous for both sides.
And of course they were keeping an eye out for the cops or whatever those people were. They all had a feeling that it wasn’t just another group of poor officers lurking around. There was something strange about the whole situation. Little did they know that it was way worse than any of them expected.
The news about the mass grave came only hours after it was discovered. The members of the BAU found themselves gathered around the round table, being shown a whole gallery of photos. Some were nothing more than skeletons, decomposed beyond recognition. Some seemed as fresh as a few days. Whatever was going on, it has been happening for years and it was still ongoing, the killer as active as ever. And by the looks of it, the kills were frequent, basically daily at that point, maybe even worse than that.
Hotch quickly announced wheels up.
In the jet, Garcia kept filling them in on the data as it was coming in. Bodies piled up further and kept complicating things even more. The ones on which they were able to tell the cause of death made everything even more confusing. It varied so much that they couldn’t even tell whether it was a group or multiple separate, less connected unsubs. Some were brutally stabbed, some shot, some had their necks snapped, some were even missing organs, which just added a whole another layer of strangeness to the case.
“And all these have been found in the same location?” Morgan questioned, his eyes scanning over the little information they got from the PD so far.
Hotch nodded his head, studying the materials too. “All of them have the same discovery sight, somehow tens of bodies fit in one hole in the ground…” As if that was the strangest thing about the whole case.
With a soft huff at the claim, Morgan shook his head. “It had to be there before, there is no way someone just digs that in the middle of a forest. No one must have discovered it until… well, our unsub who decided it would make a great mass grave.”
“Well, despite not being located on an edge of a tectonic plate, Alabama does experience its fair share of seismic activity. It is possible that the forest is located in a way where that creates a landslide and keeps making the hole bigger.” Spencer looked between the two men, holding one of the many files in his hands.
“Whatever it was, how a countless amount of bodies fit in one hole in the ground is not our priority right now.” JJ jumped in, shutting down their little debate about a completely irrelevant topic. “We’ve got a forest known for people going missing in it and probably a decade worth of bodies.”
“A forest that kills people…” Emily didn’t sound very amused by the strange case. “Seems to me more like a serial killer who got off scot free thanks to an urban legend.”
“More like a group of serial killers.” It was Rossi who said the obvious. They all knew it from the moment they saw the reports on the first five bodies. So many different kinds of weapons, wounds, signatures… One person couldn’t possibly have done all that. “Do we have an idea of how many so far?”
Without a word, Hotch turned to look at the young genius. The boy only hummed as he glanced at one of the papers in front of him. He was quickly reading through the reports of all the bodies that they pulled out of that hole. “So far I’ve seen sixteen different causes of deaths or ones different enough to where it couldn’t have been the same person.”
No answer came as such a number was truly horrifying. How many killers were out there, sharing one dumb site like some community garden? JJ let out a soft sigh, shaking his head. “And that’s only so far…”
Before they could discuss more, the screen flashed on and their loveable blond appeared in front of them. She had somewhat of a gloomy look on her face though. They all knew she didn’t call bearing good news. There was never any good news when it came to cases like these. “Hello my beautiful people. We just received information about three more victims, none of whom shared the same cause of death.”
“Wonderful…” The Italian let out a sigh. The case was going to be one of the more difficult ones.
“Right. We’ll all head to the forest as soon as we land. All the bodies are still there, the local PD set up there. They are keeping it hushed from the media.” Hotch looked around his team. The tension in the jet was too strong, the atmosphere bleak. They were about to dive into one hell of a rabbit hole.
Upon arrival, the team headed to the forest. The drive there was bumpy to say the least. They expected that much, the forest was one dark place. It was large, spanning over many square kilometers. And deep inside of it was the mass grave which was now surrounded by tents and folding tables and a large number of officers. The worst part was that there were more dead bodies than alive ones. Many were pulled out already, being identified or at least assessed for cause of death and possible time of death, some dating way back.
The inside of the hole was disgusting to say the least. Corpses upon corpses, some unrecognizable. Limbs tangles, some detached. There was no easy way to look at it. The chief of the local PD welcomed them with an expression of discomfort on her face.
“Welcome to Birchside Forest. I’m Chief Locke.” The woman seemed tired. She’s been at the sight ever since the first few bodies were found. “This place is filled with myths and awful stories which are turning out to be more true than we expected…”
The team soon split up, each making their way to different parts of the camp the PD set up. Emily and Rossi went towards the more recent bodies, hoping to find some connection between them. If there was anything that could point them in the correct way, it was worth it. Morgan with Reid headed towards the specialists who were connecting bones in hopes of rebuilding some more bodies which had nothing left. They needed to see the victimology even from back there, to see if it had shifted or advanced in any way. And Hotch and JJ stayed with the captain, hoping to find out something useful to help them with catching the unknown number of unsubs.
“What awful stories are we talking about?” Hotch asked with a curious glance towards her. They were aware of some of the history the forest had. Apparently, many urban legends and scary stories were spread around the nearby cities.
“At first, it was just rumors because of a few disappearances. Kids made up stories to scare each other. Some said it was a killer, some that it was a monster. The previous chief thought it was all just irresponsible hikers since not everyone who went in went missing, only the ones who wandered too deep. But as time went on, these cases of people going in and never coming out kept piling up. Soon enough, the scary stories became a way to keep kids away from the forest.” The chief said as she walked towards the hole where many more bodies waited to be pulled out. The mass grave seemed almost never ending. “Barely any bodies were ever found… until now.”
“Well, it makes sense.” JJ spoke up because in a twisted way, she was right. “The remains were hidden here all along. But I highly doubt all the victims were killed here too.”
“Unless the unsubs brought them here before, most likely by force. Either way, there must be some sort of trail, whether it’s from a car or just walking tracks. That could point us in at least what direction to look into.” As little as it was, they needed something to go off of. Maybe if they knew from which way the bodies were brought in, they’d be able to focus on a part of the giant forest. “Have you looked into that yet?”
“Yes but strangely enough, there isn’t even a trace of someone moving through here continually, let alone with a vehicle. There are no hiker trails nearby either.” The chief’s words just added to the whole mystery. But upon a closer look, they couldn’t see any foot trails nor signs of bodies being dragged anywhere near the grave. “We brought the dogs out too but they were no help. It’s almost like they just appeared in the hole.”
Well, it seemed like the case was only getting more complicated. So far, they had absolutely nothing that made sense. “Thank you chief, we’ll look into it.” With a nod, the two agents started heading back to meet with the rest of the team. Hopefully, they had some information that would at least answer one of the countless questions they were facing.
When all six of them met up by the board where the endless timeline of victims was slowly being assembled. Safe to say, they were going to need quite a lot more space for the whole thing. They all shared a knowing look, the case was going to be unlike any other.
“What do we know so far?” The question lingered because none of the information was really putting them forwards, just adding more layers to the mystery.
“Some of the bodies date way back, we’ve found remains that have been buried there for over a decade.” Emily reported, her and Rossi having gone through an ungodly amount of human bones.
Then the oldest member of the team opened a whole other issue. “The victimology seems random at best. Ages, gender, race, nothing seems to matter.”
“The same goes for the more recent victims.” Morgan joined in. Victimology usually helped a lot with cases but with a group, they’d have to divide it between the different unsubs. “Gender, style, political views, sexuality, it’s one big mess.”
“And the amount of unsubs could be worse than we thought.” Reid delivered more unwanted news. “The most common cod are stabbing and gunshots. However the different angles and intensity of stab wounds as well as different bullets points to the number we thought multiplying. This can’t be just a group, it seems more like a whole network.”
“And to add to all that, this place looks like there haven’t been any live people in years. Nature is almost untouched. We don’t even know how the bodies ended up here." When JJ spoke, Hotch noticed that Morgan’s eyes traveled away and focused onto something in the distance. Following his gaze, he stared into the forest. It was dark there, but his eyes soon settled on it too.
Even though the others continued to share possibly important information, their voices faded to the back for both of them. They were focused on the shadows that lingered in the darkness. They seemed almost humanoid, though their faces couldn’t be seen. Not only were they too far but it also seemed like something was covering their faces. They were definitely not from the local PD. Soon enough, Emily noticed their diverted gazes too and so did Rossi. Soon enough, the whole team quieted down with their talk of newfound clues. But the others struggled to find what exactly the two were focused on.
Finally, Morgan asked in a quieter voice. “Hotch, you seeing what I’m seeing…?”
After the older man nodded his head, he spoke up in the same, quietened tone. “Yes, left of the rock formation, between trees. They haven’t moved yet.”
That was the first time they noticed two figures watching them.
“They see us…” Brian noted quietly, so much that Toby almost missed it. The younger boy only nodded his head in response. There was still no telling what exactly was going on, who those people were and what their deal was. Those F.B.I. insignias that some of them had couldn’t mean anything good though.
When the older man saw the other reaching for his hatchet, he shook his head. “Don’t.” The word was louder than what he intended. “Can’t kill feds. At least not yet.” They ignored the words being shouted at them by one of the people who soon started approaching.
“Then what do we do?” Toby asked, a hint of urgency in his voice because the tall, clearly very muscular man was approaching too quickly and apparently he was not allowed to attack him. There was really only one thing the two of them could do.
“Run.” Brian’s voice carried through the forest air, the command clearer than the sky ever was anywhere near the woods. And that was what they both did, just took off because getting away was easier than explaining why they were in a forest known for disappearances and murder, with weapons that were not clean from blood, in masks to hide their faces on top of that. They looked far, far from innocent.
The shouts that came after were promptly ignored by the two running men. “FBI, stop!” “Freeze!” and a few more things came from the federal officers but frankly, none of them mattered. Because what killers would stop when they were being pursued? Besides, the forest was their territory, they knew it the best. Unlike all the depressed kids that faceless monster gathered in his mansion, they didn’t get to just have fun and do whatever they wanted the whole day, the so-called proxies were workers. As strange as it sounded, for them, it was a job to lurk around the deadly woods all day and report back to the tall man. And of course it was their job to also kill people, though they weren’t sure if that would hold up well in court. Well, it wasn’t like half of them weren't legally dead anyway. There was really no point in trying to figure out the legalities. It was one big mess anyway.
Since the forest was basically their work place, they knew it really well. The terrain was familiar to them, they’ve been moving through it for years after all. Using the trees for cover from possible shooting attempts, the two quickly gained distance. Toby was in front, easily clearing every obstacle in the form of rocks, tree branches or roots that were sticking out from the ground.
Brian wasn’t far behind but he couldn’t match Toby’s speed. Not only was he older but his back didn’t make it any easier. His spine, which was definitely broken from that fall which killed him, still ached. Brian just had to live with it just like Jay had to live with the constantly bleeding bullet wound in his side. Neither was comfortable but they’ve gotten used to it. It made running a bit harder though, especially when they started going uphill.
Of course the younger man was the first to reach the top. His boots pushed through the mud and got him to keep moving up the steep slope. He almost slipped at one part but managed to keep going, the adrenaline driving him forwards because the last thing they needed was to get caught. How would they explain that to the boss?
Yet when he looked down, he saw Brian struggling. The man was halfway up and just got to the steep part. That clearly wasn’t going to end well. Raising his head, Toby could see the FBI agents or whoever they were still persistently following them. And clearly unlike his colleague, their spines were not in two parts so they were starting to really gain on him.
Putting one foot to the front and locking his body, Toby slid down the hill partly. It was difficult not to slip and fall but he knew that too much was at stake. When he made it to where the steep part ended, he leaned down and offered Brian a hand. “Come on, you old man…”
Looking up, the hooded man reached up and clapped their hands together. With some help in the form of Toby pulling him up, he got past the worst of the steep part and the two then continued up. Breathing heavily, they both turned to see where the agents were. They were already going up the hill too. “We gotta lose them…” Brian whispered, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“Then let’s do it.” Toby said, as if it was an easy job. Both of them quickly picked up their paces again and headed towards the other side of the hill. Going down was a lot easier than climbing it so the way was definitely faster. Within a minute, Toby was already at the base of the hill and heading away. What he didn’t see at first was what happened to Brian, only heard the thud.
As he was almost at the bottom, Brian ended up tripping over a loose tree root and couldn’t do anything to stop the fall. He made it down from the hill but not in a way he was hoping for. His body landed in an almost unnatural position. The worst part was, he couldn’t get up. The pain was too great. It hurt like when he first woke up after his death, when he realized he was alive but his injuries never healed. Even though he learned to accept it, his back often hurt, especially when he fell or someone hit him. And that dive definitely moved his broken bones around which was the most agonizing feeling in the world.
He couldn’t get up. Brian tried moving his arms, his legs, even his head. But each tense of a muscle felt like hundreds of needles being stabbed into his skin and penetrating down to his bone marrow. He was finished. At that point, he almost regretted being alive because death would be better than getting captured.
Seeing the position the older man assumed, he almost winced. Of course he’s seen the footage of Brian’s death and now he laid there almost the same way, just with his font facing down. He could hear the groan the other let out, his feet already moving to run over and help him. However, when he took the first step, he quickly stopped. Because those FBI agents just made it down the hill as well. Even if Toby made it to Brian first, just getting him up would take longer than those agents reaching them.
His hand grabbed the handle of his hatchet. He shouldn’t. Brian told him that they couldn’t afford to kill federal agents, especially when they didn't know how many more were lurking just outside of the forest, waiting for a reason to come in guns blasting.
With a heavy heart, he turned away and took off. As much as he hated it, Brian’s limp form would provide at least some distraction which should allow him to get away. He hated doing it, he hated leaving his friend behind like that.