Chapter Text
It was a rainy evening. The water was washing down the streets, falling into the channels on the sides of the roads. It was only 7pm, so usually it wouldn't be as dark outside as it was now, but the sky was a shade of dark grey, because of the clouds.
Caroline Fanshawe was currently cleaning up around the kitchen, in her one floor house. Her friends and boyfriend had only left, right after they spent six hours watching the first two 'Final Destination' movies, eating and chatting around in the meantime.
When she was putting the plates into the dishwasher, her phone called. Caroline heaved a sigh, dried her hand off, on the cloth lying on the counter and picked it up from the high stool that she left it on. She frowned when she saw an unknown number, but pressed the green button anyway.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Hello. Who is this?" an altered voice came through the lines.
"Who are you trying to reach?" she said, nicely.
"What number is this?"
"Well, what number are you trying to reach?"
"I don't know, " came a confused reply.
"Yeah…" Caroline stood next to the sink and dried off her other hand. "I think you've got the wrong number."
"Have I?" The voice seemed surprised.
"It happens. Have a good night, " she hung up and put the phone down. However as she returned to packing dishes to the machine, the phone called again.
"Hello?" She picked it up more annoyed by now.
"I'm sorry, I guess I dialled the wrong number."
"Why did you dial it again, then?"
"To apologise."
"You're forgiven. Goodbye." She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the voice started to slowly freak her out.
"Wait, wait. Don't hang up, " they seemed desperate.
"Why?" Caroline frowned.
"I wanna talk to you for a second."
"You can call your friends or family for that. Take care, " she clicked the red button and threw the phone on the couch. "What a freak, " she muttered.
Caroline went to the kitchen and finished cleaning around, then returned to the living room. She found her bag next to the coffee table and crouched down to take out her laptop. Then the phone called again.
She pressed the button harsher than necessary. "For god's sake, what?"
"Why don't you want to talk to me?" The voice again.
"Maybe, because you're freaking me out. Who is this?"
"You tell me your name, I'll tell you mine."
She let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I don't think so."
Caroline clicked on the computer's button and as it came to life a sound came through the speakers.
"What's that noise?"
"My laptop? What, haven't you heard of technology?" What a douchebag.
"Why are you being so rude?" The voice seemed wounded.
"Maybe, because some random guy won't stop calling my number?"
"So you think, I'm a guy?" They seemed curious.
"What, aren't you?" she sighed when she got no reply. "Look, I have a lot of work to do. Maybe if you want to talk so badly, you should call tomorrow?"
"What did you do earlier this day that got you working so late?"
Caroline cleared her throat. "My friends came over to watch some movies."
"Really? What kind of movies?"
"Last Destination, the first and second film."
"Was it good?"
"I mean- Yes." Caroline gave up on trying to get rid of that person, whoever she was talking to, and moved into a much more comfortable position on the couch. She felt like a little conversation couldn't hurt.
"So, you like scary movies?"
"Absolutely, love them, " she admitted.
"What's your favourite scary movie?"
"I don't think I have one."
"Come on, everyone does. What comes to mind?"
"Hmm, I suppose it would be Friday the 13th, you know the one from 1980. What's yours?"
"Guess."
Caroline stood up and went into the kitchen again.
"I feel like you're more into classics. The Shining?" She said as she took out a glass from the shelf and poured herself some water.
"The one where the guy is trapped with his family in a hotel and goes mad?"
"Yes, that one." She took a sip of her drink.
"Oh, yeah. I love that movie. I also think that the ones where humans are the ones who go mad and kill are the most interesting ones. Conjuring is overrated."
"I can agree on that."
"So, you got a boyfriend?"
Caroline laughed. "Why? You wanna ask me out on a date?"
"Maybe. Do you have a boyfriend?"
"No, " she lied.
"You never told me your name."
"Why do you wanna know my name?"
"Because, I wanna know who I'm looking at."
Caroline's blood ran cold.
"What did you say?" She whispered.
"I wanna know who I'm talking to."
She put the glass down and came back to the living room. She cautiously approached the windows to her terrace, looking through them.
"That's not what you said."
"What do you think I said?" There was some more dangerous undertone in the voice now.
Caroline didn't respond, she just looked around her house some more.
"Hello?"
"Listen, I have to go. Lots of work, remember?" She sounded nervous.
"What? I thought we were having fun."
"No, I don't think so."
"Don't hang up on me, " the voice warned.
She did hang up and then started pacing around the floor, checking all the doors and windows. Then the phone called again.
"Fuck." She pressed the green button, again. "Yes?"
"I told you not to hang up on me, " it sent shivers down Caroline's spine.
"What do you want?" She was on the verge of tears, yet tried to make her voice sound stern.
"To talk, " they said as if the answer was the simplest thing in the world.
"Then dial someone else, okay?" She hung up again and went back into the kitchen for the tenth time this evening. She picked the glass up and downed it at once.
The ringing again.
"Listen, asshole- "
"No, you listen you little bitch! You hang up on me again, I gut you like a fish. Understand?" They laughed.
"Is this some fucking joke?" Caroline's voice broke.
"More of a game, really. Can you handle that?"
She started running around again, terrified now. She checked the doors again, but everything was just as locked as before.
"Do you see me? Walking around in the darkness that fell around your house, the same way the rain falls down the streets…"
"Where the fuck are you, asshole?"
They laugh again. "Perhaps you should ask where Cole is?"
Her eyes widened. "Wha- what?"
"There's a surprise waiting for you on the terrace."
Caroline stiffly made her way over to the windows. She gasped at the sight.
Her boyfriend, Cole, was tied to a chair and there was a lot of blood on him and around. He was still alive, mouthing something in Caroline's direction, his eyes wide, but when she looked down she almost puked. His guts were literally falling out.
With a shaky hand she put the phone next to her ear again.
"Like the present, Caroline?"
She choked on a sob. "What do you want?!"
"To play a game."
"What kind of a game?"
"I ask you a question and if you answer correctly, maybe I won't kill you."
"And if I don’t answer correctly?"
Laugh again. "You will find out what pain means."
"Alright, fine. I'll play, “ she sounded desperate.
"Good. Very good. You like scary movies, and do you like Halloween?"
"A movie or a holiday?"
"Holiday."
"Yes, I- I suppose."
"What country is believed to be the origin of Halloween?"
"Ireland?" She shakily asked.
"Is that a question or an answer?"
"A- an answer."
"Hmm… Yes, good. Who is the ancient Roman goddess that is said to be honoured on Halloween?"
"How would I know?!" She desperately said.
"Are you going to answer or not?"
"I don't know- Hekate?"
"Wrong. Hekate is a Greek goddess. I can see why you thought it was her, as she is a goddess of magic, ghosts, necromancy et cetera. But she is Greek, not Roman. You failed."
"Will you at least tell me the answer?" Caroline knew she had little time, she had absolutely no way to call 911, no way to save her boyfriend. But she figured she may as well keep the voice talking, at least for some more time. It was foolish, really.
"If you're so interested, I suppose I could." Some humming was heard through the line and Caroline heard some noise in the hall, as well. She let out a whimper. "The answer is Pomona. She was the goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards. Unlike many other Roman goddesses and gods, she does not have a Greek counterpart, though she is commonly associated with Demeter. So, you see, I would take Demeter as an answer as well."
"Why is Pomona honoured on Halloween?"
"I can tell, you're stalling."
"Please, I just- If I'm going to die you may at least answer me. One last time, " she breathed out.
"Hmm… Fine. Some scholars, because of the long historical association of the Celts with the Romans, have linked the modern observance of Halloween to the Roman festival honouring Pomona. During that festival people practiced divination, which uses occult for gaining knowledge of the future. Satisfied with the answer?"
"Yes. You know, you're quite intelligent- "
"Shut up. No more stalling. Let's move on to another question. Where am I?"
"In the hallway."
"Wrong, " the voice said from behind her back, and Caroline's phone fell out of her hand. She slowly turned.
There was a silhouette standing before her, dressed in a black robe and with a, probably latex, white mask. The mask looked horrifying, a white face (could she call it a face?) in an expression of shock, mouth long and open, as well as two black eyeholes.
As soon as Caroline turned she started running away, but she stumbled upon another dark silhouette, a taller one. She screamed.
"Hello, Caroline, " the person greeted her. "It was nice talking to you. A shame you didn't win the game. Truly, " they said as they pulled out a knife and pushed it straight into the girl's stomach. Before she could move, or do anything, the knife was out and then she was stabbed again. And again. She kn
In a matter of seconds she was pulled out of her house, into her terrace. She landed harshly on the ground, just next to the chair Cole was sitting in. She looked up and saw that his head was hanging down. He was dead. Caroline choked on her tears and screamed as another wave of pain erupted when the knife sliced her stomach open.
As the darkness was taking over her, she grimly thought that yes, she finally knew what pain meant.
***
"So, is it like a friends with benefits thing?" Derek Morgan asked, when he and Elle Greenaway were standing in the small kitchen area, preparing coffee.
Greenaway groaned. "Morgan, leave it be."
"What? Why? Come on, Elle, " he said as he was pouring the hot water in his cup. "Or I'm going to ask Reid about it."
Elle snorted. "As if he will tell you."
"Oh, he will, " Morgan smiled sweetly.
"Sounds like a threat, " she raised an eyebrow at her friend, but he just shrugged.
"No threat, but Pretty Boy knows better than to ignore my questions." Derek handed her a cup, took his own and they made their way across the bullpen.
Spencer Reid was already sitting by his desk, clearly focused on some papers before him. When Morgan departed from Greenaway and stood next to him, he yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"Long night?" He looked at his friend expectantly.
"Very, " Spencer dismissed him with a short reply.
"My man!" Derek smiled brightly and leaned against the desk.
"Morgan, " he said with a clear warning in his voice. "Elle and I, are none of your business."
The other Agent just raised his one hand, in a way of saying 'I surrender'.
"Hey, man. I didn't say anything. I just want you to know that, whatever it is between you two- I am happy for you, you know. As you never seem to date, it's- You know, a nice change."
"It's just sex, Derek."
"Ha! So, it is a friends with benefits thing, then?"
Spencer raised an eyebrow at him. "You could say that." He returned to his paper, but suddenly stopped and looked at the dark skinned man again. "Hold up. Was it a trick, to get me to tell you exactly that?" When he got just a smug look in reply he groaned. "Amazing."
"Hey, I don't judge. I was just curious and Elle didn't want to tell me shit. I'm still happy for you, you know, " he reassured his friend.
"Mhm, " Spencer avoided eye contact and started writing something down.
"Don't be mad."
"I'm not, I just want to work, " he said, not looking up.
"Alright, then."
Morgan was just about to sit down at his desk, when Jennifer Jereau stormed out of her office.
"Conference room, now. We've got a case."
***
"A year ago, on September 20th, Elizabeth Neal and Jason Larson were found dead, with their guts practically falling out, at Larson's place in Woodridge neighbourhood of Washington, DC, by 3114 Central Ave NE, " Jennifer pulled up a picture of a young blonde, blue-eyed girl, alongside with dark skinned, bald man. "Jason just turned twenty-five and Elizabeth was barely twenty. Their families said they were good friends, but really with the evidence found at the crime scene, we think they could have been in a relationship. Elizabeth was supposed to be gone for the weekend, to relax and Jason took a little vacation from his job. Around 7pm, on September 19th, they got a strange call."
Now, JJ played the recording of the call.
"Hello, " voiced altered, probably by the voice enhancer, came through.
"Who is this?" Elizabeth replied.
"Do you want to play a game?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Is this a prank?"
The conversation went on for about twenty minutes, then the line was suddenly cut off, just after a woman's scream was heard.
"Now, isn't it spooky?" Elle grunted.
"I don't know about you, my dear friends, but I would be terrified if I got a phone call like that, " Penelope Garcia stated.
"A murder that happened a year ago, " Jason Gideon muttered. "Surely, you wouldn't say we have a case if it was just about that, right?"
"No, sir." Jennifer pulled up another set of pictures. A white man with brown eyes and raven hair and a brunette woman. "This is Cole Kaminsky, twenty-three years old and his girlfriend Caroline Fanshawe, twenty-four. They both were found this morning, gutted as well, on Caroline's terrace. Caroline's friend, Kate, said she and some of her other friends were at Fanshawe's house the day before. They were watching some movies and hanging around. Apparently Cole was there as well. Kate forgot her jacket, so she decided to come for it in the morning. No one was opening the door so she decided to go through the backyard, and that was when she saw the bodies."
"Poor girl, " Derek shook his head. "I assume they got the phone call, as well?"
"Yes, Caroline did. Should I put it on?"
"Please, " Gideon made an inviting gesture and JJ pressed a button.
"Hello?" Caroline's voice came through.
"Hello. Who is this?" Replied the same altered voice.
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"What number is this?"
"Well, what number are you trying to reach?"
"I don't know."
"Yeah… I think you've got the wrong number."
"Have I?"
"It happens. Have a good night."
"What is interesting, Caroline, unlike Elizabeth, hung up a couple of times, but the person seemed really desperate as they kept calling and asking her a lot of weird questions. Like what is her favourite scary movie, does she have a boyfriend and all that kind of stuff. They mentioned the game again and asked questions about Halloween. As you may figure, she got an answer wrong, just like Elizabeth and that got her killed."
"But neither of the men were talking on the phone?" Reid asked.
"No, just the women."
"Because of the voice enhancer, we can’t tell if the UnSub is a female or a male, " Gideon said off-handedly. "What do we know?" He asked, no one in particular, but looked at Spencer.
"Both pairs were probably in a relationship, our UnSub wasn’t interested in the talking foreplay with the men, but they talked with the women for quite a long time. They played a game of questions, which eventually led to getting the answers wrong by the women and therefore they were killed. They probably get off on the idea of scaring them, " Reid said and looked at Jareau. "Have you talked to ME?"
"Not yet."
"Then, we should head out, " Gideon stood up. "Greenaway, Hotchner, you go to the crime scene. Morgan, you head out to the local PD, talk with people who are on this case. Reid and I will go to the ME. Garcia, found what you can about our victims, what connects them. We have to build up a victimology. JJ, let's keep the media off of it, for now, " she nodded. "We'll meet here in a couple of hours."
***
"Absolutely disgusting, " Elle wrinkled her nose at the scene.
"Yeah, " Aaron just frowned. "Let's build up the profile from this. So I am the UnSub, why would I call first, to literally let my victims know they are going to die?"
"Maybe it's like Reid said. The killer gets off on the idea of scaring the women, " she stood next to where Caroline's body was lying before and looked at the huge pool of blood. "She was gutted when she was still alive."
"So, they want their targets to suffer. Clearly a lot. I wonder what the ME said."
***
"Cole Kaminsky was dying for at least an hour."
Spencer was reading the rapport, while Jason was talking to the pathologist.
"What makes you think so?" Gideon asked.
"COD is exsanguination. He was gutted, tied to the chair and just bled out to death."
"He died before Caroline did?"
"Yes, but I don't think the time between each death was long."
"So what about the woman?"
"No defensive wounds, the killer must have taken her by surprise, " Reid muttered, looking at the body now. "COD?" He asked even though he already read the rapport.
"Exsanguination as well, however an infection started to spread before she took her final breath. So if not that, she could have died of sepsis."
"Something more we should know?" Gideon asked.
"I don't think so, however if I find something new, I will let you know."
"Thank you. Come on, let's talk to the rest, " he looked at Spencer.
***
"Talk to me, Baby Girl. What did you find?" Derek greeted the blonde tech analyst, when he entered the conference room, joining the rest of the Team.
"Right away, my Chocolate Adonis. Unfortunately, I didn't find any connections between the victims. But, I was digging and found out very interesting texts between Elizabeth and Jason. So basically Elizabeth's parents didn't approve of Jason, he was, in their opinion, too old for her. That’s why they kept telling everyone they are just friends, but indeed, they were together. And I figured that out by reading their very explicit conversation." Everyone in the room just blinked at her. "Yeah, let's not go into details. But anyway, that's about it. There are no similarities, no shared workplaces, no same hairdressers, dentists- " Hotch cleared his throat. "Right, sorry. I think you get my point."
"Anything at the crime scene?" JJ asked, directing the question at Elle.
"Nothing that we didn't know already. Gideon?"
"Yes. Both had their insides out. Cause of death was exsanguination. No defensive wounds on Caroline Fanshawe, but the boyfriend was definitely struggling for some time. What we've all gathered from the recording and the crime scene is that, while Caroline was talking on the phone with our UnSub, Cole had a short-lived fight, and then he was gutted, tied to the chair. Caroline at some point in the conversation saw him on the terrace and that is most likely why she started crying. Kaminsky apparently died just minutes before she did."
"So wait, if Cole was fighting with the UnSub at the same time Caroline was talking on the phone- "
"We are probably dealing with more than one person."
"A team?" Jennifer asked.
"Or a pair. I doubt there would be more people than two, but that's just my opinion, " Jason replied.
"So what? One person makes the call, and in the meantime the other enters the house and kills both victims?" Elle snorted. "That sounds like some cliché movie."
"Or- Both UnSubs kill the pair."
"But if they are talking on the phone- "
"The person that talks on the phone may as well be hiding somewhere in the house already, " Aaron picked up at what Jason was saying.
"Those are only possibilities, though. We need something more, " Spencer added.
"I agree, " Gideon nodded. "What about the local PD, Morgan?"
The dark skinned Agent sighed. "Well, as you can imagine, they weren't thrilled at the idea of working with us, but they have to just suck it up. Apparently some neighbours saw the attacker."
"Just one?"
"Yeah, and not for long either, just a glimpse, but they said that the person had some sort of a ghost mask. It was dark, they aren't sure, but you can imagine that some deputies, who apparently find the whole situation hilarious and like something out of a horror movie, want to give a name to our UnSub."
"What kind of a name?" Hotch asked, already cautious of the answer.
"Ghostface, " Derek snorted. "It's ridiculous. JJ we should really be careful, if it goes to media- "
"No, I know. Of course, " she noted.
"Okay, " Gideon clasped his hands together. "Tomorrow, we are going to ask around the friends if either Cole or Caroline had any enemies. JJ, Elle, I want you two to dig around our last year victims. If you can manage that, go talk to their families."
"Yes, sir." Greenaway saluted.