Grave Girls.

I. Little Red Riding Wolves

One, Little Red Riding Wolves

Warnings! Graphic detailed descriptions of dead bodies, repeated mentions of blood, and more.

One, two, three, four. They all dropped dead like flies. No one expected this to happen, especially not this soon. Not now. Five years on, five days apart, all suspected to be murdered by the same person. That's a funny word isn't it, murdered? You never expect to say that, not about your best friend, not in a town where nothing happens. But then again, this isn't just some quite town in the middle of nowhere, something did happen five years ago and it's back to haunt each and every single one of us.

There seems to be no sign of stopping them, and they're clearly under no pressure by the local police so the unsub has no reason to escalate or move up their time frame. No links. To the police that is, but Matilde can see it as clear as day, and it seems as if she's the only one screaming out "for fuck's sake just look here and you'll bloody well see the links!"

Victim one, Mai Chi Diep. The first body to be found a month before the anniversary of the little red riding wolves, and it was only fitting that she had been the little sister of the original five. She'd been found by an old man in the cemetery who had originally brought flowers for his deceased wife, but ended up leaving them for the girl. Gravestone with the words carved in blood crudely by a knife, they refused to release to the residents what it had said but there are a few rumours here and there, some who claimed to have written it themselves, others who just claim to have seen it. Sick bastards.

From the little information Matilde had managed to dig out, Mai had adorned a beautiful white dress tainted with blood from multiple stab wounds from a long serrated knife. Bruises and ligature marks blossomed her skin and it seemed like she'd been dragged through the woods or forced to walk that way from the condition of her feet. All that, just for her to be buried alive, bleeding out from her wounds probably screaming for help. No amount of Criminal Minds episodes could have ever prepared her for any of this information and it certainly hadn't desensitised her regardless of the front she put on. The oddest thing of all, however, had been the bouquet of red roses Mai had been meticulously positioned into holding within the grave. You'd assume they'd been red by nature from how they looked but no, they'd been painted red with the victim's blood.

Victim two, India Astor. The younger sister of Dior Astor. Pretty, too pretty to die. Their kind nature will be remembered, and she'll be missed by everyone dearly. Found five days later in the exact same way by the groundskeeper of the cemetery. Same wounds, same placement, same everything. Another girl to die far too soon.

Victim three, Kaia Laghari, the bump in the road/the complication/the one that doesn't fit the pattern. Not a sibling, but then again Avani had none. She does however, look almost identical to Avani so Matilde figured if the unsub doesn't have a sibling to kill then he kills a lookalike? Everything else matches.

Victim four, Ximena Isabella Delgado. Same as the others.

Coincidentally, they'd all been cheerleaders too. None of them were wolves, none of them deserved to go so soon. Their sisters had already payed for their mistakes and their family too having mourned them for five years and now they have to mourn again? It didn't seem fair. And what about Kaia? She wasn't meant to be a part of this. She shouldn't have been a victim. They weren't even related and she had to pay the price.

Five original victims. Five years later. Five days apart. Five new victims? It had to be, the pattern was obvious. She just needed someone to believe her.

✸

"Please Sheriff, if you'd just listen to me, you'd see that-"

"No." He slammed his hands down on the wooden desk of the small office, "I'm sick and tired of listening to you concoct these wild and inaccurate theories. I will not be listening to some teenager, who has no actionable intelligence, telling me how to do my job. How did you even get any of this information anyway?"

"I-" He put his hand up to silence the brunette, "Forget it, I don't even want to know. Leave the folder here and bring me any other documents you have concerning this matter and get out of my office."

She picked up the rest of her belongings, standing up from the chair and made her way to the door with irritation in her veins. "Oh and Miss Leone, if I hear about you digging into this again, I won't hesitate to arrest you for interfering in a police matter and for illegally obtaining police documents, so for your sake, please drop it." Her hand on the handle she turned around to face the man, "Thank you for your time, Sheriff."

Like hell was she turning in any of those documents, they were her notes. None of it was stolen but that wasn't a terrible idea so she guesses she could thank the Sheriff for something, and besides, it wouldn't be too hard to do. Not with the brainless police force, oh so diligently protecting their small town, she grumbles under her breath making her way to Crystal Cove High School. It was turning out to be a fan-fucking-tastic Monday morning.

Almost ramming into Louis as she approached her locker hadn't been in her plan either but it seemed nothing ever did, not after Kaia. Matilde sent the blonde an apologetic smile as he gave her one of his award winning smiles back as well as a wave before disappearing after his teammates down the corridor. She shook her head trying to focus on the task at hand before sighing loudly and placing her head against the cool metal of the locker.

She didn't need anyone to believe her, she needed to save the fifth victim before the time runs out. Fuck whatever the Sheriff said.