Oneshots, ideas and rejects.

Hannibal.

It was cold, she opened her eyes looking at the magical landscape that were the woods of Minnesota.
Snow fell like feathers around her, shining, glittering in the early rays of the morning sun.. or was it evening?

A fine white layer had fallen upon the ground and the branches of both bushes and trees, and small and delicate icicles were hanging here and there.
It looked like Christmas decorations she thought.
Christmas.. Had she missed it? Did her family miss her? Were they looking?
She knew they weren't, but it was still a nice comforting lie, pretending that there were someone out there looking.

Someone, anyone to come back to.

He'd killed them, it had been a mistake in his master plan, they– her family, they weren't supposed to be home.
So many flaws in his design, she pondered.

His first flaw.
She knew that he knew he had slipped, tripped himself by killing her family instead of just waiting another minute or so for them to leave.
He had given in to his cravings and attacked too early. He had no time to clean up his mess and soon the police would be retrieving enough evidence at the crime scene against him, to put him down once they caught him.

Second flaw..
He left her alone in the woods handcuffed to a tree, he was panicking, walking back and forth sweating like a pig for a few minutes before leaving her there for him to come back to later and butcher..
To finish his job.

Third flaw..
He had greatly underestimated her.

And now she was here, walking around, blood and dirt mostly covering her hands, knees, feet and elbows, clothes slightly shredded, both of her thumbs dislocated and a major headache. She was also low on energy, not having slept for a couple of days and not being fed had really done a number on her, she was dying.
She had tried eating whatever she could find laying around in nature, but at this time of year it was mostly just snow, which only covered the water problem.

She was almost in a state of sleepwalking, the sirens in the close distance didn't reach her, the red and blue lights didn't either. It was first when she walked out of the tree line and into a clearing with a cabin surrounded by a couple of deputies, she awoke.

"Help me."

It wasn't a scream, neither a whisper, she just said it loud enough for the people around to notice her, it wasn't a plead either, she was simply asking. Lost and a bit confused.
"Mr. Crawford!!" She heard someone yell before people surrounded her.
Her lungs constricted as she covered away, it was too much, too many.
"Ms. Mentis! How did you escape?"

"Did he say where he hid the bodies?"

"Did he touch you?" Indigo screamed clutching her ears making everyone take a step away and be quiet.
"Everyone step away from her." Calm.. no, the voice was more than calm, it was indifferent, she thought.

"What's going on out here?" This voice was filled with authority. It was dark, tired?

"It's the girl Jack. Indigo Mentis." A third voice answered. It was bland.
The guy named Jack, which she figured were the boss, quickly walked over to her. He was a big guy, black, not old but definitely not young either.

"The shrike is dead, he took his daughter's life before killing himself about 24 hours ago." That explained why he never came back..

"We've been looking for you."

•••

Indigo was at the hospital, they had checked her over shortly, given her a shower, put her thumbs back in place, and given her a warm meal and some juice to get her blood sugar up. She had also received some fresh clothes and a room with a bed, some chairs, a sofa and a small table in it.
Despite their effort to make it look homely by putting a lot of furniture in there, it didn't really help.

"Ms. Mentis?" That voice again, the indifferent one.. Exactly like her's.
"I'm your assigned psychiatrist."