You Will Be Found

The World Seemed To Burn

So, if you've seen my last update on A Spine-Tingling Tale, you'll know that I'm discontinuing my fics and leaving this fandom. However, this was partially written already, so I've decided to post this draft and summarise the blank spaces. My full words are in my ASTT chapter if you haven't read them already. It's a shame because I was proud of this fic, but such is life. The stuff I didn't write, I'll summarise in square brackets and italics.

"I don't want to scare you, Ryan," Barrett began, "but I feel you deserve to know the details for your own safety. You see, there's been a serial killer on the loose in Newcastle over the last month. We came here because I am a criminal psychologist with expertise in this killer's modus operandi - his pattern of killing."

"And what would that be?" Ryan queried, his interest piqued.

Barrett turned a very grave expression towards him. "He targets ... young men. Very young men. Mostly between the ages of 18 and 21. The way he does it is, well, he makes their deaths look like suicides. That, or he somehow makes them do it to themselves."

Ryan froze as he processed her implications. "So, when you saw me on the bridge ..."

She nodded soberly. "He's even left false notes, I've seen them. He's got their handwriting down cold, apparently, but he can't quite match their style, their personalities. That's how they eventually deduced it was a serial offender, and they contacted me since I'm seemingly the closest person with expertise in crimes like this." For a few seconds, she stiffened up too, staring down into her coffee cup as memories floated to the surface and bubbled over in her eyes before she snapped out of it. "That's what my meeting with the chief inspector in charge of the case is about. We need to know exactly what kind of person we're dealing with that would do something like this."

"... Why do I not know about this?" Ryan asked though he guessed that part of the reason was due to him having so little contact with the outside world over the recent weeks. The assault had induced overwhelming disgust and self-loathing in him to the point where he'd been scarcely able to leave his home, let alone keep up with current events.

"A few reasons," Sophia piped up. "For one, suicides of young men just don't end up in the news like they would if they were murdered. If there were a series of connected suicides - or murders made to look like suicides - that would certainly sell a few, but the police haven't given the press any evidence that there is such a pattern."

"If they did, then nearly every suspected suicide by a young man would immediately be suspected to be connected to this case," Barrett explained. "The reports would be too many and too much all at once. It's easier to filter them through the usual channels and then decide which ones are connected."

She gave Ryan a hard look, and Ryan realised what she meant. "I'm sorry, I'm not one of them," he said. "No one made me do this - at least, not like that. I can't help you."

"That's okay," Barrett sighed. "Like we just said, it's worth verifying which ones are connected to the case and which not. Besides, whether your case was connected to the investigation or not, I'm still glad we found you on the bridge just then."

Ryan swallowed down the last gulp of hot chocolate, almost choking on the cocoa and sugar that had settled on the bottom. "I'm not sure I am," he admitted.

"As I said, you can think about the right thing in the morning," Barrett said. "You've been up late enough; we need to try to sleep." She set her now-empty mug down and exchanged a look with Sophia. The blonde woman nodded before Barrett got up and made for the bathroom.

As soon as her companion was out of sight, Sophia got up and started searching through the drink selection again. "Time for some real coffee."

"Don't you need to sleep too?" Ryan asked.