The Hillside Slayer

As concern grew for the welfare of Supervisory Special Agent Ruby Shaw, the rest of her team assembled around the conference table, wracked with dread. They dealt with cases like this each day but after receiving a cryptic letter from their friend’s abductor, accompanied with a picture of her restrained and gagged in a dilapidated barn, panic set in.

The handwritten note, addressed to the team read:

‘Hello agents, have you missed me? I have Ruby Shaw, as well as the five missing teens who disappeared whilst camping in Decorah, I have heard you’ve been looking for them. If you want to see your friend again, you must come alone, and play the game. Every hour another dies.’, signed the Hillside Slayer.

The team had been working to build a profile of the suspect in the Decorah abduction case, to identify the perpetrator and rescue the victims. With this new development however it seemed that what they thought they already knew about the case, was irrelevant.

“The Hillside Slayer?” exclaimed Agent Ben Bailey, everyone looked up in bewilderment.

“Isn’t that the case, we worked on in Iowa in 09?”, asked Lori. ‘The suspect died on the scene".

“Suicide by cop”, added Ray who was looking at the ground; he had shot the Hillside Slayer, aka Jack Lopez. As the team, raided the farm that night, Lopez opened fire on the agents, striking Rays partner. He fired back killing him, in an attempt to protect his family. It was too late. Ray held his partner as he took his last breath, watched the life leave his eyes and his blood disperse in the water. For months after the incident, he had been consumed by grief, and now as he sat at the table, these horrific memories came flooding back.

Lori placed her hand on Ray’s shoulder, attempting to provide him with some comfort. In return, he offered a delicate smile. “Maybe it’s a copycat?” he suggested.

Agent Bailey wasn’t convinced, “It seems more personal than that”.

“Maybe the Unsub is seeking revenge. Maybe they knew Lopez. Maybe this is because of me. I killed someone he loved, so now he’s taken someone I love.” cried Ray with his hands behind his head, as he stood up to pace in front of the board.

After offering reassurance to Ray, she addressed the rest of the team, ‘But why take the teenagers? If the suspect has a vendetta against the FBI, why take innocent victims?’

Ben stood up and replied “Because he’s re-enacting the original spree, but this time it is a game with a different agenda.’

Meanwhile in her office, surrounded by her cornucopia of screens which reflected in her glasses, Sofia Rodriguez, the team’s technical analyst, cross-examined her suspect list with any connection to a farm, her hands trembling with every button she pressed, but found nothing.

Suddenly the phone began to ring, startling the already anxious Sofia. Agent Ben Bailey’s name flashed onto the screen, and she immediately picked it up. As he relayed their theory to her, she struggled to remain her composure, as she feared for the safety of her entire team now. Ben asked her to investigate the records of Jack’s Family or significant people in his life, which may fit the profile. As data inundated the screen, she uncovered that his only living relative was a younger brother, named Isaac. There was limited information on him, other than that he still owned the family farm. She reported that although the farm was demolished after the murders, on the edge of the property lies another abandoned barn.

As Lori, Ray, and Ben cautiously made their way up the dirt track, they were met with obscurity, as the shadows danced around them and the cool autumnal breeze caressed their exposed cheeks, they relied solely on the light from their torches to guide the way through the forest. Fog hung through the fortress of trees, their knotted arms intertwining made up a labyrinth for the agents. Luckily Sofia, was back at their headquarters guiding them towards the barn.

Emerging from the tree line they were met with a modest farm that had fallen into disrepair, a crumbled beauty of an era long passed. The abandoned barn stood skeletal, at the bottom of the hill, cloaked by overgrown foliage. The red paint hung like dead skin from the exterior walls, which had fallen victim to the havoc of deterioration and vandalism.

As Ben prised open the barn doors, both Ray and Lori drew their guns as they heard sounds from within the barn. It was Ruby screaming for help. Instantaneously floodlights were triggered exposing the horrors that lay within.

The inside of the barn had been engineered into a liar, with metal partitions creating dividing the rooms, each with a vault door separating them. In the corner lay three victims, covered in their own and each other’s blood. Each one with a plethora of wounds. Two of the bodies were so mangled they had already succumbed to their injuries, whilst the other dipped in and out of consciousness. Perched in the rafters were cameras; the perpetrator found pleasure in pain and was using this for their own twisted entertainment. Plastered on each wall were photographs of the team over the last decade, he had been watching them all for years.

It seemed Ruby’s screams were coming from the pile of hay in the middle of the room, however once cleared they realised, they were coming from underground. In a frenzy the agents began to dig, Ben grabbed a spade, whilst the others burrowed with their hands until it hit a wooden coffin buried below the surface. Desperately they forced the box open, but rather than seeing Ruby, all that was there was a hand-held cassette player and a message that read: ‘You thought it would be that easy? Play the game, and you will see her again’. As if on cue the barn doors shut, trapping the agents, and a tunnel to the next quadrant was unveiled.

Ray observed and reported that a faint hum could be heard; the entire barn was connected to a system being controlled by the slayer.

At that moment Sofia lost the connection she had with her team, and the broadcast of the dreadful events within the old red barn filled her screen. Whilst she had already deployed back-up, she felt helpless watching her family fight to save their own.

The tunnel of nails tore through the agents’ clothes and flesh as they writhed through the passage. Ben had tied the teenager's red tartan jacket around the stab wound in his leg, before being forced to leave him behind, along with the two other lifeless bodies, but his moans still echoed through the shaft.

Once in the next room, the opening was sealed, and the conveyor belt that looped around the chamber a few meters from the ground came to life. At one end was a handmade coffin, which thrashed from side to side as the occupant fought to escape, whilst at the other was a circular saw gyrating, as it awaited its approaching victim. Ray charged over to the control in an attempt to deactivate the machine, whilst Ben boosted Lori onto the conveyer and clambered up himself; they wrangled to unlock the chains. Lori stumbled as the box turned the last corner, falling just inches from the blade. In a desperate attempt to free the victim Ben hauled the box off the side of the belt, and it came crashing down to the ground freeing one of the kidnapped teens.

Ray scooped her up from the splintered remains of the box, and with Agent Bailey supporting Lori, the team made their way into the next level.

Putrid aromas filled the room and leaked around the maze which lay before them. A blood-curdling yet muffled scream from the centre broke the eerie silence and the agents sprung to action.

After running aimlessly in all directions, avoiding the traps laid out before them and the remains scattered along the path they found another teenager, with a homemade deadly contraption strapped on his head. A timer set to the next hour began, but the agents’ attention was drawn to the message scrawled on the wall behind him in blood ‘the key to solving this puzzle lies within’.

They combed the maze, rummaging within all the remains but failed to uncover the key, and the lethal mask was deployed eliminating the boy in an instant. Bailey restrained the first girl and escorted her through the exit, protecting her from the grisly sight that would have haunted her forever.

The most elaborate apparatus awaited them in the largest area of the barn. Constructed like an immense version of snakes and ladders, suspended in the rafters, the agents would have to climb through the structure, avoiding falling into the viper pits and snares which lay below, to reach the top, where Ruby was being held as the grand prize.

Whilst the agents clambered to rescue Ruby, the young girl worked to untie her friend, who was being held on the first row of obstacles. As she was released, the change in pressure on the board caused it to give way causing them both to plummet into a pit of snakes. The agents completed the game, unharmed yet un-nerved, as they heard the snakes devouring their victims. After saving Ruby, they embraced one another; however their relief was short-lived as a voice over the intercom commanded them to decide between them which one would get to live, as an ominous yellow gas seeped into the room. On the table before them lay a single gas mask.

As if by divine intervention, back at the FBI Headquarters Rodriguez, had gained control of the system, and was able to unlock all the doors to aid her team's escape.

The agents darted through the next door and found themselves back in the first room.

Ruby began to relay her ordeal to the others, describing how she had been beaten into submission by a young male wearing a red shirt, who taunted her using his intricate plan to kill the team of agents who had taken his brother from him. In a moment of realisation Ray spun around: there were now only two people laying on the barn floor. In the Decorah kidnapping case only five teens were taken, yet there were six ‘victims’. The young man they had shown compassion for just hours earlier was the mastermind behind this entire spectacle.

Ominously Isaac stepped out from the shadows with a handcrafted controller in one hand and armed with a silver handgun in the other. He lunged at Ben before the others had a chance to warn him, hitting him in the back of the head with the butt of the gun. He staggered into the wall, as Ray stepped in front of Lori and Ruby in defence.

Isaac raised his gun, aiming it at Ray. “You took my Brother! You killed my best friend! My Partner!” he roared, “I wanted to take your family away from you too! I wanted you to watch them all die before I killed you. But it seems there has been a change of plan.”

Spooked by sirens in the distance, he opened fire on Ray, striking him in the neck. Whilst he was distracted Ben retaliated, throwing him to the ground. With Ray's blood splattered across her face, Ruby lunged for his gun, as Ben drew his. The bullets plummeted into his chest, ripping him from existence, and finally ridding the world of the Hillside Slayer’s evil grasp.

Lori’s screams for Ray echoed through the valley, as she buried her head in his chest, her light blonde hair soaked in his blood. Ben held pressure, as he reassured them all everything was going to be alright. Ruby collapsed to the ground in relief and exhaustion as help arrived.

The game was finally over.