NOTHING WE SAID, EVERYTHING WE MEANT ✸ the naturals

two. bitterness is a butterfly

002. CHAPTER TWO
"BITTERNESS IS A BUTTERFLY"
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𝕳ailey Ward was victim number four. A tall, brunette, eighteen year old girl with both parents out of the picture, found by her eldest brother in their garage.

The cause of death were the three stab wounds to her abdomen, what happened to her face wasn't necessary. It hadn't been necessary for any of them.

An X had been carved into her skin, crossing over her mouth. A signature, an autograph from the killer, making sure it was known that they had also killed the three girls before her with the exact same marking.

Her lack of shirt wasn't necessary either.

Cassie and Sloan's stomachs had turned when they first saw the pictures of the scene. Cassie wondered how Vallerie stood there calm enough to show them after having seen it in real time.

Hailey had been killed two days ago now, and they'd still yet to find anything.

The Naturals plus Vallerie were gathered together in the kitchen, looking over every single piece of information they had on this case over and over again.

Sterling and Briggs had left to check something out at the forensics lab. Vallerie had asked to go along, but been denied when they insisted the teens needed bureau supervision.

That ruffled a few feathers. None of them liked getting rank pulled on them, but especially not from someone who was one of them. She and Dean were the same age, for crying out loud.

The room had been relatively quiet for almost the past ten minutes, filled with only the noise of pages turning and keyboards clicking and quiet mumbling.

They all worked well together, like a perfectly crafted machine that could operate on autopilot. Vallerie fell right back into how she used to be with them, the familiarity almost methodical.

Michael was not a fan.

It had been two years since they'd last heard so much as a word out of her, and now she was just going to turn up unannounced and act like nothing had happened? Like no time had passed at all? Like everything was normal when it was the farthest from?

Things had changed. Everything had changed.

He'd almost died, been shot twice. Dean spoke to his serial killer of a father for the first time in five years. Cassie had been taken by an unsub twice. All of them had been on death's doorstep at least once, more than anyone at their age should ever be.

And she had been gone for all of it.

"Hey Val," Lia broke the silence, lifting her eyes up from the papers in front of her. "Have you payed any attention to the victim profiles? Like, physical appearances?"

"Well obviously," Vallerie nodded. "That's like, baseline stuff."

"Ooo, attitude," Lia gasped, drawing her head back a little like she was surprised. "What I mean is that they all fit the same description as you. Well, you before you changed your hair."

The other three in the room looked up at that.

Sure, they'd noticed the identical patterns among the victims. Brunette, green eyes, similar builds and heights. One older sibling, one or both parents out of the picture. All bodies discovered in locations within fifty miles of each other.

But when they looked at the victim profiles and Vallerie's own, they matched to a tee.

"How old was this last victim, again?" Cassie asked, glancing between the dead girl's school photo in front of her face and Vallerie's own in real time.