Game of Thrones Imagines

The Flayer - Modern Au - Part 1

I have decided to do something a little different again, and along with my Once upon a time in the west imagine, I am thinking about making this into a standalone fanfiction, but please let me know what you think. This imagine is a little descriptive, and completely different, but I hope that you will enjoy.

(Y/n) pulled her hire car to a stop. The crime scene was hectic, but given the gruesomeness of the crimes, she really wasn't surprised. This was the fifth body discovered in as many months and the press was all over it, the local cops currently doing their best to stop photographers and reporters trampling over the latest scene as they all did their utmost to get the scoop for their particular paper.

The local hacks had already dubbed the killer "The Flayer", the murderer's proclivity of peeling the skin from their still living victims resulting in the particularly descriptive moniker.

(Y/n) shook her head as she pulled the file out of her bag, her fingers flicking through the pages that she already knew so well. This was her job, she spent her life dealing with the worst of the worst, hunting down and then interviewing some of the most dangerous men that the country had to offer, so unfortunately she had been to more than her fair share of scenes just like this; but there was something that intrigued her about this killer, and she had begged her boss at the Behavioural Science Unit at Quantico to let her use her own special kind of, what her superiors called her super power, on this current serial killer.

Two days ago, the local police captain, a man by the name of Eddard Stark, had put a call through to Virginia asking for assistance from the FBI, to help them track down and arrest the killer that was currently stalking his jurisdiction, and as soon as (Y/n) had seen what was going on, she wanted in. She was fascinated by the pictures of the crime scenes, that despite the gruesomeness, showed a cool, calm, calculated mind behind the murders, and (Y/n) knew that she wanted to pit her wits against this dangerous murderer that showed no signs of stopping.

Normally (Y/n) hated it this far north, it was always so cold and even when it wasn't snowing, which as far as (Y/n) could see wasn't very often, the wind still had a habit of cutting through you like a knife, striking right at your very bones.

The trip up north on the rickety small plane had seemed to take hours, but at least it had given her enough time to familiarise herself with every last piece of information, every last detail that she might have missed before she got there; but the last thing that she had expected was to find herself at a brand new crime as soon as she had arrived.

Pushing the file back into her bag, (Y/n) opened the door to the car, the cold air hitting her as she stepped out into the ever darkening evening. Quickly she pulled her collar up, her large coat doing its best to protect her from the inclement weather as she made her way over to the throng of people.

"Ma'am. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to stand back." A deputy with a dark beard and moustache told her, as he tried his best to keep the prying eyes of inquisitive individuals away from the latest murder.

"Special Agent (Y/f/n) (Y/l/n), FBI. Your captain is expecting me." (Y/n) said, as she flashed him her badge, the man looking embarrassed as he respectfully held up the crime scene tape so that (Y/n) could move under it.

"I'm terribly sorry Special Agent (Y/l/n). The Cap told use that someone from the bureau was coming up to help, but I was expecting something else." The man apologised, as he led her over to where a few men stood talking quietly.

"Don't worry, deputy. I get that a lot." (Y/n) chuckled, knowing that what he really meant was that he was expecting a man.

"I don't mean to offend, miss. It's just that you don't look like the type that would spend their working lives dealing with this kind of thing. I mean, you're far too beautiful to deal with murderers." The deputy told her, (Y/n) not sure whether she should take what he had just said, as a compliment or an insult.

"Believe me deputy, I've seen more things like this than you've had hot dinners. And women these days are allowed to have both brains and beauty." (Y/n) replied, always enjoying the reaction that she got from men that seemed to underestimate her abilities.

"Er........sir." The deputy said, as he came up behind one of the men that were standing over, what was now obviously the body of the latest victim.

"Yeah, Jory. What is it?" The man asked as he and the other two men turned around, all three of them looking (Y/n) up and down as she stood before them.

"This is Special Agent (Y/f/n) (Y/l/n) of the FBI." Jory introduced, the older man stepping forward with a smile as he held out his hand for (Y/n) to shake.

(Y/n) had to admit that there was a rugged handsomeness about the man. His face seemed slightly lived in and was well weathered; but there was something about his dark sandy, almost dirty looking hair and beard, and apparent warm nature, that (Y/n) found quite appealing.

"So, your Special Agent (Y/l/n)? I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised. Your superiors had nothing but praise for you when I asked for them to send someone up to help us with this little mess; in fact they told me that you were one of the best, but I definitely wasn't expecting anything like you. I'm Captain Eddard Stark, but you can call me Ned. And these are my two sons, Detective Robb Stark, and Detective Jon Snow." Ned said, shaking (Y/n)'s hand as she nodded respectfully to the two younger men.

(Y/n) couldn't help but chuckle to herself, she knew the people in the north normally liked to keep things to themselves, that they preferred to take care of their own business if they could, but even this level of nepotism in a local police force was definitely something new; but admittedly not all together surprising.

"Detective Stark, Snow. Pleasure to meet you both." (Y/n) told the two men, as they shook her hand, the pair seemingly as gallant as their father.

"So, what do we have?" (Y/n) asked as, she moved past the men so that she could crouch down next to the body of the latest victim.

The scene was very much like the others from the crime scene photos that she had studied. A great X had been drawn out in the snow, and the victim spread out so that the limbs fit within the X. But unlike the other victims who had had skin removed from their extremities, this latest man was missing the flesh from his entire chest.

(Y/n)'s eyes studied the scene, taking in every detail as if even the tiniest piece of information could be used in the future to help convict the killer. It was obvious from the lack of blood at the scene, that the victim had been flayed somewhere else. That given the amount of flesh removed, the killer had taken their time, slowly and methodically removing the skin while still leaving the muscle underneath perfectly intact.

"The victim is still unidentified at the moment. There were no clothes, no forms of identification, no nothing. Just like the rest of them." Robb told her, as (Y/n) pulled out a pen from her jacket pocket and pushed up the lip of the corpse.

"Yeah. And just like the others, he removed the teeth, and probably the fingerprints too. I'll give this guy one thing; our killer isn't a dummy. He removed all forms of identification, but left the face without a mark on it, which is strange if he wanted to depersonalise the victims. I think that our murderer has a keen grasp of forensics and is trying to make things as difficult as he can for us." (Y/n) mussed, as she stood up and turned to face the three men.

"We need to remove the body, have it taken to the nearest morgue or hospital around here. If pictures haven't been taken, I want them taken now. I want every man you have available, guarding the area so that nothing is disturbed before we can search the tree line at first light. I need you to see if you can drum up some local volunteers so that we can conduct an inch by inch search. I want every leaf, every twig, every goddamn mushroom in those woods turned over. This bastard has to have left us a clue somewhere, and we are going to find it, Ned." (Y/n) said, as Ned indicated for Robb and Jon to carry out the orders.

"Now Captain. What do you say to showing a girl the other bodies?" (Y/n) asked, as she took Ned's arm, and let her lead her away from the scene.