Summary: Something strange happened to Horatio. One-shot for Halloween.

Growling and muttering incoherently Frank fumbled to find his phone in the dark. Someone was persistently trying to talk to him in the middle of the night. After a few seconds he finally found his phone and answered without bothering to look who was calling.

"This had better be good." He growled.

"Frank. There's someone in my house." The voice of Horatio came though from the other end.

"Horatio? What do you mean there is someone there?"

"I can hear someone walking around upstairs."

"Have you called for backup?"

"I couldn't get through. My phone's been weird all day." Horatio was talking quietly.

"You have your gun right?"

"Yeah." There was a silence for a moment, "I think it's only one person."

"And they're just walking around?"

"Yeah... wait it stopped." Horatio whispered, "I'm going to check it out."

"Don't do anything stupid. Stay where you are." Frank said.

He could hear his friend breathing through the phone. He knew Horatio was walking up the stairs now because he was so focused on what could be waiting upstairs that he didn't bother to answer Frank.

"H? Wait for backup... Horatio?"

Frank sighed and waited. Waited for something to happen. Horatio was no short of enemies so maybe someone had decided to break in to the Lieutenant's home and kill him. He hoped not. Frank hoped it was just some punk that would be scared shitless when they were faced with Horatio and his gun.

"Horatio?"

"Almost there."

Frank held his breath. He heard his friend take a deep breath.

Thud

Something fell. Frank and could no longer hear Horatio breathing.

"Horatio?" He asked, "H? Are you there?"

Silence met his ears. Nothing but absolute silence. Frank checked that he hadn't accidentally hung up, but he was still on the phone with Horatio.

"Horatio? Answer me!" Frank demanded.

A scream ripped through the phone and Frank quickly pulled it away from his ear. He held it in his hand and his blood went cold. The screaming continued. It was very obviously a male scream and it was a painful scream.

"Horatio! Answer me dammit!" Frank yelled.

The screaming didn't stop. Didn't even change pitch. Just continued and at times it seemed to be getting louder.

"Horatio!" Frank yelled, "Are you there?!"

Click

Frank stared at his phone. Someone had hung up. It wasn't him. He tried calling Horatio, but couldn't get through. His hands were sweating and his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He called the police and the team. He didn't say much to them, just that they had to get to Horatio's house immediately.

Frank got dressed quickly and got inside his car. In minutes he was speeding down the road to Horatio's house. Something was wrong; very wrong. He couldn't get that scream out of his head. It had sounded like it could come from Horatio. But it was a weird scream. Never changed the pitch, it had been the same flat tone throughout the whole thing.

As he arrived at the house he could see a few uniformed officers waiting outside the door for him. He pulled out his gun and stood with them outside the door, ready to burst inside any moment. From the outside they couldn't see anything as all the curtains were drawn to cover the windows. Just as Frank kicked the door in the team pulled up. Immediately everyone recoiled at the sight that met them.

The house was lit up, every lamp turned on and the walls were painted with blood. As they searched the house they found blood in every room, every wall and all the floors. They found Horatio's gun on the ground and impact marks on the hallway wall. But every piece of furniture was still standing and seemed untouched except for the blood stains covering them.

"What the hell happened in here Frank?" Eric asked, shocked and his face pale.

"Where is H?" Ryan asked, equally shocked.

Frank didn't know what to say. His friend was gone and there was enough blood in the house to assume he had none left in his body.

"Search the beach and nearby surroundings." Calleigh ordered the officers.

"Frank, what happened on the phone?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know." Frank said, still unable to believe what he was seeing.

Calleigh was about to say something when blood dropped on her clothes. She looked up and saw the ceiling painted with blood as well. She felt the urge to throw up.

Walter and Natalia came down from the upstairs floor, both looking pale and scared.

"Anything?" Calleigh asked.

"Bloody razorblades all over the place." Natalia said, "No sign of H."

They all wondered what could have happened to their boss. As they searched the house more thoroughly they found razorblades all over the house, covered with blood. Handprints and footprints in blood. Horatio's phone lay crushed in the bedroom. Horatio's gun was found untouched and with all the bullets still in it.

They swabbed everything for trace and DNA, as well as photographed the whole house; but couldn't make sense of anything that they were seeing. There was no way that anyone could have done this much in the few minutes it had taken for the police to show up. In fact, it had taken less than four minutes for the first squad car to pull up outside the house.

"Let's wrap things up and get back to the lab." Calleigh said, as the first rays of sunlight started coming through the windows.

"Look at this, H has a camera in the hallway." Walter said.

"Perfect! It might show us what happened." Calleigh said.

What none of them said to each other as they were leaving was that as soon as they stepped outside it felt like a terrible weight on their shoulders had lifted as if they were safe. Something in the house had made them all feel fear and agony when they were inside.

-I-

In the afternoon the team were gathered in the video lab to watch the tape from the surveillance camera in Horatio's hallway. Lab analysis during the day had confirmed that all the blood in the house seemed to belong to Horatio. They could find no other DNA in the blood they had collected and they had collected a lot of blood. Neither could they find any other hand- or footprints than Horatio's own.

"Are we ready?" Walter asked.

They all had a feeling that watching the tape would only cause the case to become even more mysterious than it already was. They all had a bad feeling about it. Something scared them to the core.

"We have to be." Eric whispered.

"Remember, this camera doesn't record sound." Walter said.

Walter hit play and they watched in silence.

It seemed normal at first. They started the tape moments after Horatio had been seen going to bed. The clock on the tape read almost midnight and all was quiet. It continued that way for several minutes.

Then Horatio appeared in the doorway between his bedroom and the hallway. He was listening for something. Looking up as if the sound came from upstairs. He disappeared back into the bedroom, only to reappear seconds later with his gun and his phone against his ear. They could make out enough by reading his lips to understand that Horatio was talking to Frank. He carefully approached the stairs and raised his gun in front of him. He took the first step up the stair, the second, the third...

As he climbed the stairs he disappeared out of sight. Seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. Another few seconds.

A scream ripped through the room and made the team jump. The camera wasn't supposed to records sounds, but they heard the scream loud and clear. It was just like Frank had described it. Flat tone, male scream and it went on for a few minutes. Then again... silence.

"I thought you said the camera didn't records sounds." Ryan said, his face white as a sheet of paper.

"It doesn't!" Walter exclaimed, "I have no explanation for what just happened."

Horatio came down the stairs. His gun missing. His phone missing too. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and stood there for a few seconds. Time seemed to stand still as he didn't move a muscle.

Suddenly Horatio threw himself at the wall. Over and over again. His head and body smashed against it and yet he seemed unhurt. After doing it over and over for almost twenty times he stopped. Horatio pulled out something from his pocked and turned it around in his hands.

A razorblade.

Without hesitation he cut himself across the arm. Then the other arm. His chest. His face. Laughing as he played with his blood and picked up a new razorblade. He slashed across his body and seemed not to notice the pain.

Horatio started walking around the house, cutting, laughing, smearing his blood on the walls. He continued switching razorblades and with every switch came bolder cuts and more blood. His eyes were closed and his mouth smiling as he ran upstairs. He was gone for several seconds, then came running downstairs again. He kept running into the rooms and cutting himself. His clothes became bloodier and bloodier.

Suddenly he stopped. Stood still and dropped the blade. The team noticed the fact that the blood on the walls, floor and roofs seemed to be expanding even though Horatio wasn't cutting himself anymore. The blood was spreading out over every surface and it just wasn't possible... the CSI's in them knew that it just couldn't be possible...

Then suddenly Horatio looked into the camera and the team's blood ran cold and the whole team wanted to look away, but couldn't.

The usually blue eyes were black as coal and looked straight at them. An eerie smile spread across his face. As he kept getting closer and closer to the camera he started saying something.

As he came very close they could make out the words just before the black coal eyes stared straight into the camera lens.

"You'll never see him again".

Then within a millisecond Horatio was gone and the team watched as Frank kicked down the door.

"What the hell did we just watch?" Ryan asked.

They were all shaken and no one could answer. They had no answer and the mystery remained. Where was Horatio? What had happened to him?

-I-

Try as he might Frank could not sleep. He couldn't find peace of mind. Had he really watched his best friend go mad on film today? He wasn't sure what to believe and he felt that the team would never get the answers they were looking for.

Frank tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in, but after a few minutes he was ready to give up. He had an uneasy feeling. He was frightened. For probably the first time in his life he was truly afraid.

As he closed his eyes and tried to force his mind to think of anything except what had happened today; he heard a thud.

His eyes flew open.

Thud

Frank sat up in his bed and grabbed his gun. He listened... he heard nothing but the sound of his breathing. But he knew that thud had been no illusion.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone started ringing. He had it on vibrate and grabbed it quickly as not to alert whoever was in his house.

His heart nearly stopped as he read the display.

Horatio

It couldn't be. His phone was lying crushed to bits in the evidence storage.

Horatio

Frank rubbed his eyes, but the name on the display remained.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Don't go upstairs."

"Horatio?"

"Don't go upstairs."

The phone clicked and Frank looked at the display. He knew it was Horatio's voice. He had heard it loud and clear.

As he put the phone down he heard another thud and then... footsteps. Something walking across the floor upstairs.

Frank swallowed and cocked his gun.

Don't go upstairs

Happy Halloween!

Author's note: If you're wondering what really happened to Horatio... well, we'll never know. Nobody knows...