Author's Note: I got this idea when I was reading a variety of SuperMind fics, so if this sounds familiar it is totally unintentional and I will give you credit for your work and try to apologize in every language I know (and I know "I'm sorry" in about 7 different languages at this point in time. Though I'm not sure I can spell them all correctly…)

Reid (and probably everyone else) is totally OOC, but as much as I love the genius I can't seem to get him right. So, please do enjoy this fic.

Darkness Never Goes Away

I woke up early that morning to get to work, 6:30 or so to make it in time for my 9:00 clock in. I had to leave the apartment by 8:30 or I'd be late, or I'd be suspected I was on drugs again. I wasn't, well not exactly; it wasn't even my fault to begin with.

Oh my manners, I completely forgot to tell you my name. I'm Dr. Spencer Reid, FBI profiler and a secret confidential agent against the "things that go bump at night."

Now why would an agent of the FBI, who sees serial killers most days of his life, believe in mythical creatures that kill people at night? Because I've been trained to fight them since I was small. I've lived in a world where if you weren't teaching the mind you were teaching muscles. Plus, why else would anyone want to learn to speak, read and write Latin?

There are others out there that do much more good in the department of fighting the shadows then me, but I do what I can. What usually happens is that I go and tell Bobby about a supernatural sighting I find in JJ's files and get someone to go there before the agency does. More times than not I steal the file, putting it back if it turns out to be a dead end.

The Winchester brothers are another reason why people call me a genius, they (more often times than not) would call me up in the middle of the night for a bible passage, to get some research done (which is ten times easier now with Garcia around), or a new pair of eyes on their scenes. I've seen way too much darkness in my life, but I've been able to live through it.

Maybe that's why I couldn't care less that I was doing my morning training drills and detoxing on demon blood. I'm use to crazy being part of my life, and I'll be damned if it miraculously changes now. Personally I think the Winchester luck has rubbed off on me, luckily not on the field of my day job. But the adrenaline rush of the last hunt is coming back, attempting to keep the substance away. I've heard from Sam what happens to the body when it happens, worse than the dilaudid that I got off of.

Now why am I detoxing demon blood? Well because that sulfuric bastard just didn't know when to quit when I was fighting one during hand to hand combat a couple of nights ago. I managed to cut its arm before she flipped me on my back. A couple of blood droplets fell into my mouth. No big deal right?

You try saying that when you're trapped in Bobby's panic room.

Sam and Dean said most of it was out of my system and that I could go back to work whenever I wanted to. I was just lucky that we didn't have a case or else it would be suspicious that I randomly took time off for R&R when I could have booked it off two weeks ago.

They owe me big time for this one; it was too close to home for me not to join them. But everything was pointing to shape shifter; we packed tons of silver for it. Which in retrospect wasn't a bad idea, just for the wrong reasons. I was lucky that I keep my angel blade that the boys gave me in my boot at all times, or I would surely be killed.

Morning drills, shower, coffee, and getting dressed; I quickly looked at the time. 8:15. Sweet, I guess it's time to leave; now which book shall I bring with me? Dante, which should indulge me for the day. I grabbed my bag, quickly checking over the permanent objects. Salt? Check. Blessed object? Check. Blessed Metal? Check. Dead man's Blood? Check. Clip of silver bullets for my gun? Check. Iron Knuckles? Check. Okay that should be everything; now for their hiding spots in my bag, good.

I left my apartment behind, double checking salt lines and walking to the subway station. As much as I trust the Winchester's judgement I don't think I should drive to work today. The ride was boring, the only source of entertainment being my book that I had already read. Having a memory like mine, I could already cite a translation of the words on the pages without having to look at them. When I reached my stop I left to venture through the crowd around me. Withdrawal symptoms were already coming back.

Today was going to be a long day.

I arrived to work around 9:02 which by normal people standards would be fine, my friends? Not a chance.

"Hey there Pretty Boy. Where have you been for the past two days?" Morgan's flare began. I had to hide my smile to that; after living in a hell hole for two days normalcy was appreciated.

"I thought I caught the pertussis infection. It comes from the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. It mainly occurs in smaller kids but I never got immunized when I was a kid so I figured it could be that."

"Wait, why didn't you get immunized?" JJ asked.

"Well because of my mom's condition. She doesn't like doctors. Anyway I thought I had a cold last week but it got worse. My cough became dry and I was having coughing fits lasting as long as 1 minute and 23 seconds. Not to mention the vomiting. I didn't want Henry or even Jack to get it because it is highly contagious."

"Thanks Reid." JJ said.

Hotchner's head came out of his office. "We have a case." He said, jerking his head toward the bullpen.

"It never last long." Prentiss commented.

"Are you okay Reid? Rossi asked complete concern plastered on his face. Leaking down from his highbrow, and pouring out of his voice.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Your hands are shaking."

"Oh, well I guess I'm nervous because I still might have a bit of the infection. I don't want to be the reason Henry or Jack get sick."

Rossi nodded as we entered the bullpen. Only the two of us went to quickly grab a coffee before the briefing on another mundane case.

"This is the first victim in Durham, North Carolina. Her name was Khadija Burham. She was found dead in her backyard from what looks like a wild animal attack. The coroner has yet to determine if the animal or other causes were what killed her."

"It says here that sulfur was found around the house?" Prentiss asked.

"Yes, all the scenes have sulfur somewhere in the area."

"What about the second victim?" I asked, trying and hoping to keep my mind away from the supernatural. I needed to keep my friend safe from the creatures that go bump. Plus there wasn't enough evidence.

"Second victim Ajay Trueman was found in his basement with multiple serrations and stab wound all over his body." JJ continued.

"It says here that his left ring finger was missing, was the man married?"

JJ, along with the rest of the team looked at me weirdly. "I don't see how him being married would be any reason to cut off his ring finger." Hotch question. I gulped; I really need to be more careful with my wording.

"Not if he was, but wasn't. In some medieval cultures they removed said finger as torture to show to participant what it is they are losing. After the torture is over the participant would lose his life."

"Well then he fit the bill sweet cheeks, that man was single. Not even a girlfriend from what I have gathered." Garcia answered, perky as always.

"And the last victim John Pierce was found in a bathroom of his hotel room. He was visiting from Virginia. The sulfur in his room was found on the bed" JJ finished.

"How was he killed?" Morgan asked.

"It says here he died from his throat being lit." Rossi said.

"This unsub is all over the map with method but besides the sulfur the scenes are very clean." Morgan stated.

"I'm with Morgan, Hotch. They have to have done this before." Prentiss agreed.

"Were there any animal hairs in Khadija's backyard? It says here that she didn't have any pets so they didn't have to worry about unknown or foreign DNA."

"Not a trace, why Reid?" Rossi asked.

"That seems too clean for me. How can someone pick up small hairs on an animal they don't know is shedding?"

"Reid's right. It's like it's a ghost is committing these murders." If only they knew. "Wheels up in 30. Oh and Garcia, you're coming with us. They've been having electrical failures and I don't want to lose contact with you."

"Yes sir."

Electrical failures, animal-like and painful death? This is like a demon picking up some souls, a very likely possibility.

Everyone started to leave the bullpen to grab their go-bag. I quickly stopped Garcia before she left. "I need to look at something. So far no one has been able to connect the victims. I can't see the victimlogy either, but I was wondering if you could."

"Anything specific genius?"

"Could you see if any miracle-like events happened to them in the past 10 years?"

"That's a tall order Doctor."

I rolled my eyes. "You love a challenge."

"Touché"

"Okay let's start with victimlogy, any ideas?" Rossi began, trying to start them on a biggest problem.

"There's no real overlap in their history. All of them come from same different types of families; poor and middle class. Nothing overlaps. None of them were even born in the same area; all of them expect Khadija moved to where they live now." Prentiss pressed.

"That's where you are wrong. I looked into that thing you asked me to Reid, I haven't checked Mr. Peirce's records yet but almost ten years to the exact date of their murders the other two had tremendous luck. Ajay miraculously was cured of cancer, he was told he was going to die in three months and there was nothing they could do. He didn't even get treatment, just bam instantly cured. Khadija had won an extensive amount of money in three casinos in Vegas, that's how she went from poor to rich." Garcia reported. "I will still check John's records but that's what I have right now."

Hotch nodded to her and looked at me. "Why did you assume this Reid?"

I looked at my team in disbelief; I just wanted to make sure this wasn't there field of work before moving solely on the supernatural route. Even this didn't help much, I just needed to make sure no one else had made deals in town and we could leave. Plus salt and burning the bodies would also be nice. "I figured it was something personal, the over kill on the second victim proved that. But the last one seemed rushed; it would take approximately 15 minutes for any animal to mutilate a body like Ms. Burham and the over kill of Trueman's body suggests at least 20 minutes were placed in effort for his death." I took a breathe to look around the room. "I figured it wouldn't be something we would normally look for, that seemed to be a good idea. It wasn't like I was dead certain but it was a good possibility."

The team looked convinced as we continued to discuss the case when suddenly my phone went off. After looking at the name on the screen I looked up at the team. "I need to take this." Hotch nodded as Morgan shifted to get a better hearing radius on my call, even Prentiss was trying to eavesdrop. "Guys, a little privacy?" I heard Rossi laugh and the group continued to talk.

"Hello? This is Dr. Reid."

"Damn you're working?" Sam's voice bounced into my ear.

"Yeah, can I help you?"

"I think we found something in North Carolina, Cas says that there's an abnormally high death rate in some of the northern towns."

"That's a quite interesting book. Do you mind if I borrow it?"

"Wow, you're team must be close by. Where are you guys heading anyway? We could use you're help with this." Dean's voice in the background grunted. "Yeah right Dean, we don't even know how to get into the archive without having some alarm bells ringing. We need his help."

"Well I'm going to be in Durham if you want to drop it off. I'll text you the hotel we'll be staying at." I saw Hotchner look over at the talk of our hotel. "When I have time off of course."

"Okay so you're going to be in North Carolina. This is just getting worse; do you think you could find a way to leave your case?"

"I'll see if we can meet up instead, I'll ask my boss. One second." I removed my phone from my face, placing my hand over the speaker. "Hotch, do you think I can have a couple hours off to talk to my friends. There heading our way and I haven't seen them since college."

"I don't think that will be a problem, when do you think they'll be in?"

"I'll ask." I quickly place the phone back on my ear. "How fast can you get here?"

"Since we are already on our way? I'd say two hours." A mini conversion in the back ground. "Dean says two hours at most, he's trying to beat his record for one and a half." I laughed at that. Of course he was.

"Hotch, they say about two hours."

"Okay after we check out the crime scenes you can go."

"Thanks." I turned back to the phone. "I'm good to go. When and where?"

"I'll text you all the questions we want to ask the families, and a diner close to your hotel. Text us that."

"You got it." I close the phone and quickly texted them the address of the hotel. A few seconds later I received their questions and went to sit down.

"Okay we are about to land so Prentiss and I will go check out the crime scenes and Reid and Rossi should talk to the victims loved ones. Morgan you go to the coroner's office to see if he has finished the first victims report. JJ try and keep the media out of this as much as possible. I don't want this to leak, I feel like this is one of the things we should keep to ourselves." I had to force back the smile of that last comment. You don't even know.

We arrived to the first crime scene where Khadija's parents were waiting outside her house, tear stained faces. Rossi and I walked over to them when I heard the obnoxious dog barking.

"How long has the dog been barking like that?" I looked over at the CSI agent.

"Khadija always said that the dog never barked, maybe once or twice when it was scared but not like this." Her mother answered, not knowing the question was not for her.

"I'm sorry madam, my partner here Dr. Reid was talking to the agent over-looking the evidence. My name is Agent Rossi and we are from the Behaviour Analysis Unit, we would like to ask you some questions."

"Of course sir, we'll help in any way that we can." The man replied.

"That's great, let's go somewhere we can talk." The parents walked towards the porch bench, Rossi followed looked over at an agent.

"Can we get some chairs?" I asked, walking over and leaning on the railing. Looking down on the parent, I rummaged through my brain. Which questions should I start with? "Sir, did you know if Khadija had any enemies?"

The man shook his head. "Everyone loved her, often gave her money to borrow if she needed it. Awfully strange though, no one wanted to associate with her until ten years ago."

"After she won that money?" Rossi asked.

"No about a month before." The mother interjected. "It was her friend Sally that convinced her to go to Las Vegas."

"Do you have Sally's information?" Rossi asked. "Might be helpful is we talked to some of her close friends."

"We don't have it, but she kept all her contacts in her phone." Her mother answered

"Was she acting paranoid lately, double checking her surrounding? Frightened maybe?"

"No Agent Reid, she didn't. Though we haven't talked to her in about a month." Her father sobbed. "Who could do this?"

"Someone sadistic." Or not even human.

"Does Khadija have a home security system or video cameras?" I quickly asked before Rossi left.

"Yeah, we checked the tapes but all we got was snow. The electrical failure affected her system."

"That is probably how the unsub got in."

"Thank you for your time. Here's my card if you have anything to add." I quickly dismissed them.

"You sure you're okay Reid? You seem different than usual."

"I've never felt better." I lied, rushing past him so he couldn't completely profile me. What I forgot was that we had to go to the other families together.