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My first own Mentalist story. I haven't watched a lot of episodes yet so I'm sorry if the reactions doesn't fit to the characters that much but I just had to write about Red John. I hope my description of him fits to his image but however, it's just what I imagine about Red John (I'm sorry for character deaths but I always like the bad guys more than the good ones^^). Please review!

Chapter 1

It was dark and after midnight when Jane came home from work. He opened his door and closed it again behind him. It was silent in his house, as usual. He went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. He took his time and washed the dished until he finally climbed up the staircase and walked down the corridor. His steps got faster when there was a piece of paper pinned on the door in front of him. He remembered a similar scene over six years ago. He remembered reading his message before seeing what he had done to his family. He got nervous and stopped in front of the door.

Dear Jane,

We haven't seen for such a long time now and I think you might have forgotten me already. Therefore I wanted to give you a little gift for remembering me. Maybe you would like to consider hunting me again. It will be fun, I promise. I also do promise you that every week you don't find me, people you like are going to die. As we both know that you're no psychic and have never been, you have no idea who is the one behind the door. I can only tell you that it was very hard to kill this person and that she was a real fighter. Have fun.

RD

Jane didn't want to open this door and do it all over again. It was a woman. He thought about Lisbon and nearly fell inside the room as he opened the door too strongly. He directly looked into the huge grin of the smiley, bloody and it was obviously Red John's logo, no doubt. Jane didn't breathe and looked down on the floor. A woman was lying there but it was not Lisbon.

Jane ran and fell down toward her. 'Van Pelt' he muttered and wiped away a strand of her red hair from her face. 'No' Jane muttered and looked up at the big, smiling, red face. Right under it, there was a second note.

PS: Just as a hint: I start with your team.

PPS: You can end the killing with killing me, killing yourself (which would not be fun at all) or moving abroad and never returning to Sacramento, your nice boss Teresa or the American continent. Good luck.

Jane read the note in disbelief. He just couldn't think that Red John was doing this. It was not his type but somehow, Jane didn't doubt that it was a fake. It was Red John, for sure.

But after Jane had been hunting him for over six years, Red John turned it upside down and no it was Jane who was hunted.

'Jane, this is no good sign' Lisbon said when she stared at the huge smiley on the wall.

'And it really took you so long to get to this?' Jane asked lost in his thoughts.

He inspected the team's reaction. He himself had all lived through this once before and that time, it had been even harder, his wife and his child. Now Van Pelt, a member of his team. He didn't know her for so long, he didn't love her so much. It wasn't the same but the only thing he could describe this situation for himself was 'touching'.

He looked at Rigsby who just stared at her dead body. He didn't move and nobody told him to. They avoided to ask him something or to make him do something. Cho reacted like always, but even with fewer words than usual. He took along the order of his boss and did it. It was too silent. Nobody spoke except for when it was really necessary.

When the investigation came to an end, the pathologists carried away the body.

'I'm off then' Jane said and wanted to go.

'Hey, where are you going?' Lisbon asked.

'Red John told me to leave the country if I do not want more deaths.'

'You have one more week time. He said that only one per week is going to die' Cho mentioned neutrally.

'You can't go' Lisbon said surprised and angrily. 'You have to hunt him down. We have a murder case to solve.'

'This murder case has been open for over six years now. Just because he started sending me messages again doesn't mean it's close to being solved.'

'Are you giving up that easily?'

'Yes' Jane answered and walked downstairs to pack his things.

He really wanted to go abroad. He didn't want anybody to die because of him. He had underestimated Red John six years ago and he would never do this mistake anymore again. Already three people were dead because of him. Van Pelt even possessed traces of rape. He couldn't allow anybody else to die in her way. There was too much blood on his floor upstairs, too much blood on his own hands. He wouldn't allow anybody to get killed because of him.

He had to go and do whatever this psychopathic and perverse murderer wanted from him.

Lisbon entered the room.

'You could have knocked' Jane muttered without looking at her.

'Why are you deciding so spontaneous to flee from him? You never did that.'

'Look what he did to Van Pelt.'

'He also murdered your family.'

'I know' he said still searching some things together.

'Jane, why are you leaving? We will find him. As long as it takes.'

'This may be. But without me.'

'Jane!'

'Lisbon!' Jane said loudly and finally turned around. 'I don't want anyone to die because of me. I should leave Red John this triumph and that's it. Lisbon, understand, I'm tired from seeing what he does to my surrounding. I have no idea why he suddenly came on the idea to hunt me after I've been hunting him since the killing on my wife.'

There was a short silence.

'But I know' Lisbon muttered silently.

'What?' Jane asked with short breath.

'There was a killing, about two days ago' Lisbon started to explain without looking into Jane's blue eyes. 'We knew it was Red John and on a press conference we told that we were close to catch him. He felt so near because we knew he was back and we knew that he wouldn't escape a second time that easily.'

'What did you say? Why didn't I know?' Jane asked astonished about the fact that he hasn't had a single clue about this.

'We told that we would catch him. And I think he is punishing you for my arrogance to tell that we're close to arrest him.'

Jane thought for a while. 'No, when you say something bad about him or something he doesn't like, he kills people close to you. He killed Van Pelt because she was working for you. But why in my house, why does he send me the threatening?' Jane asked confused.

Lisbon looked at the floor. She couldn't tell him. 'I think he has been observing me for a while.'

'Who? Red John?'

She nodded. 'I felt like having paranoia. But I think I wasn't crazy, he must have been observing me' she confessed whispering.

How much has he found out?, she wondered. Did Red John know what she really felt toward Jane? Was this the reason why he was punishing him instead of her? Was she supposed to feel guilty now? She watched Jane packing his luggage and closing the trunk.

Without a single word he went past her and left the room. Lisbon stood there for a while and thought about him. Was Red John going to kill him anyway?

Lisbon was wakened up from her thoughts by Cho who knocked on the door. 'Can we go?' he asked.

They were ready with the investigation. Lisbon turned around.

'Where's Jane?' Cho asked when he realized that he wasn't in the room anymore.

'Gone' Lisbon explained and left the bedroom. She had never been able to prevent anything Jane was doing.

But this time she felt more responsible than ever. She couldn't watch him leaving the country.

She couldn't watch him running into Red John's spread and welcoming arms.

Please review as it's my first Mentalist story (the crossover Mentalist/ NCIS which you can find on my profile, is written by Sabrina5312: I wrote Target I (NCIS) in English and she translated it into German; she wrote Target II (NCIS/Mentalist) in German and I translated the first chapters into English and Dark Lemony and I will translate the other chapters when we have time; so if you're interested into Mentalist you should also read Target II (and I) and the other Mentalist stories of Sabrina5312^^)

;)