This will be short-I promise. Probably about three chapters in total. Sorry I've been so absent, I'm in the middle of exams.
Love You to Death.
"Four women, two weeks, all in the same neighbourhood." Penelope Garcia told her colleagues as they sat, like knights, around the circular table in the conference room. "All black haired, brown eyed beauties between the ages of thirty and thirty-five, like our own magnificent and astounding Emily Prentiss, right here."
"Garcia," Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner stated Penelope's surname vehemently in order to bring her wandering, hyperactive mind back to the task at hand. The briefing.
"Sorry," Penelope nodded in Hotch's direction before turning back to the screen. This earned a chuckle from Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan, as he sat back in his chair. "Each woman was kidnapped and killed within six hours, leaving approximately four hours between the abduction time and the disposal time for our UnSub to cut their hair, change their clothes and shoot them just underneath their new do, between the back of their head and the top of their neck."
"The cervicis." Doctor Spencer Reid said nonchalantly, earning an eye-roll from Derek Morgan and a impassive "Yeah. That." From Penelope.
"Why are we only being called in now?" David Rossi, the wise knight of the BAU asked, his voice tinged with annoyance.
"Because," Penelope clicked a button on her remote and a picture of a letter popped up on the screen. "The Police Department thought they had it under control… Until they received this." She pointed to the screen. "Seven women will die on Valentine's Day this year and every Valentine's Day after, unless you can catch me. Love is blind and lovers cannot see, the pretty follies that themselves commit. For if they could, Cupid himself would blush. Happy Valentine's Day. -Eros." Penelope read the letter aloud, articulating the words as best she could without faltering.
"He's quoting Shakespeare while simultaneously putting himself in the position of the Greek God of Love." Spencer's brow furrowed. "He's being ironic."
"How?" Cadet Ashley Seaver asked, reading through the notes again.
"Well, the quote from Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice' is said by Jessica who is explaining how we are blinded by love and cannot see the flaws of the person we are in love with until it is too late, yet, she still runs away with the man she is in love with, betrays her father and eh-e-even changes her religion for him. When our UnSub signs it as Eros he is saying that he has the power to control love, therefore insinuating that he does not believe in the flaws of love. Eros' parents were said to be Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and Ares, the God of war. Now, that's irony in itself. I-In order to find him we're going to have to think in ironic terms, ideas… He even signs off the letter with irony by saying 'Happy Valentine's Day'. Also, these women-although they look similar-are probably randomly picked, simply for the reason that Eros, or Cupid as he's more commonly known, was said to be notorious for being capricious and his arrows struck somewhat random targets." Spencer took a breath and finished with a nod.
"Right," Ashley said, raising her eyebrows. "Sorry I asked."
"Get used to it kid," David chortled. "He does that a lot."
"Do what?" Spencer asked, his brow furrowing.
"Nothing." Hotch said, sternly. Putting an end to the conversation. "Reid, you're saying that our UnSub could be choosing these women randomly, while concurrently choosing them for their look."
"Well, what's interesting about that," Spencer started again, sitting forward. "I-I-Is that these women possess a strikingly similar appearance to what we believe the Greek Goddess, Chaos, to look like. Now, Chaos was the woman that Eros supposedly had an affair with, even though he already had two children by another woman, Psyche. Actually, there's a wonderful story about-"
"Reid," Hotch eyed the twenty-eight-year-old genius.
"Right, sorry." Spencer gave Hotch an apologetic look before turning his attention back to the images in his hands.
"The bodies were dumped about a mile from where they abducted." Penelope stated. "But, unfortunately, the sites where the women were taken from are miles away from each other. Alex Williams was abducted from the park just across from her home, Rachel French was abducted from the parking lot of her local mall, Layla Nell was abducted from her front yard and Allison Michaels was abducted from outside a hair salon."
"And no one saw anything?" Ashley asked, incredulously.
"Either no one saw anything, or no one's talking." Penelope shrugged. "Either way, put on your Sunday clothes, dollies, because we're fighting dragons in our own backyard this week."
"Great," Emily Prentiss said acerbically. "There's nothing like profiling a woman-killing psychopath on Valentine's Day, to restore your faith in love."
Ten points if you can figure out what's going to happen.
On a side note, if any of you have Twitter, tomorrow is Paget's (Emily Prentiss) last day on Criminal Minds, so we're changing out icons to a picture of her to show her our support.