Hello, everyone. And a shout-out to AHowell1993 and Susan for either favoring, following, and/or reviewing Chapter 21. The occasional scenes from episodes of Criminal Minds in this story belong to the writers of Criminal Minds and CBS. No copyright infringement intended.

My apologies if I had made any mistakes but please do enjoy the chapter!

"Happy almost Halloween to you, my wife," Reid greeted Élise with a kiss as she was plating breakfast. Reid greeted her back before kissing the top of Anastasia's head. "And happy almost Halloween to you, my little pumpkin."

"Happy almost Halloween to you, hubby!" Élise kisses him back as she gave him his breakfast plate: two orange and black color pancakes with chocolate syrup and whipped cream that looked like a ghost.

"Oh, how creative," Reid exclaimed as Élise gave Anastasia her breakfast. "And festive for the Halloween season."

"Mmm-hmm," Élise nods her head in agreement before taking a seat next to Reid. "I've always loved Halloween; even more so than Christmas actually."

"Only on Halloween, all order is suspended, and the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily remooooved!" Reid joked as he began tickling Anastasia, causing her to release some giggles.

Élise laughed before asking, "So…what should we be for Halloween?"

Reid replied before eating and swallowing a forklod of pancakes. "We could be Pierre and Marie Curie or Voltaire & Émilie du Châtelet. We could even be Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, the parents of Mary Shelley.

"The author of the Frankenstein classic," Élise noted. "Fascinating choices. All certified geniuses. There's so much to be on Halloween."

"But that's the best thing about Halloween: you get to be anything you want to be for that one day," Reid mentioned before continuing. "Also, did you know the cool thing about Halloween is that it's a uniquely American holiday. I-I mean, despite its obvious origins in the Celtic Festival of Samhain and the Christian All Saints Day, it really is a melting pot of various immigrants' traditions and beliefs. It became a little more commercialized in the 1950s with trick-or-treating, and today it rivals only Christmas in terms of popularity."

"I know. When I was growing up, my mother would call Halloween 'The Devil's Holiday,' but yeah, no doubt you can be anything you want to be and get all the candy you can have., classic Halloween movies and TV special, and last but most certainly the least…Thriller! Thriller night!" They both laughed before the conversation was cut short when Reid's phone vibrated.

"You have a new case?" Élise grabbed their finished plates as he grabbed his bags.

"Yeah," Reid answers as he pours some coffee into his mug. "It involves missing girls in JJ's hometown: East Allegheny, Pennsylvania."

Élise lightly pats his cheeks, "Well, do whatever you can to bring those girls home."

"Okay." He gives Anastasia another kiss before giving Élise another kiss on the lips. "Love you both."

"We love you time pi."

JJ began the meeting as pictures of three girls appeared on the screen, "Last night, three teenage girls went searching for the Tall Man. It's a regional ghost story. According to the survivor recovered this morning, they found him." A picture of one of the girls covered in blood and bruises approached.

"She looks like she went through hell." Alvez remarked before asking, "She say what happened?"

"That would be Ally MacReady," Garcia said. "And according to her, the Tall Man held them and cut them repeatedly."

"That is consistent with the legend," JJ replied. "So, the Tall Man is your classic don't-go-into-the-woods dare. Survive the night, you survive him. He catches you, he cuts you until you reveal your deepest secrets."

"Let's go back to the victims for a second," Simmons suggested before continuing. "Did they sneak out or did their parents know?"

Garcia responded, "They told their parents that they were going to a party, and they actually did."

"Ok, so then off the bat, we have two theories about the unsub. One is that he knew they were planning this." Simmons said.

"Which puts him in the girls' inner circle." Rossi thought.

"Exactly. Or two, he waited in the woods opportunistically. But that strategy only works if he plays the odds right. So how far-reaching is this ghost story?"

"Maybe I can answer that." Garcia stages more pictures. "The story JJ grew up with, it's going to viral, and the Photoshop work is on fleek."

"Tall Man is a story. What happened to these girls is real. The first 24 hours are crucial in an abduction case, and we are not down to 18. Let's move." Prentiss said. As the team gathered their stuff, Reid noticed JJ looked distanced.

"JJ?"

"What?" She snapped out of it.

Reid asked with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Let's move." JJ insisted, ensuring she was fine.

Garcia appeared on the screen as the team was on their way to Pennsylvania, "I'd like to direct your attention to two oddities. Oddity number one is Ally MacReady's medical exam."

"Give us the headline." Prentiss directed as Garcia responded,

"Despite outward appearances, Ally had a sum total of zero wounds on her. So whose blood is on your clothes, you ask? DNA report is not back yet, but typing and matching points to the other girls."

"She could have escaped before the unsub got to her." Prentiss guessed as Tara believes,

"Holding 3 girls takes a lot of control."

"What's oddity number two?" Prentiss questioned.

"That would be a text exchange between Bethany and Chelsea," Garcia answered. "Bethany says to Chelsea, 'What if we do it in the woods tonight?' To which Chelsea responds, 'We'd have to do it fast. Ally can't see us coming."

"Vaguely threatening," Reid responded. "Although Ally didn't say anything like that in her interview."

"Two of the girls had some agenda besides the Tall Man," Rossi said. "We need to see if it played a part in their disappearance."

"Chelsea's dad, Tom, he dated my sister in high school, so I can talk to him." JJ insisted.

"Good. Do that." Prentiss agreed before promising. "We will divide and conquer when we land. We will investigate this as if Bethany and Chelsea are still alive, and we will not sleep until we find them."

After Prentiss put Garcia on speaker, "Go ahead, Garcia,"

"The police recovered all three girls' phones in the woods" Garcia replied. "And you know how teens and myself spend way too much time on our screens? Well, the breakdown on the lab report from the girls' cell phones suggests a surefire way to get us all to stop. Please look at that report on your tablets.

"Fentanyl as in the opioid derivative?" Reid observed.

"Yeah, trace elements were found on all 3 screens," Garcia responded before continuing. "Now, the medical patch it comes in knocks you out instantaneously."

"Wait, hold up." Prentiss said, "Full stop. Let's retrace the girls' timeline. They went to a party, then somehow the unsub manages to get his hands on all 3 of the girls' phones to lace them?"

"He could have been at the party. Simmons presumed.

"But then he'd have to time that out with when they went into the woods." Prentiss thought. "No one's that good. Factor this in now. You're a teenage girl. You keep your cell phone on you at all times. Who would you maybe hand it over to?"

"Your best friend," Tara replied.

"Uh-huh." Prentiss agreed. "I'm starting to think Bethany or Chelsea might be pulling the strings here."

"Whoa, slow down." Rossi slowed down. "All three girls' phones were drugged, and Ally had the other girls' blood on her."

"I'm with Rossi," Alvez said, agreeing with Rossi. "If one of the girls was staging this, she would have had to have knocked herself out and let herself get cut. That's one hell of a gaslight."

"But not an impossible one, especially with a partner." Reid thought.

Simmons included, "Well if that's true, I think we're missing the bigger picture here. Chelsea and Bethany are best friends. Why would one recruit a partner to terrorize the other?"

JJ looks at a sheet, "Ok, it has something to do with this. "Where is it?" That's what Ally heard. So, they're looking for something they lost, something they think the other girl can find."

Prentiss concludes, "I think we need to take another look at their high school, see what we can find."

"I know a guy over there that could help us." JJ proposed.

"Great."

Reid brought Ethan Howard, the new main suspect, and ignored his beseeches. "This is just a horrible mistake, ok? I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, you can't just bring me does JJ Where are you going? Hey, listen. Listen. I didn't do this."

Leaving the room, "I searched his car, his house, and the school. No sign of Bethany."

"Dave, I think he'll respond to your authority. I want you to take the first crack at him." Prentiss suggested before,

"Actually, I'd like to." JJ offers to do so just as she removes her Baby Glock and hands it over to Prentiss, who approves it.

"Ok."

Just as JJ walked in the room,

"Think she'll rip his head off?" Reid whispers in Prentiss' ear.

Prentiss shrugs her shoulders, "I wouldn't blame her if she did."

Reid sees a half-awake Élise on the couch with Anastasia sleeping on her chest, watching something on the television.

"Evening." Élise covered her mouth as she yawned and noticed Reid.

"Good evening, you two." Reid gave Anastasia a kiss on her head before giving Élise a kiss on the lips. Stroking Anastasia's hair, "I'm so glad you're safe and small because I'm so scared for you to grow up." Looking at the television. "Mmm, The Addams Family." Reid realized what they were watching. "Is it the sequel?"

"It's the 1991 original." Élise corrected. "Before the 1993 sequel."

Reid nods his head, "It's a classic Halloween movie."

"Yeah-yeah." Élise agreed before asking. "So, how was the case?"

Reid sighed, "The good news is that we saved the girls. The bad news is that the unsub was someone from JJ sister's past"

"JJ has a sister?"

"Had," Reid replied. "When JJ was eleven, her seventeen-year-old sister, Roslyn, committed suicide. And as it turns out, her sister and the unsub…had, uh…"

"Yeah, I…" Élise got what Reid was trying to tell her, "Yeah. I think I just had a baby barf. Ugh, sucks for JJ having to grow up without her sister. I don't know how I would be had I not had my older brother growing up."

"I'm an only child, but yeah." Reid shakes his head. "At least he's in jail now for the rest of his life."

"Amen to that."

Reid smirked before asking, "Have you given any thoughts about Halloween costumes?"

Élise smiled as she looked at the television screen, "I have an idea."

"Well-well-well," Rossi masquerading as Galileo said as he noticed Reid, Élise, and Anastasia entering the BAU bullpen. "Look at you three."

Reid was clothed in a white button-up shirt, pin-striped suit, a slim black tie, and oxford shoes.

Rossi raises his eyebrows, "Never thought I see the day Dr. Spencer Reid smoking a cigar."

Reid snickers as he tugs on his fake mustache and wig, "It's a fake cigar since I am supposed to be Gomez."

Prentiss as Lady Tremaine playfully growls at Élise, "Don't you look ravishing, Élise? Or should I say Morticia?"

Élise was dressed in an Alexander McQueen gothic-styled gown with long lace sleeves, black Christian Louboutin heels and spotted a long black wig.

"I've always fancied gothic fashion." Élise flips her wig and admired her bright red nails.

"Oh, Anastasia," Garcia as the Fairy Godmother prattled, "Don't you look so cute as little Wednesday!"

Anastasia was attired in a black dress with a white collar and belt with a silver buckle, black tights, and Mary Janes, her hair in two braids, and had a Barbie doll in her hands.

"Aw," JJ, Will, and their two boys masqueraded as the main characters from the Wizard of Oz; showed the team a picture of Morgan, Savannah, and Hank as Aladdin, Jasmine, and Abu. "Look at this!"

"Oh, that's so adorable." Garcia gushed. "I can't wait to see them."

"Well, let's get going." Simmons and his family as characters from the Toy Story movie series. "While the night is still young."

"Amen to that," Élise agreed. "The quicker we get there, the sooner we can dance to Thriller." Élise could hardly contain her excitement.

"You really love Thriller, don't you?" Simmons chuckled.

"Don't insult me, especially when it comes to this man," Élise advises. "Plus, it's not Halloween to me without MJ or Thriller."

"Let's dance the night away, querida," Reid whispers in Élise's ear, causing her to smile and giggle naughtily.