He wonders what she tastes like.
Kylo wonders how she would taste under his tongue in the throes of ecstasy, their bodies moving as one. He also wonders what her fear would look like, what she would look like in the throes of terror. As of recently, his mind has been very occupied with Detective Rey Kenobi and what she might be up to at any given moment; he especially wonders what her reaction has been to his letter. It must've disgusted her moral self, yes. But is she piqued? Or just horrified? He has to admit, he would be disappointed if it was just the latter, because Rey looks like someone who must be regularly in touch with her dark side. It would be a pretence to think otherwise, especially with the job she holds. If she's any good at it, she has to be able to look into the abyss and she has to do it voluntarily.
The internet doesn't yield as much information on Rey as he would want. He knows her name, place of work and her few friends on judging by some of the Facebook pictures. She's not very active on the platform - is it due to work or is she just a recluse? Her LinkedIn doesn't yield much either - there's stuff about where she went to school (a quaint high school in the UK), her college education (studied at the University of Coruscant for her Bachelor's), Quantico, and her current place of work. He could make some calls if he wanted to, but school administrations aren't as lenient with divulging private info as they used to before. There's another place listed on it.
Maz's Cantina.
That's a place his dad used to visit quite a bit, and Maz knows him well too. He can't take the direct approach to find things about her. Maybe a few visits to the cantina, some story about how I saw her and just want to know her name? He'll have to work some bullshit up, use some of his charms to get her maternal side to open up and tell him more. He can't reveal the info he gets in the letters he sends her later either. No, he has to save that for when they meet; when he has her all to himself. Those hazel eyes of hers have consumed him since he first saw them. What would her hair feel like in his fingers? He bets it's soft and silky - I would love to pull on it till she screams my name; her pink lips, hot against his neck as she runs her nails down his back, scratching him like a lioness. She's his soulmate - of course, she'd like it rough. Maybe, before he claims her as his forever, they could share a moment like this? He would like that.
Right now, there are more pressing matters to attend to.
His parents are planning to come to town today, and it's been three weeks since he last went on the prowl; his patience is running thin. I'll just have to stick it out until the end of the visit. It's not like they will stick around for long anyway - his dad will want to go visit his old buddy Lando and his mom is dying to have tea and brunch with Ben's godmother. They'll eventually leave him to his own, but he will have to pick his window very specifically, sometime later than usual. After the two go to bed. He doesn't want to field any calls in the middle of his hunt. He glances at the clock, the hour hand inching closer to noon - they'll be here in about an hour, which gives him plenty of time to cook up the meal he planned for the three of them. The fridge had been stocked the day before, and he pulls out the required ingredients and lines them up neatly on the counter, readying the various pots and pans he is going to need for this endeavour.
The pasta has been put in the oven to finish baking for that final touch, and Ben takes a quick shower to clean up before his parents arrive. The doorbell rings just as the sauce finishes cooking, and his mom takes an appreciative sniff before her small frame wraps him in a hug. His father is next, giving him a gruff hello as he slaps his shoulder and gives him a side hug. The three of them settle down with glasses of wine in the living room, and Leia fills him in on what he's missed back home. "... and grandpa Ben will be visiting us soon!"
"Grandpa Ben?"
"Ben Kenobi," his father says lightly as he drains his glass, moving to refill it. The information clicks in his head and realisation dawns on him like a lightning strike. "Does Grandpa Ben have any relatives in town?" he asks the two of them, just to be sure. There's no way they aren't related - Kenobi is a highly uncommon surname, and he's irked that it didn't dawn on him until now. "Or is he just visiting us?"
"He's got a granddaughter, remember?" his mother chimes in. Ben Kenobi worked for the French Foreign Legion for a long time before joining the MI6, frequently teamed up with fellow Legionnaire and Ben's biological grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. "The poor dear had been lost a while in the UK foster system before Ben found her. Rey's her name, and she's much like her grandfather." The two men were key to the Allied war effort and were the best of friends for a long time until Grandpa Ani's communications with KGB Chief Palpatine were leaked. The man was executed for treason, leaving behind a very pregnant widowed Queen Padmé of Monaco who abdicated and moved to the US. Ben Kenobi wasn't heard from much again. "She's got her hands full with this whole serial killer spree."
"Your mother feels visiting your godmother would be good for her," his dad says after another sip as he leans back. "Not that Amilyn needs it, Han - the woman has nerves of steel," Leia replies, "but even she must be stretched thin with this spate of killings." He is curious about how the director is dealing with his latest work. "How is she doing, mom?" he asks, adopting an air of nonchalance.
"Oh Benji, just ploughing through. She and the investigative teams' hands are full, and Chandrila PD and the other departments are trying their best, but this guy is elusive. There isn't any security footage of him or any concrete visual evidence, and he leaves no DNA at the scene."
"He sure is one meticulous son of a bitch," his father adds, glowering. Glad to know his perfectionist behaviour is paying off. "To think of girls like Rey, just being picked up off the street by a monster and tortured mercilessly." You aren't the only one thinking of girls like Rey, dad. The rest of the night passes in idle chatter with his parents, them recanting their visit to a winery in Napa Valley earlier in the week, and eventually, the two leave to visit their friends. "There's a sabacc game Lando owes me," his father chuckles as his mother hails their town car, letting his godmother know of her imminent arrival. Once the two have departed for the rest of the day ("do take a break from work later, son," his father had said as he left), so he's pretty much free to do whatever. But really, there's only one thing - or rather just one person - he wants to do right now. Now that his parents have confirmed the FBI agent's identity, there are quite a few things he knows of her from the past. Not as much as he wishes he knew, but plenty for a start. It's been a week and he hasn't heard from her, but he will. Soon.
He knows Rey Kenobi has a very strong righteous streak, for one. That woman will go to any lengths to achieve justice for what she's set out to do, no matter how it takes a toll on her. She's working herself to the bone for me, he muses, and I don't like it one bit. I don't want my baby to have wrinkles because of me. But it's not like he's forcing her to do this - he just wants to do his own thing, and Rey can ask to be taken off the case anytime she wants; only she's like a dog with a bone once she sets her mind to it, and he can't deny that it turns him on. Kylo spends the rest of his time daydreaming about his fierce and lovely soulmate, how the blood must be rushing through her neck in a furious torrent as she works the letter, trying to find anything she can lift off it - saliva, sweat, prints, a paper trail. He doesn't want to make it easy for though - what's the fun in that? If she wants him, she'll have to work for it.
Eventually, night comes, and he gets an early text from his parents saying that they're turning in for the night at Uncle Chewie's, so he's officially free to go out to hunt without his parents interrupting him. Once he's retrieved the kit from a well-hidden hatch in the floorboards, he loads the duffel bag under his seat and keeps the rope handy in a modified compartment he learnt to make from the time that his father was a casual drug runner. He's idly drumming on the steering wheel as he takes a leisurely drive past the Kloss forests and into a city a couple of miles away, thinking of possible hunting grounds. Like Coruscant, Bakerstown has a bustling student and young adult population but unlike it, Bakerstown is a college town. Which means pretty girls pulling all forms of all-nighters all over town. The possibilities are endless for him, but he needs to pick a place where he will go largely unnoticed. As the bass thumps through his car window, he decides to go down the lane of frat houses and picks one where the party seems to be just picking up. The lights are dimmed at Alpha Sigma Pi, and judging by the glow sticks and the traffic cone coloured wristbands, the theme for this bacchanalian fest is neon. Most of the frat guys and girls are too busy with themselves, but there are a few girls knocking back drinks alone; one drunken girl makes her way past him and maybe it's just the lighting, but he sees a flash of Rey in her.
He makes her way up to her, easing his stance and rolling his shoulder before tapping her on the back; the girl flashes him a blinding drunken smile - she's probably high too, judging by the way her pupils are all blown out. " Maybe I'm crazy, I know you're danger," she sidles up to him, running a hand across his chest, slurring the lyrics a little, "baby, you could be the death of me." Oh, how right she is. The music is playing at full volume, and no one hears the two of them break away from the main crowd as she pulls him to a closet near the service entrance. They make out for a while, and every time her lips lock with his, he imagines that it's Rey's strong fingers carding through his hair, slowly pulling him apart. She's slowly losing consciousness, so he takes the moment to whisk the girl out of the service entrance and into his car, buckling her in as he drives deeper into Bakerstown, looking for a fairly secluded spot. The old hydraulics lab here is abandoned, he remembers from an old field trip as a child, and it is located pretty close to the creek, not that I have any intention of hiding my artwork away. As the cold air nips at the slight girl's frame, she seems to be gaining consciousness and is fully awake by the time he has her well tied up.
There's not enough light from the night sky, so he puts the headlights at the lowest setting so he can have a good look at the girl, who seems to slowly get a grip of the situation she's in. Now that he can see her better, she's no match for Rey. She's too meek, too scared with not enough fire, and her eyes aren't the right shade of hazel. The only thing she resembles is Rey's general build, facial structure and hair colour, and he can't believe he wasted a part of his affection on her. Maybe it's time to give my darling a proper present. One that his Rey will know is from him. Maybe he'll leave a masked 911 call from a payphone? Or maybe one from a prepaid burner number he picked off the street from a junkie. He's gotta make sure she gets her present - after all, he's put so much effort into it. As he makes the drive back to Coruscant, the same song he heard at the frat party plays on the radio, a smile creeping up Kylo's face as he hums along.
"Maybe I'm crazy, I know you're danger, baby you could be the death of me."
She's decided it's just easier for her to set up camp in the office breakroom.
It saves the trouble of coming back every time a possible lead pops up in her head, plus there's a steady supply of coffee and a fairly comfy couch she can sleep on. "Rey, you've gotta get some shut-eye," Poe beseeches her as she waves him away with a flit of her hand. "I will, sure, yeah huh," she mumbles while calculating the possible postal routes this letter could have taken. "Do you think this letter could have originated from a college dorm, just in case we're wrong?"
"The killer could be a non-traditional student," Finn adds in support of her theory, "plus, Coruscant U is massive, so it's not like he couldn't be hiding there in plain sight." There is precedent for killers to use college campuses as both hunting grounds and shelter. Still, they don't have the time or the power (as of now) to go knocking on every dorm door without raising an alarm or resulting in another death. "Any progress on that traffic footage?" she asks Mitaka, who shakes his head ruefully.
"Cyber is trying to sharpen the image for details on the plate, and we've asked Chandrila's TARU to find us as much footage as they can of the same make and model of black cars."
She knows Chandrila PD is torn on releasing the details of what they think is the vehicle, but Rey feels like erring on the side of caution will buy them more time. Finn, Poe and Mitaka agree, but Hux does not seem to be on the same page. "Hux hasn't gone rogue yet?"
"Pretty sure Poe threatened to have his connections in 1PP strip him of his command if he decided to leak stuff before we've mutually decided on it," Finn smirks. "Besides, they're too swamped with the tip line, since every crackhead and conspiracy theorist has decided that this is their time to shine. I'm so glad Holdo didn't authorise us to man the FBI tip line because good god."
"Don't thank your stars just yet," Tallie walks in with a fairly thick folder, dropping it on Finn's desk, whose face immediately morphs into ire. "This is what the crackheads who called us left, and Holdo wants you to go through 'em."
"She does not." At that, Tallie cracks a grin.
"She doesn't, but one of you has to take this one, and since Mitaka is tied up with car footage and Rey is dealing with that psycho letter, you and Dameron are the only candidates." Finn shoots Poe a puppy look, one that Rey is all too familiar with, and she looks up from her postal route mess to watch these two men haggle wordlessly. Eventually, Finn wins out, offering his boyfriend a kiss as he shoved the files in his hands. "You owe me dinner, Finnegan," Poe grumbles. This day ends later uneventfully and Rey decides to take Poe's advice and goes home. Dottie is sitting there at the door in greeting, eyes as round as the moon as she meows indignantly about her lack of pets. "I know, little lady, you are neglected by mother and want to run away," Rey coos, picking up the feline and bouncing her till the kitty starts to purr contentedly. Hopefully, there won't be a letter this time I get back to work. But if she's being honest with herself, she wants there to be another. Maybe this time he'll be more reckless with his "gift" this time and she'll find something significant to work with since Forensics got nada from the previous one.
The next day when she returns, things seem like usual, but something feels off. It shouldn't be calm like this right now. He has to have been agitated with her lack of response if they've profiled him right. He cannot be at peace with the lack of attention he's getting. "No calls?" she asks Mitaka, who shakes his head. A few minutes later, Poe and Finn come in and the four go back to investigating their prior leads, but Rey can't shake the feeling off. Something has happened or is about to happen, she can feel it in her bones. There's no word until lunch, and she tries to ease the feeling of discomfort by chalking it up to the cooling period. Compared to the pattern, he shouldn't strike for a week or more. Yeah. He's a meticulous and orderly one. He won't stray from the pattern. At the same time, he hasn't written love letters to any of the other officers investigating him, either, so things are changing.
She takes a brief break at her desk after lunch, scrolling through reddit and tumblr before getting back to narrowing down the place of origin of the letter. The phone rings, and she puts the receiver between her shoulder and ear as she shuffles the papers around. "Agent Kenobi, FBI."
"Agent Kenobi, this is Detective Pava. We've found another body."
"We will be on our way immediately." The other three look at her with a knowing look as they holster their service weapons and Mitaka calls CSU, the four of them heading to their vehicles. Detective Pava said the body was in a forest near an abandoned academic building in Bakerstown, the rock in Rey's stomach from the morning now sinking like an icy anchor. She knew something was wrong. CSU is on the scene by the time they are, Kaydel running to get photographs while Rose gets an intern to cordon off the scene as quickly as they can. "I got an anonymous tip and called you as soon as we ensured it was legitimate," Pava says as she leads her to the body, where Connix is standing, face ashen. The signature marks are there, and there seems to be a lower level of torture than the previous body, but the letter 'I' has been carved next to where her heart was ripped out from. Kaydel has been on the job for a while and dealt with worse scenes than this one, so she doesn't understand why the tech looks shocked until she points it out.
"Rey, she looks like you."