Thanks! My next post most likely won't be until eight p.m. tomorrow.
Chapter Eight:
Thompson:
Cole and I sat in the conference room. Neither of us said anything. We had theories, but nothing we wanted to share. What we had seen defied description. There truly were no words.
Esper came in first, wearing a new shirt and blazer, followed by Reid and Morris.
"We had a knights of the round table-themed birthday party in the old conference room, for Rosemary Simmons," Reid said. "We made up our own knights for ourselves as we didn't want to play boys."
Everything in the room was in colors of gray and beige. The square table was beige with gray chairs around it. I wondered what Reid was describing looked like.
"The was some impressive BSing Agent Reid," Morris said when everyone was seated.
"Excuse me?" she said.
"The idea that arrows were experimental tranquilizers, and how the Italians used modernized cyanide pills to commit suicide to explain how they went ridged when they died. You did a magnificent job convincing the Director there was a logical explanation for everything."
"Sir, what are you getting at?"
"Don't play games with me Doctor Reid! I knew from the beginning something was off about your motivations. Tell me the truth!"
"Flint," Esper said.
"No, I demand an explanation for what Thompson and Cole saw. For what scrambled the surveillance footage in the hallway. I demand answers!"
Cole and I exchanged uneasy looks. Both of were wondering what we were doing as witnesses of Reid's takedown.
"I'm not sure you're prepared to believe what I have to say," she said as she looked at the table.
"Diana," Esper said gently. "Is your father and the BAU trapped in some sort of the Hell dimension? The one you dream of?"
"What answer would you believe?" she asked.
Morris slammed his fist on the table. "Honest Answers!"
No one had seen Morris this angry, ever. I wondered what was bothering him so much.
Reid looked like she was on the verge of tears. Cole reached for her hand.
"You're not leaving until I get what I want from you, Reid," Morris said.
Reid refused to look anyone the eye as she limply held Cole's hand.
"Penelope Garcia is shot at. Mathew Simmons is beaten with a baseball bat. Luke Alvez is forced to watch his dog get tortured and Penelope bleed out. Aaron Hotchner is stabbed with a knife. Alex Blake chained and beaten. David Rossi's face is sliced off. J.J. is electrocuted and waterboarded. Emily Prentiss is tattooed and stabbed with a chair leg. Lewis bleeding out in a ditch. My dad getting injected with drugs, coughing blood, being beaten by figures in prison garb, bleeding out from different gunshot wounds, and having seizures. How does an eight-year-old dream of that?"
Esper looked at her. "When did you start believing your parents might be alive?"
"I wrote, backwards so my grandfather couldn't read it, late into the night. I Googled evil in different cultures. By ten I made the conclusion, that my parents might be alive."
"If your dad is being tortured," Morris said. "What about the non-BAU agents?"
"I think they are trapped in limbo," Reid said. "I never talk to my mother. But father pleads with me to find a way to save him."
"How much of what has been published about your exploits is true?" Cole asked.
"Factually everything is correct," she said. "The incident England involved a monster who took on the identity of a man to abduct children. The smuggler in Thailand was a shapeshifter demon. The Mexican border incident involved a possessive spirit. The Native American story is related to a beast."
"Is there a difference between a demon and a spirit and a monster?" I asked.
"That's a complicated question. For a specialist in the occult, yes, but for the lay person, no. Monster, demons, and spirits are all things that go bump in the night."
"What were the Italians?" Morris asked.
"The Italians were sent to kill me. The explosion was a ruse to get to me. Bello was a garden-variety 'bad person,' but his death at my hands, sent ripples through the universe."
"Homeland security is investigating now," Morris said and checked his phone. "They found the prints of the men who attacked you and Esper at the scene."
"So, case closed," Esper said.
"There's still motive, but they seem to think it is related the church Bello was involved in," he said.
Morris turned to Reid.
"Diana, I know I sound like I'm being harsh. The thing is, I don't know how to protect you from what you're hiding from us. How did you come the conclusion the BAU is being tortured?"
"I was an inquisitive child. I asked him if bad people hurt him. I asked him if the bad people were gone. He said nothing is truly gone, so long as there are people to remember the deeds. When I was eighteen in Japan, I learned a means of self-hypnosis. I was able to go back in time, to when I was seven, and listen to a conversation my father was having over the phone. He was talking about how a cult was invoking the names of Foyet, Hankel, Adams, and Doyle, among others, to imprison them in Hell. They were hoping their plan to save me, so that I might one day save them, would work."
"Those names ring bells," Esper said.
"Everything related the BAU has been redacted. All I knew, was that at eight, what I was dreaming was real and happening in a different dimension."
"Would you mind walking us through what you did today?" I asked.
"Speaking in a pre-Latin language, I was able to control the energy of the arrows and undo the damage. The agents did commit suicide, I had nothing to do with that."
"Can you perform…magic?" Cole asked.
"I can perform magic in the sense that I can say all the right words in right state of mind. I can harness the energy. But to produce something from nothing is another story. There is no such thing as a real stage magician. You have to believe in something more powerful than yourself and giving of one's self. In the dark arts, it often requires your soul."
"So how do we help?" Morris asked.
"My plan was to be a member of the BAU for more than forty-eight hours before introducing you to the concept of how the past BAU might be in a Hell dimension I wanted help to rescue them from."
"Here's what we're going to do," Morris said. "We're going to cooperate with the current investigation. I'm scheduling you for a psych eval tomorrow, not because I don't believe you, but just to cover myself. If everyone is agreeable to it, I'd like for everyone arrive an hour early, every day to work the BAU case. Is everyone on board?"
I nodded. Cole nodded and patted Reid's hand. Esper rubbed Reid's shoulder.
"Would you like invoke a unity spell?" he asked.
"There are too many people around right now to interrupt or overhear it," Reid said. "Tomorrow morning."
"That's fine."
"May I be excused for a moment?" Reid asked weakly.
"Meet with Esper to go over witness testimony in an hour," he said.
"Thank you," she said.
Reid shakily stood up and rushed out of the room.
"I'll follow," Cole said and got up.
The women left the room.
Morris sighed.
"I know you two think I was being harsh on her. I needed to hear everything. We needed to hear it. We're going to be a stronger team now. We're all on the same page. We're going to save the BAU."
"Do you really believe they can be saved?" I asked.
Morris looked at me. "Do you?"
I thought for a moment. Of the conviction in Reid's eyes. The things she described that no kid could possible dream up. The forcefulness of her tone. Everything was leading to one conclusion.
"Yes, yes I do."