Gideon was retelling the Footpath Killer case to the visiting students.
The students had come to help unpack Gideon's supplies from the academy. It hadn't taken long to unpack. There was just a few minor case files and his photographs. These students were happy to help, especially because Gideon always explained the story behind each photograph.
Not gonna lie, I was listening in from the hallway. Some of these stories were really impressive. A lot of them stories had Rossi guest starring. Gideon made the other profiler sound like a modern Sherlock Holmes.
Still. As they finished the unpacking, the students talked him to the big one.
"Weren't you a little worried he might just shoot you?" One of them asked, enraptured in Gideon's story.
"I was a lot worried." Gideon admitted.
"But...how did you find him?" Another student wondered.
"I was just stopping for gas. I walked into that store and saw pieces of a profile that I had given Virginia PD almost a year ago." Gideon revealed. He was toying with a broken off piece of a Rubik's Cube. "Truck in disrepair, disheveled young man, severe stutter. James Reese once said 'there are certain clues at a crime scene which by their very nature do not lend themselves at being collected or examined'. How does one collect love, rage, hatred, fear? These are things that we're trained to look for."
"So anyone else would have just seen a guy who stutters, but you saw the footpath killer." The female student summarized.
"Right. But sometimes these guys are still found by just dumb luck. Berkowitz was caught because of a parking ticket." Gideon explained.
There was a small silence after. 'Right. I'm...Elle now. Or, I've taken Elle's role. Her lines are my lines.'
"Except the officer who arrested him wasn't staring down a shotgun like you were." I spoke up for the first time.
The students whirled around to me in surprise. I put on a warm smile for their sakes. This seemed to steady their nerves.
Gideon smiles warmly, honestly. "This is true." He looked to the students. "This is also a good time to stop."
The students got their few belongings together. I stepped to the side of the door, letting them all out. Once they were cleared I peeked inside.
"Okay, I'm curious." I admitted, sitting across from Gideon. "Why'd he stutter?" I asked.
"You're on your way to becoming part of the Behavior Analysis team now, Megan. You tell me." Gideon challenged.
'Damn, he dropped a badass line. I like it.'
After a brief pause for that thought, I followed behind Gideon into the bullpen.
He quickly moved some chess pieces beside Reid's desk. "Check. Checkmate three moves." He remarked to Reid. Then he went off.
The super genius gaped at the board. "What..."
"You had him on the ropes, Reid." I assured, leaning against the railing above. And they both knew my assurance was a lie.
Derek folded up his newspaper. "You know you'll beat him when you start learning."
"Learning what?" Reid asked in exasperation.
"To think outside the box." Derek supplied.
I went over to my desk. There still wasn't a lot of personal touches to it yet. The most was a bright red pen to the side of my keyboard.
"Question for you." I called out to Derek.
"Shoot."
"The footpath killer, do you know why he stuttered?" I asked.
"Come on, Megan, we've all asked him, and he won't say." Derek admitted. "He wants us to figure it out."
"So is it like some training exercise?" I asked. JJ walked by at that moment, a beeline for Hotch's office. "Or is it just...him being him?"
Derek snorted. "Not telling."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Fine. I can take a challenge."
'My whole life is a challenge. What's one more?'
"BAU team, can you meet me in the conference room, please?" Hotch ordered. "I need to show you something.
We followed after him.
==BAP==
The Team had gathered in the conference room.
And I was losing. My. Mind.
Wasn't this everyone's dream? To be surrounded by their favorite characters? This was bound to be boring after awhile, I'm going to enjoy it while I can. I'm twenty-five, I'm allowed some fun.
"This is from the Phoenix office, Bradshaw College in Tempe, six fires in seven months." Hotch began.
I started leafing through the case file.
"Who recorded it?" Gideon asked.
"A student with a digital camcorder." JJ picked up the remote. "He was watching a fire in the building across from their dorm. The other person you'll see is his roommate, twenty year old Matthew Rowland."
The video played. I gave it my full attention.
"This is crazy. Hey, Mac, get over here. You gotta see this. The building's on fire."
"Bro, you getting this?"
"Is that the kid?" Gideon asked.
"Yeah, that's him." Hotch replied.
"Relax, man. There's always fires during rush week. Yeah, but that's pretty big."
"What building is that?
"Dude, over here. Check this out."
"What is it?"
"I don't know, but it's coming underneath the door."
"Is someone in the hallway?"
"Hey, someone's trying to get in.
"Hey, man, you should get away from there."
"Oh, my god! It smells like gas."
Then, Matthew was lit on fire. I winced as I had noticed the triple fires, doing so again at the triple door knob turn. When Matthew was on fire I went back to the case file.
"Oh, god! God! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Put me out! Oh, my god! Oh, god! Help!"
==BAP==
Not much long after, we were mid flight. Reid was playing chess in his seat. Derek was working on a spreadsheet for the dates. Gideon was reading the casefile in his hands. Hotch was doing the same.
I was lying on the couch, working on my Plan for the day. The Plan I'd written ages ago had to be changed when Elle wasn't around anymore. There was so much that was going to be changed. I had to keep a tight focus, or else I'll be at risk for messing up everything.
To be honest, overthinking it was a good stress relief. The overthinking lead me to coming up with solutions. Coming up with solutions made me feel relaxed for when they'd come up.
"There are two common stressors for a serial arsonist." Reid mused.
"Loss of job, loss of love." I replied, offhandedly.
"When was the first fire set?" Derek asked
"March, then another in May, the third was September, and two weeks after that there were these three." I reported, not even glancing at the report. Most of these cases I had memorized before doing my math homework back Home.
"He's speeding up. Fire's are closer together." Gideon noted.
"Hey, Reid, you got a statistic on arsonists?" Derek asked over his shoulder.
"Eighty-two percent are white males between seventeen and twenty-seven. Female arsonists are far less likely, their motive typically being revenge." Reid lifted off.
"Sounds like our boy's a student." Derek reasoned.
"Don't be so sure. You rely too much on precedent, you never allow for the unexpected." Gideon advised. "If he went from setting one fire to three in two weeks' time..."
"Rapid escalation." I recalled from my classes, hesitating to blush when I realized I took Hotch's line again. 'Focus, Quinn, focus!'
"He's gone from the power to damage a building to something far more satisfying. The power over life and death." Gideon explained. "Who we talking to first?"
"Dean of students, Ellen Turner." Hotch answered.
I was relieved I hadn't stolen that line. It would've been awkward.
==BAP==
We arrived at the college. Gideon ran out of the car like it was on fire, speaking to us in rapidfire.
"No badges. I don't want to satisfy the UNSUB's need for attention by letting him know he got the FBI here. Try not to look official." He glanced at us, standing at the top of the stairs. "Try to look less official."
We all paused, looking at each other. I immediately took off my jacket. Holding it in my elbow, I followed after Gideon.
Barely ten minutes later, the team was walking with Dean Turner and Fire Inspector Zhang.
"Obviously, I'd rather be meeting you under different circumstances." Dean Turner admitted as we rushed down a walkway. "This is Fire Inspector Zhang."
The man continued walking, not waiting for any further introduction. "This morning the chemistry department reported several bottles of highly flammable chemicals missing."
Gideon and Hotch opened the doors for us. "I'm prepared to evacuate this campus." Dean Turner nodded at the two superior agents. "Thank you."
"That brings with it its own problems." Hotch warned.
"You might evacuate the arsonist as well." Gideon explained.
"Then the case goes unsolved, the campus is reopened, but the fires start up again." I continued.
"Hotch, Gideon, hold on a second. You said the chemicals were missing today." Derek asked them. Zhang nodded. Derek turned to us in concern. "It says here that one of the previous fires was set with diesel fuel that disappeared from the grounds keeping facility. How long after it disappeared was the fire set?"
"One day." Dean Turner voiced.
Gideon and Hotch walked away from the group.
"If he's holding to a pattern." Gideon reasoned.
"Who's to say the next fire won't be today?" Hotch added.
After a moment, the rest of us followed after them.
==BAP==
When Hotch and Reid came back from the first crime scene, I was with Zhang.
"He turned the water off just before the fire. The last three were set with these. Two devices, simultaneous ignition." Zhang reported. He showed me the devices used for the kindling.
"There was no device used on Matthew Rowland." Gideon remarked. "UNSUB set that one manually?"
"He wanted to be there to enjoy the kid's death." Derek answered.
"Not necessarily." Hotch argued.
"Well, if the target was Matthew Rowland, then why set the other two fires?" I asked.
"The motives for arson are relatively simple. There's vandalism, crime concealment, political statement, profit-" Reid listed.
"And revenge." Hotch finished.
"We interviewed Matthew Rowland's roommate. He said Matthew was very well-liked. No reason for revenge." Zhang countered.
"What about vandalism?" Dean Turner asked.
"No. The fires are too sophisticated, and if he's trying to make a political statement, he's not being too clear about it." I explained.
"There's an underlying strategy in this case." Gideon spoke up. "Matthew, firefighters, injured victims. To the unsub, they're not people. They're..."
"They're objects." Hotch stated.
Gideon shook his head. "More like, Uh..."
"Chess pieces." Reid stated.
The elder Profiler stared up at Reid, as if surprised by the analysis. "Exactly."
==BAP==
Not long after, Derek went off to the building for his own investigations. Reid and I were back in the office. I'd made myself some hot chocolate, and Reid a cup of coffee flavored sugar.
"The timer sets the road flare, which then lights the chemical mixture inside the canister. Simple." I explained to Reid, boasting at what knowledge I had on this subject.
"Yet sophisticated in its simplicity." Reid agreed. "I mean, there's a meticulous construction to it."
'You know those conversations you have with friends, that makes you wonder if you're both murderers? This was one of those conversations.'
Pulling my mind out from that, I went back to the lines from the show. It'd be pointless to focus on my own inner psychopath. "Chemical accelerant probably means chemistry student."
"Could also mean chemistry professor." Reid countered.
"Nope. I say student. You need self-confidence to lecture in front of a classroom full of thirty college kids." I took a long gulp of my hog chocolate. "Arsonists are socially incompetent. They don't go on dates. They don't go to parties. They don't feel comfortable in front of groups."
Reid looked...uncomfortable by my analysis.
It took me a second to realize why. "And, ya know, not that we're like that. At all. You or me. We wouldn't...we wouldn't do that. We're not total psychopaths." I realized I was babbling, clapping my lips shut.
The moment could've ended there, with my complete humiliation. Thank God that Reid gave an assuringly sweet smile. "Course." Then went back to his coffee.
That smile left me blushing until the next fire.
==BAP==
When the next fire started, I slapped myself in the face for forgetting. I ran to the building.
'You shouldn't feel bad.' A voice that didn't feel like my conscious spoke up. 'Elle wasn't near that burning building. You didn't need to be there.'
A man died.
'You didn't.'
That doesn't make it right.
'Doesn't make it wrong either.'
When I arrived, Gideon and Derek had just come off the stairs. I stared at their soot covered shirts, the lost look on Gideon's face, feeling my own contort to match.
Hotchner came up to my side. He pushed a camera in my hand. "He might be here watching."
"Yeah." I agreed, numbly.
"Take pictures- as many as you can." Hotch ordered. He went off to go help the others.
I nodded, holding up my camera. As I took the pictures of the crowd, I searched for Clara. Although I knew it was pointless. She was too clinical in her murders to stick around.
We were still going to stop her. Even if I had to be the one to do it.
==BAP==
That night, long after the sun had set, I walked into Dean Turner's office. Gideon had returned from the hospital straight to her office. According to Derek, Gideon had a clean bill of physical health.
The door was open. I could hear them talking about Professor Wallace. My heart ached in sorrow at his loss.
'Come on, you're ginger. You're supposed to be an uncaring soulless she demon!'
That was a human life. Shut up.
'One of these days, you'll be glad for our talks.'
"Gideon, we've got police and security interviewing everyone in that building." I reported.
The senior profiler nodded at me. He looked over to Dean Turner. "How long will it take to finish evacuating the campus?"
"This is a college of ten thousand students and faculty." Dean Turner reminded him.
I winced. "Sir, there's another problem with evacuating."
"You mean, we might accelerate the unsub's timeline." Gideon voiced my thoughts. It relaxed me that he said that. He rose up from Dean Turner's couch. "Let's round everybody up."
The two of us walked out, fast. We walked past Jeremy. I glanced back at the kid, wondering how much of his solution came from him and how much came from Clara.
==BAP==
"We've been at this all night, and we've got nothin'." Derek remarked. He dropped the photos in his hand on the table.
No one disagreed.
"Look at these expressions. We got fear, a touch of horror, even a little bit of panic. Where's the guy gettin' off?" Derek asked.
"When asked about his motives, Peter Dinsdale said, 'I am devoted to fire. Fire is my master'." Reid reported.
"Okay, so who was our boy's master? Ten thousand plus students...and one has a serious fascination with fire." Derek thought out loud.
Gideon and Hotch had nothing to add. Their expressions were zoned out, minds hundreds of miles away as they thought of the profile.
"For some reason, our unsub isn't fitting the usual profile of a serial arsonist." I reported, hoping I was sticking with the script. I didn't want to know what would happen if I changed too much. "So far, they're meeting certain requirements. Fire starting is one-third of the homicidal triad. Though, it's too soon to tell if s-they have the other two: bedwetting and cruelty to animals."
"Absent or abusive father, trouble with the opposite sex, chronic low self-esteem- MO would be dynamic." Gideon picked up where I left off. "Evolvings, fire setting escalates, they thrive on panic, fear. It's just the standard profile of a serial arsonist."
"Based on hundreds of interviews." Reid added.
"Based on precedent." Derek added too.
"Everything the unsub should be, according to research." I finished.
The five of us sat in silence for a long pause.
"We're off the mark." Hotch voiced what we all were thinking.
"Because of the two missing elements." Gideon asked.
"Sex and power- the two motives that drive a serial arsonist." Derek answered.
"And without 'em, we do not have a profile." Gideon stated, with a tone of finality.
Oh, how I wanted to tell them why.
==BAP==
After our failed brainstorming sessions, Dean Turner informed us of the science department kids' theory.
Hotch, Reid, and myself went to see if it had any basis. Or, rather, to see what facts it would give to the profile.
Reid was looking at the science equipment. My attention was drawn to the other bits of lab tech. My engineer heart was bursting in my chest at it all. My college didn't have nearly as much cool stuff...not until I built it anyway. It's hard to use a microscope made of broken glass and duct tape.
Hotch came up by Reid's side. I was entranced by one of the machines.
"Reid. Since you're more their age, why don't you do the talking?" Hotch informed.
Reid's head shot up much like a startled meerkat. I thought it was cute. He glanced nervously over to the other kids, looking over to the science club. He took along a lightbulb, one that Zhang had brought to help the kids explain.
"Ahem. Hi- hi, guys. Uh, my name's, uh, Dr. Spencer Reid." He introduced himself. I winced in sympathy for him. "I'm a, uh, agent with the- the BAU, the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI, which, um, it used to be called the BSU, the Behavioral Science Unit, but not anymore." Reid rambled.
I winced, running my hand along the microscope. My eyes couldn't help going to Clara, though. She sat in her chair, looking as though she'd never be caught.
She must've felt my eyes. I looked away before she could turn her head.
"They changed it to the BAU. Um, it's part of the NCAVC, the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime which is also part of this thing called the CIRG, the Critical Incident Response Group, and-" Reid rambled on.
Oh now I had to save him. I moved up to his side.
"And that's Reid way of saying we'd love for your help." I interrupted.
Jeremy walked up. He motioned to the light bulb Reid was holding. "May I, please?"
Reid gave it to him.
"Thank you." Jeremy held it up for us to observe. "See this? Drill a hole in the side, fill it with gasoline or whatever's good and flammable. Turn the light on. Boom." He finished with a confident voice. "That is what went down, didn't it?"
"The stuff's all over the net." Clara jumped in. It took a lot in me not to tense when she spoke. "Wanna know how to make a molotov cocktail that sets itself on fire? Potassium, sulfur...and normal sugar. Sugar- sugar, which is-"
"Not exactly plutonium." Jeremy interrupted her. "You could get this stuff anywhere."
"Sugar from the supermarket." Clara spat out, as if the words had the control rather than her. She was turning her ring on her finger as well.
It caught Hotch's attention. "But you don't need to be a chem major to know that." Hotch voiced, observing Clara from the corner of his eye.
"Do you think it's a chem student?" Zhang asked Jeremy.
"You wanna know what I think? I think-" He held the lightbulb up to his head. 'Not sure if I should laugh, or smack him for the joke' He pushed the lightbulb against Reid's chest. "-it would be a good time to take the semester off."
As soon as it was done, my fellow agents left for the elevator. Jeremy went along with us. Zhang stayed with the girls to walk them to their dorms.
It answered my question of where he'd been in the elevator scene.
Hotch reached for a button on the elevator.
"Hold on." Jeremy stuck in his key. He turned it, then the elevator began moving. "You need a key to get it movin' after ten pm." He informed us.
"So what are you still doin' here?" Hotch asked.
"I can't leave. We got projects." Jeremy explained. He looked at the three of us, skeptical. "You know hot to solve the three body problem?"
"Computing the mutual gravitational interaction between the earth, sun and moon." I reported. Hotch and Jeremy looked at me in surprise. I let myself blush.
Back when I was in college, I was in a science club. One of the other kids was working on this problem around our second year. He came to me for venting sessions when the problem just didn't make sense.
"An...old friend of mine tried it. Think he's still going at it." I smiled reassuringly at Jeremy. "You'll do great on it, though. You all really smart kids."
Then Jeremy grinned, and I knew it was a real small that time.
==BAP==
'Charown. I do this for Charown.'
It was morning now. Penelope had given us the sound byte of the call. The five of us were back in our conference room, ready to work after a night's rest.
"Play it again." Gideon asked Derek.
"The call came from the office right next to Wallace's five minutes before the fire was started." Derek reported.
Gideon didn't care for that, not right now. "Play it again." Gideon asked.
Derek did so.
'Charown. I do this for Charown.'
"Again, louder." Gideon instructed.
That time, Derek just turned the speaker around so it was facing Gideon. He moved it closer to the profiler as well.
'Charown. I do this for Charown.'
"What is it?" Hotch asked, impatient.
I was too. After so many times hearing it on TV, and another three right now? This was getting repetitive.
Gideon shook his head, unsure. "I'm not sure. Somethin' about it."
"Is this tape clean?" Hotch asked Penelope
"I can put it through some audio filters." Penelope stated.
"Look, we need as close to the real voice as you can get, and anything that might be in the background. Can you do it?" Derek asked.
"Ok, you know how on Star Trek when Captain Kirk asks McCoy to do something totally impossible, and McCoy says, 'damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker?'" Penelope explained.
"Hey, what are you tellin' me, not to expect a miracle?" Derek teased.
I smiled at the two of them, hiding it behind my hand.
"No, I'm saying I'm not a doctor." Penelope teased back.
"That's my girl." Derek praised. She hung up.
"We need to compile a list of all the women on campus with the first name Karen." Hotch decided.
"...it's not 'Karen'." I spoke loud enough to be heard. The words flew out of my mouth, because they had to be spoken. I couldn't let them be this wrong.
The other Profilers paused. If I didn't know better, I'd say the actors were reacting to my getting the line wrong. But I did know better. There was no real reason for them to react like this, except dramatic tension.
The pressure got to me. I gulped down my nerves, fidgeting with my hands. "I did a lot of theology/mythology classes in my first year of college. They're saying they did it for Charown. Charown is..." I let the sentence drag on. My anxiety got the better of me.
"It's God's word in anger." Gideon finished. He seemed to like my train of thought. I breathed a little easier knowing that.
"Yeah." Reid and I agreed.
"The motive is now religious?" Derek asked.
"Well, you know, in a lot of religions, God is related to fire." Reid added.
"Well, brahman is fire in hinduism, and the Jews see God as a pillar of fire, and Christians worship God as a consuming fire." Hotch toyed with the idea.
Still, in my mind I wanted to correct it. I'd already done too much with my Charown line. Why if my next spoiler ruined something? "Okay, so we could start looking for a theology major. Maybe he's punishing the other students for their sins. What-what's the most sinful place on campus?"
"Come on, Megan. When I was in college, that was everywhere." Derek chided me.
I felt better for it. Letting out a relieved breath, I went back to the lines I remembered best. "Yeah but can we...pick the big ones?"
"A fraternity?" Hotch tried.
"What about the idea of baptism by fire?" Derek spit-balled. "Aren't we all supposed to be tested through fire in Revelations?"
"Well technically yeah, but...no." I shook my head. Oh, where had that confidence earlier gone?
"Look, it's good, it's good, but let's please do not jump to conclusions. Religion might be a part of it, but it's not necessarily the prime compulsion." Gideon reminded us.
"Gideon, rush to conclusions, jump to conclusions. Who cares?" Derek asked. "We're running out of time."
But behind us, I heard Reid mutter about compulsions.
You know, it actually got a bit easier to breath.
Who knows, we might actually stop Clara before she gets to the science students.
'You and I both know there's not a chance of that happening.'
==BAP==
I hate when I'm right.
Even with the religious aspect of the profile, they couldn't put it together. Dean Turner had announced the evacuation. The other profilers left the room to clear their heads. They wandered around campus.
I went to our hotel room.
Then I raged.
(Not really a rage. I just threw a lot of pillows and screamed into them. Picture of mental health, I am.)
When I'd finished yelling, I went over my own notes from this episode. Was there anything else I could do? Would I have to deliver the idea to Reid on an aged scroll? It was looking like it!
There came a point, when the morning changed to afternoon, that Hotch called me back to campus. The guys were going to regroup in the conference room. He was bringing me back if I had something to offer.
I threw my pillow again.
Begrudgingly, I went back to the conference room. Derek had apparently declined, going around campus with Zhang for safety checks. While the other two looked over crime scene photos, I mindlessly stared at the whiteboard.
Reid ran in twenty minutes later, profile ready.
"I know why the profiles never fit." He announced.
Now we were getting somewhere.
"You were right to tell Morgan not to rely on precedent." Reid told Gideon. "The fires thus far have been completely task oriented."
"So once they're set, the unsub is done?" Hotch asked.
"Exactly. The unsub is not a classical serial arsonist. He's someone who uses fire because of a completely different disorder." Reid explained.
"Which is?" Gideon prompted.
"An extreme manifestation of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder." Reid answered. "He does everything in three's, and if I'm right, he'll have to kill again."
After some technical difficulties, Reid pulled up the footage from Matthew Rolland murder.
"There's a form of OCD called scrupulosity." Reid began.
"Religious obsession and compulsion." I answered, eager to end this.
Reid nodded. "An obsessive fear of committing sin, which creates so much anxiety that he's compelled to do something to ease that anxiety."
"Like setting fires." Hotch reasoned.
"Where's the behavioral evidence?" Gideon asked, not following Reid's line of thought.
"Right here. All right." Reid player the footage. It showed the turning doorknob. "Remember the night of the three fires? We saw the doorknob turning against the lock. But he's not trying to get in. He's compelled to turn the doorknob three times."
"Well, what about the fires? The first ones were single fires. If the unsub was OCD, shouldn't they have all been in three's?" Gideon asked, rubbing his hand over his eyes. It was fair. We were all exhausted.
"They were in three's. A trinity of three's." Reid assured. "The first fire occurred on March 3rd."
"Three o'clock pm, third day, third month." Gideon recalled. Now he was getting it.
"It's that convergence of three's that causes the overwhelming anxiety. Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion." Reid explained.
"And Professor Wallace?" I asked.
"Office number three." Reid answered. "I checked for more patterns of three's. His class was on Tuesdays."
"Third day of the week." I stated.
"Matthew Rowland was in that class. It was his third class of the day. If we looked into each of the fires we'd find a lot of patterns having to do with three's because our minds are incredibly adept at seeking out patterns." Reid was actually getting worked up in his own hype. 'Boy, was he cute doing it' "But to the unsub, once that pattern hits, bam- he sets a fire."
Hotch rose up from his chair. Because of me taking his lines, he'd been quiet.
"But if the target was always people, why did no one die in the first few fires?" Gideon asked.
And there it goes again. Reid's elation dropped. "They were failures. Up until Matthew Rowland."
Gideon looked over to Hotch. "What is it?" Gideon asked him.
"I think I know who it might be. And it's not a he. It's a she." Hotch stated.
He told Gideon and Reid. I was already dialing Dean Turner. When she answered, I let Gideon explain.
"Clara Hayes. A chemistry student. I'll get you her records now." Dean Turner assured.
"First get campus security out and find her. She could set her next fire within hours." Gideon warned.
==BAP==
They sent me out with Derek to Clara's apartment.
We got one of the LEO's to pop open Clara's door. The light of the room cast out into the hallway.
If it wasn't so morbid and I'll timed, I'd say we descended into hell.
The walls were completely covered in newspaper clippings, drawings of the occult, and printouts of the occult.
"No one in here." A LEO reported as Derek and I walked in.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." Derek remarked as he looked around the walls. "OCD? I'm thinking more like OMG."
I snorted. "No arguments here." While I explored the room, a Bible verse caught my eye. "'A fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn into the lowest hell.' Deuteronomy." I read off one of the papers.
"'And again the fire of heaven came down and killed them all.'" Derek read.
"'I do this for Charown.' That's Charown." I pointed at the picture beside it. "That's the Greek mythological ferryman of the dead."
"It's also the name of Pluto's only moon." Derek stated. "Paradise lost. 'Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood of human sacrifice and parents' tears.'"
I called Reid so he could explain.
"Moloch was the demon sun God of the Canaanites. In order to keep from incurring his wrath, the people would sacrifice their children to him by burning them alive." Reid reported.
"Reid you're a godsend." I told him. He didn't reply but I knew he was flustered.
"Sixteen year old survives inferno. The mother, Ellen Hayes, called it a miracle. 'My daughter was tested by God. He tested my child and she came through blessed.'" Hotch reported. "Look at the house number."
"Three hundred-thirty-three." Gideon stated.
As I walked around the room, I realized I was following my own OCD traits. They were weird. If I saw a line on the floor, I had to cross it with my left foot. If I missed it then I had to double cross the next one.
"Hey Derek, you know what 'magical thinking is'?" I asked, staring down at my right foot. It went on a line. It was annoying when my foot did that.
"Like, a superstition that controls him." Derek answered.
"'Step on a crack, break your mother's back'." I recited. While I recited, I slid my foot back. "Or, 'put your best foot forward'." When it was safe I double crossed the line with my left foot.
Thankfully Derek didn't see it. "Except she actually believes it."
When my foot came back, I let out a sigh of relief. "God tested her with fire." I explained, only half paying attention to my surroundings now. "And now, when three three's show up around another person-"
"God tells her to test them." Derek stated. He lifted up a water bottle that reeked of lighter fluid.
A moment later, Hotch called Derek on the phone. I was walking to Clara's closet behind the beaded curtain.
"Find the next bunch of three's? Hey, Hotch... we're lookin', man. I don't think she would have left behind a day planner that says 'set next fire here' written in it." Derek argued into the phone.
I checked behind the beaded curtain.
"I under- wait till you see this place." Derek went on.
"Derek." I called back to him.
The Profiler pulled away from his phone. He came up to my side. His eyes widened when he understood what he was looking at.
"You gotta tell Hotch." I reminded him.
He nodded. He pulled his phone back to his ear. "Hotch, there must be thirty homemade bombs in here." Derek informed. There was a pause as he listened to our team leader.
After a minute, he closed his phone. He turned to the LEO's.
"Seal the building. Evacuate the building." Derek ordered. The LEO's nodded. Derek turned to me. "We have to find her. Now."
"Back to campus, then." I backed away from the curtain, letting the beads fall back.
==BAP==
The fire alarms went off. All across campus. A part of me was impressed with Clara for thinking that far ahead.
The students were being evacuated from their buildings. They were looking at nearby buildings for the nonexistent fire.
I turned to a nearby LEO. "You check the science building?"
"All the corridors and stairwells are clear. The closets are all empty. No elevators are in service." He reported.
I nodded. "Good. You keep these kids in line."
He left to follow those orders.
I was checking another dorm building. There had been no sign of Clara (because Gideon called to have me check a different building).
Derek called me after my half-hearted search. "It's clear up here. Anything?"
"Nothing. No girl, no smoke, no fire." I informed. "I'm going to check the science building."
"Megan they cleared it already," Derek pointed out.
"I know...I've just got this bad feeling." I hung up before Derek could talk me out of it.
Then I made my way towards the science building.
It was a longer run than I'd thought. There was barely enough time to text Derek that I heard screams in the science building before bursting inside.
Once inside I ran to the third floor. I could hear her classmates screams as I opened the stairwell door. They weren't of pain, so there was time.
I ran down the half built halls. The smell of lighter fluid was heavy. Turning a final corner I saw Clara putting away the empty bottles of lighter fluid.
"Hello Clara." I greeted, calmly approaching her.
The chemistry student tensed up. She stared at me with cautious eyes. The kids in the elevator were screaming for help. "I have to do this." She pulled out a lighter from her pocket.
"Yeah, you do." I agreed. Clara let out a breath. "But not to them."
Clara winced. She fidgeted with the lighter. "God chose me to be tested, and now he's chosen them. If I don't do this, something terrible will happen."
"But you can't kill them. There aren't enough three's." I pointed out. Clara froze. While I spoke, I made slow steps towards her. "There were four people on your team. They're technically on the second floor right now. You need three's. All I'm seeing are irregularities."
The chemistry student wheezed. She fell to her knees, rocking back and forth. "I-I have to."
"Resist." I ordered.
"I can't." Clara whimpered. She was rocking faster.
Her classmates continued to beg.
"They must be tested. God's wrath..." Clara's words dragged off in fear.
"Have you thought about it like this? You told us it was a chemistry student." I reasoned. "You left the message about Charown. You want to stop."
I was close now. Not close enough to stop her, unless I jumped.
"Father, son..." Clara prayed. I took another step forward. She was lost to her compulsions. "Holy ghost."
I jumped.
The lighter was knocked out of her hands. It rolled to the side, away from the elevator.
"God chose them." Clara screamed at me. She grabbed my arms. We rolled around. It ended with her on top.
*Bang*
Clara screamed at the bullet wound in her leg. I gasped as she rolled off my body, clutching her bloody leg. I turned to see Hotch and Gideon standing there.
You know, I'd never been more relieved to see them.
==BAP==
Clara had been taken in for surgery. They said she would be okay. The mental health facility she would be going to would have accommodations as she recovered.
The chemistry kids had been let out of the elevator by campus security. One of the girls hugged me (which made my clothes smell like lighter fluid) when she was let out. I wasn't even mad about the smell. It felt good to know I had helped.
Gideon and Hotch were miffed at first. I told them that I thought Clara would have gone to the science building (as her group was doing the three-body-problem) and that Jeremy was probably working on the project. I had to deny knowing that there would be three kids. I told my team leaders I'd heard screaming, texted Derek, and ran off to diffuse the situation. Gideon and Hotch understood then.
Now we were getting back on the plane. I threw my bags beside my seat. Gideon came on The plane behind me.
"You know, I figured it out. The stutter." I informed me.
Gideon sat across from me. "You know why the footpath killer stuttered?"
"You were just trying to stall him." I reasoned. "You said, 'I know why you stutter' because you were buying time. You were stalling. But you don't really know why he stuttered."
"I don't?" Gideon asked, putting on a confused expression.
At seeing it in real life, I snorted. "No one does."
"There are some theories about a neurological basis." Gideon pointed out.
"The keyword being 'theories'." I countered. "Are you ever going to tell us what really happened in the convenience store?"
"I'll tell you what I do know about a stutter. I know how to provoke one." Gideon stated, cryptically.
It made snort either way.
So I leaned back in my seat, curling up against the cushion. Then I slept because dear god, it's been ages since I really slept.
==BAP==
AN: Sorry this was forever. I'm working five jobs at the moment, so freetime for writing has been sparse. I've gotten a lot done this week so yay!
For info on my updates, go to my tumblr blog: AuthorA97-writing-updates. It's where I add info about when I'll update, how updates are coming along (or not coming along).
Thanks to silentmayham, basketball4444, shazzygirl, yukicarr, Crossgomer, Jovie Black, YamiyoSenju, and Wulf47, for favoriting
Thanks to Janootie, Queen of Supernatural Lovers, shazzygirl, yukicarr, Wingdings13, Crossgomer, arapyanime, MarieReeds, and YamiyoSenju, for following
