Chapter Two
Either Way
Chapter Song: You Don't Own Me by Masquer
The three agents in the room with Katherine were flabbergasted to say the least. In all their years at the Bureau they'd seen some pretty intense stuff, but this was something else. Morgan, Rossi, and Reid all stood behind Katherine. Reluctantly, they pushed her dark locks to the side, revealing the faint scar of a symbol they had seen on each of their victims—a trinity knot—on the base of her neck. Unlike the victims, Katherine's had healed into nothing but a white outline. The entire team was so sure before that Katherine had been one of the unsubs. Now...they weren't sure if she was that or another victim.
A doctor had been called in. Katherine grew antsy at the thought of the microchip being taken out. It was something she craved from the moment it was placed inside her—from the moment Liam had taken a knife and encrusted the Celtic symbol into her skin. He explained the process to her, although the words went in right ear and out the other. She had a bad feeling she was going to regret opening her mouth and letting them in on this one little thing. The doctor had warned her that the shot he was injecting into her neck numb her would hurt, but Katherine just sat silent in reply. She had been through too much pain the last couple years to be afraid of a needle. Not to mention, the fear overtaking her voided her body of all feeling. A shiver sent itself down Katherine's spine as the sound of scissors snipping echoed in the near silent room.
It was a hair longer than a grain of rice. And that minuscule object had the attention of probably just about every person in the building. The whole process of removing the object felt like several hours for Katherine when in reality, it all happened pretty quickly. After getting the back of her neck stitched back up and padded with gauze, the doctor walked over to the three shocked agents, the device being held by a pair of forceps. Reid had slid on a pair of gloves, grabbing the delicate device with the pads of his gloved fingers. His eyes squinted, intently staring at the object. This tiny object had tracked her every move?
"So this is how they know where to hack into?" Rossi thought aloud. The door to the room opened, the teams lead Agent storming in.
"Yes and we're lucky we have such a good security system because they were close to breaching our system." The lead Agent eyed her, not trusting her. The dark haired man shook his head, keeping his rock hard facade intact, excusing the doctor and having someone from the team come in and take the tracking device away in an evidence bag. Katherine's eyes trailed back down to the table and over to her shackled arms. Her neck was free—free of any device stuck into her.
"Alright Katherine, any more tracking devices you want us to know about? Any implants in your arm?" Morgan spat.
"Morgan." The lead agent barked.
"Come on Hotch." Morgan shook his head. "This is something straight out of a book." Katherine could feel her teeth grit together. If only he could imagine what it was like for her.
"So a Celtic symbol, huh?" Rossi spoke up over the bickering, taking a seat on the table beside Katherine. Her eyes flickered over to him.
"It's called a triquerta." Reid spoke up. "A trinity knot." The now damaged symbol on the back of Katherine's neck was burning red hot.
"So, carving a trinity knot into your victims was, what, a punny little MO? Life, death, and rebirth, right? Everything is intertwined?" Rossi was right, the trinity knot signature slash of the ghosts was some sick joke. It was Liam of course who had birthed the idea she had heard. And deep down she knew he got a kick knowing the symbol he carved into his victim's bodies had a meaning of life, death, and rebirth. The only thing his victims got of that was death. A painful death.
"It has several different meanings, that's just the one that fits best." The lead agent was half right.
"The holy trinity." Katherine quietly spoke up. The room became silent for a split second, the Agents brains turning and spinning.
"Father, son, holy spirit." Morgans thick brows pressed firmly together. Katherine looked up at the group and slowly nodded. "Now why the hell would a Christian symbol for that be carved into the murder victims?"
"Because Liam is all of those…the father, the son, the holy spirit." The room grew silent.
"Liam…" The lead agent, Hotch, trailed off.
"He finally has a name…" Morgan stated, dumbfounded.
"We need more than a first name, Katherine. There's hundreds of thousands of Liam's in this country alone." Katherine swallowed hard, her throat dry and burning. She was desperatly in need of a glass of water. After all this time, she was ready to crack in a matter of hours. This could have been her chance—not a chance at freedom but a chance from being rid of the Ghosts.
"Katherine, you need to help us for us to help you." Rossi said, noticing the apprehension plastered across her face. "You're safe here."
"I'm dead either way." She shook her head, letting out a breath she had been holding in her chest.
"Just help us catch this guy. We can protect you, we can help you." Morgan offered. She shook her head once more.
"We both know you're lying. You know what they're capable." Morgan's tough expression dropped, showing for a slight second that he felt bad for the young girl. He'd seen what had been done to those other women. They were brutally murdered, and there was no way he could promise Katherine a chance of safety without arresting whoever else was involved, including herself. But even then...
"You may be right, but there's no way of knowing. We can't do anything without knowing who we're after." He admitted.
"I don't know if it's his real name, I don't know if it had been made up." Katherine shakily started, her fingers beginning to fidget together.
"If you really didn't kill any of those girls, we need something to work with." The room grew tense, the air thick with anticipation.
"Liam Lockwood." She finally stated, his name rolling off her tongue like poison. She wondered what was going on in the minds of the agents, how many countless hours they had worked to lead to this very moment to find a name. She wondered if they knew they were getting themselves, and her, into deep trouble. Liam Lockwood was not one to be messed with.
"Now we're working with something. Get Garcia on that immediately." Hotch ordered, three of the men turning on their heels to walk out of the room in a rush. Katherine took a deep breath in, calming herself in preparation for the mistake she was about to make.
"Seth Porter. Marcel Grant. Elliott Parks." She calmy announced. The men stopped short in their tracks, turning around to look at her as if she just spoke a foreign language.
"What did you just say?" Hotch asked.
"Seth Porter. Marcel Grant. Elliot Parks." She repeated a hair slower. Their eyes widened a fraction, realizing what the girl was doing. "You wanted a name. Now you have four."
Agents were scrambling as it quickly became all hands on board. Some were going through files to see if they had ever cross paths with any of the four names Katherine Grey had revealed while others were scouring data bases in hopes to find faces to match the names to. Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Alex Blake, and David Rossi stood in front of a large board. The sides of it contained maps with pinpointed locations and names of victims. The middle had five pictures. Four were pictures of question marks while the one in the middle contained Katherine's old foster care mug shot.
"She's screwing with us; she wouldn't give up the names." Morgan disagreed, not believing a word the girl said.
"Maybe she would if it meant her freedom. She's been in the game for ten years." Rossi suggested.
"I'm starting to wonder if she was more a victim than an accomplice." Hotch added, looking intently at the picture of the then seventeen-year-old.
"I don't know Hotch, I don't trust the kid." Morgan disagreed once more.
"Right now it doesn't matter. What matters is that we find Ghost."
"Uh, sir?" Garcia's voice popped up behind the group of men. "I might have found something on one of them…Seth Porter." The agents perked up, hoping more would come out of her information. She handed them a small picture that almost looked like a mug shot. The boy in it was young—no more than twenty. He had shaggy, sandy blonde hair. His skin looked sickly pale. There were dark rims under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in months. Was this kid one of the killers?
"Is this him?" Hotch asked.
"It's possible. It came up under the name Benjamin Seth Porter."
"Where did you find information?"
"You see, that's the thing. This is the only information I found. He was a victim in a case and this picture was encrypted into one of the files Michigan State Police had. Since a minor was involved the case was set to be saved for twenty-five years."
"What was the case?" Agent Blake asked, her brows tugging together.
"Well," Garcia shifted on her feet as the three agents stared at the picture. She hated talking about violence…especially anything graphic that involved children. "From what I was able to find, the parents were accused of beating their child Ben and locking him in the basement without any food, water, or light. One of the neighbors found him locked in an old freezer chest when they heard screaming coming from the basement."
"What happened to the parents?" Hotch asked.
"Drug overdose. And the kid was put into foster care at sixteen. Once he turned eighteen he went off the radar and no one reported him missing since he was legally an adult."
"Foster care." Morgan realized, rushing over to a manila folder where they kept the little bit of information they had on Katherine in. "Peter Marks adopted—fostered Katherine literally hours before they both supposedly died. Let's say they were both in the system at the same age…that can't be a coincidence right? This has got to be our guy."
"What other information do you have on him, Garcia?"
"Nothing, sir. Everything and anything on him or his parents besides the final police report and that picture was wiped clean. Not a single trace. Nada."
"And it can't just be a coincidence that there was barely any information on the girl either." Rossi thought. "What about a paper trail?"
"I could call up Lansing Police Department and see if they kept anything. It's worth a shot." Garcia shrugged. "I'm on it!" The blonde encouraged herself, trotting off back to her office.
Katherine listened to Doctor Reid and a woman who introduced herself as Agent Jareau make small talk with each other. The two had been assigned to watch Katherine while the other agents attempted to find the background on the four names they had been given. Agent Jareau tried to make conversation with Katherine, but all the girl wanted to do was sit in silence. And sleep. God, what she would do to rest her eyes.
"Are you sure I can't get you some water, Katherine?" Agent Jareau asked for the second time within the house. Katherine shook her head. The two agents went back into their conversation while Katherine wondered how little information the others were finding.
Katherine attempted to adjust her aching wrists but the metal chains restricted her. They made her grow anxious, feeling more trapped by the minute. The tips of her fingers began drumming against the knuckles of her left hand. Her eyes shifted to glance at her left wrist. Almost immediately, her fingers stopped drumming and she soon found her right thumb sliding down over a discoloration at the base of her wrist. It was so old and faded it didn't even look like a scar. It looked like a little white mark or maybe where a bracelet had been pressing against for too long. She wished that was all it had been.
"Liam!" Katherine stormed forward, rage engulfing her face. "What the hell was that? I thought you weren't going to hurt her!" It was night. They were in a warehouse somewhere in the middle of Colorado. Katherine had just watched Lisa Steadman get shot point blank in the head. Liam rolled his eyes, turning on the balls of his feet to look at the young girl.
"My dear kitty Kat. How long have you been here? Three years? I thought you were finally understanding that when these people come in here…they aren't coming for a stay at the Ritz." He chuckled, walking towards her.
"You promised me you wouldn't. She had a family!" As if Liam had cared if the girl had a family.
"What did you finally have a little friend to talk to? If you're lonely I'm sure I could find a solution." Liam smirked. Rage fired up every inch of Katherine's body. She balled her wrist and launched her arm at him, only for her wrist to be caught by his ridiculously strong hand. He sighed. Katherine's face went white.
"Are you done, Katherine?" She didn't answer, she swallowed a rock in her throat and grated her teeth together. Liam sighed again, reaching into the pocket of his pants and protruding a switch blade. He flicked the blade up, pulling Katherine's wrist down in front of his torso. Katherine squirmed and began yanking her wrist.
"Stop it." She grunted. Liam dragged the blade near the end of the base of her wrist. He continued till it was lining up directly with the end of her thumb.
"Did I ever tell you about my sister? She was a phlebotomist. She drew blood for a living. I got sick when I was younger. So dear old sissy of mine, God bless her soul, decided to give me fluids. And since I was so dehydrated, she couldn't find a vein to stick the needle in. So instead, she went right here…" Liam pressed the blade down harder, drawing more blood. "There's a very important vein right there. Cephalic vein. Runs all the way from your fingers into your arm. And when cut, it acts like an artery and phew, just blood everywhere." Liam sliced lightly into Katherine's skin. She gasped.
"You're going to have a rough time making friends when you're slowly bleeding out like Miss whatever-her-name-is over there." He shrugged, releasing his grip from her and sliding the switch blade back into his pocket. Katherine cradled her wrist to her chest, applying pressure against the slice. Liam chuckled to himself as he turned and walked away. "Cheer up Katherine, you'll always have me."
Katherine shook herself out of her throats, listening to Agent Jareau and Doctor Reid stand in silence near one another. Agent Jareau was busy writing a message on her phone while Reid was reading into a file he held.
"So there's five of them." Reid thought aloud, his eyes skimming the pages quicker than Katherine could fathom. Katherine nodded.
"You didn't profile me as a girl." Katherine quietly spoke up, catching the agents by surprise, they hadn't expected her to speak.
"What?" Agent Jareau asked.
"We thought there were three males." Reid admitted, making eye contact with the girl. Katherine already knew that though. They thought the Ghosts had been thirty some year-old men. Three of them. At least one of them had to be good looking since they managed to lure 23 girls to their death. She was trained to think like them, that was part of the con.
"Three of them. White. Late twenties to thirties. Somewhat good looking." It wasn't a question. Agent Jareau and Reid's faces tensed in utter confusion.
"You think like a profiler." Reid noted, his hazel eyes trailing over the timid girl, wondering what the Ghosts wanted with someone like her. Reid took a couple steps forward, placing her folder down on the table.
"We're going to help you as best we can." He softly spoke, hoping to ease the girls nerves. She looked at him, her eyes thankful for his kindness. Then in the blink of the eye, it was swallowed by hopelessness. She slowly shook her head.
"It doesn't matter…from the moment you put those cuffs on me I signed my death sentence either way."
A/N: PLEASE REVIEW :] IM VERY INSPIRED FOR THIS STORY.