St. Claire was an annoying little man, Reid decided. He had serious control issues. St. Claire obviously did not believe in what Reid and his team did, and he didn't like the fact that Gideon was calling the shots.

"Okay, I want Prentiss and Reid to go out to the crime scene while Morgan and Hotch go to talk to the wife of the latest victim. JJ will cover the press, although it doesn't seem too bad yet, thankfully. I'll try to get things set up here," said Gideon at Bixby's (small) police station.

"We've already been out there and there's no evidence left," argued St. Claire. "And the wife was too distressed to come in for questioning so I doubt she'll talk to FBI agents."

"That might be true about the scene, but we aren't looking for that kind of evidence. We are looking at out surroundings to try get an idea on the personality of our unSub," explained Prentiss.

"And the wife might start talking when she realizes that your station placed this case as a priority and brought in extra help," said Morgan, still paging through the file.

"Suit yourself," said St. Claire, as a couple young officers rolled their eyes at each other.

It was going to be a long day

"She totally stole my outfit, did you see---"

"She doesn't even know I exist, I'm just---"

"I have that huge math test tomorrow that I totally forgot about!"

SHUT UP!

Melissa winced as she pushed the shallow and worthless thoughts from her mind, boosting the volume on her MP3. She crossed her arms tighter across her chest.

Rex looked up from his seat next to Melissa in the cafeteria, concerned. Melissa hated the cafeteria. It was the biggest gathering of the day unless there was a pep-rally.

"Easy Cowgirl, only 10 minutes left," thought Rex, sending this to Melissa.

Melissa only whimpered in response, not touching her food. She never ate lunch.

Dess was either oblivious or didn't care (probably the latter), for she did not even look up at Melissa. Jonathan and Jessica were oblivious to the world, lost in the young-love clouds they had been walking on since they got together. Rex was glad he and Melissa didn't act like that. For one, the constant touching would drive Melissa crazy. Not only was Melissa his girlfriend, but she was his best friend as well.

Suddenly, Melissa stood up a bit straighter and got a look that meant she was listening in on something relatively important.

"Cowgirl---?"

"Shh," whispered Melissa, holding up one covered finger hesitantly.

"My father's good friends with Constable St. Claire and he heard that the FBI arrived about an hour ago. Can you believe that? Actual agents! And I heard one of them was quite hot---"

Melissa stopped listening then, knowing that that was all she would be able to grab out of the head of Constanza Greyfoot. The girl was the definition of "idiot".

Melissa gently pulled her thumb out of her glove and rested it on Rex's hand. Her stomach automatically gave a huge lurch and her head felt like it was splitting open. As quickly as this started, it stopped. Rex managed to calm Melissa's mind down and extract the information she was trying to give to him. The whole exchange lasted less than a second.

However, this didn't go unnoticed by Dess. Her eyes widened in alarm as she realized what the two of them were doing. Her face turned into one of disgust, remembering the time when the bitch goddess had touched her once.

Rex was frustrated. He had hoped, prayed actually, that St. Claire wouldn't get the feds involved. The Darklings wouldn't be happy about this.

However, in the back of his mind, he thought about how great it would be for someone to realize just what was really going on here in Bixby. It was unrealistic, but still nice to think. Some of the pressure he had been facing might be released and someone could help them with these problems that high school students shouldn't be facing.

Melissa had turned her head and was staring at Rex with one eyebrow raised. Rex just shrugged. No words needed to be exchanged for them to understand what the other was thinking.

Melissa had to secretly agree with Rex though. She had seen Rex becoming more and more frazzled over the past few weeks. He was exhausted, overworked, and his mind was in turmoil. She should know. He had been sleeping over at her house recently. Rex had said that with all the Darkling action occurring recently, they should stick together. Melissa didn't mind. In fact, she slept better when he was around. Her parents were completely oblivious, of course, choosing to ignore their unnerving only child.

Just as Melissa was pulling her glove over her hand, feeling the comfort of the thick wool protecting herself against the painful touches of those around her, the bell rang, sending the midnighters off to sixth period.

It took only twenty minutes to reach the border into the desert. The ground was completely level with perfect visibility for miles. Anyone with decent eyesight could find a dead body out here.

Reid and Prentiss found the dump site easily enough. The dark red stain on the rough gravel gave it away.

"Footprints are practically nonexistent. All evidence probably blew away in the night," said Emily, pulling on her sunglasses because of the blinding sunlight.

"A body out here would be obvious though, so I don't think the unSub would particularly care if we found anything against him out here. He's incredibly confident. He had to know this body would be found in a matter of hours," explained Reid.

"You're right. It's a public place. He wanted them to be found. But why the desert? Is there some significance?"

"Did you see that pit we drove by on our way here? Kids probably have parties out here on the weekends. Maybe it was the unSub's way of expressing his distaste for them being out here. I mean, he has a body, might as well make a point."

"Well, if he was looking for attention, he certainly got it," said Prentiss, kneeling down beside the blood stain.

After Reid and Prentiss were done examining the scene, they headed over to see the most recent body. Reid took one look at it and realized just how hard it must have been to identify him. Both his hands were missing, excluding the possibility of fingerprints, and the majority of his face was gone. They must have used dental records, he thought.

"What weapon could have done something like this?" asked Prentiss, her face a shade whiter than it had been before they entered the room.

"You're sure no animal was involved?" questioned Reid to the doctor.

"No saliva or hairs were found anywhere on the body. I do not know of any animal that could have possible done this." The doctor was beginning to look queasy as well. Reid took this as a sign to leave.

"Thank you for your time," said Reid as he and Prentiss hurried out of the room.

"The unSub really seemed to hate these men. However, none of them seemed to be connected in any way, showing that the selection was at random," Reid said to Prentiss as they walked to the car.

"They might have reminded him of someone he once knew, like a father or uncle or friend. They probably have a history of violence, possible abuse or gruesome death of a loved one," said Prentiss.

"We should see what Morgan and Hotch got from the wife. Maybe their abduction places are similar," said Reid, as Prentiss started the car and left to body of the seventh, and hopefully last, victim behind them.

"All I got from the wife was that her husband went missing on his way home from work. He mentioned something about stopping for gas and she never heard from him after," sighed Morgan, plopping down into a chair tiredly. "Is it just me, or do we have nothing?"

"We know he's cocky and strong enough to subdue seven healthy fully-grown men. He probably suffered from trauma in his past. Based on victimology, I'd say he is a male in his late twenties to early thirties, just like his victims. Maybe they remind him of himself," said Gideon to his team. "It's not much, but a start."

"This town is remarkably small. If we give out the preliminary profile to St. Claire and his team, they will probably be able to find someone that might fit this description," said JJ.

"Yeah, but where do we go after that?" asked Morgan.

"I think we should talk to the local high school kids," said Reid, giving his input.

He was acknowledged with a set of odd looks.

"Why would we do that?" questioned JJ.

"When Prentiss and I drove out to the crime scene we came across a pit that looked like it was used to host parties. Three out of the seven victims were killed during the weekend. Maybe someone saw something without realizing it was important," explained Reid. It was most likely a long shot, but they needed to do something.

"Reid's right. All of us will head over to the high school tomorrow, but I will contact the principal today. JJ, call Garcia and tell her to run a scan of all the crimes that have occurred in Bixby, Oklahoma in the past three months. The unSub might have started out small before escalating to murder," said Gideon.

Fantastic, thought Reid. High school did not exactly resurface too many ideal memories. He wondered if the students had changed much since his high school generation.