I had woken up a bit earlier than usual to sneak back to my room without being detected. Spencer walked me to the door, he yawned loudly, covering his mouth. I smiled and snaked my arms around his torso, locking them behind his back and pulled him in as close as we could be. He laughed only for a moment out of surprise, my body shaking from the movement, before his arms were around me, slowly rubbing my back.
"I'll see you in a few hours." I said as I looked up at him. The top of my head barely met the curve of his neck.
He kissed the top of my head and gave me one last hug, "You better go before Hotch wakes up."
I nodded, breaking away from his embrace and cracking the door open; I peeked through making sure the coast was clear of any of our teammates before I slipped through, quietly closing the door behind me.
I began getting ready for the day as soon as I stepped foot back in my room; it was only about two hours before we were required to be at the police station, but I knew that there would be no chance of me falling back asleep. I had gotten a shower - the warmth of it not coming close to Spencer's lips on mine - afterwards deciding to watch the local news. If something had been uncovered or if a body had turned up somewhere there was a good chance of someone on the force or the person who found the new evidence would sell the information to the media - and I liked to know what I was walking into.
Wrapped in a bathrobe and toweling my hair off, I searched for the tv remote. I found it in the seat of the recliner and clicked the TV on taking the remote's place in the seat. The TV faded in - the camera locked on a scene that was a few feet away, a block or so from the woman who was in front of the camera. Police cars were lined up outside of a house; the caption bar had read it was somewhere on the south side of town. An ambulance arrived on the scene and I turned up the volume.
"A call was made to 911 last night from the south side. In the recording you can hear screaming and breathing like someone is trying to speak, but they can't seem to find the words before what sounds like a door slamming and a final scream before the call cuts off."
They played a sample of the recording, the dispatcher trying to get an answer from what sounded like two terrified women and heavy breathing. How could they air something like this? There wasn't a single person that would benefit from hearing this call, but that's what happens when the media gets a hold of something they know nothing about. They never thought about the aftermath - parents worried for their children, people being afraid of going outside, the condition of the families those women belonged to.
The reporter continued, "Police arrived on the scene minutes after the call was made to find the front door to this residence wide open." The camera panned in on the house; paramedics rolled a gurney out of the front door and to the back of the ambulance - as the rolled it the body was covered fully, dead, a red stain going across where the throat was. My eyes got wide as I jumped out of my seat, grabbed my room key and bolted out of my room.
I sprinted to Spencer's room, I already knew he was up and he could help me get the others alert. I knocked on his door rapidly and loudly hoping he could hear me or that he wasn't in the shower. The seconds couldn't go by fast enough and I gasped for a breath when the door opened.
"Wake up the team. Tell them to turn on the news, hurry." I didn't give him a chance to speak before I sprinted off down the hall.
We knocked on all the doors, telling them to turn on their tvs and running to the next door. We had probably woken the entire floor and the floor beneath us by the time we were done, but that would be a problem to handle when we get back. The last door I knocked on was Emily, she answered like the rest, groggy and barely awake, "There better be a good reason." She said as I followed her into her room.
She turned on her bedside lamp as I reached for her tv remote. I switched over to the right channel hoping they were still covering the story. The broadcast was still on the subject, but was now in a split screen - the reporter on scene on the right and the news anchor in the studio on the left. As they spoke, they barely looked bothered that this was happening, just two people doing their jobs on another day.
I tossed the remote to her, "It's him." I stated. She blinked hard a few times, her jaw dropping slightly to the sight. "I've already gotten the others up." I walked out of her room and back to mine, hoping she took the hint to get dressed and ready to leave.
"Who gave you the authorization to air that?" Hotch stood eye to eye with the chief of police.
Chief Andrews sighed, "Look," he crossed his arms over his chest, "I have a town to protect. And now this guy is breaking into homes and killing. The people have a right to know what they are up against and how to protect themselves." His eyes slid from Hotch, Morgan, Spencer and finally myself as he tried to explain.
His eyes did no good on me - no matter what sickly shade of green they were - he looked back to Hotch without have to raise or lower his gaze. He had Hotch's height and half of Morgan's build, but i was still willing to bet that I could take him - if necessary of course.
"And you think the best way to do that is by letting them know that not even in their homes are they safe?" Morgan asked. Andrews didn't reply, but we didn't need him to in order to make it clear that this case was officially ours. "With this being such buzzworthy news, Colin has probably already seen it."
"We can only assume that he knows everything, since you aired everything but our blood types," I didn't give a chance for anyone to stop me, my voice only getting louder, "and now we're back at the beginning. How is causing mass panic ever the best idea? Were you even thinking when you made that decision? You're just lucky that I'm not your boss -"
"Embreonna," Hotch shouted over me and threw me a stern look, "take a walk."
I seemed to have stopped breathing as my eyes were locked on Andrews. he stared back at me - less of in defense and more of regret. Anger was building up inside of me just by the look of him, knowing he was the one who let that air without thinking of the consequence. I refused to be the first to move out.
"That's an order." Hotch gave me my final warning. I sighed, deeply, before turning on my heels and storming out of Andrews office.
Hotch telling me to take a walk was a vague order to give, without an assignment for the moment I left the police station and just stood next to our cars in the parking lot. I leaned back against the SUV and stared out to the highway.
It was still early; after we had all seen the news report - that the news station was kind enough to air on a loop - we got to the police station as quickly as we could. The sun was beginning to rise, I thought of people waking up and getting ready for work, parents sending their children off to school - hugging them close and hoping for the best. Any attempt at a press conference would be useless, there wasn't anything JJ could say to calm anyone anyway.
Footsteps on the concrete caught my attention. Morgan slowly approached the SUV, his hands in his pockets, and stood next to me. "You okay?" He asked looking over to me. He knew I wasn't. What he was really asking was Where did that come from?
"What if we're not able to find him now?" I chewed the inside of my cheek. I kept looking in front of me. I didn't want to look at Morgan; I didn't want to see any subtle sign of agreement.
"Bre, we're going to find him. You know just as well as I do this isn't the first set back we've ever had. Let's you and me go to the new scene and see what we can find. This was the first house break in we know of, maybe he made a mistake somewhere."
Still chewing on my cheek I looked at him. his eyebrows were raised and his lips pressed to a line - he was waiting on my reply. I nodded and walked around to the passenger side of the SUV. I tried to ignore the sour feeling that was trying to form in the pit of my stomach. Maybe Morgan was right, maybe Colin made a mistake; maybe he left the rest of his plans written on a piece of paper and taped it to the refrigerator.
When I had seen the house on tv it was panic ridden, people standing near by behind the barricades watching the police and paramedics do their jobs - now it looked like the house was just abandoned to begin with only with police tape lining the property. The door, wide open before, was now closed with a paper taped on the front warning that this was a crime scene and any trespassers would be arrested. Morgan slid the key into the lock and opened the door. I closed it behind me and we crossed through the entryway and into the living room.
The living room floor was a pastel brown color, the focal point of the room was a fire place - a fake one that wasn't meant for actual fires, but was there for pure decoration, two couches and a chair boxed around it. The people who lived here had put an effort into their home to let people know who they were, it felt like a shame to see that it ended with us.
"Uhm...not to point out the obvious, but this is new." From the corner of my eye I saw Morgan gesture towards the wall he had worked his way over to.
I raised an eyebrow out of curiosity and turned to him. Looking at the wall, I found it hard to believe that we didn't notice this right away - though this wall didn't face the door. My eyes widen to the sight - the wall had words stained in red, what I could only assume to be blood and read 'Yield for Nothing'.
"I know this." I declared looking it over.
"You know this?" Morgan asked as his phone rang.
"Yeah, I just can't place from where."
"Maybe it'll come to you," Morgan answered his phone; I continued to stare at the chaos written on the white wall, but nothing came to me. Somewhere though, in the the back of my mind, I knew this from somewhere. Morgan sighed, "Alright, thanks." He hung up and shoved his phone back in his pocket.
"What's wrong?" I asked still staring at the wall.
"It was about the bodies you found in the basement yesterday..."
-I have a new technique for writing that really get's through the writer's block. So hopefully I'll be posting more often.
-The only thing that would stop me from posting more often would be my Mom's health. At the moment she is being tested for cervical cancer. We don't know if she does have it officially yet or not, we're still waiting, but if it come back that she does, updates may take a bit longer than they already do. But then again I may need something to focus on, so the updating more often thing still may be a possibility. I don't know, I'll just have to see what happens.
-I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review. Thanks for reading. :)
