Piece of Mind (Criminal Minds FF)

4. Title

The Detective

"What can you tell us about the kids?" Rossi asks. I sigh and look down at the pictures.

Today marked Day Two of helping with the investigation, and we hadn't made much progress. It's not like I expected to have made a breakthrough... except I did. I thought this would go much faster. Usually, I would be able to solve a case in two days.

But this case wasn't usual.

"Well, Sophia was a good kid, they all were," I start. "She was an only child. Her parents are really kind. Um... she had been practicing guitar for a state concert. I've been tutoring her for math. Otherwise, she was an astute kid."

"You tutored her," Morgan asks. I nod. "Did you tutor the others?"

"Only her. I watched her when her parents visited her grandmother upstate," I reply.

"Now, Kaleb, he was kind of a loner. Took a lot of pictures on his walks. Only had a few friends. One of them being Nick.

" Nick was outgoing. Top in his art class. That's all I know about the boys. I can tell you more about Sophia, but..." I trail off. Hotch nods.

"Are all the kids so creative?" JJ asks.

That one word. That one little word.

Creative.

It sends my mind spinning in all directions. My entire body stops moving as my mind shoots forward...or, well, back. Remembering exactly what I was trying to remember earlier.

"OH!" I exclaim, startling everyone.

I shoot up out of my chair, and dart for the whiteboards. I grab the photos of the words carved on the kids' stomachs, and I arrange them on the only blank whiteboard.

DON'T  ___  ME I'M ______

I quickly fill in the blanks.

DON'T hug ME I'M scared

I grab the photos of the symbols found at the body sites and place them in order of appearance. Sure enough, they matched up with the order the bodies came. I scanned the other pictures, but they didn't look like they had much relation to it.

"Claire!"

Someone places their hand on my shoulder, and I spin around, surprised by the sudden noise. JJ is the one who grabbed me, and everyone else was staring at me. The only person not looking at me strangely was Spencer.

"What?" I entreat.

Morgan's eyebrows furrow.

"We were calling your name for almost two minutes."

"Oh..."

"I tried to explain your little mind thing," Spencer explains, "but they didn't listen very well." I roll my eyes.

Or you didn't explain very well, I thought.

"Don't hug me I'm scared?" I turn to Hotch, who is looking at the whiteboard. I nod quickly.

"The UnSub had the words out of order. It's a title, and he kept  the words that would give it away for last," I explain, "which was very intelligent on their part, but the symbols go in order in which they appear, which means that they're about to get a lot worse."

"A title for what?" Rossi entreats.

This time, it was my turn to look at them in surprise.

"Seriously? None of you have seen it?" I sigh when all I get is blank looks. "It's a YouTube video. It went viral really, really fast. And it's... disturbing, to say the least."

I slide into a chair in front of the laptop they have on the table and pull up the video.

"It looks like a kids show," Prentiss comments when the video starts. I give a small laugh.

"I wouldn't let a child watch this to save my life," I say.

It's a minute and a half in when we see the first symbol. I pause the video, and I see Reid grab the photo and hold it up.

"It's the same thing," he murmurs. He grabs the other pictures before I start the video again.

Twenty seconds later, the next symbol appears.

"The sticks..." I comment, taking the picture and holding it up. Sure enough, one the screen were the sticks that spelled out the word 'GREEN' with an X over them.

"That means..." JJ trails off, looking at the glitter-covered hearts. I nod sadly. I start again and watch the team's reaction as the video takes a dark turn. When the video finally ends, I turn to see a few disgusted faces.

"It fits," is all Hotch manages to say. "Morgan, get Garcia to see how many people from this town have watched this video."

Morgan nods once and pulls out his phone, hitting a speed dial.

"Hey, baby girl," he says, putting it on speaker.

"What information so you seek today from the all-knowing?" It's the girl from the phone yesterday.

"We need to know how many people from this town have watched a YouTube video called 'Don't Hug Me I'm Scared'. Particularly if they are on the list from before."

I suddenly got an idea.

"Garcia," I say, mimicking Reid's voice. It was something that annoyed him because I could do it so well. "Did you get more information on Claire?"

"Hey, boy genius!" she greets.

Everyone had looked at Spencer in surprise, but were even more shocked when they saw it was me.

"Actually, I found some stuff about her, but I'm sure you already know," she says. I raise my eyebrows in achievement, looking at the team expectantly.

"You people are so nosy. I had my suspicions about you looking me up, but really?" A few of them looked guilty, but others remained emotionless. Spencer looked as shocked as I was.

"You asked me while she was in the room?"

"No, I asked you," I explain. "In college, I learned how to mimic Reid's voice. It annoyed him so much that I kept the talent." There is silence on the other line.

"Wow. You're good," she comments. "Guys, can we keep this one? I like her. She has all the requirements." I let out a laugh, knowing that it would never happen.

"Alright, back on topic. I pulled up the names from the town that have seen this creepy video, and let me tell you: there is a lot of them. So I crosschecked those names with the previous list. We now have about seven, unless you count the ones that have kids that may have seen it and showed them. Then we have eleven," she says quickly. "I have sent you the updated list, and I will keep looking. Garcia out." The phone clicks, signalling that she has hung up, and I look at them expectantly.

None of them say anything; I lean my head to the side, acting as if I heard something.

"Oh...what was that? Oh, you know, I completely agree with you guys. You are all nosy FBI agents who feel the need to dig into people's lives. Honestly," I scoff, "if you wanted to know about my past personal life, you should've asked Reid over here. Oh, unless you felt, oh, I don't know, guilty about prying?"

I roll my eyes and stand up.

"You all are ridiculous," I mutter. I grab my shoulder bag. "I need some air. I'll be back."