1 | 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐄 ⭃ Spencer Reid

9.2

"Way to scare a girl," she told him breathlessly, her heart slowly returning to its normal heart rate.

"Saw you bent over," he explained.

"I was tying my boot."

"These," the man stuck his leg out in front of them, showing off his expensive hiking boots, "almost never come untied."

Caroline nodded as she continued walking. "Good for you."

The man suddenly cut her off, sliding to stand in front her. She stopped in her tracks and her hand instinctively reached for her gun holstered at her side.

"My name's Henry," the man told her, a smile creeping up on his face. "What's your name?"

"Well, then good for you, Henry. I'm Caroline."

Henry chuckled. "Like the song?"

He began to hum the lyrics to Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. Ice ran through her veins. That song...she hadn't heard it in six years, not since her family's murder. She remembered that He used to play that song for her, whispering the lyrics in her ear as his hands would roam her body.

The song was also how her parents chose her name. Her mother told her that whenever that song came on the radio, she would kick up a storm in her mother's womb, as if to let her know who she was long before she came into this world. Her independent little girl...

She shivered. She couldn't find any words to reply so she nodded weakly.

"That's a different kind of name," Henry remarked.

She shrugged. "Had it all my life."

He chuckled as he ran a hand through his curly hair. "That's funny. Your whole life."

Caroline carefully side-stepped away from Henry as she continued to hike through the forest. But he was persistent and he wasn't going to let her go.

"You're with the FBI, right?" He asked her. "That must be exciting."

"It has its moments," she replied, her voice short and unenthusiastic. She really didn't feel like idle conversation at the moment and she really hoped he got the hint.

He didn't.

"It's dangerous, too. Right? I mean, you go after killers and things. Really bad guys."

Caroline stared through the tree line, her eyes just wandering from boredom, when something caught her eye. It looked like a piece of paper caught on a stray tree branch. She slowly approached the piece of paper as she pulled out an evidence bag.

"Do you ever have to shoot—" Henry stopped talking once he saw what she was focused on. He watched the blonde agent with morbid curiosity.

When Caroline got close enough to the piece of paper to be able to read it, she immediately knew it had been planted. Very carefully, by using the edges of the plastic evidence bag, she slid the note off the tree and slipped it into the baggie.

The border of the note was decorated with smudged drawings of pentagrams and other satanic symbols.

"Satan commands the virgin be sacrificed at the next full moon," Caroline read from the note as a frown formed on her face.

"That's tonight, isn't it?" Henry asked her. When she didn't answer, he reached over her shoulder to point at the red substance on the bottom of the page. "What's that?"

Caroline took a deep breath.

"Blood."

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