Isla's POV:
In the past weeks we dealt with a few cases, minor ones if you tell me. Garcia found a big leave with Jason. He was spotted in Virginia just a few days ago buying supplies in a Home Depot. He looked straight into the security and smiled almost as if he knew we were watching.
In his defense we were.
Morgan urged me to start getting into contact with Leo, which I did do. Now, I wasn't angry at him for this whole problem, I really wasn't. I was mad at him for accusing me of not caring over this whole mess.
I contacted him with one single word, "hey".
And just moments later we were back to our old ways. Texting at any moment we had a break from work. And just like that our argument disappeared from our minds. But once he found out about his brother I could sense the tension in his texts but he never let it get in the way of our friendship for a second time.
But after last night I haven't been able to contact him as often because of a case me and the team can't get around. I currently stand outside of an interrogation room with my arms crossed and head tilting slightly as I stare at the blonde man sitting in the room. Hotch stands next to me staring intently as well, a word not spoken between us.
Thunder rumbles outside the building adding the suspense to the situation.
If we were in a television show this would be quite suspenseful.
The blonde man sits up and walks towards the barred up window.
"Look, there's got to be some kind of misunderstanding, all right?" He says before leaning against the window.
"I'm innocent!" He yells. "I-I couldn't do this!" He yells once again. I look up at Hotch but he makes no attempt to looking back at me.
"Will someone please listen to me?!" He yells. At this I unfold my arms and I start to make my way into the room.
The sound of the door opening grabs the attention of the man, making him swirl to look at me.
"Who are you?" He asks me.
"Hello to you too. I'm agent Del la Cruz, Mr. Merrin." I tell him as I glance at the case file to see him name. "Have you been told your rights?" I ask. Merrin nods and I give a tight lipped smile.
"Do you know where you are?" I ask. He looks around the room before looking back at me with desperation in his eyes.
"Some FBI place, right?" He asks.
"Right. We're at the the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia. Do you know why you're here?" I ask.
"Cause you think I'm a killer" He says.
"Are you a killer?" I ask.
"No. Why won't anyone believe me!" Merrin says straight away.
"Merrin there might be a chance you are not lying straight to my face right now. And maybe you are. So how bout you sit down and I figure out if my gut about you is right." I say. Merrin licks his lips and slides into the chair.
"And what's your gut telling you?" He asks me.
"That you are innocent." I tell him, looking straight into his blue eyes.
"But to prove that Ima need you to take a deep breath." I say opening the case file. He does as I say causing me to give him an encouraging smile.
"Good. Now tell me exactly what happened two nights ago." I say. He nods and tears glisten in his eyes as he plays with his hands.
"So uh me and...me and my wife Tabitha were getting ready for bed." He starts saying while his hand starts to scratch his chest.
"She tells me she thinks she heard something downstairs. I didn't believe her because it wasn't the first time she's told me this. So I told her it was nothing." He says before rolling his lips into his mouth.
"But she insisted. So I go downstairs to see what she heard. I checked everything, everything was fine. Until...I-I smelled...sage." He tells me.
"Sage? Like the sage people burn to free unwanted juju or spirits?" I ask. He nods once and continues.
"Right after I smelled it I fell to the floor and heard the door creak open. I look up at the door and a alien like growling is heard. Long black talons grabbed the doorframe slowly as it screeched. I was so freaked that I started running up the stairs to Tabitha. I remember yelling at her to call 911 but t-that thing grabbed me. It dragged me down the stairs by my ankles."
"A shadow monster? With talons for hands?" I ask.
"I-I know how it sounds okay. I just needed to get upstairs because I heard her screaming. So I crawled back up the stairs, but I was too late. The shadow monster was killing her. Once I got to her all I remember was grabbing her hand before I passed out. And when I woke up, the cops were arresting me." He finishes as a tear falls from his face. He wipes it away quickly and looks up at me.
I hear the door open and see Hotch walk in before standing behind my chair. I feel his hands wrap around the the corners of the chair, his fingers touching my shoulders slightly.
"I swear to God, I didn't do it. That's exactly what happened." he pleads.
"No. No it's not." Hotch says sternly.
"Yes it is." Mr. Merrin says as more tears well up in his eyes.
"Mr. Merrin, what happened was you took a kitchen knife and you stabbed your wife to death. Neighbors heard the screaming so they called 911, and when the police arrived they found you still on the bed holding the knife." Hotch explains slowly. I roll my lips into my mouth as I see Mr. Merrin's life crumble in front of me.
"N-no. I didn't do that." He cries and scratches himself.
"You've been scratching yourself. Are you aware of that?" Hotch asks.
Mr. Merrin gives us a confused look before I sigh and tell him to open his shirt. He does as he is told, revealing large scratch marks that look like a tiger literally thought he was a their own personal play toy.
"That's from the shadow monster." He tells us.
"No that's from your wife. Forensics matched your skin under her fingernails as she fought to keep you from killing her. Think back to the words she was screaming." Hotch tells him. I close my eyes at the new evidence against Mr. Merrin, having a hard time trying to come up with more ways of defending him.
No matter everything that's coming in, the forensics, the evidence, I still believe this man is innocent. He looks at me with such loss, such agony that it's too accurate to fake.
Mr. Merrin closes his eyes and thinks back of the night before he winces and opens his eyes widely.
"Why would I do that?" He asks looking straight at me. I look away from him and grab the file Hotch gives me.
"Do you recognize these people?" I ask him opening the file to reveal two people's pictures.
Mr. Merrin looks before shaking his head.
"This is Daniel Karen's and Christine McNeil. They both say exactly what you are. They were attacked in their homes by a shadow figure." I tell him.
"But in reality Daniel stabbed his mother to death, and Christine her boyfriend. And like you, they have no recollection of the murders." Hotch continues.
"What does it mean?" Mr. Merrin asks me.
"It means that someone was smart enough to make all three of you have a psychotic break." I tell him slowly.
"WHY?! Why me...why us?!" He yells at Hotch and I.
"That's what we are trying to figure out." I tell him calmly. Hotch let's go of my chair and goes to open the door.
"Agent Hotchner I am not a murderer!" Mr. Merrin states.
"Yes you are. And we are going to figure out who turned you into one." Hotch says before opening the door and leaving. Mr. Merrin tucks his head in between his hands and lets out a muffled sob.
I get up from my chair and slowly walk over to him. I place my hand on his shoulder and rub it gently. I kneel down to his cowered size and sigh.
"Larry you are not a murderer." I tell him. He raises his head to see me clearly. Tears stain his face, his eyes red, and lips parted slightly with a tremor.
"Y-yes I am. You heard agent Hotchner."
"Yeah I did. But you listen to me. You did not do this, the son of a bitch who did this to you did. You cannot live the rest of your life with this guilt, trust me it will eat you alive." I tell him. A few tears escape his eyes but he nods none the less. I rub his back once more before getting up and picking up the case files on the desk and closing them softly. I pat his hand in support before going for the door.
"I promise I will catch whoever did this to you and the others." I tell him. He looks up at me before wiping his tears.
"Thank you agent Del La Cruz." He says. I nod and open the door before gently closing it. I walk at a fast pace to get to the round table to see everyone started without me.
"Why don't we start with the easy explanation? They're lying." Morgan states as he flips through the case files.
"They are not lying." I say before plopping down into the chair next to Morgan.
"It could be a group delusion." Prentiss adds.
"They have a similar age range. All point in that direction, 33 to 35 years old. But the geographic diversity kind of rules that out." Reid starts.
"Yeah Mr. Merrin is from Topeka. Christine from Rosewell, Georgia and Daniel is from Maine. They all have different social circles, racial backgrounds, and economic levels." Garcia points out.
"So he's an unsub that's not killing people but creating killers. Murder by proxy if you will." Rossi says.
"It's gotta be drugs." Morgan adds.
"The stories sound like bad trips but the reports say that all tox screens are negative." I add. "But they looked for known drugs. This unsub could be some sort of crazy scientist who made his own shit." I say looking at the screen.
"Language." Hotch tells me not looking up from the files.
"Okay Captain America." I tease him. Morgan chuckles before looking at Reid whos about to explain something.
"Every drug effects everyone differently. Yet this unsub somehow was able to make his drug affect 3 completely dissimilar people in the same exact way." Reid says stumped.
"Maybe they aren't dissimilar at all. Maybe the drugs are the tipping point and these 3 people share some sort of pre-existing mental condition he knows he can tap into to induce them to kill." Hotch adds.
"We find that, we find him." I utter.
JJ walks in and tells us we can interview Daniel now.
"Okay Morgan and Isla go and interview him." Morgan nods and begins to get up.
"You sure? I already interviewed Mr. Merrin. Don't you want Prentiss or Rossi to do it?" I ask in shock.
"No, you out of everyone at this table believe they are innocent. Prove it." Hotch says before turning his back to me and closing a file. A smile forms on my face before I turn around and join Morgan.
"Looks like Hotch believes in you." Morgan tells me with a smile as he interlocks his hand in mine. I look up at him and smile.
"As he should, I'm downright amazing." I joke. He laughs and kisses my hand in his.
"Yes you are."
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We enter the room and sit side to side looking at Daniel in front of us.
"Did I kill her quickly?" he asks us referring to his mother.
"Mr. Karras we want to get to the bottom of this too. So we'd like to take you through a cognitive interview." Morgan tells him calmly as he intertwines his hands together in front of him on the desk.
"What's the point?" Daniel asks defeated. His eyes are puffy and he won't even look us in the eye.
"It could help you remember little details you couldn't remember before, and that can help us understand what really happened." I explain to him.
Daniel nods slightly and does what he's told.
"Okay now tell me what's going on." I tell him.
"I got home early and my mom wasn't home. Than I remembered she said she was going to the movies with some friends. So I opened the fridge and started to drink a beer but I thought it tasted funny, so I looked and realized it wasn't my beer that tasted funny. It was a smell from somewhere else." He says retelling what happened a week ago.
"What was the smell?" I ask.
"Sage."
Morgan looks at me than at Daniel.
"You sure about that?" He asks and Daniel agrees.
"Yeah because once I placed what the smell was I passed out."
"How long were you out?" I ask.
"I don't know, when I came to it was dark and I couldn't move. I was tied to the dinner table and...i-it did sexual things to me." Daniel confesses as a tear rolls down his face. He starts to cry slightly before continuing.
"He had these...these talons for hands, and..." He stops to wipe away a tear before looking away.
"I got free...and then I, um...hid in the house...and um next thing I remember, I was standing over my moms body." He confesses before a sob escapes him mouth. "And the cops were cuffing me. Maybe-maybe you know, maybe the-the rape, made me snap, you know? And I lashed out at the fist person I saw?" He states as he tries to come up with an explanation.
"It's the only way that this makes sense." He sobs.
"The police ran a rape kit on you. There wasn't any evidence to prove what you are saying." Morgan tells him slowly.
"Okay, well run another one." Daniel tells us. I bite my lips and look up at him with sad eyes.
"There wasn't any rope burns on your arms and legs, no evidence of even a break in." I tell him with a sincere voice.
"Are you trying to tell me this didn't happen to me?! Because it did!" He yells at us as tears drip down his face and fall on his blue button up shirt.
"Daniel I am extremely sorry about what's happening to you. It's not that I don't believe you, it's that there's no evidence. I want to believe you. We know what you are going through." I tell him trying to calm him down.
"You do?" He asks us.
"Yeah man, and it really sucks that you have to experience this pain." Morgan tells him.
"We can take a break for now. Let you rest up, and relax. How does that sound?" I ask him.
Daniel wipes his dripping nose as he nods his head.
"Yeah...yeah I'd like that." he whispers. I nod once and get up from the metal chair, Morgan following suit.
We exit the door and make it back to our desks. Reid walks in holding a bag of evidence and calls everyone to meet in a circle.
"I found a plastic tube in one of the houses vents so I sent it to evidence. The plastic tested positive for sevoflurane and scopolamine, both powerful disassociatives. The first is used to put you into a waking dream. Dentists often use it during oral surgery. The second, in high doses, makes you completely suggestible." Reid explains.
"So the first drug the unsub used makes the victims hallucinate their worst fear." I add up.
"Then uses the second to make them attack that fear when it's actually just the person next to them." Morgan finishes.
"They don't realize they are killing somebody that they love." I state sadly.
"Once they do, their lives are ruined forever. Even if they plead insanity they will never go back to their old life style." Rossi informs.
"Okay everyone what's you're biggest childhood fears, JJ start." Hotch asks with his arms crossed.
"Being separated from my parents." She says after a moment of thought.
"Phantom of the Opera." Rossi states.
"My parents." I add, licking my suddenly dry lips. Hotch looks at me for a second with apologetic eyes before he turns to everyone else.
"Exactly, everyone had a different fear. Yet this unsub was able to inflict the same thing." Hotch includes.
"The initial police reports called it a dark figure, but with our investigation it's more than that. They go in detail, a shadow figure with sharp talon hands." Reid says as his mind goes back to every single word spoken at every single interview.
"All three said the exact same thing. It's too descriptive to be a childhood nightmare. It has to be something that they all experienced, maybe too young to really know exactly what was going on." I think aloud.
"But they are from different states." JJ says confused.
"No, they were adopted from different states. But at some point they all shared a group home." Prentiss tells the group.
"Okay we all believe this, but how do we prove it?" Morgan asks as he looks up at everyone from his seated position on the corner of his desk. Hotch suddenly grabs prices of paper and instructs me to grab pens.
"Bring this to Mr. Merrin." He tells me. I nod and make my way over to his room. I knock politely before entering.
"Did you find whoever did this?" He asks getting out of his chair. I shake my head and slowly close the door.
"No, but it could help me find them if you could draw me what you saw that night." I tell him as I slide him the paper and pen.
"I'm not the best drawer." He tells me. I chuckle as he starts to scribble away.
"You and me both" I tell him.
I grab his paper once he signals that he is done.
I look down at the paper, examining every detail. A black long shadowy figure is sketched. The sharp long talon fingers stretch to the ends of the paper and it's scribbled almost as if a child made it.
"Thank you. I'll let you know if we find something." I tell him. He sighs before sitting back in his chair.
"Thank you agent." He mumbles before going back to doing nothing. I frown before exiting the room and walking back to my desk, finding the area empty since everyone else are asking the rest of the victims exactly what I did.
My eyes cast down back onto the drawing, a chill running up my spine. I shake my head and chuckle to myself.
"It's not a real monster, it's only a person." I think to myself.
3rd POV:
Isla shakes her head dismissively at the drawing before placing it on her desk. She pushes thought of the shadowy monster to the back of her mind, instead trying to think about the victims and their situation. But the luring unsettling feeling about the illusion continues to irk her.
Little did she know that 'person' was indeed a real monster, and she was soon going to know exactly how real he is.
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This took forever to write but I finally finished it. Hope you enjoyed it, I tried something different in the end with the 3rd pov. Let me know if you thought it was a nice touch.
Vote and comment!
Word count: 3366