CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: WHAT'S TWILIGHT !

5x07
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       AS USUAL, THE TEAM HAD BEEN CALLED IN FOR ANOTHER CASE. This one regarding a young girl that was murdered and her body was found near the freeway. JJ was now presenting the case to them.

       "The latest victim is Tara Farris, 20. She's the third victim in two weeks. All found on freeway off-ramps by commuters." JJ explains. "Well, he's not hiding them." Hotch adds as the files are passed to them.

         "An LA freeway during morning rush hour? He wants them found." Rossi states. "Quickly." Morgan added on. "Well, they're still dressed. That minimizes the shock value." Emily tells. "Maybe he's concerned for them." Reid tells. "Think he wants them taken care of?" Casey questioned. "No signs of sexual assault on any of the victims." JJ tells.

          "Look how pale she is." Rossi says, looking down at the pictures in front of him. "All of them were severely hypovolemic," JJ tells. "Tara had less than a pint of blood in her."

           Reid speaks next: "Look at this. The first two had more than three pints each. If exsanguination is the goal, the unsub is definitely becoming more proficient."

           "This is new," JJ takes her remote and presses towards the screen. "Tara's the only victim to have a written message." On Tara's arm, blood spelt out the words — "'The Liar.'" 

          "'The Liar'," Emily spoke. "That's strange, isn't it? Not a liar or just 'liar'." Morgan looks down at the file. "So, what did you lie about, Tara?" JJ continued, "All of the victims appear to have been strangled and then bled out through identical wounds in the throat."

          "Wait-- seriously, are those supposed to be fang marks?" Emily indicated towards Tara's next. "All of the wounds on the victims were covered in saliva." JJ told. "Human saliva, as though--"

          Reid finished off, "Someone drank their blood." Casey's stomach twisted, "Ew." Was all she said.

          The team took the jet down to LA and everyone had now been going over the case. JJ and Rossi had been sitting over at their seats, Emily and Hotch in the other seats and Derek, Reid and Casey all on the couch. JJ had finally gotten off the phone.

         "So, they've already set up a task force in Los Angeles." JJ told. "This isn't their first serial case." Rossi says and JJ looks over at Reid. "You remember Detective Owen Kim?"
         "From the stalker case." Hotch added.
         "You remember that case, don't you, Spence?" JJ asked the man and he nods, "I do remember that case."

          "Yeah, you ever talk to, um, Lila anymore?" JJ asks.
          "Who's Lila?" Casey asks in curiousness.

       Reid immediately looks up and completely squashes it. "You know, I think we should probably focus on this case right now."
       "Well, I wanna know who Lila is—" Casey speaks up. "Well, this case is a little more pertinent." Reid tells, looking over at the girl and Casey gives him a look before looking over at Rossi and Emily, who also don't know what JJ and Reid were talking about.

        "All right, so tell us about blood-drinkers, Reid." Derek starts, changing the subject. "Human blood consumption or clinical vampirism, is known as Renfield's Syndrome, named after the insect-eating character in Bram Stoker's novel 'Dracula'." Reid explained.

         "Are they sadists?" Emily asks. "Not necessarily," Reid tells. "Pain to the victim is usually only a byproduct. Blood is the focus. Renfield's Syndrome is usually accompanied by Varying levels of schizophrenia and occasionally more classic cannibalism if the condition evolves." Reid stated as Casey had noticed Penelope coming onscreen.

         "'Classic cannibalism'." Rossi repeated. "Lovely job we have." Casey smiled over at his comment. "I will say this-- true cases are exceedingly rare." Reid added. "That's comforting. Sort of." JJ comments.

          Penelope speaks up next. "Renfield's may be rare, but vampires are anything but. And there's a huge subculture in Los Angeles of the red-drinking undead."
         "Why is that not a surprise?" Rossi asks. "Well, with new vampire films coming out in the cinema, it's bound for a fan base to get bigger and bigger and people get crazier and... fangirl-y." Casey explains.

        Garcia shows a slideshow of people dressed up as vampires and looking very pale, with red eyes and maybe even looking dead. "Garcia, all these people drink blood?" Morgan asks.

       "Au contraire," Penelope says. "They mostly just dress up like Prentiss did in high school and they make believe. It's all kinds of delicious." Casey smiles at the Prentiss comment.

       "It's not the same thing at all," Reid starts. "As a matter of fact, we should refer to this unsub as a vampirist, not a vampire and they would be attracted to the subculture merely for its professed worship of blood."

       "Okay, I'm going to continue spelunking through the various online sites, see if anything jumps up and bites me." Penelope explains.

       "Thanks, babyg--" Morgan stops himself and corrects himself. Casey knew that Morgan was basically the Unit Chief and he knew he had to be professional on the job. She missed Penelope and Morgan being flirty, though. It was a good distraction instead of always being sad about a case all the time.

       "Thanks, Penelope. Stay close." Morgan tells as Garcia smirks, "Yes, sir. Garcia out." She is gone from the call and Reid speaks up one more time.

        "You guys, one more thing-- vampirists are coveters. They most generally always have some sort of relationship with the victim, even if it's tangential. And they're likely to become obsessed. They've almost certainly crossed paths in some way."

        After the jet ride, they had gone down to the police station and were met with Lieutenant Kim, who immediately shook JJ's hand. She reintroduced herself and he remembered her.

        "JJ, of course. I remember most of you. Agent Hotchner. Reid. Morgan." He shakes their hands. "Welcome back to the left coast."

        "These are agents Prentiss, Rossi and Willows. I believe they're new to you." Lieutenant Kim shakes their hands, going down the row. "Pleasure to meet you."

         "We already have a room set up full of glass boards, case files and extremely bad coffee." They begin to follow Lieutenant Kim to a different room. "We've worked with a lot less." Emily comments.

         "Agent Morgan's in charge now. It's his show." Hotch tells and Lieutenant Kim is confused, to which Hotch replies with: "Long story."

          "I know you like to start with the freshest information and work your way back. So Tara's apartment has been processed and sealed in case you want to go there. And her body, along with that of the first two girls, is at the morgue with an ME, waiting there for your call." Kim explains.

         "All right," Morgan begins. "JJ, get set up here and then hook up with Garcia. Send her the witness information so she can start cross-referencing with the first two victims. Casey, I want you joining her on that." Casey nods at Morgan. "On it."

          "Reid, I want you to go through all the case files, set up a preliminary profile based on what you already know about the psychopathology. And the rest of us, let's find out what we can on Tara."

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JJ and Casey had decided that in the morning, they would go and visit the victims' family and friends to see if they could find any info on Tara. They were now getting Penelope to hook up and dig through her laptop.

"Penelope?" JJ asked as Penelope spoke to them over the phone. "Are we in yet?" Penelope asks. "All yours." JJ says as Penelope sighs,
"I always feel skeevy going through someone's life like this." Casey reminds the girl, "It's for a good thing, you know."

"Ok, so everything looks like it's password protected, so you might not even be able to--" Before JJ could finish her sentence, Garcia was already logged in. "You're in already, aren't you?"

"The password was 'Cullen'." Garcia says. Both JJ and Casey look at one another. "Of course." JJ says.

"'Colon'?" Reid questioned.
"'Cullen'," JJ corrected. "The vampire family from 'Twilight.'?" Casey added.

"What's 'Twilight'?" Reid questioned.

Both JJ and Casey give one another. "Do you ever read anything other than technical books?" JJ asks. "Not much in English." Reid says.

"Okay, I'll see what I can dredge," Penelope speaks. "My love is strong."
"Mine's stronger, thanks." Casey smirks.

JJ stands up, grabbing her coat and Casey furrows her eyebrows at her. "Where you going?" She asked. "I'm gonna go speak with Tara's family, maybe they give me something on Tara. I'll see you guys when I get back." JJ walks out and Casey looks over at Reid.

"How's the profile coming?" Casey asks him. "I don't know. I never really feel ready, you know?" Reid says and Casey could tell he was doubting himself.

"It'll be fine. You're Spencer friggin' Reid. You got this in the bag." Casey stands up from her seat. "And since JJ's leaving, I should probably go, too. I'm gonna go talk to Tara's BFF before the media requests come in and it gets too crazy." Casey explains.

"What's a 'BFF'?" Reid asked. "'Best Friend Forever'. Seriously, dude, we gotta get you a modern day dictionary." Casey tells.

"Should I go with you?" Reid questions. "Nah, I've got it covered. You have a profile to deliver, anyways."

"I should really work on it a little more." Reid says. Casey rolls her eyes and grabs Reid's phone from the table and presses Derek's contact and calls him. "What are you doing with my phone?" Reid asks.

Derek picks up immediately. "Derek, hey, um," Spencer is shaking his head and tell Casey to stop. "Spencer is ready for the profile." Reid throws a defeated look towards Casey. "Why, yes, he is, right here."

"Thanks." Reid says. "You should really get a password on there, man. I'll be back." Casey excused herself and leaves the station and heads down to Gina's, Tara's BFF's, home. It was a long drive but eventually, she made it.

           Casey pulled up in front of the house and made sure she had the right address before walking towards the porch. It looked pretty rough around the edges, but it was a home. Casey knocked on the door and a girl had immediately opened the door. It was Gina. She looked like the girls that had been killed and looked on edge as she sputtered her words out:

           "Stop. don't to that. Grandma's asleep. She's gonna wake up. So you have to stop it. I need to go to the yard." Gina looked strung out on something. She had rushed off and Casey had decided to follow her as she continued to call her name.

            Gina made her way towards her backyard,
muttering to herself as she did so. "Gina." Casey called as she followed her through her messy home. "Gina, I'm with the-- FBI." Casey looked around, noticing the mess.

            Casey had eventually made it to her backyard. "Gina, my name is Casey Willows. Where'd you go? Gina..." Casey had found Gina, in what looked to be like a garden greenhouse and she was putting jugs of red liquid away in coolers.

            Before Casey could ask her what was going on, Casey was then hit upside the head with something hard and she was knocked to the ground. It was as if she had passed out for a minute.

             Her head had hurt as if she had a massive headache — to which she did. Casey looked up but kept her head down and heard mumbled words from two people speaking.

          "It's all going to go bad."
          "Forget that. You've got to kill her."

      Casey's cell began to buzz and she looked over and her vision was blurry. This person must've hit her on the head pretty hard. Their conversation echoed and Casey covered her ears in pain as her phone on the ground still buzzed.

       Casey had tried pulling herself together but fortunately, before she could, the man landed on the ground with a thud and Casey looked up and saw JJ had come to her rescue. JJ aimed her gun at Gina. "Don't move." She threatened.

         JJ looked over at Casey, who had began to stand up. "It's gonna be fine, Casey. Just stay there, okay? The team's on their way."

         Gina had a smile on her face and went towards the knocked-out man. "Hey!" JJ called. "Casey? JJ!" Casey heard both Morgan and Hotch call.

          "In the back!" Casey announced. The team had arrived and Emily had helped Casey up and Casey held her head in pain. "You okay?" Emily asked. "Son of a bitch hit me over the head with a shovel." Casey told.

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       The case had been solved since it had been the manager of a popular rock star, who had hit Casey over the head and a fan of the popular rock star that had been behind the murders.

       The team had been on their way home and Casey was still in pain, holding an ice pack to her head and rested over on the couch. "Hey, do you guys think Davies will continues to perform as Dante?" Reid questioned.

       "The character's probably responsible for the murder of four women. If he has any conscience at all, Dante died with them." Emily told as she handed Casey a water bottle and Hotch had handed Casey some pills. "Thanks." Casey said.

       "Are you okay?" Emily asks the girl. "Yeah, doctor said it'll be sore for a while, but I'm fine, really." Casey told.

        Reid had made his way over to Casey with his crutches and grabbed a blanket. "I feel so bad I didn't go with you to interview Gina." Reid said, feeling guilty that Casey got hurt. He placed a blanket over her body and tossed it over to her and sat next to her on the couch.
        "Yeah, we should've gone together. I feel bad that I didn't just meet you there." JJ said, also feeling guilty.

         "Reid, stop, all right? We had no way of knowing she was gonna be dangerous. She was just the friend of a victim. And luckily, nothing happened because JJ saved me. Thank you, again, by the way." Casey told, looking towards a smiling JJ. "You're welcome."

         "Seriously, guys, we had no way of knowing that Gina had that type of anger inside of her." Morgan told, assuring Reid and JJ. "Yeah, but she was obsessed with Dante. I should have known that that level of fixation can lead to manipulation." Reid explained.

         "But only when the fixation's coupled with schizophrenia, which we had no way of knowing." Hotch tells. "Still it never ceases to amaze me how dark obsession can get." Emily added.

         "And with a pop star?" Rossi asked. "I mean, I was obsessed with the Rat Pack, but I wouldn't have killed for Frank or Dean." Rossi told.
         "No, you just drank whiskey and smoked cigars." Hotch tells.
          "This from the man who's favorite record is The Beatles' white album."
          "Just because Manson hijacked it, doesn't have to ruin it for the rest of us."

        Casey chuckled over at Rossi and Hotch's quarrel and then said, "Don't make me laugh, you two, my head hurts."

         "That's why I stick to Beethoven," Reid says. "There's no chance of guilt by association." Everyone looks at one another and then Reid. "Well, yeah. Have you ever seen a movie called 'A Clockwork Orange'?" Emily asks, to which Reid shakes his head. Everyone begins to chuckle and smile towards one another's direction.

           Reid looks towards Casey again. "Again, I'm sorry I didn't go with you." He apologized once more. "Reid, seriously, it's okay. If anything, you could make it up to me..."

           Reid furrows his eyebrows. "How?"

           Casey and JJ lock eyes before Casey looks over and says: "Tell me about this Lila chick." She smirked, to which Reid immediately stood up, took his crutches and excused himself for coffee.

            "Reid? Reid! You can't just ignore the question! We're friends! You're supposed to tell me about this kinda stuff!"

hey, lovelies!
i love this episode omg

casey when she finds about reid and lila: 😳

LMAO I HAD TO ADD THAT IN

also next episode is that episode but i'm pretty excited for it so yeah

ik no one cares but my last week of football is coming up this week and i'm really sad because the season's ending but we're still going to playoffs so we'll still see each other but yeah i'm sad but on the upside: more updates!

thank you for reading y'all
ily so much
next episode is 100
i'm so excitedddd
bye y'all!
-mya <3