memento vivere - supernatural & criminal minds

chapter 24

Chapter 24
Trojan Horse

John was given a proper hunter’s funeral. His soul was sent to the afterlife on a pyre, a thorough disconnect from the realm of the living. Destruction by fire prevented all chances of return as a phantom. Unless, of course, he remained tethered to an earthly object. Jude hoped this was not the case. She needed at least a few days of rest before she could handle anything else vaguely supernatural.

Though she had despised John since the beginning, Jude had donned black clothes and hung her head regardless. Her smoke-permeated garments were crumpled in the bag that dangled from her shoulder. The scent still clung to her hair as she brushed it from her eyes to unlock her apartment door.

She flicked on the lamp in the foyer and let her bag slide from her shoulder. The light streaked the wooden floor and glinted against something by her feet. A tarot card. Jude stooped to examine it, instinct telling her not to move it from its position. It was the Hermit positioned in reverse - isolation and loneliness, as she knew from Lydia. 

Careful not to disturb it, Jude dug a pair of latex gloves from her closet and slipped them on. She turned the card over to see 'SAVE HER' written in thick red letters on the back. Just as she finished sliding the strange interloper into a plastic bag, her phone rang. Gideon. Above his name were notifications for roughly a dozen missed calls that she hadn’t noticed until then.

“Wesson, we need you at the office.”

Jude was used to his lack of greeting. She pulled her gloves off with her teeth and dropped them in the trash. “Does this have anything to do with the eighty missed calls and the tarot card under my door?”

“You didn’t answer, so I kept trying, then I figured you were still on your flight.” Half of the calls had actually been post-flight. Jude, in her fatigue, simply hadn’t heard them. “As for the card, probably. Everyone else got something, too.”

He jumped into an explanation that Jude only got about half of. From what she could gather, none of her team had had a particularly restful weekend off. Elle had been accused of murder after a decapitated body was found at the Jamaican resort she was staying at. The head of said body had been sent to Gideon’s secluded cabin along with a Nellie Fox baseball card. JJ had been delivered a rare yellow butterfly in a shadow box, and Spencer was given a skeleton key. All of these were accompanied by messages to ‘save her.’ As far as they knew, their whereabouts had been discovered by this unsub through Garcia, who had been playing a video game in her office when her system was hacked. Jude made a note to check on her later.

“I hate to cut our breaks short, but-”

“Don’t worry about it, my weekend wasn’t all that relaxing anyway. I’ll be there in twenty.”

Once Gideon hung up, Jude set her half-dead phone to charge and ran her hands down her face. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was go to the office, but nothing about this situation gave her an option. She set the kettle on the stove to make some instant coffee and stripped off her airport clothes. The outfit she changed into was far from regulation, but she couldn’t be bothered with the dress code. If anyone made a comment about her jeans, she would simply punch them in the face.

***

Jude exchanged tired greetings with her team as they emerged from the elevator. They had just returned from the crime scene their clues had led them to. It contained a sword-punctured body, a lock of blonde hair, and a videotape that Hotch fed into the conference room VCR. Jude leaned against the wall with her coffee, fighting back a yawn. The others took their places around the table and Hotch pressed play.

The tape showed a darkened office. Shadows arched over a velvet chair and heavily decorated wooden desk. Jude recognized many of the trinkets and knick-knacks as occult. She wondered if the man ambling into view knew their true uses. The man’s face was hidden, but Morgan pointed out that he walked with a heavy limp. An injury or physical disability, Jude added.

“I assure you, you’ll all understand in the end why it must be this way.” A low, gravelly voice scratched Jude’s ears. “You may even thank me. You know now you’re on a quest. A young girl’s life depends on it.” The footage switched to black and white. A young woman was chained to a bed behind bars in what appeared to be a cellar. She shouted silently at the camera and threw a pillow at the bars with her free hand. This was the ‘her’ in ‘save her,’ it seemed. “As you can see, she’s quite beautiful…and in distress. Now please listen closely, for there is one rule and this rule must be followed. The one rule is…” Jude pushed off the wall to stand with her team. “Only the members of your team may participate in the quest.” Pictures of them flashed across the screen as he listed them off. Jude’s hand squeezed the back of Spencer’s chair as her face flicked by. 

Their stalker continued. “A quest must be completed the proper way or it isn’t a quest, is it? That’s it. One rule. Simple. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you’ll need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure for all of us.”

The voice cut out and left them in an unnerving silence. Spencer broke it, glancing up at Jude over his shoulder before asking “What do we do now?”

“The lock of hair’s being analyzed for DNA. There might be something on the file,” Hotch answered. He sent JJ to get the tape analyzed and turned back, his hands clenched so tight on the table that his knuckles had gone stark white. “Let’s get the clues up on the board, maybe we can make sense of something.”

Elle leaned forward. “We’re just gonna play this guy’s game?”

“Do we have a choice?” Spencer asked. They could safely say that they did not. Gideon stood abruptly and left the room with Hotch following quickly after. Jude watched their descent down the ramp, grinding her jaw. She knew Gideon’s cabin was his safe space away from the horrors they studied at work. The appearance of a severed head at the door was a breach of his precarious peace.

Jude bumped Elle with her hip as she passed to reach the evidence board. “You alright? I heard you had a rough night.”

“What, you weren’t accused of murder and interrogated this weekend? You’re boring.” Jude pinned her tarot card to the board and turned, her brow arched. “I’m fine, just a little tired.” More than a little, judging by the cavernous bruises beneath her eyes. “How about you, didn’t you just get back?”

“Sure, but I didn’t spend my night hungover in a Jamaican police station.”

“You visited family in South Dakota, right?” Spencer joined them, pinning his skeleton key to the board.

Jude nodded - that had been the easiest lie. She’d even been able to convince herself that it wasn’t that much of a stretch. “My uncle. He’s doing alright, if not a little cynical.” She leaned against the edge of the table, trying to find a way to pivot the conversation. “And you? How’s your mom?”

Spencer’s eyes widened just a fraction, seeming to panic before he realized that Jude hadn’t actually given anything away. “Good, she’s good.” He cleared his throat and turned back to the board. Jude just shrugged at the blank looks on Elle and Morgan’s faces. Of the three of them, only she knew that Diana Reid resided in a Las Vegas sanitarium on account of her schizophrenia. It was a secret Jude had taken great care to keep.