Psychopathy

Chapter 38- The Red Notebook

Isabel's eyes were closed as she tried to distance herself from what was happening. The devil had given up looking for the little demon and had been "missing her"- his words, not hers. So, the first chance he got, he unwrapped her from the chains, threw her to the ground, and forced himself on her. She was trying to distance herself from that act, trying to pretend like it wasn't happening. She felt the rocking in her bones intensify, and before she knew what was happening, she was drawn to another place. She was far away from her reality, in a white-washed world.

"Hello?" Isabel called out, knowing the lake had brought her there for a reason.

"I'm curious about something," the lake answered, and Isabel hung her head. She respected the lake, and she wondered if it respected her, or only saw her as a means to an end.

"What is it?"

"Why did he bring you down here? What is it about you that caught his attention? What happened in the Overworld?" the lake asked her, and Isabel swallowed. She didn't want to talk about that. She had never told anyone about that. Not even her closest friends knew about that night. But she knew she had to tell the lake. She had to divulge all to the lake or it might decide to not help her. With that thought in mind, she lifted her head, steeled her face, and with tears running down her face, began to talk.

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Reid slammed the notebook shut for the fifth time that night. It had been months, and he still hadn't cracked the code. How could it be so frustratingly hard to find? The notebook clearly stated that the code to the safe was somewhere in those lyrics. But if it was in there, Reid couldn't find it. He'd been searching in vain since September, and as December was drawing to a close, Reid wasn't sure he could handle going into the new year without any sort of answer.

Maybe he could ask Teresa for her help. Her birthday was in a few days, and while the BAU was hosting a Christmas celebration, he at least wanted to stop by. He wanted to at least wish her a happy birthday and drop off the presents he'd gotten for both her and Ria. Akilah had gone looking for gifts with him, and they'd found some good things. Reid had gotten two gifts for Teresa- one for her birthday and one for Christmas. A set of natural and fragrance-free hand sanitizers and a set of exotic coffee samplers. For Ria, Akilah had helped him pick out a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll.

But Reid didn't want to upset Teresa like that on her birthday. If he brought up the black notebook, it would be because he'd cracked the code and gotten into the safe and found if the red notebook was actually in there. As soon as he got into the safe and found out what it hid, he'd bring the information to both Teresa and the rest of the team. But for now, he had to work on finding the code inside the black notebook.

He opened the notebook and took another look inside it. Taking a deep breath, he remembered what Teresa said. Ciara made her codes so that they'd be easy for those that knew her and difficult for those that didn't. So maybe that was his problem. He was looking for something difficult. He was looking way too hard when perhaps the answer was right in plain sight. Maybe if he just took a step back and looked at it from another angle, a simpler angle, he'd find what he was looking for.

He tried looking at the lyrics at a surface level instead of the deep search he'd been doing. Maybe something on the surface would reveal itself. But when that didn't work, he realized there was something he hadn't been looking at. He looked at the inside cover of the notebook to see that every song used was written down in the order they were used. It was the fourth song that caught his attention.

"20 dollar nose bleed" by fall out boy

Reid had to wonder. Were there any more songs she'd used with numbers in them? He looked through the list and found three other songs.