persephone de luca joins the bau,
solving cases by understanding
the unsubs, struggling with her
past and her future in the process.
━━━━ a criminal minds anthology ft. persephone de luca.
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HELLRAISER. && part three. the case of the starman, waiting in the sky, iii
"NOW THIS IS NICE," Morgan said as he entered the lavish hotel. I walked alongside him, my hands tapping against my thighs. It was the jingle again, the one that persisted, and I could practically taste the melody.
I tilted my head slightly, looking at the interior of the hotel building up and down. Although I listened and nodded, My mind was elsewhere. I was, officially, off the clock, this was my downtime, and my mind was buzzing. Wired headphones were hung over my neck, and I could feel the padded edges press against my skin. "It's good," I said absentmindedly, looking past the desks towards the lounging area. Through there, I could see the other detectives────Prentiss and JJ were chatting while Reid had a large book on the table, his eyebrows furrowed as he skimmed the pages. Hotch was absent, and Rossi was standing at the bar, ordering a drink. "Do they always come together afterwards?" I asked, looking at Morgan.
"Most nights, sometimes we're too exhausted, sometimes we work through the night," he confessed. Morgan walked towards the lounge and bar after they checked in, and I followed. My buttoned shirt had been untucked once I was off-duty, and I fiddled with my necklace. It was thin, and silver, with no discerning or identifying features about it.
"Hey," Prentiss said, nodding to Morgan as he approached, and I moved past the group, not stopping.
"Persephone," JJ called out, turning around in her seat to look at me. "You're welcome to join us."
"Yeah, join us, De Luca," Rossi said, as he walked back from the bar, a whiskey in hand. He sat beside JJ, gesturing with shining eyes.
I shook my head. The edges of my mouth ticked upwards quickly, but it was more of a professional acknowledgment than a genuine smile. "I'd prefer Percy, and no thank you." I left swiftly after, not allowing time for complaints or acceptance and sat at a booth further away. I pulled my headphones over my ears and pressed play on my laptop, which still had pages of star symbolism and gang symbols up. The audiobook was my latest interest────my fixation for the time being. Poisons. Sometimes it felt like there was a fire under my skin, it pricked at my flesh and if I wasn't doing something then the fire burned. I studied furiously, I practised and perfected skills, lost them over the years and then perfected them again. It was the only way to keep my mind from self-destructing.
The audiobook began to play. It detailed the symptoms and effects of Ricin, a poison sourced from castor beans that could cause organ failure. I pulled a small plastic chessboard out of my bag and set it up in front of me. I would spin it around after each move, my eyes not straying from the board. Beside me, there was a cup of tea, but it was untouched and had gone cold. Sometimes, when I wasn't aware of myself, my hand would reach for the scar that hooked from the corner of my mouth to my chin. I would trace its edge with my thumb, when I was younger, I dreamed of cutting it off, taking a kitchen knife and having it fall off my face like butter. My rational mind knew that cutting it would only make another scar, but still, one could dream.
