Echos of a Genius | Spencer Reid

Dead Isn't Dead

Stephie

Journal,
I stay up most nights, worrying, pacing, praying.
I pray for Spencer, I pray for Hotch, the team. I pray for myself, and I beg God to make it right, to get rid of whatever evil keeps coming my way.  Spencer doesn't know I do this, he doesn't know anything is going on. I want to keep it that way.
It's been three weeks since I got my last message, Foyet is driving Hotch insane and I'm placing my bets on him making a move sooner rather than later. It scares me.

Journal,
Haley is dead. Foyet killed her. He killed Hotch's wife. It puts it all into perspective, how dangerous this job really is. How nobody is safe. Spencer's not safe. I got another text this morning before I got the call from JJ to come to the office. It said "One by one they all fall down, you don't sleep much do you?" 
I'm being watched. He's being watched.

Journal,
Spencer has been cleared. He's back in the field, back in more danger than he was before. Hotch comes back today. I'm nervous to face him, I won't look at him, I can't. On our way home from the office today Spencer stopped to play chess with a young man in the park, we were there for hours. I spent those hours on edge, like at any moment someone was going to pop out and shoot him. I can't keep living like this.

As I walk up to Spencer's apartment building I can't help but feel as if I'm being watched, and when I turn my head slightly, I see I'm right. My body tenses when I see the hooded figure standing off the side.

"Stepheni?" It calls out and I walk faster, I reach for the gun in my belt, even on my off days I have it with me now.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I point the gun straight at the man's chest and he freezes.

"Please, i'm not here to hurt you. Stepheni, I'm here to warn you." Suddenly it comes back to me, the voice, how could I ever forget that voice?

"Mr. DeMarco?" I lower my gun and the man who has to now be in his late 40's takes off his hood. He hasn't aged at all, he's still the same guy who use to drive me to school and help me clean my room.

"What are you doing here?" I can't help but smile at him, Ethan DeMarco, he worked for my father for many years. I'm not sure what he really did but he drove me to and from school everyday, attended my mandatory tea parties on Tuesdays and accompanied me everywhere. He was the only one I had when my mom died, until he stopped coming around. My guess is my father moved his placement. He didn't want me protected anymore, he needed me gone.

"Stepheni, look at you." He smiles at me, a safe smile i've always known. "You're all grown up."

He rubs his face like he's about to cry. "You look just like her," He's talking about my mother. I look like her?

"As much as I'd love to catch up I don't have much time," He comes closer and waves me to do the same, he looks around like he's being followed too.

"What's going on?" I tense up, after all these years I would hope this is a just a visit but given these shady circumstances, I know it's not.

"Your father is not dead Stepheni. He is alive and he's coming for you, if he finds out I was here.." DeMarco looks around. "I'm as good as dead."

"That's impossible,"

I can't believe what I'm hearing. My father, alive? After all these years, after all the destruction he caused? It doesn't seem possible.

"Mr. DeMarco, that's impossible. He blew up a federal building. You don't escape that," I say, my voice quivering despite my attempt to stay calm.

DeMarco shakes his head, his expression tight. "Stepheni, he had help. People you wouldn't even believe. He disappeared before the explosion. The authorities think they buried him under the rubble, but he was already long gone. And now... he's coming for you."