꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎
after joining the bau, madelyn mortier's hazy past clears--allowing her a fresh start. she endevers in this newfound family but will the demons of her past seep back in to destroy it? can she start anew and put aside her ghosts to focus on...
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╭──╯ . . . . . VIOLENT DELIGHTS ܴೈ
✧.* ONEERTAXEA . . . . . ╰──╮
october 20th, 2009
the hunt for bosola had become an all-consuming fire, the kind that leaves everything in ashes when it's done. garcia found a string of financial transactions, large sums moving from judge schuller's account to some third party, then nothing. schuller had wiped himself clean and signed everything over to a victim support group like he was preparing for his endgame. or maybe just the end.
i pressed schuller hard, maybe too hard, but it worked. eventually, he gave up the name of his final victim: dan patton, the drunk who killed his wife. when we found patton's body, the scene was gruesome. his motel room was destroyed—furniture upturned, blood staining the walls. and there he was, his body beaten to a pulp. the brutality of it turned my stomach, and all i could think was, this is what justice looks like to him.
but patton wasn't bosola's final mark. hotch and emily discovered it—schuller himself was next. bosola wasn't done, and neither were we. we were prepping to move schuller for his safety when everything fell apart.
the team rushed him outside. morgan, jj, and i flanked him as the press swarmed, cameras flashing in our faces like a swarm of insects. morgan's phone rang, pulling him back, leaving me and jj to handle the crowd. schuller, handcuffed and stone-faced, moved through the chaos with us. and then, he said it. "i lied." i barely caught the words at first. "what?"
but before i could press him, a gunshot rang out. time was fractured. everything exploded into pure chaos. the scream of the crowd, the blur of bodies scattering, the crack of the bullet—it all became a whirl of sound and motion. i felt the spray of blood before i saw it. hot and thick, it splattered across my face. the judge crumpled at my feet, lifeless.
i reached for my gun instinctively, scanning the crowd, but all i could see were faces, screaming, running, panicked. the adrenaline hit me hard, my heart pounding so fast i thought it might burst. i was trained for this, for high-pressure moments, but this was different. my mind raced, trying to process everything at once, but it felt like the world had narrowed down to this one chaotic moment. schuller, dead at my feet. bosola, escaping without a trace.
the blood kept spreading across the pavement, pooling around schuller's body. i couldn't tear my eyes away. his chest heaved once, a final, futile breath, and then nothing. something small and shiny glinted in his hand. i knelt, my fingers brushing the cold metal of a gold locket. emma's picture inside, staring up at me.
the world seemed to blur, the sounds of the team shouting orders fading into the background as i wiped the blood from my face. my hands trembled, though i didn't feel it. bosola was gone, and schuller—our key to finding him—was dead.
