A FRACTURE IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS ✓

TYLER

"Brendon Urie has an IQ of 179, hyperthymesia, and received a diagnosis of schizophrenia at just fifteen years old," Tyler read aloud from the file Dallon created on their new suspect. "He was a renowned psychopathologist and the youngest in his field to have over five PhD's. Damn. Two more than me."

Josh scoffed from the bathroom doorway, a towel around his waist. "Yeah, like three isn't an excessive amount of PhD's to have. You should be ashamed of yourself, Special Agent Joseph."

"It's Dr. Joseph, you're the special agent in this relationship." Tyler could almost hear him roll his eyes. "Anyways, he was developing new ways to treat mental illnesses. He went off the grid after one of his roommates Ryan Ross was murdered in Washington state during spring break of this year."

"Jesus, what a nutcase," Josh mumbled. He let the towel drop and pulled on a pair of boxers and sweatpants, plugging his phone into the wall beside the bed.

Tyler shrugged, flipping the page. "Not going to disagree with you on that one."

"Can't wait to finally hunt this son of a bitch down and go home. I bet Jim misses us." Josh fell onto the bed and rested his head on Tyler's chest, draping an arm over his stomach. "Go to bed, Ty."

"In a minute. I'm almost done reading the files."

"You're always almost done reading files."

"I've only got thirty two pages left."

Josh scoffed. "You know what, I'm not surprised at this point."

"You shouldn't be. We've been for dating two years."

Josh hummed and kissed his neck. "Two and a half," he mumbled in response.

Tyler smiled to himself. "Whatever."

They met before Tyler joined the FBI. He was a jobless professor who traveled doing seminars at school to pay for bills. Josh, having been a special agent for quite some time, offered him a job with the Behavioral Analysis Unit as a temporary asset that assisted them with cases.

Eventually, Tyler became a permanent member, but by then he and Josh were already dating. The others turned a blind eye to their relationship since fraternization with other coworkers was against the rules, but they were good for each other; Tyler's calm and thoughtful nature helped balance out Josh's hot-headedness.

It was supposed to be a surprise, but Tyler knew he was going to propose when they got back to Virginia. Josh wasn't good at hiding things from him, especially when he 'accidentally' leaves the engagement ring on the bathroom counter.

But that was what Tyler loved about Josh. He was an open book, and he wasn't hiding his love for Tyler.

Tyler continued reading even after Josh fell asleep, using the lighting from his phone so he didn't disturb his boyfriend.

Brendon's life paralleled that of his victims, a combination of gifts and a debilitating mental illness. Tyler believed the man to be controlled by his delusions, but he had yet to solve what those delusions were.

They couldn't quite pinpoint where his motivation came from, but he had to have an overwhelming sense of self-hatred to take out on his victims the way that he did. This meant Brendon wouldn't stop killing until he was caught or dead.

Hayley Williams was an autistic geneticist professor in UCLA at the age of 19. Her split brain syndrome allowed her to read 35,000 words per minute and recite everything she read perfectly. She knew over seven languages and spoke them all fluently, learning them just by listening to international radio stations when she was younger.

According to the timeline Tyler and his team created, she was the first victim. The killer cut nearly every nonfatal nerve in her body that was accessible from the surface of the skin. After being kept alive and tortured for five days, she died of cardiac arrest after he administered a lethal dose of adrenaline directly into her heart.

Nicolas Bourbaki was a 13-year-old high school graduate starting his first year of college studying physics. This child genus was the youngest person in the world to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, getting an official diagnosis at the age of 9. The psychologists who studied him claimed that the voices helped him develop new mathematic equations that could develop a way to collect the energy surge of neutron stars and convert them into usable electrical energy.

The killer drilled holes into Nico's bones and poured hydrochloride acid into the holes, letting the acid eat away at his flesh and muscle. He was kept alive for a week before finally dying when the acid corrosion reached his brain.

Tegan and Sara Quin were mirror twins and the world's best example of a mental and empathetic connection between twins. Sara was above average with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder earlier that same year at the age of 14. But it was Tegan that the killer was after. She was a musical prodigy, learning and excelling at not only the cello but the piano, violin, kazoo, and Piccolo, all before the age of 7.

They were kidnapped at the same time and believed to be kept in separate rooms. Several of Tegan's bones were broken with a sledgehammer, while Sara's body was covered in bruises that matched where the break of the bones was. Tegan drowned in her own blood when one of her ribs punctured her lungs, while Sara died of starvation. It looked like the killer hadn't touched her at all in the twelve days he kept them.

Their bodies were disposed on the steps of their colleges. UCLA for Hayley, Stanford for Nicolas, UC Berkeley for Sara, and Juilliard for Tegan. The oddest thing about this was every school except for Juilliard was based in California. Nobody could figure out how the killer was able to take Sara from New York to California and bring her back.

Guess they were going to find out, but not tonight.

Tyler scribbled some more notes and doodles and shut the file, setting it on the floor with his messenger bag. He set his phone on its side, nuzzling into Josh.

In hindsight, Tyler should've went to bed earlier, because he'd wake up the next morning groggy, and it was the last bit of sleep he was going to get for a long time.