Special Agent Angel (Criminal Minds fanfiction) [Season 1]

Compulsion [4]

The Dean handed over a pile of papers to Elle "These are all the women on campus with the first name Karen,"

"A lot of Karens," Elle told Morgan

"Hmm,"

***

"What if the unsub is one of the students leaving?" Reid asked Gideon as he and Samarra sat underneath a tree outside, the girl working away on her laptop with an earbud in. 

"No, he's not done yet," Gideon replied "He's not goin' anywhere. Keep thinkin',"

"You mean, out...outside the box? That's what Morgan's always telling me. He says that's why I can never beat you at chess,"

"Well, he's probably right," Sam pointed out.

"Well, I mean in this situation. What exactly is the box?"

"The standard profile of a serial arsonist," Gideon replied, "If everything you know goes in the box, what's left?"

"What you don't know,"

"The unknown," Samarra added

"Sometimes you have to get creative," Gideon told them "Even if you think it's utterly unlikely, you have to think of things nobody else thought of,"

"Like a stutter,"

"Yeah, exactly,"

***

"Thank you, Karen," Elle said as she led a female out of the room, before closing the door "Karen number seven,"

"You know there's gotta be a faster way to do this." Morgan pointed out with a sigh. "How 'bout we just change the first question to 'have you recently dated a homicidal pyromaniac?'"

"Speaking of questions, you figure out yet why the footpath killer stuttered?"

"Nope. You?"

"I know that embarrassment makes a stutter worse and that when you're flustered, it's more difficult to control the articulatory musculature of the face,"

"You sound like Reid,"

"You did not just say that," Elle laughed

"Obviously, somebody's been doin' their homework,"

"I still have no idea what causes a stutter," Elle opened the door "Karen. Number eight,"

***

"Okay, gorgeous, I've put this thing through every audio filter I've got." Garcia explained on the phone "There's only one thing I can tell you for sure. This guy isn't saying 'Karen'. It's more like 'Ka-rone',"

Samarra looked up at Morgan in confusion.

"Garcia, what the hell is Ka-rone?" Morgan asked as he took a seat next to Sam.

"If I figure it out, does it earn me a night of passionate lovemaking?" Garcia teased

Morgan chuckled "Most definitely, sweetness..."

"Who said I was talking about with you,"

Samarra quickly reached over towards the phone "Bye Garcia," she hung up the phone.

"Something you want to tell me," Morgan laughed

Sam rolled her eyes "Hey, Reid. It's not Karen. It's actually somethin' more like..."

"Charon," Gideon interrupted as he came in the room.

"How does he do that?"

"Charon?" Reid asked confused

"Charon. I do it because of Charon." Gideon said quickly.

"It's Hebrew," Samarra pointed out

"It's God's burning anger,"

"Yeah,"

"The motive is now religious?" Elle asked

"Well, you know, in a lot of religions, god is related to fire," Reid said

"Well, Agni is fire in Hinduism and the Jews see God as a pillar of fire, and Christians worship God as a consuming fire," Sam listed

"Ok, so we're lookin' for a Theology Major," Morgan said "Maybe he's punishing the other students for their sins,"

"I don't want this," Reid said as he handed Samarra the salad.

"What...what's the most sinful place on campus?" Elle asked, everyone, turning to Sam.

"Hi, I was kidnapped and kept by a religious cult because my birthday literally was 666," Samarra reminded them "Ok and now I'm taking offense that you would automatically assume that I would know where the sinful place on campus would be,"

"Well do you?" Hotchner asked

"When I was in college, that was everywhere," Morgan pointed out

"Fraternity?"

"Campus bar?" Elle noted

"No, 'cause that's not consistent with the previous targets," Sam claimed

"What about the idea of Baptism by fire?" Morgan asked, "Aren't we all supposed to be tested through fire in revelations?"

"Look, it's good, it's good, but let's please do not jump to conclusions," Gideon spoke up after writing on a whiteboard. "Religion might be a part of it, but it's not necessarily the prime compulsion,"

"Gideon, rush to conclusions, jump to conclusions," Morgan argued, "Who cares?"

"We are running out of time," Elle exclaimed

"Compulsion," Samarra realized as she hurried over to her laptop and opened up the videotape of a previous fire.

"What, the...this is crazy," a student said on the tape. "Hey, Matt, get over here. You gotta see this. The building's on fire,"

"Bro, you getting this?" Matt asked "Two of 'em, man,"

"Yeah, get out of the way! We should call campus security,"

"Relax, man. There's always fires during rush week,"

"Yeah, but that's pretty big,"

"Dude, over here. Check this out," the camera angle changed to the smoke underneath the door. "What is that?"

"I don't know, but it's coming underneath the door,"

"Is someone in the hallway? Hey, someone's trying to get in."

"Hey, Matt, you should get away from there,"

"Oh, my god. It smells like gas" Matt engulfed in flames "Oh! Oh! God! Oh, my God! Help! Oh, my God!"

"Oh, my God! Aah! Hold on, Matt!"

Samarra looked around the room and realized she was the only one there and noticed the night sky outside the window. Sam shrugged as she knew that the only thing to do now was to keep working. Samarra tapped her keyboard to rewind the tape. She stood up and went to Gideon's whiteboard remembering what Morga had said to Reid on how to beat Gideon at Chess "Outside the box," Sam erased the board and wrote Fire in the center and circled it.

"Keep thinkin'," Gideon said as he opened up the door causing Samarra to jump. "It's like chess. Don't look at just the next move. Try to look three moves ahead," Gideon went to leave but looked back at Sam "And don't tell Reid I told you that,"

Samarra smiled before she headed back to the video and replayed it.