Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season One

A Real Rain: Part Two

You knew the unsub would strike again, you just never thought he would strike at a church, much less in a confession chamber. The priest he shot is thankfully still at the crime scene, so this must be really fresh. If you can get a clear picture, you might be able to see the unsub or the direction in which he fled.

Police are scattered throughout the outside and the inside of the church. Nora escorts your entire team inside the church to inspect the body and talk to a potential witness. If there is one, then you might be able to get something out of her. Maybe something she says will clear the picture up a little bit. The woman is sitting next to an officer inside, and you stare at her in the eyes. She doesn't look like the chatty type, but you're going to do your best to try and get something out of her.

"So, this is where terror starts," Nora sighs.

"How did they find him?" you ask.

"A night janitor. He didn't see anything, but he did remember a parishioner who was here earlier."

"And she's the potential witness?" you wonder and point to the distraught woman.

"Yeah."

Elle leaves with Derek to talk to the woman while you approach the body with Gideon, Hotch, and Spencer. He's laying on the floor with his tie wrapped around his eyes. Whatever happened, the unsub didn't want him looking at him afterward. You get up and try to focus on the events that happened last night. You close your eyes to get connected with the energies, and when you open them, you're in the past.

The church is empty save for a couple of people in the pews. One of which is the woman Elle is currently talking to. You're standing at the altar, but no one sees you. You turn and see the dead priest walk into one of the confession chambers, patiently waiting for someone to come in and confess to him. The door to the church opens and the same hooded figure comes walking in. You study his frame to memory just in case you might need it later. He's doing something weird with his hands. They're twitching, or to some, it looks like he's playing an invisible piano with the way he's tapping them against his leg.

He walks right up to you and dips his hands in the holy water to bless himself before walking over to the confession chamber. He spends only five minutes in there before fleeing. However, when he does, it's a black apparition instead of an actual body. He must have had control of his emotions and mental state before killing someone. The more mentally stable someone is, the better you can understand them. That tells you something about the unsub because he must not always be in control of who he is, especially after a kill.

You blink once, and everything is back to the way it was when you first walked in.

"First public killing. He's getting bolder, huh?" Gideon brings you back to reality.

"He didn't let his surroundings alter his method. He's meticulous. The presentation has been as important as the killing," Hotch says.

"He's unstable," you say, and the two men look at you. "He might have a mental illness that tells him to kill. He's more in control before a kill, and then after, he's all over the place. I saw it."

"So, like a psychiatric patient?" Hotch wonders.

"Could be."

"Okay, thanks."

You leave the altar and join Derek and Elle to hear what the woman has to say.

"As soon as the police asked me if I'd see anything, I had a sickly feeling," she sighs.

"So, you saw him?"

"Not his face. He had a hood on and he kept his head down."

"But something about his behavior unsettled you?"