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◗ Room Four.


Effie Hawkins finds herself being awoken by the ringing of the phone in her hotel room.

She sighs before rolling over to answer it, "Hello?" She mumbles groggily.

"Hey Effie." Spencer says through the phone.

"I was just on my way out, I'll be at the police station in about an hour." She says, assuming he was calling because she wasn't at the station yet and it was almost eleven in the morning.

"Actually that's not the reason I'm calling Effie, Hotch said that we all get tomorrow off so you get to celebrate our favorite holiday with me! Well if you want to that is." Spencer says with a chuckle.

"Oh, really? I would love to spend Halloween with you Spencer!" Effie asks him.

"Yes! Okay so it looks like we have some Halloween preparations to make later!" The excited man on the other end of the line says.

"Thank you for calling me to tell me Spence, it's awesome that we get the day off tomorrow!"

"Alright, I've got to go, we're going over some things from the case and they need me to look at it, bye Effie, I'll see you when you get to the station."

When she hangs up she notices blood dripping from the wall, Effie backs up a bit to see where it's coming from and it looks like it's dripping through the floor above her and down the walls of her room.

The girl gets up and throws on some clothes before trying to figure out where that blood was coming from, it didn't make any since to her.

So she made her way upstairs to the room directly above hers, knocking on the door after she gets there.

"Who is it?" The voice of the Cortez's maid, Mrs Evers, says through the door.

"It's Effie Hawkins, from downstairs."

"Oh! I'm busy! I'm working on these sheets." Mrs Evers says before she opens the door for the agent.

"What happened here? Was there an accident?" Effie asks once she opens the door.

"It happens every year at this time. I-I lost my boy on Halloween, so every year I go a little mad and I make a mess of everything. And I can't get a-a handle on the sheet situation."

"You -- you lost your boy? You mean he died?" The agent questions Mrs Evers.

"Not right away." She replies sadly.

"How did you lose him?" Effie asks.

"I didn't see! I wasn't paying attention! It was my fault! I should've made him a proper costume, like all the children." Mrs Evers says as she starts to cry.

"I know how that feels, especially around the anniversary." Effie says, some tears pulling at her own eyes, knowing the pain the woman is in.

"I-I made him wear a plain old sheet. Just a plain old sheet. Why didn't I pay more attention?!" She yells as she hits herself in the head.

"I'm not really sure. I feel like I'm living in a walking nightmare." Effie says in response.

"Would you like a sherry?" The woman asks the agent.

"I'm okay, thank you. I'll let you get back--" Effie says before she gets cut off.

"Will -- will you pour me one? Talking to you is a comfort to my soul." Mrs Evers says.

That makes Effie turn around, closing the door behind her after she walks into the room before she pours a drink for the older woman.

"They searched the city for days, but he wasn't in the city. His killer... took him to his ranch up in Wineville." She starts off, standing to where she's looking out the window.

"Oh, God, help me. He haunts my dreams. His woeful little eyes pierce me with accusations. 'Why weren't you careful mommy?' 'Didn't you love me mommy?' Of course I loved him!" She says as she starts to cry harder.

"At least you know what happened to your boy." The agent says.

"But I don't, not really. The man disposed of their bodies in quicklime and then scattered their bones in a mass grave. They were never sure exactly how many children there were."

"That is a terrible story, Mrs..." Effie trails off at the end, realizing she never got her name.

"Evers. Hazel Evers. You can call me Hazel."

"I'm Effie Hawkins."

"I know. I have a confession to make, Effie. I've known for a while that we were kindred spirits." The woman says before standing up from her seat.

"Oh, my. Oh, my, it's so late and I'm so behind! There's so much to do before the shindig tonight and so little time! The master will be very, very, upset if his table isn't perfect. His autumnal banquet is the event of the year! These particular guests they're very demanding. Refills! Refills! Refills! My feet are swollen up like puff pastries by the end of the night!" She says as she rushes out of the room leaving a confused Effie behind.

"It's confirmed, blood on your junkie wasn't his. So we're looking for a body now." Detective Hahn says.

"You don't think we have enough bodies?" Effie snaps, searching for something on the computer.

Then Spencer walks into the room and she looks up at him, "Hey, how come I've never heard of a town where twenty kiddie murders and abductions supposedly took place?" Effie questions.

"Are you talking about the Wineville Chicken Coop murders? They changed the name of the town entirely, it was bad publicity." Spencer Reid said to her.

"When?" Effie asks him, getting ready to do a search again.

"Maybe sixty or so years ago?" Doctor Reid says.

Effie turns back to her computer, searching for it on the Los Angeles police crime database. She's shocked when she sees it.

"Eighty-five. Eighty-five years ago. The crimes took place in the twenties?" Effie questions.

"Does this have something to do with our Bible-Thumper?" Detective Hahn cuts in, slightly confused.

"I don't know." She says as she clicks through the pictures. And there she was. Mrs Hazel Evers. What the fuck is going on? Maybe she really is going crazy.

When Effie gets back to the hotel and into her room she sees her son waiting for her and she gets a big smile on her face.

"Hey baby, how are you?" She asks him, hugging him tightly.

"Hi mommy. I'm thirsty." Emmitt says to his mother.

"Oh okay baby let me get you a drink." Effie says as she walks to the fridge to grab a juice box from it, bringing it over to him, "Here, it's apple juice."

Emmitt eyes the juice questioningly before shaking his head, "No mommy I need to drink blood."

"Oh... but how?" Effie questions as she crouches in front of her son.

"I need my other mommy, the one that made me this way. I'll show you to her." Emmitt says before he grabs Effie's hand, leading her to where he wanted her to go.

Effie didn't question it because she was just more than happy to have her son back. Emmitt leads her down some stairs and into an empty swimming pool that held four coffin-like glass chambers at the bottom of it before Emmitt himself lays in one of them before going to sleep.

"You must have a lot of questions. I have answers." A voice says from behind her.

Effie turns around to see a beautiful pale blonde woman standing in front of her. The woman leads Effie up into her penthouse, sitting on one of her white couches.

"It must have been a shock to see your boy. I imagined you'd lost hope long ago." The woman says.

"I never gave up." Effie snaps at her.

"No, you didn't, your devotion moved me. I could feel your longing. Emmitt felt it too. That's why he came to you."

"You stole my son." Effie says, a few tears welling in her eyes.

"I saved him, like I save all my children." She says with a scoff.

"From what?"

"Neglect. I could see where they were headed. A tragic, wasted life. I opened my heart and the children came to me willingly." The strange woman answers.

"Bullshit. I never neglected my son!" Effie yells at her, glaring daggers at her.

"I brought them here to keep them safe. The world can be such a dangerous place."

"Okay lady I've had enough of your bullshit. What did you do to my son?" Effie asks the woman.

"I'm going to put it in a way that you can understand, Emmitt has contracted an ancient virus. A blood disorder. The effect of the disease is health, vitality, and everlasting life."

Effie stands from the couch and walks near the woman after pulling her gun from her holster and holding it at the woman's head, "Whatever you did to him... change him back."

"Is this why you came up here?"

"Change him back or I'll kill you!" Effie Hawkins snaps, her patience running thin with the woman.

"There is no going back." She says calmly, like the gun doesn't even affect her.

"I'm his mother. We'll find a cure!"

"There is no cure. The only way you can truly be with Emmitt is to join him. Effie, I'm offering you eternity with your great lost love. What I wouldn't trade for a chance at that." The woman offers.

"And what are you asking me to trade for it? What's the price I have to pay to be like you?" Effie asks, keeping the gun level with the woman's head.

"Your undying loyalty. You'll be working for me. Here, take this it will calm your nerves." She says, trying to offer her a drink.

Effie slaps it out of her hand and shakes her head, not wanting to drink it, "You're insane. You're going down. I'm getting my team."

Then she turns around only to get knocked to the ground by none other than Tristan Duffy, he puts his foot on her throat, blocking her airway.

"Let her go!" The woman snaps.

Effie gasps for air before quickly sitting up and running out of the room after.

When she left the woman's room she found herself making her way to the bar again, to be greeted by the face of Liz Taylor.

"What'll it be agent? Ginger ale? Shirley Temple?" She asks when Effie sits down.

"My old friend says I was never an alcoholic. According to her, I'm just a control freak. I'll have a double martini." Effie says, finally saying screw it and allowing herself to drink.

"That's my girl. Control... is an illusion." Liz says.

Effie finds a smile pulling at her lips, over the time she's been here the woman has always been so kind to her.

"Well then tonight, I surrender to the illusion." The agent says with a laugh.

A few drinks later and Effie is still sitting at the bar when a woman's voice from behind her says, "Hey sailor."

Effie turns around to look at her, "I didn't see you come in."

"I will stand on my head in a skirt for a ciggy and a beer." The woman says as she sits next to her on the barstool.

"No need for acrobatics. Drinks are on me tonight." Effie says with a kind smile in the woman's direction.

"Now Aileen, you be nice to Miss Hawkins. This is what your tenth year with us at the hotel?" Liz asks her when handing her a beer.

Aileen drums her hands on the counter before saying, "Lucky Thirteenth!"

"Oooh." Liz replies.

"Since two-thousand-two." Aileen says as Liz lights her cigarette for her.

Effie looks the woman named Aileen over and she can't place it but she swore she knew who she was, her name and face seemed so familiar.

"Do I know you?" Effie asks as she turns to the woman.

"I don't know." She shrugs, "You ever pick up a hooker along Interstate ninety-five in Florida?

Effie giggles a bit and shakes her head, "No, I think I would have remembered that."

"Effie is an FBI Agent for the BAU. And a special guest of the hotel." Liz whispers to the woman with a smile.

"A cop! A cop! Man, man." She says before taking a swig of her beer.

"Man are you lucky that I haven't had a beer in over a year, or there is no way in hell I would let you buy me one. They call me a serial killer? Greatest serial killer of all time is the cops." Aileen says.

"I know who you are. That is an outstanding costume! Holy shit you look just like her." Effie says with a laugh, admiring the woman's costume.

"Her who?" She questions.

"Aileen Wuornos. I just saw a documentary about her, she killed seven men. Shot them in cold blood."

"Sometimes, even I think that's true. I wasn't more than four or five when the world started taking from me. You know what you do when all you know is people taking? You start to give, give it away before they can take it from you. Give it all away for free, and that way you can pretend that it doesn't hurt. Those seven men we had a deal. We had a deal. Then they got greedy, started taking things that didn't belong to them. Here's how it is agent. You try to take anything from Aileen Wuornos and I swear to Jesus H. Christ I will take everything from you."

"This is what I say to you, Aileen. That's bullshit." Effie says, sipping her martini.

"Yeah?" Aileen replies.

"Yeah, most of those men didn't have a history or record of violence or assault." Effie says.

"I don't know! I don't know their 'history' I only know who they were on that day. I only knew them on that one day and on that one day they were who they were. Haven't you ever had a day like that, huh?" Aileen says with a sigh.

"Where -- Where all you were, all you ever had been your whole life don't mean nothing to you anymore? And all of a sudden you're just a different person." The woman continues.

"Yeah actually, today." Effie says.

"When was the last time you got laid?" Aileen asks.

Effie scoffs, "I'm not looking to get laid lady. I just want to drink. Now if you could leave me be that'd be great."

Then the agent paid Liz for the drinks, got up, and walked away from the bar but little did she know that Aileen was trailing her to her room until it's too late and Effie got hit over the head with a small fire extinguisher, passing out quickly after.

When she wakes up she's in her room tied to a chair with Aileen standing in front of her with a gun before she yells, "You asshole. Goddamn cops. You can't trust any of them! Stop taking from me!"

"I'm tied to a chair!" Effie yells back.

"Well I ain't no liar! Ten women this shit country put to death -- Ten! And I was number ten." She says pointing at herself.

"Stop it! You're insane! You're not Aileen Wuornos!" Effie yells at the crazy woman again.

"Yeah? Look at me look in my eyes, look at them. Does this look like a costume to you? Welcome to Devil's Night at the Hotel Cortez, Effie."

Seeing an opportunity since the woman claiming to be Aileen was right in front of her Effie headbutts her, knocking her to the ground before her chair breaks underneath her and she falls over.

The woman crawls over to where the agent lay on the floor and tries to poke her eye out but even with her handcuffs still on Effie shoves her off of her before grabbing Aileen's gun and going to unlock the handcuffs on her wrists.

Effie then drags Aileen kicking and screaming into the bathroom before handcuffing her to the sink in the bathroom and going to check her purse.

"Let's see who you really are." Effie says as she searches her purse before grabbing her wallet and pulling out her I.D which says 'Aileen C. Wuornos.'

Shocked the agent runs out of the room and heads for the elevator, making it into the lobby before going to the reception desk looking through the guest list.

"Excuse me is there a problem?" Liz asks the agent.

"Yeah, there's a problem. That skank up in my room tried to kill me!" Effie yells.

"Skank? You'll have to be more specific." Liz says, eyeing Effie closely.

"You know, that nut job up at the bar pretending to be Aileen Wuornos. She's leaving here in cuffs." Effie says while picking up the phone on the reception desk.

"Yeah, I wouldn't bother with that call you're trying to make. Even if you got through, dollars to donuts you won't find anyone in your room, Mr March is very protective of his invited guests."

"Mr March? James Patrick March?" Effie questions her.

"The very same. His annual Devil's Night soiree is the event of the season." She replies.

"What the hell is Devil's Night?" The agent asks.

"Oh, Sweetie, Devil's Night is the real holiday around here. Halloween, that's plastic pumpkins and paper costumes, but Devil's Night is when the real ghouls come out to play. It's a night of mischievous criminal behavior which is why every year at this time Mr March holds his annual dinner event. The guest list is très exclusive." Liz says as she looks over the guest list.

"Well, that's unusual. Now how did I miss this?" The woman says, a smile pulling on her lips as she goes to the mailbox with a sixty-four above it, pulling out a gold envelope with 'Effie Hawkins' printed elegantly on the front of it.

"Lucky you. You've been invited." Liz Taylor says as she hands the golden envelope to Effie.

Effie's been invited!!

The Devil's Night
party will be next
chapter because I
had to split it into
two parts since
the draft was
almost 6k words.

Yikes.

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