reflections
act one.

chapter nine: starry eyes sparking  up my darkest nights

"moonlit swimming pool, what if all i need is you?"
-taylor swift

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YOU:

Every waking moment you spend thinking about The Girl. But it's not time for the grand finale, not yet. Instead, you find a toy at a little shop in Duopont Circle. You had your eye on her for quite some time, but would not add her to your collection. She was too close to home, and the area was too populated.

But for the time being, the so-called Madame Selene is just what you needed to fix your craving. Bodies are bodies, you knew that much. But a palm reader, there's a certain type of poetry to that. The kind of message you want, -no-need to send.

It would be so easy to kill the woman in the shop and leave her body on display, but you have worked hard this week, you deserve a treat.

A reward.

Taking her would be easy enough. You're sweet, a  stranger with candy, maybe a sympathetic ear.

When she wakes up in the warehouse, she won't believe it was you who had done all of it.

Not at first, but she will eventually see.

You smile, thinking about the ending of it all. You graze your gentle fingers through the ends of her soft brown hair, your other hand holding the box of Red Dye Number 12. You hum under your breath, a comforting song, a childhood song. It brings you back the beginning, back to the very first one.

The palm reader's eyes fly open. Her hands are bound, almost as if they are one. She sees you, the hair dye, and the knife held tightly in your left hand, and she realized-

You are the monster.

This time, you deserve to take things slow.

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WHEN AGENT LOCKE AND BRIGGS arrived at the house on Monday morning, they were both tired with dark circles beneath their eyes.

"Briggs and I hit a brick wall this weekend." Locke says to vienna as she rubs her temples.

"Three bodies and still no sign of the killer." While Vienna and the other naturals played truth or dare, Briggs and Locke were dealing with real bodies, real stakes, and a  real killer.

She runs a tired hand through her red locks, which had only been haphazardly brushed. "But it's not your problem he's escalating, it's mine."

"I wish I could help you." Vienna sighs, resting her chin on her fist, looking at Locke with sympathy. She was clearly under a lot of stress, and Vienna wished that she could help Locke, but the naturals weren't allowed to work on active cases, so Vienna's wish was pointless anyway.

"Ah, I know you want to help me. But I feel like even your mind couldn't help us catch him."

"Him? You think it's a man?" Vienna questions.

"I'm assuming it is. There's hardly any lady killers in comparison to men." Locke says.

"Did you know that one of the most notorious female serial killers was in the 1800's, and that her name was Amelia Dyer. She made a living off of being a 'baby farmer', which is where parents would drop their unwanted kids off with her to live there, but instead of keeping them, she overdosed every single one of them on various drugs. This went on for like forty years and by the time people caught on, she'd already killer 400 children?"

"What a beautiful way to start my morning." Locke widens her eyes slightly as she takes a gentle sip from the steaming mug of coffee in front of her.

"Yes, and between the years of 1590 and 1610, a woman by the name of Elizabeth Bathorny tortured and murdered up to 650 girls and women." Vienna began with her ramble once again. She mostly killed peasents and girls whom she hired to work for her. She would burn them and put honey and ants, and she'd sometimes bite their faces off before killing them. Though, historians are unsure as to whether her crimes were exaggerated or not. Isn't that insane?"

"So much energy for so early in the morning." Lia murmurs as she enters the kitchen. "But we love her anyway, right Locke?"

"Yes, we love our resident genius." Locke smiles gently at Vienna.

"Make that your two resident geniuses." Sloane enters after Lia, plopping down next to the brunette girl as Lia pulls the milk out of the fridge.

"Good morning, my favorite number whiz." Vienna threw her arms around her blonde friend, pulling her in close.

"Morning Vi." Sloane grins.

"Hey, where's Cassie?" Vienna asks, letting go of Sloane after a moment.

"She was awake when Lia and I came down, but she probably has a lot on her mind from last night."

"What happened last night?" Locke raised her brow.

All of the girls in the kitchen merely shrugged.

"Girls." Locke says. "Come on, give me something! I spent the whole weekend trying to track down a psychopath while you all did....what exactly?"

"We played truth or dare." Sloane answers simply.

"And...?"

"There was a certain dare that involved certain players...." Sloane contiues, looking to both Vienna and Lia as if asking for permission to continue.

"There was a specific dare that in which one persons lips brushed the other one, which is typically a sign of affection for one another." Vienna says at once.

"Studies show that the average 'romantic kiss' lasts around twelve seconds, though this one wasn't close to that." Sloane says, eyes shifting to Lia, who wore an amused look on her face.

"Who kissed? Oh, was it Vienna and Michael?" Locke asks , almost too excitedly.

"WHAT?" Vienna bursts. "No, why would you think that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Locke asks.

"No, it was Cassie and Dean." Vienna says, dodging Locke's question. 

"Cassie and Dean...?" Locke raises both brows this time, and that is a telling sign  that she is very confused.

"Yes, but don't mention it. Dean would probably kill us all. Being the 'gentleman' he is, he's probably going to act like the whole thing never happened." Lia says.

"That'll make our victimology lesson interesting." Locke sighs, turning the small white mug in her hands.

"Well, best of luck with that." Vienna hops up from her seat. "I've got a date with my beloved artist case."

"Oh yeah, how's that going?" Locke asks.

"I'm making good progress I think. I worked out that the symbols in each mural symbolize different feelings of the UNSUB."

"What does that mean?" Lia asks, scrunching her features in confusion.

"The clock symbolizes inevitable death and the passing of time.  Eyes are the gateway into once's soul, supposedly. Birds, specifically the doves on the mural, symbolizing peace. And with that being the UNSUB's final kill, maybe he thought that by killing them, he was freezing himself."

"Thank God Briggs has never given me my own case, I couldn't figure out half of those things you just said." Lia says.

"Well it could be a reach, but I just thought-"

Locke cuts in. "No, it makes sense."

"Thanks." Vienna beamed, she loved when Briggs and Locke appreciated her work.

"Now, go get busy!" Locke smiles at the girl, as Sloane turns to look at her brown haired friend.

"Vienna?"

"Yeah?" Vienna looks at her.

"Can I sit in the library with you? I haven't got anything else to do today and your case sounds super interesting."

"Of course." Vienna smiles, Sloane's face lighting up at her agreement. "As long as you promise to not hurl statistics at me the whole time."

"No promises."

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SLOANE HAD NOT EXACTLY held up her end of the deal. She hadn't really stopped talking since the two girls arrived in the library nearly an hour ago, and Vienna had hardly made any progress in the case.

Though, she remembered Briggs telling her not to rush on the case or overwhelm herself, so she figured it was probably alright since there was no deadline.

"Sloane, what are you doing over there?" Vienna asks, unable to focus on the case today.

"Hacking into a website."

"Excuse me?" Vienna's blue eyes widen in shock, but why was she surprised, really? This was Sloane Tavish, tech-hacker extraordinaire.

"Yep." Sloane says. "There is a projected 79% chance that I will get into it, and I'm choosing to be optimistic."

"What website?" Vienna asks, moving her chair closer to that of her blonde companion.

"Online gaming." Sloane mumbles, clicking keys on her laptop almost as if at random, but she did know what she was doing, even if it didn't seem she did.

Vienna closes her laptop, eyes focusing on Sloane's.

"What happened to 'I have lots of important things to do'?" Sloane asks.

"Sloane, you have known me long enough to know that I don't always keep my word on those sorts of things."

The blonde grins. "My estimates earlier this morning showed that there was a 76% chance you wouldn't get any work done today."

"Well, you were right then" Vienna says as the two girls suddenly move to the couch.

"When am I not?" Sloane smirks as Vienna rests her chin on her shoulder.

"Hey, I may need to take that growing ego of yours down several notches." The brunette chuckles.

Sloane chuckled, clicking one final button, and she entered the database of the video game. "Now does my ego need to be taken down?" She smirks.

"Sloane, you tech genius!" Vienna's mouth was agape at the speed at which Sloane was able to hack into the database of a video game.

"Now, this is the fun part."

"What's that?" Vienna asks curiously.

"Playing for people."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, seeing as I have access to the controls, I can play for people, and it's really fun because I know that it probably makes them really mad when their character starts playing for themselves."

"I see." Vienna stared at the computer.  "Show me what you've got."

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VIENNA TOSSED AND TURNED in her sleep that night. In fact, she hadn't actually fallen asleep yet. She was worried. She was worried for Locke and Briggs, and the fact that the killer  has been getting away with these horribly violent murders. Normally, Briggs and Locke would've been able to find some kind of lead so far, but apparently not.

Usually at this point, the killer would've slipped up, made some type of mistake, but not yet. Thats what worried her. She didn't know who his 'type' was yet, but she hoped that she or others she knew weren't in danger.

She normally would worry about this sort of thing, and Michael would convince  her that everything was going to be fine, but it was past midnight. He wouldn't be awake.

She sighed, giving up on sleep for the time being. She turned on her lamp with one click, and put on her swimsuit, grabbing a towel from her closet.

She would sneak out to the pool, swim a few laps, come back in and go to bed.

She crept down the stairs, though the old steps creaked with each step she took.

She eventually made it out to the pool, and for the first couple of laps, it was freezing. 

She came up for air, resting her arms on the edge of the cold ground, her mind literally swimming with different things.

For some reason, her mind kept returning to Michael. Why had she felt so different for the past 24 hours, or since truth or dare?

She didn't quite know. He was one of her best friends, one of the first people to actually understand her.

She felt so comfortable with him, so why had she felt so awkward around him? She had no idea whatsoever, but she really wanted her mind to quiet, or rather, go back to how it usually is.

Her head jolted up as the back door creaked open, worried that Judd had heard her, and was coming out to tell her to go back to bed, but it wasn't.

It was Michael. Of course it was, why wouldn't it be? And how did he always know where Vienna was, for that matter?

"Little late for swimming laps, isn't it?" He asks, sitting on the edge of the pool, dipping his legs in the water.

"I could say the same for you." Vienna breathes in, finding it hard to maintain eye contact with him. It was in that moment that he also wasn't wearing a shirt. He was muscular, which she could've sworn he hadn't been last time he hadn't worn a shirt. Or maybe, Vienna simply hadn't noticed before.

"I asked first." Michael slid into the pool all the way, his body going rigid as the cold water hit his body, though he adjusted to the temperature after a brief moment.

"Aww, are you cold?" Vienna teased.

"Shut up." He laughs, teeth chattering slightly as he did so, though the teasing expression left his face slightly as he pried at Vienna for answers. "Answer my question, Vi. What's on your mind?"

"A lot." She answered vaguely.

"Like what exactly?" He wouldn't let this go.

"Locke and Briggs, the case, and-" She was going to say 'you' but decided against it.

"What about the case?"

"I know that you tell me to not worry, but something about this case feels....off."

"Well it should, people are getting murdered." Michael looks at her.

"I'm serious, Michael."

"So am I." He locks eyes with her.

"Something about this case feels weird, I don't know why. I feel like it won't end well."

"For us?"

"I don't know." She mutters.

"What do you know?" Michael asks, leaning in closer to Vienna. She had never really noticed how his eyes looked at night. They were....pretty?

"Mmm, you don't want me to start with that, do you?" She asks, holding eye contact with him.

"Maybe I do."

"Admit it, Townsend. You do like my ramblings." Vienna could feel herself slipping back into that familiar teasing pattern with Michael, though the tension between the two of them was still prominent in her thoughts. And the distance between them in this pool was...not far away.

Michael smirks. "I guess we'll never know." He places a hand on the pool's edge, skimming Vienna's side by accident as he did so.

Vienna looks at him, his eyes were so hard to read, at least to her. She'd like to know what was going on in that very interesting mind of his.

"I can sense some tension." He says.

"With who?"

"You, you seem stressed."

"When am I not?"

Michael scoffs. "True."

"Michael, I-"

"What?" He leans down closer. Close enough that if she were to lean up one inch, they would-

NO. Kissing Michael would ruin everything.

She just couldn't. She didn't know why she suddenly felt the need to. It was probably some passing thing, she'd get over it here in a couple days time.

"Nothing." She changed her mind.

"Alright. Well if you ever do want to talk about it, you know where I live." He winks.

"Why are you up anyway?" She asks, trying to ease the obvious tension. Nobody would talk about the elephant in the room that was so large that Vienna was wondering how it hadn't drowned them both.

"Heard someone come outside, and wanted to see what was up." He finally steps away from Vienna, dipping his head underwater.

"Yeah, but why were you awake in the first place?" Vienna squeezes her eyes shut as Michael shakes water off his head, droplets flying in every direction.

"Took a page out of your book for once. I was thinking."

Vienna chuckles. "About what exactly?"

"You're nosy tonight." He observes.

"Excuse me for wondering why two of the people in this house are swimming at one in the morning."

"Vienna, I meant what I said at truth or dare." Michael bursts randomly.

"About what?" Vienna asks, though she recalled exactly what he was talking about.

"Dean's question about you, I did mean it."

If it wasn't nearly pitch black, Michael would've seen the blush rising to the girl's cheeks.

Michael was nothing if not a complete flirt, but maybe he did mean what he had said at truth or dare? She'd certainly meant it, but Michael, that's a different story entirely.

As if she didn't already have enough on her mind, these 'feelings' for Michael were not helping calm her nerves.

Vienna was a creature of habit, she enjoyed waking up at the same time, eating similar foods, talking to only a select few people each day. She enjoyed her life as it was, simple. And she knew her feelings by heart now: friendship, missing her mom and brother, missing her dad, all of those types of feelings.

But this, what she was feeling now, was uncharted territory. And she hoped that her feelings for Michael would go back to normal sooner rather than later.

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cam's notes!

oooo it's starting!!

vienna is so smart but so so oblivious when it comes to michael 😭 but she MAY be starting to catch on.

i've loved their dynamic in the recent chapters, let me know what you think!

qotd: are you a morning or night person? i personally like night better bc i take forever to wake up fully

see you all in the next chapter :)