The Agent and The School Teacher

Chapter Eight: Why Does This Keep Happening To Me?

We all piled in the car to head back to the Police Department so that they could give the police a profile. I gazed out the window, my mind running wild.

"What are you thinking?" Aaron asked from beside me in the driver's seat. I bit my lip.

"I was on the list." I said, turning to look at him. "I was on the list, and both times, the...unsub had a chance to kill me. Both in the cafeteria, and today when they ran into me in the hall, but neither time did they do it. Why? How can two people want to kill me and never act on it?"

"Well, today, the unsub probably just heard you outside and panicked without bothering to see who you were." Dr. Reid clarified. I nodded.

"And as for Randy Slade...its possible that your friendship with him caused him to have a moment of weakness." I winced slightly. "I'm sorry to phrase it that way but-"

"But, you're a profiler." I said. "In order to profile him, you have to think like him. Its ok, I get it." He nodded.

"No one would blame you for leaving." He told me. 

"I would." I replied, staring out the wind sheild. I didn't say anything else for the rest of the car ride.

~~~

They didn't allow me to hear the profile. They didn't want to take any risks, which I understood completely. After their meeting, Agent Prentiss took me back to the school, where I would be meeting the rest of the Alumni, and she would be running through Cognitive interviews.

I walked into the library ahead of her, running through the names of my old classmates in my head. Jerry Holtz, Tiffany Gleason, so and and so forth. They all looked up from their conversations and saw me.

"Eliza!" Jerry exclaimed. They all applauded and I shook my head, wishing they'd stop.

"Please...please don't do that." I begged. They all stopped. I just walked over to a chair, sitting down without another word. Agent Prentiss gathered everyone up and explained what was going to happen.

"You want us to walk through what happened that day?"

"Didn't we do that when we were seniors?"

"Yes, but there may be some details that you didn't think were important at the time that could help us now, things that could help us learn about the partner."

"Randy made us all lie face down. I didn't see anything." Bob Adams stated. I didn't know Bob that well, but to be fair I didn't know anyone that well in High School aside from Randy.

"None of us did."

"Well that's not true. Jerry did. He's the guy Randy made lock the doors."

"Yeah. Yeah, I did." Jerry confirmed.

"The interviews we're going to conduct, won't focus on what you saw, but what you felt."

"You want me to tell you how I felt licking the tile in the cafeteria? Thanks, I do that in therapy twice a week. How about how I feel now, seeing my name on a list of people who should be dead?" Tiffany asked. I sighed, standing up beside Agent Prentiss.

"Look...I know none of us wanted this. None of us wanted to be victims then, and we certainly don't want to keep bringing up the past, but...if we don't do this...if we don't cooperate with the FBI as much as we can, this guy is just going to kill again. As painful as it will be, the more we can do to help them in their investigation the easier it will be to find out who's doing this."

"For someone who doesn't want the attention, you sure seem to put yourself in the spotlight a lot." The girl said. "Jerry's not on the list. Let him help you. Or better yet, little miss inspiration speech. I'm out." She stood up, grabbing her purse and walking out of the room.

"Ever get volunteered for a job you don't want?" Jerry asked, looking between Agent Prentiss and I. I nodded.

~~~

Agent Prentiss talked to Jerry first, and then me. I sat across from her in the new cafeteria. I could already feel the panic rising up in my chest.

"Thanks for doing this," She said, "For everything you're doing actually. You're very brave."

"I don't feel like it." I stated. She nodded.

"So, I have some crime scene photos from the day if you'd like to take a look." I shook my head.

"That type of thing isn't something you easily forget." She nodded again.

"It was 12:50, lunch had just started, it was Thursday. When did you first notice Randy?"

"Immediately." I answered. "I was waiting for him to get there that day. He had thrown his back back down, and he was talking on a cell phone."

"Did you hear the conversation?"

"He was talking to Martha, his mom. I didn't hear what they were saying but I was walking over to him when I saw the gun in his hand. He shot Natalie Gallo first...didn't even hesitate, he just shot, and I froze where I was. She fell, right at my feet, and then he aimed the gun at me. I said his name, but before I could say anything else, somebody asked him what he was doing and he shot them in the chest. Everyone, including me was too scared to speak after that. He turned the gun back to me..."

"But he didn't shoot you?" She asked. I shook my head.

"I thought he was going to. He just stood there, pointing it at me for a moment but...it was like he hesitated. Like he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just told Jerry to go lock the doors and pointed the gun at him instead. He forced me into a seat at one of the tables and..." I trailed off, squeezing my eyes closed as the painful memories started flooding back to me.

"And then he started playing the game." She finished for me. I nodded, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Randy went table to table, he was ranting. What did he say?" I shook my head, swallowing.

"He said...'I am God. Now, who's brave enough to look God in the eye?'. When they couldn't do it...he killed them. He walked over to his backpack, pulled out the bomb and just like that, he had killed ten kids. I should have known...I should have seen it. He was my best friend I should have known something was wrong-"

"Its ok." She said. "You did great. "

"I'm sorry, can I...Can I go now, please?" She nodded. I got up, rushing out of the room. I walked into the hallway, heading for the front door when I saw Jerry...on the floor dead, covered in blood. I didn't have time to think before the panic attack set in. I screamed.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" I heard footsteps as Agent Prentiss ran around the corner. I fell to the floor, trying to catch my breath as the tears fell down my face. "Why does this keep happening to me..."