Chapter Text
Fraudseers, Whisperers, Veilkeepers. Three terms that Don never thought he’d hear outside of the agonized wailing of the dead. While he usually avoids most supernatural things like the plague, it didn’t mean that he was completely clueless. He was an FBI agent after all, finding things out through context clues is his daily job. From what he understands, people are separated into three main categories:
Number one were the Fraudseers. As stated in the name, these are people who claim to have spiritual power but don’t have them. People who also claim to have spiritual knowledge or fortune tellers also fall under this category. Spirits tend to dislike this type as well if the hissing of contempt whenever he passed by an ad for fake psychics were any indication.
Next were the Whisperers. Judging by the reaction of the spirits around him, they occupied the space in between—those with weak spiritual abilities. They could only catch small glimpses or brief bursts of information from the spirit world. This was the kind of power that fake psychics often tried to copy. In terms of spiritual abilities, whisperers have poorer connections to the spiritual realm, like a busted radio—staticky and constantly breaking up, leaving the message muddled beneath the terrible reception. They were usually too weak to see far beyond the safety of the veil but just strong enough to sense that something was off. Additionally, people with spiritual energy or abilities but lack sight also fall into this category.
Lastly, the Veilkeepers. The poor bastards who drew the short end of the stick.
Himself included.
People with so much spiritual prowess that they had to be handicapped by getting constantly hunted down and showed the worst things mankind has ever seen. Most veilkeepers are either dead or have gotten their way into the nearest mental institution, their visions mistaken for something entirely different. Those who don’t? Well…Don’s never ventured that far down the ladder to find out.
“-there’s nothing there that indicates what any of these things mean?” Megan’s voice rang out, pulling Don from his thoughts once more.
“No. We can make some educated guesses, but nothing entirely concrete.”
Once again, I missed an entire chunk of conversation he thought, slightly annoyed at himself. “Is there anything else that we need to know?”
Jericho thought for a moment. “Other than the victims labeled ‘Fraudseers’ being people who claimed to have spiritual knowledge, there are a few other similarities.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Colby asked.
“Well, some of the ones labeled ‘Whisperers’ were also people who said they were psychic, although it wasn’t all of them.”
“Wonder what made them different?” David murmured. Actual psychic powers? Don’s mind unhelpfully supplied. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really come out and say it without sounding like a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
“There could be something in their history? Maybe they all went to the same grocery store.”
“You really think it’s going to be something innocuous like going to the same grocery store?” Colby huffed out, incredulous.
Megan rolled her eyes. “At least it’s better than what you’re suggesting. Oh wait, I forgot, you haven’t .” Before Colby could counteract with his own jab, Megan pressed on. “Do you actually have an idea or are you all quips right now because I at least have a few.”
Colby opened his mouth before closing it again, doing a particularly accurate impression of a goldfish. “I- I’m working on it” he answered vaguely.
“Figures” Megan’s voice was smug. It was clear to Don that she always liked it whenever she could prove Colby’s doubts about criminal profiling wrong. Even with all these months spent working together, it seems like the former military man still had his hangups.
“What do you have, Megan?” he asked, he figured that she should at least share it with the class.
Megan sat back now, the posture calm and contemplating. She tapped her finger on the table, her blue eyes fixed towards the screen with the laser focus. “Well first of all, there’s definitely an element of radical belief in them although I think we can all see that.”
“Gee…wonder what gave it away?” Colby muttered under his breath. The short and simple thwap from David was enough to tell him to shut up for all of them.
Megan rolled her eyes. “I’m not finished yet.” Then she gestured towards the pictures, “I have a feeling that the similarities between everyone has something to do with the existence of psychic powers.”
Jericho raised an eyebrow at that as Don’s heart skipped a beat. “What? You saying psychic powers exist?” Don scoffed out, trying to hide the panic that threatened to take over his very being.
“I’m saying that to the killer, psychic powers exist. Every single person who was put under the Fraudseer category have been people who claimed that they had psychic powers. But, not all of the victims who were known to be ‘psychics’ were put under this category. There had to be a reason why, something that differentiated them from the rest.”
“Is this ‘thing’ something that we can figure out?” David asked, his tone doubtful. But unlike Colby, he still held hope.
Megan tapped her finger on her chin now, contemplating. “Maybe it’s something in their history? A shared experience that can point us in the right direction?”
“Actually, I might be able to help you out with that one” Jericho spoke up. Everyone’s eyes turned to look at him expectantly. He turned to press the button and another slide popped up, this time a collage of all the victims divided by their categories. “As we’ve established, every single person in the Fraudseer category publicly claims to have psychic powers.”
“Could it be that the killer seeks out all of these fake psychics before determining which one goes into where?” Don mused, earning an impressed smile from Jericho telling Don that he was right on the money.
“Yeah, we had the same conclusion. It seems to be the most logical answer.”
“That doesn’t explain the rest of it though…”
“Well…” Jericho, “there’s something else.” Catching the attention of everyone once more, he continued. “There is one overwhelming thing that every single veilkeeper and most whisperers have in common.”
“That is?” Colby asked, intrigued.
“These people have a history of mental illnesses. The severity of it varies, but that’s one similarity across the whole board.”
“Interesting. Do you think that there’s some bias involved?” David spoke up, turning to look towards their resident behaviour analyst.
“Could be…” Megan muttered under her breath. “Maybe a close family member was affected that hurt them at some point? Could be a catalyst for this.”
Don fought the urge to tell them that they were going down the wrong path. That the answer is possibly much more simpler than they first expect. But he tampers it down, instead coming up with possible ideas on how he’s going to skirt around this situation as best he can. He had a feeling that everything was going to turn messy when he least expected it, so he had to keep his guard up just in case.
“Good idea Megan, note that down” he said, his body no longer feeling like his own. This entire case had turned surreal so fast, he wasn’t sure if he could keep up. “I think we should break this up since we’re far behind. Colby and David, you two tackle the recent body. See what kind of information you can get. Megan and I will go to the crime scene, get a feel for what happened.”
“You might not need that” a voice said, causing everyone to look towards the door. An agent stood there, looking grim. “We just got a report…”
Oh no…
“A new body was found.”