#an update for spooky season would be perfect!

[pink-concorde]

@spacelattesao3 You’re welcome, I’m so glad you like it! 💜💗

This is my favorite fic of yours too (though you write so many wonderful ones). :)

In honor of spooky season: Fanart of @spacelattesao3’s amazing and intriguing modern AU Caldera: The City of Ghosts which has Katara as the spiritbender and Zuko as a friendly ghost spirit helping her.

Also including a version in which Zuko has his scar since he didn’t look like Zuko without it (despite him not having it as a spirit being accurate to the story):

[thugbiscuits]

september fic rec list 18+ only

please note: none of these fan fictions were written by me. when you read please make sure to like, comment, and reblog. IT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

hello again, freaks >:) im really excited for this month's list. down below you'll find pretty much all the best fics (imo), of every category. it’s mostly smut happy reading!

joel miller fics

make it stick(joel miller x reader, smut) @gutsbys i loved getting to read joel’s inner thoughts.. and how nasty they are omg. i 100% need to have his babies, that’s all.

teacher’s pet (joel miller x virgin!reader, smut) @javiscigarette this fic destoryed my pussy and now i want financial compensation. read at your own risk cause whewww the details are too good. also make sure to read BOTH parts ;)

sugar rush (joel miller x f!reader, fluff) @beardedjoel super fluffy, been reading this to get me ready for spooky season and it hits me right in the feels every time

skincare sunday (joel miller x reader, fluff) @hellishjoel ahh taking care of joel? yes please. this fic is so sweet to me, that’s a real doting and caring man 😤

logan howlett fics

sweet (lumberjack!logan howlett x reader) @fairlyang #NEEDTHAT

make him do what i say (older bf!logan howlett x reader, smut) @dollfacefantasy logan with silver winged hair is superior

vis (logan howlett x afab!mutant reader, smut) @ozarkthedog all i’m saying is that fucking logan before work could save my soul idk 🤷🏽‍♀️

both (logan howlett x reader x storm, smut) @selfcarecap why is nobody talking about this, i would like to talk about this!! this had me crying, screaming and gnawing on the bars of my enclosure.

glory box (old man!logan howlett x reader, smut) @rqnarok oh? oh 😏

time after time (logan howlett x afab!reader, smut) @hyper-fixates if you like the ‘3 times you did and 1 time you didn’t trope’ then this is literally a gift from the fanfic gods !! the slowburn, all feels raaah!

handful of roses (logan howlett x reader, angst fluff) @techwrecker the way logan tries to be a good man is more than enough for me. come home the kids miss you :/

primal love (logan howlett x reader, smut) @strangererotica indeed primal, and indeed lovely. logan is such a needy lover, and this fic was written beautifully.

ex!worst logan howlett x reader, smut) @seventeenpins the banter, the audacity of this man, the AUDACITY. i’m hooked on this version of logan so badly

wade wilson (deadpool) fics

trigger control (wade wilson x girlfriend!reader, smut) @librababe99 HEART EYES

getting nasty w/ wade and logan (poolverine x reader, smut) @darnell-la self explanatory. 11/10

three is a charm (wade x f!curvy reader x logan, smut) i say this a lot but if i could physically eat a fanfic it would be this one. no doubt. i’m eating up every crumb of thissss ! @eloquentlytired

husband!wade wilson (wade wilson x fem!reader, smut) @jojissalsa perfect mix of smutty and sweet imo. wade for husband 2024

bucky barnes fics

big dick is back in town (bucky barnes x f!reader, fluff) @brunchable this was so cute (and canon in my mind). bucky has such a sense of humor in this! OP did such and amazing job on this

loverboy (bucky barnes x reader, fluff) @thevillainswhore i need that man down bad and desperate for me always ! this fic was so adorable to read, i love seeing this side of bucky. aaah such a dream

love language (bucky barnes x reader, fluff, smut) @flowersforbucky this was the sweetest thing ever!

hey, babydoll (bucky barnes x reader, fluff) @buckysmischief smoking with your favorite super soldier, what could be better than that?

hugh jackman fics

controversially young girlfriend @whimsiwitchy it’s always a pleasure when bri updates. and if you haven’t been following this series, i highly reccomend! amazing dialogue, great portrayal of hugh and reader’s romance. get this, it has even better smut. that’s all, go read!

training partners @pedroscurls we were fed with this series! hugh is such a sweetheart with reader, and it truly had me kicking my feet and giggling while reading this.

dividers by @/saradika-graphics <3

lovey’s note: i had to add my own thoughts this time around cause phew, this list had me in my feels. feel free to 100% ignore my ramblings, they don’t make sense half of the time 😂

[loll3]

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[madsims4finds]

Sooo Paralives and the Brainwashing EA has done

It's funny. Paralives launched a gameplay video that looks really good, along with some announcements. One of them being that they won't be offering paid DLC. I was watching Satch on Sims and him, plus a few other people, seem to think this is a bad move.

No shade, but it's easy to tell people who don't really game and all they play is the Sims. Like EA got yall so brainwashed that you actually think you're SUPPOSED to be getting charged for base game features.

His concern was wanting a different world to play in or different aethitics. Who said we can't get that for free? We may not know what all features Paralives are going to offer, but what rule says that they can't give us another world to play in for free? I mean literally, there are so many games that do free updates and only offer DLC if it's a niche theme that not everyone would be into, or if they're adding ADDITIONAL gameplay that has no resemblance to what's already in the game.

Only EA removes base game features just to sell them back to you later. Or expect you to buy a multitude of different DLCs that have the exact same theme or niche. Now don't mind me while I gripe on this point a little.

Growing Together and Parenthood should have been one generations themed pack.

Discover University and High School Years should have been one pack focused on education.

All of the occults (vamps, wolves, witches, ghosts, aliens, mermaids, plant people) all should have been in ONE paranormal pack.

Features from Dine Out should have been included in Get to Work. There was no need for that to be seperate DLC when they both relate to active careers.

For Rent and City Living should have been one pack.

Simple features that should not be locked behind a pay wall, and I'm not even talking weather. Like why do I have to buy DLC just for my sims to have access to a hot tub (Perfect Patio), an ice cream maker (Cool Kitchen), a popcorn maker (movie night), for them to have the ability to carve a pumpkin or have different holloween costumes, when Holloween is a holiday that comes in the base game with base game ability to trick or treat, etc. (Spooky Stuff), I have to buy Vintage Glamour just to have a butler (if anything the butler should have been in get famous along with everything in the luxury stuff pack. These are all things that should just be base game that they force you to buy DLC to have access to.

And speaking of weather, I do feel like packs like seasons, pets, laundry day, bust the dust, and my wedding stories should all be base game features. Yeah I don't care if we're used to paying for stuff like seasons and pets, things can and should change. These are all life basics, why am I paying extra?

Now I'm not all negative. There are packs that actually make sense. Get Famous makes sense. So does Island Living, Strangervile, all the vacation packs (jungle, outdoor, snowy). Hell, even Journey to Batuu made sense. Yeah, hear me out. These are all OPTIONAL packs. Stuff that not everyone is going to play with but they each bring something different to the game. Now whether any of these packs are filled to the brim with playable content, thats another story. But at least the concept makes sense.

Okay, off my soapbox and moving on.

I will forever and always use No Man's Sky as an example of a development team that chose integrity over money. That team has been releasing update after update for YEARS. Significant updates too. Updates that completely change the gameplay mechanics, adds brand new features to the game, or updates/changes the look of the game. All for free. Yes, it's normal. Not normal in the sense that these companies should be releasing broken games or not delivering on promises to begin with, but at least they weren't money-hungry assholes about it. The amount of updates that game has, quite a few could have been paid DLC and they didn't do that. Now if they started releasing DLC with specialty ships or different cosmetic features, I would have no problem paying for that cause it's optional.

Paralives knows what they're doing. As long as they are focused on making the base game everything it's supposed to be, I don't see why they couldn't sell the type of optional DLC that makes sense in the future. But I'm certainly not going to say that they're making a mistake by not having paid DLC right now.

I can definitely see them adding things like weather, a new life stage, or new clothes/build objects for free and that's dope. I'm excited about Paralives more so than Life By You. But either way, I'm just glad EA has competition in the life simulation genre now that isn't just about farming management.

[redheadspark]

Hawuuu can I get 4."I love you, I swear I do, but we're not wearing matching costumes" and 5. Throwing a Halloween party with Druig

A/N: HAWUU! I hope you're doing well, I would love to write this for you! Thanks for requesting this, anon!

Wing Man

Summary - Druig hates costumes...but he might make an exception for you

Warnings - nothing but fluff :)

“Come on,”

“No,”

“Really? You’re not going to think about it?”

“Absolutely not,”

You rolled your eyes as your boyfriend was looking at the outfit that you had for him for your upcoming Halloween party.  It was the first party you two were throwing together in your new apartment, a massive millstone in your mind merely because you loved Halloween.  It was your favorite holiday, even more than Christmas.  There was something about the fall season, the eerie spooky changes in the air, it was all amazing to you and brought out the good cheer going into the holiday season.  Ever since you were a little girl you were obsessed with Halloween, and it only magnified when you were an adult.

You even met Druig at a Halloween Party, at Kingo’s Halloween Party nonetheless.  It was the massive party of the season, how the entire home was decked up top to bottom with Halloween decor, plenty of people in costumes roaming his penthouse suite in the heart of LA.  He wanted you to come since you two were old college mates, and although you knew literally no one at the party, you decided to go since he was your friend.

It wasn’t hard to spot Druig hiding away in the mini library with his nose in a book, looking over a thick 1st edition.  You had to go in there, intrigued with the unique energy he was giving off and the handsome profile he had on his face.  So you said hello, and now you two were a year into your relationship.

If there was one thing that shocked your friends and family about Druig, apart from his aloof nature and the consistent sarcasm that was in his speech almost 99 percent of the time, was his distaste for Halloween.  Now he didn’t hate it at all, but he was no fan of it like you were.  Sersi, a friend of Druig’s who took a liking to you, found it endearing that you both were opposites when it came to the holiday.

“There’s more to him than his hate for Halloween, Sersi!”

“I know that, but you should remind Ikaris of that since he thinks its hilarious,”

Druig was on board with you throwing a Halloween Party, most of the people coming were your mutual friends and some friends from work, no big massive riot like it was at Kingo’s where you two met.  He knew you were into making haunted snacks, you and a great playlist for the occasion that you would always update constantly, and your library filled with classic Halloween movies.  

But he drew the line at costumes.

“Come on Druig,” you tried one last more time, knowing you were losing an uphill fight when it came to him.  Druig simply gave you one of his infamous stares, both a bit cryptic and yet amused as he saw the two couple costumes you were holding up to show him.

“I’m not wearin’ a scratchy costume for the sake of the party,” Druig explained something you’ve heard before about his distaste for wearing a Halloween costume.  Of course, you wanted him to say yes since it would be perfect to be dressed up together, yet at the same time you weren’t going to show how sad you were.  You and Druig always made it work together, even with the smaller spats and arguments you two never went to bed mad with one another, there were happier times than negative.  

Of course, you both had quirky moments that the other liked, you enjoying Druig’s obsession with reading nonfiction history novels, his tendency to always be snacking on something, and his thirst to sleep in or take languid naps.  In return, he loved how you would go on long walks every day at the local park rain or shine, watching the tasty reality shows that he knew were not good for you. 

He especially loved that you were obsessed with Halloween. 

Knowing that you wouldn’t go anywhere with him putting on the couple costume, you merely shrugged and tossed the costumes on the couch, “You’re gonna miss out, we would have looked amazing by the way.”

Druig rolled his eyes as you walked by him and pecked his cheek.   Of course, you were a bit sad about it, but it was merely an ant hill so to speak.  So you weren’t going to dwell on it, heading into the bedroom to change into your gym clothes to go on a jog.  You left Druig in the living room, seeing him look at the costumes that were sprawled on the couch.  He always stood his ground when it came to what he wanted and desired, including being in a relationship with you. 

But maybe that afternoon made him change his mind about a certain rule, to which he raised his eyebrow and smirked.

“Great place, I can tell you didn’t let Druig do any of the decorations,”

“Oh har har, Kingo.  Great Ceasar costume by the way!”

King grinned as you were gesturing to his outfit, fitted with a golden leaf crown on the top of his head.  He then pointed to your outfit, “Top Gun, right?”

“Phoenix, she was my favorite,” You hummed, gesturing to the jumpsuit you were wearing along with the helmet tucked under your arm. You briefly looked around at the apartment filled with your friends having the best time at your party.  All of those worries about the party not going well was out of the window, seeing your friends dressed in their costume and bringing some of their favorite snacks and dishes to share.  Sersi and her boyfriend Ikaris, your new friend Makkari and her friends Thena and Gilgamesh, Kingo with Sprite and Phastos, along with a cluster of some of the work friends that you grew close to with your new job.  The room itself was at a glow with orange lights hanging on the wall, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller was playing in the background.

It was all perfect and going according to plan, but it was just missing one person.

Makkari tapped you on the shoulder, getting your attention as she signed, Where’s Druig?

“He had class and could be back anytime,” You explained and signed to her.

“Didn’t go for the couple costume this year?” Kingo asked as you smirked and Makkari giggled, “What a shame since Ikaris and Sersi are now shoe-ins for the best Couple Costume,”

“It was never his style anyways,” You explained to him with a shrug, “Who am I to tell him how to dress, he’s never swayed in going along with the norm anywho,”

Makkari looked past you towards the front door, her eyes widening and her smile getting bigger by the second.  You are confused as to why she is grinning so big.  You whirled around, hearing the front door close and a chorus of cheers from the other people at the party.  The sight you finally saw made your heart melt, and you were smiling so wide that your cheeks were hurting.

Druig was there, dressed in a Maverick Pilot Jumpsuit, paired with aviators hanging off the collar. 

“That a boy, Druig!” Gilgamesh cheered from his spot on the couch with Sprite and Thena, some of the others were clapping and grinning just as big from the sight.  But Druig was not listening to any of them, nor was he acknowledging any of them clasping his shooed for joking that he took long enough to wear a costume.  His icy blue eyes were on you, seeing how you were smiling and almost bouncing on your heels.  It was a small gesture, anyone else could look that over and think nothing of it.  But with you, it meant everything, since you knew he was stepping into uncharted territory.  

This meant a lot to you, and as he walked over to you with his small smile on his lips, you tossed your helmet on the spare space of the couch to hug him tightly.  Druig chuckled, hugging you back as the rest of the party resumed.  

“Druig, you look…you look great!” You said in glee as you two pulled away from one another and you looked at his jumpsuit.  You could tell it was a pinch big on him since he was more lanky than built, but apart from that he looked perfect as a Pilot.  Maybe it suited him, even seeing him sport the aviators that hung on his chest along with the fake dog tags that shined in the orange Halloween lights that were twinkling on the ceiling.  

“It’s not that uncomfortable actually, I could wear this around the place,” he hummed in amusement as he gestured to his attire before you pointed to you, “You look sexy as hell in your jumpsuit,”

All you could do was simply grin, knowing that this was more than just him showing up in a costume to match with you.  This was him coming into your world a bit more and knowing that this would make you happy.  This was him finding pleasure in bringing you happiness and joy with one of your favorite holidays. 

This was showing Druig that he loved you.  

“Thank you, Druig,” You thanked him.

“Anything to make you happy, sweetheart,” He said with his smile, “I might not tolerate Halloween all the time, but it’s a bit nicer now since it makes you smile,”

After a massive blush was on your cheek, you and Druig were crowned the best-dressed couple at the party, much to the enthusiasm of your friends 

The End

Halloween Prompt Session

[bluestar22x]

Sweet Annie

The Rockford Files - Sweet Annie

Summary: Your first case with Tim Rockford vaults you into a race against time to find a little girl.

Pairing: Tim Rockford x F!Reader (He's 47, she's 45)

Rating: 18+ Series

Word Count: 13,300 (rounded)

Warnings: Mentions of blood and trauma (both kinds). Mentions of domestic abuse. Sexual assault of a minor mentioned/hinted at (the perpetrator is truly a monster). The R word is used. Horror elements.

Author's Note: This is my biggest fanfic project in a long time (and it's for a mobile game ad character - ha). Talk about a labor of love. This is like a crime show crossed with Ghost Whisperer, sort of (the reader doesn't talk to spirits, they "talk" to her). I loved CSI growing up and throwing ghosts into my crime fic is perfect for spooky season. Starting this short series off dark. I am truly sorry, hopefully the Tim content makes up for it. Expect this to be updated monthly. The chapters are going to be LONG cause they go case by case. (Longer than I expected - I posted this two weeks later than planned!).

xxx

September 18, 1995 (Monday)

Portland, Oregon

It was the beginning of the night shift at the Portland Police Department when Chief Robert Bronson, a man whose appearance distinctively reminded you of Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air finished guiding you around the large building, having focused on the divisions you would need to be most familiar with.

Your last stop was the most important one of all - the section you'd been assigned to - the homicide division. It was where you, as a consultant, would put your gift, or curse (your definition of it depended on the day) to good use once more.

Strolling through the glass swinging doors into the massive division you wanted to snort at the on-the-nose atmosphere. Despite it being eight o'clock at night most of the secretaries and detectives on the main floor were using minimum lighting, sticking to desk lamps as they flipped through files and tapped away on keyboards. Most of the men were dressed in dark suits and ties, while the women were in equally drab dresses (the secretaries) or blazers (the one woman in the entire room who was a detective).

The place smelled old too. It smelled of musty, aged paper and cigarette smoke and - you could swear - ink.

It was as if you'd stepped into a time portal and had traveled back to the setting of a classic 1950s noir film. So, yeah, it was damn fitting, even if the decade was wrong.

Chief Bronson introduced you to some of the secretaries and detectives as you walked through, and when he explained to them why you'd been hired you were met with a mix of warm greetings and skepticism. Nothing you hadn't expected. This wasn't your first rodeo. You'd dealt with all kinds at the last police department you'd worked at. You had thick skin. Or at least you thought so.

You only hoped your partner in the division would be like your previous one. He had been a sweet (now retired) old man with more hair on his head than any man his age had the right to have. He had been accepting of you immediately, an oddity in his community, and had looked out for you like you were one of his own children.

You missed him already. Wondered why the hell you had accepted a job way out in Oregon that would make it impossible for you to visit him regularly. You silently reminded yourself it was because of "budget cuts" and having no other good offers.

Chief Bronson didn't give you time to mope about it, already making his way into one of the private offices for the big timers, the detectives who'd climbed the ladder through successes and had rightfully earned their own spaces.

You quietly slipped in behind him, your eyes scanning the dimly lit room.

It was a decently sized office, maybe twenty by thirty feet. To the right there wasn't much but a printer and a small computer desk. To the left there were filing cabinets lining the walls and evidence boxes neatly stacked against them, all behind a large oak desk with a golden nameplate that read Tim Rockford. The only other items on the desk were more files, a rectangular shaped lamp, and a plain white mug filled with pens and pencils.

In the center of the room was the man himself. He was straddling a turned around metal chair, back towards you, focused on the cork board in front of him. It was covered with newspaper clippings, jotted down notes, and old photos of evidence. To the untrained eye it would be considered unorganized, but the pinned red yarn crisscrossing the board suggested otherwise. Everything was connected and probably easy to piece together.

The board wasn't what your eyes lingered on though. It was Tim himself. You couldn't see his face, but from behind him you could see that he was dressed it a suit like all the other detectives, though he had discarded his jacket on the chair at his main desk. He had on shoulder holsters over his crisp white shirt, and the combination seemed to highlight how broad his shoulders were. He was thick, a far cry from the frail looking man you’d previously worked with.

Chief Bronson pulled him out of his contemplations with a greeting, sending him to his feet, and he spun in his spot to face you both.

Your heart skipped a beat. You'd been afraid to admit to yourself that Tim looked good from behind, but it was impossible to deny face forward. He was around your age, in his late forties, but you wouldn't have guessed it if not for the gray scattered in his patchy beard and hair, and the crinkles around his eyes. His thick brown hair was an unruly kind of curly but trimmed down short enough that it appeared to be nicely tousled instead. His nose that curved strongly contradicted the softness in his coffee-colored eyes, just like how the scowl he wore contradicted his plump lips.

He was undeniably handsome, and undeniably annoyed.

"This department has never respected me," he declared in a gravelly voice, sighing deeply, a hand shooting to one of his hips as he spoke, eyes scrutinizing you.

"We all know you're a very capable man, Rockford," Chief Bronson assured him. "Your record for closing cases is stellar. Best in the city. But this partnership can't hurt."

Tim grunted. "Yes it can. It can hurt the department. It can diminish the department's resources for nothing. For God's sake Bronson, psychics are frauds." He pointed an index finger at him. "You should know better at your age."

"She gets results," Chief Bronson informed him, a firmness injected into his words. He sounded like an unmovable man, one certain in his decision, probably because he was. "With you both working together this division would stand out nationally. She's helped departments cut down investigation times in half in many cases."

"I don't need a partner," Tim ground out.

"Need? No. Still getting one though."

Tim shook his head at Chief Bronson, eyes disbelieving. You gritted your teeth. His reaction was nothing new, and you had always tried to have thick skin, but it still rubbed you the wrong way sometimes when people refused to give you a chance to prove yourself.

You were also rather irritated about being talked about like you weren't even in the room. Men.

"It's already been decided," Chief Bronson said in a that's final tone. "I don't want to hear anything more about it unless you have a legitimate reason to file a complaint against her. So suck it up and properly introduce yourself, Rockford."

Tim grumbled but outstretched his right hand and you begrudgingly grasped it in yours, giving him a solid handshake. He seemed to like that at least, his head bobbing in a slight approving nod.

"Tim Rockford."

You stated your name back to him and he gave you another nod.

"Where are you from?" he inquired as Chief Bronson slinked out of the room.

"Georgia," you answered shortly.

"Please don't tell me Savannah," he pleaded with a groan.

You bit back a laugh, huffing instead, wanting to make it abundantly clear you weren't liking the idea of this partnership any more than him after his dispute with Chief Bronson. "Atlanta, actually."

"That's a small relief, at least," Tim said, "No need to be cliche."

"I'm sorry," you hissed, feeling quite the opposite, "But isn't being a cynic a cliche too?"

He muttered something under his breath and you decided it was not worth knowing what. Whatever it was, it wasn't positive and was definitely pointed at you.

"Look," you said sharply. "You don't have to like me. You don't have to trust me. But whether we like it or not, we're working together for the foreseeable future, so let's just behave like professionals, huh?"

He bit down on his lower lip and you had to force your eyes to meet his to ignore the...stimulating visual. You were really hating that he was easy on the eyes. His attitude didn't match it.

But maybe for that reason, it was for the best. At least if you didn't get along it would be easier for you to ignore his stupid chocolate colored puppy eyes and his big hands that had made your mind wander into the gutter upon your first glance of them.

At least HR wouldn't have any issues with the two of you, as long as you didn't give into the temptation to smack him in his strong jaw.

Functioning as a team would mean having to beat that yearning back with a stick. You hoped reasoning might make things more tolerable for you both.

"I don't like frauds either," you told him. "They make trouble for me, and yes, there are a lot of them out there. But I'm not one of them, Rockford. Let me prove that to you. Give me a chance to get some results."

Tim huffed at your request but conceded. "Not like I have a choice. Just don't get in my way, alright? And keep out of trouble. Do what I say when it matters. You're a consultant, not a detective. No need of you putting yourself in the line of fire."

You nodded stiffly. "I won't get in your way if you don't get in mine."

"Deal."

There was a knock on the door and you both turned to it. Chief Bronson had returned.

"What is it?" Tim asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.

"Murder at the Mirage Hotel," Chief Bronson replied, glancing between you both. "You're up. The rest of the team's already there."

He left the room again and Tim strolled over to his desk chair, throwing his suit jacket on.

"Follow me," he ordered without looking at you as he shrugged on a tan trench coat as well. He strolled out of the room without another word and you had to take twice the steps he did to keep up with him.

He led you to his unmarked car in the back parking lot and you climbed into the passenger seat, put on the seat belt, and tapped your fingers on the windowsill as he started the vehicle up and drove out onto the main road.

You were always apprehensive on the way to a crime scene. A part of you afraid of what new nightmares you'd get from what you'd see, hear, or worst, smell on arrival. It wasn't just the dead body or bodies. It was the spirits too, the souls that lingered after the violent acts. It wasn't completely their fault, they were often confused, or angry, or both, and didn't know what to do with their overwhelming emotions, but it didn't change the fact that they often startled you and creeped you out. Your ability to sense them, to understand them, was why you had this job, why you did this job, but it was far from a dream. You did it because you felt like you had to put your abilities to good use, needed to. You couldn't ignore them. It would be wrong to, right? But they certainly didn't make it easy.

It was a fifteen minute drive to the Mirage Hotel, and the quietest drive you'd ever experienced. Tim hadn't spoken one word to you and he didn't have the radio on. You'd have turned it on yourself, but you didn't want to overstep. This was Tim's car for all intents and purposes, and though you two hadn’t hit it off on the right foot that didn't mean you were going to chance making the situation worst just for some background noise.

When Tim pulled up into the front parking lot your first thought was that the Mirage Hotel was not the most typical spot for a murder. It wasn't an expensive hotel, no fancy windows and yard, just red brick and a patch of grass, but the place as far as you could tell was well maintained and was probably mid-tier among all the hotels available in Portland. You were used to violent deaths happening in one-star motels.

You pulled yourself out of the car before Tim could but let him lead the way through the front door, flashing your consultant badge at a beat cop guarding the first floor hallway when Tim showed him his detective one.

The officer nodded approvingly at you both and stepped aside. "Room seven."

Even before you reached the door, you could smell it. The unmistakable intense wet iron scent of blood, so strong that your stomach flip flopped when you inhaled a little too deeply.

You weren't surprised when you ducked under the yellow crime tape draped across the doorway and found yourself staring at a blood bath.

You were pretty sure there wasn't a single piece of furniture in the small, one bed room didn't have splatters of blood on it. The TV, the nightstand, the bed, the chair, the corner table, even the damn lamp shade had flecks of red on them.

The beige carpeted floor was the worst off, a pool of blood at the foot of the bed, where her body sat, propped up, with her back to the bed. It would've looked like she was just casually resting there if not for her blood bathed band t-shirt and light blue jeans, her extremely pale skin, and the biggest giveaway, her wide open but blank pale green eyes.

She must've been pretty in life. Early thirties, fiery curly red hair that reached the middle of her back, and perfect curves that even twenty year old you would've been jealous of.

In death she was just...eerie. Even after two decades of consulting you still found yourself fighting against the temptation to shut the eyes of the victims.

Instead of giving into it you donned rubber gloves offered to you by lab personnel who were already scoping out the room for evidence and squatted near the body alongside Tim, who'd also received a pair of gloves.

Another man, late thirties, thin blond hair, wiry build, was already there, kneeling beside her, carefully examining her neck under a flashlight.

"What do we know, Joe?" Tim prompted.

The man sighed. "This is Rebecca Flynn. Thirty-three years old. From Seattle, Washington. We got that from her driver's license. Beat cops already interviewed the front desk staff. The guy who booked her said she used a different name to get the room. Shirley Wilson. Paid cash. Looked jittery, like she was high on something, or just nervous."

He gestured at her blood-soaked abdomen. "I'm betting on nervous, but we'll need to run tox at the lab to see if she has anything in her system to be sure."

"Stabbed?" Tim questioned.

Joe gave him a nod. "Multiple times. This shirt is shredded. I won't be able to count how many until she's out on the table."

"Time of death?"

"An hour ago, maybe. She hasn't gone into rigor mortis yet."

You attention drifted from their conversation as you felt a draft of cold air that made you shiver, and the hair on the back of your neck stood up. It felt like someone was watching you, breathing on you from behind, and you stood, whipped around quickly to look for someone.

As expected, no one was right behind you. No one visible at least.

When you turned back to them, Tim was frowning up at you, like he was concerned. "You alright?"

You forcibly composed yourself without a deep breath. "I'm fine," you chewed out, refusing to explain why you'd jumped up suddenly.

Tim didn't ask. He continued his discussion with Joe, who you presumed was the medical examiner, otherwise unfazed by your strange behavior.

You felt an unexplainable pull towards the head of the bed and carefully moved around the men and Rebecca’s body to join a twenty something year old woman, who looked a little like an adult version of Wednesday from The Addams Family, in lifting the bedsheets, searching for evidence.

You introduced yourself, pointing to your badge which was hanging around your neck, and when she shook your hand she smiled more softly than you'd expected. "Katie."

"Mind if I look for evidence with you?" you inquired politely.

"Sure," she said, "Just remember the protocols and let me know when you find something."

You promised to do so and got to work, flipping the sheets over carefully, eyes trailing every inch inside and out. All you could see at first was more specks of blood, but something was telling you to keep searching. Insisting. It was like a voice at the back of your head, but it wasn't yours. That realization always made you tingle a bit, was always unnerving.

You pushed on until your gloved hands found a lump in the bed sheets. Cautiously lifting them up off the bump, you were relieved to discover that it was a stuffed animal making it. An aged, stained thing with tan fur and a missing ear. It looked like a dog, but what kind it was supposed to be you had no idea.

The relief was quickly replaced with dread when you touched the toy and a vivid image of a little girl, maybe ten years old, with Rebecca's hair and chin flooded your mind. She was giggling, being tickled playfully by whoever was out of view. You could only see their hands. They were a little less pale, but you recognized them as Rebecca's.

You sucked in a deep breath when the memory (what you assumed it to be) left you. "She was here with her daughter."

Tim, Joe, and Katie all stared at you, confused, and you pointed to the stuffed dog.

"No one saw her with a kid," Joe informed you.

"Maybe she sneaked her in," you suggested, knowing you were shown that memory for a reason.

"Why would she do that?" Katie frowned.

"Someone was very likely after her," you said, "Probably was her killer. She might have had reason to believe that letting anyone see her daughter would give that person a greater chance at finding them."

"How would she have got her by the front desk?" Katie asked, perplexed.

"We'd have to see the lobby security tape," you replied, shrugging. "It could have been a few different things. She might have even had her climb into a suitcase and stay there just long enough to get checked in and into the room."

Everyone stared at you like you had grown another head and you raised your hands in defense. "I didn't say that's what I would do. But desperate people do desperate things, you all know that."

They nodded their acknowledgment. Tim grunted. "How do you even know she had a kid with her, let alone a daughter?"

You pointed at the stuffed dog again. Duh.

"It could be Rebecca's," Katie suggested, chewing on her bottom lip. You could see the hopeless denial in her eyes. She didn't want Rebecca to have had a daughter with her because it meant she had likely seen her mother get murdered, and that she was missing.

You shook your head. You had been at this too long to think you could be wrong. The dead never lied or gave you unnecessary info. You knew Rebecca was still here, you knew what she was trying to tell you. There was no doubt.

But you had to prove it to everyone else.

You glanced around. "Where's her suitcase?"

"She has two," Katie told you. "Under the bed. We haven't gotten around to opening them yet."

You ducked down and tugged them both out into view. They were both black rolling cases, one large, one medium sized. You unzipped the medium one, going off a hunch.

It was filled with a child's clothes. Tiny jeans, underwear, and shirts that would likely fit the little girl you'd seen. There were a lot of pink items.

"Holy shit," Joe hissed, dismayed. "She was here with a little girl. Fuck. That means -."

"We're looking at a missing persons case here as well," Tim finished for him grimly. He headed for the hallway. "I'll call it in."

"How'd you know?" Joe quizzed, staring at you with his mouth agape. "How could you have guessed that?"

"I didn't," you answered, hesitating before continuing, "I'm a psychic."

"No way," he choked, eyes wide. "No offense, but Bronson actually hired you?"

"He did," you confirmed.

"So a little ghost whispered it to you?" Joe was smiling at you, amused by the idea of it.

You narrowed your eyes at him before sighing. You should be used to this.

"Doesn't matter where I get my info, as long as I get results," you said flatly.

"We would've figured it out when we saw the contents of the bag either way," Joe told you.

"But we wouldn't have thought to check it so quickly," Katie stated in your defense, surprising you. You met her eyes gratefully and the corners of her mouth lifted. "We don't normally check bags until we get it to the lab. That would've made at least another hour where the missing persons unit wouldn't have known a kid is missing, probably kidnapped."

Hopefully not dead, you thought, chest constricting. You knew if Rebecca's daughter had been taken by the killer, if she had witnessed the murder, they would have nothing good planned for the little girl. "Every second counts."

"Yes,” Katie agreed.

Everyone had resumed their work by the time Tim ambled back into the room a bit later. "Follow me, partner. Front desk has the camera tape up and ready for us to look at."

"Missing persons going to look for the girl?" you inquired as you left the crime scene with him, tugging off your gloves and using the trash bin by the door to dispose of them.  

"As soon as they know who exactly they’re looking for," he replied with a sigh. "They're looking up info on Rebecca, confirm she has a daughter, and find out what she looks like. Then they can start the search and get info out to the public so they can help."

"I can tell them what she looks like," you told him. "She's ten. She's got red hair like Rebecca, and she's small, even for her age. I think I could give a good enough description to get them started."

He gave you a funny look. "How do you know what she looks like?"

"Part of my gifts -" you used air quotes, "- is that I can see the memories of the dead. Sometimes. Only when they want me to. Only when they're nearby."

"You're saying Rebecca showed you?" Tim huffed like it was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard.

"I saw her playing her daughter," you stated plainly, patiently. "It was inside a house. Probably theirs. Probably a recent memory. Spirits have a harder time digging up the old ones."

"Uh huh." Tim didn't sound convinced.

You shrugged. "Don't ask if you don't want the answer."

He grunted, giving you a curt nod after. "I'll try to remember that next time."

When you reached the front desk, you found a woman in her late thirties, dressed in a suit similar to yours, waiting there expectantly, expression anxious.

"Detective Rockford," Tim introduced himself. He gestured to you slightly as you leaned on the counter before her and he stated your last name. "She's a consultant for my division. We were told you have the footage of the victim checking in here at the desk?"

"And more," she claimed, waving you both behind the desk to watch her computer screen with her.

"I wasn't the one who signed her in, but Terry, my coworker who did, let me know around what time it was."

"Where's Terry right now?" Tim quizzed.

"In the break room if you have more questions," she answered, pausing, "He's the one who found her, if you didn't know. There was a noise complaint so he went to knock on the door and when he got nothing, no reaction, he used the master key to get inside..."

"Poor guy's in shock," you concluded. You'd have been yourself if you hadn't known what you were walking into.

She nodded. "I'm Vanessa, by the way." She glanced between you and Tim.

"Pretty name," he said offhandedly, nodding at the screen. "Let's see the video."

Vanessa pursed her lips and silently did as ordered to, clicking the play button on screen with her mouse.

An older balding man had been standing where Vanessa was, greeting a person who was walking through the front doors in a baggy dark green sweatshirt and blue jeans. There was no sound, of course, and the image was blurry, but it was clear enough for you to see that the person was female and that she had loose red hair spilling out of her hoodie. She was dragging the large suitcase from her room behind her as she approached him. The time on camera read 4:42.

You, Tim, and Vanessa all observed quietly as she booked a room for the night, often turning her head to the door as she did so, like she half expected someone to charge in and stir up trouble.

Because she did. Rightfully.

After she got her key Rebecca swiftly made her way towards the hall and out of sight of the camera.

"Not worth much," Tim hummed after she ambled off screen, "But it does confirm what Terry said about her looking wary."

"There's more," Vanessa said quickly, fast forwarding the video. "I decided to watch the video for a while after and fifteen minutes later she goes back outside and comes in with another suitcase."

She clicks play when the time on screen passes 4:57 and sure enough, there was Rebecca, leaving the hotel, and at 5:03 entering again, with the smaller suitcase this time. You noticed her looking over her shoulder just as she was about to step out of view and into the hallway again and spotted a smaller figure dressed in Barbie pink darting into frame, speedily racing past her.

The action made the figure's features difficult to discern, but a flash of scarlet told you all you needed to know.

"Terry didn't see her come back in the second time," Vanessa informed them. "He had gone out back for a moment to get a drink and Cassidy, the other person working up front with him at the time, was eating supper."

"She picked the perfect time to sneak her daughter in," you surmised.

"She got lucky," Tim figured, his expression turning grim, "For the last time."

"Did you check the footage around the time of Rebecca's death?" you asked Vanessa. "It was just over an hour ago."

She shook her head. "Give me a moment."

Again she sped up the video and you stared at the screen as Terry returned to the desk, as a young lady who was most likely Cassidy did, and as the lobby became busy with guests starting to mill in for the night.

It was difficult to know exactly when Rebecca's killer had entered the building. Several faces were hidden from the camera or were too blurry to make out at this speed. The video analysts would have to figure that out later.

The time on camera approached eight-thirty and Vanessa slowed the video down to half speed so each person walking into and out of the building could easily be spotted.

You hopped in spot and pointed at a familiar figure on the screen at 8:37. "There!" Vanessa paused the screen.

It was the little girl, dressed in a baby blue shirt, a much taller, green hooded figure beside her, tugging her towards the front entrance.

They must have taken Rebecca's sweatshirt to hide their face and had the kid change her shirt before rushing out with her.

You remembered all the blood in the hotel room. If she had been close by, if she’d witnessed her mother's murder as you had assumed, she'd have gotten blood on the pink shirt she'd been wearing earlier. The image that popped into your head made you shudder. Your eyes focused in on the large hand grasping the little girl's wrist tightly, unseen by Vanessa, who was distracted by a guest talking to her at the desk, and your heart sank.

From the corner of your eye you saw Tim pull his bulky government issued phone out of one of his deep coat pockets and dial a number without a word to you.

"Everyone on deck," he said firmly when someone picked up his call. "A girl's been kidnapped."

x

By the time you and Tim finished interviewing people at the hotel and returned to the homicide division everyone was in a frenzy, busied with work that had sprouted from the case, and someone had already found and contacted Rebecca's sister, who was on her way from Seattle to confirm her body's identity.

Before Rebecca’s sister had hung up with the detective who'd called her, she’d given him her niece's name.

Annie.

Her name was Annie.

Knowing her name somehow added to the urgency you felt to help the division find the girl. Tim seemed to share the sentiment.

It wasn't long before you both were holed up in his office to have a meeting with the lead detective of the missing persons unit, James Weston, an extremely muscular man who towered over you both.

Weston seemed kind, but was all business, and he knew what he wanted. His team was in charge of finding Annie, but you and Tim could assist whenever extra hands were needed.

You kicked the trash bin by the door after he left out of pure frustration. The ding reverberated through the room. "We should be playing a bigger part in finding her."

Tim, who was standing by his desk, shook his head and placed a hand on his hip. "No, we shouldn't. It's Weston's job to find people; we solve murders. His people will find her, and hopefully Rebecca's killer will be right there with her. Then they'll hand the bastard over to us."

You palmed your face and sighed. It wasn't like you didn't understand how the system worked; it was just that you didn't like it. "I know. I just don't know how I'm going to focus on solving Rebecca's murder when I know her daughter is still out there in the hands of her murderer. Priorities."

"Gotta trust the system, Psy."

You lifted your head up to blink at Tim, confused, unsure what the nickname stood for.

"Short for psychic," he explained, giving you a grin that seemed uncharacteristic to you, though you'd only known him a few hours. Maybe it was in character for him to think he was being clever.

You groaned and headed for the door. Just want you needed. A silly work name for him to add to his toolbox. "We going to check in on the Forensics team or what?"

"Right behind you," he replied, serious again.

You stalked out of the room without looking back.

x

A lot happened that night at the department, and you and Tim were pretty much in the center of it all. You went to the Forensics division as planned, but they didn't have much for you yet, having only just begun to test the evidence and examine the photos taken on site. The only new information you got was from Joe, who'd counted eighteen stab wounds from a kitchen knife on Rebecca’s body and had concluded that the one in her neck was most likely the cause of her death.

There was blood and hair samples from the room to compare to the most likely source - Rebecca, and to compare to the national database just in case she’d pulled hair or clawed blood out of her killer, but that was going to take days or weeks to be processed. DNA testing was not a quick task.

After your visit to Forensics, you and Tim returned to his office to find a reporter waiting by the door. She was there to get details on the murder side of the case, already having visited Weston for the kidnapping part of it. You sat down at the computer desk during the interview, noting how patient and formal, even warm, Tim was in answering the reporter's questions. He was used to those types of interviews, and that night the press were their greatest allies.

Less than an hour later the case was on the eleven o'clock news with a vague description of where Rebecca was murdered (good hotel managers always made sure crime reporters never mentioned their hotels directly by name), followed by the blurry video image of Annie being dragged out of the building and several interviews. The fifteen minute interview with Tim was cut down to one for TV, getting to the core of it. Weston's was before that and his screen time was slightly longer. They were followed by Rebecca's sister, standing in front of the police precinct teary-eyed, begging civilians to help them find Annie and the reporter telling people how they could do just that - by calling the Portland police if they saw a red haired girl with a tall, hooded stranger. They also showed a picture of her. Annie was definitely the little girl who had been in your vision. The picture even seemed to have been taken in the same room you had seen.

After the story ran, you and Tim joined Weston in his office for an update.

"The interview with Rebecca's sister was enlightening," Weston declared. "We've got a good idea of who we need to be looking out for."

He pinned a photo of a large framed man with a square jaw and haunting gray eyes that stood out against his dark facial hair on his cork board and tapped it with his left index finger. You and Tim both stepped closer, eyes studying his every feature.

"This is Rebecca's ex-boyfriend, Neil McKingley," Weston began, sounding winded already (if homicide had been busy, missing persons had been frenzied). "Neil's thirty-six, lives in Medford, works as a garbage man. No criminal record, but Rebecca did have a restraining order against him as of last month. Her sister, Rory, informed me that he'd been abusive to her during their five year relationship, mainly emotionally, but towards the end, the last couple weeks, he'd started slapping her whenever she stood her ground against him. That had been the final straw for her, when she realized he was only going to get worst. Rory also told me Rebecca had expressed concern to them a few days ago that he was possibly stalking her. She felt like someone was watching her whenever she left the house. She had announced to Rory yesterday that she and Annie were going to go stay with her at her home in Seattle for the next couple weeks, to get away, in hopes that it was just paranoia."

"It's not paranoia if you're right to be concerned," Tim stated, folding his arms and nodding at Neil's image. "Is he Annie's father?"

"No," Weston answered. "And apparently, judging by what her aunt told me, he barely even tolerated her. He was always trying to pull Rebecca's attention from her to him, always trying to send her to a camp of some kind. This past summer was horse camp."

"So he's our lead suspect," you concluded. "But if he can't stand Annie, why would he kidnap her? Why not kill her right away?"

"There's no good reason I can come up with," Weston told you, his lips drawing tight. "And by that I mean whatever he's planning for her, it's likely not good."

You figured that much. You never liked thinking about it, but the reality was there weren't many different possibilities to what plans a guy like Neil would have for kidnapping a little girl like Annie, who he didn't care about. Either he'd dump her, hurt her, kill her, or all of the above, not in that order.

He'd do it soon too. The ticking clock in your brain, the one that was always present at the back of your mind while you were on an active case grew painfully loud.

The first forty-eight to seventy-two hours after a crime is committed is critical. It's the ideal time period for gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses. It's also the most vital time period in missing person cases. After seventy-two hours the chances of finding a missing or kidnapped person alive was basically zero. Hell, finding the body after that long got a whole lot slimmer too.

Every hour that slipped by cut Annie's chances astronomically. Everyone in the room, the fucking whole building, knew it too.

You silently begged whichever higher power that was paying attention, if any were, that the news announcement would lead to some intel and fast.

Sudden rapping on the wooden door nearly made you jump out of your skin.

"Boss," said an unfamiliar man standing in the doorway, breathless, "Gas station employee in Eugene just called in that they saw the little girl from the news in the back of a 1987 white Dodge Aries that stopped to gas up. The driver fit the description of Neil, to boot. Troopers already out on patrol are keeping an eye out for him on the highway."

You gaped at him. Maybe there was a god.

"The fool's headed home," Weston hypothesized. "Make sure someone's waiting for him in case he makes it there."

"I think someone is already there, but I'll check to confirm," the man told him, turning on his heels to charge off.

Weston glanced at you and Tim. "Sorry to barge off, but duty calls. When I return, it'll be with Neil in handcuffs and a little girl on her way to get checked out at a hospital."

You and Tim both nodded and watched him bolt out of the room.

"Back to the office until he does," Tim decided. It was an order. You wanted to argue, but you had no better plan, so you swallowed your pride and followed him back.

x

You had been at the Portland Police Department for less than one shift when Weston proved to you that he could keep promises. Mostly. When he returned to the building four hours later, it was with Neil in tow. A state trooper had spotted his car on the road outside Grants Pass and pulled him over after a lengthy chase that had their cars reaching speeds over one hundred miles per hour. The trooper had gladly arrested him and passed him over to Weston when he showed up on site, and in another four hours Neil was in the missing person's interrogation room.

Weston's promise wasn't complete though. Neil had been the only person in his car.

"Where is she!" Weston demanded, smacking the metal table right in front of Neil, who was handcuffed to it, seated in a metal folding chair across from him and Tim. You were watching the three of them through a one way window, so the sound of skin on metal was muffled to you, but in the room it reverberated enough to make Neil flinch.

The man recovered fast though, a smirk forming on his ghostly pale face.

He's sadistic, you concluded wordlessly. Big surprise. The sight of it still made your skin crawl. You'd have thought after decades of laying your eyes on the worst of the worst, hearing them speak what should be unspeakable, you'd be immune to a creepy smile, but you definitely weren't.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

You rolled your eyes, having heard that line more than one way too many times. It didn't even make sense to ask. They did want to know.

"We're not messing around here Neil," Tim said sternly, keeping his expression trained, unreadable. "Oregon hasn't had an execution in over a decade, but it is currently legal, and we can aim for it when prosecuting you."

Neil chuckled. "Oh, scary. Or it would be, if the alternative wasn't life in prison."

"What will it take to get you to reveal Annie's location?" Weston inquired impatiently.

"Nothing you can give me," Neil answered, "I know I'm not getting out of here."

"Already given up?" Tim huffed. "Is that why you turned down a lawyer?"

"Can't trust anyone but yourself," Neil declared. He made it sound like his trust had been broken recently and not the other way around.

"What would be the harm, if you know you're going to jail either way?" Weston asked.

"This way I stay my own boss. No one nagging my ear off."

Tim hummed. "Like control, huh?"

"There's only two main states in life," Neil told him in a matter-of-fact manner. "Being in control or being controlled. So, yes."

"What did Rebecca escaping you fall under?" Weston questioned smartly.

Neil snorted. "She may have ran for a short time, but fear is control in itself."

"Where did Annie fit?" Tim asked.

"Annie controlled Rebecca," Neil replied with a hint of bitterness, jealously even. "Took most of her time and attention. Contradicted what I wanted her to do. Annie was mouthy even for a brat. She was the only reason Rebecca ran. We would've been fine if not for her."

Boy, is he delirious, you thought.

Weston frowned. "You keep saying was."

Neil curled his lips upward, his expression bright. "Caught that, huh?"

"What did you do to her," Tim ground out, the first sign he'd shown that their suspect, who had confessed in every way except spelling it out, was making him boil.

"I used her for the only thing she was good for and left her to fade away," Neil stated simply as he shrugged, like it was normal, like it was right.

Your stomach twisted. Used her. He fucking used her. The smirk that upturned his face left you without question as to what he meant by that.

What do you call someone so inhumane they murdered an innocent woman in front of her child, kidnapped said child, and continued to further traumatize her then leave her to die? The only correct answer in your book was Monster.

Both Tim and Weston appeared more than ready to give Neil a beat down, fists and jaws clenched, eyes dark with fury. They'd read between the lines and drawn the same conclusion as you. It wasn't like it had been in fine print, after all.

"Was she alive when you left her?" Weston pressed on with a hiss.

"Maybe. No idea."

It was clear Neil did actually have an idea, but wasn't willing to let them have the truth. You understood then what he had been doing all along. He was playing a game, or at least thoroughly enjoying riling up Tim and Weston. He was toying with them like their limbs were hanging from strings. In his eyes, he was in control here.

"We're not going to get anywhere with him," Tim bit out after a few long, tense moments passed, eyes darting to Weston. "You can stay here, but I'm going to get out there and help with the search."

Weston nodded at him and without another word Tim stormed out of the room. You slipped out of the observation room and chased him down the hall.

"I'm coming with," you told him.

"It's past seven," he reminded you, stopping in the middle of the walkway to face you. "Go home. Get some sleep. No use both of us working overtime."

You tilted your chin up stubbornly, knowing that wasn't the only reason he'd suggested you leave. "I'm not going home until you do."

He sighed heavily, deeply annoyed by your insistence, but too tired to argue further. "Fine." He turned to continue making his way towards an exit.

"What are we doing?" you inquired.

"Gonna head out to the highway," Tim said. "Hope we can spot where he might have dumped her."

It sounded like a fool's errand, trying to find Annie that way, but you didn't say so. You had a feeling he already knew the odds, but like you he just needed to do something. With nothing else important left to do for the homicide case until the Forensics results started coming in, or until you both collapsed from lack of sleep, driving around looking for Annie could be that something.

It was better than nothing.

x

Though it was morning, a surprise rainstorm had darkened the city to the point that it might have as well still been night. The weather matched the state of your mood, and the longer you sat in the passenger seat of Tim's patrol car as he drove along the main road, the deeper your worry for Annie got, and the more it ate at you.

If she wasn't dead, she was likely out there in the pounding rain, drenched and freezing, especially with these autumn temperatures.

If she was still live, time was running out for her fast.

Tim drove slightly slower than the speed limit, along the same roads Neil had taken, eyes scanning the sides. You knew he was searching for signs of a vehicle having driven off the road or some path that might catch a killer's eye as the perfect body dumping spot. You knew because you were looking for the same thing, but with no hints as to where he’d brought Annie, you might as well have been looking for a needle in a haystack.

You and Tim were nearly three hours into the ride to Grants Pass when you found yourself nodding off to the hum of the wheels on the asphalt. You had no control over it after having been up for nearly twenty-four hours straight at that point.

Your heavy eyelids fell for what you thought would be the last time for a while when you felt your world shift from underneath you and you gasped as you found yourself standing in an overgrown grass field, in the middle of a path made of slightly patted down foliage that ran through it. It simulated a corn maze in your mind, the grass almost tall enough to blind you to your surroundings, but not quite. Angling your head just right you could see a highway a few yards away, a multitude of trucks and cars zooming by. It was a dreary day, near noon as best as you could tell. You realized that this was now.

You sucked in a deep breath and when you breathed out it looked like a cloud was slipping out of your mouth. The same eerie feeling of being watched that you’d had in the hotel room the night before overtook you and you spun around.

Rebecca was standing a few yards away from you on the makeshift path. She would have pulled off the role of a serene goddess if not for the determined look in her eyes and her blood-soaked clothes. Your heart thudded in your chest. It was as if someone had given her CPR and she'd just stood up and walked away from the room she'd been murdered in, wandered into this field.

She's here, you heard loud and clear in your head, the voice not your own. This path. Forest. To the forest. Stop. NOW!

You startled awake, crying out, "Stop!"

Tim flinched at your scream and had to adjust the steering wheel, having jerked it when you'd stirred.

"What the hell, Psy!" he growled. "Nearly gave me a damn heart attack."

"Pull over!" you shouted at him as the field blurred by over his left shoulder. "Now!"

He stomped on the breaks, grumbling as he rolled the car into a stop on the right shoulder of the highway.

"What's your problem lady?" he demanded, staring over at you like you'd gone mad. You supposed it was a fair reaction to what had just gone down.

You pointed over your left shoulder with your thumb. "That field we just passed. That's where he took her. He took her there, took her through it, left her in the forest beyond it."

Tim blinked at you in surprise. "How do you know that?"

You threw him an exasperated look. "Again, don't ask questions you're not going to like the answers to. Just trust me. She's out there. Call the search and rescue unit."

"We can't just call the sniffer dog out on a hunch," Tim told you.

You snorted. "Isn't that the point of sending out the dog? If we were sure of where she was, we wouldn't need him."

He ticked his jaw and you read between the lines. It wasn't that they couldn't call for the dog, it was that he didn't want to do it on your word.

"Fucking trust me, Rockford," you hissed. "Trust my results as the department trusts yours. Just this once. And if I'm wrong, I'll walk. You won't have to see me again. Deal?"

He gave you a stiff nod and lifted the radio's handheld speaker to his lips, pressing the button to talk. It was already set up to contact someone under Weston who was also out on the road. The young sounding man promised to let Weston know they needed the bloodhound and where and told Tim to hang out by the location until then.

"Are we really going to just sit here until they show up?" you asked Tim once he returned the speaker to its holder. "That'll be hours. She doesn't have that time to waste."

“You’re the one who wanted the dog.”

“The dog could be back-up.”

"You really think she's still alive after spending half the night and all morning out there in the rain with God only knows what injuries?" Tim questioned, lips pursed.

You stared into his dark, solemn eyes. "I know it."

He tilted his head at you and fell into action, pulling his key out of the ignition and pocketing it before pushing himself out of the vehicle with a groan. You slipped out of the passenger side and met him at the trunk. He opened it to reveal a mess of tools of the trade and emergency supplies.

"Grab the compass and blanket and put on your back up shoes," he ordered you. "I'll grab the walkie and the pack of hiking supplies. I assume Rebecca the friendly ghost didn't tell you how far away into the woods Annie is...?"

"No, she did not," you confirmed, reaching for the folded navy blue blanket tucked away in a back corner. "But I can't imagine they'd have gotten far. Surely Annie was fighting him?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Tim said, shrugging. "It depends if he tried selling some promise to her or if he made it clear what his intentions were. I have a feeling Neil is the type to only reveal his truths when there's no hope left."

You chewed your upper lip, again picturing the girl from the memory you'd seen the night before. So bright and smiley. You realized that version of Annie was a ghost. If she survived, if you found her in time, you knew she'd never be the same. You could only hope that she'd find the strength to cope with her nightmares. That she'd find meaning in her life to keep going. You clung to that hope as you and Tim trekked out into the field, towards the dense, damp forest lining the back of it.

x

The rain had slowed to a drizzle by the time you and Tim stepped under the canopy of the gorgeously autumn colored Oregon woods, but you'd been out in the pouring rain in a thin dark purple fleece long enough to already be half soaked and chilled. You had to clench your teeth together to keep yourself from chattering them, afraid Tim would hear and send you back to the car. You had to see this through.

At least the wind is almost dead, you mused. Small blessings.

Tim was dressed far better than you, in his long, tan trench coat and wearing heavy black boots that were surely keeping the water off his socks a hell of a lot better than your sneakers were (they were the only backups you'd brought and were better than your dress shoes at least).

There was no point in time you weren't crunching dead leaves under your feet or tripping on hidden roots, but you managed to keep up with Tim as he traversed the game trail through the dense forest much more quietly than you, like he had hiked every day of his life.

As time passed you noted he had a subtle limp, a hitch in his stride, when climbing or sliding down hills. Probably a bad knee. With the rain and his age, you weren't surprised. You were feeling achy yourself, an old ankle injury having flared up after the first twenty minutes of the trek.

"Rebecca tell you anything since we've been out on the trail?" Tim finally inquired, breaking a long silence between you, both absorbed in your own thoughts. You'd been walking for just over thirty minutes.

"No," you answered more sharply than you intended. You really hated hiking in wet weather. You were sure you looked like a drowned rat and you felt just as miserable. "She's a tickle at the back of my mind right now. Nothing else."

"Ah, so she admits it's all in her head," he said, not bothering to glance back at you.

You were going to bite off Tim's head for the comment, at the smug smile he was probably sporting, but then it registered that his tone was teasing. It startled you. First the Psy nickname, then the joke about you imagining your gift (curse). Maybe Tim Rockford really did have a sense of humor. It wasn't a good one, but it was something, you guessed. If you could ever get along, be comfortable around each other, you imagined it was something you could work with.

You chose to ignore him instead, taking a moment to stand still and study the surrounding forest. It was just trees and logs and moss and rocks. Dirt and muddy puddles. The faint whistle of a far-off woodpecker.

Something was silently calling your attention to the east though. You could see nothing that would've tipped you off, any traces of footprints washed away in the early morning heavy rainfall, but you had the urge to head in that direction, off the beaten path, anyway. You were being called out to like a ship’s crewmate in the clutch of a siren's devastatingly divine song.

You couldn't ignore it. You knew better than to do that.

You were almost out of sight of the path before Tim noticed you had wandered off. You heard him shout after you, concern in his voice. "Psy, where are you going?"

"This way," you yelled back. "She has to be this way."

Tim took one last glance at the trail ahead then hesitantly followed you, nearly jogging to catch up. By the time he did, you'd stepped out into a small opening in the forest, littered with a thick layer of gold and orange leaves.

Curled up in the fetal position and completely bare, her scattered clothes buried out of sight, the body of a pale little girl with fierce red shoulder length hair laid nearly perfectly in the center, as still as the air.

You felt your stomach drop. Were you too late?

Tim made his way pass you to approach her carefully. "Annie?" he called out tentatively, placing one foot slowly in front of the other, like he was afraid to startle her.

There was no reaction from her, and the silence locked your heart in a fist-like squeeze.

At Annie's side, Tim squatted to press two fingers to the side of her curled neck, checking for a pulse. When his stiff form relaxed slightly, his broad shoulders dropping, you heaved a sigh of relief.

She had a pulse.

Your deduction unstuck you from your spot and you rushed forward to cover Annie's tiny form with the blanket from the trunk, mentally crossing your fingers that the part that had been folded in the middle wasn't damp like the edges were.

Tim reached for the walkie talkie he'd attached to his backpack and talked into it. You knelt by Annie's head and studied her mostly hidden face as he did so, only vaguely aware of him telling whoever was on the other end that Annie was alive and that they needed an ambulance at their car's location on the highway.

You wanted to reach out to her, but something stopped you. The guilt of not being able to find her sooner.

"We need to get her to the road," Tim told you. "The paramedics are going to meet us there. I'll carry her. You guide us back with the compass."

You nodded at him, eyes still fixed on Annie's face.

Nearly out of your peripheral vision, you saw Tim reach for Annie's right wrist, grasping it gently, pulling it up to examine it.

"It's a miracle she didn't completely bleed out," he muttered. You followed his eyes to the slit on her wrist, dried blood caked on her arm. When your eyes found her left wrist, it was in the same state.

"That's what he meant by having left her to fade away," you realized.

Tim dropped her arm and tucked the blanket underneath her, making sure she was wrapped up like a burrito, her arms free, but no skin left exposed below her shoulders or above her ankles otherwise. As he did so, she began to stir, eyes still shut, too weak to open them, but aware enough to know someone was jostling her around.

She whimpered sharply and began to softly sob, tears leaking out of the edges of her eyes. Your heart wrenched at her pitiful noises, knowing immediately why she was panicking, what she thought was going to happen to her...again. Your hand automatically shot out to caress one of her cheeks, to wipe the tears away, to soothe her.

"Hey, hey," you whispered softly. "It's alright, Annie. We're from the police department. We're here to help you. Trust us, okay? You can trust us. You're safe now."

Tears continued to leak out, and she was shivering uncontrollably, but the girl quieted. You nodded to Tim to continue, and he met your eyes, his worried, before pressing forward.

"Gotta pick you up to get you out of here Annie," he warned her as his eyes scanned the side of her face, voice as low as yours had been. "Gonna lift you on three. One, two..."

On three he scooped her up into his arms, more gingerly than you'd have thought possible for a man of his size, standing slowly up with a wince.

A small hand managed to reach up to curl around his trench coat's collar, like Annie was trying to cling to him, but she made no other moves and her breaths soon evened out again. You and Tim had lost her to sleep once more.

Tim didn't dare run with Annie in his arms, but he still moved fast, strides long, and you had to nearly jog to keep up with him on the way back to the car. The compass was mostly forgotten, Tim only asking you once where north was, to confirm he hadn't gone off course and veered west instead.

When you popped out of the woods, you could see an ambulance parked on the edge of the road, across from and parallel to Tim's patrol car and two other unmarked cars with a few detectives from missing persons inside them. The two paramedics waiting already had a gurney out, ready to go, and Tim lowered Annie down onto it like she was a porcelain doll. He explained the shape you’d found her in to the paramedics as they loaded her up into the truck. He didn't notice you'd hopped in and planted yourself down on one of the border seats until one of the paramedics was about ready to slam the back door shut. He stopped the door mid-way.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confused. "Someone with the missing persons unit will interview her when she wakes. You don't need to go with her."

"I'm not leaving her until the doctors say she'll be okay," you explained. You knew you wouldn't sleep a wink otherwise and hearing it on the news would be too long of a wait. Besides, she knew your voice, and you wanted to be there to reassure her on the way to the hospital if necessary. Being turned over into so many different hands in her state had to be disorientating, at least you could make the ride a little easier on her if she woke back up.

Tim looked like he wanted to argue with you over your decision to ride along, with the way his jaw was jutting out, but he never got the words out, for some reason deciding against it. Instead, he gave you a curt nod and let the paramedic finish shutting the doors.

You slipped a hand over one of Annie's delicate ones as the engine roared to life, giving her thin, icy cold fingers a light squeeze, and watched as the paramedic out back got to work examining her, monitoring her, getting an IV in her, and pushing pain meds until the nearest hospital came into view.

x

As soon as you entered the emergency room with Annie you were forced to part from the unconscious child, ushered towards the waiting room by a nurse.

You could've left, you weren't a relative to Annie and most first responders, most detectives, had a rule about getting invested in patients and/or victims, but you didn't. You'd never learned to move on after seeing children harmed by the criminals you helped catch. You needed to know their fate every time.

So you sat there, watching the muted television in the room for nearly three hours. When it was clear the nurses weren't going to come out and give you an update, you went back in, headed for the nurses' station.

You cornered the petite blonde who'd kicked you out. "Anything you can tell me about Annie Flynn?"

"Are you family?" the nurse inquired patiently.

"I'm a consultant for the police department," you told her honestly, flashing your badge at her. "I'm the one who found her. I know it's not exactly protocol to tell me, but I'm not going to be able to sleep restfully if I don't know how she's doing, so please."

The nurse hesitated, but eventually gave in, sighing deeply. "Physically she's okay. She's been given antibiotics and pain medication and has been gaining strength since she got a blood transfusion. She doesn't have any injuries that won't heal. Mostly bruises and minor cuts, except for the cuts on her wrists, of course. But those should heal fine too, even if they probably will leave scars. Emotionally however," she paused, rubbing her cheek, "Emotionally we have no idea, of course. We can't even be sure of everything that happened to her because she's in a sort of mental shock right now and isn’t speaking to anyone, but the doctor who examined her used a rape kit on her. They're pretty sure what the results from it will be, as I'm sure you are, but it'll take a couple days for them to come in."

"Has anyone come in yet to see her?" you asked.

She nodded. "Her aunt is with her upstairs as we speak."

"Where?" You gave her a pleading look.

She chewed on her lower lip, trying to figure out how much trouble she'd be in if she told you. "Room 201."

"Thanks," you said gratefully, immediately rushing off for the nearest stairway.

You climbed to the second floor and did your best to look casual as you approached the room.

When you reached the door the sound of a woman's assuring voice stopped you from entering. You quietly peered into the room to see a woman slightly younger than Rebecca had been, who shared the same hair as she had, seated on the edge of the only bed in the space, a hand on Annie's sheet covered knees. Annie was laying on her back, eyes wide, tears streaming down her face.

"I can't begin to imagine everything you've been through," Rory told her softly. "But I am here for you, and I'm going to find you a therapist who will listen to you as well, okay? You won't have to deal with what happened on your own, sweetie. You'll come stay with me and we'll get through this together, alright?"

Annie nodded vigorously, her newfound energy as obvious as her anguish, and she sat up to throw her arms around her aunt's neck, to bury her head in her chest.

You backed off, making sure they didn't notice you. You'd seen enough, seen too much in fact, feeling like you had invaded their privacy by eavesdropping on them even if it had been brief.

You had your answers. Annie was awake and on the road to recovery. It would be far from easy for her, emotionally, but she had a supportive aunt to take care of her. It was more than many young victims of crime ever got.

You could live with that. You had to.

You were turning back to the stairway when a chill ran up your spine. Instinct had you whipping around and your head shooting up, searching for what had caused the sensation. Rather who.

Rebecca.

She was at the end of the hall, by the bay window overlooking the parking lot below. It wasn't a glamorous sight, but with the sun finally peeking out of the clouds just in time to start setting, there was still a hint of beauty to it.

Rebecca's spirit was still in the white dress, but it was no longer bloody, and the symbolism wasn't lost on you. Her killer was caught; her daughter would be safe. She didn't move, she didn't smile, but the gentleness in her eyes made up for it; allowed you to figure out why she was here.

She was silently thanking you, in what was probably the only way she was capable of in the in between.

You gave her a nod of acknowledgement, blinked, and she was no longer there. Peacefulness filled the atmosphere and the weird mental itch at the back of your brain was gone.

Rebecca had moved on.

x

You called for a taxi as soon as you were back on the first floor of the hospital and waited by the main entrance for the driver to pick you up. It was a long, expensive drive, since you needed him to get you from Roseburg back to Portland, but Tim had already left the city so you'd had no other choice (he'd called while you were in the waiting room and you'd refused to leave without answers). At least you were able to nap for about an hour, head leaning on the back side window, until a pothole jostled you and you banged your head painfully against it.

It was nearly nine o'clock at night when you arrived at the department, headed back to the homicide division in hopes of catching Tim before he headed home, wanting to get an update on the murder investigation side of things.

One of the secretaries on the main floor, Helen, who was close in age to you and Tim but dressed like she was seventy, stopped you from trying the closed door to his office. "It's locked."

"So Rockford's already headed home?" you guessed.

She shook her head, the corners of her mouth tugging downward. "More likely than not he's at Liquid Alchemy. It's a bar on the next street over. A lot of the detectives go there to drink on weekends. Sometimes us secretaries join them."

"It's a Tuesday," you pointed out.

"So it is," she said, "But that wouldn't stop him after solving a case."

"He likes his celebratory drinks?" you quizzed. "Do you think he'd let me join him, or would the presence of the psychic ruin it for him?"

She chuckled a little. "Been giving you a hard time?"

"To say the least," you replied with a huff.

"Well, don't take it too personally," Helen told you, sitting back down in her seat and sipping coffee from a paper cup. "Tim's just a proven facts kind of guy. Unknowns bug him, a lot. And a psychic once said something to him he didn't like."

“What was that?" you asked, interest peaking. The tone of her voice had suggested the mentioned something was big.

She glanced around, like she was afraid to be caught for what she told you next. "It's a long story, but Tim had a little sister. Had being the key word. When he was nine and she was four, she disappeared. They'd been playing hide and go seek out in the backyard, and during one of the rounds where he was the seeker he couldn't find her anywhere. The yard was bordered by trees. Her parents thought maybe she'd run off or got lost in them, so they searched the woods for hours by themselves. They called the police at nightfall and the missing persons unit used a bloodhound to try to track her. The dog got a trail, but it led to a dirt logging road not far from their house and a set of tire tracks. The police concluded that she'd been kidnapped."

"That's awful," you said sadly, your heart going out to your partner and his parents. "I'm going to take a wild guess that he blamed himself."

Helen nodded.

"Did they find her body?" you inquired, remembering the past tense she'd used earlier.

She shook her head dramatically. "It's what drove Tim to be a detective. At first, when he was fresh from the academy he thought he could investigate her disappearance himself and solve it, but it's remained a cold case. There was never enough evidence to follow."

"No wonder he couldn't leave the search for Annie to Weston and his unit," you realized. "This case hit close to home."

Helen nodded in confirmation. "It's also, in part, why he's drinking on a Tuesday."

You pursed your lips. "So, what's a psychic got to do with it?"

"When Tim was at a carnival with friends three years later, a psychic that traveled with them approached him, unsolicited, and told him his sister was with him," she explained, "Like, actually with him, following him around wherever he went, just like she tended to do when she was still alive."

"He didn't like what it meant," you figured. Who would want confirmation that their family member was dead from a stranger like that? Still without a body to bury? Who would want to know that they weren't at rest?

"Wasn't just that," she told you. "He asked the psychic to describe what his sister looked like, and she got a detail wrong."

"She was a fake."

"Yes."

"How'd she know as much as she did?" you asked, gnawing on the inside of your cheek. You hated hearing stories about fakes. After all, every fake out there tarnished your reputation just a little bit more by existing.

"Newspapers, small town talk," Helen suggested. "He grew up in Hood River."

You'd never heard of the place but assumed that it was another town in Oregon.

"Surely you know how fakes are," she continued. "Some of them are very good at what they do. They dig up all the info they need to convince people, or try to at least."

"Guess I should stay away, then." You sighed. "He's been calling me Psy."

"Hey, well, that's something," Helen said, grinning ear to ear. "He doesn't give pet names to people he hates. There might be hope for you yet."

You laughed. "What if I don't want that?"

"Have you seen the guy?" she whispered, leaning towards you. "Eye candy."

You snorted even as a part of you silently agreed. It definitely was not the most logical part of your brain.

It wasn't just his appearance that had you agreeing though. You had a feeling you'd have the vivid image of Tim carrying Annie out of the woods like she weighed nothing stuck in your head for a long time.

"Thanks for telling me about his sister and the fake psychic," you said soberly, yawning after. "Guess I should head home."

"Stop by the bar first," Helen insisted. "He gave you a nickname. I think you'll be surprised at how receptive he may be of your company."

You arched your brows. "You trying to set us up?"

"God no," she barked out, winking at you. "Then I wouldn't have a chance at him."

You smiled. It seemed you'd made a friend during your very first case. Not bad.

You said goodnight to Helen and nearly bumped into Bronson on your way off the floor.

"How was your first shift?" he asked you, pulling back the coffee cup he was holding to protect it from the hazard that was you.

"Terrible case," you told him, "And Tim's still lukewarm to me at best, but it's been suggested I might be wearing his walls down."

Bronson dipped his head at you. "Good. He needs that." He checked his watch. "It's getting late. Rockford already finished the necessary paperwork for the day before he left and you've proven yourself plenty today. Get out of here. Get some rest. I don't want to see you back here for another twenty-two hours."

You raised your hands in surrender. "No arguments there."

You didn't mention that you were going to stop by the bar first.

x

Liquid Alchemy was no upscale bar, but it wasn't a dump either. The outside was plain white, with a black sign. Its name was in white, and painted alongside the alchemy symbol of silver, which was shaped a lot like a crescent moon. The inside was neat and smoke free, unlike most bars you'd been to, and there was a platform where live bands could play. That night there was only a DJ though, since it was a slow weekday, only a dozen people there when the bar probably could hold a hundred.

You spotted Tim as soon as you entered the building, seated on a black stool at the eight person bar in the center of the main room, his back turned to you. He was still in his work clothes, like you, but he'd tossed the suit coat on the counter beside him. Seeing his shoulder holsters again and the way his white shirt strained over his upper back immediately reminded you of your first meeting just over a day ago.

Had it really only been a day?

You approached Tim on his right. "This seat taken?" you inquired lightly.

It was a joke; you knew all the stools besides his were empty. It was a well-received joke though, Tim snorting quietly at you. He lifted the glass of liquor in his right hand (Bourbon?) to his lips and waited until you seated yourself to speak. "How'd you find me?"

"Helen said all the detectives come here."

"Pretty much."

The bartender approached you and you ordered a whiskey sour.

"Don't know how you can mix alcohol with a sour taste," Tim commented, grimacing.

You shrugged. "What can I say? I've always preferred sour to sweet."

"How's the girl?" Tim asked eventually, after the bartender had handed you your drink.

"Awake and with her aunt," you answered with a sigh. "Not talking right now, but who can blame her? I just hope she can live with some kind of normalcy eventually. At least her aunt seems really nice."

You took a sip of your drink and made a face. Just cause you liked sour things, didn't mean you had no reaction to them.

"You see Rebecca anymore?" he asked you, and your eyes shot up to his, shocked by the question. It took you a moment to recover, long enough for him to swallow a mouthful of his drink.

"After Annie woke up and reunited with her aunt she moved on," you informed him.

He frowned at you. "Just like that?"

"Just like that. Poof. Gone."

"She was able to rest after everything that happened?"

You wondered where Tim was going with this, why he was asking so many questions. "Spirits aren't quite human anymore and they tend to stick around for one purpose. Rebecca's was making sure Annie would live, and she does. Annie's trauma wasn't a part of the equation, and she had no power to do anything about it anyway."

"This a guess?"

"A logical conclusion," you corrected him. "I surmised it from my forty-five years of being able to see and sense them."

"Your whole life?"

You nodded. "Ever since I could remember, I'd get chills when there were no drafts, whispers in my mind when I wasn't thinking, nightmares about real people I'd never seen before."

"That had to be scary as a child," Tim reckoned.

"It was." You smirked at him. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you're starting to believe me, Rockford."

He downed what was left of his drink. "I believe that you believe it's real. I have no solid proof of otherwise."

You rolled your eyes before throwing back a quarter of your drink in one go. "You never will. Spirits aren't tangible, and not everyone has my heightened senses."

"The results are all that matter," Tim decided, waving at the bartender, "And you get results, fast. You were great out there. Annie probably would have died without you stopping me in front of that field and leaving the trail to look for her. I don't know how you did it, but I don't care anymore."

You could work with that, you thought. As long as you both got along, respected each other, you could handle a partner not fully accepting of your abilities.

"I was thinking," he began slowly after ordering another glass of Bourbon.

"Oh?" You blinked innocently at him, leaning on the bar with an elbow and cupping the underneath of the hinge of your jaw.

"I know, shocker," Tim grumbled, guessing correctly what you'd been tempted to say.

You beamed up at him. He could be a pain when he was grumpy, slightly condescending when he didn’t like something, but he was also fun to tease.

"Anyway..." he trailed off, "I was hoping tomorrow night you'd help me with the cold case while we're waiting on the lab results for Rebecca's case."

"The one on the cork board?" you guessed.

"That's the one," he replied with a nod. "It's from 1985. A nineteen year old was found in his house, an apparent suicide, having taken one pill too many, but he had strangulation marks around his neck, like someone held him in a choke hold for a while. Could use his spirit to help me figure out what went down."

"It doesn't work on command," you warned him, "And on cold cases I usually don't see much. Most of the time the spirits are no longer around after the first week, otherwise they risk becoming a poltergeist."

"I don't necessarily need your spiritual talent," Tim said, pursing his lips. "Even just having another brain to pick would help." He took a sip of his new drink. "What do you say?"

You curled your lips up at him.

"Sounds like a plan."

xxx

Tagged: @harriedandharassed

xxx

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

[unholyhelbig]

Now that it’s spooky season, and even though it’s been years since my last pitch perfect update, I’d love if some of you would check out my favorite fic, Camp Beaverbrook!

[imomisoplays]

Venison Steak

Trick or treat, tombler!

This is part one of the Halloween party I prepared for the Ito Family. In this post, Stella will cook some specialty venison steak as one of the main dishes of the night. The venison steak cc recipe is made by @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel (click here to download the recipe). Please be aware that you would also need to install Custom Food Interactions (its last update is November 25th so make sure you have the latest version) for the recipe to appear in your game. The recipe can be found under the Gourmet Cooking pie menu.

Now, let's begin what we do best: the cooking part.

First, the meat. Venison is said to be healthier than beef, as it has half the calories and sixth the saturated fat found in a same-sized cut of beef.

Stella prepares the venison meat. It's important to choose an acidic marinade with plenty of bright flavors from vinegar or citrus, as those ingredients not only lessen the "gamey" flavor of the meat, but also help break down the tissue which results in buttery-soft meat. With venison steaks, marinate for at least 3 hours.

The side dishes include huckleberry compote, pearl onions, pomegranate sauce and potato puree -- what I love from @icemunmun-spicy-scalpel is her dedication to go an extra mile for the side dishes 👩🏻‍🍳🤌🏻

As seen above, Stella chops down the pomegranate before boiling them and crushing them to make the sauce, and garnishes the green onion with oil and seasoning before roasting them in the oven.

Finally, cooking the steak. Great tip I found on the internet is to not overcook the steak, as venison steak is best cooked to medium-rare only. The cooking blog I found this tip from pulled the steaks from the grill/the pan as soon as they reach 117-125F (around 47-51C).

Last but not least, it's important to rest the steak for around 10 minutes before cutting, as it will allow the juices to seep back into the meat. Perfect timing for a little spooky photo session, don't you think?

The Adults™. From left to right: Nanami Ito, Vienna Ito, Astarion Ancunin, Stella Ito, and Kylo Ren. The five of them also hung out together regularly as Ito & Co. clubs.

Nanami dressed up as Wednesday Addams from the 2022 Netflix series Wednesday, while Vienna and Stella (and their respective husbands) dressed up as Anastasia "Anya" Romanov and Dimitri (Anya's love interest, because of course they need to create the token savior in a white horse) from the 1997 Fox Animation Studios animated film Anastasia, one of my favorite -- if not my most favorite -- animated movie of all time! 25 years later and I'm still very much in awe with its original sound tracks too. Toast to you if you love Anastasia too! 🥂 Or if you haven't watch it, please give the film a chance. It was sooooo good.

CC list: Wednesday Addams dress is by @madlensims (download here), and the complete Anastasia set are by @blogsimplesimmer (download here).

Coming with Nanami tonight is her twins Sean (white sheep costume) and Kieran (black sheep costume), who are cutely put into sheep costumes to match her black-and-white vibe (sheep costumes are by @madlensims, downloadable here). The twins were a little cranky as they're bit tired from Trick and Treat-ing, so Nanami put them to a quick nap before dinnertime.

Osh Cous B'Gosh members, a.k.a The Cousins™. From left to right: Frejr (dressing up as SpongeBob SquarePants), Soleil (dressing up as Patrick Star), and Leia (dressing up as Ariana Grande from her "Yes, And?" music video).

CC list: While Frejr and Soleil's costumes are almost entirely vanilla game, Leia's dress is downloaded from here.

More photos of the family. I never realized how hard it is to repeatedly place the teleporter and make multiple sims complete a specific pose, but I'm very satisfied with the images above 🥹

The face you make when your mom forced you to pose in front of the dining table you just made. Leia low-key wondered whether her mom genuinely wanted to take a picture of her, or she's just happened to be on the frame when her mom wanted to take picture of her succulent venison steak.

Specialty venison steak with huckleberry compote, pearl onions, pomegranate sauce and potato puree. This post is the first of the two parts of the Halloween party, and on the next post, we will see the family having a wholesome Halloween dinner. Stay spooky, and 'til then, dag dag!

P.S. Detailed cooking process of venison steak is taken from this article.

[thatsmutaccount]

Old "Rex new life" chapter promo!

Spooky season, spooky season, spooky season.

The poll is almost up, it will end tomorrow and it looks like it will be three/four unrelated Halloween chapters for this year. I already wrote one of them, I just need to take another look at it to be sure everything is alright and translate it and I'll update it maybe even tomorrow. In the mean time I will also work on the second chapter.

This Halloween chapters always take a bit of work out of me, I think it's because it's probably easier to convey the whole monster-fucking thing through a visual format (a comic or a drawing) than with a written format (not saying it's easy, honestly shout out to all artist out there, you are all great, keep it up, I believe in you). Thing is next year I'll start working on the Halloween special already in September, lol

But, as of the promo from last year special, what would you find? Easy: an abandoned house, a bet, and all the spooky horny inhabitants of the house who are just looking for a way to relieve themselves, and the perfect candidate might have just come in...

*****

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Rex's Halloween Party night is destined to undergo an abrupt change when, after a brief discussion, he is dared to enter the abandoned house said to be haunted by ghosts.

But Rex is not afraid; it's just an old legend, right?

Right?

It's the night of the witches and the monsters are out hunting, but not all their hunger can be satiated with food…

*****

WARNING: Blowjob; Anal Sex; Fingering; Threesome M/M/M; Gangbang; Creampie; Bukkake; Extreamly Dubious Consent; Rape/Non-con; Milking; Excessive Amounts of Cum; Cuming Untouched; Multiple Orgasm; Dom/Sub Undertone; Groping; Non Consensual Groping; Titfucking; Double Penetration; Cumdump

SPECIAL WARNING: Supernatural sex; Unrealistic sex; Monster Sex; Clone sex/Selfcest (and everything tha could be related to that); Non Consensual Body Modficiation; Hyper Cock; Male Lactating; Magical Drugs Use; Pheromons; Ghost Fucking

[h-worksrambles]

I make it a personal rule not to do holiday stuff (minus important stuff like sorting gifts) until December actually starts. But now that the month is here, I consider it to no longer be ‘too soon’ (it’s been on all the commercials for weeks anyway). So I kicked it off by going through The Smoke Room’s modern AU Christmas special again. I still love it so much.

It’s a genuinely great companion piece to the main game by showing how many of the main cast’s struggles were born from the difficulties of living amidst the harsh social context of 1915. Seeing all the cast in the modern day, living lives that aren’t perhaps perfect, but where they are at least all living as their best selves is just priceless. Sam in a quiet life with people who love him, Murdoch finally having freed himself from his family, Cliff able to express their gender identity, (this was such a lovely way to get canon nonbinary Cliff confirmation). Will openly gay and comfortable with himself, and Nikolai just being generally out of his shell emotionally (becoming possibly the funniest character in the process) is all a joy. It’s also a pretty enlightenining reference point for how their character arcs may unfold in the future. Like they may not get to lead a life like this in any timeline in the full game, but this is ideal we’re striving for with these guys.

Placing the characters in the modern day also allows for so many blursed references. Sam has an extremely relatable resentment for Mariah Carey. Cliff is a Hatsune Miku stan, Murdoch swears he’ll get Will to see Mean Girls and Will is taking the based millenial line (even calling out the Salvation Army like the chad that he is). Also, spare a thought for poor Blithe, who’s experiencing the one thing worse than losing friends to a serial murderer/supernatural monster...working retail on Christmas Eve.This could so easily have been cringy but damn it’s adorable (even if Cliff saying ‘pog’  is imprinted into my brain forever).

The decision to present all the main cast as a polycule compared to each being a dedicated route just makes it all the more heartwarming and allows for so many fun dynamics within the group.

Look at this. How can anything that includes this not be perfection?

Plus, I appreciate that we still get a little seasonal themed spookiness, which the summer AU would also do. It honestly makes me wonder how much of this is purely for fun and how much is secretly foreshadowing aspects of the main game (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the summer AU brought up Todd’s bi-curiousity only for that to come up in the very next Will update).

But yeah, this was a lovely thing to revisit to kick off the month. I could see this entering the rotation of my staple holiday season media.

[thegeminisage]

ok, belated tng update time. idr what day it was (monday?) but we did "remember me" and "legacy."

remember me: THIS RULED!!! i absolutely cannot believe that 1. they give beverly crusher nothing to do ever 2. she was almost KICKED OFF THE SHOW FOREVER? 3. i used to dislike her so much. when you give this woman half a chance she totally, absolutely steals the show. not only can she act in the most technical sense, but beverly herself can be stubborn and brave in the face of danger and she is SO MUCH MORE than Just A Mom! (tm) which is all we were getting from her for season 1. and then in season 3 she really only got a few chances to show her stuff, most notably the terrorism episode, which is a bummer cuz that was not the best episode but SHE was great in it. and she was also also in this

the point being i want more of her being cool and good. i really loved everything she had going on here. running around and talking like a crazy person and not ONCE (ok, one time) did anyone suggest she was crazy. they just believed her!

WHICH IS NUTS BECAUSE IT TURNED OUT SHE LITERALLY WAS CRAZY. like it all happened that way bc she got too deep in her cups about her dead husband

speaking of: the plot twist in this episode. mwah. so good. and she was so smart to figure it out on her own where they couldn't help her, and it was so smart that EYE also was tricked but it didn't feel like unfair trickery. because i knew SOMETHING had happened.

the whole episode was just so spooky and cool, i was on the edge of my seat every minute, it never felt too slow or rushed, it was perfect

anyway support women. support women in the medical field. support women in the workplace. support women with sons who trap them in warp bubbles.

legacy: once again we dishonor the memory of tasha yar...not really but it BROKE me knowing she DIED FOR SOMETHING but nobody in this timeline would remember that!!!!!!!!

i like her sister honeypotting data. he literally almost bagged both yar girls and good for him

once again: rape gangs mention. it's been so long. after all this it was almost disappointing not to see them. almost.

actually though it's really fucked up that tasha just left her and revenge would've been a good motivator...but in some ways, it's even more fucked up that it wasn't. like she just doesn't care. she doesn't care about anything but her shitty gang war on this shitty planet, and goes back to it and (i looked it up) never appears in canon again. that's just her life. sister left and then died for nothing and she will also die for nothing and data will carry around that little holographic photo and now that bomb implant for the rest of his little android life. wack.

NEXT TIME: "reunion" and "future imperfect."

[bakersstreetirregulars]

CROB Headline, March 2023 - Special Season: Lights, Camera, Action!

This month, we’re going to the movies for CROB’s first Special Season and to see the production of Butter Squid Cookie’s newest movie!

Dates: 2/28 - (TBD)

Title Event: Ready, Cookie, Action!

Tragedy strikes again as Popcorn Cookie, the winner of a recent Golden Ticket contest held by the promotional committee of Jellywood, visits the filming site of the newest movie directed by Jellywood’s own Butter Squid Cookie. The movie’s lead actress was said to have declared unable to shoot for unknown reasons, bringing production to a standstill. In response, Butter Squid Cookie is said to have considered Choco Bar Cookie- the lead’s stunt double- as a replacement for the missing actress, but it’s currently unknown if she’ll accept the role.

⚙️ This event is inferred to be a template rerun of the title events held since November 2023. A proposal for a standardized guide has been approved for future publication.

Seasonal Modes

Friendly Run Buddies

Guild Run - Lights, Camera, Action!

Raid Run - Desert Highwaymantis Season 3 (?)

Trophy Survival (Ends ~3/6)

Team Fight (Early March)

Random Breakout Challenge - Lustrous Longan Palace (Coming Late March)

Cookie & Gacha Features

🎬🍫 Choco Bar Cookie (Epic Cookie)

The lead’s stunt double for Butter Squid Cookie’s latest movie. Press Jump -> Slide or double-tap Slide to perform a stunt that destroys obstacles and scores points. Her Magic Candy adds a finishing move to her stunts, creating Nutty Choco Bar Fragment Jellies

Nougat Wound-Aid (Epic Pet)

Choco Bar Cookie’s Pet since her days in stunt school. This Pet creates Bandages that score points and restore Energy.

Munch-Munch Popcorn (Epic Treasure)

A staple of every in-theatre movie! This Treasure periodically creates Popcorn Mix Jellies.

Choco Bar Cookie’s “Gunfight at the O.Cake Corral” (Super Epic Costume)

The stunt double’s outfit for Western-style movie scenes during a film shoot at the O.Cake Corral. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you thought she was the sheriff after seeing her ride across the pastures atop a Choco Horse!

Shine Muscat Cookie’s “Icon of the Age” (Epic Costume)

Director Q’s “A Fan’s Perspective” (Epic Costume)

Shine Muscat Cookie’s movies always seem to outdo her previous works. Paparazzi and magazine interviewers seem to follow these two wherever they go…!

Habanero Cookie’s “Cheese Mine Dwarf” (Rare Gem Costume)

Flamebeak Robin’s “On-set Dynamo” (Rare Gem Costume)

Blue Slushy Cookie’s “Dessert Forest Elf” (Rare Gem Costume)

Icy Birdie’s “Cinematic Songster” (Rare Gem Costume)

Fellowship of the Jelly Lobby Design

Behold, the latest promotional material for the latest rendition of the first episode of the “The Lord of the Jellies” series: “The Fellowship of the Jelly” featuring Habanero Cookie, Blue Slushy Cookie, their pets, and even the stage! Buy them in the Gem Exchange Center!

“Keep Running, Keep Going” Jelly Shape Set (Epic Jelly Shapes)

The cast and crew of Action Bear Jellies striving for the perfect take!

—————————— Part 2 ⬇️

🎞️🧈 Butter Squid Cookie (Epic Cookie)

The director of a new Jellywood movie held back by production delays.

Popcorn Cookie’s “Sprinkle Pop-Pop Land” (Super Epic Costume)

A special outfit Popcorn Cookie arranged for her trip to Jellywood, where dreams come true!

“Gleam of Love” Jelly Set (Legendary? Jelly Set)

Would it pair well with Sugar Swan Cookie’s new Costume?

Major Update Features

New Breakout Mode - Solo play at your leisure

Run through every Breakout Episode released so far in order (Escape From the Oven -> City of the Millennial Tree -> Black Sugar Pirate Ship -> Sands of Yogurca -> City of Wizards -> Lost City of Sugarteara -> Spooky Spider Mansion -> Fragrant Lotus Paradise -> Lustrous Longan Palace -> Sands of Yogurca II: Secrets of Mirage Village -> Deep Sea City Wandercrab)

Use a different level-capped combi in each stage

Reach a score objective to unlock the next stage

Completions will often reward Gold Gems, Cookies, and Pets

Some stages grant keys to open special chests or locked books (see the City of Wizards) for greater rewards

Finishing certain episodes will add a rank to your profile

Does not reset weekly, so play at your pace

Main and Special Episodes will stay where they are after the update

Random Challenges will be moved to a separate heading on the mode selection screen

New Special Episode: Jellywood - Go through the various stages of Jellywood and collect Coins in four different movie genres!

Special Episodes from here onward will be recast as Coin Episodes

Remember Black Sugar Pirate Ship and Spooky Spider Mansion? It’s that kind of Coin Episode.

Special Coin items like the Coin Party (which turns coins into Star Coins worth more points and coins) will appear starting with this Episode

Bonus Events

Special Draw Returns! Open boxes by playing the game and get lots of free stuff!

Now Featuring the Surprise Exchange Shop, where past cosmetics are in stock and ready to sell!

Buddy Event Part III: Buttercream Choco Cookie’s Return

Earn Buddy Points by playing in an event to get Buttercream Choco Cookie, Coffee Cookie, Rainbow Cubes, and much more!

[charleyad]

Haunt Your Social Media with iFoto's AI Headshot Generator: Halloween Edition

Ah, Halloween—when the spookiest of spirits come out to play, and our social media profiles might just need a little bit of the spooky fun, too. That's where iFoto's AI Headshot Generator steps in. Whether you're a pumpkin carving extraordinaire or just a fan of a good ghost story, this tool can convert your daily snapshots into something truly hauntingly cool.

Why the AI Headshot Generator?

Let's face it, not everyone has the time or the skills to Photoshop a fearsome face into a profile picture. That's where the magic of artificial intelligence comes in. With the iFoto AI Headshot Generator, you can take your average photo and turn it into a spooky spectacle in seconds. It's like having a digital wizard at your fingertips!

The Process

Imagine you're scrolling through your camera roll, and you stumble upon that perfect picture of you in your favorite costume. You click the 'Convert' button, and voilà! The iFoto AI Headshot Generator does the rest. It analyzes your photo and applies a range of filters, effects, and even adds a touch of the supernatural to make your headshot pop.

The Halloween Advantage

With Halloween just around the corner, there's no better time to update your profile picture. Whether you want to be the boogieman, a spooky ghost, or even a skeleton, the AI Headshot Generator can make it happen. It's not just about looking cool, though—it's about having fun and being part of the Halloween spirit.

Personal Anecdote

I remember a time when I was a kid, my friends and I would dress up and go trick-or-treating. We'd take pictures of ourselves in our costumes, and the best ones would end up as our profile pictures for the whole year. Now, with iFoto, you can do the same thing but with a modern twist and a touch of AI magic.

Creating a Scary Social Media Presence

Once you've got your spooky headshot, the possibilities are endless. You can share it on your social media, tag your friends, and maybe even start a little Halloween meme. It's a great way to connect with others who love the holiday as much as you do.

Tips for the Best AI Headshot

Choose the Right Photo: Pick a clear, well-lit photo for the best results.

Experiment with Effects: Don't be afraid to try different filters and effects until you find the one that suits your spooky style.

Think Outside the Box: Why not add a background or a prop to really set the scene?

The Social Media Buzz

As the AI Headshot Generator gains popularity, it's not just about having a cool profile picture anymore. It's about joining a community of Halloween enthusiasts who are just as excited about the holiday as you are. Share your spooky headshots with the hashtag #HalloweenAIHeadshots, and who knows, you might just go viral!

Where to Find the AI Headshot Generator

The iFoto AI Headshot Generator is easily accessible online. Just head over to the iFoto website, upload your photo, and let the AI do its magic. It's that simple!

Looking Ahead

The future of social media is all about innovation and fun. With tools like the iFoto AI Headshot Generator, we can keep our profiles fresh and exciting, no matter the season. So, why not give it a try this Halloween and see what kind of spooky spectacle you can create?

Stay Updated

Keep an eye on iFoto's social media channels for the latest updates and features. They're always working on new and exciting ways to improve your social media experience.

Final Thoughts

Halloween is a time for fun, creativity, and a little bit of spookiness. With the iFoto AI Headshot Generator, you can add a touch of that to your social media presence. So, what are you waiting for? Let's convert your daily photos into fearlessly fantastic profile pictures and celebrate the season in style!

[zaldritzosrose]

MILESTONE UPDATE

Hello everyone!

With two fics now completed and linked above I wanted to give everyone a quick update.

Thank you all again for your requests (20+ that's fucking wild!) and I am inspired by every single one. I would like to complete them all and only ask that everyone is patient.

I want to make them perfect which will take time. I also have a spooky season event incoming which will mix in with my Milestone.

Thank you all again and stay tuned for the next Milestone fic!

Hello, now that requests for this have closed, I thought I would give everyone a rundown of what/who has been requested so you know what to expect. I'm going to take my time and fill them so everyone gets the best quality for their request I can give!

To Do List below the cut!

Completed fics here..

- Joyride - modern smut (Joyride - Kesha) with OC!Sigyn

- Pretty Little Thing - Gwayne Hightower x Handmaiden Reader (smut)

House of the Dragon:

Jacaerys Velaryon

- song fluff (Like Real People Do - Hozier)

- smut with wife reader (and a smidge of Aegon)

Aegon Targaryen

- fluff + smut with wife reader

Cregan Stark

- fluff + angst with wife reader

- song smut (God Is A Woman - Ariana Grande)

Gwayne Hightower

- angst with Strong!Reader

Aemond Targaryen

- modern era fluff with OC!Lyanna Stark

The Last Kingdom

Sihtric Kjartansson

- soft romantic fluff (now a sequel to Viridity)

- angst + fluff (all character, no reader)

- fluff + smut with wife reader

Osferth

- fluff + mild angst (dad!Osferth)

- fluff (dad!Osferth)

Dune

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen

- fluff + smut (wife/lover reader)

- smut (rockstar Feyd x groupie reader)

Other Characters

Billy Washington

- song fluff (Last Man Standing - Livingstone)

Bucky Barnes

- song fluff (I Wanna Be Yours - Arctic Monkeys) with wife reader

Masema Dagar

- fluff + angst with mild smut with Goddess Reader (Burn to Ash series)

Ettore

- smut with fellow survivor reader

Benny Cross

- fluff (dad!Benny and wife reader)

[beingaliveplaylists]

playlist masterpost

here are allllll the playlists i currently have made. i will update as i make more!

broadway / musical theatre:

broadway songs to belt - full of songs great for belting out in the shower, or wherever else

king of new york - happy, uplifting songs for when you need a reminder that life does get better, and the world is a pretty amazing place

a many splendored thing - romantic love songs

shall we dance?  - songs perfect for dancing or acting out dramatically in your kitchen (or anywhere really)

keep calm with broadway - instrumentals of broadway songs, no distractions

sad girl hours (musical theatre edition) - sad songs for when you just need to cry

i remember (i remember when i lost my mind) - songs from characters going through some stuff (i don’t really know how else to describe it)

autumn on broadway - some melancholy, soft showtunes perfect for fall

fright of their lives - spooky songs for the spooky season

the human heart - songs so beautiful they restore my faith in humanity

non-musical theatre:

hair flip warning - soft rock(ish) songs worthy of head bopping and hair flipping

always and forever - love songs for hopeless romantics (like me)

all the feels - sad songs for sad times

homework vibes - songs to make homework a bit more bearable

morning pump up - songs for morning motivation

girl power - songs for girls everywhere

based on books / characters:

alex rider (aka idiot spy) - songs based on alex rider, everyone's favorite teen spy

the infernal devices - an angsty playlist for the infernal devices series, grab some tissues, it's gonna get sad

the mortal instruments - more angst, with a side of teenage dramatics

caraval - a playlist for the whimsical world of caraval. shall we play a game?

serpent and dove - a tribute to lou and reid, witch and witch hunter

six of crows - songs the dregs would approve of

[littlefoxsimmer]

Hey all! I figured I would make a small update to let you all know where I've been and what I've been working on the past few months. But first I wanted to say that I appreciate your kindness and support even in my absence. I'm working my way through responding to all the amazingly sweet people who left comments while I was gone. Between my game recordings being laggy and celebrating brother's wedding, it's been a minute! But as of yesterday I am back on an irregular schedule. I plan to catch up better when I get back, but I managed to finish some of the Simstober content I've been planning and I will be uploading even more as I finish them. I can't wait to show you all what I have been working on and hope that you all are looking forward to some festive fall content. Video 1: Get in witches, we're going cc shopping! I got links to fall themed poses, furniture, cc food, and clothing perfect for spooky season! LINK➡️youtu.be/-AF9D2nxmsQ Video 2: My part in the #HenfordUnDeadly Collab run by the amazing @kariannalt! I've been seeing screenies from the other incredibly talented creators in the collab & I'm constantly in awe. Please go show them some love!❤️ LINK➡️youtu.be/06hU09eZYlY #ShowUsYourBuilds #thesims4 #thesims #maxismatch #speedbuild #youtube #gamingyoutube #smallyoutuber #cchaul #ccshopping #noccbuilds #channelupdates #sims #simming #simsbuild #youtubegaming #simsvideo #simsbuilding #sims4 #sims #customcontent #halloween #simstober #fall https://www.instagram.com/p/CkHarJcp4Bj/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=