“I am innocent.” was all she said. They showed her the pictures, the bodies but all she said was that she was innocent. They brought crying and whimpering families into the room, they asked her “Why?” but all she said was that she was innocent. Jack Kaufmann, the know-it-all agent of the unit, made up his mind that he was going to get the confession out of her. He started with the good cop-bad cop strategy though he knew that it would fail. He knew that in order for her to make an inevitable mistake and tell the truth, he had to make her think that she was smarter than them. He had to act like they were failing, he had to make sure that she knew that she outsmarted the FBI. Because he knew people like her, and he knew that for them to make mistakes their ego had to be fed. So after his first strategy “failed”, Jack tried to appeal to her emotions and empathy. He brought the families of the victims she killed in, but she didn’t even flinch just like he expected. He knew that she lost her morals long ago, he just had to find out when and how. 

 

Jack used all of his tactics to make her feel smarter, and he was sure that he succeeded. Now all he had to do was to come up with a lame reason that explained why she did all of this, to get her pissed. People tended to make mistakes when they were angry and Jack wanted to take advantage of it. He told her that the reason she did all of this, the reason she killed them was because of a momentary rage. He told her that she was too emotional and brittle. He told her that she was sloppy. She was not. She would plan everything from years in advance and she most certainly was not “emotional”. She didn’t act with her emotions at all, no. She acted with her logic, with her desire for revenge. And revenge after all was an emotion, but she did not want to acknowledge that. She had created this cold, emotionless image of herself in her head and she was acting accordingly. She liked to pretend that she didn’t have emotions, she wanted to be perceived as tough and analytical. She wanted to scare people. Because she thought that fear was the strongest emotion, but she was wrong. The strongest emotion had been and would always be revenge.

 

She wanted revenge, she needed revenge. The concept of revenge was the only thing helping her preserve her sanity (if you could call this sanity, of course). Growing up, she had always told herself  “one day…” so she waited for that day to come, but it never did. So she realized that she had to create that day, she had to create her own revenge. She knew that she wanted to make the cruel world pay, for all it had done to her. But she was smart enough to know that she needed an elaborate plan so she sat down, and prepared for four years for her big day. She planned everything, including when and how she would kill each person, even the day of her arrest. She took a year to gather information from her victims, a year to plan, and another year to gather all the tools she would need. By the end of her third year, she felt ready to start. But her mom had always taught her that if you felt ready, you were not. Mother had always told her that people that are actually ready would always feel some kind of anxiety. So when she felt most confident with her plan, she knew that it was the wrong time to start. So she waited another year, planning her own arrest. 

 

She knew that she would eventually get caught, she was realistic, so she planned how that would go down. She imagined her arrest being done by the hands of the FBI. She was right, of course. She knew from the start that what she wanted to do, what she needed to do was illegal and “wrong” under the law. But could anyone really blame her for desperately craving revenge this much? After all that had happened? Besides, even if people were blaming her, why would she care when He was proud. All she wanted to do was to make Him proud, and she was succeeding. God was proud of her, and that was enough. In fact, she did want to get caught. She wanted the world to know that it was her, she wanted fame. She wanted to be remembered, she wanted people to recite her name. It didn’t matter to her if people did that with a peaceful look on their face or with a sign of terror and fear. She just wanted to be remembered. And in the end people should’ve been grateful for her, she was cleaning the world. She was cleaning the world just like the way God ordered her to do. And He was proud of her, she knew it. He would show her that he was proud all the time. 

 

“She’s killing rapists and registered sex offenders” was what Jack said after an uncomfortable silence in the briefing room. “Oh shit! You’re right! But why?” said one of the cops. Jack knew that this question would come, and he was partially prepared. To be a hundred percent sure, he decided to confront her. He went back into the interrogation room. It was still in the same way that he left, she was sitting motionless looking out the window, as if hypnotized. “Hey!” he said in an effort to gain her attention. He repeated the same thing over and over while hitting the table, but she still wasn’t reacting and only looking out the window. He decided to take a look himself, but nothing seemed unusual. There were a couple of trees, clouds and a rainbow; that was pretty much it. That’s when he realized that the back of her hair seemed kind of wet. “You were outside.” he said as if whispering. “You were outside before we got you, you were wearing rain boots so you knew it was going to rain. But you are not carrying an umbrella…?” he trailed off. “And ever since you’ve got here all you have said is that you are innocent. But that doesn’t mean that you didn’t kill them now, does it?” And that’s when it clicked. 

 

She was the killer, but she wasn’t lying when she said that she was innocent, she actually believed that she was innocent, despite killing: a self-proclaimed, narcissistic vigilante. “How can you still not blame yourself  when you’ve been killing actual innocent people?” and he didn’t forget to emphasize the “innocent” part. That pushed her buttons and she screamed “Because He is proud of me!” “Who?” “He!” she said while pointing at the rainbow in the sky.  After a brief moment of silence Jack started speaking softly, “So, God has chosen you for his holy mission?” he questioned. “Yes, he did.” she answered with the same softness. Jack only nodded his head. “But isn’t murder a sin?” he asked calmly. “It normally is, but He has chosen me. He makes it rain just for me.” she said while forming a creepy smile. “What do you mean ‘just for you’?”Jack questioned. “He makes it rain so that I can get free of my sins, He baptizes me.” she said confidently. Everyone was horrifically amazed by how much she actually believed this. “Which is why you are innocent, right?” he asked in a cautious but understanding tone. “I am free of my sins. What I do cleans the world, they were not good people and you know it. The earth had to be purged, and I completed my duty in doing so. Do you think you'd have been able to catch me if I didn’t want it to happen? I’ve finished my part in the cleaning, He has told me so. Now it’s another helper’s time to clean.” “Helpers, is that what you call yourselves?” he asked with a tensed jaw. “Yes. And there are many others, they will start soon. You will not be able to arrest each one, so I would suggest giving up now, officer.” The moment she finished her sentence, an officer came into the room. He whispered something in Jack’s ear but she already knew what was up. “There have been five different murders, in the same style. The time of death for each of them is almost the same, which means that they’ve been done at the same time. The distance between each body is around an hour, so if our suspect didn’t learn to teleport, we’re probably dealing with a cult.” “Her cult,” was all Jack could say, maintaining eye contact with the girl sitting before him. 

 

The rain poured down, as if gaining energy from the widening smile on her face and the chuckle that followed it. It was the final cleanse; His final baptism. He was proud of her. She knew it, and that was all she needed.