Day of Horror: Kensi’s Journal 10/23/22

They’ve been at this for so long they have a name now.  The FBI calls this band of serial mutilators and killers “The Body Stitchers.”  Sam and I probably take this case even more personally than the rest of our team since we spoke with them and never picked up on their depravity.  They completely played us and we let them walk away.  I wasn’t exaggerating when I described the last time we crossed their path as the sickest thing I ever saw.  Unfortunately, the pile of dismembered bodies that Rand and I saw today topped that and sent me right back to a very dark place.  The only good part of the workday was getting to put the cuffs on Ferguson.

If we’d come across these sickos a decade ago, I would have spent the evening at the Apex, drinking mojitos at just the right pace to dull the edge, my eyes alert for a guy who looked like he’d be able to help me take my mind off it for the rest of the night.  Instead, Deeks and I ate dinner, engaged by Rosa’s tales of what she did with her friends at school today.  Later, my partner and I shared what we needed to process the horror of our day, including the late and very disturbing update from Sam.  Then we helped each other forget it, repeatedly, at least for a while. 

I managed to wake up a little bit ago before my nightmare got to the screaming stage (thanks, Sam, for putting it in my head that Deeks was alone with one of those psychopaths in the theater today).  I’m on the floor next to our bed as I write this in case Deeks struggles to wake up from the nightmare, he’s sure to have.  After today, how could he not?