Chapter 1
Sarah Graham had always been the quiet one of the family. No one never really knew of her as the sister of the more well known Will Graham, who was a teacher at the local university where he taught about forensics and the science behind the FBI. But that's what he did on the side. His actual job was being a FBI Criminal Profiler who could get inside the minds of serial killers to figure out why they did what they did. Sarah was very proud of her big brother and all he had accomplished. She was 25, which made her ten years younger than Will, who was 35. Sarah had moved out of their parents' house when she was only eighteen, and had gotten a place of her own, but she hadn't decided on what she wanted to do with her life. If she had went to college, there was no telling what she would have majored in. Sarah thought about joining the FBI and doing what Will did, but he warned her about the dangers that the job could bring.
She had met a guy who had been with her for about a year. They even lived together, until one night, she came back home from going out to have some "girl time", and found that he had been slaughtered from head to toe by someone who had broken into their home. He tried to fight them off, but the guy was just too tough for him and drew out a knife, cutting him up from here to there. Blood was all over the room. Sarah called Will and told him what happened as he rushed over to their house and began investigating the crime. Turned out that the guy who killed her boyfriend, had been convicted of many crimes in the past, and had finally been caught thanks to Will's FBI skills and quick thinking. He wanted her to go live with him at his house, but she refused. He then insisted that she go live with him because he was afraid that the same thing could happen to her. Sarah finally agreed and went with him to his house. Luckily for her, he had another room that he could turn into a guest room for her to stay in.
Sarah began unpacking her bag as Will walked into the room. She could sense that he was behind her as she turned around and half-smiled.
"Hey. Thanks again for letting me stay…live…here with you. I really appreciate it. I mean, I pretty sure I would've been able to take care of myself but…"
"But, nothing, Sarah.", he interrupted. "I wanted you to come live with me because I knew you weren't safe being there all by yourself. Anyone could've just come and killed you, and I wouldn't even know about it until it was too late. You're better off with me, under my protection."
"Will, I understand that you're my older brother, but that doesn't mean you have to treat me like I'm five again."
"Sarah, I'm going to protect you as much as I can, no matter how old you are. You are my younger sister and I sort of promised mom and dad that when you ever moved out on your own, and something happened to where you had to stay with me, you would be under my care at all times, and you will be under my care at all times, is that clear?"
He raised an eyebrow at her, expecting her to answer him right away, but it took her a few minutes to respond.
"Yes, sir.", she said as she looked down at the floor.
"Now, I know I may have sounded harsh, and I'm sorry about that. I guess it's my job that's caused me to be that way."
"It's okay. You're just looking out for me."
"Exactly. I'll leave you to finish unpacking everything. It's almost dinnertime if you want anything. I can fix us something to eat."
"Okay, thanks. I'll be down in a minute."
Will smiled as he left the room and went downstairs to start cooking dinner for the both of them. It wasn't long before he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and saw Sarah enter the kitchen. She walked over to the dinner table and pulled out a chair, sitting down, watching him as he cooked.
"Smells good in here. How's the job going?", she asked. She had been very interested in her brother's job. Getting to hunt down serial killers and put them away sounded like fun to her, but to anyone else, it would sound like a chore, and very disgusting. She always loved to hear the stories he would tell about the latest case he had solved.
"It's going good. Haven't had any cases to investigate lately so it's been pretty boring."
"Well, that sucks."
"Tell me about it. There's times where I've just sat in the office, twiddling a pencil around, just hoping that the phone will ring, saying that there's been a murder at so-so, and that they need me to go and investigate it, but I just sit there, staring at the phone while my mind goes slowly numb."
"Wow, Will. That's deep.", she said, smirking and laughing to herself a little.
"Hey, what can I say, when you work as a FBI Criminal Profiler, you can't help but get a little deep with words sometimes."
"What about the teaching, how's that going?"
"Now, that's going better than the other. We've just gotten into the stages that a dead body goes through."
"Ooh, interesting. Everybody else finding it interesting?"
"Eh, not really. Sometimes I'm having to force it into their brains so that they'll actually get it. Don't they realize that they're actually tested on this shit?"
"Apparently not."
Will shook his head as he finished cooking the food and placed it on two plates, then sat one in front of Sarah, then one at his place. He pulled out the chair and sat down, picking up a fork and began eating.
"Are you planning to do anything while you're here?"
"Like what?", Sarah asked as she, too, picked up her fork and started to eat.
"I don't know. Go to school, maybe. Get a job of some sort."
"Does this mean I have to pay rent now since you mentioned getting a job?"
"No, but it would be helpful to bring in a little more money for us to live off of. My teaching and FBI jobs aren't going to keep us going forever. They don't even pay much for the teaching job as it is."
"I'll see what I can find, see what interests me."
"Good girl. I just want you to get out and see what this place has to offer instead of just lounging around here all the time and expect to mooch off of me."
Sarah's mouth dropped open as if she was offended by what he had just said.
"I don't do such a thing!"
"I was just kidding, sheesh! Don't have to act so defensive."
"I know you were."
She laughed as they continued to talk and eat their dinner.
