**Finally got around to writing this, but chapter 2 is taking longer than I expected. It will be a lot longer than this chapter, but I felt the urge to post something.**
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Criminal Minds or the characters. There would be too many people rising from the dead if I did. However, you'll meet Liza this chapter and she is a character that I own because she lives in my mind. I really appreciated the reviews on my first story, so I hope everyone enjoys this, too. Special thanks to RebaForever15, crysanialyndhurst, and Janeway69 for my first reviews! Get ready for a crazy ride, my friends. :)**
Branches snap with sharp screams as she runs. These woods are no stranger to her, being as they are located directly behind her house. It wasn't her house; Momma would beat her silly for saying something like that. But it seems like such a foreign place now. All the dirty furniture, – a disgrace to her "Princess" lifestyle – dusty photographs of people she never knew scattered about the roach-infested floor. The house looked as if its owners had abandoned it several eons ago. Nothing except wicked recollections remained in that house, but they had quickly croaked with those who held them. Only mere minutes ago her mother had forced her minor form out the torn screen door, but that was the last time she had seen her.
"Bad children stay outside, Elizabeth," she hissed. Liza. That was what she liked to be called. She hated being called Elizabeth, but she had no friends and Momma would never allow that nonsense under her roof – the Swiss cheese roof. Although she was plainly racing for her life through the tough bushes and ancient trees, Liza had to snicker to herself. Momma's roof always had holes in it, and it seemed that with each storm a new one would join the ceiling party, which now consisted of at least fifty craters. But the thought of Swiss cheese made her ravenous stomach rumble, and her new fear of being heard transformed into adrenaline, compelling her to continue her mad dash to safety. Momma had made dinner. She set two plates at the table – one for herself and one for Father. In the meantime, Liza was still considered an "ungrateful brat" which left her stomach empty until breakfast tomorrow.
The not-so-pristine fixtures of tables, chairs and couches were ruined and picture frames were shattered when Liza left the house the second time, the first being when Momma made her leave. She would be so angry with her if she saw that mess, but there was no time to clean, not with that man trailing her.
She sighed hopelessly as she rested her bleeding feet – there was that appalling red again – beneath her favorite tree: the gentle oak. She had forgotten her ragged shoes, not like they would've been much help. They were a couple years old and much too small for her growing feet. She only kept them because Granny had given them to her as a gift for her fourth birthday. She yearned to see her granny again. It had been one year, seven months, and sixteen days since they took Granny away. She was the only person in the family worth saving, but instead they had ripped away her life with the simple push of about nine or ten buttons. She was beginning to become healthier, too, and Liza knew it. If Father hadn't made the decision to kill his loving momma right there, she would be alive today, fully recovered.
Her granny's heart had stopped with push of that last red button – she had always disliked the color red before, but after that moment she swore she hated it. Just as Liza was thinking of Granny's heart fading off, her's did a flip, along with a wave of nausea that hit her stomach like a baseball bat. She heard it. The low, masculine grunt. It couldn't have been more than five feet away from her. Was it from her left? Right? Behind her? In front of her? Maybe it was her stomach again? No. It couldn't be. She'd never been a religious girl, but even she recognized that God, or whatever higher being above, was the only person that had the answer to her silent questions.
If she ran, he would hear her steps and see her movements in the moonlight, and she'd be dead. If she stayed here, he would find her crouched beneath the tree, and she'd be dead. Mistakes, mistakes, Elizabeth. You're the biggest, so it's no wonder you make them all the time. Her mother's voice mocked her. She thought as deeply as she could about how to save herself from the impending doom surrounding her. Nothing. She took a shaky breath and did the one thing that she would consider her final revenge on the man that was inevitably going to murder her. She screamed.
**Chapter 2 coming up soon! Short prologue, I know, but the next one will be really long, I promise! Love it, hate it, everybody has an opinion, so hit that review button and let me know what you think!
~Aly**