A Bullet to the Head

"All Change is not Growth, as all Movement is not Forward." –Ellen Glasgow

She lifted the strap of her bag off her shoulder and dropped it and her keys by the door before beginning to loosen the scarf around her neck, "Tony?" she called out, surprised that her younger brother hadn't rushed the door for her, "Toby? Anybody home?"

A young boy with brown hair and blue eyes stepped into the doorway at the end of the hall, standing just inside the kitchen. She furrowed her brows together, noticing the more nervous than usual stance he held.

"Tony, you alright?" she asked, taking a few steps forward. The sound her jeans made as she walked seemed to roar in the silence. She looked him over and noticed the bruise forming on his face, "Honey, what happened to your chin?" she asked, only a few steps away from him.

He didn't speak until she grabbed his shoulder, "Run." He whispered looking up into her eyes with his own brimming with tears.

She gave him a confused look as fear tore through to her core, she yelped as a man she had never seen before shoved her to the floor and pulled her brother away. She looked over at the man, resting on her knees, fear causing the shake in her voice.

"Who are you?" she asked, "What do you want?"

The man looked at her with a sickening smirk on his twisted face, "Tell your brother goodbye."

"What?"

"Say goodbye."

"Why?" she asked shaking her head.

"Because all I want is you."

"So take me! Leave him alone!"

"Can't do that. Say goodbye, Rylee, you won't get another chance."

"But I-"

The shot rang through the air, making her scream and cover her mouth with her hands snapping her head in the other direction as the bullet pierced her brothers skull. She opened her eyes when she wasn't facing him and her eyesight fell on the corpses of her parents. In reaction she screamed and scurried backwards towards the counters.

The man's bloody fingertips wrapped around the brown sleeve of her jacket and yanked her to her feet. His chapped lips shoved themselves onto hers as tears made their way down her cheeks. She whimpered and shoved at him, trying to claw out of his grip but he punched her in the stomach, kissed her again, before cold cocking her with the butt of the gun. She felt to the floor, unconscious, her jacket becoming stained with the blood of her parents and her brother. The man looked up at the camera and smiled before leaning down…

The screen went fuzzy and JJ looked down at the files, "That was posted online yesterday at around 10 o'clock."

"My God," Emily Prentiss said, staring slightly in shock at the screen, "It's like a horror movie."

"Yeah, a horror movie from hell." Morgan said, his eyes averted from the screen, "How many others are there like this?"

"They said that six families, including this one, have been killed in their homes over the past eight months, the daughters of the victims were found at the original crime scene exactly where they had been kidnapped. All were dead through a mixture of asphyxiation and stabbing, but they can't find any videos of the murders."

"It sounds personal." Reid said, staring at the screen, "He goes out of his way to scar these girls before killing them, maybe returning them to where it began is his way of starting over."

"Like a reset button on a video game." Morgan said, looking at his friend.

"Pretty much, yeah." Spencer said with a nod.

"Alright, we need to get down there. JJ, how much time passes between when the families are killed and when the girls are found?"

"The time varies, the shortest was his second victim who only lasted 3 days, and the longest was the first who lasted almost a month."

"Then we've got no time to waste." Hotch said standing quickly as the others followed.

It was a small town in North Georgia; it was settled with the Mountains painted in the distance and beautiful green trees growing everywhere. There were dirt roads, and the main part of town was old fashioned with everything clustered together, side by side, and an old rail road track running through the center, a rail road track that hadn't been used in years.

The police station was small, but had enough officers to handle patrols and the minor crimes that took place, mostly on Friday and Saturday nights after football games during the fall and late nights during the summer when the teens would get restless.

The team went straight to the crime scene. Spencer and Hotch entered the house, JJ controlled the press outside, Morgan and Prentiss took the perimeter, and Rossi talked to the chief of police.

"She came through the door alone and dropped her stuff. But something was off."

"What makes you say that?"

"Her bag," Spencer continued, looking by his side, "and her scarf are a few inches away from the storage bench. Her attention was elsewhere. She called out her brother's name when she came in… When you get home from work, does Jack meet you at the door?"

"Yes." Hotch said nodding; watching him closely, "Her brother didn't meet her at the door, so she became worried."

Spencer nodded, "Her tone on the tape, she seemed almost expectant, almost like something being wrong was common, Maybe abuse?"

"Possibly." Hotch walked towards the stairs, "She was distracted enough to miss the cat." He said as he glared slightly at the dead creature laying on its side on the 5th step.

Spencer walked past Hotch and into the kitchen, "Hotch..." he said turning his head to look at the bodies of the parents, "Oh my god."

"Reid?" Hotch followed into the kitchen and saw the young genius kneeling beside the father's body.

"I know him… Hotch, that's my dad."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Hotch, I'm sure. Hotch, this man is my father… and that girl is my sister… She's my sister…"

"All the things that one has forgotten, Screams for help in dreams."-Elias Canetti